Zombie Board: Board Tenure and Firm Performance

We show that board tenure exhibits an inverted U‐shaped relation with firm value and accounting performance. The quality of corporate decisions, such as M&A, financial reporting quality, and CEO compensation, also has a quadratic relation with board tenure. Our results are consistent with the interpretation that directors’ on‐the‐job learning improves firm value up to a threshold, at which point entrenchment dominates and firm performance suffers. To address endogeneity concerns, we use a sample of firms in which an outside director suffered a sudden death, and find that sudden deaths that move board tenure away from (toward) the empirically observed optimum level in the cross‐section are associated with negative (positive) announcement returns. The quality of corporate decisions also follows an inverted U‐shaped pattern in a sample of firms affected by the death of a director.     

财政补贴的竞争法审查及其改进——兼论《公平竞争审查制度实施细则（暂行）》

财政补贴是国家干预经济的重要手段,能够促进产业结构调整和转型升级、平衡和加速地区间的经济发展,但极易对市场公平竞争带来消极影响,例如破坏市场结构、误导市场行为、减损市场绩效,等等。《公平竞争审查制度实施细则（暂行）》对此予以重点关注,但缺乏全面性的制度构建。这方面,欧盟国家援助制度值得我们学习和借鉴。欲改进我国财政补贴的竞争法审查,必须落实公平竞争审查制度,坚持必要性原则、公平原则和透明度原则,同时要建立补贴评估机制、豁免机制、信息披露机制和异议机制,以规范财政补贴的实施,平衡财政补贴和竞争政策的冲突,确保市场竞争机制不被财政补贴所扭曲。     

Population Aging and the Possibility of a Middle-Income Trap in Asia

We present three conditions for a demography-driven middle-income trap and show that many economies in East, South, and Southeast Asia satisfy all of them. The conditions involve (1) the support ratio of workers to consumers has an impact on economic growth, (2) economic development accompanies more investment in human capital and lower fertility due to the quantity–quality trade-off, and (3) a current low level of fertility corresponds to very low support ratios for keeping up with frontier economies in the long run. Panel analysis for 178 countries shows that (1) and (2) are satisfied for Asia with higher elasticity than others. As for (3), we set up a dynamic model for simulations, showing that approximately two-third of Asia’s developing countries have an unsustainable level of support ratios, implying possibility of a middle-income trap due to future demographic headwinds.     

农地征收、农地流转与农民人均收入——基于空间滞后模型估计

通过考虑空间溢出性,构建固定效应空间滞后模型,并利用2009—2014年省级面板数据研究农地征收、农地流转对农民人均收入的影响。研究发现:农地征收面积每提高1%,农民人均收入将会降低0.039%,表明农地征收会降低农民人均收入;农地流转面积每提高1%,农民人均收入将会提高0.011%,表明农地流转有利于农民收入的提高。因此农地在征收过程中,应提高土地补偿费及农民就业能力,保障农民利益不受损,同时积极稳妥推进农地有序流转,形成规模经营。     

Anthropogenic and topographic correlates of natural vegetation cover within agricultural landscape mosaics in Turkey

Natural vegetation enhances the value of agricultural landscapes for people and wildlife. However, the role of anthropogenic versus topographic factors in driving the extent of natural vegetation cover within agricultural lands at large spatial scales remains unexplored. I assessed the influence of anthropogenic and topographic variables on the extent of agricultural mosaics with high natural vegetation cover in the country of Turkey where a large extent of natural and semi-natural vegetation is maintained by traditional agriculture. GIS layers depicting human land use, elevation, slope, roads and population data were obtained and summarized at two spatial scales, within provinces and for 100 km² grid cells covering the country’s entire agricultural land area. Average farm size was also obtained at province level. Hierarchical Partitioning was conducted to determine the independent effect of anthropogenic and topographic variables on the variation in agriculture with high natural vegetation. Slope had the largest independent effect on the variation in the proportion of agricultural mosaic with high natural vegetation cover. The extent of agricultural and settlement area also explained much of the variation in natural vegetation across both grid cells and provinces. The proportion of natural vegetation increased as human population and road density decreased across grid cells and as average farm size decreased across provinces. These results suggest that while topography is the primary driver of natural vegetation cover within agricultural mosaics in Turkey, the pressures associated with urban development and agricultural industrialization may also influence the cultural and wildlife value of agricultural landscapes.     

