Analysis of divisional profitability using the residual income profile

This paper describes the residual income profile which is a graphical method that summarizes the profitability characteristics of a division of a firm and illustrates the relationship between return on investment and residual income. In addition, the residual income profile shows the sensitivity of residual income to changes in interest rates.     

Security-holder cash flows and the valuation of corporate investment projects

The difference between adjusted present value and cost-of-capital discounting procedures for evaluating corporate real-asset investment projects is re-examined. The two approaches are shown to contain different implicit assumptions about the distribution of project cash flows to security-holders. The consequences thereof for the proper valuation of individual projects in the context of a multiproject investment plan are considered.     

The role of cash flows and accruals in explaining security returns: evidence for the UK

The assessment of earnings usefulness in returns studies has been at the forefront of accounting research since the seminal work of Ball and Brown (1968). Recently, regulatory bodies worldwide have paid increased attention to cash flow reporting. Empirical research provides evidence that earnings information dominates cash flows in market-based accounting research. This study extends the growing empirical literature on the association of earnings and cash flows with security returns. We hypothesize that the association of cash flows with security returns improves (i) the smaller the absolute magnitude of aggregate accruals, (ii) the longer the measurement interval and (iii) the shorter the firm's operating cycle. The dataset consists of all UK firms included in the Global vantage database for the period 1984–1992. This study provides evidence that cash flows play a more important role in the marketplace when the operating cycle, magnitude of accruals and the measurement interval are taken into consideration. Moreover, results indicate that cash flows have more information content than earnings in explaining security returns.     

Transportation rates, market structure and the production-location decision : A note

This note examines the effects of market structure on production and location decisions of an oligopolistic firm. It shows that if transportation rates are a function of quantity shipped and distance traveled, a linearly homogeneous production function is not sufficient to ensure independence between the optimum location and market structure unless (i) the elasticities of transportation rates with respect to quantity shipped are constant and identical, and (ii) the ratios of marginal products to the marginal transportation costs are equal for each input. This results is significantly different from Hwang and Mai's in the constant transportation rates case.     

Impact of economic growth volatility on income inequality: ASEAN experience

The study attempts to examine the symmetric and the asymmetric impact of volatility of economic growth on the inequality of income in the major ASEAN economies over the period 1980–2015. Financial development, trade openness as a proxy of globalization, inflation, human capital formation, and fiscal policy are utilized as major control variables. The paper tries to explore the causal association between inequality of income distribution and economic growth volatility, exploring simultaneously the long-run association and the short-run dynamics in the time series structure. The study applied Clemente–Montanes–Reyes unit root test to identify the structural break in the time series. Further, the cointegrating relationship of the time series observations was explored by applying the ARDL (linear) bounds test approach along with the nonlinear ARDL for making fruitful comparisons in the long-run relationship among the variables. The countries chosen are Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore and The Philippines. The empirical findings strongly suggest a long-run cointegrating relationship between income inequality and growth volatility with a positive and statistically significant impact. Also, the causality analysis was explored using the Toda and Yamamoto (1995) method of Granger causality. The causality test shows that there exists bidirectional causality from inequality transmission to economic growth volatility. The implications that are developed from this study helps us to understand the various policy reforms in the ASEAN region, that are more transparent and can make these economies less susceptible to risks.     

The cyclical nature of family income distribution in the united states: An empirical note

This note utilizes a cubic polynomial to model the cyclical behaviour of income inequality in the U.S. from 1947 to 2000. Linear and quadratic models have been used to explain the pattern, but they are not capable of detecting more than one extreme point. The simplest model capable of detecting a cycle is a cubic polynomial. By detecting the inflection points, the model can “predict” the turning points, from convergence to divergence. The model performs better with nominal data than with real data. (JEL 015, 040)     

中小企业盈利能力影响因素分析

企业的盈利能力,会直接的影响到企业投资者的决策计划和对企业的信心,也是企业综合能力的表现。文章重点介绍了中小企业盈利能力的影响因素,并得出其影响因素的相关结论。研究方法上,着重通过采用多元线性回归的方法来分析所选各个变量对企业盈利能力的影响程度。     

The long and short of asking questions about income: a comparison using data from Hungary

A lot of research on income mobility and income inequality is based on survey questions about income. Various question formats are being used. Researchers seem to assume that the actual format used delivers the best estimate of the “true” income. However, surprisingly little empirical support is available for this claim. We implemented an experimental design using the short and long versions of income questions in a Hungarian survey. Results show an overall positive difference between the long and short version. The differences are related to the income components (wages and salaries, transfers, and assets), and respondent characteristics, controlling for the effect of the order of the two versions of income questions. Based on the results, we provide some recommendations for implementing income questions in surveys.     

