Interview with Robert A. Lindsay,Vice President,Public Affairs and Communication for Coca-Cola Africa Group,United Kingdom

ABSTRACT

The paper empirically investigates the extent to which environmental factors affect the intermediation performance of the financial superstructure in Nigeria. A number of intermediation-environmental models were constructed and estimated against annual Nigerian data from 1970 to 2000. Among the various environments of financial intermediation, the socio-political environment, the regulatory environment, and the eco-financial environment exert very great influences on the operations of the financial superstructure. This is based on the evidence from the results, which revealed the socio-political index, regulatory index, and foreign exchange market variables as the most critical predictors of the financial intermediation-output-related index. Other factors such as inflation, taxation, financial market imperfection, and the growth rate of the economy appear not to exert statistically significant effects on the intermediation operations of the financial superstructure. Generally, the utility of the specified models was satisfied as indicated by the results of the global statistics.     

Financial Development and the Social Cost of Financial Intermediation in Africa

This article investigates the effect of financial development on the social costs of financial intermediation across a large number of banks in Africa. The study distinguishes between countries that are financially developed and those that are not financially developed to examine the impact of financial development on the social costs of financial intermediation. A sample of 260 banks from 29 countries in Africa is used over an 8-year period from 2006 to 2013. We employ both Random Effect and GMM techniques to resolve the issues of unobserved heterogeneity and endogeneity. We observe that overall, financial development reduces the social costs of intermediation. We also determine that the social costs of intermediation are lower for countries that have more developed financial systems compared to those with less developed financial systems. Our study is useful because it suggests that if countries want to reduce their social costs of intermediation, they should develop their financial systems.     

Conflicts of Interest in Financial Intermediation

The last years have seen a surge of scandals in financial intermediation. This article argues that the agency structure inherent to most forms of financial intermediation gives rise to conflicts of interest. Though this does not excuse scandalous behavior it points out market imperfections. There are four types of conflicts of interest: personal-individual, personal-organizational, impersonal-individual, and finally, impersonal-organizational conflicts. Analyzing recent scandals we find that all four types of conflicts of interest prevail in financial intermediation.     

Trade liberalisation and endogenous growth: A q-theory approach

This paper introduces a new approach to the analysis of endogenous growth effects and uses it to illustrate two novel trade-and-growth links. The approach’s simplicity allows us to introduce scale economies and imperfect competition into the R&D and financial intermediation sectors of a Romer–Grossman–Helpman endogenous growth model. We show that trade liberalisation can stimulate growth via a procompetitive effect in the R&D sector and/or financial sector.     

The Increased Role of Foreign Capital in the Peruvian Financial System

Summary

Foreign investment has played a very important role in developing Peru's banking sector since 1990. Indeed, as of June 1998, half of all bank assets were foreign-controlled. Much of this increased participation by outside entities can be traced to the privatization drive and to discriminatory reserve requirements on domestic deposits. Despite financial deepening, the analysis conducted here finds that the financial sector has not become more efficient in lowering the cost of intermediation as measured by the interest spread between loans and deposits.     

试论企业最佳资本结构的选择

企业在筹资决策中最佳资本结构的选择对于企业来说是一项非常重要的理财活动。确定最佳资本结构就是使其市场价值的最大化,并不断增加财务杠杆效益。针对影响企业最佳资本结构的行业状况、企业规模、销售收入等诸多因素,企业在选择最佳资本结构时,可采用筹资无差别点法和资本成本比较法,这是最佳资本结构选择的两种有效方法。     

ICT,conflicts in financial intermediation and financial access: evidence of synergy and threshold effects

In this study we investigate the role of information and communication technology (ICT) in conflicts of financial intermediation for financial access. The empirical evidence is based on contemporary (or current values) and non-contemporary (or lagged by a year) quantile regressions in 53 African countries for the period 2004-2011. The main findings are: First, the net effect of ICT in formalization for financial activity in the banking system is consistently beneficial with positive thresholds. The fact that corresponding, unconditional and conditional effects are persistently positive is evidence of synergy or complementary effects. Second, the net effect of ICT in financial informalization for financial activity in the financial system is negative with a consistent negative threshold. Hence, the positive (negative) complementarity of ICT and financial formalization (informalization) is an increasing (decreasing) function of financial activity. Policy measures on how to leverage the synergy or complementarity between ICT and financial formalization in order to enhance financial access are discussed.     

