The changing place of fraud in seventeenth-century public debates about international trading corporations

Abstract

This article surveys the changing role of fraud (dishonest and immoral commercial practices) in public justifications for corporate management of overseas trade in England across the seventeenth century. It argues that the perceived likelihood of fraud in international commercial settings played a critical role in public justifications for trading corporations at the beginning of the seventeenth century. The article suggests that these justifications were challenged from the 1690s. It explores three aspects of this challenge: first, the ways in which agents of the East India Company convinced the Company to liberate private trade (an activity previously defined as fraudulent by the Company and the Courts); second, the arguments from the 1680s that depicted the joint-stock corporation as an unaccountable, soulless entity whose claim to public trust looked less credible; third, how decades of accumulated experience of international trading contexts (and interactions with non-European merchants) prompted pamphleteers to promote the possibility (and reality) of unregulated trade in those settings. All three helped to erode the former association between private individual trade in international contexts as likely to encourage dishonesty, immorality, and fraud. This change therefore led to the corporate body itself becoming a possible vehicle for fraud rather than the individual international merchant (who the corporation was meant originally to regulate). The article analyses public deliberations about fraud and corporations to make interventions in the history of economic thought, the history of trading companies, and the history of economic crime (and especially its rhetorical role in debates about the regulation of trade).     

企业应收账款管理研究

我国经济已由高速增长阶段转向高质量发展阶段,“提升治理能力,实现高质量发展”是我国面对新变化、新趋势再一次作出的明确路径选择。如何加强应收账款的管理,已经成为现代企业管理中不容回避的问题。论文通过对LD公司应收账款管理的研究,提出改进方案和实施保障措施,有助于解决LD公司应收账款管理的实际问题,顺应企业高质量发展需求,提高应收账款管理能力,推动企业朝着更高质量、更可持续的方向发展。     

TrAffic LIght system for systemic Stress: TALIS3

For the purposes of financial stability, identifying financial institutions that, when in distress, could have a significant adverse impact on financial markets is important. A TrAffic LIght System for Systemic Stress (TALIS-cube) is proposed that provides a comprehensive color-based classification for grouping companies according to both the stress reaction level of the system when the company is in distress and the company’s stress level. TALIS³ can integrate multiple signals from the interaction between different risk metrics. Starting from specific risk indicators, companies are classified by combining two loss functions—one for the system and one for each company—evaluated over time and as a cross section. An aggregated index is also obtained from the color-based classification of companies. TALIS³ can be used to enhance the performance and robustness of existing systemic risk measures. An empirical analysis of the U.S. market is also provided.     

Financial statement comparability and bank risk-taking

This study examines the relationship between financial statement comparability and bank risk-taking. Our analysis of a sample of publicly listed U.S. banks over the 1994–2019 period shows that banks with more comparable financial statements are related to significantly less risk-taking. We also find that the negative relationship between comparability and risk-taking is more pronounced for firms with more severe moral hazard and agency problems. Our documented findings are robust across alternative measures of comparability and risk-taking and considering change analysis, after controlling for strength of corporate governance and using propensity score matching and two-stage least squares estimation to address endogeneity concerns. Our analysis also shows that the relationship between financial statement comparability and bank risk-taking is stronger for smaller banks than for larger banks. Overall, this study provides unique insights into the role of financial statement comparability in curbing risk-taking in the banking sector.     

Relationship between city size and firm productivity – A new interpretation using the Chinese experience

This paper contributes to the literature on the relationship between city size and firm productivity by focusing on agglomeration, selection (market competition), and sorting (presence of firms with diverse productivity) effects using Chinese firm-level data for 1998–2013. Contrary to the existing literature, our parametric regression estimates from nearly two million firms show that when the selection effect is controlled, productivity advantage in big cities is reversed. This outcome is explained through a quantile regression showing the existence of left-sided sorting (inefficient firms sort themselves to larger cities) in big cities which is not captured in existing empirical literature. We further find that (1) left-sided sorting is stronger in exporters than non-exporters; (2) is also generated mainly in enterprises with high asset-liability ratios; and (3) selection has a positive effect on firm productivity, suggesting that market competition is key in an explanation of the rapid growth of big cities in China.     

