AN ANALYSIS OF INVENTORY INVESTMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA

This paper describes the evolution of inventory investment in South Africa over the past two decades, and identifies the factors influencing inventory investment over this period. An econometric model of inventory investment in South Africa, based on the production smoothing approach, is constructed. The results of the model indicate that actual sales, production, unfilled orders, price levels, interest rates and expected sales have an influence on the evolution of inventory investment. These variables are directly or indirectly influenced by macroeconomic policy decisions and through their influence on inventory investment they also influence changes in gross domestic product. Therefore, prior information on the factors that influence inventory investment contributes to explaining changes in gross domestic product and may help to prepare more accurate short‐term forecasts of overall economic activity.     

BAYESIAN METHODS OF FORECASTING INVENTORY INVESTMENT

This paper develops a Bayesian Vector Error Correction Model (BVECM) for forecasting inventory investment. The model is estimated using South African quarterly data on actual sales, production, unfilled orders, price level and interest rate, for the period 1978 to 2000. The out-of-sample-forecast accuracy obtained from the BVECM over the forecasting horizon of 2001:1 to 2003:4, is compared with those generated from the classical variant of the Vector Autoregresssive (VAR) model and the VECM, the Bayesian VAR, and the recently developed ECM by Smith et al. , for the South African economy. The BVECM with the most-tight prior outperforms all the other models, except for a relatively tight BVAR which also correctly predicts the direction of change of inventory investment over the period of 2004:1 to 2006:3.     

影响中国就业弹性的因素分析

文章由修改后的柯布道格拉斯生产函数推导出劳动力需求方程,找到影响就业弹性的因素:资本存量、实际工资、技术因素和市场化程度;并将这些因素与就业量进行了实证分析.结果表明:劳动需求量、资本存量、职工工资、技术因素和市场化程度之间具有协整关系;资本投入的增加对就业量的带动作用不显著;技术因素虽然短期对就业有挤出效应,但其增长效应大于挤出效应;非国有经济和第三产业具有较高吸收就业的能力,非国有经济和第三产业的发展是缓解我国当前就业形势的重要途径.     

Effects of Poor Transportation on Lean Production and Industrial Clustering: Evidence from the Indian Auto Industry

Conventional wisdom suggests that poor transportation systems adversely affect industrial competitiveness by raising the unit cost of freight. This study finds that freight is neither the only nor the most significant cost that poor transportation creates for auto firms in India. Poor transportation also raises the damages incurred in transit, total inventories, and ordering and overhead costs. Worse, it creates external diseconomies by introducing inefficiencies and unreliability in the supply chain, making it difficult for assemblers to implement lean production. These external diseconomies—rather than excessive freight prices or other direct costs—may be the more debilitating impact of poor transportation infrastructure on industrial performance. In India, transportation constraints and the imperatives of lean production are driving assemblers to create auto clusters.     

Skill, trade, and international inequality

Heckscher-Ohlin trade theory suggests that greater opennesstends to enlarge inter-country differences in stocks of skill(or human capital), which new growth theory suggests would causeinter-country divergence of per capita incomes. Econometricanalysis of data on about 90 countries during 1960-90 confirmsthat greater openness tends to cause divergence of secondaryand tertiary enrolment rates between more-educated and less-educatedcountries, and also between land-scarce and land-abundant countries.These findings may have implications for the optimal choiceof trade policies by poor countries.     

A Short-Run Crude Oil Price Forecast Model with Ratchet Effect

From 1992 through early 2004, crude oil prices were predictable by using OECD’s relative inventories and OPEC’s excess production capacity. However, since 2004, estimated inventories and excess production capacity under-predict crude oil prices. Using 3-D graphical analyzes, three regimes are identified in crude oil markets during the period from January 1992 to December 2007, reflecting market conditions and OPEC policy changes. These graphics show the changing relationship between crude oil price, inventories and excess production capacity. To reflect this, a ratchet variable, derived from cumulative excess production capacity, is incorporated into the forecasting model to reflect the changing behavior on both demand and supply sides. This model provides improved forecasts for the post Gulf War I time period over models without the ratchet mechanism.

资源型企业共享库存管理模式研究

针对资源型企业在销售过程中与下游企业存在的双重库存问题,本文首先对共享库存管理的必要性和共享库存管理的基础进行了分析,在此基础上建立了共享库存的优化模型以及实施共享库存管理模式后资源型企业与其下游企业间的收益分配模型,最后通过实例证明了模型的有效性。     

Trade and International R&D Spillovers among OECD Countries

This paper examines the relationship between trade patterns and international research-and-development (R&D) spillovers using Kao and Chiang's (1998) and Kao's (1999) recently developed panel cointegration techniques. Monte Carlo-type tests demonstrate that the choice of weights used in constructing foreign R&D stocks is informative of the spillover transmission when panel cointegration techniques are employed. However, the evidence does not support a relationship between import patterns and R&D spillovers. The relationship between export patterns and R&D spillovers is then considered. Consistent with recent theoretical models (Ben-David and Loewy 1998), the evidence suggests that exporters receive substantial R&D spillovers from their customers.     

