Asset fire sales (and purchases) in equity markets

This paper examines institutional price pressure in equity markets by studying mutual fund transactions caused by capital flows from 1980 to 2004. Funds experiencing large outflows tend to decrease existing positions, which creates price pressure in the securities held in common by distressed funds. Similarly, the tendency among funds experiencing large inflows to expand existing positions creates positive price pressure in overlapping holdings. Investors who trade against constrained mutual funds earn significant returns for providing liquidity. In addition, future flow-driven transactions are predictable, creating an incentive to front-run the anticipated forced trades by funds experiencing extreme capital flows.     

史海回眸(一)——唐代封建经济的繁荣与私人高利贷的兴盛

在中国漫长的封建社会中,王朝建立后较长时期的政治稳定及经济发展,必然导致商品货币关系的活跃。有唐一代,在货币已成为主要的支付手段和财富的主要形式的情况下,政府与官僚、地主、商贾一样,都在以最大的热情追逐和猎取货币,能够迅速实现钱币生息增殖的官、私高利贷于是迅速繁荣兴旺起来。其中,民间私人高利贷在整个社会经济领域中分布更为广泛,发展更为迅速,对封建经济的腐蚀分解作用,也就远较官高利贷为烈。唐代有关私人高利贷的法律制度、文契范式、利率规定等,不仅展示了封建国家进行民间融资管理的基本特点,对我们近年来讨论的民间金融发展问题,也不无启发和借鉴意义。     

Accounting and financial policy at Schneider (1837-75)

This article deals with financial accounting and financial strategy at Schneider during the period of early French industrialization. The charging of all capital expenditure to net income led both to an underestimation of assets and a reduction of distributable income. Schneider managed to reconcile this accounting choice with a generous dividend policy. The means by which the company's capital was increased are also considered.     

Real (adaptation) options and the valuation of equity: some empirical evidence

Data from 1,374 firms across four broad industrial groupings are used to assess the contribution that real (adaptation) options make to overall equity values. The analysis indicates that real (adaptation) options make a significant contribution to the equity value of firms with a market to book ratio (of equity) of around unity or less. As the market to book ratio grows beyond this level, however, the contribution made by real (adaptation) options decays quickly away and equity values are mainly comprised of the present value of the dividends that firms are expected to pay. This means that for around one in every five of the firms in our sample real (adaptation) options make a significant contribution to overall equity value. Thus, while linear equity valuation models would seem to be appropriate for the substantial majority of firms on which our sample is based, there is a sizeable minority of firms where real (adaptation) options have a significant impact on equity values. For this latter group of firms there will be a non-linear relationship between equity value and its determining variables. This has important implications for the regression procedures that are applied in this area of accounting research.     

美国金融业信息保障战略(待续)

信息安全概念发展到“信息保障”之后,信息的安全属性已经与有效的信息安全管理密不可分。美国政府在信息保障工作方面进行了长期的实践,在总结了大量的经验、教训的基础上,制定了美国信息保障国家战略。日前,信息安全国家重点实验室翻译了这部战略中的大部分文件,本刊将分三部分就金融业信息保障战略的主要内容和相关背景材料作详细介绍。     

The impact of SFAS No. 123(R) on financial statement conservatism

SFAS No. 123(R) requires firms to recognize the fair value of stock options as compensation expense over the vesting period of the options. Thus, SFAS No. 123(R) leads to an overall increase in financial statement conservatism. However, it is not known whether SFAS No. 123(R) increases conditional and/or unconditional conservatism. Because the different forms of conservatism have different implications for the quality of earnings, I investigate which types of conservatism are impacted by SFAS No. 123(R) to gain insight into the ramifications of the Standard. I find that SFAS No. 123(R) leads to an increase in both unconditional and conditional conservatism. I additionally find that the Standard causes an increased negative relation between contemporaneous economic gains and income. These findings hold outside of the sample period and under a non-priced based model of conservatism.     

