The mystery of zero-leverage firms

We present the puzzling evidence that, from 1962 to 2009, an average 10.2% of large public nonfinancial US firms have zero debt and almost 22% have less than 5% book leverage ratio. Zero-leverage behavior is a persistent phenomenon. Dividend-paying zero-leverage firms pay substantially higher dividends, are more profitable, pay higher taxes, issue less equity, and have higher cash balances than control firms chosen by industry and size. Firms with higher Chief Executive Officer (CEO) ownership and longer CEO tenure are more likely to have zero debt, especially if boards are smaller and less independent. Family firms are also more likely to be zero-levered.     

An empirical analysis of zero-leverage firms: New evidence from the UK

This paper examines why some firms have no debt in their capital structures despite the potential benefits of debt financing. It adds new insights to this zero-leverage phenomenon by addressing two unexplored questions: Does a firm have zero leverage as a consequence of financial constraints or because of a strategic decision to mitigate underinvestment incentives and preserve financial flexibility? Is the decision to follow a zero-leverage policy affected by macroeconomic conditions? Analyzing a new sample of UK firms over the period 1980–2007, we show that the zero-leverage policy is prevalent but that zero-leverage firms are not homogeneous. There are two distinct groups of unlevered firms with different levels of constraints as measured by their dividend policy, namely payers and non-payers. Importantly, we find new evidence that these groups have different motives for eschewing debt. Firms in the second group (non-payers) have zero leverage mainly due to financial constraints. Firms in the first group (payers) deliberately eschew debt to mitigate investment distortions, as predicted by the underinvestment and financial flexibility hypotheses. Macroeconomic conditions have a significant effect on the zero-leverage decision, especially for this less constrained group.     

The on-the-run liquidity phenomenon

We test the implications of a model of multi-asset speculative trading in which liquidity differentials between on-the-run and off-the-run U.S. Treasury bonds ensue from endowment shocks in the presence of two realistic market frictions—information heterogeneity and imperfect competition among informed traders—and a public signal. Our evidence suggests that (i) off/on-the-run liquidity differentials are economically and statistically significant, even after controlling for several of the bonds’ intrinsic characteristics (such as duration, convexity, repo rates, or term premiums), and (ii) off/on-the-run liquidity differentials are smaller immediately following bond auction dates, and larger when the uncertainty surrounding the ensuing auction allocations is high, when the dispersion of beliefs across informed traders is high, and when macroeconomic announcements are noisy, consistent with our model.     

The ECU as international money

The ECU is compared with alternative foreign currencies to determine how adequately it performs the various functions of international money. For the period April 1979 through December 1984 it is found that for most European economic agents the ECU was superior to the SDR, the US dollar, and a representative foreign currency (the Netherlands guilder) as a unit-of-account, as a store of value, and as a means of deferred payment. An examination is made of the distribution of the series of exchange-rate changes so that appropriate statistical methods are employed in making a final assessment about the variability of the ECU.     

The role of international auditing in the improvement of international financial reporting

In this paper, we describe the convergence of several forces that underscore the significance of independent auditors as key enablers of the improvement of international financial reporting. This paper is not an empirical research study but is intended to survey the landscape of international auditing. Based on our experience as auditing practitioners and academics, we describe and provide discussions of key conceptual issues surrounding international auditing harmonization and its relation to the implementation of international accounting standards. A matrix framework is presented at the conclusion of the paper to summarize the principal point of the paper that the regulations and control of the quality of audits is the critical factor in achieving high quality financial reporting. The next critical phase of the process is to improve the quality of the individual audits that take place around the world through government regulation, profession self-regulation, and quality assurance in international firms. IFAC has taken significant steps in strengthening its role as the global self-regulatory body for the profession, including improvements in standards and compliance. The establishment of a public oversight board with authority to discipline rather than persuade is a critical component for effective international auditing standards.     

聚焦国际投资基金

普凯投资基金（Prax Capital） 成立于美国，是一家专注投资中国市场的私募股权投资基金，主要投资成长期／扩张期的制造业和服务业企业。公司对单个企业的投资额一般在1000万～3000万美元，投资周期通常为3～7年。     

The international co-movements of Finish stocks

This paper provides new empirical evidence on the international co-movements of Finnish stocks. The vector autoregression (VAR) approach indicates that US and especially Swedish stock markets lead Finnish stock market returns by approximately one or two months. The results based on international market models indicate that the returns of individual Finnish stocks are significantly positively related to those of Sweden, while the relation between Finnish and US returns is significantly lower. The relation seems to vary clearly between industries, some industries being related to US markets as well. Significant time-series instability is reported in the results, however.     

