Similarly traded securities: Greek common vs. preferred stock

This paper examines the price spread between voting (common) and non‐voting (preferred) stocks during the period 1990–95 for a sample of 55 Greek companies. Because in Greece preferred stocks are not essentially different from common stocks, a number of hypotheses were tested to explain the observed differences. The data reveal an average spread of 27.5% for the entire period which, however, varies across years considerably. In cross‐sectional regressions it was found that the volatility of common stock returns, the liquidity of common shares relative to preferred shares, the ownership concentration, and the minimum dividend yield guaranteed to preferred stockholders explain a significant portion of the spread.     

Ownership concentration and corporate governance practices: substitution or expropriation effects?

The objective of this study is to analyze the relation between ownership concentration and corporate governance practices of a group of Canadian companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. We rely on the corporate governance index developed by the Report on Business (ROB) in 2002. Our empirical results are consistent with the expropriation effect argument that predicts a negative relation between deviation from the one share‐one vote rule and corporate governance best practices. In this context, the dominant shareholder has incentives to maintain weak internal controls in order to facilitate expropriation. In addition, consistent with prior research, our results give partial support to the substitution effect argument by showing a negative impact of ownership concentration on the board composition subindex. Copyright © 2007 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

What Enhances Insider Trading Profitability?

This study analyses the factors triggering insider trading profitability. Since there is not much evidence on this topic in the continental-European context, we focus on the Spanish stock market. Our findings show that the main relevant factors (the timing ability of the insider, the transparency of the transaction and the level of free cash flow of the firm) are related to insiders’ opportunities behaviour, motivated by the lack of either managerial control within the firm or enforcement of insider trading regulation. The level of ownership concentration, the spread and the interaction between the size and the transparency of the transaction are other relevant factors, some of them tested for the first time in the insider trading literature.      

上市公司股权集中度与多元化关系的实证研究

多元化战略是企业广为采用和备受非议的战略,股权集中度与企业多元化的关系研究是近年来公司治理领域研究的重点和热点问题之一。本文以筛选出符合要求的531家中国上市公司样本为研究对象。对股权集中度与企业多元化变量的实证分析。结果表明:股权集中度,包括第一大股东持股比例与企业多元化呈显著U型曲线关系。     

用VxD实现Windows 98/95下的硬件中断

本文较翔实地讲述了用虚拟设备驱动程度（ＶｘＤ）结构编写能与Ｗｉｎ３２客户程序通信的中断服务程度（ＩＳＲ）的方法并给出样板程度。     

Geographic concentration and vertical disintegration: Evidence from China

Existing theoretical literature predicts that geographic concentration encourages vertical disintegration of firms. Nevertheless, empirical evidence of this prediction is limited, especially in developing countries. Using data on manufacturing firms from China, this paper documents a positive correlation between geographic concentration and vertical disintegration. Additionally, this paper uses the instrumental variable approach to address the issue of endogeneity and finds that geographic concentration has a positive causal effect on vertical disintegration.     

Concentration of the UK Stock Market

Abstract:  During 1999 and 2000 a large number of articles appeared in the financial press which argued that the concentration of the FTSE 100 had increased. Many of these reports suggested that stock market volatility in the UK had risen, because the concentration of its stock markets had increased. This study undertakes a comprehensive measurement of stock market concentration using the FTSE 100 index. We find that during 1999, 2000 and 2001 stock market concentration was noticeably higher than at any other time since the index was introduced. When we measure the volatility of the FTSE 100 index we do not find an association between concentration and its volatility. When we examine the variances and covariance's of the FTSE 100 constituents we find that security volatility appears to be positively related to concentration changes but concentration and the size of security covariances appear to be negatively related. We simulate the variance of four versions of the FTSE 100 index; in each version of the index the weighting structure reflects either an equally weighted index, or one with levels of low, intermediate or high concentration. We find that moving from low to high concentration has very little impact on the volatility of the index. To complete the study we estimate the minimum variance portfolio for the FTSE 100, we then compare concentration levels of this index to those formed on the basis of market weighting. We find that realised FTSE index weightings are higher than for the minimum variance index.     

柯韦什的"虚荣心"与人的尊严--读凯尔泰斯小说《无命运的人生》

在纳粹集中营里，一个囚犯有没有维护自己尊严的可能？这是凯尔泰斯在小说《无命运的人生》中想回答的一个问题。作者通过对主人公柯韦什的“虚荣心”，及由此产生的一系列行为和心理活动的分析和描述，向我们表明：尽管在集中营过着非人的生活，忍受着极大的屈辱，主人公并未因此而放弃人的尊严。他一直在自觉不自觉地，用或明显或隐蔽的方式，来反抗野蛮暴力对人的尊严的取缔。     

零售商买方势力：福利分析及公共政策

零售商买方势力的增强改变了产业链上制造商与零售商的传统约束方向，约束方向的改变也带来相应社会福利损失的改变。文中介绍了测量零售商买方势力大小的指标，分析了由于零售商买方势力的增长带来的社会福利状态改变和买方势力对社会效率的影响，提出了抑制零售商买方势力负面效应的对策。     

Industry concentration in common value auctions: theory and evidence

We examine theoretically and experimentally two countervailing effects of industry concentration in common value auctions. Greater concentration of information among fewer bidders reduces competition but increases the precision of private estimates. We demonstrate that this generally leads to more aggressive bidding. However, the reduction in competition dominates the informational effects, resulting in lower prices. We examine these hypothesized effects experimentally by conducting a series of auctions with constant informational content but distributed among a varying number of bidders. The experimental results are consistent with our theoretical predictions. The authors would like to thank Octavian Carare, Eric Friedman, Luke Froeb, Ron Harstad, Toshi Iizuka, Mike Rothkopf, Charles Thomas, and two anonymous referees, for many useful comments and suggestions.