Corporate social responsibility programs choice and costs assessment in the airline industry—A hybrid model

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has taken an increasingly important role in business. Here we develop a technique for operationalizing CSR programs for air transportation within the context of limited physical resources. A hybrid model for selection and costs assessment is proposed to address inter-relationships among CSR criteria using trial and evaluation laboratory methods, analytical network processes and zero–one goal programming. The activity-based costing approach is applied to estimate costs of the chosen programs and an example looking at China Airlines is presented.     

Target‐Setting,Pay for Performance,and Quality Improvement: A Case Study of Ontario Hospitals’ Quality‐Improvement Plans

This study examines whether difficult targets and quality indicators in executives' pay‐for‐performance (P4P) plans affect performance. The impact of target‐setting and P4P plans on quality improvement in the public sector is unclear. The Ontario government initiated the Quality Improvement Plan (QIP), which requires hospitals to set targets for quality indicators annually and link executive pay to target achievement since 2011. Analyzing Health Quality Ontario's database and hospitals' 2012–2013 QIPs, this study shows greater quality improvement in hospitals with difficult targets than hospitals with easy targets or without assigned targets; however, the positive impact disappears for high‐performance hospitals relative to their peers. We find no significant effect of the use of quality indicators in executives' P4P plans on quality improvement. Copyright © 2018 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Why do stock repurchases change over time?

Recent studies have shown the time trends of firm stock repurchase behavior. We examine these time changes for stock repurchase through the lens of real activities earnings management. Managers appear more likely to manipulate earnings through stock repurchases since the passage of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act (SOX) in 2002. Furthermore, suspect firms that just missed analyst earnings per share forecasts have higher incentives to manipulate earnings through stock repurchases. The results are not driven by changes in corporate governance associated with the passage of SOX. Overall, our results suggest earnings management can be a significant determinant of the dynamics of stock repurchases.     

Did foreign exchange holding influence growth performance during the global financial crisis?

In a context of increased foreign exchange reserves holding from emerging and developing countries, this paper investigates the diminishing return of reserves holding assumption over the most severe phase of the global financial crisis (2008Q1–2010Q4). Relying on a Panel Smooth Transition Regression model, we highlight the differential effect of the accumulation of foreign exchange reserves for a set of financial vulnerabilities variables. In a specific manner, although reserves accumulation is effective above a critical threshold to cope with vulnerabilities related to the financial channel, we show that it becomes less effective beyond a certain threshold for domestic bank vulnerabilities. Our results are robust to alternative specifications.     

Is there Causal Relationship between Money Supply Growth and Inflation in China? Evidence from Quantity Theory of Money

This study examines the causal relationship between Chinese money supply growth and inflation, using the bootstrap Granger full‐sample causality test and sub‐sample rolling‐window estimation test to determine whether such a relationship in China supports the quantity theory of money. The result indicates that there is a unidirectional relationship from inflation to money supply growth. However, considering structural changes in two series, we find that short‐run relationships using full‐sample data are unstable, which suggests that full‐sample causality tests cannot be relied upon. Then, we use a time‐varying rolling‐window approach to revisit the dynamic causal relationship, and the results show that money supply growth has both positive and negative impacts on inflation in several sub‐periods, and in turn, inflation has the same effects on money supply growth for China. These findings are basically consistent with the modern quantity theory of money from the perspective of money supply and price level. When money supply growth does not outweigh output growth, inflation should not be curbed only by decreasing money supply. It notes that a stable money supply growth is critical to price level stability and economic development in China.     

The Optimal Timing of Open Market Stock Repurchases

Using a continuous-time real options approach we determine the conditions under which a value-maximizing company would conduct an open market stock repurchase to exploit the undervaluation of shares. We find the optimal timing of such repurchases as well as the optimal amount a company should repurchase and analyze how it depends on market parameters. Obtaining the announcement returns from the authorization of stock repurchases from our model allows us to derive testable empirical implications.     

Entry mode choice in China's regional distribution markets: Institution vs. transaction costs perspectives

In this paper, we investigate the entry mode choice of a leading Taiwanese food company in setting up regional distributors in China's 312 sales districts. Our study shows that, in entry mode decisions, the institutional factors are more important than transaction cost considerations. Both formal and informal institutions are considered. Formal institutions refer to government prescribed institutions (laws and regulations), while informal institutions refer to rules prescribed by the industry and the society. Both institutions are shown to affect the entry mode choices but one important type of institution, professional norms, is conspicuously missing in China. Professional norms exert peer pressures on the practitioners in the same profession, forcing their behaviors to conform to a common pattern. In the absence of professional norms, the roles of network ties and mimetic behaviors are heightened and they become a proxy for professional norms. As a foreign enterprise operating in China's local markets, the Taiwanese food company attained legitimacy by forming alliances with local wholesalers and by following its predecessors in selecting organization forms.     

贸易财属性与贸易政策竞争均衡

本文利用两国两异质财货的产业内贸易模型,讨论贸易财属性与贸易政策竞争均衡的决定,并获得以下结论:(1)当两国政府均采取相同的进口或出口政策时,不论产品的消费性质,最适进口贸易政策均为课税;最适出口贸易政策将随贸易财的消费性质而定.替代品为出口补贴,互补品为出口课税.(2)当产品为替代品且厂商在两国市场均实行数量竞争的情况下,进口课税政策虽将成为两国政府的优势策略,但出口补贴政策则更具有效率.在产品为互补品且厂商在两国市场均实行价格竞争的情况下,当产品的互补程度较小(大)时,进口课税(出口课税)政策将成为两国政府的优势策略;当互补程度中等时,两国政府有可能采取差异性的贸易政策.     

HUMAN CAPITAL INEQUALITY AND THE KUZNETS CURVE

This paper develops a Mincerian measure of human capital distribution and applies it to evaluate national and global human capital inequality and compare them with education inequality measures. It is shown that using education inequality as a proxy of human capital inequality is problematic due to the nonmonotonic relationship between them. We find that the inconsistent evidence on education and human capital Kuznets curves in the literature is due to the use of different inequality measures. In particular, human capital Kuznets curves are evident when relative inequality measures are used, whereas education Kuznets curves are found when absolute inequality measures are used. It is also observed that while global education inequality has been declining over the past four decades, global human capital inequality remains largely steady, as the decrease in between‐country human capital inequality is largely balanced by the increase in within‐country human capital inequality.     

Five Points in One Line——Liaoning Costal Economic Zone

To promote the economy in Liaoning and to revitalize the industry base in Northeastern China, we need to improve the competing ability of coastal industrial clusters in Liaoning Province. Through the industrial cluster around the projected Northeast Asia Shipping Center in Liaoning, the province will boost the development and construction of coastal area step by step： join these ports there into a line and form a cluster and then realize the overall prosperity.