Assessing Mortality Risk from Heat Stress due to Global Warming

With gradually progressing climate change in the future, the frequency and scale of hot summers like those observed in various places around the world in recent years will undoubtedly increase, giving rise to strong concerns over increased risk of death due to heat stress. Based on this background, we have developed a method to assess future changes in mortality due to heat stress with the entire globe as the target, and performed trial calculations using this method. The purpose of this report is to draw people's attention to the possible severe consequences of climate change by presenting the severest estimates in the uncertainty range due to adaptation/acclimation expected in the future, so as to induce further analysis and discussion on policies and measures. For the trial calculations, future changes in temperature were derived from the results of simulation using an Atmosphere‐Ocean General Circulation Model with the highest spatial resolution in the world at the time of the study. Population densities were assumed not to alter in the future. Assuming that no adaptation or acclimation takes place, when the rates of change of excess mortality due to heat stress are examined by country, the results of our calculations show increases of approximately 100% to 1000%. It is confirmed that the burden of climate change impact is quite unequal among countries, at least from the viewpoint of heat stress mortality. When considered together with present population densities, significant increases in excess mortality density can be seen in China, India, and Europe. These regions are characterized by large losses due to climate change in absolute quantitative terms. The need to consider the adoption of adaptation measures is therefore most urgent in these regions.     

美国量化宽松货币政策对中国短期资本流动的影响分析

在分析美国三轮量化宽松货币政策发展情况及金融危机期间我国短期资本流入状况基础上,对美国量化宽松货币政策对我国短期资本流动的影响进行实证分析,结果发现:美国利率的变化对我国短期资本流动具有短期推动作用,但长期内趋于平衡;美国直接量化的货币政策会造成我国短期资本大量流入。     

Did quantitative easing reduce the borrowing costs of firms? The risk-taking channel

This paper examines the effect of the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing (QE) on the cost of bank loans and documents large heterogeneous effects across different firms. In QE1, the average loan spread is 22.7 percent lower compared to the non-QE period. This effect falls in QE2 and OT and then rises in QE3 and the tapering period. The rates of riskier loans are restrained more than less risky loans during QEs as banks take more risks by offering lower rates to attract risky borrowers. The Fed mortgage-backed securities purchases have a larger impact in narrowing the borrowing cost difference between riskier and safer loans than the Fed Treasury purchases. Our results are robust to borrower, year-quarter and bank fixed effects. Overall, our findings support that the risk-taking channel of QE plays a significant role in the corporate bank loan market.     

Puzzling,powering and perpetuating: Long-term decision-making by the Dutch Delta Committee

Long term policy issues like climate change adaptation are considered wicked in the sense that uncertain knowledge and volatile societal understandings associated to the issue might jeopardize long term sustainment of adaptation policies. Uncertainty or sudden societal opposition might politically be employed to dismantle earlier made policies or investments and therefore threaten long term adaptive capacity. This article highlights how successful long-term decision-making can be understood as a matter of puzzling over uncertainty and powering for getting things done, but above all requires sustainment of these decisions on the long term. For doing so the paper analyses the decision-making process of the Dutch Delta Committee in 2008, which firmly put the climate adaptation issue on the Dutch political agenda and subsequently sustained the issue on the policy agenda through the creation of a Delta Commissioner, a Delta Fund and a Delta Act. Our analysis illustrates how the crucial actors in and around the Second Delta Committee deployed strategies of puzzling, powering, and what we define as perpetuation to deal with the long-term policy issue of climate adaptation. The latter is especially important for policy issues that require a long-term continued effort by policy-makers, or will only manifest themselves on the long term. Then, it is not only important to create meaning and organize power now, but also to maintain and ensure that meaning and power for time to come.     

