Chief Audit Executive as Supervisory Board Member and Executive Compensation Contracts

This paper studies a unique phenomenon in China's corporate governance—that chief audit executives (CAEs) sit on supervisory boards (CAE duality)—and examines its effects on executive compensation contracts. Using a sample of listed firms between 2010 and 2018, we find a significant positive relation between CAE duality and pay-for-performance sensitivity, which suggests that the dual position helps integrate monitoring resources and reduces agency costs. This positive relation is more pronounced when companies face a stricter monitoring environment and in non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs) than in SOEs. In addition, we find that the recent reforms on compensation strengthen the role of CAE duality in SOEs. Further analysis identifies the reliability of performance information (i.e., earnings quality) and reduced executive self-interested behaviours (i.e., perquisite consumption) as the influencing mechanisms that increase the demand for performance-based compensation and thus improve pay-for-performance sensitivity.     

Determinants of China's bilateral trade balance in global value chains

This paper identifies the determinants of China's bilateral trade balance using a new measure based on international input–output data, the so-called ‘trade in value-added’ (TiVA), which can prevent double counting in the estimation of bilateral trade balance. Our results show that using a measure based on gross exports, rather than TiVA, causes relatively large overestimation of the impact of the RMB exchange rate on China's bilateral trade balance. This overestimation is mainly because that the increasing production of exports may require increasing intermediate imports as a consequence of international fragmentation of production in global value chains. In addition, our results also show that the impact of FDI inflows on China's bilateral trade balances depends on the position and role of China and its trading partners in GVCs.     

河北省北部山区农村生态环境治理及绩效评价

[目的]农村生态环境是一个复杂的系统,严重的生态环境问题制约着农村经济的发展以及新农村建设,探讨其治理和绩效,有利于解决生态环境建设中的各种问题,对于区域发展具有重要的理论和实践意义。[方法]文章通过构建农村生态环境治理及绩效评价指标体系,采用层次分析法确定各个指标的权重以及灰色关联法分析各指标间的灰色关联度。[结果]河北省北部山区农村生态环境治理绩效评价指标体系要素层中权重值大小依次为生态经济(0. 483 9)、生态环境(0. 273 6)、生态人居(0. 137 1)、生态保护(0. 105 4),说明该地区农村经济水平已达到一定水平,但生态环境、生态保护等仍有待提高。灰色关联法计算结果表明河北省北部山区生态环境中关联系数最高的是畜禽粪便处理率(0. 754),生态经济中关联系数最高的是农民人均纯收入(0. 624),生态保护中关联系数最高的是化肥施用量(0. 846),生态人居中关联系数最高的是饮用水合格率(0. 682),而关联度大小依次为生态保护(0. 724)、生态环境(0. 662)、生态人居(0. 573)、生态经济(0. 543),说明该地区生态环境治理仍有很大空间。[结论]研究结果指出河北省北部山区农村生态环境治理的不足,为进一步完善区域生态环境具有重要的指导意义。     

电感耦合等离子体发射光谱法测定蜂蜜中7种矿物元素的含量

为了快速直接测定蜂蜜中多种矿物元素的含量,采用电感耦合等离子体发射光谱(ICP-AES)法建立了同时测定蜂蜜中钙、钾、镁、钠、锌、铁、铜7种矿物元素含量的方法,考察了方法的标准曲线线性关系、检出限、精密度和准确度,讨论了前处理方法、不同产地以及蜜源植物种类对各元素含量的影响。结果表明:线性相关系数达到0.999 9以上,方法检出限为0.003～0.030 mg/L,相对标准偏差低于2%,回收率为88.66%～105.31%;不同产地的洋槐蜜中,河北洋槐蜜的钙、钾含量明显高于其他地区,广西洋槐蜜的钠、铁含量最高;不同蜜源植物的蜂蜜中,河北枣花蜜的铁含量最高,野生蜜中各种矿物元素都较为丰富。电感耦合等离子体发射光谱法可以快速、同时测定蜂蜜中多种矿物元素含量,方法简便易行,结果准确可靠,可为蜂蜜品质鉴定以及人们对蜂蜜的合理选择提供参考。     

Online marketing: When to offer a refund for advanced sales

Advance selling is a marketing strategy commonly used by online retailers to increase sales by exploiting consumer valuation uncertainty. Recently, some online retailers have started to allow refunds on products sold in advance. On the one hand this reduces the net advance sales, but on the other hand it allows a higher advance sales price. This research is the first to explore the overall effect of allowing a refund on profits from advance sales, identifying conditions where advance selling with or without refunds (or no advance selling at all) is best. We analytically compare the profits of three advance selling strategies: none, without refund, and with refund. We show that selling in advance and allowing a refund is optimal for products with a relatively small profit margin and small strategic market size, and that the added profit can be considerable. Our results guide managers in selecting the right advance selling strategy. To facilitate this, we graphically display, based on the two dimensions of regular profit margin and strategic market size, under what conditions the different strategies are optimal.     