Co-ordination of land exploitation,exploitable farmland reserves and national planning in China

Land exploitation, as an important strategy to mitigate farmland loss and stabilize grain production, has been adopted to compensate farmland loss due to rapid urbanization in China. Bounded by the limited capacity and obvious spatial variations of national farmland reserves, it is essential to arrange land exploitation activities timely and reasonably. In this study, we propose an indicator for the status of regional land exploitation, the Exploitation Degree, to facilitate an overview of land exploitation programs in China at both provincial and prefectural levels based on project data from 2006 to 2012. To further our understanding of the regional features of land exploitation activities, we employ the Lasso model to identify and quantitatively assess influencing factors on land exploitation. Our study shows that: (1) contemporary land exploitation practices in China are significantly inconsistent across exploitable farmland reserves. Some areas are greatly over-exploited and such irrational land exploitation has been persistent; (2) related national land plans designed to guide land exploitation efforts centered on resource-rich regions and critical areas do not function as intended. Therefore, we suggest that China⿿s land exploitation policy shall be improved by reconsidering the orientation of land exploitation policy, coordinating land exploitation activities with productivity improvements and eco-system protection, and enhancing the power and scope of the plans in controlling and guiding land resource management.     

Analysing job creation effects of scaling up infrastructure spending in South Africa

In a first for South Africa, this article draws on literature on infrastructure productivity to model dynamic economy-wide employment impacts of infrastructure investment funded with different fiscal tools. Using a dynamic computable general equilibrium model, the South African investment plan is modelled, given the infrastructure externality. Alternative fiscal scenarios to finance the policy are modelled in the article. In the long run, unemployment decreases for all types of workers under one of the scenarios. In the short run, only elementary occupation workers benefit from a decrease in unemployment; for the rest, unemployment rises.     

Collaboration strategy decision-making using the Miles and Snow typology

Engaging in collaboration may be the best way for a firm to enhance its competitive advantages, since this can offer faster access to both resources and capabilities. This study aims to develop a framework for making collaboration partner choice decisions. The authors design a strategic game model of collaboration using Miles and Snow typology. An empirical data set collected from the S&P COMPUSTAT database is adopted to verify the model, and several managerial implications are derived. This model helps a company choose a competitor as a collaborative partner and helps in the selection of a collaboration strategy.     

Why do companies transfer the trading compartment of their common stocks

We analyze the motives and determinants of voluntarily stock exchange section switching on the NYSE Euronext. By strategically deciding trading-section transfer when it is beneficial, managers expect to reduce their liquidity and invisibility costs, cost of capital, or their listing costs. We show that managers decide to change the trading compartment of their common stocks based on various factors including firm's size, liquidity level, debt ratio, and expected growth opportunities. Firms that move voluntarily from a less or non regulated compartments to a more regulated one are likely to have transferred to increase their credibility, improve their stocks’ liquidity, re-balance their leverage, and to finance their growth opportunities. Whereas those that move their common stocks toward a less-regulated compartments do it mainly for costs saving reasons.     

耕地质量影响因素区域差异分析及提升途径研究——以河南省新郑市为例

研究目的:分析研究影响耕地质量的主要障碍因素及其区域差异,明确不同区域耕地质量提升的主要途径和重点建设内容,以提高耕地质量提升工程建设的针对性和实效性。研究方法:相关分析法,主成分分析法,聚类分析法。研究结果:(1)土壤质地、有机质、全氮、速效磷、速效钾、灌溉率是影响耕地质量的主要因素,与粮食单产间均呈线性正相关关系,影响因素相互间也有影响,存在着显著的相关关系;(2)单产影响因素的重要性存在明显差异,其重要性序次为:灌溉率、速效磷、全氮、有机质、速效钾、土壤质地,重要性系数分别依次为0.188、0.179、0.173、0.167、0.156、0.136;(3)新郑市的耕地可划分为3种类型的整治区,不同类型区的耕地质量及其影响因素差异明显,丘岗地区的耕地质量最差,是农田整治的重点区,主要障碍因素是灌溉率低、土壤肥力差。研究结论:新郑市不同区域耕地质量提升的主要途径不同,丘岗地区和砂土平原区主要是提高农田灌溉率和培肥土壤,山前平原区主要是提高土壤磷肥肥力。