Towards the use of chronological age in research – A cautionary comment

In recent years, this journal published several articles that used chronological age in their models to distinguish customer behavior between younger and older people. While all these articles are in line with the growing importance of age-related research, chronological age is not discriminant when behavior and motivations enter the fray. By taking two recent articles in this journal as examples, this short note calls for a cautious application of chronological age and highlights other age-related constructs for research. The note ends with practical implications and avenues for further research in age-related projects.     

Is cognitive bias really present in analyst forecasts? The role of investor sentiment

This paper analyses four key markets within the European context. In this context, where the level of analyst coverage is lower than in the US setting, we aim to ascertain whether the origin of optimism in analyst forecasts in these markets is mainly strategic or whether it also contains an element of cognitive bias. Despite the fact that forecast errors lack the explanatory power to account for a significant percentage of the relationship between market sentiment and future stock returns, our new tests based on selection bias (SB1 and SB2), in conjunction with an analysis of abnormal trading volume, confirm the presence of both cognitive bias and strategic behaviour in analyst forecasts. This shows that, although regulation can reduce analyst optimism bias, the benefits are constrained by the fact that optimism bias is partly associated with cognitive bias.     

Individual differences in assessing problem similarity

This paper reports on a study which investigates the potential influence of perceptual differentiation (PD) ability on introductory accounting students' ability to identify and use analogies to solve problems. Accounting students with differing levels of PD ability first studied two sample problems with solutions which provided potential source analogues for analogical transfer. They then attempted to solve two analogous accounting problems differing only in the criteria for identifying problem analogousness. Findings suggest that PD ability may influence a problem solver's ability to identify analogous problems by affecting which problem features (surface or structural) he or she is likely to attend to and use for assessing problem similarity and potential analogousness. The paper concludes by discussing implications for pedagogical practices in accounting.     

Austrian economics and the analysis of labor markets

Theory and policy relating to labor markets is dominated by the mainstream labor market model, although a less well-known, socioeconomic version can also be identified. The mainstream model is methodologically flawed and forced, thereby, to relegate any (serious) investigation of labor market institutions and/or social structures to the margins of its analysis. The socioeconomic account is not so much methodologically flawed, as methodologically ambivalent. While this ambivalence does not actually prevent the investigation of institutions and/or social structures, it does promote ambiguity whenever we inquire into the precise nature of the interaction between them and labor markets. Insights from Austrian economics, when used in collaboration with critical realist methodology, can play a part in augmenting the socioeconomic account, generating a totally new approach to the analysis of labor markets.

The average consumer, the unfair commercial practices directive, and the cognitive revolution

This article examines the merit of the test of the average consumer as a basis for judicial and regulatory action. In the first part, we describe the origin of the test, its application in the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive and its possible developments. In the second part, we discuss the theoretical grounds of the average consumer test (i.e., information and rationality), drawing upon the studies of cognitive psychology and behavioural economics concerning consumers’ behaviour. The result of our analysis is that we call into serious question the practical workability of the test of the average consumer, which requires consumers an overly demanding standard of rationality and information without dedicating much attention to the real functioning of consumer behaviour. The average consumer may be described as an interesting, anti-paternalistic and, to some extent, useful notion. It is, however, an overly simplistic concept with little correspondence with the real world of individual consumer behaviour and should be reinterpreted more flexibly, or even abandoned to mirror consumer behaviour more effectively.

数据要素市场培育：法律难题、域外经验与中国方案

数字经济时代,数据继土地、劳动力、资本、技术之后成为第五大生产要素。目前我国数据权属确定的法律制度不够完善,数据要素市场交易的法律制度尚未建立,数据要素市场监管的法律制度不够健全,这都制约了我国数据要素市场发展。为了培育数据要素市场,应以数据生产者与数据处理者为划分标准,建立“数据生产者（扩展权利)—数据处理者（有限产权)”的数据产权制度;以“降低制度成本—减少交易成本”的思路完善数据要素市场交易相关规则;以“事前预防与事后规制相结合”的方式完善数据要素市场监管法律制度。     

加工贸易对安徽省经济增长作用的实证分析

基于对安徽省加工贸易现状的总结、归纳,文章利用安徽省1999-2009年11年的时间序列数据,运用加工贸易增值系数法、加工贸易对GDP拉动度和线性回归三种实证方法,分析了加工贸易对经济增长的作用,并提出了若干政策建议。     

商业行业产权结构调整及其对企业效率影响的实证研究

产权结构的差异影响企业激励约束机制的发挥,影响资源的有效配置及利用程度,并作用于资本和劳动力的投入、生产和管理成本、产出水平、技术进步、规模经济等方面,带来企业投入产出效率的分化。商业行业上市公司的基本趋势是国有型产权结构逐渐转向法人控股型产权结构,其10多年的效率变化实证分析表明,不同产权结构的企业之间存在显著的效率差异;产权结构的调整导致了企业效率的提升。     

基于Z-Score模型的我国房地产业上市公司财务风险的实证分析

在宏观经济紧缩和严厉调控政策的影响下,我国房地产企业已经出现了显著的财务风险。本文运用Z-Score财务风险预警模型,对在深市A股上市的61家房地产企业财务风险进行了实证研究,并在此基础上针对性地提出了房地产企业加强财务管理和风险防范的建议。     

基于可持续发展理念和AHP的高校绩效评价研究

为了以绩效为导向合理分配高等教育资源,必须进行高校绩效的综合评价。首先,在可持续发展理念指导下,建立由4个一级指标和18个二级指标组成的高校绩效综合评价指标体系;其次,应用层次分析法构造两两判断矩阵,在层次单排序和总排序基础上计算各指标权重;最后,基于教育部直属财经类高校数据进行实证研究,并对结果加以分析。