Bank Profitability and Capital Regulation: Evidence from Listed and non-Listed Banks in Africa

This study investigates the determinants of African bank profitability while controlling for bank capital regulation. Using static and dynamic panel estimation techniques, the findings indicate that bank size, total regulatory capital, and loan loss provisions are significant determinants of the return on assets of listed banks compared to non-listed banks. Also, regulatory capital has a more significant (and positive) impact on the return on assets of listed banks than non-listed banks particularly when listed banks have sufficient regulatory capital ratio. We also find that higher regulatory thresholds have a negative impact on the return on asset of non-listed banks.     

A Frontier Approach to Testing the Averch–Johnson Hypothesis

The mathematical programming technique Data Envelopment Analysis is used to test the famous hypothesis of Averch and Johnson that utility regulation leads to overuse of capital because the regulated firm earns a return s greater than its cost of capital r, an implicit capital subsidy resulting in allocative inefficiency. Technical and allocative inefficiency are based on cost and production frontiers from 337 electric generating plants using 1970 data, and r is based on the Capital Asset Pricing Model. Significant capital overuse and general failure to minimize costs is detected, but a second‐step regression analysis finds no relationship between the overuse and the s–r subsidy. A small updated data set covering the period 1980–2004 suggests that overuse of capital is no longer a problem, a result that may be owing to recente deregulation and restructuring.     

我国上市公司外部融资偏好的成本动因分析

按照西方融资方式的“啄食”顺序理论,企业的外部融资顺序应先债券融资后股权融资。我国股权融资相对于债券融资具有资本成本、代理成本、信息成本和寻租成本的优势,使上市公司的外部融资顺序出现了“重股权融资、轻债券融资”的偏好。应从完善公司治理结构、规范信息披露、着力发展资本市场、加快形成经理人市场等方面入手,以改变不合理的融资现状。     

资本回报率、人力资本投资与收入不平等——基于Galor-Zeira模型的扩展

资本回报率下降对人力资本投资、收入不平等程度有较大影响。本文将可变资本回报率加入Galor-Zeira模型,理论推导发现:收入不平等陷阱并非不可逾越的障碍。当技能劳动力工资高于受教育固定成本时,随着资本回报率下降,接受教育的遗赠临界水平将降低,更多家庭将发现投资人力资本是有利的,稳态的技能劳动力比例将提高。在当前资本回报率下降的大背景下,提高技能劳动力工资、降低受教育成本、对教育贷款实施财政减免优惠、为农村中等教育支出减负和提升农村教育质量、倡导节俭和重视遗赠的文化氛围在长期都有助于提高技能劳动力比重以及缓和收入不平等。     

How Can Business Ethics Strengthen the Social Cohesion of a Society?

The essay aims to show how business ethics—understood as a three-level approach—can strengthen the social cohesion of a society, which is jeopardized today in many ways. In the first part, the purpose of business and the economy is explained as the creation of wealth defined as a combination of private and public wealth that includes natural, economic, human, and social capital. Special emphasis is placed on the implications of the creation of public wealth which requires institutions other than the market and motivations other than self-regarding ones. In the second part, the question of what holds a society together is discussed through different approaches: enlightened self-interest, a new game-theoretical approach, and the concept of the common good advanced by Catholic Social Teaching, followed by my own proposal. The third part presents several perspectives for business ethics to strengthen social cohesion of a society (a) by focusing on the purpose of business and the economy to create natural, economic, human, and social capital; (b) by advancing public goods that stand the test of ethical scrutiny; and (c) by securing human rights conceptualized as public goods.     

Estimates of the cost of equity for public utilities, 1961–1976

Using a simple version of the dividend cash flow (DCF) model of stock valuation, the cost of equity for public utilities is often inferred to be equal to the sum of the dividend yield and the expected rate of growth in dividends. Witnesses who employ this approach generally extrapolate past growth patterns into the future and then assume that investors expect these trends to continue; no effort is made to actually assess the expectations of investors. This approach to estimating the cost of equity for public utilities is criticized for the failure to develop testable hypotheses as an inferential basis for testing the statistical reliability of estimates of the cost of equity. This article demonstrates an alternative to the traditional approach, based on the premise that reliable estimates of the cost of equity are derived only within a methodological framework that produces testable hypotheses. The Gordon model of share valuation is formulated in such a way as to show that there is a systematic and predictable relationship between the ratio of market price to book value of common stock and a firm's normal or expected return on equity. This relationship suggests an econometric model that not only tests the Gordon model of share valuation but produces at the same time, inferences concerning the cost of equity. Using this approach, year-end estimates of the cost of equity for electric utilities are determined for the 16-yr period from 1961 to 1976.     