第五届中国金融信息化发展论坛演讲精选(银行篇)

2004年9月12日～13日,第五届中国金融信息化发展论坛在北京展览馆报告厅隆重举行。今年论坛的主题为“中国金融信息化的未来发展之路”。在两场主题论坛上,共有来自银行业和IT业的12位嘉宾登台演讲,从不同的角度对中国金融信息化的未来进行展望。在银行方面,中国人民银行副行长苏宁、中国工商银行副行长张衢、中国人民银行征信管理局局长戴根有、中国银行股份有限公司信息科技部总经理张建游、中国银行业监督管理委员会信息中心主任佟建民和中国银联股份有限公司总裁万建华依次发言。本刊选取现场发言的精选内容呈现给读者。苏宁:努力推动…     

第五届中国金融信息化发展论坛演讲精选(技术篇)

影响金融业务顺利开展和改革创新的因素很多,最为重要的因素之一是金融技术。它在整个银行业务运营中似乎并不显眼,却一直是推动金融业务发展和形成核心竞争力的关键要素。因此,在每年一度的金融展上,无论主题、形式怎样变,依靠先进技术完善业务及管理的本质都始终未变。2004年第五届中国信息化发展论坛关于金融技术方案及作用的探讨再次证明了这一点。这些技术方案无一不针对金融业务量身定制,无一不与金融业务紧密相连、息息相关,而且无一不具有领先性。这些技术方案如何成为业务不可或缺的一部分,又如何助业务一臂之力呢?以下“精彩回放…     

How (not) to pay for advice: A framework for consumer financial protection

This paper investigates the determinants of the compensation structure for brokers who advise customers regarding the suitability of financial products. Our model explains why brokers are commonly compensated indirectly through contingent commissions paid by product providers, even though this compensation structure could lead to biased advice. When customers are wary of the adviser's incentives, contingent commissions can be an effective incentive tool to induce the adviser to learn which specialized product is most suitable for the specific needs of customers. If, instead, customers naively believe they receive unbiased advice, high product prices and correspondingly high commissions become a tool of exploitation. Policy intervention that mandates disclosure of commissions can protect naive consumers and increase welfare. However, prohibiting or capping commissions could have the unintended consequence of stifling the adviser's incentive to acquire information. More vigorous competition benefits consumers and reduces exploitation, but firms have limited incentives to educate naive customers.     

The real effects of financial (dis)integration: A multi-country equilibrium analysis of Europe

Using data from 15 European Union economies, we quantify the real effects of supply-side frictions due to the financial disintegration of European countries since the 2008 financial crisis. We develop a multi-country general equilibrium model with heterogeneous countries and destination-specific financial frictions. Financial institutions allocate capital endogenously across countries, determining the cost of capital to firms and the wealth of nations. The cost of financial disintegration is reduced access to capital for firms which results in lower output. Financial disintegration leads to a 0.54% fall in output in Europe since the crisis. We also estimate benefits of further financial integration.     

Monetary policy and financial (in)stability: An integrated micro–macro approach

Evidence on central banks’ twin objective, monetary and financial stability, is scarce. We suggest an integrated micro–macro approach with two core virtues. First, we measure financial stability directly at the bank level as the probability of distress. Second, we integrate a microeconomic hazard model for bank distress and a standard macroeconomic model. The advantage of this approach is to incorporate micro information, to allow for non-linearities and to permit general feedback effects between financial distress and the real economy. We base the analysis on German bank and macro data between 1995 and 2004. Our results confirm the existence of a trade-off between monetary and financial stability. An unexpected tightening of monetary policy increases the probability of distress. This effect disappears when neglecting microeffects and non-linearities, underlining their importance. Distress responses are largest for small cooperative banks, weak distress events, and at times when capitalization is low. An important policy implication is that the separation of financial supervision and monetary policy requires close collaboration among members in the European System of Central Banks and national bank supervisors.     

