The lovely quiet bit of the year when email traffic virtually disappears and there is space for catching up - if every month had a few days like this, I would have space for all the projects I'd really like to get on with...
I'm struggling with chapter 5 which was originally written chronologically but doesn't read well so I've tried to reorganise it thematically. This is not working out for two reasons. Firstly, as my co-author has yet to produce chapter 4 I have no idea how that is organised and it would make sense to pick up on the themes she has identified. Secondly, the themes overlap so it is very difficult to classify specific issues under a single heading. I think I shall revert to the chronological approach but spend more time highlighting the themes running through.
I was alerted to a paper on the history of corporate governance recently uploaded to SSRN by a Cambridge legal scholar. I emailed him to let him know of the earliest use of the term which I had discovered, which predated the ones he mentioned. He replied very quickly but was somewhat dismissive, which is not surprising - he struck me as a bit arrogant when I met him. Had he been more receptive, I would have sent him the actual paper but I shall leave him to seek it out from the reference. He claims to have been more welcoming to Cadbury than other legal scholars which may be true but he didn't publish his book until 1997 so I don't think he'll get a mention.
I have been reading Maja's DPhil dissertation which is fascinating and really should be published. She has read a huge amount of literature, across different disciplines. As I was reading, I found myself noting down authors I thought relevant to her arguments - and then turning the page to find that she'd cited them. And I now have a long list of interesting references that I want to follow up, always a good sign of something that was worth reading.
Friday 30 December 2011
Friday 23 December 2011
Friday
A very busy week. The ICAEW Information for Better Markets conference on Monday and Tuesday was a mixed bag. The topic, accounting for financial instruments, wasn't exactly exciting (a friend asked if it was about euro violins and dollar dulcimers, which I liked the sound of) but I was very keen to hear Andy Haldane of the Bank of England who was respondent to one of the main papers, and he didn't disappoint. The technical stuff was hard to concentrate on: in one session I sat next to the chair of the research board who snoozed all through it and I don't think he was the only one. The practitioner speakers were good, though. I had some useful conversations in the breaks and caught up with old friends. The food was fairly awful and the hotel - my favourite, the Hoxton - was very noisy with youngsters running up and down the corridor all night. I was pleased to get home although two days away meant an accumulation of email to plough through.
In the most boring bits I pondered why accounting has got so much more complicated than when I first started studying it, 46 years ago. The shift from the traditional stewardship approach, which still underpins UK company law, to the notion of decision-usefulness which underpins accounting standards has led us into a world where risk and uncertainty need to be recognised much more explicitly in calculations and that has brought a host of problems around issues of judgement. The politics of standard-setting has become institutionalised so continuing complexity seems inevitable, as it works in the interests of standard-setters. One of the speakers cited Knight on risk and uncertainty which is on my list of books to read when I get a chance.
The webcast of the event should appear eventually on this page:
http://www.icaew.com/en/technical/financial-reporting/information-for-better-markets/information-for-better-markets-webcasts
On Wednesday we had a departmental meeting which in my view very much reflected the state of chaos we are in. I do find meetings more and more frustrating. People don't seem to have a clear idea of what they want the outcomes to be, no details are circulated in advance to assist the attendees in considering the topics and timing is ignored. Sadly, we bade farewell to one of my favourite colleagues but our Xmas lunch was very jolly.
Since then I have been trying to clear up admin stuff. I have managed to fix a speaker for a seminar slot in March which counts as a success, given that everyone is so busy. Of course, I shall probably have to spend time nearer the date rustling up an audience.
In the most boring bits I pondered why accounting has got so much more complicated than when I first started studying it, 46 years ago. The shift from the traditional stewardship approach, which still underpins UK company law, to the notion of decision-usefulness which underpins accounting standards has led us into a world where risk and uncertainty need to be recognised much more explicitly in calculations and that has brought a host of problems around issues of judgement. The politics of standard-setting has become institutionalised so continuing complexity seems inevitable, as it works in the interests of standard-setters. One of the speakers cited Knight on risk and uncertainty which is on my list of books to read when I get a chance.
The webcast of the event should appear eventually on this page:
http://www.icaew.com/en/technical/financial-reporting/information-for-better-markets/information-for-better-markets-webcasts
On Wednesday we had a departmental meeting which in my view very much reflected the state of chaos we are in. I do find meetings more and more frustrating. People don't seem to have a clear idea of what they want the outcomes to be, no details are circulated in advance to assist the attendees in considering the topics and timing is ignored. Sadly, we bade farewell to one of my favourite colleagues but our Xmas lunch was very jolly.
