International investment rules and capital mobility

In the wake of the Asian financial crisis a number of questions related to free movement of capital are being reconsidered. Is it desirable to have full capital mobility for emerging market economies? Will capital account liberalisation lead to a growing number of financial crises which will threaten the stability of the international financial system?     

Financial management attitudes and behaviour of husbands and wives

In spite of recent economic events which suggest that families are having much difficulty managing their financial resources, little research has focused on spouses' attitudes and behaviour regarding family financial management. This study addressed three questions: (1) What are spouses' attitudes toward and behaviour regarding family financial management? (2) To what degree do husbands and wives agree in their attitudes and report similar behaviour regarding financial management? and (3) What factors effect the attitudes and behaviour of spouses regarding management of their financial resources? While spouses' attitudes were generally supportive of family resource management principles and philosophy regarding financial management, their reported behaviour indicated relatively few families acted on their beliefs. Correlations between husbands' and wives' attitudinal and behavioural scores were positive and statistically significant; however, the modest coefficients indicated much room for disagreement between spouses regarding family management. The family characteristics which were the best predictors of positive financial management attitudes and effective behaviour included: number of years married; completion of a course in consumer education by a spouse; and occupational status of wives.     

Financial factors and exporting decisions

Is financial health a determinant of export market participation? Is it an outcome? Using a panel of 9292 UK manufacturing firms over the period 1993-2003, we explore the links between firms' financial health and their export market participation decisions. We find that exporters exhibit better financial health than non-exporters. Yet, when we differentiate between continuous exporters and starters, we see that this result is driven by the former. Starters generally display low liquidity and high leverage, possibly due to the sunk costs which need to be met to enter export markets. Furthermore, we find no evidence that firms enjoying better ex-ante financial health are more likely to start exporting, and strong evidence that participation in export markets improves firms' financial health.     

The Harm of Symbolic Actions and Green-Washing: Corporate Actions and Communications on Environmental Performance and Their Financial Implications

We examine over 100 top performing Canadian firms in visibly polluting industries as we seek to answer four research questions: What specific environmental issues are firms addressing? How do these issues differ between industries? Are both symbolic and substantive actions financially beneficial? Does green-washing, measured as the difference between symbolic and substantive action, and/or green-highlighting, measured as the combined effect of symbolic and substantive actions, pay? We find that substantive actions of environmental issues (green walk) neither harm nor benefit firms financially, but symbolic actions (green talk) are negatively related to financial performance. We also find that green-washing (discrepancy between green talk and green walk) has a negative effect on financial performance and green-highlighting (concentrated efforts of the talk and walk) has no effect on financial performance. In this article, we provide explanations of our findings and put forth future research directions.     

Financial factors and exporting decisions

Is financial health a determinant of export market participation? Is it an outcome? Using a panel of 9292 UK manufacturing firms over the period 1993–2003, we explore the links between firms' financial health and their export market participation decisions. We find that exporters exhibit better financial health than non-exporters. Yet, when we differentiate between continuous exporters and starters, we see that this result is driven by the former. Starters generally display low liquidity and high leverage, possibly due to the sunk costs which need to be met to enter export markets. Furthermore, we find no evidence that firms enjoying better ex-ante financial health are more likely to start exporting, and strong evidence that participation in export markets improves firms' financial health.     

金融全球化背景下流动性危机放大机制研究

2007年夏天开始的次贷危机继续肆虐着全球经济,此次危机影响程度之深,影响范围之广,与人类历史上最出名的经济危机大萧条相比,有过之而无不及。随着流动性危机的逐渐深入,人们开始思考,为什么由只占美国金融资产百分之三的次级抵押贷款证券市场出现的问题,能触动全球经济总产出发生如此大的损失?危机是怎样放大的,它放大的路径是什么呢?针对这些问题,国外学术界出现了大量研究流动性危机放大机制的文献,而国内对这一方面的研究还处于起步阶段。因此,本文试图从投资者逃离、去杠杆化、流动性危机在金融市场的放大路径、流动性危机由金融市场向实体经济的放大效应以及流动性危机的管理几个方面综述国外学术界对流动性危机放大机制研究的阶段性成果,一方面为国内学术界进一步深入研究该问题提供理论线索和研究方向;另一方面为我国管理流动性危机提供理论线索和研究方向。     

