Ethical Issues Resulting from Genetic Technology

Genetic tests are laboratory procedures that identify changes in our genes. Most human disease results, in whole or in part, from alterations in genes. Because the tests are expected to have incredible predictive power and because they may tell us personal information before we are ready to receive it, testing requested by a third party could be considered an infringement on privacy. Furthermore, the technology is new and thus subject to errors in interpretation that could result in unfair discrimination against the person who has been tested. Genes are inherited and are found not only in a single individual but also in some blood relatives. A genetic test therefore involves many people and invades the privacy of all. This paper questions the right of insurers to demand genetic tests but notes that by concealing the results of tests, applicants may practice adverse selection. If ethics are rules of conduct that society requires, then insurers will need to reexamine their ethical responsibilities in the light of this new technology.     

中国注册会计师协会关于坚决打击和治理注册会计师行业不正当低价竞争行为的通知

一、把打击和治理不正当低价竞争作为当前和今后一个时期行业监管的重点工作.各级注册会计师协会要充分认识不正当低价竞争对行业的严重危害,不正当低价竞争是行业发展诸多矛盾的重要诱因,不利于事务所提高鉴证服务的质量,不利于事务所培育核心竞争力,不利于形成公平合理的行业竞争环境.各级注册会计师协会要将治理不正当低价竞争作为当前和今后一个时期行业监管工作的重中之重,作为深化行业诚信建设的重要领域,坚决打击和治理行业不正当低价竞争行为.     

Violation of the iid-normal assumption: Effects on tests of asset-pricing models using Australian data

Financial data are typically not identically, independently and normally distributed (iid-normal). Yet, standard tests of asset-pricing models are based on this assumption, and we have little information on how sensitive the tests are to violations of iid-normality. Recent evidence suggests that test outcomes may be sensitive to these violations. In this paper, we use Australian data to compare the standard test results with those that do not require iid-normality: the GMM-J test and bootstrap-based tests. We find that different tests produce differences in prob values at least as large as those in US studies but that test outcomes are generally robust.     

When Hong Kong becomes SAR,is the mainland ready? Problems of judgments recognition in cross‐border insolvency matters

After Hong Kong's handover in the year 1997 to the People's Republic of China (PRC), two judicial systems began to operate in parallel in one country. To date, judicial convergence in cross‐border insolvency matters has not yet been established between the mainland and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). By reviewing several recent court decisions, this article demonstrates some problems of judgment recognition in matters of cross‐border insolvency between the two regions. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Testing for explosive bubbles in the presence of autocorrelated innovations

We analyze an empirically important issue with recursive right-tailed unit root tests for bubbles in asset prices. First, we show that serially correlated innovations, which is a feature that is present in most financial series used to test for bubbles, can lead to severe size distortions when using either fixed or automatic (based on information criteria) lag-length selection in the auxiliary regressions underlying the test. Second, we propose a sieve-bootstrap version of these tests and show that this results in tests which control size well across a number of simulation designs both with and without highly autocorrelated innovations. We also find that these improvements in size come at a relatively low cost for the power of the tests. Finally, we apply the bootstrap tests on the housing market of OECD countries, and generally find much weaker evidence of housing bubbles compared to existing evidence.     

NONNESTED PROCEDURES IN ECONOMETRIC TESTS OF ASSET PRICING THEORIES

In this paper nonnested tests are used to contrast the performance of the capital asset pricing (CAPM) and consumption capital asset pricing (CCAPM) theories in describing the U.S. stock market. The procedures employed include the N‐test, the NT‐test, the W‐test, the J‐test, and the Encompassing test. The tests are carried out using data on firms as well as portfolios based on beta, capitalization, and Standard Industrial Classification codes. The findings indicate that although during 1973–82 the CAPM dominates the CCAPM, during 1978–87 the results are mixed, and during 1983–92 the CCAPM dominates. The finding in favor of the CCAPM in 1983–92 conflicts with much of the existing literature, which favors the CAPM.     