股权质押对企业价值的影响研究

公司股权质押的融资方式在我国发展得越来越快,其对自身公司价值的影响是一 个值得研究的问题。对此,现有研究大多得出股权质押对公司价值具有绝对的积极影响或绝对 消极影响等一边倒的结论。有鉴于此,本文采用2014-2018年沪深A股主板470家上市公司公告 的数据,研究上市公司股权质押对公司价值影响,得出以下结论：整体上,上市公司的股权质押 对公司价值具有正面影响,有利于公司价值的提高;进一步的研究则发现当上市公司股权质押 比例处在较低水平时,股权质押对公司价值具有正向影响;但当处在较高的水平时,对公司价值 则会产生负面影响,说明上市公司股权质押比例和公司价值具有倒U型的非线性关系。     

公开市场操作与利率期限结构行为——基于混频数据信息的研究视角

在混频数据信息环境中,精准识别公开市场操作(央行政策利率)和国债收益率曲线(基准利率体系)之间的关联机制至关重要,其影响了货币政策期限结构传导的有效性。本文在混频Nelson-Siegel(N-S)利率期限结构模型框架下,引入央行政策利率,揭示公开市场操作与利率期限结构(水平、斜率、曲度)因子之间的作用机制。实证结果表明:混频数据信息条件下,引入的公开市场操作信息显著改进国债收益率曲线的拟合效果;斜率因子冲击对公开市场操作具有显著的正向影响,而利率期限结构因子对政策调控的反应不敏感。进一步研究表明,2015年以来,公开市场操作对斜率因子的影响逐渐扩大,政策利率向国债收益率曲线的传导效率得到显著提高,我国现代货币政策框架日益健全。     

Climate reputation risk and abnormal returns in the stock markets: A focus on large emitters

Reputation risk is among the possible climate transition risks companies face, especially in emission-intensive industries. Failing to meet stakeholders' expectations about the contribution to climate goals might influence investors' strategies and produce financial damages. We look at the climate-related social media talk in a sample of highly polluting companies. For these companies, reputation risk materialises if their climate talk is perceived as not coherent with their action-taking. We then assess the impact of climate talk on short-term stock market performance, as measured by abnormal returns, and find a positive association between climate-related social media talks and abnormal returns. The strength of this association lowers during peak days of social media attention on climate-related topics.     

Public priorities and expectations of climate change impacts in the United Kingdom

Irrespective of the success of climate mitigation efforts, societies worldwide face the challenge of adapting to a changing climate. In this paper, we examine UK residents’ expectations of future threats and opportunities associated with climate change impacts, along with willingness to prioritise different climate change impacts for investment. Using a national survey (n = 2007), we report on three main findings. First, UK residents tend to expect threats related to flooding and wet weather to be more likely and concerning than heat extremes or opportunities. Second, UK residents’ expectations of climate change impacts do not align with expert assessments, especially showing lower estimates of heat-related threats as compared to experts. Third, willingness to allocate resources to potential climate change impacts tends to be more strongly associated with anticipated concern should they occur than climate change belief or the expected likelihood of them occurring. We discuss the implications of our findings for policies and communications about climate change adaptation in the UK and elsewhere.     

Climate risk and bank liquidity creation: International evidence

This study examines the impact of climate risk on bank liquidity creation in 56 countries over the period 1995–2012. Specifically, it investigates whether the relationship between climate risk and bank liquidity creation varies by bank and country characteristics. The results reveal that climate sensitivity and exposure have negative impacts on overall liquidity creation, whereas climate adaptation has positive effects. These effects are more pronounced for larger banks with lower capital, banks located in lower-GDP and developing countries, and those in Asia. The results suggest that policymakers should exercise caution when formulating and implementing climate-related strategies, as these can influence liquidity creation, which in turn can affect macroeconomic stability.     

THE BEHAVIOR OF U.S. SHORT-TERM INTEREST RATES SINCE OCTOBER 1979

Short-term interest rates in the United States have been “too high” since October 1979 in the sense that both unconditional and conditional forecasts, based on an estimated vector autoregression model summarizing the prior experience, underpredict short-term interest rates during this period. Although a nonstructural model cannot directly answer the question of why this has been so, comparisons of alternative conditional forecasts point to the post-October 1979 relationship between the growth of real income and the growth of real money balances as closely connected to the level and pattern of short-term interest rates. This finding is consistent with the authors' earlier conclusion, based on analysis of a small structural macroeconometric model, that the high average level of interest rates has been due to a combination of slow growth of (nominal) money supply and continuing price inflation, which together have kept real balances small in relation to prevailing levels of economic activity.     

