Board Structure and Intragroup Propping: Evidence from Family Business Groups in Hong Kong

Using earnings announcement events made by group member firms in Hong Kong, this study examines the governance role of boards of directors in curbing propping activities within family business groups. We find that earnings released by group member firms affect the stock prices of their nonannouncing group peers in a manner consistent with intragroup propping. More importantly, this effect is less pronounced when the announcing firms have a larger board or a board with a higher proportion of independent directors, but more pronounced when they have an executive director from their controlling families acting as board chairperson. Furthermore, the monitoring effect of boards of directors is strengthened for firms subject to new regulations increasing board power. Our results suggest that board oversight can mitigate propping activities.     

京津冀循环农业生态产业链的构建与思考

京津冀协同发展已成定局,严重的雾霾天气迫使京津冀产业转型升级,鉴于三地在农业发展上具有很强的互补性,培育和构建京津冀循环农业生态产业链将成为京津冀未来农业发展的方向。然而,目前产业链的构建中存在着区域层面的产业链尚未形成、顶层设计与协作机制严重缺失等突出问题,应加强从总体布局、工农循环相结合等五个方面的培育和引导。     

外国人眼里的中国大学

去年9月,路透中文网博客频道曾发表两篇文章,分析"前耶鲁大学校长抨击中国大学"的假新闻事件.时隔半年,英国<卫报>发表较为可靠的报道说,耶鲁现任校长列文声称,中国的顶级高校可能很快能与牛津、剑桥和美国常青藤大学相提并论.     

中日大都市:交通调查与比较

通过实地考察,从细节上比较了中国与日本城市在交通环境上的差异,包括交通网络结构的完善程度、交通安全设施,交通人性化设计、和谐礼让的交通环境营造、交通语言等.通过比较,笔者认为与日本大城市相比,中国城市交通环境自改革开放后虽然取得了较大的成就,但仍处较低层次,很多地方亟待改善,以满足广大交通出行者日益增长的需求,并实现和谐交通.     

国家助学贷款发放面临的问题与对策

发放国家助学贷款是一个启动内需工程,又是一个民心工程。文中列举了部分省市国家助学贷款实施现状,及在实行发放过程中所存在的问题,最后提出对策建议。     

Fees for Reefs: Economic Instruments to Protect Mexico’s Marine Natural Areas

Stated preference methods can be used to estimate the demand function where no price variation has been observed before. This is the situation of the Mexican coral reef natural protected areas, where after the 2002 approval of a $20 pesos fee (US$1.80) the Ministry of the Environment is now considering increasing the amount of the fee, not only to raise more revenue for the park, but also to curb the number of visitors in the cases where there is excess demand. There are concerns that the very success of the reefs is bringing associated environmental damage that threatens its sustainable use. To estimate the reaction of visitors to different fee levels, we carried out a contingent valuation survey, and constructed with its results an aggregate demand for each park. This demand was then divided by seasons and nationalities, to explore the benefits and costs of differentiating fees, looking at both the revenue maximising and the welfare maximising fees. Finally we discuss how these fees would change when environmental damage functions are taken into account. The recommendation is that increasing fees up to the point where they cover both private and environmental costs would bring the highest amount of economic benefit compatible with the sustainable use of these complex and wondrous marine ecosystems.     

An approximation method to derive confidence intervals for quantiles with some applications

Standard jackknife confidence intervals for a quantile Q _y (β) are usually preferred to confidence intervals based on analytical variance estimators due to their operational simplicity. However, the standard jackknife confidence intervals can give undesirable coverage probabilities for small samples sizes and large or small values of β. In this paper confidence intervals for a population quantile based on several existing estimators of a quantile are derived. These intervals are based on an approximation for the cumulative distribution function of a studentized quantile estimator. Confidence intervals are empirically evaluated by using real data and some applications are illustrated. Results derived from simulation studies show that proposed confidence intervals are narrower than confidence intervals based on the standard jackknife technique, which assumes normal approximation. Proposed confidence intervals also achieve coverage probabilities above to their nominal level. This study indicates that the proposed method can be an alternative to the asymptotic confidence intervals, which can be unknown in practice, and the standard jackknife confidence intervals, which can have poor coverage probabilities and give wider intervals.     

原油降凝剂的研究进展

本文概述了原油降凝剂的发展概况、作用原理和近年来的发展趋势以及今后应重点解决的问题。     

中国养老保险最优缴费率的实证分析——基于贴现因子和劳动增长率差异的分析

从个人效用和社会福利最大化的角度出发,养老保险制度存在着最优的缴费率.最优缴费率与资本产出弹性a、未来效用的贴现因子p、人口增长率n、有效劳动增长率g、个人工资与社会平均工资的比例λ等参数有关.结合中国现实,在其他参数不变的前提下,依据贴现因子和劳动增长率的变动能够形成四组组合模式.模拟结论表明,现行养老保险制度的社会统筹缴费率是符合福利最大化的最优缴费率;现行养老保险制度的个人账户缴费率与实现福利最大化的最优个人账户缴费率相比是偏低的;缴费期的长短与最优社会统筹缴费率的高低成正比而与最优个人账户缴费率的高低成反比;有效劳动增长率的高低与最优社会统筹缴费率成正比而与最优个人账户缴费率成反比.