“同治”还是“同谋”:机构投资者抱团与 企业违约风险

文章以2009—2020年沪深A股非金融上市公司为研究样本,实证检验了机构投资者抱团对企业违约风险的影响及其内在机理。研究发现,机构投资者抱团可以降低企业违约风险。影响机理的检验证实,机构投资者抱团通过降低信息不对称、缓解融资约束和降低经营风险对企业违约风险产生影响。进一步从信息、资源和风险的视角探讨两者关系的异质性发现,机构投资者抱团对企业违约风险的治理效应主要体现在信息不对称程度较高、资源获取较难和风险较高的样本中。文章的发现有助于深化机构投资者抱团的经济后果与企业违约风险影响因素的研究,也为进一步完善机构投资者的制度设计、持续优化公司的内外部治理结构,防范化解企业违约风险提供了参考依据。     

‘Stop‐go’ policy and the restriction of postwar British house‐building

From the mid‐1950s to the early 1980s the Treasury and the Bank of England successfully advocated a policy of restricting both private and public sector house‐building, as a key but covert instrument of their wider ‘stop‐go’ macroeconomic policy framework. While the intensity of restrictions varied over the economic cycle, private house‐building was restricted (through limiting mortgage availability) for almost all this period. This was achieved by keeping building society interest rates low relative to other interest rates and thus starving the building society movement of mortgage funds. Mortgage restriction was never publicly discussed and sometimes operated alongside ambitious housing targets and well‐publicized policy initiatives to boost housing demand. This article outlines the evolution of house‐building restriction, together with its impacts on the housing sector and the wider economy. We review the evolution of the policy framework and its consequences, compare the level and stability of British house‐building during this period—historically and relative to other countries—and undertake time‐series econometric analysis of its impacts on both house‐building and house prices. Finally, implications for debates regarding stop‐go policy, Britain's housing problem, and the distributional consequences of government macroeconomic policy are discussed.     

R&D intensity and domestic and cross-border M&A of Japanese firms before domestic M&A deregulation

In this paper, we examine the determinants of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in Japan prior to the deregulation of domestic M&A transactions. We reveal that firm growth strategies and institutional differences in domestic and cross-border transactions are key determinants of the differences in M&A behavior. Our estimates show that domestic M&A activities are negatively related to research and development (R&D), suggesting that low technology-intensive firms have a tendency to engage in domestic M&A. For cross-border M&A, firm R&D activities have a significant positive effect, implying that a firm's own technology is important for absorbing foreign technology or competing in the host country.     

数字商业生态系统特征：数据控制和数据协调模式比较

数字平台重塑组织间关系形成数字商业生态系统,而数据要素分布模式会影响数字商业生态系统特征。文章选择浙江省和广东省分别作为数据控制模式和数据协调模式的代表,基于数字经济上市企业经营领域与授权发明专利数据,利用社会网络分析法,比较数据控制与数据协调两种模式在产业链整合、数字产业化和产业数字化融合以及数字商业生态系统网络结构上的差异,分析两种模式为提高经济效率所采纳的不同路径。研究发现：无论在何种模式下,民营企业通常选择创新活动频繁、创新风险较高的战略性新兴产业,而国有企业通常参与门槛较高的生产性服务业。数据控制模式是构建数字化营销渠道发挥消费互联网平台用户流量优势,数据协调模式是依托电子信息产业基础发挥工业互联网平台协同制造优势;数据控制模式是纵向一体化产业链整合方式,数据协调模式是水平型产业链整合方式。相较于数据控制模式,数据协调模式下的数字技术与传统产业融合度更高、在产业链上扩散速度更快;数据控制模式下组织网络呈现“垄断”结构,而数据协调模式呈现“区块链”结构;数据控制模式依托于单一平台很难做出全局最优决策部署,数据协调模式在不同领域构建工业互联网平台可能导致跨平台间的数据流动产生困难。消费者需求数据和工业数据高效匹配是两种模式共同演进方向,相较于讨论数据要素最优集中规模,畅通数字平台之间的数据要素流动渠道才是根本。     