Since then I have been trying to clear up admin stuff. I have managed to fix a speaker for a seminar slot in March which counts as a success, given that everyone is so busy. Of course, I shall probably have to spend time nearer the date rustling up an audience.
Thursday 15 December 2011
Thursday
A productive day today. Sorted out chapter 2 as far as I can without chapters 1 and 3 and the bits of chapter 2 that my co-author has been promising for months. Revised the first half of chapter 5 but changing the second half will be the tricky bit - again, because I haven't yet seen chapter 4.
Avoided looking at my email but when I finally succumbed found some further interesting reading for the pile - the latest publication from the FRC about the Combined Code and the Stewardship Code and a nice note from my FRC friend. This report had prompted some of the people on LinkedIn to pontificate about the need for increased regulation and monitoring which irritated me and I wasted some time pointing out the error of their ways. I must reset the way I get messages from LI so that I am not regularly alerted to their idiocies. In a thread on women on boards, it appears that messages have got personal and people have taken offence.
I've received an electronic Xmas card from a friend at MBS and have been forwarded one from Warwick. Both would be mildly entertaining for a child of 5. I wonder why the marketing departments at these universities think this type of greeting is appropriate. And now I see that ICAEW are holding a competition for staff to design ecards: why would a professional body want electronic Valentine's Day cards?
More work on chapter 5 tomorrow. And I must finish with the PhD thesis too.
Avoided looking at my email but when I finally succumbed found some further interesting reading for the pile - the latest publication from the FRC about the Combined Code and the Stewardship Code and a nice note from my FRC friend. This report had prompted some of the people on LinkedIn to pontificate about the need for increased regulation and monitoring which irritated me and I wasted some time pointing out the error of their ways. I must reset the way I get messages from LI so that I am not regularly alerted to their idiocies. In a thread on women on boards, it appears that messages have got personal and people have taken offence.
I've received an electronic Xmas card from a friend at MBS and have been forwarded one from Warwick. Both would be mildly entertaining for a child of 5. I wonder why the marketing departments at these universities think this type of greeting is appropriate. And now I see that ICAEW are holding a competition for staff to design ecards: why would a professional body want electronic Valentine's Day cards?
More work on chapter 5 tomorrow. And I must finish with the PhD thesis too.
Monday 12 December 2011
Tuesday
Monday was spent catching up with colleagues, mostly receiving and passing on information. Annie Pye's ESRC study of boards was reported in the Telegraph and the FT and led to some discussion in the Board Advisors group on LinkedIn. I'm looking forward to reading her study, it's been a huge effort for her with a serious setback initially due to ill health. We exchanged emails and I hope to catch up with her in the new year - we've discussed a project looking at the role of the company secretary and I'd still like to do that, the opportunity to work with her would be very good.
My inbox tells me this has to be a reading week, rather than a writing one. For the REF audit I have to read several papers published by colleagues in journals that do not appear in the ABS list and decide where they would sit in the ranking. This is so subjective that it seems quite pointless to me, especially when the topics are ones with which I am not familiar. The Belgian PhD student, Diane, has sent the final draft of her thesis for approval before submission so that will need careful attention, and then a trip to Louvain in February for her public defence. I am really interested to see how the Belgian process works but the Louvain campus is a bleak place at the best of times, let alone February...
Today we are interviewing for the post doc posts. We have a couple of candidates for our department, one who looks outstanding on paper.
(Later) The interviews were very interesting. Sitting on panels with colleagues always is, I learn more about them than about the interviewees sometimes. The first candidate came over very well but it would have been quite difficult to link her interests into our departmental plans. The second candidate was excellent and would be very good to work with: his background is political science and I can see he'll be a future MP (if the Lib Dems ever recover from the coalition). Hope he turns out to be one of the top five and that he accepts the post if it's offered.
Very good article in the Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/dec/12/britain-ruled-by-banks
Looked up the CRESC site and found a paper by Julie Froud et al which underpins the book and article - they have written excellent critical stuff on corporate governance so this should be a good read. Added to the pile...
Managed to plough through papers written by colleagues and come up with some kind of categorisation for the audit. Agreed some dissertation marks.
Snowed this afternoon, big wet flakes but they didn't settle. This time last year we were snowed in. Freddie has had his collar taken off and is a happy cat.
More meetings tomorrow and then two clear days for writing, barring domestic disasters...
