The International Monetary Fund’s interventions in food and agriculture: An analysis of loans and conditions

The mandate and competence of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) does not cover food and agriculture policies. While there is anecdotal evidence that the IMF engages in these policies regardless, the state-of-the-art lacks a systematic empirical foundation to identify the extent of its mission creep into these sectors. Based on a combination of machine and human coding, we present a comprehensive database on the IMF’s policy interventions in food and agriculture. Using new data on ‘conditionalities’—policies that governments must implement to access IMF credit—we assess to what extent the IMF has targeted these sectors for the period 1980 to 2014. Our analysis evaluates the agricultural content and ideological orientation of conditions according to whether they promote a developmental state, a night-watchman state, or neither. We find about 2% of all IMF conditions (1105 of 58,406) directly target food and agriculture issues. These are present in 43% of all IMF programs (332 of 781); and affect 100 countries (of the 131 countries that have had an IMF agreement). In addition, our analysis reveals that 59.2% of these conditions embody policy measures in line with night-watchman state policy preferences, 40.1% are model-neutral, and 0.7% developmental. Within the model-neutral category, 23.9% are conditions oriented towards building state capacity; 2.7% have a poverty reduction content; and 2.9% contain pro-environment policies. The IMF’s primary reason for targeting food and agriculture is to enforce fiscal discipline by removing subsidies, yet our analysis identifies that only 8% of these policies abolish subsidies. A more consistent explanation of the IMF’s interest in food and agriculture is its broader mission creep into development policy, and its deep-rooted pro-market ideology.     

Beyond technical skills training: The impact of credit counseling on the entrepreneurial behavior of Ugandan youth

There is low take‐up of financial credit among youth in Uganda because potential beneficiaries perceive associated risks as high. This study assesses the determinants of entrepreneurial risk tolerance among Ugandan youth using experimental data from a randomized control trial and a real‐life investment‐risk experiment. Credit counseling was provided to young men and women aged 18–35 who owned a business to educate them about the obligations and commitments associated with financial credit. The intervention had a significant impact on demand for credit and related intermediate outcomes such as ownership of a bank account and investment in assets. The study finds that youth exhibited lower demand for credit after business training because of increased awareness regarding the actual risks associated with receiving credit. Our findings reinforce national strategies to promote soft skills for business entrepreneurship that extend beyond standard business training.     

基金经理更换、股票联动与股票价格

基金经理更换打破了基金共同持股投资组合中股票的关联性,降低了股票收益率相关性,进而影响了股票价格。本文基于基金共同持股和基金经理更换构建了对冲投资组合,获得0.1%的日超额收益率。基金投资组合中股票收益率相关性能够解释这种超额收益率,本文发现基金更换经理后,新基金经理重建投资组合,打破了原投资组合中股票间的关联,股票收益率相关性减弱,基金共同持股程度高的股票价格受到了更大影响。基金的被动流动性冲击不能解释本文的发现。本文的研究表明基金经理变更等基金管理行为通过股票收益率相关性对股票价格产生了重要影响。     

A model of emulation funds

Emulation funds are a potentially cost‐effective way for multimanager funds to improve their investment performance by delaying and netting trade signals from underlying managers. We develop a model to represent the expected sources of differential performance in an emulation fund relative to its underlying multimanager portfolio. The model formalises the expected interaction between potential savings and opportunity costs and allows us to observe complexities in the emulation process that are hidden without a benchmark. Finally, the functional representation of the model allows sensitivity analysis of the emulation fund to key parameters and enables us to determine theoretically optimal lag periods.     

On the index tracking and the statistical arbitrage choosing the stocks by means of cointegration: the role of stock picking

In this paper, we propose a new methology for Index Tracking (IT) by means of cointegration which provides some significant improvements on that field. As the quality of the tracking portfolio (TP) depends highly on the stock selection procedure, we propose picking the stocks using a model selection technique based on optimizing the cointegration level of the TP and the benchmark index instead of selecting, as in previous papers the assets by ad hoc decisions. To illustrate an empirical application of these techniques we use daily closing prices in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) index over two different periods; one period which goes from 1 January 1990 to 31 December 2001 previously used by other authors, and the bear and a turmoil period, which goes from January 2007 to May 2012, inside the current financial crisis. Using only five assets we are able to successfully track the DJIA index and our results improve the IT technique based on cointegration that chooses stocks with maximum capitalization level. We also have compared our results with a more traditional procedure based on correlation and again our results reveal superiority. The empirical illustration not only has been focused on the TP itself, but has also been extended to tracking the index with an added profitability of 5, 10, 15 or 20% and to long-short strategies, producing profitable results.     

盈余公积与提取盈余公积抵销问题的研究

合并会计报表是当今国际公认的会计三大难题之一 ,这既是一个复杂的会计操作性难题 ,也是一个包容着众多不同理论流派、争议较大的论题。作为财务会计界的难题 ,合并会计报表理论近几年经历了重大变化。     

我国养老保险个人账户基金管理体制研究

通过比较分析中国养老保险个人账户基金省级集中管理、省级联合管理和中央集中管理三个层次的管理体制方案的优缺点,认为中央集中管理比较符合中国实际,同时对养老保险个人账户基金中央集中管理体制方案进行设计。     

Terrorist Financing： Fund Raising and Fund Transfer

打击恐怖融资对于国际反恐斗争意义重大。本文从资金筹集与资金转移角度系统分析了恐怖融资活动。恐怖融资的资金筹集包括从合法来源筹集资金、从犯罪收益获取资金以及政权支持处获得资金;恐怖融资的资金转移主要有通过正规金融体系、利用贸易部门和现金运送三种方式。     

国际碳基金发展概述

当前,全球正发生着以变暖为主要特征的气候变化,并已成为世界各国共同面临的危机和挑战。为有效应对气候变化,国际碳基金应运而生。国际碳基金的产生与发展对提高人类适应与减缓气候变化的能力起到了积极的促进作用。文章回顾了国际碳基金产生的背景,概述了国际碳基金的发展进程,总结了国际碳基金的运行模式,并简要介绍了国内与气候变化相关的基金情况。     

对我国共同基金监督机制的法学反思——澳大利亚修法的启示

我国信托型共同基金的内在结构决定了资产保管人与基金管理人之间必然存在着职权运用上的张力与冲突,任何试图让二者协调运达致和谐与平衡的做法都只是空想。通过澳大利亚修法的视角再次证明,在信托体制下,资产保管人与基金管理人之间权力配置的矛盾深深地内生于信托制度之中,根本无法彻底根除。鉴于此,适时引入公司型共同基金,成为遏制基金丑闻并推动我国基金业稳健发展的重要举措。