Financing and monitoring in an emerging economy: Can investment efficiency be increased?

This study investigates the influence of the financial system on firms' investment efficiency in China. For this purpose, we employ country level data of capital markets and financial institutions along with financial data from 2797 Chinese firms in the period from 1998 to 2015. The firms are priori classified into four groups, by high and low values of financial constraints and agency problems. Results show that financial development influences firms' investments positively either directly or by reducing cash flow sensitivity. The impact remains the same for all types of firms. Moreover, the financial structure has an impact on investment efficiency of firms; this result also remains the same even after controlling levels of financial development. Study contributes that capital market based financial structure impacts investment decisions by reducing financing constraints and agency issue due to its strong monitoring ability.     

宏观经济环境影响资本结构调整速度吗？——来自中国上市公司的经验证据

本文应用广义矩法估计（GMM）,利用1998-2008年沪深两市378家上市公司相应指标组成的平衡面板数据为研究总样本,探究宏观经济环境对我国上市公司资本结构调整速度的影响效应。研究发现,宏观经济不仅影响公司的目标资本结构,还作为外生的冲击,作用于资本结构的动态调整。宏观经济繁荣时,公司资本结构的调整速度越快。当考虑融资约束时,这一结论仍然成立,但不受融资约束的公司比受到融资约束公司的资本结构调整速度更快。     

Business Life Cycle and Capital Structure: Evidence from Chinese Manufacturing Firms

This paper uses a panel data‐fixed effect approach and data collected from Chinese public manufacturing firms between 1999 and 2011 to investigate the impacts of business life cycle stages on capital structure. We find that cash flow patterns capture more information on business life cycle stages than firm age and have a stronger impact on capital structure decision‐making. We also find that the adjustment speed of capital structure varies significantly across life cycle stages and that non‐sequential transitions over life cycle stages play an important role in the determination of capital structure. Our study indicates that it is important for policy‐makers to ensure that products and financial markets are well‐balanced.     

Social trust and international trade: the interplay between social trust and formal finance

Social trust can facilitate access to alternative sources of finance to firms when formal finance is scarce or entails large transaction costs, especially in economies with less developed financial systems. Since exporting firms are relatively more dependent on external finance, we find that high levels of social trust in an economy with a relatively less developed financial sector have positive effects on exports. We combine the World Values Survey that provides information on social values and the UN Comtrade data for the period 1995–2007. Our analysis is carried out at the level of bilateral trade in 2-digit and 3-digit digit industry classifications that not only allows controlling for industry-level heterogeneities but also mitigates concerns of potential reverse causality.     

The Relation between Strategy,CEO Selection,and Firm Performance

We examine whether a firm's strategic priorities influence its selection of a new CEO and what conditions enable such an appointment to add value to the firm. More specifically, this study investigates the value‐adding effect when prospector firms (i.e., those pursuing a prospector‐type strategy) select a CEO with high social capital. We argue that uncertainty, driven by a firm's strategy, will determine the decision to select a CEO with high social capital; such CEOs can use their networks to mitigate the uncertainty and thus can be valuable to the firm. However, prior research indicates that CEOs with high social capital can engage in behavior detrimental to firm value. To mitigate the potential for this to occur, we assess whether corporate governance can play a role in prospector firms who appoint CEOs with high social capital. Drawing on archival data of CEO successions over a 14‐year period, we find that prospector firms have greater incentives to appoint CEOs with high social capital. We also find that prospector firms who appoint a CEO with high social capital improve their performance. Furthermore, the value‐adding effect of this selection choice is stronger in prospector firms with good corporate governance.     

Do Chinese publicly listed companies adjust their capital structure toward a target level?

We study the determinants of capital structure for 650 Chinese publicly listed companies over the period from 1999 to 2004. We posit that a firm's decision on capital structure is inherently dynamic, and estimate the resulting dynamic capital structure model. The main findings of the paper are as follows: (i) Chinese firms adjust toward an equilibrium level of debt ratio in a given year at a very slow rate; (ii) firm size, tangibility and state shareholdings are positively associated with firm's leverage ratio, while profitability, non-debt tax shields, growth and volatility are negatively related to firm's leverage ratio; (iii) lagged profitability has a negligibly small and positive impact on firm's leverage ratio; (iv) for a firm experiencing a large reduction in its leverage ratio only about 11% of the discrepancy between its desired and actual leverage level is eliminated within a year (compared to more than 18% for full firm sample); (v) extending the basic model to allow for both the target level and the speed of adjustment to be endogenously determined, we find that Chinese firms tend to adjust faster if they are farther away from the equilibrium leverage level; and lastly (vi) extending the sample period to cover the earlier periods starting from 1993, when the Chinese stock markets were first developed, results in a slower speed of adjustment for firms in the below target sample.     

