社会资本视角下棚户区改造PPP项目风险分析

为了降低棚改PPP项目中的风险,提高社会资本参与棚改PPP项目的积极性,以社会资本方为研究视角。通过文献回顾和案例分析,总结社会资本参与棚改PPP项目面临的主要问题,筛选出社会资本参与棚改PPP项目面临的17个主要风险因素;运用DEMATEL法分析各风险因素的重要程度及相互影响关系,确定政府信用风险、相关法律法规不健全风险、市场收益不足风险、规划设计风险为关键风险因素;针对关键风险因素提出社会资本方防范措施,即多举措并举、细化合同条款、合理界定棚改PPP项目使用者付费范围、选择实力强的设计院是防范社会资本的有力措施。研究结果为分析棚改PPP项目风险提供了新思路,有助于提高社会资本参与棚改项目的积极性,所提对策对社会资本合理规避棚改PPP项目关键风险具有重要的借鉴意义。     

货币政策、企业家信心与上市公司投资效率*

企业、企业家等微观主体对货币政策的反应，在较大程度上影响货币政策的效果。货币政策可通过对企业家信心的影响，进而对公司投资效率产生作用。基于中国2007—2016年40个季度A股上市公司样本的实证研究表明：企业家信心在货币政策传导过程中有不可忽视的作用。企业家信心增强或者货币政策宽松时会加剧过度投资，减轻投资不足；企业家信心减弱或者货币政策紧缩时可以有效抑制过度投资，但会加剧投资不足。其中，国有企业对企业家信心和货币政策松紧的敏感性更强。进一步，货币政策对企业投资效率的影响，也会通过货币政策和企业家信心的交互作用而发挥作用。这种作用在国有企业和非国有企业之间无显著差异。     

Varieties of paternalism and the heterogeneity of utility structures

A principal source of interest in behavioral economics has been its advertised contributions to policies aimed at ‘nudging’ people away from allegedly natural but self-defeating behavior toward patterns of response thought more likely to improve their welfare. This has occasioned controversies among economists and philosophers around the normative limits of paternalism, especially by technical policy advisors. One recent suggestion has been that ‘boosting,’ in which interventions aim to enhance people’s general cognitive skills and representational repertoires instead of manipulating their choice environments behind their backs, avoids the main normative challenges. A limitation in most of this literature is that it has focused on relatively sweeping policy recommendations and consequently on strong polar alternatives of general paternalism and strict laissez faire. We review a real instance, drawn from a consulting project we conducted for an investment bank, of a proposed intervention that is more typical of the kind that economists are more often actually called upon to offer. In this example, the sophistication of current tools for preference attribution, combined with philosophical externalism about the semantics of preferences that makes it less plausible to attribute their literal self-conscious representation to people as propositional attitude content becomes more tightly refined, blocks applicability of the distinction between nudging and boosting. This seems to call for irreducible, context-specific ethical judgment in assessing the appropriateness of the forms of paternalism that economists must actually wrestle with in going about their everyday business.     

Integrated system of occupational safety and health and fire protection of the fire rescue brigades members

The objective of the conducted research is the identification and determination of requirements of members of fire rescue brigades during operations in the conditions of high risk in order to minimize the possibilities for injury incidence during the intervention. The research is focused on examination, determination and identification of factors affecting the increasing number of occupational injuries of members of fire rescue brigades during interventions. Hypothetical framework of the research problem consists of general hypothesis and six special hypotheses. Results suggest that almost all respondents believe that their skills and abilities are applicable in the intervention phase, but less than a half believe that their skills are applicable in prevention phase. Two-thirds of respondents stated that in their organization they have support for further education and upgrading while a half of respondents stated that they need education concerning identification, assessment and management of risks that can lead to emergency situations.     

Linear programing models for portfolio optimization using a benchmark

We consider the problem of constructing a perturbed portfolio by utilizing a benchmark portfolio. We propose two computationally efficient portfolio optimization models, the mean-absolute deviation risk and the Dantzig-type, which can be solved using linear programing. These portfolio models push the existing benchmark toward the efficient frontier through sparse and stable asset selection. We implement these models on two benchmarks, a market index and the equally-weighted portfolio. We carry out an extensive out-of-sample analysis with 11 empirical datasets and simulated data. The proposed portfolios outperform the benchmark portfolio in various performance measures, including the mean return and Sharpe ratio.     

A Historical Review of Postponement Research

This historical review traces the development of postponement research starting in the fifties. The focus is on seven related themes: connecting form and time postponement, conceptual extensions to postponement, decoupling points, design for postponement, customization and mass customization, factors favoring postponement implementation, and postponement in global settings. Within these themes, the review includes concepts such as postponement costs, decoupling points, part commonality, and the impact of demand correlations on the benefits of postponement. The review suggests that substantial progress has been made in postponement research.     

Time and frequency domain causality Testing: The causal linkage between FDI and economic risk for the case of Turkey

This study aims to explore the causal relationship between economic risk and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows for the case of Turkey. With the aim of establishing robust findings for the research in mind, both traditional and modern causality techniques are utilized; time domain Granger (1969, “Investigating Causal Relations by Econometric Models and Cross-Spectral Methods.” Econometrica 37: 424–438.), Toda and Yamamoto (1995, “Statistical Inference in Vector Autoregressions with Possibly Integrated Processes.” Journal of Econometrics 66 (1–2): 225–250.), Fourier Toda-Yamamoto and frequency domain Breitung and Candelon (2006, “Testing for short- and long-run causality: A frequency-domain approach.” Journal of Econometrics 132 (2): 363–378.) spectral causality test. Our empirical findings reveal that; economic risk changes in Turkey significantly lead to changes in FDI inflows. However, there is no evidence of causality running from FDI to economic risk. The findings imply that economic risk is an essential determinant of FDI inflows in Turkey. Our findings are compatible with historical macroeconomic developments in Turkey and imply important policy implications. The results of this study can be generalized for other emerging economies that have similar macroeconomic environments, in order to create useful policy implications regarding FDI inflow.     

Predicting credit card delinquencies: An application of deep neural networks

The objective of this paper is twofold. First, it develops a prediction system to help the credit card issuer model the credit card delinquency risk. Second, it seeks to explore the potential of deep learning (also called a deep neural network), an emerging artificial intelligence technology, in the credit risk domain. With real-life credit card data linked to 711,397 credit card holders from a large bank in Brazil, this study develops a deep neural network to evaluate the risk of credit card delinquency based on the client's personal characteristics and the spending behaviours. Compared with machine-learning algorithms of logistic regression, naive Bayes, traditional artificial neural networks, and decision trees, deep neural networks have a better overall predictive performance with the highest F scores and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. The successful application of deep learning implies that artificial intelligence has great potential to support and automate credit risk assessment for financial institutions and credit bureaus.     

Audit Firm Attributes and Auditor Litigation Risk

This study examines the association between auditors' litigation risk and audit firm attributes. Using professional liability insurance premiums as a proxy for auditors' litigation risk, we present evidence that the risk is lower in audit firms having: (1) separate non-audit and audit divisions; (2) a higher proportion of partners; and (3) a higher annual growth in number of CPAs employed. Additionally, we find that the risk is higher in audit firms having: (1) operating losses; and (2) high revenue growth. Our results are consistent with the idea that audit firms' financial condition and organizational structure affect their independence/ expertise, and, in turn, their litigation risk. Our results are broadly supportive of the PCAOB's (2015) and US Department of Treasury's (2008) views that investors, audit committees, management, and other regulators could benefit from having access to financial and organizational information about audit firms.