An Analysis of Transactions Data for the Stock Exchange of Singapore: Patterns, Absolute Price Change, Trade Size and Number of Transactions

The availability of the transactions data of the Stock Exchange of Singapore allows us to examine intraday patterns and the relation among absolute price change, trade size and number of transactions. The presence of a trading halt in the mid-day results in two crude U-shaped return patterns but, contrary to Brock and Kleidon's (1992) model, it does not cause volume to be unusually high right before or after the halt. We find a positive relationship between absolute price changes and the number of transactions for both the active and inactive stocks. This supports the findings of Jones, Kaul and Lipson (1994) that these relationships also hold at the intraday level and in a market with different market architecture.     

Corporate Governance and the Information Content of Earnings Announcements: A Cross‐Country Analysis

Using firm‐level data from 23 developed markets, we document a positive association between overall firm‐level governance quality and the informativeness of earnings announcements measured by abnormal stock return variance. This finding is robust after controlling for the potential endogeneity of firm‐level corporate governance. Further analyses reveal that firms with strong governance show little evidence of earnings management, appoint Big 4 auditing firms, and attract analyst following, implying a positive link between strong corporate governance and the information quality of earnings announcements. Finally, there is some evidence that the relation between firm‐level governance and market reactions around the announcements exists only in countries characterized by a transparent information environment and strong legal investor protection.     

Financial Liberalization and Stock Market Efficiency: Causality Analysis of Emerging Markets

This paper studies the long- and short-run relationship between financial liberalization and stock market efficiency. It expands the extant body of knowledge by investigating Granger causality relationship applying mean group, common correlated effect mean group and common correlated effect pooled estimator to balanced panel data for 27 emerging markets over the period 1996–2011. We find evidence of financial liberalization Granger causes stock market efficiency, which is consistent with liberalization leads to efficiency hypothesis. Subsequently, our work makes a fresh contribution to the literature by focusing on informational efficiency of stock markets rather than financial development. Furthermore, we find that a negative long-term relationship between financial liberalization and stock return autocorrelation coexists with a positive short-term relationship between the two. The findings that financial liberalization, which has a deteriorated effect on stock market efficiency in the short-run, but positive impact in the long-run, allow us to draw an analogy similar to the J-curve hypothesis.     

Directors' attributes and corporate governance effectiveness in Hong Kong

The purpose of this study is to examine the perceptions of Hong Kong (HK) legal practitioners on how the major attributes of knowledge, continuous education, and qualification among directors in HK relate to their board of directors' corporate governance effectiveness. The results revealed that the respondents perceived directors' attributes in HK to be not good enough for discharging their legal obligations to their companies. The results also suggested that a company was more effectively governed if its directors were more qualified for their jobs and more familiar with company law and/or corporate governance.     

Guangdong Companies Talk Wages

Wages are on the rise again in Guangdong, a big exporting province, and across much of the rest of China. In recent months, there has been much anecdotal evidence of labour shortages and wage hikes on the southern and eastern coasts. We showed a while ago that the labour market had made a surprising V-shaped recovery in coastal areas and was also strengthening in central and western China,     

Human resource practices and firm performance of multinational corporations: influences of country origin

Drawing from a cultural values perspective, we investigate the effects of country origins on HR (human resource) practices of firms from the United States, Great Britain, Japan and Hong Kong operating in Hong Kong. In general, results supported hypothesized differences in HR practices of firms from different countries. In addition, results indicated that HR practices, specifically structural training and development and retention-oriented compensation, were related to various measures of firm performance. Of further interest was the finding that country origin moderated relationships of HR practices with firm performance; in general, relationships of structural training and development and retention-oriented compensation were stronger for Hong Kong firms. Implications of the results are discussed.     

Accuracy and Reliability Considerations of Option Pricing Algorithms

A wide variety of computational schemes have been proposed for the numerical valuation of various classes of options. Experiences in numerical computation have revealed that the details of the implementation of the auxiliary conditions in the numerical algorithms may have profound effects on numerical accuracy. Difficulties in designing algorithms that deal with the path‐dependent payoffs, monitoring features, etc., have been well reported in the literature. In this article, the theoretical issues on the assessment of numerical schemes with regard to accuracy of approximation of auxiliary conditions, rate of convergence, and oscillation phenomena are reviewed. In particular, the oscillation phenomena in bond‐price calculations and the intricacies in implementing the auxiliary conditions in barrier options, proportional step options, and lookback options are discussed. With different types of options and modes of monitoring (continuous or discrete), the optimal method of placing the lattice nodes with reference to the boundary (absorbing or reflecting) are examined in order to achieve linear temporal rate of convergence. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 21:875–903, 2001     

A pragmatic decision model for inventory management with heterogeneous suppliers

For enterprises, it is imperative that the trade-off between the cost of inventory and risk implications is managed in the most efficient manner. To explore this, we use the common example of a wholesaler operating in an environment where suppliers demonstrate heterogeneous reliability. The wholesaler has partial orders with dual suppliers and uses lateral transshipments. While supplier reliability is a key concern in inventory management, reliable suppliers are more expensive and investment in strategic approaches that improve supplier performance carries a high cost. Here we consider the operational strategy of dual sourcing with reliable and unreliable suppliers and model the total inventory cost where the likely scenario lead-time of the unreliable suppliers extends beyond the scheduling period. We then develop a Customized Integer Programming Optimization Model to determine the optimum size of partial orders with multiple suppliers. In addition to the objective of total cost optimization, this study takes into account the volatility of the cost associated with the uncertainty of an inventory system.     

Economic relations between China and the U.S

ABSTRACT

First, we summarise the chronology of the China-U.S. trade war. We then show that the China-U.S. trade surplus, correctly measured, is not as large as it is made out to be, but is nevertheless still a large number. In terms of the total domestic value-added generated by the exports of goods to each other, the China-U.S. bilateral gap is even smaller. Next, we analyse both the immediate and real impacts of the mutual tariffs on the two economies. Third, we discuss economic and technological competition between China and the U.S. and present long-term projections of the two economies to 2050. Fourth, we identify the economic complementarities between China and the U.S. We then discuss the possibility of coordinated expansion of trade. Fifth, we also discuss the thorny bilateral issues in the economic relations between the two countries.     

The Impacts of Financial Integration on the Linkages Between Monetary Independence and Foreign Exchange Reserves

This paper investigates the short-run and long-run effects of financial integration on the dynamics between monetary independence and foreign exchange reserves using a GMM system estimation involving two-year non-overlapping average data (2000-2011) from 114 countries. The results indicate that the effect of foreign exchange reserves on the monetary independence is intensified by the level of financial integration. This suggests a positive spill over effect from the financial integration to the monetary policy independence. Besides, a positive implication of financial integration on monetary independence could be established when the foreign exchange reserves is at the maximum level. In addition, the comparisons between the mean of foreign exchange reserves and the threshold levels of foreign exchange reserves that neutralise the impact of financial integration indicate that on average, the foreign exchange reserves are sufficient to offset the effect of financial integration. A stable exchange rate will undermine the positive impact of foreign exchange reserves on monetary independence. Finally, the long-run and short-run impacts occur in the same direction. This paper ends with some policy implications and suggestions for future research.