To Trust or Not to Trust? Consumer Responses to Cause-Related Marketing

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to understand if company trustworthiness and the type of cause-related marketing (CRM) campaigns (strategic vs. tactical) affect purchase intention and company image of a yogurt producer, under the control of socially responsible consumer behavior, general trust, income, attitude toward the CRM campaign, and initial company image. The study applies a quantitative (experimentation) research to test the proposed model. MANCOVA was applied with data obtained from 600 respondents who were selected by a two-stage cluster sampling method. The research model is partially supported. Company trustworthiness and CRM type are found to affect only company image and without any interaction effect. Being a highly trustworthy company applying a CRM campaign has more positive influence on company image than a less trustworthy one. Additionally, a strategic CRM campaign creates more positive influence on company image than a tactical one. The findings are further deliberated with the managers of the two selected companies with focus group discussions.     

A supply-demand model of public sector size

We develop a supply-demand model for the public sector with a political equilibrium. The model considers the inefficiencies caused by taxes and includes costs associated with the provision of public goods to consumers. We show that the size of the public sector may depend on the median voter's income, population size, costs associated with paying tax, and quality of institutions, all of which reflect the costs of provisioning public goods. The estimates for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development member countries are compatible with theoretical predictions; however, they do not confirm Wagner's law, which holds that the public sector share does not grow with an increase in income. A greater dependency ratio and the Gini coefficient increase demand for redistribution policies. Greater government effectiveness is a supply-side factor that increases the public sector's share in an economy.     

母公司控股、融资约束与企业创新投入

利用2012－2017年我国A股上市公司数据，检验母公司控股对企业创新投入的作用。结果发现：子公司创新投入意愿明显不足。进一步分析发现，融资约束弱化了母公司控股与企业创新投入意愿之间的关系。运用变换模型估计和变量处理方法检验后，结论仍然十分稳健。结论为法学和经济学的有限责任理论、管理学的前景理论与威胁刚性模型提供了经验证据，从而丰富了上述领域文献。同时，对我国集团型公司治理中的创新管理具有一定借鉴意义。     

动态能力、企业规模与双元创新关系研究——基于fsQCA方法的实证分析

对186家企业问卷数据进行模糊集定性比较分析（fsQCA），探寻3种类型动态能力和企业规模等因素对双元创新的组合效应以及不同因素之间的互动关系。研究发现，分别存在两种等效路径支撑中国企业实现探索式创新和利用式创新；吸收能力作为核心条件存在，联合不同水平的机会识别、资源拼凑和企业规模，大大提高企业实现双元创新的可能性；此外，资源拼凑兼具探索性和利用性双重特征，联合机会识别促进双元创新，其中，资源丰裕的大规模企业更具优势。采用QCA构型研究方法，推动了企业创新行为选择的因果逻辑性研究，从单维视角向多维交互的整体视角转变，明确了各种类型动态能力与双元创新之间的关系以及不同能力间的依赖/替代关系。     

父母陪伴对青少年非认知能力的影响 ——基于亲子共餐视角的准实验研究

采用"中国教育追踪调查(CEPS)"两期面板数据,利用双重差分倾向得分匹配法(PSM-DID),从亲子共餐这一微观视角来探究父母陪伴对青少年非认知能力的影响。结果显示,亲子共餐频率的降低对青少年的非认知能力总水平及其分维度情绪稳定性、宜人性和尽责性均有显著的负向影响,反之,亲子共餐频率的提高对青少年的非认知能力总水平有显著的正向影响,但具体从各维度来看,亲子共餐频率的提高仅对青少年的宜人性产生显著的正向影响,而对情绪稳定性和尽责性均无显著影响。