产业多元化：微型经济体国际比较

澳门产业多元化问题是内地和澳门特区政府以及学术界十分关注的问题。根据产业组织理论,对澳门以及和澳门类似的3个经济体——卢森堡、冰岛和马耳他的产业部门数量和各产业部门在整个经济中的分布进行了比较。使用就业人口和GDP数据计算出的熵指数和赫芬达尔指数显示,澳门的产业多元化程度低于卢森堡、冰岛和马耳他。研究也发现：导致澳门产业多元化程度低的主要原因不是澳门产业部门的数量少,即所谓的＂产业结构单一＂,而是各产业在澳门整个经济活动中的比重不均衡,即所谓的（博彩产业）＂一业独大＂。研究结论可为澳门特区政府制定产业多元化政策提供参考借鉴。     

中国实现现代化进程中的民生取向及民生保障改善的制约突破

保障和改善民生关系到人民对执政党及其政策、领导体制的认同,带有鲜明的时代性。目前,中国现代化的推进正处于社会的转型期,随着改革开放的深入,随着实现现代化进程的加快,社会深层次矛盾会不断显现,民生问题已逐渐成为全社会关注的热点问题。文章明确提出民生经济是现代化发展到一定阶段必然呈现的命题,也是时代深刻变化给中国实现现代化提出的新要求;作者多维度探讨和剖析中国实现现代化进程中的民生取向,围绕民生建设中的市场化影响,以及现代化进程中保障和改善民生的制约突破这两个问题,进行了分析与评价;并基于那些在实现现代化过程中有可能被放大的民生问题预警的状况下,寻求保障和改善民生制约的突破口,探寻民生保障和改善的路径与抓手。     

Capital structure effects of international expansion

This study investigates and qualifies the impact of internationalization on the capital structure of a firm. Previous studies have associated firm internationalization with foreign sales or foreign assets. However, an increase in sales volume generated abroad does not necessarily mean that a firm has actually invested in a new foreign country. This study examines non-financial firms included in the main developed stock indexes that report a new geographical area of operation. It reveals that, at less advanced levels of internationalization, growth in foreign volumes and new geographic expansion lead to differential decision-making in capital structure choices.This study concludes that (1) when the target foreign market is developed, the new market entry does not lead to significant changes in capital structure, whatever the past experience of the firm. (2) The capital structure of well-diversified firms is not significantly modified following a new foreign entry. (3) Both domestic firms and firms only active in developed markets significantly increase their debt to equity ratio when expanding into a region or country where they had no operation before. Well-diversified firms clearly exhibit a different behavior compared to firms in less advanced levels of internationalization.     

Do insurance activities enhance the performance of financial services holding companies?

Stiroh and Rumble (2006) and Yeager et al. (2007) have argued that extension of banks into nonbanking activities produces no diversification benefits for financial services holding companies (FSHCs) eligible to consolidate banking and insurance products. We investigate the effect of aggregate nonbank activities, as well as two main areas of insurance business, namely agency and underwriting enterprise, on the risk-adjusted performance of FSHCs. Our sample includes a quarterly panel data of FSHCs over the period 2003–2011. We find that the effect of FSHCs’ entry into agency insurance activities on their risk-adjusted returns is dependent on their size; it is positive for FSHCs in the top quartile of our sample (assets greater than $4.495 billions), but negative for smaller and mid-size FSHCs. The effect of underwriting insurance activities on risk-adjusted returns is generally negative or statistically insignificant, except for some of the largest-size firms.     

A Note on Affordability and the Optimal Share Price

Despite the increase in institutional ownership, decreased trading costs, and increased real personal savings, we find that the average stock price is lower today than it was in the 1920s. In the aggregate, the propensity to split is a function of recent market performance, personal savings, and the desirability of appearing to be a small firm. Our results indicate that, after decades of inflation and the average stock price falling, splitting stocks to return to an "affordable" trading range must be rejected as an explanation. This suggests that other economic forces are behind splits, whether traditional or behavioral in nature.     

发展与民生兼顾：构建“两圈一带”战略视野下的湖北省城乡统筹社会保障体系

实施＂两圈一带＂发展战略是湖北省＂十二五＂规划制定的关键与核心内容,如何推进这一发展战略的落实是湖北省下一阶段发展的主要任务。发展与民生是＂两圈一带＂战略规划中的两个重要命题,在全局观的统领下,适时调整和完善湖北区域经济发展的新战略是实现发展的基本要义;重视民生,构建区域内城乡统筹的社会保障体系是实现全局发展战略规划的根本动力。本文阐释了构建＂两圈一带＂区域内城乡统筹社会保障体系的基本原则、提出了应在切实保障和改善民生理念的指导下,分步推进区域内城乡统筹社会保障体系建立的总体设计思路与制度难点。     

A behavioral analysis of investor diversification

This paper studies the link between individual investors’ portfolio diversification levels and various personal traits that proxy informational advantages and overconfidence. The analysis is based on objective data from the largest Turkish brokerage house tracking 59,951 individual investors’ accounts with a total of 3,248,654 million transactions over the period 2008–2010. Wealthier, highly educated, older investors working in the finance sector and those trading relatively often show higher diversification levels possibly because they are better equipped to obtain and process information. Finance professionals, married investors, and those placing high-volume orders through investment centers show poorer diversification possibly as a reflection of overconfidence. Our analysis reveals important nonlinear effects, implying that the marginal impact of overconfidence on diversification is not uniform across investors but varies according to the investor's information gathering and processing abilities.     

THE REVOLUTION WITHIN: ICT AND THE SHIFTING KNOWLEDGE BASE OF THE WORLD'S LARGEST COMPANIES

This empirical article analyses the importance of information and communications technologies (ICT) in the technological diversification trend among the world's largest manufacturing firms during the 1980s and 1990s. The objective of the research is twofold: first, to emphasise the emerging differences among technologies when companies from different industries patent outside their traditional technological capabilities; secondly, to investigate whether the tendency among large companies from all industries to patent in ICT is distinctive when compared with the tendency to patent in other technologies. We find that technological diversification in large companies has clearly occurred in ICTs. Non-ICT specialist industries increasingly develop, rather than just utilise, the cluster of ICT-related technologies. We conclude that the development of corporate capabilities in the key technologies of the emerging ICT paradigm is more widespread than previously emphasised in the literature. One implication of this observation is that technological diversification and the information revolution may be related phenomena.