风险度量的幻觉与基于模型的银行资本监管方法

《巴塞尔协议Ⅲ》将新资本协议的缺陷,看成是可以通过提高资本充足标准来改进的缺陷,没有系统地分析现有银行监管模式中所存在的问题。文章分析了风险度量模型所存在的一些内在缺陷,并指出,巴塞尔银行监管模式的基本假设——金融风险可以通过先进模型来准确度量,其实只是一种幻觉。文章同时指出,如果模型不能准确地度量风险,在现有的基于模型的银行监管模式下,更高的资本充足要求,只会激起银行更大的监管套利动机;更为重要的是,这种银行监管模式容易引发内生性风险,从而危及整个系统的稳健性。因此,在提高核心资本标准的同时,巴塞尔委员会应考虑如何更加科学地对银行实施资本充足监管。     

A multiobjective financial planning model for electric utility rate regulation

The interests of the three parties to the regulatory process—investors in an electric utility, consumers, and regulators—are often in conflict. Investors are concerned with shareholder wealth maximization, while consumers desire dependable service at low rates. If the desired end product of regulation is to establish rates that balance the interests of consumers and investors, then a financial planning model is needed that accurately reflects the multi-objective nature of the regulatory decision process. This article develops such a multi-objective programming model for examining the efficient trade-offs available to utility regulators in setting rates of return.     

博弈视角下的房价调控分析

目前,国家正在积极对房价进行调控,并出台了一系列调控政策。但由于中央政府和地方政府在双方调控收益方面的差异,使得调控政策执行还未完全发挥其最大效果。通过博弈论的方法分析在不同信息条件下中央与地方政府对房价政策的博弈可以看出,中央政府对地方政府规制的成本过高,是我国高房价难以制止的原因;通过引入公众参与机制,同时加强制度约束等方式可以降低规制成本;通过减少中央政府调控成本、合理建立中央对地方政府的激励和约束机制等途径,可以改善我国现有房地产市场的调控效果。     

Market efficiency across securities exchanges

Considerable empirical evidence has been presented in the literature of finance in recent years addressed to the question of the informational efficiency of the American capital market. The present paper adds to that evidence. In particular, securities traded off the NYSE—on the American Stock Exchange, on regional exchanges, and over the counter—are found to exhibit return characteristics that imply rather more frequent price departures from equilibrium than for their NYSE-listed counterparts. The data consist of the actual investment experiences of a large sample of individual investors with securities traded in the various locales.     

Social Responsibility and the Utilities

This paper examines recent developments in U.K. utility regulation from a business ethics perspective. The regulatory framework that facilitated privatisation of the utility companies has foundations based upon free market principles involving a transfer from regulation to competitive markets wherever possible. Where competition is not feasible, continuing economic regulation is relied upon, designed to mirror the competitive market to induce, through comparative competition and the price capping mechanism, incentives for greater efficiency. The New Labour Government, having fundamentally reviewed this framework when it came to office, has surprisingly endorsed its basic tenets. However, it wishes to superimpose social responsibility regulations designed to achieve social policy rather than economic objectives. This interventionist approach is in itself in conflict with the free market inspired regulatory framework but additionally, the imposition of social policy objectives creates fundamental ambiguities within the framework for the key stakeholders. The paper concludes that the Government's policy, by eliciting stakeholder confusion and perverse behaviour, could be counter-productive but that ethical theories and frameworks can contribute to thinking in this vital area of the economy.     

It Is Time to Change How We Think about Electricity: Getting the Consumer Involved

The electricity supply industry operated for over a hundred years under a regulatory framework that viewed our economic welfare as directly linked to our increasing consumption of electricity. The public utility under its obligation to serve customers designed a system to meet the growing consumption needs of the public. Today both our attitude toward energy and our technological capabilities allow the consumer to play their proper role as informed customers. The consumer can now deploy conservation technologies, and state regulators have begun to modify the form of regulation employed policies that enable conservation and energy efficiency choices on the consumers' part. This article examines the history of this transformation in the consumers' role within the electric system and the implications this has for the evolution in regulatory policy that is now harnessing the power of consumer involvement and breaking the link between profits and sales.     

Capital cost and adjusted present value: Reconciliation and amplification

In recent years the adjusted present value method has been propounded for capital budgeting analysis. A comparison of the standard cost of capital approach to the adjusted present value method indicates that the two analyses produce exactly equivalent present value appraisals, as long as the enterprise contemplating the asset has a policy of keeping the degree of leverage constant. The conclusions reached are independent of the firm's target leverage position matching its present posture.     

