German bond markets and US monetary policy

Low interest rates have been a major problem for the European life insurance industry. The implementation of Solvency II certainly has forced European life insurers to improve their risk management procedures and to buy long term bonds in order to handle the interest rate risk inherent to their liabilities. As a consequence, the industry meanwhile more or less seems to be able to cope with the problem of low interest rates. However, now the US central bank has started to hike rates. The Bank of Canada meanwhile has followed its southern neighbor. The changed monetary policy environment in North America might create new challenges for asset managers in the European life insurance industry. This paper provides some additional thoughts and empirical evidence about the linkages between US monetary policy and the European bond market employing techniques of time series analysis.     

德国专家谈能源转型中储能技术的作用

3月4日,在“储能国际峰会2014”新闻发布会上,德国能源存储协会（BVEs）董事会成员、杜塞尔多夫展览集团公司可再生能源行业项目总监Heiko Stutzinger先生对德国可再生能源储存现状及今后的发展趋势介绍说 德国能源转型过程中,起决定性作用的是储能技术的发展。众所周知,到2020年,德国将全面关闭核电设施,在此之后,可再生能源将起到非常大的作用。而在这其中就能体现储能的作用,因为如果没有储能技术,德国的电网中将不会有足够的能源。目前德国有两个主要的储能技术。     

Perspectives for long-term energy policy

After a review of the basic questions facing energy-policy makers and the inability of such techniques as cost-benefit analysis and demand forecasting to provide long-term answers, the authors focus on the supply approach. They argue that energy resources can, for practical purposes, be regarded as infinite and that the focus of attention should be the speed at which energy supplies can be brought on stream using various technology options and assuming an ideal world. A possible model, employing energy analysis, is described and its utility in providing benchmarks for long-term policy making is strongly commended.     

德国能源转型对中国有启示

能源变革与技术革新已成为当今能源领域变化发展的主旋律,在新一轮能源变革中,德国是先行者之一,其能源发展模式已被多个国家借鉴和效仿。那么,德国能源转型的目标是什么？目前有哪些进展？德国为何要放弃核能的使用？能源转型过程中遇到了哪些问题？德国能源转型对中国有哪些启示？带着这些问题,《国际融资》杂志记者专程采访了德国能源署前署长、中德可再生能源合作中心德方主任斯蒂芬·科勒先生。     

Monetary policy and bank lending:: Evidence from German banking groups

This paper analyses the impact of monetary shocks on bank lending in Germany. We follow a cross-sectoral approach by looking at six different banking groups. In general, smaller banks hold a larger buffer of liquid assets which they can use to offset monetary shocks. In addition, the response of bank lending after a monetary contraction is very different across banking sectors. Lending by the credit co-operatives, which are on average the smallest banks, declines most, whereas big banks are able to shield their loans portfolio against monetary shocks. Overall, our results provide support for the existence of a bank lending channel.     

把握节能环保财税政策

在国家节能中心主办的2015节能与生态文明建设高峰论坛上,财政部财政科学研究所副所长苏明表示：“中国政府包括中央政府,包括地方政府的债务规模是在安全范围之内的。所以,我们不能太保守,要适当地增加赤字、增加债务、增加投资,来支持我们国家的经济发展,包括支持国家下一步节能环保事业的发展。”     

乌克兰危机下俄罗斯能源政策走向

在2014国际能源热点问题高层论坛暨《财富轮转：俄罗斯石油、经济和国家的重塑》新书发布会上,专家们就未来俄罗斯能源行业的困局,可能推出的能源政策,以及基于俄政策驱动力的不协调与不依赖可能产生政策的多变等,阐述了各自的看法
　　中俄能源政策可相互借鉴
　　国家发展和改革委员会能源所副所长高世宪认为,俄罗斯把国家利益最大化方面做得非常好,这一点值得整个东亚国家学习。     

The challenges facing energy and climate change policy in South Africa

Conclusion In the context of a political situation characterised by a large number of demands from different spheres, it must be doubted whether the South African government will commit its limited financial and institutional resources to develop and implement programmes to raise energy efficiency and reduce emissions of green-house gases to the extent required. For this reason it is important in the political debate to underline the point that energy-saving measures not only help avoid climate change, but also hold out the prospect of economic advantages. Higher energy efficiency is often associated with higher productivity due to the link between the deployment of modern technology and energy-cost savings. The DME has calculated that nation-wide energy savings of between 10 and 20% could lead to a 1.5 to 3% higher level of GDP. Energy efficiency and climate protection have been adopted, at least as a principle, in a number of statutes and regulations, but the concretisation and implementation of support programmes and minimum standards are being hampered by the lack of political and administrative capacities. Yet delays in implementing such measures are likely to raise the costs of climate-protection measures in the future. For instance, it is more costly to put in insulation and ceilings after a house has been built than to incorporate the requirements of heat insulation into housing construction programmes. If expensive negative developments in the future are to be avoided, among other things the scope for international cooperation in this areas should be exploited.     

