2000年中国国际收支状况分析报告

2000年，我国国际收支经济帐户顺差205．2亿美元。按照国际收支统计口径计算，2000年货物出口2491．3亿美元，同比增长28％；货物进口2146．6亿美元，较上年增长35％，顺差344．7亿美元；服务项目收入304．3亿美元，同比增长28％，支出360亿美元，较上年增长15％，逆差56亿美元；收益项目收入125．5亿美元，同比增长19％罢出272．2亿美元，较同期下降4．7％，逆差146．7亿美元；经营转移顺差63．1亿美元。     

忧虑的市场与犹豫的美元

次贷危机爆发以来，美元对欧元和日元的汇率跌宕起伏，变化出人意料。在危机爆发时期，美元大幅贬值；在危机前景不明时期，美元保持相对平静，在危机急剧恶化时期，美元令人惊讶地急剧升值；在危机企稳时期，美元又令人费解地出现贬值苗头。如何理解美元的“反常”表现，如何判断美元在后危机时期的走势，     

跟着油价做投资

2008年上半年，原油成为获利最丰厚的投资品种。原油期货价格3月12日首破110美元，5月7日义破120美元，5月21日再破130美元，6月26日更是冲破了140美元的关口，并在6月26日收盘时大涨5．5美元，创下每桶139．83美元的最新记录。而2008年上半年最后一个交易日，原油再次把140美元踩在脚下，一度逼近143美元高位。     

忧虑的市场与犹豫的美元

次贷危机爆发以来，美元对欧元和日元的汇率跌宕起伏，变化出人意料。在危机爆发时期，美元大幅贬值；在危机前景不明时期，美元保持相对平静，在危机急剧恶化时期，美元令人惊讶地急剧升值；在危机企稳时期，美元又令人费解地出现贬值苗头。如何理解美元的“反常”表现，如何判断美元在后危机时期的走势，     

美元：假“强势”真贬值

早在1995年克林顿执政时期，美国财政部长鲁宾就提出强势美元政策，美元强势在那个时期也得到了真正体现。如今，尽管布什政府一再强调强势美元政策，但美元弱势却表现得淋漓尽致。美元自2002年以来下跌从未间断过，至2008年6月4日美元累计跌幅达39％。2008年4月11日，在全球七大工业国会议上保尔森再次强调强势美元政策符合美国利益。然而，随后并未采取任何实质性措施阻止美元下跌。强势美元政策屡次成为虚谈，美元假强势真贬值成为当今美国政府实施的真正政策。     

黑龙江省今年上半年外汇收支状况分析

(一)外汇存贷款下降。6月末，全省金融机构各项外汇存款余额为190785万美元，比上月减少3148万美元，比年初减少10851万美元；各项外汇贷款余额为94292万美元，比上月和比年初分别减少39361万美元和40860万美元。     

数字背后——2004年中国外债余额2286亿美元，各项指标均处于国际标准安全线之内

国家外汇管理局公布，截至2004年底，中国外债余额折合美元2285．96亿，比上年末增加349．62亿美元，上升18．06％。去年1-12月，我国新借入外债2059．73亿美元，比上年增加1044．29亿美元，增长102．84％；偿还外债本金1850．23亿美元，比上年同期增加921．17亿美元，增长99．15％；付息52．17亿美元，与上年基本持平。外债净流入157．33亿美元，净流入量为上年的4．6倍。     

中国中部博览会：“万商西进”工程的重头戏——首届中国中部投资贸易博览会圆满落幕

9月28日，第一届中国中部投资贸易博览会圆满落下帷幕。此次博览会万商云集、成果丰硕。大会共签约各类招商引资项目1199个。利用外资合同项目363个，合同外资99亿美元，其中千万美元以上项目172个，引资91．09亿美元；协议外资项目67个，协议外资34．4亿美元，其中千万美元以上项目37个，协议金额33亿美元。中部6省共签订外资合同项目356个，合同外资95．8亿美元，其中千万美元以上项目166个，引资87．9亿美元。国内经济合作合同项目575个，     

上海期货交易所2003年9月市场综述

9月份，国际铜市保持上扬，主要是受到技术性基金买盘提振以及经济数据继续对基本金属价格上扬的支持。9月LME三月铜在1766美元到1838美元区间波动，月末较上月上涨36美元，报1809美元。LME三月铝月末报1424美元，比上月跌10美元。受国际市场带动，上海金属市场     