My inbox tells me this has to be a reading week, rather than a writing one. For the REF audit I have to read several papers published by colleagues in journals that do not appear in the ABS list and decide where they would sit in the ranking. This is so subjective that it seems quite pointless to me, especially when the topics are ones with which I am not familiar. The Belgian PhD student, Diane, has sent the final draft of her thesis for approval before submission so that will need careful attention, and then a trip to Louvain in February for her public defence. I am really interested to see how the Belgian process works but the Louvain campus is a bleak place at the best of times, let alone February...
Today we are interviewing for the post doc posts. We have a couple of candidates for our department, one who looks outstanding on paper.
(Later) The interviews were very interesting. Sitting on panels with colleagues always is, I learn more about them than about the interviewees sometimes. The first candidate came over very well but it would have been quite difficult to link her interests into our departmental plans. The second candidate was excellent and would be very good to work with: his background is political science and I can see he'll be a future MP (if the Lib Dems ever recover from the coalition). Hope he turns out to be one of the top five and that he accepts the post if it's offered.
Very good article in the Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/dec/12/britain-ruled-by-banks
Looked up the CRESC site and found a paper by Julie Froud et al which underpins the book and article - they have written excellent critical stuff on corporate governance so this should be a good read. Added to the pile...
Managed to plough through papers written by colleagues and come up with some kind of categorisation for the audit. Agreed some dissertation marks.
Snowed this afternoon, big wet flakes but they didn't settle. This time last year we were snowed in. Freddie has had his collar taken off and is a happy cat.
More meetings tomorrow and then two clear days for writing, barring domestic disasters...
Sunday 11 December 2011
Sunday evening
Have just about caught up with myself. Thursday was full of domestic crises but in between I managed to get to London for lunch with my most erudite and charming friend, followed by an event hosted by ICAS and BDO on principles-based accounting standards. I was distinctly underwhelmed by the head of the IASB who said that the IASB doesn't know who its audience is but that doesn't matter because there is only a single economic reality. I thought that standards were an attempt to reconcile different economic realities. I strongly suspected that he didn't know what he was talking about - I assume that he got the job because he is politically adept but I do wonder what David Tweedie might think about his successor. Later I had an interesting chat with two institutional investors who bemoaned the demise of the prudence principle and the notion of stewardship. If that's the approach to financial reporting that investors want, the IASB seems to be way off beam.
No chance to sort out revisions to book chapters, lots of emails to deal with. The LinkedIn discussions about board gender diversity are beginning to irritate me - too many consultants who think that correlation implies causation. I've posted a list of papers selected from my literature search but I doubt whether any of them will bother to read them. If your livelihood depends on trying to promote female appointments, you're not likely to be very open-minded about academic research which raises questions about the consequences, are you?
The highlight of the coming week may be the interviews for the post doc posts, we've had two very good applications and I'm looking forward to meeting the candidates.
No chance to sort out revisions to book chapters, lots of emails to deal with. The LinkedIn discussions about board gender diversity are beginning to irritate me - too many consultants who think that correlation implies causation. I've posted a list of papers selected from my literature search but I doubt whether any of them will bother to read them. If your livelihood depends on trying to promote female appointments, you're not likely to be very open-minded about academic research which raises questions about the consequences, are you?
The highlight of the coming week may be the interviews for the post doc posts, we've had two very good applications and I'm looking forward to meeting the candidates.
Wednesday 7 December 2011
Wednesday evening
The trip to Cambridge was frustrating but ultimately quite productive. My co-author had very little down on paper but seemed to have enough of an idea in her head about what she is going to write to go through the pile of stuff I have written and help me to reorganise it more coherently. She does seem to be making very heavy weather of it all, though. Early on in the project when it became clear that the archivist had done a lousy job, only part of the papers had been digitised and the keywords for searching the site were very limited, I arranged for the son of a friend who was at a loose end to transfer all the details from the site into a spreadsheet with direct links to the site for the digitised material. I've found this really useful because it's much more easily searchable and the direct links make it very easy to use. But she obviously hasn't used it at all and on our research trips has photocopied a great deal of material unnecessarily when she could have just downloaded it.
The library in Cambridge is very over-heated and there were too many sniffing students. The hotel was less comfortable than on previous trips - my room was on two levels with a staircase in the middle which was a bit disconcerting and although there was a very fancy coffee maker on the desk it took me some time to locate the tea making facilities, in the wardrobe...
I am very pleased to be home, in spite of the huge number of emails waiting for my attention. I've been catching up with the tweets and LinkedIn messages - some worthwhile discussions about NEDs to follow up. Some of my online pals seem to be able to read huge amounts of stuff very quickly and I really can't keep up. The Canadian professor is on sabbatical which explains why he has time for all this reading.