The greening of Swedish energy policy: A critique

This article discusses Swedish energy policy over the period 1973–1992 with a focus on its current energy objectives. Bans on energy sources are assessed as one of the challenges faced by Sweden in the 1990s. We raise questions about the future consequences of such draconian approaches to energy policy that inhibit societal learning. Bans on any fuel source only serve to handicap the economy and lead to a less flexible and more inefficient energy supply at a greater than necessary cost. With the Swedish economy on the verge of becoming more integrated with the rest of Europe, it is imperative to view its comparative advantage in electricity as the basis for its energy policy rather than the individual fuels that generate that electricity. Our goal has been to synthesize components among existing energy objectives to suggest logical implications for the future.     

Quality in risk reporting on energy issues in German news media

In media coverage, the context of the German energy transition, also referred to as Energiewende, casts a spotlight not only on various technology options (e.g. wind or coal power) but also on more abstract topics such as security of supply or electricity prices. Thereby, the public’s assessment of energy-related issues may greatly rely on perceived risks. Focusing on the quality of energy-related risk reporting, this contribution therefore is intended to explore the German print and TV media discourse on energy options or topics. In our sample, one in three articles connects an energy option or topic with an evident or potential unwanted event. Although the media’s effect on actual risk perception involves some controversies, researchers tend to criticize the media as being susceptible to framing and for failing to place unwanted events in perspective, e.g. by not presenting the corresponding likelihood of occurrence, which is necessary to define risk. If this critique holds true, accurate public risk assessment is partly hampered because media coverage implies uncertainty rather than providing all information available. We examined seven indicators of quality reporting derived from literature research: intensity, likelihood, controllability, desired uncertainty, sensationalism, emotional language, and type of unwanted event. Based on German energy media coverage in 2013, we found a relatively high occurrence of intensity and controllability, whereas likelihood and desired uncertainty were reported less often. By aggregating the indicators into a risk-reporting quality index, we did not observe a poor quality of risk reporting on energy issues. In contrast to previous research, the overall quality of energy-related risk reporting can be assessed as at least moderate, implying that the media depicts risks more precisely than assumed. The occurrence of quality indicators thereby significantly depends on the type of unwanted event rather than on the energy option considered.     

Dividend policy of German firms: A panel data analysis of partial adjustment models

German firms pay out a lower proportion of their cash flows, but a higher proportion of their published profits than UK and US firms. We estimate partial adjustment models and report two major findings. First, German firms base their dividend decisions on cash flows rather than published earnings as (i) published earnings do not correctly reflect performance because German firms retain parts of their earnings to build up legal reserves, (ii) German accounting is conservative, (iii) published earnings are subject to more smoothing than cash flows. Second, to the opposite of UK and US firms, German firms have more flexible dividend policies as they are willing to cut the dividend when profitability is only temporarily down.     

投资乘数效应递减与货币政策工具选择

近年来,我国投资乘数效应递减,以总量扩张为目的一般性货币政策工具的作用逐渐减弱。为了进一步发挥货币政策功能,应合理实施优惠利率等选择性货币政策工具,充分发挥选择性货币政策工具的结构性调控功能,刺激宏观经济发展。     

Managerial entrenchment and payout policy: A catering effect

Agency theory suggests that entrenched managers are less likely to pay dividends. However, according to the catering theory, external pressures from investors can force managers to increase dividend payments. Hence, we test whether entrenched managers respond to investor demand for dividends and share repurchases. Using a large sample of 9677 US firms over the period 1990–2016 (i.e. a total of 80,478 firm-year observations), we test and find evidence that managerial entrenchment negatively impacts dividend payments. Our findings suggest that catering effects weaken the negative impact of managerial entrenchment on payout policy and that in firms with entrenched managers an increase in the propensity to pay dividends is conspicuous only when there is external investor demand for dividends. Our results indicate that while insiders and institutional owners might not necessarily favour dividend payments, firms respond to catering incentives when dominated by insiders but not institutional owners. Overall, our findings are consistent with the view that dividend payments are a result of external pressures to reduce agency problems associated with firms run by entrenched managers.     

Sequential innovation,patent policy,and the dynamics of the replacement effect

I study how patent policy—characterized by patent length and forward protection—affects Research and Development (R&D) dynamics, leadership persistence, and market structure. Firms' R&D investments increase as the patent's expiration date approaches. Through forward protection, followers internalize the leader's replacement effect. In protective systems, this internalization is substantial, reversing Arrow's traditional result: followers invest less than leaders at every moment of the patent's life. I study the policy that maximizes innovative activity. Overly protective policies decrease innovation pace through two mechanisms: delaying firms' investments toward the end of the patent's life and decreasing the number of firms performing R&D.     

Ownership structure and its effect on dividend policy in the Mexican context

This work focused on analyzing whether the ownership structure has any effect on the dividend policy of companies in the Mexican market. The decision of dividend payment is one of the major elements in corporate policy, as this dividend policy influences the value of the company. Therefore, decisions such as adopting a company growth policy through the reinvestment of profits, or better yet allocating them to the payment of dividends, are going to be influenced by the type of ownership structure that dominates the company. The analysis was based on three types of ownership structures such as: families, institutions (mainly banks) and small blocks of shareholders. Our results show that the concentration of property in families negatively influences the payment of dividends, whereas the presence of institutional shareholders has an inverse effect on the payment of the same. This indicates that the presence of big shareholders foreign to the families has a different effect on the payment policy of dividends in the Mexican context. This work provides literature information about the context of emerging countries as is the case of Mexico, given that much of the existing investigations focus on European or North American contexts, where the markets are well regulated and property is broadly distributed.