Risk perceptions and risk attitudes among Chinese consumers: the toxic capsule crisis

The toxic capsule crisis (TCC) shocked China in 2012, and seriously harmed consumer confidence. Based on a firsthand survey in 12 provinces with 850 observations, this paper examines Chinese consumers’ risk perceptions and risk attitudes about drugs after the TCC. The empirical results suggest that Chinese consumers’ risk perceptions (attributed likelihood of a drug safety accident occurrence) and risk attitudes (measured as level of concern about drug labeling) are weakly negatively correlated, but that risk perceptions are positively correlated with consumer concern about drug safety problems in general. Risk perception was higher among male consumers and those from rural areas, reporting a religious faith, of higher education, and with a family member who has experienced problems caused by drug safety problems. Those reporting a higher level of concern about drug safety issues, with a higher level of understanding of TCC, who reported less frequent physical examinations, and who searched for information after the TCC also had a higher level of risk perception. Being or having a family member who engaged in the health industry and being more satisfied with the government response to the TCC decreased risk perception. Regarding risk attitude, older consumers, those with a higher level of education and with a self-reported religious faith, and those less prepared including those who did not purchase health insurance, do not have health exams as frequently, and who do not take measures of protection and isolation when ill are more concerned about drug labeling information.     

Motives for partial acquisitions between firms in the spanish stock market

The paper analyses the motivations for inter-company investment on the Spanish Stock Market through the study of a sample of significant acquisitions reported to the CNMV (the Spanish Securities and Exchange Commission) by quoted firms. By analysing the sign of the cumulative abnormal returns (CAR) and of the correlations among the gains produced by the operation, an attempt is made to find out which motives predominate of the three most important ones suggested by the literature for takeovers: synergy, agency and hubris. Empirical evidence is presented that in the Spanish Stock Market the main motive for acquiring a holding is similar to synergy, especially in partial acquisitions with positive total gains. However, in the samples with negative total gains a main motive similar to hubris always appears. The analysis takes into account the size of the investment and distinguishes between the first report and subsequent ones. Results are similar to those obtained by other authors for takeovers in the US Stock Market, except that in this sample, agency motives do not appear clearly.     

中国商业银行效率分析：基于外资参股比例的视角

本文首先选取16家上市银行2008-2013年的财务数据作为样本,运用DEA-Malmquist方法,得出了我国商业银行五个主要的效率指标：技术效率、技术水平、纯技术效率、规模效率与全要素生产效率的变化。随后按照外资参股比例的高低分组,运用Tobit回归模型,研究宏观经济环境、公司治理等因素对商业银行以上五个效率指标的影响。研究结果表明：对外资参股比例较高的商业银行而言,较窄存贷差的宏观环境能凸显其技术优势;中等外资参股水平的银行需增加人力投入以获取效率提升;对于低外资参股比例银行,应扩大所有者权益,找到资金投入的合理规模。     

Bank Ownership and Lending: Does Bank Ownership Matter?

Using the Central and Eastern European (CEE) bank-level data covering 2004–12, this article examines the differences in foreign-owned banks’ loan growth and its determinants in comparison with privately-owned domestic banks. The results indicate the greatest differences in the context of bank capital and liquidity. Bank capital remains an important loan growth determinant only for domestic private banks during the non-crisis periods and bank liquidity is of greater importance to domestic private banks during the crisis periods. This highlights local regulatory authorities’ limited ability to harness loan growth and excessive risk-taking during the non-crisis periods and points at the benefits of multinational banking groups’ internal capital markets during the crisis periods.     

Mortality investigation among persons whose applications for insurance have heen rejected

Abstract

Extract

Life insurance companies are interested III investigations of the mortality among that group of applicants whose applications for insurance, for health reasons, have not been accepted. The compa. nies thereby obtain material enabling them to decide whether their rejection policy during a period has been too strict or not, and on which points, if any, the selection of risks can be liberalized.     

Investment financing: evidence from Korea

This study examines the relative importance of various forms of capital in financing investments by Korean firms. Our results from the seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) method indicate that, unlike U.S. firms, Korean firms rely substantially on cash holdings to finance investments. These results also suggest that Korean firms use long‐term debt more actively than equity issuance to finance investments. Subgroup analyses show that large firms and Chaebol‐affiliated firms use more long‐term debt but less equity issuance than comparison firms do, suggesting that debt capacity allows firms to reduce the use of equity issuance. However, there is little evidence that financing decisions are driven by information asymmetry. The results from the quantile regression (QR) method suggest that Korean firms tend to use debt capital more than they do equity capital at low and medium levels of investments, while their reliance on equity capital increases at high levels of investments.     

Small Business Reliance on Bank Financing in Ghana

Financing has been identified as a dominant constraint to Ghanaian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This study explores the determinants of bank financing and debt among Ghanaian SMEs. A panel regression model estimates the relation between the determinants and the bank-debt ratio. The results reveal that bank loans account for less than a quarter of SMEs' total debt financing, and show that the age and size of the firm, along with asset tangibility, have significantly positive associations with the bank-debt ratio. Profitability is significantly and negatively related to the bank-debt ratio. These findings have significant implications both at the firm level and for the support of policies aimed at improving SME financing in Ghana.     

