Do REITs use cash reserves efficiently? Evidence from corporate acquisitions

We examine the combined impact of corporate governance and excess cash holdings on the propensity of firms to become bidders and engage in value destroying acquisitions. We focus on the REIT market, due to its unique characteristics caused by regulation and the nature of the industry. The lack of active real estate takeover market should lead to entrenchment and exacerbate agency costs. However, given the mandatory high cash payout for REITs, the absence of takeover market should not cause concerns to shareholders. Our analyses reveal that unlike conventional firms, cash-rich REITs are not more likely to become acquirers and acquisitions by cash-rich REITs are not value decreasing. However, similarly to industrial firms, REITs with higher excess cash and lower insider ownership are more likely to become bidders. We interpret our results to be consistent with the hypothesis that agency problems are less severe in real estate and investors are not averse to use of excess cash by REIT managers on intra-industry acquisitions.     

Are banks using hidden reserves to beat earnings benchmarks? Evidence from Germany

Section 340f of the German Commercial Code allows banks to provision against the special risks inherent to the banking business by building hidden reserves. Beyond risk provisioning, these reserves are implicitly accepted as an earnings management device. By analyzing financial statements of German banks for the period 1997–2009, we see these hidden reserves being used to (1) avoid a negative net income, (2) avoid a drop in net income compared to the previous year, (3) avoid a shortfall in net income compared to a peer group, and (4) reduce the variability of banks’ net income over time. Our analysis also shows that if bank managers are unable to reach the targets as set out in (1)–(3), they are more inclined to keep the hidden reserves for use in future periods.     

Do loan loss reserves behave like capital? Evidence from recent bank failures

Regulatory capital guidelines allow for loan loss reserves to be added back as capital. Our evidence suggests that the influence of loan loss reserves added back as regulatory capital (hereafter referred to as “add-backs”) on bank risk cannot be explained by either economic principles underlying the notion of capital or accounting principles underlying the recording of reserves. Specifically, we observe that, in sharp contrast to the economic notion of capital as a buffer against bank failure risk, add-backs are positively associated with the risk of bank failure during the recent economic crisis. Furthermore, the positive association of add-backs with bank failure risk is concentrated among cases in which the add-backs are highly likely to increase a bank’s total regulatory capital. The evidence cannot thus be fully explained by accounting principles either, since the role of loan loss reserves according to those principles does not depend on whether the reserves generate a regulatory capital increase. Additional analysis suggests that the observed influence of loan loss reserves on bank failure risk may be an unintended consequence of their regulatory treatment as capital.     

Leverage and reinsurance effects on loss reserves in the United Kingdom’s property–casualty insurance industry

We examine the relation between loss reserving errors, leverage and reinsurance in the UK’s property–casualty insurance industry. We find that financially weak insurers under-estimate reserves to reduce leverage, and so pre-empt costly regulatory scrutiny. However, at very high leverage, insurers over-reserve, suggesting a non-linear relation between leverage and reserving policy. We also investigate whether monitoring by reinsurers reduces reserving errors, and find that highly reinsured insurers are less likely to make loss reserve errors. However, the use of proportional reinsurance does not affect loss reserve accuracy.     

Exchange market pressure and absorption by international reserves: Emerging markets and fear of reserve loss during the 2008–2009 crisis

This paper evaluates how the global financial crisis emanating from the U.S. was transmitted to emerging markets. Our focus is on the extent that the crisis caused external market pressures (EMP), and whether the absorption of the shock was mainly through exchange rate depreciation or the loss of international reserves. Controlling for variety of factors associated with EMP, we find clear evidence that emerging markets with higher total foreign liabilities, including short- and long-term debt, equities, FDI and derivative products—had greater exposure and were much more vulnerable to the financial crisis. Countries with large balance sheet exposure – high external portfolio liabilities exceeding international reserves—absorbed the global shock by allowing greater exchange rate depreciation and comparatively less reserve loss. Despite the remarkable buildup of international reserves by emerging markets during the period prior to the financial crisis, countries relied primarily on exchange rate deprecation rather than reserve loss to absorb most of the exchange market pressure shock. This could reflect a deliberate choice (“fear of reserve loss”) or market actions that caused very rapid exchange rate adjustment, especially in emerging markets with open capital markets, overwhelming policy actions.     

关键,实质,特点,保证

一、单位领导是学习贯彻新《会计法》的关键新《会计法》加大了单位领导对会计工作的责任，使他们成为会计工作的第一责任人。因此，单位领导人从现在起，就要努力学习《会计法》，真正领会《会计法》的精神实质，切实明确自己应承担的法律责任；同时要学一些会计知识，了解会计核算的基本要求，能够看懂资产负债表、损益表和现金流量表。只有这样，才能有效地履行自己的职责。会计信息失真与单位领导人的行为有相当大的关系。当前会计信息失真已成为一大社会公害，尽管原因很多，但单位领导人的行为起着直接的、决定性的作用。一些单位领导…     

科技,自然,邂逅欧洲

这是一座典型的欧洲建筑,窗外绿树成荫青翠欲滴,窗内现代科技一应俱全.     

反垄断法,众望所归,呼之而出

8月30日,在西方素有“经济宪法“之称的反垄断法,在十届全国人大第二十九次会议获得高票通过。这部具有中国特色的反垄断法历经20年酝酿,13载论争,今日终于众望所归,呼之而出。     

全党動手,依靠群众,管好资金,支援建設

自偉大的整風运动开展以来,特别是党的建設社会主义的总路綫公布以后,沈陽市人民和全国人民一样,建設社会主义的积極性空前高漲,生产建設突飞猛进。根据不完全的了解,1958年沈陽市工業产值將增長55.5％以上,其中中央工業增長54％,地方工業增長41.3％,手工業增長將近一倍。工業建設投資扩大,其中地方工業投資相当于第一个五年計划期間的投資总数。这些資金的来源,除地方財政預算撥款外,有一半需要从各方面來筹集。随着生产建設的發展,資金来源和运用的矛盾尖銳地摆在銀行面前。在企業加速資金周轉、提高資金运用率的情况下,存款相对減少,而放款則随着工农業生产的發展相应增加。怎样解决这个矛盾呢?     

IPO Auctions: English,Dutch, … French,and Internet

Unseasoned shares are sold through the Book Building process in the United States and the United Kingdom, fixed price offerings in several countries, uniform price auctions in Israel or the new internet-based Open IPO mechanism, and an auction-like mechanism called the Mise en Vente in France. We analyze and compare the performance of these various IPO mechanisms within the context of a unified theoretical model. Fixed price offerings lead to inefficient pricing and winner's curse. Dutch auctions can also lead to inefficiencies, to the extent that they are conducive to tacit collusion by investors. The Book Building and Mise en Vente can lead to optimal information elicitation and price discovery. We document empirically the similarity between the Book Building and the Mise en Vente. We discuss the implications of our analysis for the design of optimal Internet IPO auctions. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: G24, G3, D82.