Information flow between prediction markets,polls and media: Evidence from the 2008 presidential primaries

Are the forecast errors of election-eve polls themselves forecastable? We present evidence from the 2008 Democratic Party nomination race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton showing that the answer is yes. Both cross-sectional and time series evidence suggests that market prices contain information about election outcomes that polls taken shortly before the contests do not. Conversely, election surprises relative to polls too Granger cause subsequent price movements. We then investigate whether the additional information in prices could come from the media coverage of these campaigns, and uncover a set of complex relationships between pollster’s surprise, price movements, and various aspects of media coverage. Prices anticipate the balance and content of media coverage, but not the volume. On the other hand, it is the volume of media coverage, not the balance or content, that anticipates the surprise element in election outcomes. Moreover, Granger causality between prices and election surprises barely changes after controlling for media coverage, and causality from media volume to surprises persists too after controlling for price movements. Taken together, the results suggest that both prices and the volume of media coverage contain independent election-relevant information that is not captured in polls.     

Media coverage and investment efficiency

We examine the effect of media coverage on firm-level investment efficiency. We find that media coverage reduces under-investment but increases over-investment. The negative effect of media coverage on under-investment is more pronounced in firms affected by greater information asymmetry and poorer corporate governance. The positive effect of media coverage on over-investment is driven by media-induced CEO overconfidence. Additional results show that both investment- and non-investment-related news coverage decrease under-investment, while non-investment-related news coverage is more influential in increasing over-investment. In general, higher news optimism is associated with less under-investment but more over-investment. Moreover, media coverage affects investment efficiency through its information dissemination rather than information creation function. Collectively, our results suggest that firms’ media visibility promotes more over-investment than under-investment.     

Should sequels differ from original movies in pre-launch advertising schedule? Lessons from consumers' online search activity

Sequels have become a profitable strategy in the U.S. motion picture industry because of their strong name recognition. However, while the established positioning of a sequel may help insulate it from competing firms' advertising messages, its familiarity may cause moviegoers to be more easily satiated with advertising from the sequel. Therefore, this study examines how sequels differ from original concept movies in terms of their ad effectiveness. We focus our analysis on pre-launch periods, given these periods' importance in shaping the financial outcomes of motion pictures. We consider the weekly online search volume of a movie as a measure of consumer interest in it, and thus as an intermediate response to pre-launch advertising. We then develop a model that assumes ad effectiveness can decline, due to copy and repetition wearout, and increase, due to forgetting, over time. We find that copy wearout is greater for original movies, while repetition wearout and forgetting are greater for sequels. These findings suggest that sequels should allocate more in early pre-launch periods and less immediately before release, relative to originals, to maximize pre-launch consumer interest.     

Mass media and preferences for redistribution

This paper investigates how mass media potentially act on preferences for redistribution. Our hypothesis is that media contribute to shaping the value system of a person, which affects support for redistribution. A theoretical model is proposed which combines demand- and supply-driven media bias. On the demand side, the model considers two types of individuals: non-partisan, whose values are influenced by the media, and partisan, who have strong opinions not affected by the media. We assume that although partisan individuals prefer unbiased information, they hold beliefs that they like to be confirmed; therefore, they tend to consume media with an ideological position similar to theirs. On the supply side, we focus on interest groups’ pressure on media coverage. Our results suggest that the anti-equality lobby is willing to pay more than the competing lobby. Moreover, we show that media bias is a decreasing function of the advertising revenues and an increasing function of the relative weight of ideology vs pluralism in individuals’ demand for media. Adding a second media outlet reduces the likelihood of media bias but not its extent. Finally, if both lobbies are active, the two outlets’ ideological positions are polarised.     

Does the severity of a client’s negative environmental,social and governance reputation affect audit effort and audit quality?