Internal and external restructuring over the cycle: a firm-based analysis of gross flows and productivity growth in Portugal

This paper discusses the role played by internal restructuring vis-à-vis external restructuring in industry productivity growth, arguing that the contribution of these two components is expected to be sensitive to the economic cycle. The study describes gross flows (job and output) over a period of one decade, and analyses the productivity differential among continuing, entering and exiting firms in the Portuguese manufacturing sector. The results of the decomposition of industry productivity growth suggest that the share of external restructuring is stronger in recession, while internal restructuring seems to be predominant in expansion. The strong and positive contribution of the net entry effect, in 1991–1994, was not followed by any between and cross effects of equivalent magnitude in the 1994–1997 sub-period. The within effect is, as expected, stronger when output growth is at its peak, but in no case large enough to turn productivity growth procyclical.

On the robustness of the fat-tailed distribution of firm growth rates: a global sensitivity analysis

Firms grow and decline by relatively lumpy jumps which cannot be accounted by the cumulation of small, “atom-less”, independent shocks. Rather “big” episodes of expansion and contraction are relatively frequent. More technically, this is revealed by the fat-tailed distributions of growth rates. This applies across different levels of sectoral disaggregation, across countries, over different historical periods for which there are available data. What determines such property? In Dosi et al. (The footprint of evolutionary processes of learning and selection upon the statistical properties of industrial dynamics. Industrial and corporate change. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2016) we implemented a simple multi-firm evolutionary simulation model, built upon the coupling of a replicator dynamic and an idiosyncratic learning process, which turns out to be able to robustly reproduce such a stylized fact. Here, we investigate, by means of a Kriging meta-model, how robust such “ubiquitousness” feature is with regard to a global exploration of the parameters space. The exercise confirms the high level of generality of the results in a statistically robust global sensitivity analysis framework.     

Convergence rates of recombining trees for pricing options on stocks under GBM and regime-switching models with known cash dividends

In the literature there appear various kinds of binomial trees for pricing options on stocks under geometric Brownian motions (GBMs) with known cash dividends. The aim of this paper is to compare the performance of the existing binomial trees in aspect of the convergence rates, which are usually used to measure precisely how fast the approximate values converge to the exact one, and to give a theoretical proof of the convergence rates for the interpolation binomial trees which are based on a model that excludes the arbitrage possibilities. Also the paper extends the studies to the regime-switching models with known cash dividend payment.     

Estimation of a model containing unobservable variables using grouped observations: An application to the permanent income hypothesis

The method of estimating relationships in a model containing unobservable variables is combined with the technique of estimation from a sample of grouped observations to analyse the permanent income hypothesis. From a sample of group means the paper measures the relative importance of such factors as wealth, occupation, age and family-size as determinants of permanent income in the United Kingdom, and also considers the mechanism by which transitory receipts influence total consumption expenditure.     

我国房地产上市公司过度投资行为实证分析--存在性与现金股利约束

近年,房地产企业都在进行投资规模和范围的扩展,不仅使投资效率下降,更造成了社会资源的浪费。从理论上分析我国房地产上市公司存在着过度投资行为的因素,提出相关假设,再选取房地产行业上市公司2003-2009年的样本数据,构建模型进行实证检验得出,我国房地产上市公司普遍存在着过度投资行为,但由于目前国内企业发展环境的限制,现金股利的发放还不足以成为抑制过度投资的主要机制。     

A dual measure of correlation between the Solow residual and output growth

In this paper, we measure U.S. technology shocks by implementing a dual approach, which is based on price data instead of aggregate quantity data. By doing so, we find the relative volatility of technology shocks and the correlation between output fluctuation and technology shocks to be much smaller than those revealed in most real-business-cycle (RBC) studies. Our results support the findings of Burside et al. (Eur Econ Rev 40:861–869, 1996), who showed that the correlation between technology shocks and output is exaggerated in the RBC literature. This suggests that one should examine other sources of fluctuations for a better understanding of the business cycle phenomena.     