技术引进、自主创新与就业——基于动态空间面板模型的实证研究

基于1995-2015年中国各省的面板数据,运用动态空间杜宾模型考察技术进步对就业的直接效应和空间溢出效应。结果显示：短期的技术引进促进了就业增长,但其对就业的溢出效应不显著;而长期的技术引进并不能持续地带来就业增加,反而会对就业造成破坏效应。自主创新对就业短期以破坏效应为主,但长期的自主创新促进了就业的增加,并且从经济距离权重下的就业效应来看,自主创新吸纳了相近经济水平区域的劳动力,空间溢出效应为负。现阶段我国自主创新的就业效应不受经济发展水平影响,但经济发展水平越高的地区,技术引进对就业的拉动作用越弱。     

A Multistage Model of Loans and the Role of Relationships

We develop a multistage model of the loan granting process to understand the contradictory findings of the existing literature on bank‐borrower relationships, credit availability, and loan rates. Upon estimating our model with the 1993, 1998, and 2003 versions of the Survey of Small Business Finances data set, we find that relationships matter in a borrower's decision whether to apply for a loan and in the loan approval/rejection decision by the financial institution. However, the effect of relationships on loan rates depends on the prevailing economic climate. While firms with preexisting relationships obtain credit at lower rates during periods of economic expansion, loan rates are not negatively correlated with preexisting relationships during periods of economic recession.     

Future cities in a warming world

More than half the global population are already urban, and the UN and other organisations expect this share to rise in future. However, some researchers argue that the future of cities is far from assured. Cities are not only responsible for 70% or more of the world's CO₂ emissions, but because of their dense concentration of physical assets and populations, are also more vulnerable than other areas to climate change. This paper attempts to resolve this controversy by first looking at how cities would fare in a world with average global surface temperatures 4 °C above pre-industrial levels. It then looks at possible responses, either by mitigation or adaptation, to the threat such increases would entail. Regardless of the mix of adaptation and mitigation cities adopt in response to climate change, the paper argues that peak urbanism will occur over the next few decades. This fall in the urban share of global population will be driven by the rise in biophysical hazards in cities if the response is mainly adaptation, and by the declining attraction of cities (and possibly the rising attraction of rural areas) if serious mitigation is implemented.     

中美贸易冲突的贸易后果 ——基于中美贸易细分产品数据的研究

基于双重差分模型,依据2014-2019年的中美贸易细分产品月度数据,考量中美贸易冲突对中美两国贸易的影响.结果显示:贸易冲突对中国从美国进口负向影响显著,且在样本期内具有平稳性与持续性;对中国对美出口负向效应显著,且在样本期内呈"倒U型"趋势.事件前期和中期,在"抢出口"效应作用下,贸易冲突对中国对美出口具有短期促进作用;事件后期,对中国对美出口的破坏影响显现.细分产品层面,贸易冲突对中国从美国资本品和消费品的进口负向影响显著,表明国家和个体层面都对贸易有所限制.出口方面,中国消费品出口所受的负向影响较强.同时,中美贸易冲突对于第三国贸易转移效应显著.     

银行信贷、非效率投资与僵尸企业——来自中国A股上市公司的经验证据

利用2009－2017年中国沪深A股上市公司数据,探究企业非效率投资与僵尸企业的关系,以及银行信贷对非效率投资与僵尸企业之间关系的影响。结果表明：企业的非效率投资与僵尸企业正相关,特别是企业过度投资中耗费的资源、形成的产能具有不可逆性,将直接增加经营风险和财务风险,导致企业沦为僵尸企业;银行信贷对企业僵尸化具有负向调节效应,相对于过度投资来说,银行信贷对于抑制投资不足导致的企业僵尸化问题更加有效;从贷款期限来看,短期贷款能够给债务企业形成流动性压力和再融资压力,迫使企业经理人提高投资效率,从而对企业僵尸化问题的调节效应更显著。     