But I shall leave everything for now to spend some time with Freddie who has had an eye operation and is wearing a "lampshade" so keeps bumping into things because he can't feel his whiskers.
The library in Cambridge is very over-heated and there were too many sniffing students. The hotel was less comfortable than on previous trips - my room was on two levels with a staircase in the middle which was a bit disconcerting and although there was a very fancy coffee maker on the desk it took me some time to locate the tea making facilities, in the wardrobe...
I am very pleased to be home, in spite of the huge number of emails waiting for my attention. I've been catching up with the tweets and LinkedIn messages - some worthwhile discussions about NEDs to follow up. Some of my online pals seem to be able to read huge amounts of stuff very quickly and I really can't keep up. The Canadian professor is on sabbatical which explains why he has time for all this reading.
But I shall leave everything for now to spend some time with Freddie who has had an eye operation and is wearing a "lampshade" so keeps bumping into things because he can't feel his whiskers.
Friday 2 December 2011
Friday
A very tedious week all told, much time spent dealing with problematic colleagues and little writing.
The Scholarly Connections meeting went well although not many came. We heard about a variety of projects and it was good to know that one was sparked off by a previous meeting.
Having suggested to the author of the very long paper that he should send the abstract off to a journal editor, was pleased to discover that this advice had been followed and the editor had made some very perceptive comments, although I had to interpret them for the author. If he follows them up, he could produce a very good paper but it needs a lot of work because the ideas need to be knitted in to the existing literature properly and it's a literature that is new to him.
Reluctantly attended the RKTC meeting with the 24 item agenda. Made some observations but left early. There is a battle to be fought about conference budgets but I don't have the energy at the moment. Our incoming acting head is very much on the ball and it will be good to work with her - I don't think we'll always agree but we have a similar outlook on what's important. The post will be advertised again in the new year but I can't imagine that we'll see a flood of applications. Looks as if I'll be spending quite a bit of time on interview panels this month, with an SL/PL post to fill and post docs, as well as a potential PhD student.
Have read more of Derman's "Models Behaving Badly". Struggled through the physics to his discussion of financial models. Must ask Yuval if he has read it - I think Donald Mackenzie's sociological approach is much more readable because he provides so much more context. I'm quite prepared to be convinced that financial models and theories are not like those in physics but Derman's argument isn't very clear, in my view. But I haven't finished the book yet, perhaps all will become clear at the end. Then I can get back to Kahneman.
Busy weekend ahead, getting organised to go to Cambridge next week. Hope we really can make good progress on the book, much depends on whatever my co-author has managed to write. Second dose of Simon Russell Beale this week last night - watched "Collaborators" at the cinema, live from the NT. Amazing play and very thought-provoking.
The Scholarly Connections meeting went well although not many came. We heard about a variety of projects and it was good to know that one was sparked off by a previous meeting.
Having suggested to the author of the very long paper that he should send the abstract off to a journal editor, was pleased to discover that this advice had been followed and the editor had made some very perceptive comments, although I had to interpret them for the author. If he follows them up, he could produce a very good paper but it needs a lot of work because the ideas need to be knitted in to the existing literature properly and it's a literature that is new to him.
Reluctantly attended the RKTC meeting with the 24 item agenda. Made some observations but left early. There is a battle to be fought about conference budgets but I don't have the energy at the moment. Our incoming acting head is very much on the ball and it will be good to work with her - I don't think we'll always agree but we have a similar outlook on what's important. The post will be advertised again in the new year but I can't imagine that we'll see a flood of applications. Looks as if I'll be spending quite a bit of time on interview panels this month, with an SL/PL post to fill and post docs, as well as a potential PhD student.
Have read more of Derman's "Models Behaving Badly". Struggled through the physics to his discussion of financial models. Must ask Yuval if he has read it - I think Donald Mackenzie's sociological approach is much more readable because he provides so much more context. I'm quite prepared to be convinced that financial models and theories are not like those in physics but Derman's argument isn't very clear, in my view. But I haven't finished the book yet, perhaps all will become clear at the end. Then I can get back to Kahneman.
Busy weekend ahead, getting organised to go to Cambridge next week. Hope we really can make good progress on the book, much depends on whatever my co-author has managed to write. Second dose of Simon Russell Beale this week last night - watched "Collaborators" at the cinema, live from the NT. Amazing play and very thought-provoking.
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