The effects of credit default swaps on corporate investment

ABSTRACT

This paper examines how credit default swaps (CDS) affect the corporate investment of the referenced entities. We document a significant reduction in corporate investment after CDS trading, a result that is robust to alternative model specifications and a set of endogeneity tests. Our findings of the increased firm risk and cost of capital support the costly external capital channel. The cross-sectional variations in CDS effects demonstrate that both reduced monitoring and the empty creditor problem might be the underlying forces driving the costly external capital channel. Our additional analysis implies that CDS trading is associated with an enhancement in investment efficiency for firms that are prone to overinvestment.     

Board directors with foreign experience and stock price crash risk: Evidence from China

This study examines the impact of board directors with foreign experience (BDFEs) on stock price crash risk. We find that BDFEs help reduce crash risk. This association is robust to a series of robustness checks, including a firm fixed effects model, controlling for possibly omitted variables, and instrumental variable estimations. Moreover, we find that the negative association between BDFEs and crash risk is more pronounced for firms with more agency problems, weaker corporate governance, and less overall transparency. Our findings suggest that the characteristics of board directors matter in determining stock price crash risk.     

A netnographic sensibility: developing the netnographic/social listening boundaries

Netnography is constantly evolving as technologies and access to online data develop. Our paper outlines how large data sets of social media can be analysed through bridging the divide between the small, rich and contextually nuanced data that is the hallmark of netnography and the scope and scale of data made possible through social media listening conventions. We define this approach as netnographic sensibility and with the use of a short case study discuss the process through which social media data could be gathered, triangulated and analysed. We orientate the paper around two interrelated questions: investigating how netnographic insights can be extended using social media monitoring tools, and asking how this can be used to add richness and depth to understanding mass consumer realities. Our contribution complements the widely established methodological approach of netnography as we argue that netnography has the capacity and capability to embrace technological advances within the domain of social listening to add value for academic researchers.     

SHIRKING,STANDARDS AND THE PROBABILITY OF DETECTION

By relaxing the common efficiency wage assumption of exogenous shirking detection probabilities, we demonstrate how standards and efficiency wages are related. In a more general setting where the probability of detection depends upon the equilibrium effort level of non‐shirkers, we show that the uniformly positive (negative) supply‐side relationship between wages (unemployment insurance) and effort is no longer guaranteed. Profit maximization on the part of the firm, however, ensures that effort will depend positively (negatively) on wages (unemployment insurance) in equilibrium.     

执法监测中正确使用环境标准初探

经过近四十年的发展和完善,我国的环境标准已形成了“两级五类”的完整体系。基层监测人员在执法监测中对环境标准的选择,要结合环境影响批复和污染工艺、排放去向进行综合考虑。在排污许可证上载明的污染物排放浓度与排放标准中规定的浓度限值不一致的情况下,应慎重选取排放标准规定的浓度限值。使用环境标准的基本原则是地方标准优先于国家标准,行业标准优先于综合标准,新标准优先于旧标准,地方政府文件不具有标准效力。     

Police-Monitored Cameras and Crime*

We study the effects of police monitoring on crime. We exploit detailed information on the location and date of installation of police-monitored surveillance cameras, coupled with data at the street-segment level on all reported crimes in the city of Montevideo, Uruguay. We find that the introduction of police-monitored surveillance cameras reduces crime by about 20 percent in monitored areas relative to a pure control group located outside the city. We also explore potential displacement effects, and we do not find evidence of such effects.     

Decomposing financial (in)stability in emerging economies

The analysis of the build-up of risks in emerging economies have traditionally been scarce and focused mostly on external risks, despite the recent substantial development of their financial system. This paper builds an index of financial vulnerabilities tailored to emerging economies, grouping 32 indicators around four poles: valuation and risk appetite, imbalances in the non-financial sector, financial sector vulnerabilities, and global vulnerabilities. It adopts a model-free approach, purposely departing from early warning models or complex econometric constructs, and rely on data made already available by international organisations. Our index of financial vulnerabilities enables a granular mapping of where risk originates and how it spreads to other parts of the financial system. Using various data visualisation tools and benefitting from the flexibility of our index’s methodology, we are able build a narrative of the evolution of financial stability in emerging economies from 2005 to 2015. Finally, we also discuss the relation between our index and both the business cycle (proxied by GDP) and the credit cycle (proxied by the credit-to-GDP gap).     

面向规划管理的国外国家公园监测体系研究及启示——以美国、加拿大、英国为例

监测对于国家公园的科学保护管理与规划具有重要意义。中国正处于国家公园体制建设初期，有必要深入研究如何建立国家公园监测体系。以近20年来发展迅速的美国、加拿大和英国的国家公园监测体系为研究对象，基于文献调查和比较分析，从监测内容框架与指标、数据管理与转化、组织和保障3个方面梳理在各自资源与管理背景下国家公园监测体系的基本特点，并提取出面向规划管理的国家公园监测体系建设的16个基本要点，为我国提供借鉴和启示。     

一种嵌入式软件无线电频谱监测系统

为了降低研发成本，提高频谱系统的灵活性和缩短研制周期，提出了一种基于软件无线电的嵌入式频谱监测系统。首先研究了系统硬件平台组成和特点，在此基础上设计了一种灵活的软件定义系统架构；然后考虑到硬件平台自身性能的限制，重点研究了频率偏移校正、频谱扫描策略等关键技术，分别提出了基于GSM信号和温度传感器的频偏校正方法和基于相关性的扫频策略；最后通过具体实验，对系统性能进行验证与评估，结果表明所提出的频偏校正方法能够将绝对平均频偏控制在1.749×10-6以内，所设计的基于相关性的扫频策略对时变信号的频谱监测效果最好。     

一种基于Edline线特征的车道线识别算法

为了提升车道线检测的准确性和实时性,改良车道偏离预警系统的性能,提出了一种新的车道线识别算法。首先应用投影法对采集到的图像设立感兴趣区域,以此来减少图像中存在的干扰信息;其次应用一种改进后的自适应高斯滤波算法对采集所得图像进行平滑处理,减少图像中不必要的细节;最后采用边缘绘制算法进行边缘检测,在此基础上,提出一种线段检测算法——Edline算法提取边缘线,对检测到的直线段进行筛选和聚类。利用引用计数法对车道线进行跟踪和预测。结果表明,新算法的平均处理时间为17.1 ms,准确率为96.19%,将其应用在车道偏离预警系统中可以有效地提高预警效率,提升预警的准确性和响应速度。研究结果丰富了车道线识别理论,可为车道偏离预警系统的应用及基础研究提供参考。