Liability Sharing as a Mechanism to Improve Firms' Investment and Liquidation Decisions

This paper investigates the impact of liability sharing on firms' investment and liquidation decisions. We look at a model involving private effort, unverifiable information, and unenforceable liquidation decisions. In this model, there exist simultaneously two typical types of agency problems, i.e., underinvestment (lower effort) and risk seeking (delaying efficient liquidation). We show how firms can mitigate these problems by forming a business group and sharing each other's liabilities. Under certain conditions, such an alliance is an effective commitment by the member firms to provide a higher level of equity investments (higher effort) and to liquidate inefficient assets (lower risk).J. Comp. Econom., December 2000, 28(4), pp. 739–761. University of Amsterdam, 1018 WD Amsterdam, The Netherlands; International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria, and United Nations University, WIDER, Katajanokanlaituri 6 B, 00160 Henlsinki, Finland.     

Evaluating Journal Quality: Beyond “Expert” Journal Assessments in the IS Discipline

Assessing the relative stature of journals devoted to the information systems (IS) discipline is an important issue for IS scholars and those who evaluate them. Even though journal assessment results are often dubiously applied by those making hiring, promotion, and merit decisions, the fact that they are so often a major ingredient in these decisions demands that we understand underlying journal assessment processes. Beyond processes involving the opinions of various “experts,” we here examine how IS journals can be evaluated based on overt behaviors of crowds of IS scholars. These behaviors are revealed preferences, in contrast to stated preferences found in opinions. Two classes of objective journal assessments are studied: impact measures and power measures. Among the former, we find that so-called journal impact factors are problematic, rendering their meaningfulness in evaluating journal stature highly suspect. Another kind of impact measure, the H-index, is found to be a more straightforward way to gauge journal impact. Two power measures for assessing IS journal stature are examined: publishing intensity and publishing breadth. The stature of IS journals according to each of the impact measures and power measures is determined. A comparison of the results shows that a small group of four or five IS journals are repeatedly found at the top across multiple objective assessment approaches. To account for both the consumption and production of IS research, it is suggested that a combined use of impact and power measures be employed in exercises aimed at evaluating relative statures of journals devoted to IS research.     

企业家队伍职业角色素质现状分析——企业家的职业技术素质现状

职业技术素质是企业家职业角色素质的重要内容。从目前来看，企业家队伍的文化素养大幅度提高，其学历水平、职称结构及业绩主义倾向日益明显；但企业家队伍的专业素质相对欠缺，企业家的决策能力、管理方式、创新能力亟待提高。     

关于非营利组织的若干问题的探讨

第三部门是非营利组织的集合 ,其兴起和发展是经济社会发展的要求和产物。它可以很好地解决政府和市场所忽视或没有处理好的问题。由于其兴起的历史不长 ,人们对其研究也较少 ,在非营利组织的特征、作用及发展的障碍等问题上 ,特别是非营利组织的注册登记的问题上 ,还需要我们做出更多的探讨和努力。     

浅析视错觉手段在平面设计中的运用技巧

现代设计已经步入了一个崭新的时代,视错觉技法以其智慧性、趣味性和简洁性而越来越受到设计者的青睐,它在平面设计中的应用对于增强作品的内涵、加深观者的印象有着重要作用。本文对视错视图形表现手法进行了基本分类,初步分析了视错觉的类型及其在设计领域的应用。     

浅谈如何加强企业流动资产的管理

资产是企业拥有或控制的经济资源。加强对各类资产的管理,对其合理有效利用,是创造企业财富,获得利润的经济基础。流动资产是企业重要资产之一,是指能够在一年或超过一年的一个营业周期内变现的资产,是保证企业进行正常的生产经营活动所必须的资产。通常其价值占企业资产的比重很大。企业应统筹安排各种需要的资金支出,控制各类资产的规模,保持其合理结构,从而有效地组织资金运动,提高资金利用效果。     

经济一体化分层与次区域国际经济一体化特征分析

文章在辨析各种经济一体化的基础上,尝试划分了区域经济一体化的层次,在与区域性国际经济一体化进行比较的基础上,总结次区域国际经济一体化的特征:无主权让渡和超国家权力机构的存在、具有毗邻的地理因素和地缘关系、内部市场的开放性以及合作领域的广泛性.     

Securitization of Longevity Risk in Reverse Mortgages

Abstract

The reverse mortgage market has been expanding rapidly in developed economies in recent years. The onset of demographic transition places a rapidly rising number of households in an age window in which reverse mortgages have potential appeal. Increasing prices for residential real estate over the last decade have further stimulated interest.

Reverse mortgages involve various risks from the provider-s perspective that may hinder the further development of these financial products. This paper addresses one method of transferring and financing the risks associated with these products through the form of securitization. Securitization is becoming a popular and attractive alternative form of risk transfer of insurance liabilities. Here we demonstrate how to construct a securitization structure for reverse mortgages similar to the one applied in traditional insurance products.

Specifically, we investigate the merits of developing survivor bonds and survivor swaps for reverse mortgage products. In the case of survivor bonds, for example, we are able to compute premiums, both analytically and numerically through simulations, and to examine how the longevity risk may be transferred to the financial investors. Our numerical calculations provide an indication of the economic benefits derived from developing survivor bonds to securitize the “longevity risk component” of reverse mortgage products. Moreover, some sensitivity analysis of these economic benefits indicates that these survivor bonds provide for a promising tool for investment diversification.     

膨胀剂在混凝土施工中的应用

为了提高混凝土的抗渗性能,以及减免由于混凝土收缩而产生的裂缝,在混凝土中经常加入膨胀剂。混凝土膨胀剂的功能是使硬化后的混凝土产生一定的体积膨胀,抵销混凝土硬化早期产生的体积收缩。     

加强金融消费者权益保护问题研究

在金融全球化的今天,加强对金融消费者的保护不仅是一个国家的问题,它已经转变为一个国际问题。金融全球化加剧了金融消费者与金融机构之间的信息不对称,加大了监管难度,提高了维权的成本。为此,应借鉴国际经验、结合我国实情,加强对金融消费者权益的保障。可行的措施有:健全企业征信系统,优化我国的金融生态环境;对金融消费者保护专门立法,成立金融消费者保护机构;重视对金融衍生工具的监管,加强监管的国际合作。