关注大众之所关注（中小企业融资篇）

中小企业的发展事关大众的就业水平，是事关民生的大问题，但是，长期困扰中小企业发展的融资难融资贵始终没有得到很好的解决。针对此，《国际融资》杂志记者在今年“两会”期间专访了几位全国政协委员，请看本栏目文章：《建立政策性中小企业融资服务体系很有必要》、《解决中小企业融资贵，重在金融市场体制创新》、《调整金融服务与民营经济间的结构性失衡》、《多举措解决融资难融资贵》《税收政策一刀切不利于激发小微金融活力》、《推进中小企业做专做精再做强的创新模式》。     

真发关注热点 如何在全球一体化趋势中应对金融风险——全国政协委员的视角

中国的经济与社会发展进入重要的发展阶段，有太多的牵动全局的问题值得关注，诸如通货膨胀、股市涨涨跌跌，等等。在全国政协第十一届第一次会议期间，《国际融资》记者在热点中再选热点，一个是金融，一个是环保。政协委员们从各个角度问题做了各自的阐述。     

财政部门应密切关注和积极配合全面深化改革

《中共中央关于全面深化改革若干重大问题的决定》明确“全面深化改革的总目标是完善和发展中国特色社会主义制度,推进国家治理体系和治理能力现代化。”又指出“财政是国家治理的基础和重要支柱。”因此,全面深化改革的方方面面都会涉及到财政。本刊2013年第12期刊登了《决定》第五部分有关深化财税体制改革的内容,本期将《决定》其他方面改革涉及到财政的部分摘登如下,供广大读者和财政干部学习。     

关注的力量

年末岁首，事关民生的政策密集出台。最为引人关注的便是“国十一条”（《国务院办公厅关于促进房地产市场平稳健康发展的通知》）和“国十三条”（《城镇企业职工基本养老保险关系转移接续暂行办法》）。“国十一条’’意在遏制过快上涨的房价，“国十三条”则直指跨省流动就业参保人员的养老权益。     

基层人民银行开展金融消费者权益保护工作存在的问题亟待关注

随着中国金融业的开放与发展，金融服务产品提供商与消费者之间的纠纷时有发生，金融消费者作为市场活动的重要参加者，其权利的保护事关金融市场的稳定与发展。如何保护金融服务产品消费者的合法权益，已经成为金融监管当局必须考虑的重要问题。在此种情势下，本文以金融消费者保护问题作为研究的核心，探讨基层金融监管部门相关解决路径的选择，有着理论和现实的双重意义。     

关注大众之所关注（金融篇）

作为13亿人口的大国，作为世界第二大经济体，对于中国大众来说，金融再也不是以往在银行存钱这样简单的事情，而是涉及到诸多方面的民生大问题。今年“两会”期间，《国际融资》杂志记者采访了多位全国政协委员，围绕着金融话题，请他们从各自的专业角度发表看法，请看本栏目文章《为P2P网贷建立专有信息生产保障体系势在必行》、《鼓励商业银行跨境金融服务创新》、《金融改革破题之年如何破题》、《强化金融服务功能助推实体经济发展》、《新常态下金融风险防范刻不容缓》、《注册制要创造条件循序渐进》和《推进债券市场与养老金制度体系改革》。     

今年“两会”关注：进一步改革，进一步开放——“两会”期间，政府官员谈改革和开放

2013年11月，党的十八届三中全会召开，绘制出全面深化改革的蓝图，中国如何迈好全面深化改革的第一步，举国期待，全球瞩目。三个月后，全国“两会”召开，期间无论是政府官员的政策解读还是政协委员的建言献策，都是事关改革和开放的言和行，言行之间凸显改革已然成为关键词。请看本刊记者对本次“两会”一组报道文章：《“两会”期间，政府官员谈改革和开放》、《话说改革的顶层设计》、《互联网金融：监管与支持需起头并举》、《发展混合所有制经济促进包容性增长》、《推进社会信用体系建设乃当务之急》、《加快修改不适应经济稳健发展的法律条款》及《中国城市与乡村发展的亮点与对策》。     

“筹、珠”考说

“筹、珠”考说王为桐筹算和珠算的关系问题，事关珠算史渊源的关键，在珠算史界历经多年研讨，曾取得过共识。如华印椿先生《论中国算盘的独创性》一文的发表，对这个问题已经解决。但是，近几年，有的以“酉周陶丸”为物证，发表调查、考证文章。也有的以《数术记遗》天...     