True and fair in the Czech Republic: a note on local perceptions

With the collapse of communism in Czechoslovakia’, and the subsequent desire of Czechoslovakia to join the European Union, in common with other countries in Central Europe, Czechoslovakia utilized the Fourth Directive as a ‘toolkit’ in designing part of its new accounting legislation. In incorporating the Fourth Directive, it has also included the requirement for financial statements to show a ‘true and fair’ view. Given the confusion over the exact meaning of ‘true and fair’ it is interesting to study how ‘true and fair’ has been introduced into the Czech Republic, and what it seems to signify for those who implemented it and for those who are preparing and using financial statements. Our initial findings indicate that ‘true and fair’ varies in its significance for the groups of individuals involved in preparing and using financial statements and that it may have particular significance for some groups of accountants who wish to secure specific advantage within the Czech economy.With the collapse of communism in Czechoslovakia’, and the subsequent desire of Czechoslovakia to join the European Union, in common with other countries in Central Europe, Czechoslovakia utilized the Fourth Directive as a ‘toolkit’ in designing part of its new accounting legislation. In incorporating the Fourth Directive, it has also included the requirement for financial statements to show a ‘true and fair’ view. Given the confusion over the exact meaning of ‘true and fair’ it is interesting to study how ‘true and fair’ has been introduced into the Czech Republic, and what it seems to signify for those who implemented it and for those who are preparing and using financial statements. Our initial findings indicate that ‘true and fair’ varies in its significance for the groups of individuals involved in preparing and using financial statements and that it may have particular significance for some groups of accountants who wish to secure specific advantage within the Czech economy.With the collapse of communism in Czechoslovakia’, and the subsequent desire of Czechoslovakia to join the European Union, in common with other countries in Central Europe, Czechoslovakia utilized the Fourth Directive as a ‘toolkit’ in designing part of its new accounting legislation. In incorporating the Fourth Directive, it has also included the requirement for financial statements to show a ‘true and fair’ view. Given the confusion over the exact meaning of ‘true and fair’ it is interesting to study how ‘true and fair’ has been introduced into the Czech Republic, and what it seems to signify for those who implemented it and for those who are preparing and using financial statements. Our initial findings indicate that ‘true and fair’ varies in its significance for the groups of individuals involved in preparing and using financial statements and that it may have particular significance for some groups of accountants who wish to secure specific advantage within the Czech economy.With the collapse of communism in Czechoslovakia’, and the subsequent desire of Czechoslovakia to join the European Union, in common with other countries in Central Europe, Czechoslovakia utilized the Fourth Directive as a ‘toolkit’ in designing part of its new accounting legislation. In incorporating the Fourth Directive, it has also included the requirement for financial statements to show a ‘true and fair’ view. Given the confusion over the exact meaning of ‘true and fair’ it is interesting to study how ‘true and fair’ has been introduced into the Czech Republic, and what it seems to signify for those who implemented it and for those who are preparing and using financial statements. Our initial findings indicate that ‘true and fair’ varies in its significance for the groups of individuals involved in preparing and using financial statements and that it may have particular significance for some groups of accountants who wish to secure specific advantage within the Czech economy.     

Networks and geography in the economics of knowledge flows: a commentary

In the paper “Networks and geography in the economics of knowledge flows” Maggioni and Uberti provide a rich and detailed overview of the current state-of-art and future challenges of the analysis of knowledge flows in economics. Maggioni and Uberti illustrate how geographical factors and network factors can explain spatial patterns of knowledge flows. This commentary portrays where the type of studies discussed by the authors fit in the wider literature on geography, networks and knowledge flows. Second, the commentary discusses the suggestions of future research the authors describe and proposes some further avenues for future research that are in line with those suggested by the authors. In particular, it zooms in onto the role of comparative statics in studies of network dynamics, stochastic estimation models of network evolution and content-based network analysis in pushing the frontier of research on networks, geography and knowledge flows.     

The effect of property taxes on vacation home growth rates: Evidence from Michigan

The Tiebout model assumes that individuals sort to the jurisdiction which best matches their fiscal preferences. However, there is a paucity of reliable estimates for the impact of tax changes on household mobility. We utilize a state mandated school finance reform and temporal differences in vacation home densities to provide a unique test of this fundamental Tiebout assumption. The results show that changes in property taxes explain a significant amount of the variation in vacation home growth; a 3–4 mil decrease in property tax rates is associated with an increase of approximately one vacation home per square kilometer.     

Soft budgets and hard rents: a note on Kornai and Gomulka

This note shows how Kornai's concept of the soft budget constraint can be decomposed into separate elements of technical inefficiency and relative price distortion. The distinction between r-budget softness and m-budget softness introduced by Gomulka is shown to correspond to the equivalent and compensating variation measures of efficiency loss. It is also argued that budget softness should be viewed as the outcome of a rent-seeking process in which a firm's action in the control sphere incurs an opportunity cost in the real sphere. Adopting such a perspective leads to a re-definition of the resource loss associated with budget softness and results in much higher estimates of the social costs of soft budgets than those proposed in the existing literature.