AAOIFI reporting standards: Measuring compliance

Islamic banking and finance have grown rapidly in recent decades. Islamic banks offer a range of products, which, in complying with Islamic law, often differ from traditional Western financial products. Consequently, developing accounting standards to guide Islamic financial reporting is now an important issue. To this end, the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Organizations (AAOIFI), was established in Bahrain in 1991. While the AAOIFI has published a substantial body of accounting and governance standards empirical research into compliance with these standards is lacking. This article addresses that gap. A benchmark index is constructed to measure the compliance of Islamic banks licensed and domiciled in Bahrain. The findings of the study show compliance to be very high with respect to the governance standard relating to the in-house supervisory boards of Islamic banks, and reporting the Islamic murabaha contract. In contrast, compliance with the AAOIFI's requirements regarding the zakah religious tax and the mudaraba contract is relatively low.     

美国物流法律制度特点及对我国的启示

介绍了美国物流法律制度的立法模式、特点、发展阶段及内容,以及我国物流法律制度的发展现状及存在的问题,最后借鉴美国经验,提出了完善我国物流法律制度的建议。     

The “Good Cause Norm” in Employment Relations: Empirical Evidence and Policy Implications

Critics of the American employment at-will doctrine have argued that it should be abandoned because it is at odds with a societal level norm that employees should only be discharged for good reasons (the good cause norm). This paper examines the extent to which there is conceptual and empirical support for the existence of such a norm. Theoretical perspectives supporting the norms existence are discussed and integrated, and an interdisciplinary review of relevant research is provided. In light of the support that is found for the existence of a good cause norm in the American workplace, it is proposed that the current employment at-will default rule be changed to a waivable employee right to be discharged for good cause only.     

心理契约在高校经管类专业经济法课程教学中的应用

将心理契约方法引入高校经管类专业经济法课程教学,将会产生良好的教学效果。教师在用心理契约方法教学时,要树立双主体意识,善于运用情感激励法,引导学生订立适宜的学习目标心理契约,重视学生个体差异和专业差异,建立科学合理的成绩考核机制,不断完善知识结构。     

Bankruptcy laws and debt renegotiation

This paper analyzes the effect of the toughness of bankruptcy law on the number of liquidations in a simple model of borrowing and lending with asymmetric information, where the creditor cannot credibly commit to liquidate the firm if the default occurs. In our setting we consider a bankruptcy law to be a one-dimensional variable that influences creditor's expectation value of collateral. We find that there is an interval of the bankruptcy law, where the number of liquidations decreases in the toughness of the bankruptcy law. We also find that if the liquidation costs are high, softer bankruptcy law is preferred.     

对金融衍生品市场内幕交易的一些新思考--澳大利亚现行的反内幕交易法及其带给我们的若干启示

本文着眼于澳大利亚在治理金融衍生品市场内幕交易中积累的丰富经验,针对一个崭新的前瞻性课题,即金融衍生品市场的内幕交易问题展开研究。作者认为,由于内幕交易与信息非对称性之间存在的内在冲突,实际上反内幕交易法规很难有效地阻止金融衍生品的内幕交易行为,过于复杂的反内幕交易法规会对市场产生一些负面影响,而放松内幕交易监管这一新思维将对市场的良性发展更为有益,应该让市场来决定内幕交易行为的“存亡”。但目前最为现实、温和的选择仍然是修改现行反内幕交易法,以维护市场的公平性和有效性。最后,笔者对如何缓解中国目前内幕交易猖獗的现状提出建议。     

Does transition to IFRS substantially affect key financial ratios in shareholder-oriented common law regimes? Evidence from the UK

This paper provides evidence of how a transition to IFRS affects key financial ratios and the pertinent financial statement items. Building on Lantto and Sahlström's (2009) evidence from creditor-oriented code law regimes, we examine the impact of IFRS transition on listed companies in the shareholder-oriented common law regime of the UK. The study contributes two insights: First – despite their similarities – conversion from the UK General Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) to IFRS leads to substantial differences in key financial ratios. These even surpass differences reported by companies in creditor-oriented code law regimes. We find that medians of profitability ratios increased substantially: Operating Income Margin (OPM) increased by 10.8%, Return on Equity (ROE) by 27.0%, and Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) by 14.4%. The Current Ratio (CR) and Price-to-Earnings (P/E) Ratio also exhibit significant but less drastic changes of 4.2% and − 2.9%, respectively. Second, differences in shareholder-oriented common law regimes have the same causes as in creditor-oriented code law regimes, i.e., an increase in Operating Income, Net Income, Current Liabilities and Invested Capital, as well as a decrease in Shareholder Equity.