Are Securitizations in Substance Sales or Secured Borrowings? Capital‐Market Evidence*

Two standard‐setting approaches have emerged globally to guide the choice of accounting for securitizations: the control and components approach (SFAS No. 125 and SFAS No. 140) and the risks and rewards transfer approach (IAS No. 39). A lack of consensus about derecognition accounting is a major impediment to achieving convergence in global standards that must be resolved. Thus, both SFAS No. 140 and IAS No. 39 will be reexamined, and evidence pertinent to the debate is timely and important. In this study, we present evidence consistent with the view of credit‐rating analysts, who view many securitizations as, in substance, secured borrowings. Specifically, for a sample of originators applying sale accounting guidance in SFAS No. 125 / 140 during the period 1997‐2003, we show that off‐balance‐sheet debt related to securitizations has, on average, the same risk‐relevance for explaining market measures of risk (that is, CAPM beta) as on‐balance‐sheet debt. We also find that, in a returns and earnings association framework, the pricing multiple on securitization gains declines as the amount of off‐balance‐sheet debt increases, implying that investors take off‐balance‐sheet debt into account when assessing the valuation‐relevance of such gains. For those who advocate the control and components approach to securitization accounting, our results suggest that, at least for frequent securitizers, the put option arising from implicit recourse is a “missing piece” that is not currently accounted for when calculating securitization gains. Our results challenge the extant measurement standards in SFAS No. 140.     

“国外引进”还是“自主发展”？——对我国政府信息系统审计发展途径的探讨

对于我国政府信息系统审计发展途径这个问题,学界一直有着不同的看法,其中存在＂国外引进＂与＂自主发展＂两种典型的观点。事实上,单纯依靠＂国外引进＂是行不通的,＂自主发展＂虽然还存在很多问题,但却是最终发展的方向。因此当前除了对国外理论进行消化外,研究者和审计人员还需要不断探索、试错和创新,逐步形成适合我国现状的政府信息系统审计体系。     

Social capability deficits and productivity behaviour of African manufacturing firms: Evidence from Lesotho garment producers

Despite attempts to induce strong competitiveness in African manufacturing firms, poor productivity performances continue to hinder their ability to operate successfully in international markets. This paper argues that, while many plausible explanations can be put forward for this failing, analysis of the firms' social and institutional contexts can provide useful insights into why they have continued to perform badly. Adopting the technological catch-up framework proposed by Abramovitz (1986) Abramovitz, M. 1986. Catching up, forging ahead and falling behind. Journal of Economic History, 46(2): 385–406. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], the paper uses the case of Lesotho garment producers to illustrate how an environment characterised by significant social capability deficits has a negative impact on local firms' competitiveness. Strategic interventions to improve the quality of infrastructural services deliveries are suggested as urgently needed remedial measures.     

An improved bootstrap test of stochastic dominance

We propose a new method of testing stochastic dominance that improves on existing tests based on the standard bootstrap or subsampling. The method admits prospects involving infinite as well as finite dimensional unknown parameters, so that the variables are allowed to be residuals from nonparametric and semiparametric models. The proposed bootstrap tests have asymptotic sizes that are less than or equal to the nominal level uniformly over probabilities in the null hypothesis under regularity conditions. This paper also characterizes the set of probabilities so that the asymptotic size is exactly equal to the nominal level uniformly. As our simulation results show, these characteristics of our tests lead to an improved power property in general. The improvement stems from the design of the bootstrap test whose limiting behavior mimics the discontinuity of the original test’s limiting distribution.     

Poverty Orderings

This paper reviews the literature of partial poverty orderings. Partial poverty orderings require unanimous poverty rankings for a class of poverty measures or a set of poverty lines. The need to consider multiple poverty measures and multiple poverty lines arises inevitably from the arbitrariness inherent in poverty comparisons. In the paper, we first survey the ordering conditions of various individual poverty measures for a range of poverty lines; for some measures necessary and sufficient conditions are identified while for others only some easily verifiable sufficient conditions are established. These ordering conditions are shown to have a close link with the stochastic dominance relations which are based on the comparisons of cumulative distribution functions. We then survey the ordering conditions for various classes of poverty measures with a single or a set of poverty lines; in all cases necessary and sufficient conditions are established. These conditions again rely on the stochastic dominance relations or their transformations. We also extend the relationship between poverty orderings and stochastic dominance to higher orders and explore the possibility and the conditions of increasing the power of poverty orderings beyond the second degree dominance condition.     

A baseline model of industry evolution

The paper analyses some general dynamic properties of industries characterized by heterogeneous firms and continuing stochastic entry.After a brief critical assessment of some significant drawbacks of recent contributions to modeling of stochastic industrial dynamics, we propose a novel analytical apparatus able to derive some generic properties of the underlying competition process combining persistent technological heterogeneity, differential growth of individual firms and turnover. The basic model, we suggest, is indeed applicable with proper modifications to a large class of evolutionary processes, well beyond industrial dynamics.JEL Classification: L11, O30, C60Support to this research by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Austria; the Fujitsu Research Institute for Advanced Information (FRI), Japan; the Italian National Research Council (CNR), the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR, prot. 2002132413 003) and the Free University of Bozen Bolzano, Italy, is gratefully acknowledged. Comments by Andrea Bassanini, Francesca Chiaromonte, Steven Klepper, Uwe Cantner, Drew Fudenberg and the anonymous referees helped in shaping the paper to its present form. Mariele Berté provided the computer simulations of the model. The usual caveats apply.Correspondence to: G. Dosi     

Economic reforms,efficiency and productivity in Chinese banking

This paper analyzes the impact of banking reforms on efficiency and total factor productivity (TFP) change in Chinese banking industry. Using an input distance function, we find that joint-equity banks are more efficient than wholly state-owned banks (WSOBs). Furthermore, both WSOBs and joint-equity banks are found to be operating slightly below their optimal size, suggesting potential advantages in expansion of their businesses. Overall, TFP growth was 4.4% per annum for the sample period 1993–2002. Joint-equity banks experienced much higher growth in TFP (5.5% per annum) compared to the WSOBs (1.4% per annum).      

基于边限检验理论关于我国R&D投入和经济增长关系的实证研究——从分解视角的考虑

基于我国1991~2006年间数据,运用边限检验理论对我国R&D投入和经济增长之间的关系进行了实证研究,结果表明:我国R&D投入和经济增长之间存在长期的稳定关系,从短期来看,上期GDP增量和本期企业R&D投入对我国经济增长的促进作用显著;从长期关系看,企业R&D投入对经济增长的推动作用为正,而政府R&D投入、金融机构的R&D贷款对经济增长的推动作用为负。     

文学与科学相结合:科普社会化的途径研究

科普是科学与人文的交集。在灵活多样的科普途径中,文学途径的优势在于普及科学理性,而科普的根本意义也正在于普及科学理性,因为科学理性是科学的根本和灵魂所在。科学童话既符合科学特质又具有普及性特点,其作用在于深入浅出地介绍科学知识,使少儿在轻松愉快的语境中,学会各种科学知识,增强科学理念。文学途径在科学普及的产业链条中预期会产生很好的社会效益。     

论过程方法在质量管理体系中的应用

本文介绍了以过程为基础的质量管理体系模式的含义,分析了过程与过程方法的相互关系,阐述了在运用过程方法建立质量管理体系时应注意的各种事项。