Integration between the London and New York Stock Exchanges, 1825–1925

In this article the integration between the London and New York Stock Exchanges is analysed during the era when they were still developing as asset markets. The domestic securities on both exchanges showed little sustained integration, even when controlling for the different characteristics of stocks, which implies that the pricing of securities in the US and UK was still being driven by local factors. These results place a limit on the view that the pre‐First World War period was the first era of globalization in terms of capital markets. However, there was considerable integration between New York and those listings on London that operated internationally. This suggests that the listing of foreign securities may be one of the primary mechanisms driving asset market integration.     

Internationalization of information technology services and public policy implications

World telecommunications traffic grew at a rate of over 15% a year in the 1980s, substantially faster than merchandise or service trade. The growth of such traffic is linked closely to the international flow of services and investment. Economizing on time, inventories and financial balances are important considerations in the use of international telecommunications networks. At the same time, network providers are engaging in international alliances to supply a variety of telecommunication services across borders. These alliances will influence strongly the further evolution of national and international regulatory regimes. An international regime more open in the trade of services and movement of investment is called for.     

碳中和背景下碳中和概念股的投资机会与投资策略

近年来,碳中和概念股成为A股市场上的投资热点.虽然中国碳减排面临的形势严峻,但碳中和概念股的投资却面临前所未有的政策机遇,清洁能源、绿色生产和消费、园林板块和碳捕集利用与封存(CCUS)以及碳交易等板块的投资机会值得关注.回避伪碳中和概念股、长期投资和借道基金轻松理财是应有的投资策略.     

Weekday seasonality of stock returns: The contrary case of China

We document that Chinese stock returns exhibit early-in-the-week effects opposite-signed to those observed worldwide. The period of analysis is 2001–2016. Dominated by individual investors, Chinese stock markets offer unique out-of-sample insight regarding the source of weekday seasonality, ascribed elsewhere to institutional investors’ trading patterns. High returns to the market and to small, speculative stocks early-in-the-week pose a refuter to the mood explanation for the conventional (negative) Monday effect. A battery of tests suggests that the patterns in the Market, SMB, and RMW factors are jointly associated with Chinese individual investors whose demand is tilted towards small, speculative stocks. Our findings point to a potential role of dominant investor type in driving weekday patterns and the RMW premium.     

Intraday return and volatility spillover mechanism from Chinese to Japanese stock market

We analyze the mechanism of return and volatility spillover effects from the Chinese to the Japanese stock market. We construct a stock price index comprised of those companies that have substantial operations in China. This China-related index responds to changes in the Shanghai Composite Index more strongly than does the TOPIX (the market index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange). This result suggests that China has a large impact on Japanese stocks via China-related firms in Japan. Furthermore, we find evidence that this response has become stronger as the Chinese economy has gained importance in recent years.     

绝对离差风险测度模型与均值方差模型的比较研究

本文将绝对离差风险测度模型与马科维兹均值方差模型进行比较研究。分析它们之间的关系及各自的优越性；通过引入两种模型的估计误差、两种模型估计错误的机会成本等概念．在小样本股票组合下，比较了两种风险测度模型的有效边界、两种风险测度模型产生估计误差的大小以及产生估计错误的机会成本大小等。研究结果表明，在不同的股票组合样本大小下．两模型的性质和各自的优势会有一定的差异。     

The Impact of Computers on Productivity in the Trade Sector: Explorations with Dutch Microdata

The impact of computers on productivity in the Dutch trade sector during the period 1988-1994 is examined. The analysis is based on a panel data set derived from the Production Survey of Statistics Netherlands, which includes data on output, employment, wages, and various types of investment. A new method is developed to estimate IT- and non-IT capital stocks for each firm based on investment flows and booked depreciation figures by firm. A Cobb-Douglas production function setting is used to study the effect of computer capital stock on productivity. We find that computers contributed positively to productivity, even when firm-specific effects such as labour quality are accounted for. In retail trade computers yielded returns above their relatively high rental price. For wholesaling, no evidence for excessive returns is found. The rates of return were not subject to a decline in the period studied, in contrast to findings for the US. This suggests that the Netherlands has been lagging in the application of IT compared to the US and that further productivity boosting effects can be expected.     

