Does real flexibility help firms navigate the COVID-19 pandemic?

Building on the investment-based asset pricing framework, we show that firms' ability to timely scale down their operations reduces the sensitivity of their equity value to large adverse productivity shocks. Using U.S. data in the times of the COVID-19 pandemic, we provide empirical evidence consistent with our model's predictions. Real flexibility curbs losses in firm value and reduces return volatility, especially for firms with high book-to-market or high COVID-19 exposure, consistent with the idea that the benefits of real flexibility are associated primarily with contraction options during the COVID-19 crisis. Our analysis shows that real flexibility provides incremental and complementary protection beyond financial flexibility. Besides its impact on stock prices, real flexibility also helps firms sustain earnings during 2020, compared with 2019 when the pandemic had not struck. Our work demonstrates that real flexibility is an important tool for corporate managers in navigating episodes of disasters.     

新型ETC数据侦听和故障定位系统的设计

高速公路不停车收费(ETC)已经实现全国联网，用户超过3 200万，参与建设的厂家近20余家，多厂家、多型号设备之间互联互通是系统的关键，如何能够快速准确地定位设备之间兼容性的问题，成为当务之急。针对需求，设计了基于科斯塔斯(Costas)环的新型ETC数据侦听和故障定位系统，描述了系统的工作原理、整体框架和开发思路。该系统已经开发完成并规模应用于ETC联网工作中，对故障定位、协议一致性判定、规范建设起到了不可替代的作用。该系统与现有方案相比其灵敏度提升15 dBm，并且具备可同时侦听多信道、支持数据并发等突出优点。     

Uniform pricing effect: The influence of uniform pricing on product value judgement and purchase intention

Uniform pricing, which is a pricing strategy that sets a unified price for all products in the store or all products in the same category, is becoming increasingly popular over the past decades. However, scarce attention has been paid to investigating its impact on consumer behaviour. This research investigates the influence of uniform pricing on product value judgements and purchase intentions. Four studies demonstrate that uniform pricing (vs. non-uniform pricing) could induce stronger promotion perception, which leads to more positive product value judgements and purchase intentions. Moreover, price sensitivity and product involvement moderate this effect, and this effect only exists for high price-sensitive consumers and low product involvement consumers.     

机构持股改善了企业高管的薪酬治理吗

选取我国沪深两市2007 年-2021 年上市公司样本，在使用PSM+DID 有效控制机构选股偏好引致的内生性前提下，检验了机构持股、机构持股结构对公司高管薪酬的影响。结论表明：机构投资者持股确实能够显著抑制高管薪酬操纵并提升上市公司高管薪酬- 业绩敏感性，但这一作用需要机构持股相对集中才能实现，机构持股集中度成为机构投资者影响高管薪酬的调节变量。同时机构持股对高管业绩- 薪酬敏感性的影响存在非对称性，在公司业绩下滑区间薪酬影响更为强烈。此外，机构持股的薪酬影响实现，主要是通过管理层限权而实现，在高管理层权力样本组中，机构持股对高管薪酬的影响被大大削弱。     

财政政策、会计信息可比性与企业投资——来自中国上市公司的经验证据

基于2007-2021年A股上市公司为研究样本，从宏微观交叉视角，考察不同财政政策下，会计信息可比性和企业投资之间的互动关系。研究发现：相比扩张的财政政策，紧缩的财政政策下的企业可能有更高的投资-现金流敏感性，降低企业投资水平，而会计信息可比性的提高能够有效改善紧缩财政政策下的企业投资水平。进一步分析表明，紧缩的财政政策下，提高非国有企业会计信息可比性更有助于企业投资水平的改善。对于提高宏观经济政策的调控效果和促进实体经济的健康发展都具有重要的现实意义。     

Treasury Safety,Liquidity, and Money Premium Dynamics: Evidence from Debt Limit Impasses

Treasury securities enjoy a “money premium” because they are ultra-safe and liquid. However, during debt limit impasses, the safety and liquidity of Treasury securities temporarily deteriorate, eroding the money premium. Using past impasses, we find the money premium eroded by roughly six basis points across all Treasury securities and up to 50 basis points for the shortest maturities at the greatest risk of a delayed principal payment. Safety and liquidity each accounted for about half of the erosion. The deterioration of safety and liquidity also appears to interact, consistent with theories of default-driven liquidity risk and the information sensitivity of debt.     

Economic policy uncertainty and fund flow performance sensitivity: Evidence from New Zealand

Utilizing a large sample of actively managed equity funds and a recently developed EPU index for New Zealand, we show that fund flow performance sensitivity decreases with policy uncertainty. The role of policy uncertainty as a determinant of fund flow performance sensitivity is found to be stronger, particularly for funds with global focus, large sized funds, high momentum funds and those with high idiosyncratic volatility and low downside risk. The findings support the argument that high policy uncertainty dampens investors' ability to process information that allows them to distinguish fund manager skill from luck. The results remain strong after accounting for various macroeconomic factors.     

政治关联、数字金融与融资约束——来自科技型中小企业的证据

以2011—2018年中小板、创业板上市的216家企业为样本,采用现金-现金流敏感性模型,研究政治关联、数字金融与科技型中小企业融资约束之间的关系.结果表明,科技型中小企业普遍存在较为严重的融资约束,政治关联和数字金融发展均缓解了科技型中小企业的融资约束,而且数字金融的发展缩小了政治关联造成的融资差异,在无政治关联样本中显示出更强的融资约束缓解作用.     

会计准则变革对资源配置效率的影响研究——基于会计敏感性和经济敏感性的视角

资源配置效率是我国经济改革关注的焦点。借鉴Wurgler的资源配置效率模型，利用2004—2013年中国A股上市公司数据，基于会计敏感性和经济敏感性的视角，从投资效率和融资效率两方面解释资源配置效率，考察会计准则变革前后资源配置效率的变化，结果表明：会计准则变革优化了资源配置效率；会计敏感性对会计准则变革与资源配置效率之间的关系有正向调节作用，且投资效率改善效果较好；经济敏感性对会计准则变革与投资效率之间的关系有正向调节作用，但对融资效率没有明显作用。     

Customer prospects and pay-performance sensitivity: Evidence from Korea

This paper examines how business prospects in customer firms affect executive pay-performance sensitivity in supplier firms. Using Korean Input-Output Accounts Data and Business Confidence Index published by the Bank of Korea, I find that customer prospects are positively associated with executive pay-performance sensitivity and the association is extended to the components of performance in a way that encourages managers to better exploit the market opportunities. The positive association is more pronounced when the inter-industry data are more informative, when the firm belongs to a more competitive industry, and when the corporate governance is stronger.Data availabilityAll data are publicly available from sources identified in the text.