论我国企业财务管理目标的现实选择

企业由于所面临的财务管理环境存在着差异，因而其财务管理的目标也并非是完全一致。所以．企业只有从自身的实际需要和客观条件出发，确定合理的财务管理目标。本文从现有的几种观点出发，探讨适合我国企业的切实可行的财务管理目标。     

The Effect of Risk Characteristics on the Willingness to Pay for Mortality Risk Reductions from Electric Power Generation

The objective of this study is to estimate willingness to pay (WTP) for the reduction of mortality risks caused by fossil fuel (natural gas, coal and oil) versus nuclear electric power generation systems and to examine the influence of risk characteristics involved with electric power generation on WTP. A choice experiment was conducted to achieve these objectives. The attributes for nuclear risks in the experiment included the probability of disasters and the expected losses if a disaster occurs. We find evidence of (i) a baseline effect (where WTP is sensitive to hypothetical versus actual baseline expected mortality); (ii) a ‘labeling effect,’ where, surprisingly, the term ‘nuclear’ has no effect on WTP, but the term ‘fossil-fueled power generation’ results in lower WTP; and (iii) disaster aversion, meaning that people focus on the conditional loss from a nuclear disaster, not the probability. We also find that the WTP for reducing deaths from a nuclear disaster is about 60 times the WTP for routine reducing fossil-fuel generation-related deaths.     

Robust political economy

This paper introduces the idea of “robust political economy.” In the context of political economic systems, “robustness” refers to a political economic arrangement's ability to produce social welfare-enhancing outcomes in the face of deviations from ideal assumptions about individuals' motivations and information. Since standard assumptions about complete and perfect information, instantaneous market adjustment, perfect agent rationality, political actor benevolence, etc., rarely, if ever actually hold, a realistic picture and accurate assessment of the desirability of alternative political economic systems requires an analysis of alternative systems' robustness. The Mises-Hayek critique of socialism forms the foundation for investigations of robustness that relax ideal informational assumptions. The Buchanan-Tullock public choice approach complements this foundation in forming the basis for investigations of robustness that relax ideal motivational assumptions. JEL Code B53, P16, P26     

企业可持续发展的战略选择：社会责任管理

在经济全球化的背景下 ,社会责任管理是任何一个企业都不能回避的问题 ,它关系到企业的生存和发展。企业应该把社会责任管理作为可持续发展的战略选择 ,并努力构建有效的社会责任管理模式。     

东北经济的未来选择与发展战略

东北老工业基地通常是指东北地区的传统工业格局，为了使东北经济能够步入良性发展轨道，从而振兴东北地区。本文针对东北经济发展现状及其面临的艰难选择，对东北经济的未来发展方向进行了科学分析，并提出了东北经济未来发展战略。     

Optimal Intervention Policies for a Small Monetary Economy

We analyze the gains from trade for a small cash-in-advance economy with endogenous labor supply and learning-by-doing in the accumulation of human capital. Contrary to previous findings, we show that free trade is not optimal independently of the relative amount of cash required for the purchase of each good. Furthermore, a monetary rule à la Friedman can eliminate distortions deriving from the cash-in-advance constraint only under segmented financial markets; in any case, it cannot restore the economic optimum. Finally, we identify government intervention policies, such as wage and export subsidies, that can be welfare improving.     

How to invest over the life cycle: Insights from theory

We analyse the state of the art in the field of life cycle portfolio choice, a recent strand of the literature on intertemporal portfolio selection. Life cycle models are designed to identify optimal savings and portfolio policies over the lifetime of investors. They can help to improve pension schemes by showing how these could be specifically tailored to the individual employee’s circumstances to overcome the ‘one-size-fits-all’ philosophy still prevailing in parts of the mandatory retirement savings system. To facilitate comparison, we first describe set-up, solution method and characteristic results for a basic model and then derive a general framework to classify existing contributions. We highlight the models’ strengths and weaknesses and assess their ability to resolve existing portfolio puzzles. Lessons from the literature are summarized and promising areas for further research identified. JEL classifications G11, D14, D91, H55     

盈余管理的概念及辨析

本文对盈余管理的概念作了界定,并对相关的概念——会计政策选择和财务舞弊作了辨析。本文认为,盈余管理是在法律和会计准则的范围内进行的,其方法主要是会计方法,但也包括非会计方法。盈余管理与会计政策选择的主要区别在于实施盈余管理的企业管理当局有操纵盈余的动机,而盈余管理与财务舞弊的区别在其合法性上。     

后发劣势:对后发国家发展战略的深层思考

随着国内外环境的改变和后发劣势的增加,曾经是后发国家最优战略选择的日、韩模式已失去了其存在的基础,盲目模仿反而会造成政府与市场的双重失灵;而作为当前最优制度选择的西方成熟的民主市场经济加宏观调控体制,则由于国情相异太大,后发国家难以模仿;在这种背景下,作为次优战略选择的民主宪政加自由市场模式就成为大部分后发国家当前的最佳选择.     

Labour unions and leverage: evidence from firm-level union data

ABSTRACT

Using firm-level labour union data from Japan, this paper investigates the effect of labour unions on firm leverage. We find that as union coverage increases, both the level of and extent of change in leverage decreases. These relations remain robust when a firm falls into deficit. We also find that firms with higher union coverage have a higher interest coverage ratio. In addition, we find that firms with higher union coverage are less likely to choose issuing debt compared to issuing equity when they face financial distress. Our results imply that significant employee influence enhanced by labour unions increases fixed costs, crowds out the firm’s debt capacity and consequently reduces the firm’s leverage.