Asymmetric Learning from Prices and Post‐Earnings‐Announcement Drift

Motivated by research in psychology and experimental economics, we assume that investors update their beliefs about an asset's value upon observing the price, but only when the price clearly reveals that others obtained private information that differs from their own private information. Specifically, we assume that investors learn from the price of an asset in an asymmetric manner—they learn from the price if they observe good (bad) private information and the price is worse (better) than what is justified based on public information alone. We show that asymmetric learning from an asset's price leads to post‐earnings‐announcement drift (PEAD), and that it generates arbitrage opportunities that are less attractive than alternative explanations of PEAD. In addition, our model predicts that PEAD will be concentrated in earnings surprises that are not dominated by accruals, and it also predicts that earnings response coefficients will decline in the magnitude of the earnings surprises.     

“Post‐Truth,” “Alternative Facts” and “Fakenomics”

South African companies are accused of hoarding profits to accumulate large amounts of “idle” cash, as well as of being the perpetrators of massive illegal capital flight. This paper argues that much of the claimed corporate cash is either offshore or belongs to banks. It reminds that bank deposits increase when companies borrow, not when they retain profits. It shows, too, that measures of massive capital flight actually reflect data errors. Exaggerating, through faulty methodology the extent to which companies have cash or may be involved in illegal capital flight is unhelpful. It exacerbates already‐fraught government‐business relations, and complicates the search for solutions to South Africa's economic problems.     

Comment on ‘Seat of Death and Terror’1

Oxley finds that smallpox consistently reduced heights, but that the fall was not statistically significant outside London or for juvenile Londoners. We demonstrate that inappropriate subdivision of the data into small samples explains the lack of significance she obtains. Further analysis of Oxley’s data shows that smallpox was a statistically significant cause of stunting, and that there were no differences in the effect by area. Juveniles exhibit greater stunting than adults, leading us to conclude that smallpox was not a proxy for overcrowding. That smallpox reduced height is important for anthropometric history: heights capture the effect of a truly awful disease.     

理工院校“卓越工程师”培养机制应用解析

“卓越工程师计划”提出了构建高等院校与企业联合进行人才培养的创新机制，但现实中部分院校与企业不能有效进行对接沟通，校企合作在落实时的质量或者效果不佳，存在着机制不健全问题。实施“卓越工程师”教育培养机制措施及建议主要有：明确目标、原则，加强特色人才培养，强化创新型师资建设，强调课程设置和实际相连，引进企业积极参与，依托国家政策支持。     

Building the <Emphasis Type="Italic">New</Emphasis> New Orleans: Foundation and NGO Power

Most accounts of organized philanthropy’s response to the Katrina disaster portray foundations as either providing critical resources in the absence of federal, state, and municipal leadership, or as mildly ineffective and uncommitted grantmakers with little understanding of local nonprofit and community needs. Through an in-depth case study of the three largest regional foundations and two largest foundations established as a direct response to Hurricane Katrina, I examine the overall role of philanthropy in the post-Katrina New Orleans, including the history, leadership, grantmaking practices, and ideology of the largest and most influential foundations. Far from being saviors in the absence of state leadership, nor bumbling and ineffective grantmakers, it is shown that dominant foundations and major NGOs have proven very effective in leading the local growth coalition’s opportunistic response to the disaster.     

Equity‐Based Compensation of Outside Directors and Corporate Disclosure Quality

We examine the relationship between a firm's disclosure quality and equity‐based compensation of independent members of the board of directors. The dimensions of disclosure quality we focus on are management's earnings guidance and information flowthrough financial analysts. Using both levels and changes specifications, we find the average ratio of equity‐based pay to total pay of independent board members to be positively related to a firm's disclosure quality. Our findings are robust to the inclusion of management's equity‐based compensation, other governance measures, and financial controls, and robust to instrumental variable tests of endogeneity. Furthermore, we find directors’ equity‐based compensation to be negatively associated with the firm's cost of equity capital. Our results are consistent with equity‐based compensation providing incentives to independent directors to push for better disclosure quality.