An evaluation of the Connected Nation broadband adoption program

Closing the digital divide and increasing broadband adoption within households and communities continues to be a target for government and nonprofit groups. While a large number of studies have examined policies and programs aimed at improving broadband infrastructure availability, little analysis to date has focused on evaluating efforts to increase adoption. One of the most well-known programs focused on adoption is Connected Nation, which partnered with 14 states to provide local curricula aimed at raising residential connection rates. This analysis uses a generalized difference-in-difference methodology to evaluate the effectiveness of the Connected Nation program in 5 states during 2012 and 2013. The results indicate that participation in the Connected Nation program had no significant impact on broadband adoption rates. This paper represents a rigorous evaluation of one of the most well-known adoption-oriented programs and emphasizes that measurable impacts of such efforts may not accrue over the short term.     

统分经营的有效结合：农民协会的成功所在——基于萍乡市排上生猪养殖协会的案例研究

本文通过对萍乡市排上生猪养殖协会的案例研究,揭示了农民协会在农业产业化经营中的重要作用:一方面发挥了协会统一经营的功能,为分散的农户提供资金、技术和市场等方面的帮助;另一方面又可以有效地调动农户分散经营的积极性,促进农户生产规模的不断壮大。本文对这种模式进行了分析,得出结论:农民协会统分结合经营模式的成功在于借助于组织实现了农户对生产费用和交易费用的节约。     

独立董事制度实施效果分析——基于上市公司关联交易的证据

本文借助独立董事在监管大股东与上市公司之间的关联交易来研究独立董事制度实施的效果。我们的实证结果表明，我国独立董事在关联交易方面是起到了积极的作用。也就是说独立董事的实施起到了应有的效果。     

电子商务中的不正当竞争及其法律规制

电子商务实践中存在着主体混同行为、商誉侵权、侵犯商业秘密、域名抢注以及垄断等不正当竞争行为 ,束缚了电子商务的发展。对此应当从现有立法规制和今后立法约束两个方面寻求对策。     

Are we nice(r) to nice(r) people?—An experimental analysis

We experimentally investigate whether individuals can reliably detect cooperators (the nice(r) people) in an anonymous decision environment involving “connected games.” Participants can condition their choices in an asymmetric prisoners’ dilemma and a trust game on past individual (their partner’s donation share to a self-selected charity) and social (whether their partner belongs to a group with high or low average donations) information. Thus, the two measures of niceness are the individual donation share in the donation task, and the cooperativeness of one’s choice in the two games. We find that high donors achieve a higher-than-average expected payoff by cooperating predominantly with other high donors. Group affiliation proved to be irrelevant. Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at . JEL Classification C91, C72, D3     

信誉的价值:以网上拍卖交易为例

本文使用网上拍卖交易数据,就卖者信誉对市场交易的影响进行了实证研究。我们发现,卖者的信誉评价一方面影响物品成交的价格,另一方面还对物品拍卖成功的概率有着显著的正面影响;但相对来说,卖者的信誉评价对后者的效果比对前者要更显著。这是本文的主要发现。该结果验证了在一个没有政府干预、近乎自由放任的“虚拟”市场上信誉机制的积极作用。     

Collaboration, peer review and open source software

Open source software development may be superior to proprietary development because the open source organizational form naturally minimizes transactions costs associated with privately distributed information. This manifests itself in the ability of open source communities to encourage critical peer review and the sharing of ideas. When these activities are important, the open source organizational form may do better than a proprietary organizational form. My results suggest why open source is particularly powerful when maintainability of software is critical, and also suggest that the founder of a software project may be more likely to choose open source if there is an existing dominant proprietary software project.     

中国上市公司非公允关联交易的根源及治理对策建议

中国上市公司关联交易频繁发生且交易金额巨大，非公允关联交易普遍存在，问题公司常常通过非公允关联交易解决其存在的问题。随着监管力度的加强，关联交易和非公允关联交易会有所减少，但短期内无法根除长年沉积的痼疾，尤其是在关联交易多样化和非公允关联交易隐形化的情况下更是如此。因此，深刻剖析非公允关联交易存在的根源及其找出治理对策是急需解决的重大课题。     

The influence of management and auditors on consolidation decisions

Historically, the decision over whether or not to consolidate was guided by bright-line rules, which outlined the minimum percentage of ownership required in a subsidiary for it to be considered controlled by a reporting entity and thus included in the consolidated financial statements (CFSs). Today, U.S. GAAP and IFRS use a principles-based approach, which is guided by the concept of control to determine whether a subsidiary is to be consolidated in the CFSs. In this context, a debate exists between managers and auditors about which subsidiaries should be consolidated. To deepen our understanding of how managers and auditors grapple with consolidation decisions, we interviewed several CFOs and audit partners to determine if they are anchored to legalistic mechanisms or if, instead, they are strategically developing ways to support the consolidation decision. Based on our interviews, we find that opportunistic transactions—criticized at the time of the rules-based approach—still exist due to the search for legalistic mechanisms that protect underlying choices influenced by economic incentives. Such results are crucial for analysts and investors to properly interpret consolidated financial performance.     

The effectiveness of the ECB’s unconventional monetary policy: Comparative evidence from crisis and non-crisis Euro-area countries

During the European financial crisis, the European Central Bank implemented a series of unconventional monetary policy measures. We argue that these programs lowered the bond yield spreads of Euro-area countries. This hypothesis is tested using pooled OLS estimations and two different datasets: monetary policy event dummies and the purchase volumes of the Securities Markets Programme (SMP). Overall, we find significantly negative effects on bond yield spreads for both datasets, leading us to accept the hypothesis. While the OMT reduces the spreads of both crisis and non-crisis countries, LTROs and the lowering of the deposit rate to 0 percent are mainly effective in non-crisis countries. The SMP lowers the spreads of crisis countries, but it has the opposite effect on non-crisis countries. This converse effect is explained by the risk that increasingly accumulates on the ECB’s balance sheet through the SMP and that way constitutes a fiscal risk for non-crisis countries. The results are confirmed by pooled OLS estimations that measure the effect of unconventional monetary policy on central government debt.