Financial crisis and a transmission mechanism of external shocks: The signaling role of the Korean Monetary Stabilization Bond

This paper explores a transmission mechanism of an exogenous shock to domestic financial markets by investigating the potential signaling role of the Monetary Stabilization Bond (MSB) spread together with several financial variables in Korea. The MSB spread widened and became more volatile during the crisis period after the variance change point at the end of 2007, when the causality relationships between the key variables became apparent. The empirical results illustrate that a foreign shock, which directly leads to rapid short-term capital flow and foreign exchange rate fluctuation, is likely to have a significant contagion effect on domestic financial markets in the case where it has a sizable negative impact on national foreign reserve holdings. The MSB is a monetary policy instrument for foreign exchange reserve management, and the daily observable MSB spread is a timelier signal in this transmission channel.     

Further analysis of the expectations hypothesis using very short-term rates

Longstaff [Longstaff, F., 2000. The term structure of very short-term rates: new evidence for the expectations hypothesis. Journal of Financial Economics 58, 397–415] finds support for the expectations hypothesis at the very short end of the repurchase agreement (repo) term structure while other studies find calendar-time-based regularities cause rejection of the expectations hypothesis. Using Longstaff’s methods on a sample of repo rates that pre-dates Longstaff’s sample, we reject the expectations hypothesis for every maturity. The pre-Longstaff-sample repo data comes from a time period where the behavior of short-term interest rates is similar to the long-run average behavior of short-term interest rates. Our results imply that expectations hold when rates are less volatile and/or that we may be entering a period of lower volatility.     

Climate change adaptation: Is there a role for intervention research?

While climate change will expose regions to similar impacts, the extent of those impacts and effective response at the local level will be determined not only by the location's sensitivity and vulnerability but also by local groups and individuals’ capacity, including their institutional links, social networks and motivation to action. In parallel, scientific information and research plays a critical role in informing climate change adaptation by providing both an improved understanding of the actual climate risks and response alternatives.The paper focuses on two local-scale intervention research projects undertaken in urbanised coastal areas in Brazil and in Australia concentrated on improving the dialogue between ‘those who make science’ and ‘those who use science to make decisions’ in order to make climate science more useful, and creating purposeful collective action, respectively. A conceptual model is devised to investigate how intervention research could aid adaptive capacity by generating new knowledge and facilitating change towards climate change adaptation at the local level. Drawing on the findings, a framework is proposed to advance the role of intervention research in policy development for enhancing adaptive capacity.     

管理者短视偏差对企业投资行为影响研究——一个基于股东短期利益压力视角的实证

基于股东短期利益压力的视角,以沪深两市2003～2009年间的A股上市公司为对象,采用多元回归分析就管理者短视偏差与企业短期投资间的关系及其对企业未来盈利能力、业绩水平和财务困境的影响进行研究。实证结果表明,管理者短视偏差越大,企业短期投资水平越高;管理者短视偏差越大,企业短期投资对企业未来盈利能力和业绩水平的削弱作用越强,意味着管理者短视偏差企业进行的短期投资降低了企业未来盈利能力和业绩水平;管理者短视偏差越大,企业短期投资对企业当期陷入财务困境可能性的削弱作用越弱,说明管理者短视偏差企业进行的短期投资虽然增大了企业风险,但是并不会加大企业当期陷入财务困境的可能性。     

投资者调研影响上市公司商业信用融资研究——基于深市A股上市公司的实证

以2013-2016年我国深市A股上市公司为研究样本,实证检验投资者调研对商业信用融资的影响,以及环境不确定性对二者关系的调节作用。研究结果表明：投资者调研与商业信用融资显著正相关,在非国有企业中,环境不确定性负向调节了投资者调研与商业信用融资之间的关系;在国有企业中,环境不确定性的调节作用不显著。进一步研究显示：投资者调研会促进企业获得较低成本的商业信用融资。