Roles of Formal Institutions and Social Capital in Innovation Activities: A Cross-Country Analysis

This paper investigates the roles of formal institutions and social capital in countries’ innovation activities. The sample consists of 62 developed and developing countries, using the ordinary least squares robust standard error estimations, instrumental variable (IV) estimators, and quantile regression. The empirical results indicate that formal institutions and social capital complement one another in influencing countries’ innovations level. In terms of the relative importance of both in promoting innovation activities, the social capital has greater role compared to formal institutions. Furthermore, the empirical result suggests that innovation level tends to be higher in countries with higher social capital. We also use the quantile regression to estimate whether the relationship among formal institutions, social capital, and innovation differs at different points in the conditional distribution of innovation. The results demonstrate that formal institutions yield a significant positive impact only after exceeding in 50th quantile, whereas social capital do so at lower 10th quantile. Therefore, in addition to a policy focus on improving the formal institutions, countries with a low level of innovation should enrich social capital in their promotion of innovation activity.     

Working capital management during the global financial crisis: Evidence from Japan

This paper demonstrates the adjustment speed of firm working capital and the relationships between working capital and firm performance in Japan during the global financial crisis. Using quarterly firm-level data, we find that the adjustment of working capital was weaker during the crisis. Moreover, the negative relationship between excess working capital and firm performance became more significant during the crisis, especially for larger firms. However, this crisis-related working capital–firm performance effect does not appear to persist for very long, because to finance any excess working capital, firms borrow from banks and reduce their internal cash both during and outside periods of crisis.     

Private Information Production,Public Disclosure,and the Cost of Capital: Theory and Implications*

Both private information production by market traders and public disclosure by firms contribute to dissemination of financial information in the capital market. However, the motives and economic consequences of the two are quite different. In general, private information production is intended by investors to increase their trading profit, which has the effect of widening the information gap between informed and uninformed investors and increasing the firm's cost of capital. On the other hand, public disclosure can be used to narrow this information gap and to lower the cost of capital. This paper provides a theoretical model to examine the economic incentives behind these two forms of information dissemination and their consequences on the cost of capital. By simultaneously considering the firm's and the information traders' decisions, the paper derives an equilibrium in which the amount of private information production, the level of public disclosure, and the cost of capital are all linked to specific characteristics of the firm, of information traders, and of the market. In contrast to conventional beliefs, the paper predicts that, across firms, the cost of capital can be either positively or negatively related to the firm's disclosure level, depending on the specific factors that cause the variation within a particular sample. Similarly, the extent to which investors follow a firm and the firm's disclosure level can be either positively or negatively related to each other. Implications for empirical research are discussed.     

Does religion enhance firm performance? Evidence from private firms in China

We study the impact of religiosity on firm performance in China. We find that entrepreneurs with religious beliefs have higher accounting performance. Firms are more likely to obtain bank credit if entrepreneurs have religious beliefs as religiosity stimulate them to invest more in networking, which further enhance the access to bank credit. Religious entrepreneurs have more trust towards external people, which incentivizes them to adopt a shareholding reform and employ external professional CEOs instead of family members, and thus enhances the corporate governance of these firms. In contrast, religious entrepreneurs also prefer family members as shareholders and inheritance of the firm by family members. The preference of inheritance of the firm by family members undermines the enhancing effect of external CEOs on firm performance. Religious entrepreneurs are more likely to spend more on safety insurance for employees, which is driven by the altruism originated from religious doctrines and also the risk aversion channel. The impact of religiosity complements market institutions, and political and social status of the entrepreneurs, which shows the interaction between religion and formal market institutions. We find that it's mainly Buddhism that drives our results, while other religions have limited impact on business activities in the country.     

关于推动农村金融发展的研究

农村金融在农村经济发展中起着重要的作用,包括资金融通,提供金融服务,推动农村产业结构调整,促进农业的产业化经营等。基于此,本文从目前我国以中国农业银行、农业发展银行、农村信用社、农村邮政储蓄为代表的正规金融机构和以小额借贷、民间借贷为代表的非正规金融机构出发,针对其各自存在的问题以及由此导致的我国农村资金供不应求的现状,从完善农村金融体系、深化金融机构改革和提高农村金融服务质量、推进农村金融创新以及建立健全农村信用体系、加强农村金融监管等方面提出相应的对策建议。     

基于信任的社会资本与民营企业可持续发展

20世纪90年代以来,社会资本成为企业发展的重要话题。它不但成为解释企业持续发展的理论,也被奉为探求组织发展的有效方法。信任是社会资本的重要内容。信任资源不足是我国民营企业成长的瓶颈。本文通过对我国民营企业中信任型社会资本的现状分析,提出民营企业应加强信任型社会资本的挖掘和建设,以促进我国民营企业可持续成长。     