Economic and financial reporting effects of inventory tax allowances*

Abstract. This study documents management's reactions to an inventory tax allowance that is based on inventory levels at the beginning of the year. Such an allowance was permitted by the tax authorities in Canada and Israel. The study develops a theoretical model which shows that a rational management should increase the firm's inventory levels on the balance sheet date beyond what the normal ordering policy would indicate. Moreover, tax authorities, in failing to anticipate this behavior, may, ceteris paribus, overcompensate firms for inflation. Empirical evidence shows that firms do, indeed, alter their ordering policies so that they will hold larger inventories on the balance sheet date. The study also shows that the tax authorities overcompensated firms in Israel, but did not overcompensate firms in Canada. Résumé. Cette étude documente les réactions du management à un dégrèvement fiscal afférent aux stocks basé sur les niveaux des stocks au début de l'année. Un tel dégrèvement était permis par les autorités fiscales au Canada et en Israël. L'étude développe un modèle théorique qui montre qu'un management rationnel devrait augmenter les niveaux des stocks de la firme à la date du bilan, au-delà de ce que la politique normale d'approvisionnement pourrait indiquer. D'ailleurs, les autorités fiscales qui n'anticipent pas ce comportement peuvent ceteris paribus, sur-idemniser les firmes pour l'inflation. L'évidence empirique montre en effet, que les firmes modifient leurs politiques d'approvisionnement de façon à avoir de plus gros stocks à la date du bilan. L'étude montre aussi que les autorités fiscales ont sur-indemnisé les firmes en Israël, mais ne les ont pas sur-indemnisées au Canada.     

中国机构投资者投资分散不足的实证检验——以基金公司为例

从目前各个国家和地区的投资实践来看,大量证据显示,投资者并没有按照标准化的投资组合模型去分散投资,而是表现出明显的“投资分散不足”。文章以基金公司作为机构投资者的代表,对我国投资市场上投资的分布状况进行了研究,证实了在我国的金融市场上投资分散不足现象也是存在的。     

The Use of Trade Association Disclosures by Investors and Analysts: Evidence from the Semiconductor Industry*

This paper investigates the relation between industry-wide information disclosures by the trade association for the semiconductor industry and both share prices and analyst forecasts. Such disclosures may have little impact on investors and analysts, since prior theoretical research suggests that trade associations may be unable to secure reliable data from firms in an industry. At the same time, such disclosures may be important, since prior empirical research suggests that share prices and analyst forecasts reflect industry-wide earnings effects earlier than firm-specific effects. We document significant stock price movements on release dates of industry Flash Reports by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) each month that contain aggregate industry data on new orders and shipments. The magnitude of the price revisions on Flash Report disclosure dates is positively associated with changes in the numbers disclosed and varies across sample firms in a manner associated with identifiable characteristics of the firms. Further tests indicate that the Flash Report provides mainly forward-looking information on new orders that is linked to firm-specific sales changes and has explanatory power for quarterly stock prices beyond firm-specific earnings. This information is used by security analysts mainly in assessing the persistence of firm-specific quarterly sales changes. Our findings support the hypothesis that the SIA is able to obtain data from firms, compile it into reliable aggregate statistics, and then distribute these statistics in a timely fashion.     

Turnover tax and trading volume: Panel analysis of stocks traded in the Japanese and US markets

Japan eliminated turnover tax on stock trading through the end of the 1990’s to revitalize its ailing stock market by reducing the overall transaction cost for stock trading. This paper empirically examines the effect of this exogenous, institutional change in tax policy on stock trading volume in the Japanese market. To do so, we use panel data of stocks traded in both the Japanese and United States markets and compare changes in their trading volumes at the times of the tax changes. We use a well-established V-shape relationship between turnover and price change, with three different assumptions as regards how the price change relates to turnover across stocks and markets. Although a model allowing for both slope and intercept shifts does not offer any indications one way or the other, a more restricted model allowing only for an intercept shift clearly suggests a statistically significant increase in trading volume in the Japanese market but not in the United States markets for April 1999. However, such a result was not obtained for April 1996. These results indicate that the abolition of turnover tax in 1999, but not the rate reduction in 1996, contributed to the trading volume increase.     

The impacts of dual carbon goals on asset prices in China

In this paper, we study the impacts of dual carbon goals on asset prices in China. Using the speech of President Jinping Xi on 22 September 2020 as an event in which the dual carbon goals are formally announced, we find that stocks with green concept have superior performance in the post-event window relative to non-green stocks. In particular, a portfolio that longs green stocks and shorts non-green stocks can generate an average monthly return above 3%. The official announcement of dual carbon goals not only attracts attention of investors, resulting in higher institutional ownership and trading volume for green stocks, but also improves fundamentals for green stocks in the post-event window.