美日欧汇率走势的回顾与展望

2004年美联储虽然五次提高美元利率，但均没有改变美元的颓势，美元兑世界主要货币大幅贬值。文章分所段细述了2004年美元兑欧元、美元兑日元的具体走势及相关影因素。展望2005年，文章认为美元可能结束跣势，欧元将逐步回稳，日元将保持小幅升值。     

多角度看黄金价格走势

自2008年底以来,金价从不足800美元已上涨至最近的1070美元左右.同期,美元指数也从89左右回落到75左右.一时间,黄金价格将何去何从众议纷纷.事后来看,自2008年下半年金融危机以来,黄金价格一度受到资金"去杠杆化"的冲击而大幅回落,然而2009年初以来股价的继续下跌、市场对未来预期不确定性增加带来的避险需求和货币扩张带来的通胀预期是带动2009年初黄金价格攀升的主要因素.     

Picking Your Tick: Toward a New Theory of Stock Splits

Thanks to stock splits, the average nominal share price has been amazingly stable in the United States. The average NYSE share price has fluctuated within the $30 to $40 range since the late 1930s—a period in which most consumer prices have increased by a factor of 10 and the S&P index has risen over 1,500%. Why has this nominal price been so stable when every other price has increased so much? And why do typical stock prices vary so greatly among different countries? For example, the median nominal stock price ranges from about $2 in Hong Kong and $7 in the U.K., to $103 in France and over $600 in Switzerland. The author's recent research suggests that typical stock prices vary across countries in ways that reflect primarily differences in how markets in each country set their “tick” rules—the rules governing the minimum price variation that can occur in a stock (in the U.S., for example, the tick was recently reduced from $1/8 to $1/16). Companies, on average, appear to respond to the resulting differences in tick size by adjusting the number of their shares outstanding so that the tick size relative to the nominal share price remains relatively constant. In fact, a tick size equal to about 25 basis points of the median share price “appears to be a universal norm” across global markets. This article explores how and why a company might wish to affect the relative tick size for its stock by splitting—and, in so doing, it suggests a “new theory” of stock splits. The theory also suggests that the optimal tick size for any given company will vary according to its size, visibility, and riskiness.     

Reverse Stock Splits,Institutional Holdings,and Share Value

We show that both the number of institutional investors and the percentage of shares that are held by institutional investors increase significantly after reverse splits with a presplit price lower than $5 and a target price higher than $5. This effect is larger than for other comparable reverse splits. These results suggest institutional holdings are affected by the prudent‐person rule and reverse splits are used by firms to alleviate this constraint. We also show that an increase in institutional holdings that results from reverse splits is associated with an increase in share price.     

The fundamental theorem of asset pricing for continuous processes under small transaction costs

A version of the fundamental theorem of asset pricing is proved for continuous asset prices with small proportional transaction costs. Equivalence is established between: (a) the absence of arbitrage with general strategies for arbitrarily small transaction costs ${\varepsilon > 0}${\varepsilon > 0}, (b) the absence of free lunches with bounded risk for arbitrarily small transaction costs ${\varepsilon > 0}${\varepsilon > 0}, and (c) the existence of e{\varepsilon}-consistent price systems—the analogue of martingale measures under transaction costs—for arbitrarily small ${\varepsilon > 0}${\varepsilon > 0}. The proof proceeds through an explicit construction, as opposed to the usual separation arguments. The paper concludes comparing numéraire-free and numéraire-based notions of admissibility, and the corresponding martingale and local martingale properties for consistent price systems.     

LIQUIDITY AND TICK SIZE: DOES DECIMALIZATION MATTER?

The effect of the move to decimalization by the Toronto Stock Exchange, where the minimum tick size was decreased to $0.05 from $0.125, is examined. Liquidity is measured by the price impact of unexpected volume. Results show an unambiguous gain to investors. Effective spreads decrease significantly, but the price impact is unaffected. In addition, evidence indicates an increase in trading activity in absolute terms as well in relation to U.S. exchanges for cross-listed stocks. This is consistent with the observed decrease in transaction costs.     