Service Satisfaction: An Empirical Analysis of Consumer Satisfaction in Financial Services

Does the widely accepted espectancy-disconfirmation model apply to situations within a financial services context? Or could it be, due to specific characteristics of services, that a different model applies? This paper addresses these questions and tests the relationships between consumer expectations, performance, disconfirmation, .satisfaction and repeat purchase in a lisrel model. The results would suggest that the relevancy of disconfirmation is fairly apparent and that expectations have only an indirect influence on satisfaction where financial services are concerned. The performance level of financial services however has a strong positive direct effect on satisfaction.     

The end of financial services liberalisation as we know it

At the intersection of trade policy and finance a new field of international economic policy has emerged, which has so far received little academic attention. Since the early 1990s, financial services have become an object of modern trade policy for the first time. How are the contours of the new trade policy for the financial services defined? Which research issues are posed by this new field?     

市场主导与银行主导:金融体系变迁的金融契约理论考察

中国应该建立以银行为主导的金融体系还是以资本市场为主导的金融体系,这是当前金融改革面临的一个问题.本文在对世界上几个主要国家的金融体系演变历史进行考察的基础上,从金融契约理论的角度分析了这一问题.研究表明,经济力量是推动金融体系演变的内在原因,而政治制度在很大程度上约束、影响着金融体系的具体技术安排;此外一些广义的技术因素,如信息收集技术、处理技术等从外部对金融体系的现实演进也有不可忽视的作用.     

我国产融结合经济学分析

产业资本和金融资本能否有效结合,对改革我国经济的发展至关重要。运用成本——收益模型对我国产融结合进行相关分析后不难看出,现阶段的产融结合不仅对我国产业资本发展具有重要意义,而且对金融资本的发展将产生积极影响,结合发达国家产融结合经验,对我国产业资本和金融资本有效结合,提出相关政策建议。     

Financial markets at the crossroads: Fears of a great crash

Not so long ago the international financial markets were being acclaimed as the cure-all for debt crises and interest rate and exchange rate risks, but new developments are giving increasing cause for concern, as the Deutsche Bundesbank¹ noted recently. Pessimists are spreading a mood of disaster and are already predicting the collapse of the world financial system.² What is the basis for such fears? How serious is the danger of a crash?     

The driving force of successful organizations

What makes some organizations much more successful than their counterparts? Luck? More effective marketing strategies? Superior technology? Greater financial leverage? Perhaps all these, but beyond them, successful organizations possess two common properties, clarity and commitment, which provide the driving force to propel them to the forefront and help to keep them there.     

Lijiang： From Brand to Strength

The tourism industry is facing unprecedented challenges after the financial crisis. During this ＂financial winter＂, how much influence has Lijiang＇s tourism, the one that has been the pillar industry of Lijiang and important economic growth point received？ And how does the government of Lijiang deal with this？ How to transform it from ＂Brand Lijiang＂ to ＂Strength Lijiang＂？ Member of National People＇s Congress, Lijiang＇s deputy secretary of municipal party committee, and Mayor Wang Junzheng accepted an exclusive interview with our reporter.     

Small business loan securitization and interstate risk sharing

Do credit risk transfers in general, and loan sales and securitizations in particular, by financial institutions enhance credit availability and financial stability? Or do they allow assets of poor credit quality to spread to unprotected investors, and thus create financial crises and destroy values? In this paper, we contribute to the continuing debate by examining the effect of small business loan securitizations on interstate personal income insurance. Using data of U.S. banks for the period 1995–2008, we find that small business loans securitizations contribute to the smoothening of state personal income volatility, and that this contribution is stronger in states where small businesses play a more important role in the local economy.     