负所得税理论视角下养老保险的公平性研究

社会保障的出发点之一,就是要实现社会公平。而我国的养老保险制度实施至今,其公平性却饱受争议,各方观点纷纷涌现。笔者认为,与覆盖范围、缴费水平和统筹层次这三个维度的不公平性相比,养老保险的参保人内部存在的不公平问题更甚,并且其根源在于占有社会资源的不同。负所得税理论在解决公平性问题方面的功效是值得关注的,本文将运用负所得税理论加以分析和解决参保人内部的不公平性问题。     

Tests of Weak‐Form Efficiency of the Dhaka Stock Exchange

Abstract:   Conflicting evidence on weak form efficiency of the Dhaka Stock Market appears to stem from the use of monthly versus daily data, structural changes after the 1996 market crash, and the use of tests with or without heteroscedasticity adjustment. Heteroscedasticity‐robust tests indicate short‐term predictability of share prices prior to the crash, but not afterwards. Although a heteroscedasticity‐robust Box‐Pierce test was used by Lo and MacKinlay (1989) in their simulations, our study appears to be the first to apply this test to stock prices. Typical rejection of weak‐form market efficiency by the usual autocorrelation tests may be reversed by a heteroscedasticity‐robust test.     

完善房产税制的探讨

我国现行房产税制已经不能适应目前的社会经济情况,突出表现在:内外资企业及内外籍居民税负不公;分处城乡的同类企业和个人税负不公;税基狭窄,调节功能弱化,等等。建议通过统一税制、扩大税基、统一计税依据、改革征管方式等手段使房产税这个小税种能有一番大作为。     

Proposal: a position for the insurance industry on genetic testing

Proposed legislation to limit the use of genetic test results in insurance underwriting has appeared with increasing frequency at the state and federal level. The proponents seek to protect consumers from unfair discrimination by insurers. Can we not develop a proactive approach, acknowledging that we do not need to do prospective testing while we assert that we must retain the current status of equivalency of information between the underwriter and the applicant?     

A Test for Symmetry with Leptokurtic Financial Data

Most of the tests for symmetry are developed under the (implicitor explicit) null hypothesis of normal distribution. As is wellknown, many financial data exhibit fat tails, and thereforecommonly used tests for symmetry (such as the standard test based on sample skewness) are not valid fortesting the symmetry of leptokurtic financial data. In particular,the test uses third moment, which may not be robust in presence of gross outliers. In this article wepropose a simple test for symmetry based on the Pearson typeIV family of distributions, which take account of leptokurtosisexplicitly. Our test is based on a function that is boundedover the real line, and we expect it to be more well behavedthan the test based on sample skewness (third moment). Resultsfrom our Monte Carlo study reveal that the suggested test performsvery well in finite samples both in terms of size and power.Simulation results also support our conjecture of the teststo be well behaved and robust to excess kurtosis. We apply thetest to some selected individual stock return data to illustrateits usefulness.     

Systemic risk measures and macroprudential stress tests: an assessment over the 2014 EBA exercise

Regulators’ stress tests on banks further stimulated an academic debate over systemic risk measures and their predictive content. Focusing on marked based measures, Acharya et al. (Rev Financ Stud 30(1):2–47, 2017) provide a theoretical background to use marginal expected shortfall (MES) for predicting the stress test results, and verify it on the 2009 Supervisory Capital Assessment Program of the US banking system. The aim of this paper is to further test the goodness of MES as a predictive measure, by analysing it in relation to the results of the 2014 European stress tests exercise conducted by the European Banking Authority. Our results underscore the importance of choosing the appropriate index to capture the systemic distress event. In fact MES based on a global market index does not show association with the stress test results, in contrast to Financial MES, which is based on a financial market index, and has a significant information and predictive power.     

关联交易定价与利益输送问题研究

本文以2004-2008年上市公司153起关联固定资产交易为样本,以资产评估中经调整的超额溢价比率作为控股股东对上市公司剥削程度的度量,实证研究了控股股东对上市公司的剥削行为以及关联交易背后的利益输送关系。研究发现:控股股东通过非公允关联交易对上市公司剥削的程度与第一大股东持股比例的关系是倒U型的,与上市公司偿债能力之间存在着显著的正向关系,与上市公司当前经营业绩之间存在较弱的U型关系。上述证据表明控股股东通过制定关联交易价格来进行他们所期望的利益输送。     

Transactions data tests of efficiency of the Chicago board options exchange

This paper performs lower boundary condition tests based on rational pricing of call options and an implied standard deviation test based on the bid/ask prices of options. These efficiency tests attempt to closely approximate conditions in the option markets to avoid the pitfalls indicated by Phillips and Smith (1980). The tests use transactions data and account for the effects of stock and option bid/ask prices, simultaneity of stock and option prices, depth of market, execution lag and transaction costs. The small and relatively infrequent profits due to market mispricing disappear in the lower boundary tests when transaction costs are taken into account. Frequent violations of the tighter boundary conditions in the implied standard deviation test are reported, but the estimated profits cannot be unambiguously attributed to option market inefficiency.     