金融中介对技术创新促进作用的实证分析——基于长三角城市群的面板数据研究

以证券市场为代表的金融市场体系和以银行为代表的金融中介体系都通过提供资金支持、信息与风险管理、完善公司治理等各种渠道促进了技术创新。既有研究主要强调前者对技术创新的促进作用,然而,金融中介在某些方面更具优势,发挥着不可替代的重要作用。对长三角地区数据样本的面板数据实证分析结果证明了金融中介对技术创新,特别是原创型发明的推动作用。实证结果还表明金融业的改革创新对其他行业有较强的示范效应。     

公司金融中介理论综述

公司金融中介行为指公司销售商品,同时允许买者在未来的一个时期延期付款的经济现象。公司金融中介理论包含:金融优势论;降低交易成本论和质量保证论。公司金融中介行为的货币交易中介功能可能弱化货币政策的有效性。高度依赖于公司金融中介行为的国家存在较高的产出增长率,这主要来自于现存的企业增长,而不是公司数目的增长。次贷危机下公司金融中介存在放大和缩小危机机制。公司金融中介危机是次贷危机的衍生发展,为此,政府应该直接向相关公司提供信用担保。     

我国上市公司资本结构现状及优化研究

目前,我国上市公司资本结构方面突出的问题就是偏好股权资本、严重依赖外源融资,对负债经营缺乏正确认识。其成因是股权融资成本较低,股票市场的非理性发展,债券市场发展缓慢等所导致的。为了实现公司价值最大化的目标,应积极构建上市公司最优资本结构,完善资本市场和上市公司治理结构,充分发挥财务杠杆效益,调整上市公司负债结构,提高上市公司盈利水平,从而实现公司价值最大化。     

MAXIMIZING THE GROWTH RATE UNDER RISK CONSTRAINTS

We investigate the ergodic problem of growth-rate maximization under a class of risk constraints in the context of incomplete, Itô-process models of financial markets with random ergodic coefficients. Including value-at-risk , tail-value-at-risk , and limited expected loss , these constraints can be both wealth-dependent (relative) and wealth-independent (absolute). The optimal policy is shown to exist in an appropriate admissibility class, and can be obtained explicitly by uniform, state-dependent scaling down of the unconstrained (Merton) optimal portfolio. This implies that the risk-constrained wealth-growth optimizer locally behaves like a constant relative risk aversion (CRRA) investor, with the relative risk-aversion coefficient depending on the current values of the market coefficients.     

金融中介发展对中国技术效率影响的实证分析

本文运用随机前沿技术实证分析了金融中介发展对我国技术效率的具体影响。分析结果指出,金融中介发展对于我国技术效率的影响具有明显的区域差异特性。在东部地区,金融中介发展有利于技术效率的增长;但从全国范围来看,这种积极作用发生了逆向变化。     

Conceptualization and Measurement of Optimal Consumer Decision-Making

The theory of optimal choice is founded on the classic principles of maximization and rationality which are developed in economics and other social sciences. The principle of maximization is applicable to the analysis of consumers' choices in contexts ranging from individual consumer decisions to efficient operation of consumer markets in aggregate. Newer and revised formulations of maximization have evolved in the related concepts of satisficing behavior, efficiency of choice, decision quality and choice accuracy. This paper reviews the evolution of these concepts, with special attention to the context of optimal consumer choice at the individual level. Empirical measures of optimal consumer decision-making are also reviewed. Finally, optimal consumer decision-making is conceptualized both in terms of 1) optimal outcomes (choices) and 2) optimality of the actual decision-making process prior to choice.     

Estimating choice models in data-sparse environments: Taking advantage of perceived similarity

Research suggests that choice models conditioned on correctly identified consideration sets outperform choice models conditioned on the awareness set (Hauser, 1978; Roberts and Lattin, 1991). However, in data-sparse environments, where purchase history information is not available or not relevant, choice models conditioned on the consideration set often yield nonunique or nonsignificant solutions. In these environments, we propose the use of similarity information to improve the performance of choice models. Support for this position is found in an empirical application involving automobiles.     