Reforming regulation and supervision in Europe: Five missing lessons from the financial crisis

There is general agreement that financial regulation and supervision must be improved. But are the proposed reforms adequate to the task? What criteria should they fulfil in order to be effective?     

Healthcare Ethics: A Patient-Centered Decision Model

A common financial model used in business decisions is the cost/benefit comparison. The costs of a proposed project are compared with the benefits, and if the benefits outweigh the costs, the project is accepted; if the costs exceed the benefits, the project is rejected. This model is applicable when tangible costs and benefits can be reasonably measured in monetary units. However, it is difficult to consider intangible factors in this model because intangible factors cannot be readily quantified in money. While some might argue that the financial model should not apply to healthcare decisions, the fact is that costs do enter into the picture. People may decide to forego needed healthcare because they cannot afford it. Healthcare providers may make choices based in part on the costs of diagnosis and treatment, rather than solely on medical information and what is best for the patient. Should financial issues enter into healthcare decisions – decisions about human health and well being? If so, how should the costs and benefits be measured and evaluated? What are some ethical issues and dilemmas involved in such decisions? This paper addresses ethical dilemmas and financial issues in healthcare. A healthcare decision model, which considers medical information, financial information, as well as ethical and other intangible factors, is proposed.     

Corporate Social and Financial Performance Re-Examined: Industry Effects in a Linear Mixed Model Analysis

In this research, we shed new light on the empirical link between corporate social performance (CSP) and corporate financial performance (CFP) via the application of empirical models and methods new to the CSP?CCFP literature. Applying advanced financial models to a uniquely constructed panel dataset, we demonstrate that a significant overall CSP?CCFP relationship exists and that this relationship is, in part, conditioned on firms?? industry-specific context. To accommodate the estimation of time-invariant industry and industry-interaction effects, we estimate linear mixed models in our test of the CSP?CCFP relationship. Our results show both a significant overall CSP effect as well as significant industry effects between CSP and CFP. In conflict with expectations, the unweighted average effect of CSP on CFP is negative. Our industry analysis, however, shows that in over 17% of the industries in our sample, the effect of CSP on CFP for socially responsible firms is positive. We also examine the multidimensional nature of the CSP construct in an industry context by exploring the CSP dimension?Cindustry nexus and identify dimensions of social performance that are associated with either better or worse financial performance. Our results confirm the existence of disparate CSP dimension?Cindustry effects on CFP, thus our results provide important and actionable information to decision makers considering whether and how to commit corporate resources to social performance.     

Commercial Council Wave

What is appropriate developing model for China's economy in the financial crisis prevailing in the world?     

On the measurement of the international propagation of shocks: is the transmission stable?

The empirical literature on ‘contagion’ focuses mainly on two questions: (1) what are the channels through which shocks are transmitted across countries, trade, macro similarities, financial weaknesses, or investor behavior? (2) Is there a shift in the transmission of shocks during crises? Are crises spread with higher intensity? If so, why? This paper concentrates on the econometric problems that arise in dealing with the second question. The data where most of these issues are raised are plagued with problems of simultaneous equations, omitted variables, and heteroskedasticity. The standard methodologies used in the literature are inappropriate if all three are present. This paper applies a new procedure that allows one to test for parameter stability, taking into account all three predicaments. The paper tests for the stability of the transmission mechanisms among 36 stock markets during the last three major international financial crises (Mexico 1994, Asia 1997, and Russia 1998).     

Financial Hub？Be Patient!

In 2009, the central government confirmed the strategic sig- nificance of Shanghai as an international financial center. Until now, Shanghai＇s financial cluster has attracted more and more foreign banks to establish roots in Shanghai, which has contribut- ed to their rapid development in recent years.