Institutional quality and corporate financing decisions around the world

We investigate the influence of the recent comprehensive institutional quality dimensions of Karolyi (2015), such as market capacity, operational efficiency, foreign accessibility, corporate transparency, legal protection, and political stability, on financing decisions of firms across 56 countries between 2000 and 2015. We find that stronger institutional quality or lower fundamental risks in a country ease firms' access to long-term debt, and equity financing. We attribute our results to institutional environments influencing financing decisions by shaping the severity of market frictions, such as agency conflicts and information asymmetry, and transaction costs. As a result, we conclude that any improvement in a country's institutional environment will boost firms' access to long-term financing, and thus longer-term investments that promote countries' economic growth will be more feasible. Our findings are robust to potential endogeneity issues.     

数字经济背景下深圳居民消费结构变迁分析

近年来,伴随着我国电商交易规模的不断增加,数字经济蓬勃发展,逐渐成为改善消费环境、促进经济发展的新引擎。同时,数字经济具有很强的网络效应,可以带动居民消费实现转型升级。本文结合2008—2018年的电商交易规模与深圳消费结构相关数据,从衣、食、住、行等方面分析了居民消费结构的变化趋势。本研究认为居民收入增加、商品价格变动、粤港澳大湾区建设等是影响深圳居民消费的重要因素,最后给出实现深圳居民消费结构升级的相关建议。     

The impact of investor structure on stock price crash sensitivity: Evidence from China's stock market

Stock price crash sensitivity refers to the conditional probability of a stock crash when the market collapses. It focuses on individual stocks' sensitivity to the market crash and can affect stock pricing significantly. Although the crash sensitivity of China's stock market is very high as a whole (Weigert, 2016), different individual stocks show varying degrees of crash sensitivity. This paper, adopting the perspective of institutional investors, explores the reasons for the difference in crash sensitivity in China's stock market, and finds that: First, institutional investors' shareholdings is positively related to firms' stock price crash sensitivity. However, after dividing institutional investors into professional (represented by financial institutions) and non-professional institutional investors (represented by general legal persons), we find that only professional institutional investors' shareholdings is negatively related to firms' stock price crash sensitivity. Second, the impact of professional institutional investors on the crash sensitivity is influenced by stock liquidity and media sentiment: when the stock liquidity of listed companies is good or the media sentiment is strong, the negative impact of professional institutional investors on the crash sensitivity is accordingly high. This paper, by highlighting the investor structure, attempts a pioneering exploration of the influencing factors of the difference in stock price crash sensitivity in China. Our empirical results enrich research on stock price crash sensitivity and the heterogeneity of institutional investors. They can also serve to guide regulatory authorities' development of institutional investors and efforts to maintain market stability.     

提振消费要关注政策偏好的社会结构效应

新冠肺炎疫情爆发之后,人们非常关注通过提振消费来防止经济出现大幅度下滑。事实上,提振消费政策同时也具有社会政策属性。调查表明,在双循环背景下,通过社会政策维持一定的生计方式,并保持人们的消费水平具有重要意义。从对企业家FR、小手工业者BF与房屋中介LC的访谈资料以及在麓村、唐村的调查情况来看,人们在理解提振消费政策时具有共同的叙事特征。叙事本身具有鲜明的政策偏好,其核心是一定空间背景下结构与利益的分配正义问题。而风险社会与低欲望社会特征的并存深刻地影响着提振消费政策的制定,是行动者要面对的情境。为此,需要从规则与制度、空间与代际等长期性和持续性的角度系统思考提振消费政策的受益对象与受益群体,防止政策偏好所带来的结构性挑战。     

Network structure,portfolio diversification and systemic risk

We investigate the effect of portfolio diversification on banking systemic risk, where the network effect is incorporated. We analyze three kinds of interbank networks, namely, random networks, small-world networks and scale-free networks. We show that the effect of portfolio diversification on banking systemic risk depends on interbank network structures and shock types. First, systemic risk increases first and then reduces with the increase of the level of portfolio diversification in the case of the individual shock. Second, in the case of the systemic shock, systemic risk reduces with the increases of the level of portfolio diversification. Third, banking systems with scale-free network structures are the most stable, and those with small-world network structures are the most vulnerable.     

