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.     

中国城镇家庭住房来源与产权的省际差异——基于2000年人口普查资料的分析

根据中国2000年人口普查资料,分析了中国城镇家庭住房来源与产权的省际差异。住房来源与产权选择省际差异不明显;基本是沿海经济发达地区住房来源中商品房来源与产权选择中租赁商品房比重高。相关分析表明:地区市场化指数与市场型住房正相关,收入和产权关系不明显,国有经济比重与行政型住房正相关,城市化率与购商品房比正相关,价格和住房产权负相关。这说明了制度变迁和地区经济差异对住房选择的影响。     

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.     

现金股利对会计信息的治理

会计只能提供相对相关和可靠的信息，在控制逆向选择和道德风险方面作用有限，形成了会计目标实现的障碍，这迫使投资者不得不去寻找其他信息渠道，以期更有效地决策。现金股利就是投资者寻找的信息渠道之一，它和会计信息在提高信息的相关性、可靠性以及控制逆向选择和道德风险方面共同发挥作用，并形成竞争态势，这种竞争态势实质上起到了对会计信息的治理作用。     

新形势下中国企业对外投资的区位选择综合决策模型

对外直接投资的区位选择是跨国公司管理决策的关键点,在很大程度上决定着投资的成败,现有理论在解决了众多为何要对外投资的问题,但在向何处投资的问题上却没有理论和模型可以全面解释。本文建立了新的对外直接投资的区位选择决策二级系统模型,将影响因素按影响效果和属性分类,利用模糊优选方法解决了非量化因素的量化可比性问题。并将本国与外国因素融入同一模型,同时解决了是否要进行对外投资和向何处投资两个问题。     

Cross-sectional earnings risk and occupational sorting: The role of risk attitudes

This paper investigates to what extent individuals' risk preferences are correlated with the cross-sectional earnings risk of their occupation. We exploit data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, which contains a direct survey question about willingness to take risks that has been shown to be a behaviorally valid measure of risk aversion. As a measure of earnings risk, we use the cross-sectional variation in earnings that is left unexplained by human capital variables in Mincerian wage regressions. Our evidence shows that individuals with low willingness to take risks are more likely to work in occupations with low earnings risk. This pattern is found regardless of the level of occupation categories, region, gender and labor market experience.     

中国住宅投资引领经济增长吗?

本文运用1985—2009年中国各省、直辖市、自治区的数据,对住宅投资与经济增长之间的领先—滞后关系进行分析。结果表明,无论是1985—2009年全时段还是以1998年大规模房改为分界线的分时段,无论是全国各省市还是分区域的各省市面板数据,经济增长引领住宅投资的单向Granger因果关系是稳定的;不同于一些研究和政策措施所主张的住宅投资引领经济增长的观点,本文认为找不到证据来支持住宅投资带动经济增长的论点。由此可见,所谓"住宅引领增长假说"在我国并不成立,而我国自上世纪90年代中期以来一直大力促进住宅投资以带动经济增长、把住宅建设当作国民经济的新增长点和支柱产业的政策值得反思。