企业社会责任信息披露与资本结构关系研究

企业社会责任信息披露是联通企业与外部相关者的重要方式。以A股2009年前上市公司为研究对象，运用面板数据考察企业社会责任信息披露与资本结构的关系。实证发现：在高竞争度行业，实际资本结构低于目标资本结构的企业样本中，企业社会责任信息披露对资本结构的调整速度有显著的负影响、主要通过短期债务影响资本结构、与资本结构的调整效率呈“U”型关系。     

社会资本角度下的农村民间信用的制度变迁分析

在非正式制度为主导的农村非正式社会结构中．基于农村社会资本所形成的特殊信任的民间信用，使得民间信用契约具有自我执行的内在机制。随着农村经济的发展和非正式社会结构的制度转型，农村社会资本所形成的特殊信任主义必须向一般信任主义演变，并促使农村民间信用制度发生适应性变迁。     

中国信托业规范化发展问题研究

中国的信托业起步较晚,在其后发展的二十几年时间里,暴露出种种问题,存在着违规关联交易、非法吸收存款、挪用客户资金、不实信息披露等现象,其发展是和政府对其的整顿同时进行的,说明现阶段我国信托业还没有走上规范化发展的道路。本文揭示出我国信托业发展不规范的影响:随后分析了原因,最后,笔者提出了建立我国信托业规范化发展的对策建议。     

中国上市公司资本结构动态调整机制研究

本文从动态角度对中国上市公司资本结构的调整行为进行了研究.结果表明,我国上市公司存在最优资本结构,整体上表现为负债不足,由于调整成本的存在使得公司在偏离最优水平后只能进行部分调整.调整速度会受到公司规模、成长性和偏离最优水平的程度等因素影响,而且会因时间、行业和公司规模的不同而存在显著差异.     

Perceived land tenure security in rural Xinjiang,China: The role of official land documents and trust

The role of formal tenure institutions in reducing land tenure insecurity has been long debated in the development economics literature. This study examines and compares the key determinants of perceptions of security of tenure over contract land and wasteland, two types of land that are characterized by tenure being formally and informally ascribed. The material is drawn from the Chinese region of Xinjiang, an ethnically heterogeneous region which has more complex tenure systems than elsewhere in China. Empirical estimations based on a survey of 352 households, complemented by interviews with key informants, demonstrate that formal institutions (measured by official land documents) do not significantly contribute to households' perceptions of tenure security on either type of land, and that both interpersonal trust and political trust significantly enhance perceived tenure security on either land type in our research area. The empirical evidence further shows that perceptions of tenure security on both types of land are more sensitive to trust towards village cadres than trust in villagers.     

Micro-entrepreneurship in a hostile environment: evidence from Indonesia

The contribution of micro-entrepreneurship to development has featured prominently in recent economic and policy debates. Using panel data from the Indonesia Family Life Survey over a long period (1993–2007) marked by an important economic crisis in 1997, this paper investigates the impact of financial, human and social capital on households’ participation in micro-entrepreneurship, while accounting for corruption as well as institutional and infrastructure quality. Larger urban households that have greater financial and social capital, and/or whose members have an elementary or secondary education, are more likely to participate. Corruption at the local parliament and local government levels reduces the number of participants, while higher-quality formal institutions and infrastructure boost entrepreneurship. The period is marked by a rise in participation in 2000, but communities that experienced a loss in well-being due to the crisis were less likely to participate in micro-entrepreneurship.     

营运资本政策的稳健性是否会受大股东社会资本的影响

文章基于“关系是形成社会资本的基础”这一思想,研究了我国 A 股上市公司大股东社会资本对公司营运资本政策稳健性的影响。实证研究发现,大股东社会资本数量与营运资本稳健性显著正相关,大股东社会资本对公司营运资本政策的稳健程度具有积极的正向影响;进而,不同关系强度的股东社会资本的治理效应不尽相同,强关系型社会资本较弱关系型社会资本更能促进利益协同效应的发挥。文章研究证实,大股东社会资本作为“隐形权力”的存在影响了“显性”的股权比例对营运资本政策的影响。     

社会资本与金融发展

社会资本是影响金融发展的一种重要的非正式机制。社会资本通过社会关系网络、人际之间的信任和互惠规范等方面,增强人们之间的合作关系,减少机会主义倾向,降低交易成本,促进金融和经济发展。社会资本对金融发展的影响主要表现在对金融发展水平的影响、对非正规金融或民间信用的影响及社会资本在微型金融发展和关系融资中的作用等方面。