新政指引中国铝业重组提速

国家发改委工业司在8月底下发的《我国铝工业布局和结构调整建议》(以下简称《建议》)表示,铝工业专项发展规划和产业发展政策已经制定,待国务院批准后即将对外公布。铝业新政类似于不久前公布的钢铁产业政策,目的是通过合理的产业布局、淘汰落后产能、提高集中度来提升国内铝行业的整体竞争力水平,以此缓解国内资源、能源、环保等制约经济发展的瓶颈问题。业内人士分析认为,中国铝业的扩张期已过,铝业的重组、整合上升到了前所未有的高度。     

关注碳交易市场

正由温室气体排放所引发的气候变化不仅涉及生态环境问题,而且事关人类的长久生存和各国的繁荣发展,已成为国际社会普遍关心的重大问题。作为全球最大的发展中国家,我国清醒认识到气候变化所带来的严峻挑战,更明确在采取合理措施减少温室气体排放、改善生态环境和气候变化上承担的神圣职责。2011年11月,国务院发布《"十二五"控制温室气体排放工作方案》,明确提出控制二氧化碳等温室气体排放和开展低碳发展的目标,并将探索建立碳排放交易市场;党的十八大从加强生态文明建设     

Limited attention by lenders and small business debt financing: Advertising as attention grabber

Developing predictions by drawing upon the limited attention perspective, we investigate if small firms may use advertising as an attention grabber to increase their opportunities to access debt financing. Using a sample of over a million observations, we find that small firms with higher advertising expenditure are more likely to gain access to debt financing, thus increasing their financial leverage. Our tests show that lenders constrained by a limited attentional capacity are more likely to be attracted by small firms with higher advertising expenditure, and that small firms with financial constraints are not found to use advertisement intentionally to acquire resource.     

Director attention and firm value

In this article, we show that exogenous director distraction affects board monitoring intensity and leads to a higher level of inactivity by management. We construct a firm-level director “distraction” measure by exploiting shocks to unrelated industries in which directors have additional directorships. Directors attend significantly fewer board meetings when they are distracted. Firms with distracted board members tend to be inactive and experience a significant decline in firm value. Overall, this article highlights the impact of limited director attention on the effectiveness of corporate governance and the importance of directors in keeping management active.     

Managerial incentives for attracting attention

This paper studies the mechanisms which motivate managers to engage in cheap talk and attract the market's attention in a credible way. We consider stock split announcements, voluntary earnings forecasts, and press releases issued by firms to the media as proxies for managerial cheap talk. We show that: (a) managerial performance‐related pay contracts incentivize executives to attract attention; (b) analysts increase their coverage of firms following cheap talk; and (c) chief executive officers are punished for attracting attention when market prices do not increase following cheap talk. The results are stronger for firms which are most in need of attention.     

Targeted information and limited attention

We examine the implications of limited consumer attention for the targeting decisions of competing firms. Limited attention alters the strategic role of information provision as firms may become incentivized to behave as mass advertisers, despite perfect targeting abilities. We analyze the consequences of limited attention for targeting, strategic pricing, market shares, attention competition between firms, and the value of marketing data to firms. Accounting for limited attention in an otherwise standard targeting framework can explain several recent key issues from the advertising industry, such as consumer-side information overload or the increased usage of ad blocking tools.     

Getting the attention you need

Employees have an enormous amount of business information at their fingertips--more specifically, at their desktops. The floodgates are open; profitable possibilities abound. But having to handle all that information has pushed downsized staffs to the brink of an acute attention deficit disorder. To achieve corporate goals, business leaders need their employees' full attention--and that attention is in short supply. Authors Thomas Davenport and John Beck have studied how companies manage the attention of their employees and their site visitors. In this article, they analyze the components of attention management through three lenses--economic, psychobiological, and technological--and offer guidelines for keeping employees focused on crucial corporate tasks. Their lessons are drawn from the best practices employed by today's stickiest Web sites and by traditional attention industries such as advertising, film, and television. The authors say executives must manage attention knowing that it's a zero-sum game (there's only so much to go around). Managers should also consider capitalizing on the basic survival and competitive instincts we all have that help determine how much attention we pay to certain things. For instance, the threat of corporate demise--and the consequent loss of jobs and livelihoods--undoubtedly focuses workers' attention on the need to change. Likewise, internal competition among business units may give employees added incentive to pay attention to a profit or sales goal. Leaders today need to pay more attention to attention because it's widely misunderstood and widely mismanaged, the authors conclude.     

CEO overconfidence and IRS attention

We examine the likelihood that the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS), in its enforcement role, will accord particular attention to firms that are managed by CEOs who exhibit over-confidence, given that such CEOs may be more aggressive in their tax policies and strategies. Using data from 7757 firms, we find that this is indeed the case. Such attention is even more pronounced in the instance of overconfident CEOs whose firms are financially constrained and/or financially distressed. We also find that the IRS has augmented its audit processes to give more attention to overconfident CEOs during and post financial crisis. This may be due to the increased vulnerability of their firms to external shocks, which consequently increases the incentives to embark on tax avoidance strategies, value-destroying investments, and/or highly biased financial reporting (and forecasting responses) to tax authorities. Our results are robust after accounting for the possibility of endogeneity and using a wide range of specifications, measures, and econometric models.