德国市场操纵证明之研究

市场操纵是证券市场主要违法类型之一,是证券监管机关重点打击的对象之一.证明是连接操纵行为事实与法律责任的核心环节,在执法实践中具有极其重要的意义.本文以德国相关法律、法规命令和判例为基础,从行政执法层面对德国的行政证据制度和市场操纵的证明机制进行了深入研究,总结提炼出德国市场操纵证明的一般原则和主要特点,以期为我国证券执法提供有益借鉴.     

What Drives Default and Prepayment on Subprime Auto Loans?

This paper uses novel data on the performance of loan pools underlying asset-backed securities to estimate a competing risks model of default and prepayment on subprime automobile loans. We find that prepayment rates increase rapidly with loan age but are not affected by prevailing market interest rates. Default rates are much more sensitive to aggregate shocks than are prepayment rates. Increases in unemployment precede increases in default rates, suggesting that defaults on subprime automobile loans are driven largely by shocks to household liquidity. There are significant differences in the default and prepayment rates faced by different subprime lenders. Those lenders that charge the highest interest rates experience the highest default rates, but also experience somewhat lower prepayment rates. We conjecture that there is substantial heterogeneity among subprime borrowers, and that different lenders target different segments of the subprime market. Because of their higher default rates, loans that carry the highest interest rates do not appear to yield the highest expected returns.     

德国全能银行制度及其对我国的启示

德国全能银行制度具有业务领域充分多元化、通过股权投资形成业务网络、广泛的集团外部相互持股以及全能银行是证券市场的主体等特点。德国全能银行的优势主要体现在经济范围优势、资金优势、成本优势、网络优势以及抗风险优势等方面;其潜在风险因素包括道德风险、投机风险以及传导风险。德国金融监管制度是德国全能银行制度得以顺利实行的根本保障。我国银行业实行全能银行制具有必要性和可行性,发展全能银行是我国商业银行的必然选择。     

Do banks care about analysts' forecasts when designing loan contracts?

We investigate whether banks rely on the information content in equity analysts’ annual earnings forecasts when assessing the risk of potential borrowers. While a long literature finds that analysts provide useful information to market participants, it is not clear that banks, which have access to privileged information, would benefit from publicly available analysts’ forecasts. If, however, banks do rely on this information, then more precise private information in earnings forecasts may inform banks. We focus our analysis on the requirement of collateral because it is a direct measure of default risk, whereas other loan terms such as interest spread and debt covenants can also protect against other risks, such as asset misappropriation. The direct link between collateral and default risk allows us to examine whether information from analysts is relevant to banks when designing loan contracts. Consistent with our predictions, we find that higher precision of the private information in analysts’ earnings forecasts is associated with a lower likelihood of requiring collateral, and this effect is larger when a borrower does not have a prior relationship with the lender or their accounting or credit quality is low. We also find that this association disappears after the implementation of Regulation FD, consistent with this regulation reducing analysts’ access to private information.     

Bank Monitoring and Environmental Risk

Abstract:  Loan announcement effects for 152 Canadian companies are examined to investigate the efficiency of monitoring by banks facing lender environmental liability. Market reaction to the announcement of bank debt to 'environmental' firms is more positive and significant than for 'non-environmental' firms and, for firms in industries with a higher likelihood of experiencing spill events, is more positive and significant, reinforcing earlier results that establish a relationship between specific loan/borrower characteristics and announcement period excess returns and providing further evidence on the 'uniqueness' of bank loans by demonstrating the superior ability of banks to monitor corporate borrowers exposed to environmental liability.     

商业银行实施集中审批贷款模式的缺失与对策

本文从跟踪1998-2009年各商业银行实行风险垂直管理和集中审批贷款情况入手,对集中审批贷款的制度安排及流程设计的合理性、可行性作了深层次分析,揭示了集中审批贷款模式存在理论与实践脱节的缺失,并就弥补该缺失提出了一系列具有实践价值的对策。     

江苏城市离岸服务外包效率的影响因素分析

在运用SE-DEA方法对江苏省13个城市离岸服务外包效率评价的基础上,进一步将效率值作为因变量,并选取国际互联网用户数、普通高校毕业生人数、城镇在岗职工年平均工资、高新技术产业产值、第三产业占GDP的比重、进出口总额占GDP总额的比重作为自变量进行Tobit回归。结果表明：第三产业占GDP的比重对三个效率指标的影响呈显著正相关;国际互联网用户数与综合效率呈正相关;高新技术产业产值与规模效率呈负相关的程度小于与技术效率呈正相关的程度,进出口总额占GDP总额的比重则是由于与技术效率呈负相关的程度小于与规模效率呈正相关的程度,从而使得两者对综合效率的影响是正的;而普通高校毕业生人数和城镇在岗职工年平均工资与综合效率负相关。     

对德国储蓄银行的考察与启示

本文通过对德国两家储蓄银行的考察,总结了其有益的经营理念。一是德国储蓄银行非常重视企业CI的建设工作;二是重视机构合作和资源共享;三是重视信息系统的研发工作;四是重视企业文化的积累和提炼;五是重视风险的管理和防范工作;六是重视对公益事业的支持;七是德国储蓄银行与地方经济共成长。