The price of power: The valuation of power and weather derivatives

Pricing contingent claims on power presents numerous challenges due to (1) the unique behavior of power prices, and (2) time-dependent variations in prices. We propose and implement a model in which the spot price of power is a function of two state variables: demand (load) and fuel price. In this model, any power derivative price must satisfy a PDE with boundary conditions that reflect capacity limits and the non-linear relation between load and the spot price of power. Moreover, since power is non-storable and demand is not a traded asset, the power derivative price embeds a market price of risk. Using inverse problem techniques and power forward prices from the PJM market, we solve for this market price of risk function. During 1999–2001, the upward bias in the forward price was as large as $50/MWh for some days in July. By 2005, the largest estimated upward bias had fallen to $19/MWh. These large biases are plausibly due to the extreme right skewness of power prices; this induces left skewness in the payoff to short forward positions, and a large risk premium is required to induce traders to sell power forwards. This risk premium suggests that the power market is not fully integrated with the broader financial markets.     

Scenarios on European energy security: Outcomes of natural gas strategy in 2020

This paper adopts a futuristic methodology and analyzes the role of natural gas in European energy security in order to transform economic and policy uncertainties into meaningful scenarios. It implements “trend analysis” to forecast the volume of gas needed until 2020 by elaborating the estimates of the EU Commission and “scenario building” to come up with alternative futures forging different regional implications. The economic analysis stems from four scenarios as introduced by the EU Commission: (1) baseline scenario with average oil price of 61$/bbl; (2) baseline scenario with average oil price of 100$/bbl; (3) New Energy Policy scenario with average oil price of 61$/bbl; (4) New Energy Policy scenario with average oil price of 100$/bbl. The policy analysis is derived from the options, restraints, priorities and strategies of the concerned actors which include the EU Commission, selected EU members, suppliers and transit countries. The analysis on actors results in four policy scenarios: (1) Russia first; (2) Russia everywhere; (3) security first; (4) each for itself. The matrix, which excludes the possibility of unprecedented developments such as a drastic increase in European shale gas production or continuing global recession, clusters 16 contingencies. The paper, within this context, gives an idea on how alternative policy options of European energy security may lead to different futures based on oil prices, environmental commitments and strategic initiatives of the concerned actors.     

Spatial differentiation and price discrimination in the cement industry: evidence from a structural model

We estimate a structural model of the cement industry that incorporates spatial differentiation and price discrimination, focusing on the US Southwest over 1983–2003. We leverage the structure of the model to obtain consistent estimates of the underlying parameters using data on market outcomes that are substantially aggregated. Our results indicate that transportation costs around $0.46 per tonne‐mile rationalize the data. This friction enables relatively isolated plants to obtain higher prices from nearby customers. We further find that disallowing price discrimination would create $30 million in consumer surplus annually and show how the model can identify suitable divestitures in merger analysis.     

Information bundling and securities litigation

We exploit the exogenous shock of a 2005?U.S. Supreme Court decision on securities class action loss causation requirements to examine two ways that firms bundle information with restatements: “positive bundling” of good news and “noise bundling” of additional bad news. We find that positive bundling offsets price declines and results in less litigation. In contrast, noise bundling magnifies price declines, but nevertheless deters litigation by confounding which bad news caused a decline. Non-bundled restatements are 5.94 times more likely to result in litigation. Bundled restatements have 8.17 times higher dismissal rates and $21.17 to $23.45 million lower settlement amounts.     

Estimating Transaction-Based Price Indices of Local Commercial Real Estate Markets Using Public Assessment Data

This study examines the feasibility of constructing reliable commercial property price indices using property tax records. We employ the Clapp and Giacotto (Journal of American Statistical Association, 87(418), 300–306, 1992) assessed-value method to estimate price indices for commercial properties in Florida. The estimated Florida commercial property price index is compared to the Moody’s/REAL Commercial Property Price Index (CPPI) and to the transaction-based index (TBI) produced at MIT. Our results are promising, suggesting that this widely-available data source can be used to produce commercial property price indices for a variety of precise market locations and specific investor segments. A secondary but interesting objective of this paper is to use our rich and comprehensive database to examine the price performance of two specific subsets of properties in more detail. First, we narrow our range to focus on just the office sector for Florida. We compare price movements for the Florida office sector with the comparable CPPI. Estimates produce very similar price movements providing support to both methods. Second, we contrast the price performance of higher- and lower-valued properties and reject the hypothesis that their periodic price index levels are equal. The mean price changes of Florida commercial properties assessed at $2.5 million and above are observed to be slightly higher than for properties assessed below $2.5 million, although not statistically different. In particular, higher-valued properties had higher mean price changes relative to lower-valued properties during periods of economic expansion. This economic difference represents an important contribution toward beginning to understand the relative performance of smaller and investment-grade commercial properties.