Forecasting corporate financial distress in the Southeast Asian countries: A market-based approach

This study is conducted to investigate the prediction of corporate financial distress based on the Merton (1974) market-based Distance to Default (DD) model over the period from 1997 to 2016 which covers a range of economic financial circumstances, including the Asian Financial Crisis (AFC) and Global Financial Crisis (GFC). The study focusses on the six largest countries in the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), comprising of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Unlike previous studies which focus mainly on bankruptcy, this paper focusses on early warning distress indicators that signal distress well before bankruptcy. This is when firms experience difficulty in servicing debt as measured by interest coverage ratio (ICR) at a firm level and non-performing loans (NPLs) at a country level. Key empirical findings from this paper indicate that the market-based distance-to-default (DD) model is generally a good early warning indicator of financial distress in the following year, particularly for ICR, but that prediction accuracy varies between individual countries in the Southeast Asian region.     

大尺寸机载智能多功能显示器的设计与实现

分析了座舱显示系统发展现状和面临的问题，设计并实现了一种一体化、大屏幕显示的智能化多功能显示器。该型显示器通过FC-AE-ASM（Fibre Channel-Avionics Environment-Anonymous Subscriber Message）网络和高速串行总线高效传输图形数据，解决了图形处理及传输的瓶颈问题；采用ARINC661（座舱显示系统与用户系统的接口）标准，规范了任务处理和显示处理的接口设计标准；支持红外触控以提高人机信息的交互效率；采用工程优化设计以提高显示器抗恶劣环境的能力。应用表明智能多功能显示器运行可靠，相对于传统飞行显示器，在显示处理、数据传输和人机功效等方面具有显著优势。     

制度差异、“一带一路”倡议与中国大型对外投资——基于投资边际、模式与成败的三重视角

本文基于2005—2016年中国609个企业2 440个大型对外投资微观样本，全面考察正式与非正式制度差异对企业投资边际、模式与成败的影响。研究发现：正式制度差异对投资规模化的影响不大，但显著影响投资多元化。企业为了避免正式制度差异带来的管理风险，倾向于选择全资股权结构，但企业选择绿地投资还是跨国并购并不受到正式制度差异的影响。相比之下，非正式制度差异的影响更为广泛。无论是正式制度差异还是非正式制度差异，均会显著增加企业投资的失败概率。进一步研究发现，“一带一路”倡议主要对正式制度差异存在优化互补效应。研究结论表明，夯实“一带一路”倡议，尤其大力发展与沿线国家的文化深度交流，有助于企业更快、更好地走出去。     

Is there a diversification “cost” of Shari’ah compliance? Empirical evidence from Malaysian equities

Islamic equity portfolios work with a smaller investment universe given the filtering of non-Shari’ah compliant stocks. It has been theoretically argued that this culminates in suboptimal portfolio diversification, which in turn adversely affects risk-adjusted returns. We offer empirical evidence that such a conceived portfolio diversification “penalty” is far from a foregone conclusion, at least empirically. Our results tend to indicate that Islamic portfolios are not invariably handicapped in terms of portfolio diversification. We also explored dimensions that may account for differences in the relative investment performance between Islamic and conventional portfolios, such as portfolio constraints, short selling and market conditions. We believe this paper is among the first to apply substantial empirical analysis specifically with respect to the portfolio diversification perspective on Islamic equity investments.     

资本回报率、人力资本投资与收入不平等——基于Galor-Zeira模型的扩展

资本回报率下降对人力资本投资、收入不平等程度有较大影响。本文将可变资本回报率加入Galor-Zeira模型,理论推导发现:收入不平等陷阱并非不可逾越的障碍。当技能劳动力工资高于受教育固定成本时,随着资本回报率下降,接受教育的遗赠临界水平将降低,更多家庭将发现投资人力资本是有利的,稳态的技能劳动力比例将提高。在当前资本回报率下降的大背景下,提高技能劳动力工资、降低受教育成本、对教育贷款实施财政减免优惠、为农村中等教育支出减负和提升农村教育质量、倡导节俭和重视遗赠的文化氛围在长期都有助于提高技能劳动力比重以及缓和收入不平等。     