Reglementierte Berufe: Wettbewerbsindikatoren der EU-Kommission auf dem Prüfstand

The European Commission — in line with its mandate given by the member states — places an emphasis on the enhancement of the internal market for services. One area of focus is the specific regulation of the so-called regulated professions. According to the EU Commission, restrictive professional regulation such as mandatory qualification requirements could hinder the internal market for services. Whilst the Commission does not urge for the abolition of all regulation concerning the area of profession, it does call for a stronger harmonisation. To identify appropriate and inappropriate regulatory approaches in the member states and further need for reforms, the Commission uses economic indicators. This article shows by the sample of the regulated architecture profession which difficulties may be associated with this approach.     

Toward global regulatory harmonization in banking

Several principles of international bank regulatory jurisdictions have emerged since the mid-1970s. Each principle has advantages and disadvantages in promoting cross-border competition, ensuring prudent banking practice, and maintaining worldwide financial stability. At the same time, simultaneous application of different principles by different countries has caused overlapping, underlapping, or sheer avoidance of bank regulations, resulting in less transparency and an uneven playing field for internationally competing banks. To level the playing field, bank regulatory harmonization has been advocated, particularly under the auspices of the Basle Committee on Banking Supervision. However, as demonstrated in the case of setting minimum capital standards for market risks, a successive harmonization approach may not be the panacea. There is a need for rethinking of efficiency in regulation, including incentive-compatible approaches.     

受捐赠人特定型网络募捐的法律认可与合理规制——兼论与证券公开发行行为的比较分析

受捐赠人特定型网络募捐是社会主体通过网络向不特定社会公众募集资金，且将所募集资金用于特定受捐赠人的新型募捐模式。《慈善法》目前未将此类募捐行为纳入其调整与规范范围。通过对与受捐赠人特定型网络募捐有较多类比因素的证券公开发行行为进行比较分析可见，在各国立法长期认可后者的基础上，我国法律认可前者也具有较强的合理性。事实上，网络募捐的市场理性和市场调节能力的自发规制、网络募捐整体社会收益远大于募捐成本以及立法对慈善组织的良好假设经不起实践检验等因素的存在，都是我国立法认可受捐赠人特定型网络募捐行为的具体原因。我国立法可通过各种制度措施对受捐赠人特定型网络募捐行为进行合理适度的有效规制。     

会计信息监管成本效益分析

上市公司的会计信息是影响证券市场有效性的关键因素之一,政府在这方面的监管活动应建立在监管效益大于监管成本的基础之上。从现有的研究成果看,国内倾向于从宏观层面上采用规范的方法研究信息监管问题,对会计信息监管成本的研究多于对监管收益的研究。应将二者结合起来,利用成本效益分析模型,探寻政府监管的合理区间及政府监管的有效性。     

Risk and Return in the 20th and 21st Centuries

The single most important contemporary issue in finance is the equity risk premium. This drives future equity returns, and is the key determinant of the cost of capital. The risk premium – the expected reward for bearing the risk of investing in equities, rather than in low-risk investments such as bills or bonds – is usually estimated from historical data. This article starts by summarising new evidence on historical returns in twelve major world markets from the authors' recent book, 'The Millennium Book: A Century of Investment Returns'. The authors show that the historical equity risk premium has been lower than previously believed, and argue that the future risk premium is likely to be lower still. They discuss what this implies for the cost of capital, stock market values, and companies' target rates of return. They suggest that many companies are seeking too high a rate of return and thus run the risk of under-investing.     

Eindämmung von Finanzmarktkrisen durch erhöhte Regulierungsintensität? Ein Update

The recent financial crisis challenged policymakers to create better supervision for both banks as well as international financial markets. Due to different political and governmental orientations, for instance, an overarching approach in European countries is unlikely. Where it to succeed in finding a conceptually closed and integrated approach in the coming years, the financial architecture of the Economic and Monetary Union could serve as an example for other parts of the world. However, the authors suspect an increasing fragmentation of regulatory elements and a potential return to special national regulation are more likely outcomes.     

Towards effective advertising self‐regulation in Australia: the seven components

Despite claims of social and economic benefits, advertising has always had its critics. However, when dealing with unacceptable advertising, advertisers in developed countries usually choose a self‐regulatory approach in order to stave off government intervention. The recent breakdown of one of the world's longest established advertising self‐regulatory programmes in Australia has reopened the 20‐year‐old debate concerned with enhancing understanding of such regulatory systems. This article presents a framework for assisting in improving the effectiveness of advertising self‐regulation that is informed by both the literature and the key findings of an Australian study. The study used a mixed approach to data collection, including in‐depth interviews with regulators, advertisers and public participants and historical analysis of more than 10 000 complaints over a period of 10 years. From this research three key concepts are developed for assisting industry and regulators concerned with regulating advertising in eliminating undesirable features of such systems in the future. The empirical work succeeds in making both a practical and theoretical contribution to advertising self‐regulation specifically and industry regulation in general.