The effect of political volatility on capital markets in EU accession and neighborhood countries

Political instability has the potential to disrupt financial markets. But how do political institutions affect financial movements in an environment where all institutions are in flux? This paper looks at the effects of formal and informal political volatility in the new EU countries of central and eastern Europe, in the Eastern Neighborhood, and farther afield in Central Asia to answer this question. Using asymmetric GARCH modeling on monthly data, I find that informal political volatility has a significant negative effect on stock returns, while formal political institutions generate much higher financial volatility than changes in monetary policy.     

Harmonizing national options and discretions in the EU banking regulation

The European Central Bank strives to harmonize over 160 national options and discretions (O&Ds) that contribute to the fragmentation of banking union’s regulatory framework. National authorities seem prepared to accept it, despite previously insisting on the inclusion of all O&Ds into the EU legislation. We analyze a sample of O&D choices and their correspondence to cleavages pertinent to the political economy of EU banking. We find that the 11 post-communist member states use O&Ds more stringently to protect capital and liquidity in the local subsidiaries of foreign-own banks, which may complicate their potential opt-in to the banking union.     

Accounting Quality in Eastern Europe after Communism

Research Question/Issue: This study, in the taxonomy of Schiehll and Martins (2016 Schiehll, E. and H. C. Martins. 2016. Cross-national governance research: A systematic review and assessment. Corporate Governance: An International Review 24 (3):181–99. doi:10.1111/corg.12158.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), examines cross-national corporate governance, within their “legal” category. It rests on the understanding that to fully grasp corporate governance it is essential to understand the embedded institutions. The research question is: Does an increase in legal quality cause an associated increase in the quality of corporate governance in the form of financial reports to investors? If so, this supports the fundamental importance of legal systems to earnings quality. Reliable evidence on whether there is an association between legal quality and financial reporting quality would be an empirical association showing that where legal quality is higher, earnings quality is also higher, and conversely.

Research Findings/Insights: The results show clearly that in 2005 and 2010, when adequate data are available for testing, earnings quality is poor: far more companies show small gains than small losses. A great deal of managerial discretion is exercised in arriving at accounting figures, since many amounts depend on forecasts of future events. A significant number of firms use that latitude to show positive earnings. As to patterns of earnings management among three clusters of countries, the small number of firms generally precludes strong statistically supported evidence of management within the clusters. Nevertheless, the whole is the sum of the parts, and the parts (clusters) indicate the clusters most responsible for the overall result. There is little evidence of small gains exceeding small losses in the Baltics, greater differences in the Visegrád countries, and big differences in southern Europe.

Theoretical/Academic Implications: Based on both (a) the historical background of legal systems and (b) attitudes concerning legal quality measured at the same time as the earnings measures, the accounting results are consistent with the prediction of a strong legal culture driving effective corporate governance.

Practitioner/Policy Implications: The results show that eastern firms, on aggregate, have yet to reach the level of their western counterparts. However, the differences do not seem highly significant, and indicate that convergence is close in this area. This, in turn, should guide and encourage legislators in their work.     

欧洲能源交易所介绍

欧洲能源交易所（EEX）是全球仅次于欧洲气候交易所（ECX）的碳交易平台,其在电力市场、天然气市场和碳排放权交易市场均享有较高声誉。本文介绍了欧洲能源交易所在欧盟碳市场中的作用、交易产品、市场监察、结算服务等,以为我国碳交易所和碳市场的发展提供经验支持和智力支撑。     

基于Web的动态多媒体创作工具及传输新技术

欧洲统一货币──欧元的出现,对欧洲的政治、经济产生了重大影响,是欧洲一体化进程中的一大创举。欧元启动后,其走势与人们的预期相差较大,原因有多方面。欧元将会进一步推动欧洲一体化向前发展。     

Inequality of Opportunity in Europe

Using the EU‐SILC database, we estimate and compare the Inequality of Opportunity (IO) of 23 European countries in 2005. IO is estimated as the between‐type (ex‐ante) inequality component following the parametric procedure of Ferreira and Gignoux (2011 ), which allows for the inclusion of the large set of circumstances in the database. We also measure the degree of correlation between IO estimates and a set of past and contemporaneous economic factors related to the degree of development, labor market performance, investment in human capital, and social protection spending.     

中欧服务业产业内贸易实证研究

由服务贸易的比较优势和产业内贸易研究概况,引出对中欧服务业产业内贸易的实证分析。基于2004～2009年中欧服务贸易数据测算出GL指数和MIIT指数,发现了各服务部门产业内贸易发展的不同态势。选取人均GDP、服务贸易开放程度和对外贸易不平衡程度作为自变量,即影响因素,但均未表现出与产业内贸易指数较强的相关性。     

EU enlargement and the evolution of European production networks

We analyse the regionalisation of the European Union's production networks and the impact of enlargement by looking at trends in trade in intermediate and final products in different types of technology between 1995 and 2007. We find that enlargement has coincided with quite major changes in the structure of trade within and beyond the EU. Overall we find that the new member states of the EU12 have become a more important source of goods both for the sub-region itself and for the EU15.We look at trends in different types of products and technologies. We find that there has been greater regional consolidation of production networks in lower tech goods, while in high tech goods global sources of inputs - especially ASEAN + 3 - are becoming more important. Overall the EU12 is becoming a more important source of both intermediate and final products, especially within its own sub-region. This evolution makes the companies in the sub-region very dependent on the EU home market.     

对现代金融监管的反思与借鉴

经济发展是永恒主题,金融监管必须建立在有利于经济发展的基础上;同时,金融监管应适应金融发展的需要,并具有一定的前瞻性。本文介绍了美国和欧洲等国家和地区反思经济危机爆发的原因,提出改革金融监管的框架设想,并对如何构建我国的金融监管制度进行了分析。     

The EU ETS and corporate environmental abatement

This article studies the relationship between firm-level emissions-to-cap ratio (ETC) and environmental abatement, by using a unique and extensive data set of 10 762 installations covered by the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) matched to 5931 firms. We find that a shortage of emissions allowances is related to more abatement in later years while a surplus of emissions allowances results in worse subsequent environmental performance. This finding underscores the importance of reducing the global amount of allowances in the ETS system. Our results also suggest that stakeholder pressure and the creation of transparency concerning corporate environmental performance are likely to support the effectiveness of the system.