Suchergebnisse

Abstract. Perceiving that banking regulations and supervisions might not only exacerbate managerial discretions at financial institutions, but also render the estimates on bank exposures more complicated, it is probable that the governmental interventions could have repercussions for the quality of audited accounting information or the quality of external audit. Motivated by this dispute, the research, via full-sample panel-data analysis, aims to answer the questions of whether and how the implementations of international banking regulations and supervisions have influenced the quality of external audit in the EU banking system from 2001 to 2019. In addition, the research also seeks to discover the impact of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) in the European banking system by carrying out difference-in-difference estimations between significantly and less significantly supervised banks, as well as sub-sample panel-data estimations to measure the effect on audit quality. The research finds that the EU's stringency in capital regulations has adversely affected audited information's quality and made auditing costs less effective regarding LLPs. However, the capital requirements in Basel III have proved effective and moderately helpful in increasing audited information's quality. Other findings show that for most of the factors influencing external audit's quality, there were differences between the two groups of banks and that the SSM scheme has helped improve external audit's quality by constraining discretionary capital practices at the significant banks, despite also making both audit and non-audit services less effective in improving audited information's quality. The findings suggest that for both groups of banks, having their providers of both audit and non-audit services under governmental supervision might be beneficial, given that this costs less than direct supervision from the ECB.

In his first presidential candidate debate with Senator Robert Dole, President Clinton cited hazardous waste cleanup among his administration's important environmental efforts. W. Kip Viscusi's most recent book deals with the rationality of these and other efforts addressed at reducing risk and compensating risk victims. Unfortunately for President Clinton, the book's main conclusion about government efforts in general and hazardous waste cleanup in particular is negative: government regulations often mirror the irrationalities present in individual decisions leading to costly and relatively ineffective policies.

An island-nation with a population of over 20 million, the ROC (Republic of China) has been denied participation in the United Nations (UN) since 1971. The author believes that geopolitics, rather than the rule of law, became the standard by which the ROC's status was judged. She inquires why the international community is ignoring Taiwan's desire to become a member of the UN. Why is UN participation important to Taiwan? To provide some insight into these questions, the author examines the historical background and the reasons why the ROC is pursuing UN membership. (DÜI-Sen)

During the past decade, the profitability of Korean firms has declined significantly while their business risk has risen substantially. The deteriorating condition was largely due to excessive investments in manufacturing capacity that were financed mainly with short-term debt capital. The measures to restructure the system are summarized in two major thrusts: one, to reform corporate governance so that the business sector becomes more transparent and more value-enhancing; and two, to help develop long-term capital markets so that the domestic financial system becomes less vulnerable to external shocks.

Smart city development has emerged as a favoured response to the 21st-century urbanisation challenges. A wide range of definitions surfaced over the last decade characterising the smart city, primarily pushed by the global elite corporations and influential academics. Simultaneously, a series of urban development expressions, such as digital city, knowledge city, eco-city is used interchangeably with the smart city, significantly mystifying the reading of the concept. This paper, first argue that smart city interpretation needs and requires the input and contribution of the local stakeholders. The aim of this research is to provide an evidence-based framework to capture the perception of local urban actors in India vis-à-vis their interpretation of smart cities given the existing urban conditions and the proposed developments under the 100 Smart Cities Mission. This research also examines the underlying linkage between the smart city and its conceptual relatives and highlights the ones witha significant convergence with the emerging urban agenda in India's Smart Cities Mission. The analysis presented in this paper show that to emerge as a holistic concept, smart cities definition models should engage with the sustainability and community issues, beyond the use of digital technology. The research reveals that the Indianurban stakeholders strongly associate the smart city concept with sustainable city and eco-city, much more than the technology-loaded phrases such as ubiquitous city and digital city. The first-of-its-kind inclusive approach developed in this paper to define smart city takes on the monopolies of top-down smart city definitions andsupport the democratisation of the rapidly proliferating concept.

There is wide agreement among the scientific community that local government's have a central role to play in fostering smart cities which focusses on improving quality of life by integrating technology with urban operations. But, urban governance in rapidly urbanising countries of global south is often poorly organised to deal with emerging challenges and sustaining local growth, seriously hindering their aspirations to become smart cities. Although smart city case studies are abundant in literature, their governance framework and structural variations across regions are not emphasised. Furthermore, efforts to import governance models from developed world cities are facing lack of unique context sensitivities, which stand against their transformation as smart cities. This paper contributes to the debate on urban governance of smart cities by providing their distinct theoretical conceptualisations and linking them with case studies. It analyses the urban governance dynamics in Indian cities which has started implementing a massive 100 smart cities development programme. From the past experiences of Indian cities in reforming urban administration to its new model of special purpose vehicle led project execution; this research critically assesses the ability of Indian cities to change its archaic bureaucratic complex traditional government in to a more accountable collaborative governance. The outcomes from this study highlights the need for aspiring smart cities in emerging economies to address deep-seated structural issues of municipal government's and engage in a process of governance transformation rather than adopting temporary solutions.

Urban development initiatives in India are largely shaped by a 'patchwork of programmers' launched periodically by the Government of India. Recently, the Indian government has launched multiple urban transformation programmes aiming at smart city development, urban renewal, and heritage development. But, India's urban policy interventions lacks effective mechanisms for measuring the impact of such programmes over time. Indicator systems can provide insight into local urban challenges and issues and offer a basis for measuring urban progress as a result of public investments. Although there are multiple global indicator facilities available for adoption, considerable challenges remain in selecting an appropriate set of indicators for local conditions. With Indian urbanisation intensifying and an accompanying proliferation of urban development programmes, there is an increasing need for a set of indicators suited to local context. A local approach can objectively measure the existing performance of Indian cities vis-a-vis quality of life and sustainability, and can evaluate the outcome and benefits of new local urban development programmes as they are implemented. To address this emerging need, this research aims to provide a bridge between local urban performance and the capacity to meet local and global standards. By the application of factor analysis (Principal Component Analysis) on 59 indicators chosen from various urban sectors, this study attempts to derive the most significant factors to measure the performance of 98 Indian cities and assess their potential to become sustainable smart cities. The study enhances the selection and development of policies by city makers. It also establishes an approach to develop urban typologies for different Indian cities. Such a categorisation makes the bewildering range of Indian cities and their challenges easier to comprehend and address.

In 2015 the Government of India announced an ambitious mission to develop 100 smart cities throughout the rapidly urbanising country. As part of this mission, the Government has initiated ICT based citizen engagement through a dedicated website - MyGov.in. The disparity in digital infrastructure between different socio-economic demographics is a challenge for cities in emerging economies wishing to implement smart city policies. Our research explores the relationship between active civic engagement and the availability of basic digital infrastructure and socio-economic standards in Indian cities. This study provides insights on factors that lead to the success or failure of cities' online citizen engagement platforms. Such insights offer important lessons for building future smart and connected cities as well as promoting healthy urban relationships and welfare, in the emerging economies of the world.