Doing more and doing better are two different entities: Different patterns of family control and environmental performance

Family firms bear two types of agency costs, including type I and type II agency problems, in corporate environmental practices: (1) Outside executives at family firms hesitate to engage in environmental strategies, which can lead to drops in profits; (2) Controlling families employ opportunistically environmental management to achieve their interests. We argue that a primary cause for the agency problems lies on ineffective internal corporate governance at family firms, which can cause loss of managerial (or power) balance between outside executives and family executives. Our findings show that family firms with ownership and strategic control (FSC), which family executives and outside executives monitor and constrain each other, can achieve the highest environmental performance. Moreover, external controls, including product market competition and provincial environmental regulations, substitute effective internal control of FSC. The environmental performance premium of FSC is more prevalent when the production market competition is lower. Family firms with ownership, operational, and strategic control (FOSC) can achieve higher environmental performance within a province with more stringent environmental regulations.     

城市信用建设制度化实践的影响因素、区域差异与创新发展

通过对主要城市信用法规数据的梳理,从经济发展、城市治理、信用意识、城市特质等多角度探讨了城市信用建设制度化实践的影响因素.研究发现人均GRP、第三产业发展、信用意识、失业率显著正向影响城市信用建设制度化实践;异质性分析表明西、中、东部地区城市基于不同驱动因素而表现为"学习型"、"回应型"与"变革型"的制度化实践与创新方式;因此可分别通过加强城市信息化建设、推进城市信用宣传教育以及城市信用制度体系化等措施促进信用建设制度化实践的发展.     

管理层权力、并购效率与股价崩盘风险

本文聚焦中国A股上市公司,取2007-2016年为主要的窗口期间,通过样本研究,对管理层权力与股价崩盘风险的关系进行实证检验.进一步地,本文以商誉及对应的商誉减值构建并购效率的衡量指标,将其作为调节变量对管理层权力与股价崩盘风险的关系进行深度探讨.通过模型构建、回归与分组统计,本文得到三个方面的结论.第一,管理层权力的增大对股价崩盘风险具有正向推动作用;第二,上市公司高溢价确认商誉后又大额计提减值,会降低并购效率,进而触发股价崩盘风险;第三,并购效率的提高,会使管理层权力与股价崩盘风险正相关的显著性得以抑制.     

Information flow and price discovery dynamics

Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting - Non-homogeneous and time-varying information flow that affects the price discovery processes within and across markets is a common occurrence in...     

环境公平感知、社会信任与农户低碳生产行为*——以农膜、秸秆处理为例

［目的］研究旨在探讨环境公平感知和社会信任与农户低碳生产行为之间的关系，为促进农户生产行为向低碳化方向转变提供对策建议。［方法］基于陕西和甘肃两省的村域调查数据，以农膜和秸秆处理为例，运用二元logistic模型探讨环境公平感知和社会信任对农户低碳生产行为的影响，并结合分层回归分析了社会信任在环境公平感知和农户低碳生产行为间的调节效应。［结果］（1）在环境公平感知维度中，人际公平感知正向影响农户的农膜和秸秆处理行为； （2）对社会信任来讲，人际信任对农户农膜和秸秆处理行为均有显著的促进作用，而制度信任仅对农户秸秆处理行为具有正向影响； （3）人际信任在种际公平感知和农户农膜处理行为之间具有显著的正向调节效应，而制度信任在两者之间具有显著的负向调节效应； 同样，人际信任在人际公平感知和农户秸秆处理行为之间具有正向调节效应，而制度信任弱化了人际公平感知对农户秸秆处理行为的影响。［结论］环境公平感知和社会信任是影响农户低碳生产行为的关键因素，且社会信任在种际公平感知和农户农膜处理行为之间以及在人际公平感知和农户秸秆处理行为之间具有显著的调节作用。