Resource Accounting in Measures of Unsustainability: Challenging the World Bank's Conclusions

The World Bank has recently published acomprehensive study of environmental and resourceaccounting, covering 103 countries (World Bank1997a). The study concludes that many Sub-Saharan,Northern African and Middle East countries have hadnegative `genuine' saving rates over the last 20years and therefore fail to pass the test of weaksustainability. This paper argues that the Bank'sconclusions depend on a method for computing usercosts from resource exploitation that is challengedby two competing ones (the `El Serafy'-method andthe method of Repetto et al.) and is inferior to oneof its rivals. Resource rents are re-computed usingthe `El Serafy'-method for 14 countries and theSub-Saharan and Northern African and Middle Eastregions. The results are that both regions andalmost all countries either stop exhibiting signs ofunsustainability or their unsustainability can beexplained without having recourse to resourceaccounting. However, for Congo, Ecuador, Gabon,Nigeria, Mauritania and Trinidad and Tobago there isa lesson: These countries did not adequately use theopportunities they were given through their naturalresource endowments and should learn from theirmistake for the future depletion of their remainingreserves of natural resources.     

证券市场在经济增长中的作用

用实证和时间序列的方法研究了我国证券市场发展和经济增长之间的关系,提出了证券市场把储蓄转化成投资,是证券市场促进经济增长的主要作用。     

Regulatory Actions under Adjustment Costs and the Resolution of Scientific Uncertainty

Food system regulators often decide whether to ban existing practices or approve new technologies without conclusive scientific evidence on possible damage and knowing that resolution is likely in the future. In a model with three decision points and stochastic resolution of uncertainty, we study interactions between expected losses due to regulation and information availability when a regulator is deciding on an early reversible ban and on a later reversible ban. Adjustment costs create inertia concerning intermediate signals such that earlier decisions are not overturned, and also a bias against imposing an early ban. The prospect of more later-stage information can increase or decrease the incentive to ban early, but research decreases the incentive to ban early.     

盈余管理的动机及防范措施

本文介绍了西方会计学者对盈余管理的不同定义,通过对公司盈余管理动机的分析,提出了相应的防范措施。这些方法和措施对我国目前企业的改革和改制具有一定的借鉴意义。     

关于上市公司关联交易中的税收筹划分析

税收筹划是企业和国家双赢的选择。当今上市公司中的不当关联交易现象普遍存在，并起着很大的负面作用。如何利用关联交易实现上市公司的税收筹划、提高上市公司的经济效益是目前亟待解决的问题。本文拟就上市公司关联交易如何进行税收筹划进行分析，以期引起企业理财活动的重视。     

日本存款保险制度:演变与启示

1971年日本国会公布《存款保险法》，设立日本存款保险机构。自20世纪80年代末，日本金融机构破产案件不断增加，为适应新的情况，对存款保险法进行了多次修订，日本存款保险机构被赋予许多新的职能和权力，该制度也逐渐完善起来，成为稳定金融体系的重要机构。但，这一制度的缺陷也限制了它的作用．从日本存款保险制度不断演变过程和其与生俱来的缺陷中我们可以得到重要的经验和教训。     

对政府储蓄与民间储蓄及国民总储蓄关系的考察

文章分析了政府储蓄与民间储蓄和国民总储蓄的关系,提出了通过政府储蓄提升国民储蓄水平的相关条件及制度建设,而政府部门应保持一个高于民间部门的边际储蓄倾向,税收制度的安排上要尽可能消除或减少税收对民间储蓄的抑制,将税收比重始终控制在纳税人可承受的限度之内。     

Longevity and Life‐cycle Savings*

We add health and longevity to a standard model of life‐cycle saving and show that, under plausible assumptions, increases in life expectancy lead to higher savings rates at every age, even when retirement is endogenous. In a stationary population these higher savings rates are offset by increased old age dependency, but during the disequilibrium phase, when longevity is rising, the effect on aggregate savings rates can be substantial. We find empirical support for this effect using a cross‐country panel of national savings rates.     

Consumption dynamics under information processing constraints

This paper studies how “rational inattention” (RI)—a type of information processing constraint proposed by Sims [Sims, C.A., 2003. Implications of rational inattention, Journal of Monetary Economics 50 (3), 665–690]—affects the joint dynamics of consumption and income in a permanent income model with general income processes. Specifically, I propose an analytical approach to solve the multivariate permanent income model with RI and examine its implications for optimal consumption, saving, and welfare. It is shown that RI can affect the relative volatility of consumption and provide an endogenous propagation mechanism that disentangles the short-run and long-run responses of consumption to exogenous income shocks. I also explore how aggregation reduces the impact of the RI-induced endogenous noise on consumption and thus increases the smoothness of aggregate consumption. Finally, I compare RI with four alternative hypotheses (habit formation, signal extraction, robustness, and inattentiveness) by examining their implications for the joint behavior of consumption and income.     

Corporate Real Estate Sale and Leaseback Effect: Empirical Evidence from Europe

Corporate real estate disposals have increased in Europe during the past few years. In this research paper, we study market reactions of publicly traded European companies' real estate sale and leaseback announcements during 1998–2004. This study is one of the first ones to study the sale and leaseback impact on corporate value with a pan‐European data. We find that the sale and leaseback announcements have on average positive impact to firm's value which is in line with the previous studies. However, we also find that the positive effect is mainly caused by the deals with high transaction value to company market value ratio. Smaller transactions do not create on average any abnormal returns. Our results support the hypothesis that the positive sale and leaseback announcement effect is a consequence of revealed hidden value of the company's assets. Thus, sale and leaseback can also be seen as a mechanism for revealing the hidden value of company's assets to the market.