Do investors actually value sustainability? New evidence from investor reactions to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI)

Research Summary: Research exploring investor reactions to sustainability has substantial empirical limitations, which we address with a large‐scale longitudinal financial event study of the first global sustainability index, DJSI World. We examine investor reactions to firms from 27 countries over 17 years that are added, deleted, or continue on the index. We find that once relevant controls and comparisons to observationally equivalent firms beyond the index are included, DJSI events have only limited significance and/or materiality. Nonetheless, investors' valuation of sustainability around the world has evolved over time, involving diminishing reactions to U.S. firms and increasing benefits, particularly of continuation on the index, over time. The study highlights the importance of careful analysis and longitudinal global samples in making inferences about the financial effects of social performance. Managerial Summary: The debate about how investors perceive corporate social responsibility (CSR) predates Milton Friedman's famous statement that the only social responsibility of business is to increase profits. Although extensive research has studied whether sustainability contributes to financial performance, we have yet to understand whether investors believe it pays off. This financial event study of reactions to the addition, continuation, and deletion from DJSI World, the first global sustainability index, shows that investors care little about DJSI announcements. Nonetheless, there is some evidence that global assessments of sustainability are converging and that investors may increasingly be valuing continuation on the DJSI, suggesting that firms may gain at least limited benefits from reliable sustainability activities.     

Subnational institutional environment,scale competition and MNEs’ ownership levels in transition economy: evidence from China

Abstract

This paper shows that the effect of market scale competition on the ownership levels of foreign-funded enterprises is conditioned on sub-national institutional environment in China. Analysis is based on the idea that multinational enterprises subject to the dual pressures of institutional isomorphism and competition in the host country. The provincial panel data from 2001 to 2012 is used for empirical tests. This study indicates that the weaker the legal property rights protection and legal enforcement of contracts, and the higher the opening up, the more the large foreign-funded enterprises decrease their ownership levels, whereas the negative moderating effect incurred by the reduction to government intervention in business is limited significant.     

Which institutional investors matter for firm survival and performance?

Using data that spans three decades, we assess the diverse roles of institutional investors in impacting survival and performance of chronically underperforming firms and contrast the results for consistently overperforming firms. We find material differences in investor roles and investment returns between these samples. Differentiating among institutional types, controlling for prior performance and attrition bias provides insights unattainable by examining aggregated holdings. For underperformers, results are negative for activist pension funds and long-term institutions, positive for activist hedge funds and short-term institutions, and mixed for institutional blockholders.     

证券市场上中小投资者权益保护机制初探

保护投资者的合法权益是证券法的立法宗旨，然而近几年证券市场上侵犯投资者权益的事件不断发生，在一定程度上已经影响到证券市场的稳定。《证券法》等法律法规中的诸多缺漏，使得其未能充分有效地发挥出保护中小投资者的合法权益、遏制违法行为的作用。应不断完善法律法规，强制信息公开制度，规范信息披露方式，并通过设立法律责任维护中小投资...     

房地产税改革对公租房制度的政策支持分析

2007年以来,我国住房保障体系建设取得了突破性进展,公租房则是近期住房保障制度的重要创新。随着房地产税改革步伐的加快,新的房地产税制必将对公租房的建设和运营形成制度约束。本文在厘清公租房属性和制度要点的基础上,分析现行房地产税制对公租房建设和运营的制度约束,对最近上海和重庆的房产税试点改革进行评述,讨论房地产税改革取向并提出支持公租房制度的建议。     

我国上市公司投资质量测度指标体系的设计与应用

上市公司投资质量的测度指标包括投资规模(选用回归方程的残差指标)与投资结构(选用多元化指数DT指标)两部分指标。使用2007年至2009年我国上市公司数据进行实证检验,发现该指标体系具有科学性。运用加权平均法对2009年我国上市公司投资质量进行综合的计分与排名,进一步验证了该指标体系具有可行性。     

机构侵害中小投资者违规监管博弈仿真

本文主要对股票市场中机构投资者侵害中小投资者利益这种违规行为的监管进行了博弈分析,并使用基于主体建模的动态仿真方法在Swarm仿真平台上建立了仿真模型,同时进行了仿真实验。研究指出,严厉的事前监管、完善的上市公司管理制度以及更高的监管者素质可以有效地杜绝机构投资者侵害违规行为的出现。本文通过运用经济仿真方法对股票市场具体违规行为监管问题进行研究,将股票市场监管、博弈论与经济仿真这三个研究领域结合在一起,拓展了对股票市场监管的研究手段,在经济学研究中做出了一定有益的探索。 更多还原     

医疗卫生基本公共服务的城乡差距及均等化路径

当前,我国城乡之间的医疗卫生服务不均等已成为一个重要的社会问题。本文通过医疗卫生费用和医疗卫生资源的城乡数据分析得出城乡之间的医疗卫生公共服务差距巨大,并通过2000—2008年城乡医疗保健费用的泰尔指数分析,发现城乡组间对城乡医疗卫生公共服务差距的贡献基本上在80%以上,几乎是组内差距贡献的4倍,而从两组的内部差距来看,农村内部的不均等程度要稍高于城市内部的不均等程度,根据分析结果并从财政向农村医疗卫生的投入倾斜、城乡医疗保险制度的整合、医疗体制的深化改革等方面就如何促进医疗卫生公共服务城乡均等化进行探讨。