Regression vs. volatility tests of the efficiency of foreign exchange markets

Volatility tests are an alternative to regression tests for evaluating the joint null hypothesis of market efficiency and risk neutrality. By considering tests based on conditional volatility bounds, we show that if the alternative hypothesis is that one could ‘beat the market’ using a linear combination of observable variables, then regression tests are at least as powerful as the conditional volatility tests. If the application is to spot and forward markets for foreign exchange, then the most powerful conditional volatility test turns out to be equivalent to the analogous regression test in terms of asymptotic power.     

Bond market event study methods

The procedures used in corporate bond event studies to date fail to control for heteroskedasticity due to differences in return volatility by term-to-maturity, rating, and other factors resulting in low test power. Bond return standardization yields considerably more powerful tests. Also, due to infrequent trading, use of bond transaction price observations over several days before and after an event, while giving more weight to returns calculated from transactions closer to the event, yields considerably more powerful tests than returns based solely on transactions the day before and the day after the event. Exploring the test bias caused by overlapping event dates, we find that, adjusted for rating and maturity, the correlation among standardized abnormal bond returns is small but that even fairly small correlations can result in biased test statistics. A bond market modification of the Kolari and Pynnönen (2010) procedure corrects this bias.     

A LIKELIHOOD RATIO TEST OF THE ZERO-BETA CAPM IN AUSTRALIAN EQUITY RETURNS

This paper tests the zero-beta CAPM with Australian equity returns, using the multivariate approach developed by Gibbons (1982). For the period 1958 to 1987, based on its asymptotic distribution, the likelihood ratio test (LRT) statistic indicates a strong rejection of the model when an equally weighted market index is used. However, small sample adjustments to the test suggested by Jobson and Korkie (1982) and by Shanken (1985) place the validity of this conclusion in some doubt. When a value weighted market index is used for the period 1974 to 1987, the tests reveal at least moderate support for the zero-beta CAPM.     

Efficiency Tests of the Foreign Currency Options Market

Based on a new options transactions data base from the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Foreign Currency Options Market, this paper examines the importance of the effect of nonsynchronous prices and transaction costs on the usual option market efficiency tests. The tests conducted are based on the transaction cost adjusted early exercise and put-call parity pricing boundaries applicable to the American foreign currency options market. The test results show that the put-call parity boundary tests are sensitive to both nonsynchronous prices and transaction costs. The early exercise boundary tests are sensitive to transaction costs but are not very sensitive to simultaneity of the option price and the underlying spot price. Under the no-transaction costs scenario, a large number of early exercise boundary violations is found even when simultaneous spot and option prices are used. These violations disappear when actual transaction costs are taken into account.     

Bootstrap Tests for Multivariate Event Studies

Statistical tests for multivariate event studies—exact or asymptotic—are derived based on multivariate normality. As it has been previously documented that the performances of these tests are not satisfactory, because stock returns are far from normally distributed (especially for daily returns), this paper proposes the use of bootstrap methods, which are free from any specific distributional assumption, to provide better approximations to the sampling distributions of test statistics in multivariate event studies. The Monte Carlo experiments based on real daily returns data show that the bootstrap tests outperform the traditional tests by having close rejection rates to the nominal significance levels. The traditional tests, in contrast, tend to reject the null hypotheses too often.     

Detecting ARCH Effects in Non-Gaussian Time Series

Engles ARCH test has become the standard test for ARCH effectsin applied work. Under non-normality the true rejection probabilityof this test can differ substantially from the nominal level,however. Bootstrap and Monte Carlo versions of the test maythen be used instead. This paper proposes an alternative testprocedure. The new test exploits the empirical distributionof the data and an extended probability integral transformation.The test is compared with the former tests in Monte Carlo experiments.Under normality, the new test works as well as the conventionalMonte Carlo test and the bootstrap. Under non-normality, thetest tends to be more accurate and more powerful than the bootstrappedARCH test. The procedure is then used to test for ARCH effectsin S&P 500 returns sampled at different frequencies. Incontrast to the standard and the bootstrapped ARCH tests, thenew test detects ARCH effects in the transformed low-frequencyreturns.