Auditor monitoring and verification in financial contracts: evidence from earnouts and SFAS 141(R)

We study how monitoring and verification of accounting-based performance benchmarks influences the design and efficiency of earnout contracts. Earnouts are commonly used to resolve agency conflicts arising in mergers and acquisitions, but these contracts create measurement and other agency problems when contingent payments are tied to future accounting-based performance. Exploiting changes in auditor monitoring of earnouts that arose as\ a consequence of SFAS 141(R), we find that acquisition contracts are more likely to incorporate accounting-based earnouts and that contingent payments tied to accounting-based performance benchmarks make up a larger portion of the consideration when acquiring firms have high-quality auditors. We also find that market reactions to announcements of earnout deals are more positive after SFAS 141(R) for acquisitions most susceptible to disputes over accounting-based performance metrics and these results are more pronounced for acquiring firms with high-quality auditors. By exploiting the features of this unique setting, we illuminate the role of monitoring and verification of accounting information in financial contracts.     

FASB与IASB联合趋同框架(初步意见)的评介

首先,本文对FASB与IASB于2006年7月6日发布的联合趋同框架(关于目标和信息质量特征的初步意见)的制定背景、主要内容(包括财务报告的目标和信息质量特征的相关内容)进行了简要的介绍和评价,着重强调了联合框架与FASB概念框架和IASB概念框架的区别。其次,本文对联合框架提出了两点整体性看法:一是是否应该由IASB和FASB联合制定联合框架;二是是否应该将受托责任观隶属于决策有用性。最后,本文分析了联合趋同框架对我国新会计准则《基本准则》的影响。     

The global recognition strategy of blue chips of the Russian and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) markets

This study examines the mechanisms through which companies domiciled within the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) overcome market segmentation barriers which are the legacy of the Soviet Union. In contrast to a conventional cross-listing mechanism, leading CIS firms pursue reverse cross-listing or single-listing strategies, selecting the London Stock Exchange (LSE) as their main or only capital-raising platform. This study documents short-term IPO underperformance for single-LSE and dual-listed firms, suggesting that listing in London is risky, and that firms should consider alternative capital-raising strategies. Recent national regulatory reforms, which are expected to both improve capital market conditions and to encourage firms to list domestically, present CIS firms with such an opportunity. Finally, this study shows that CIS blue chips outperform the UK market in the long-run. This effect is more pronounced for dual-listed firms that also outperform the Russian market.     

连续时间SV模型的估计及在金融风险分析中的应用

本文分析了由连续时间平方根随机波动模型确定的资产收益的无条件联合特征函数及统计特性.对连续时间SV模型,提出了基于经验特征函数的参数估计方法,这种估计方法既不需要对连续时间过程的离散化,也不需要取样路径的模拟,实施起来较简单.使用上海和深圳股市的指数日收益数据对经验特征函数方法在连续时间随机波动模型参数估计中的应用进行了实证分析,并证明了两个市场波动过程存在均值回复及连续时间随机波动模型拟合资产收益数据的优势.     

The impact of the new Accounting Standards for Business Enterprises (ASBE) on financial results of mainland Chinese listed companies

Effective 1st January 2007, 38 new Accounting Standards for Business Enterprises (ASBE) had become applicable to listed companies in mainland China. Research based on these latest standards will help us understand the current accounting harmonisation process in China. Previous studies, though rather scarce, had compared financial statements of companies simultaneously being listed on the mainland and Hong Kong. However, the very recent impact of the new ASBE has not been taken into account. Therefore, the present study focuses on domestic Chinese companies after implementation of the new ASBE. The financial figures of each item reported under the old Chinese Accounting Rules and Regulations and the new ASBE were collected in pairs and were analysed. Except for the test results on total assets and shareholders' equity, the other results revealed no significant differences between the paired figures of net assets per share, operating revenue, profit before tax, net profit, net profit after extraordinary gains and losses, basic earnings per share, net cash flow from operating activities and the per share value.