基于跨境社交平台的产品推广模式研究

论文调查分析了近年来热度较高的跨境社交媒体平台以及相关使用数据,利用相关性分析方法分析了多个平台的数据,在此过程中发现了各平台间具有相当高的互惠性,并运用互惠比例和推广方式适配度模型完成了对跨境社交平台的运行模式以及推广方式的对比分析,最终研究得出跨境社交媒体平台的产品推广模式。     

Inference for large financial systems

We treat the parameter estimation problem for mean‐field models of large interacting financial systems such as the banking system and a pool of assets held by an institution or backing a security. We develop an asymptotic inference approach that addresses the scale and complexity of such systems. Harnessing the weak convergence results developed for mean‐field financial systems in the literature, we construct an approximate likelihood for large systems. The approximate likelihood has a conditionally Gaussian structure, enabling us to design an efficient numerical method for its evaluation. We provide a representation of the corresponding approximate estimator in terms of a weighted least‐squares estimator, and use it to analyze the large‐system and large‐sample behavior of the estimator. Numerical results for a mean‐field model of systemic financial risk highlight the efficiency and accuracy of our estimator.     

The implied Sharpe ratio

In an incomplete market, including liquidly traded European options in an investment portfolio could potentially improve the expected terminal utility for a risk-averse investor. However, unlike the Sharpe ratio, which provides a concise measure of the relative investment attractiveness of different underlying risky assets, there is no such measure available to help investors choose among the different European options. We introduce a new concept—the implied Sharpe ratio—which allows investors to make such a comparison in an incomplete financial market. Specifically, when comparing various European options, it is the option with the highest implied Sharpe ratio that, if included in an investor's portfolio, will improve his expected utility the most. Through the method of Taylor series expansion of the state-dependent coefficients in a nonlinear partial differential equation, we also establish the behaviour of the implied Sharpe ratio with respect to an investor's risk-aversion parameter. In a series of numerical studies, we compare the investment attractiveness of different European options by studying their implied Sharpe ratio.     

我国蛋鸡养殖环境全要素生产率测度及省域比较分析

［目的］蛋鸡养殖场规模化养殖与生态环境保护协调发展问题是蛋鸡养殖业可持续发展过程中面临的关键性问题，测度我国大、中、小3种规模下不同省份蛋鸡养殖场的环境全要素生产率，并从时间、地区两个维度对蛋鸡养殖场的环境全要素生产率进行比较。［方法］利用2004—2016年不同养殖规模蛋鸡养殖场的投入和产出数据，文章基于SBM函数的Malmquist Luengerber（ML）指数方法，对蛋鸡养殖场环境全要素生产率进行分解，将其分解为技术进步指数、效率改进指数。［结果］（1）蛋鸡养殖场环境全要素生产率整体呈现下降趋势，同时与蛋鸡养殖规模呈反比，蛋鸡养殖场规模越大，蛋鸡养殖环境生产率越小。（2）蛋鸡养殖场效率存在效率改善，但养殖技术进步率相对较低，尤其是对小规模养殖场而言，改善空间更明显； （3）蛋鸡养殖环境全要素生产率区域差异较为明显，整体来看，蛋鸡养殖主产区环境全要素生产率高于非主产区。［结论］加强蛋鸡产业科技创新水平以及公共服务设施的投入，提高养殖户的废弃物无害化处理能力，推行蛋鸡养殖的规模化和标准化发展，进一步改善养殖效率，以促进蛋鸡养殖规模化和生态环境保护协调发展。     

Does air pollution change a firm's business strategy for employing capital and labor?

We examine the impact of air pollution on a firm's capital-labor ratio. We propose the hypothesis that, in dealing with air pollution, a firm responds strategically by using relatively more capital and less labor to contain labor costs and remain competitive in the market. Using a sample of Chinese firms and a satellite-based air pollution metric, we test this hypothesis, and our results confirm it. In addition, we document that the impact of air pollution on the capital-labor ratio is more salient for firms with high economic incentives and close monitoring. Further, we report that to respond to worsening air pollution, a firm uses more capital and substitutes lower-quality labor with more high-quality labor. Finally, after increasing the capital-labor ratio, a firm's value increases, in terms of Tobin's Q, suggesting that the adoption of a higher capital-labor ratio, due to air pollution, is a sound business strategy.