Financial dollarization

We present a portfolio model of financial intermediation in which currency choice is determined by hedging decisions on both sides of a bank’s balance sheet. We show that minimum variance portfolio (MVP) allocations provide a natural benchmark to estimate the scope for dollarization of assets and liabilities (financial dollarization) as a function of macroeconomic uncertainty. Within this benchmark, we find that financial dollarization displays high persistence whenever the expected volatility of the inflation rate remains high in relation to that of the real exchange rate, even after price stabilization has been achieved. The empirical evidence confirms that MVP dollarization approximates financial dollarization closely for a broad sample of countries.     

Cultural Values Driven Segmentation in Social Marketing

ABSTRACT

This article examines the role of cultural values in segmentation in social marketing, with a special focus on minority and immigrant groups. It offers a framework for values driven segmentation in social marketing. Since social marketing seeks to create behavior change, it needs to refocus on modalities that can bring about the desired behavioral change. Cultural values that distinguish and define cultural groups are perhaps the most critical, especially in multicultural environments. The values of various subcultures, their ethnic identities and cultural heritage have become important driving forces for social marketers in their quest to bring about behavioral change. Though the article focuses on social marketing to minority and immigrant subcultures, the values driven segmentation model can be validly applied to other cultural groups as well.     

Socially responsible investment: insights from Shari'a departments in Islamic financial institutions

Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) are emerging as prominent players in the financial world and are increasingly known for their conservative socially responsible investment (SRI). Being the Shari'a regulators and monitors of IFIs, the Shari'a departments are expected to implement the Islamic perspective of SRI – drawn from Shari'a principles – in their respective institutions. The purpose of this paper is to develop an SRI framework applicable to IFIs and other Shari'a compliant entities and assess its applicability within Shari'a departments of two Islamic banks. This paper involves cross‐case analysis based on interviews with Shari'a department officials in two settings differentiated by their respective independence. The proposed framework consists of required, expected and desired SRI aspects as applicable to IFIs. The findings reveal that the required aspects are uniformly observed by the two cases. There are, however, variations when it comes to observing the expected and desired ethical SRI aspects that may be driven by the independence of the Shari'a boards. This inconsistency and non‐adherence of expected and desired aspects may lead to reputational risks in the long run.     

改进我国政府资产负债表的思考

提供财务境况信息是政府财务报告的重要目标之一。然而,评价财务境况除了需要主体的核心财务数据外,还需要大量国家、社会、经济运行和环境的信息。传统资产负债表由于自身局限性,并不能胜任该任务,需要进行改进。本文探讨政府财务境况的信息需求,分析传统资产负债表的缺陷和我国现状,并提出偿债能力表、资本资产表、或有负债表和大量统计信息,以满足评价财务境况的信息需求。     

Branding in the era of digital (dis)intermediation

Marketing academics are keenly aware of the seismic shifts in today's marketing environment caused by digital (dis)intermediation. In this article, we discuss four types of digital (dis)intermediation, and how they affect branding activities of incumbents and new firms. First, we discuss digital transaction intermediation, a development that is closely tied to the rise of ecommerce retailers. A second type is digital transaction disintermediation associated with the rise of ecommerce D2C models. These first two types of digital (dis) intermediation are primarily top-down processes, where firms are developing new ways to sell their brands to consumers. The next two types of digital (dis) intermediation are of the bottom-up kind — the consumer is in the driver's seat. Digital marketing intermediation and the rise of D2C brand-building models is powered by crowdsourcing. A final development is digital marketing disintermediation, which is closely tied to the rise of C2C models. We present issues in need of future research for each type of digital (dis)intermediation. We conclude with an appeal that marketing takes the lead in developing overarching, indigenous theories of digital (dis)intermediation to make sense of the rapid changes in the marketplace.     

区域创新环境与创新能力的系统性研究——基于省际数据的经验证据

文章运用权威和综合的创新能力体系指标数据,从区域层面的独特视角,系统地研究了创新环境对创新能力的影响及创新能力体系中知识创造、知识获得对知识应用的影响两个密切关联的重要问题。研究发现:目前创新环境中,基础设施水平、市场需求、劳动力素质、金融环境对创新能力有正面促进作用,而创新水平对创新能力没有显著影响。其中,市场需求和劳动力素质对区域创新能力的影响最为重要,金融环境和基础设施水平对创新能力有显著的影响,但比重相对较低。创新能力体系中,目前我国主要靠科技合作、技术转移和外国直接投资等方式的知识获得促进知识应用,而原创性的知识创造对促进企业科技创新能力的影响不显著。