国际金融秩序正发生变化

中国推动和倡议建立金砖银行和亚洲基础设施投资银行等新兴金融机构，引起广泛的关注，究竟如何看待这样一种变化？这种变化带来的是一种挑战？还是一种相互补充？变化的背景究竟是什么？请看本栏目文章《世界银行的作用和局限性》、《国际货币基金组织：继续辉煌还是走向衰落？》和《新兴金融机构：新力量、新格局、新希望》。     

国际资本狂赌A股指数

由于中央政府在人民币加息问题上仍然咬得很紧，令早前赌人民币升值的资金感到失望，在寻求新的获利途径。而段权分置和宏观经济进入调整期等客观问题也为这些投机资金提供了更多的筹码。     

国际银行卡成员遵循的限制性规则

银行卡支付网络有时被认为是银行间合营,银行卡支付网络中的反托拉斯问题在银行间协作的反托拉斯问题中很有代表性,比如银行卡网络成员规则中的限制性条款受到频繁质疑问题,又如交换费问题。其中限制性规则问题包括:排他性规则、承兑所有银行卡规则、无附加费规则或不歧视规则等方面。     

The international monetary system: The quest for stability

The short-run market behaviour of international exchange rates is an insignificant influence on the state of the international monetary order. And an analysis of the rational choices available to institutions and governments often reveals less about the likely outcomes than a study of their actual behaviour. Stability in the international monetary order requires that the pattern of capital and savings flows be closely related. There is no guarantee that these patterns will ever coincide.     

The dynamics of international equity market expectations

This paper develops a noisy rational expectations model of the way in which international investors adjust their expectations of asset payoffs in a given country in response not only to public information signals but also to private information signals whose precision differs across investors. The model predicts that the perceptions of investors in one country about the future market returns in another country are related differently to realized past returns depending on their informational disadvantage relative to other investors: the greater is that informational disadvantage, the greater is the change in perception associated with returns. The predictions are confirmed by monthly survey data of institutional money managers investing in developed markets from 1995 to 2000.     

国际权威机构2006资本投资预测

普华永道:2006年行业并购将提速 据普华永道Pw C交易服务部门(Transaction Services)称,随着企业和金融买家积极利用高现金水平、低利率和众多机遇,2006年行业合并将加剧.2004年由于企业努力降低成本并奠定收入基础,交易活动骤增;2005年,交易规模扩大,涉及美国企业交易的收益达8170亿美元,较2004年前3个季度的6540亿美元增长25%,而交易量依然保持稳定.     

The international spillover effects of pension reform

This paper explores how pension reforms in countries with PAYG schemes affect countries with funded systems. We use a two-country two-period overlapping-generations model, where the countries only differ in their pension systems. We distinguish between the case where a reform potentially leads to a Pareto improvement in the PAYG country, and where this is impossible. In the latter case, the funded country shares both in the costs and the benefits of the reform. However, if a Pareto-improving pension reform is feasible in the PAYG country, a Pareto improvement in the funded country is not guaranteed.     

The international system : Limits to forecasting

This article describes the obstacles which stand in the way of analysis of the future of the international system and identifies research needs for surmounting them. Such forecasting must be based on an understanding of the structure of the system and its evolution, yet given the heterogeneity of existing paradigms in the study of international relations, it is difficult to give coherent expression to that structure. Progress in forecasting research on the international system therefore implies a lessening of the heterogeneity of those paradigms, and suggestions are made with this end in view.     

The international diversification fallacy of exchange-listed securities

This paper reviews various investment vehicles and examines their international diversification potential. The primary focus is on the ability of U.S. exchange-listed investments such as closed-end country funds, American depository receipts (ADRs), and multinational corporations (MNCs) to provide a diversification effect similar to direct investment in foreign equity. The results show that the U.S. exchange-listed securities included in this study behave more like the host exchange than their home exchange. This result suggests that these U.S. exchange-listed securities, on average, do not perform an international diversification role for U.S. investors.