Insiders’ incentives for asymmetric disclosure and firm-specific information flows

Recent research suggests that insiders’ incentives for capturing cash flows affect price formation process in which insiders are inclined to withhold good news and to accelerate the release of bad news (Jin and Myers, 2006). We investigate whether insiders’ incentives for private control benefit, proxied by control-ownership wedge, affect firm-specific return characteristics. We find that control-ownership wedge is negatively related to the likelihood of positive return jumps and positively related to the extent of asymmetric market reaction to good news rather than to bad news. Overall, our results support the notion that corporate insiders increase opaqueness and withhold good news in order to capture unexpected cash flow.     

Alternative Regulatory Cases Challenging Consumer Policy

By means of the concept of postmodern politics, we provide insights into how alternative regulation is challenging consumer policy. New actors, new forms of interaction, and new goals are emerging alongside established forms of consumer policy. In particular, we examine two alternative regulatory cases: trust marks and consumer-generated information systems. They both exemplify alternative regulation of electronic commerce, which has facilitated regulatory innovation for over a decade. On the basis of our analysis, we suggest that governmental consumer policy cannot imitate the alternative regulatory solutions. We also encourage governmental actors to consider building bridges to consumer networks. This would broaden the scope of consumer policy and be in line with the modes of operation of governmental actors. Consumers are themselves contributing to this rethinking of governmental consumer policy. By networking, consumers provide each other with empowering information on consumption. Doing so on the massive scale enabled by information and communication technologies, they are challenging conventional consumer policy, which can no longer address consumer needs as it could in the pre-Internet days. New issues are emerging for consumer policy to address, and networked consumers are already contributing to policy.     

International policy coordination for financial market stability in the Asian economies

Based on the understanding of financial crisis as the self-fulfilling crisis of speculators belief system, this paper examines the feasibility of introducing the Tobin tax system to reduce financial volatility in the Asian foreign exchange markets. The model analysis in this paper provides the following policy implications. To reduce the motivation to deviate from the policy coordination, it is required to allow all tax revenues to collecting countries, especially to Singapore and Hong Kong. Even without the participation of the major western countries, the start of the tax policy coordination in the Asian region can have significant signalling effects to reduce speculative motivation.     

议油品终端销售市场的开拓

分析了目前石化集团公司油品终端销售市场的优势与不足。建议建立并形成石化集团公司油口销售网络，建立成品油配送中心和市场研究中心，建立多种形式的终端销售网点，从而拓展沿品终端终端销售市场。     

Some Nonlinear Threshold Autoregressive Time Series Models for Actuarial Use

Abstract

This paper introduces nonlinear threshold time series modeling techniques that actuaries can use in pricing insurance products, analyzing the results of experience studies, and forecasting actuarial assumptions. Basic “self-exciting” threshold autoregressive (SETAR) models, as well as heteroscedastic and multivariate SETAR processes, are discussed. Modeling techniques for each class of models are illustrated through actuarial examples. The methods that are described in this paper have the advantage of being direct and transparent. The sequential and iterative steps of tentative specification, estimation, and diagnostic checking parallel those of the orthodox Box-Jenkins approach for univariate time series analysis.     

Acceptance of buyout offers in the face of downsizing: empirical evidence from the Korean electronics industry

Using a sample of 812 employees in a major Korean electronics company, this study examines the predictors of acceptance of buyout incentives. As in the retirement research, the results here suggest that employees are more likely to accept buyouts the larger the size of the incentive, the older they are at the time of the offer and the poorer their health. However, in contrast to early retirement research, the results here suggest that it is the better performers, those whose spouses are still in the workforce and those who have already declined previous incentives who are most likely to accept buyout incentives in early and mid-career. This study also highlights five differences between American-based and Korean-based firms in their use of early buyout offers. Korean employees were more likely to accept buyout offers the higher their salary, while in the US salary and acceptance of such offers are typically inversely related. Also, while US firms focus on buyout incentives for older workers, Korean firms will often target workers in their thirties and forties. Korean firms typically offer one-time, lump-sum bonuses as departure incentives, whereas American firms are more likely to add years of age and/or service in calculating pension benefits. While US firms often offer some type of part-time employment contract to their early retirees, Korean firms often prohibit this arrangement. Finally, compared to the US, the greater stigma associated with interfirm mobility in Korea cuts against the acceptances of these offers.     

Employee Movements from Audit Firms to Audit Clients

Regulators have expressed concerns about the “revolving door” between auditors and clients, whereby audit employees move directly from audit firms to audit clients (i.e., “direct alumni hires”). Regulators are concerned that these direct hires could compromise audit quality, partly because these employees could have previously audited their hiring company's financial statements. In contrast, we examine accounting and finance executives who move indirectly from audit firms to audit clients and who could not have previously audited the hiring company's financial statements (i.e., “indirect alumni hires”). We show that indirect hires occur more often than the direct hires that have concerned regulators. We predict and find that both direct and indirect alumni hires are associated with lower rates of executive turnover and audit firm turnover. However, there is no evidence that the reduced rates of executive turnover are explained by managerial entrenchment or that these hires are associated with lower audit quality. Overall, our findings suggest that direct and indirect employee movements from audit firms to audit clients are beneficial to executives, audit clients, and audit firms because they reduce the incidence of costly turnover.     

内部审计在人民银行内控制度建设中的作用论析

本文以阐述内部审计与内部控制制度建设的联系为逻辑起点,并结合实际,逐步分析了内部审计在人民银行内部控制制度建设中的作用,最后探讨了内部审计在人民银行内部控制制度建设中的履职方向。     

基于Flexsim的自动分拣包装及码垛系统仿真与优化研究

计算机仿真技术是研究复杂系统的有效方法,应用仿真软件可以很容易地建立物流系统的仿真模型,较解析方法能更全面地描述实际系统的特征。在分析物流系统仿真方法的基础上,结合某化纤厂的自动分拣包装及码垛系统,利用物流仿真软件Flexsim,对该系统进行了建模仿真,并根据对仿真结果的分析,找出了该物流系统存在的问题,提出优化改进的方法。     

Creating and Recreating Heritage in Singapore

The aim of this paper is to examine the extent to which public planning and policy have created a 'national' identity for Singapore since its independence in 1965, the importance of heritage to contemporary Singapore, and how heritage is marketed to Singaporeans and visitors. Over the last 30 years Singapore has striven to create itself as one of the most modern and successful of the ASEAN nations, but this may have been at the cost of its indigenous cultures and authentic heritage. Many of the craft industries common in the late 1970s and 1980s have been lost, and while the Singapore Tourism Board promotes Chinatown, Little India and Kampong Glam as 'pockets of individuality' in Singapore's multicultural society, souvenirs currently on sale were made in China, India, Malaysia and Indonesia. By contrast, the enduring image of 'Singapore Girl' for Singapore Airlines led to an entire souvenir culture and a batik clad 'Singapore Girl' Barbie Doll.