Corporate sustainability strategies in institutional adversity: Antecedent,outcome, and contingency effects

This study examines (i) how top-level managerial institutional ties drive corporate sustainability strategies of emerging market firms operating under conditions of institutional adversity; (ii) the impact of corporate sustainability strategies on market performance; and (iii) the moderating role of financial resource slack on the relationships between corporate sustainability strategies and market performance. The study builds from institutional development logic and the structure–conduct–performance paradigm. Primary data are collected from 300 firms operating in a major sub-Saharan African market. Findings show that top-level managerial institutional linkages with regulatory national governmental officials, local community leaders, and top managers at other firms drive corporate proactive and responsive sustainability strategies, which in turn influence market performance. In addition, the findings reveal that financial resource slack strengthens the path between corporate proactive sustainability strategies and market performance, but not the path between corporate responsive sustainability strategies and market performance. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

黑龙江森工林区林业产业结构演变趋势及优势产业选择

采用灰色预测方法对黑龙江森工林区2018—2027年林业三次产业产值进行预测,并在此基础上利用动态偏离-份额分析方法对此阶段黑龙江森工林区的林业优势产业进行选择。结果表明:2019年黑龙江森工林区林业产业结构将演变为"三、一、二"模式;林业第一产业中的林木育种和育苗、经济林产品的种植和采集业可作为优势产业进行重点发展和管理。因此,提出优化黑龙江森工林区林业产业结构的相关建议:继续巩固发展林木育种和育苗、经济林产品的种植和采集这两个优势产业;推动加工制造业向深加工、精加工的方向转变;加强林业旅游与休闲服务业的竞争力。     

Estimating yield curves of the U.S. Treasury securities: An interpolation approach

Following the approach of interpolation, this paper proposes the multiple exponential decay model to fit yield curves for both the U.S. TIPS market and the conventional Treasury security market. Several estimation methods, including the unconstrained/constrained nonlinear minimization, quadratic programming, and the iterative linear least squares, are applied to estimate the unknown parameters according to different curve‐fitting purposes. Comparisons between the proposed model and the alternatives show that the multiple exponential decay successfully (1) adapts to a variety of shapes associated with yield curves, (2) (partially) keeps in line with the economic interpretations of Nelson–Siegel summarized by Diebold and Li ( 2006 ), and (3) dominates the competing models in curve‐fitting performance measured by mean fitted‐price errors over the sample period. In addition, the exact specification of a nonparametric interpolation model is pinned down by applying three statistical tools, which enable us to jointly take into account validity, optimality, and parsimoniousness of the proposed model.     

健全我国企业环保信用评价法律制度的正当性面向

《环境保护法》等环境法律体系日渐趋同的多元共治理念，渗透并引发环境法律制度体系的结构性转型；国内环境信息公开制度保障公众环境知情权的核心功能不能容纳企业环保信用评价制度的制度功能；信用制度与信息制度错序产生的国内外法治及社会环境迥异等，决定了我国企业环保信用评价制度健全的正当性面向。     

Corporate social responsibility and competitive advantage: A developing country perspective

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has attracted wider research interests over recent decades. While some studies have examined the impact of CSR activities on firm competitive advantage (CA), the findings so far remain contradictory. Moreover, the role of export orientation, firm strategy, and structure on the association between CSR and CA has not been explicitly examined. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine the moderating role of export orientation, firm strategy, structure, and firm size on the association between CSR and CA. Using a sample of 179 responses from management staff in organizations across five sectors in a developing country context of Ghana, the study found positive effects of CSR on CA. The study contributes to the resource‐based view (RBV) scholarship by confirming the important complementary effect of export orientation and organizational structure as important resources and capabilities on the CSR–competitiveness relationship. However, no evidence of a moderating effect of firm strategy, or firm size on the CSR–CA relationship was found. These findings are instructive, impactful, and enrich the existing literature on CSR and strategy. Implications for theory and practice are also discussed.