In recent years, investors have begun to value companies’ reputations through their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices. ESG risk can affect business processes and controls and can heighten financial risk and threaten a firm’s survival. This study examines whether and how the severity of media coverage of a firm’s negative ESG issues (tainted ESG reputation) is associated with audit effort and audit quality. I find that auditors manage the higher expected engagement risk conveyed by tainted ESG reputation by applying higher audit effort. Next, I observe that the increased effort is associated with auditors likely detecting and requiring adjustments for material misstatements and that tainted ESG reputation is associated with fewer misstatements (i.e., reduces poor audit quality). The association between tainted ESG reputation and audit quality is driven primarily by increased audit report lag, not by increased audit fees. Further, I find that tainted ESG reputation is positively associated with audit effort and reduces poor audit quality for up to three years. The results also show that the audit effort and audit quality effect vary across the three components of ESG.     

海南自由贸易港海关通关监管模式研究

习近平总书记在庆祝海南建省办经济特区30周年大会上重要讲话和中央12号文件1精神,对海南建设中国特色自由贸易港作出了重要部署,也为海关支持海南建设中国特色自由贸易港提出了新的任务要求。本文针对这一背景,结合海关贯彻落实党的十九届四中全会精神部署要求,聚焦跨境贸易更加便利、风险防控更加精准、区域经济更加活跃的自贸港建设目标,研究提出"一线放开、二线高效管住"海关通关监管模式,并就如何强化保障、防控风险提出相应建议,积极助推海南建设中国特色自由贸易港。     

股票价格波动的信息渠道影响研究——基于媒体报道和分析师预测的视角

文章手工收集、整理了2006-2015年中国A股上市公司的媒体报道倾向数据，实证研究了媒体报道正向倾向与分析师乐观预测偏差对上市公司负收益偏态系数的影响。研究表明，虽然媒体报道正向倾向、分析师乐观预测均分别对上市公司股价负收益偏态系数产生显著的负向影响，但是两者的交互项对股价负收益偏态系数的影响则是显著为正，即当媒体报道正面倾向与分析师乐观预测两者共同作用时，将会触发"信息过度关注偏差"机制，从而降低了上市公司股票收益。文章研究还发现，媒体报道、分析师预测和"信息过度关注偏差"机制的作用强度，在市场化程度高地区要明显大于市场化程度低地区，可能的原因是市场化程度高地区的企业更加容易被媒体报道和分析师关注，进而产生更强的关注效应。     

Targeted advertising as a signal

This study presents a signaling model of advertising for horizontally differentiated products. The central ingredients of the model are two important characteristics of advertising—targeting, and noisy information content. The theory yields interesting results about the informational role of targeted advertising, and its consequences. First, targeting can itself serve as a signal on product attributes. Second, the effectiveness of targeting depends not only on firms knowing consumer preferences, but on consumers knowing that firms know this. This creates a distinction between strategies of targeting and personalization. Third, the effectiveness of targeting in equilibrium may (far) exceed the information contained directly in the targeted message. Fourth, information content is not, however, superfluous. Specifically, when ads contain no information, a targeting equilibrium does not exist. Together, these results reveal how advertising conveys information both through the content of the message and the firm’s choice of advertising medium. Furthermore, the model is robust to the various critiques of prior work on ads-as-signals: namely, that ad content is irrelevant, ad exposure is unnecessary, and the choice of ads as signals is inherently arbitrary.

层次分析法在出口玩具检验监管风险评估中的应用研究

在对出口玩具检验监管工作研究分析的基础上,选取了具有代表性的指标体系,并引入层次分析法科学地确定各个指标的权重。通过建立层次结构模型、构造判断矩阵、相对权重及合成权重的计算,利用较少的定量信息,将整个考核指标过程数学化。最后,针对进一步完善和改进出口玩具检验监管风险评估工作提出合理化建议。     

Media heterogeneity and post‐earnings announcement drift: evidence from China

This paper examines how the Chinese stock market acts differently towards state‐controlled and market‐oriented media coverage. Using a setting of post‐earnings announcement drift, we find that information from state‐controlled media enters the stock price in a timelier manner, while the message from market‐oriented media needs more time to get a response from investors. The effect is also influenced by whether the type of news coverage is good or bad. Our findings suggest that the capital market underreacts when good news is reported by the market‐oriented media.