Conglomerate investment under various capital market conditions

This paper studies the investment of diversified and focused firms under various capital market conditions. When external capital becomes more costly at the aggregate level, investment declines in focused firms but remains unchanged in diversified firms. This investment advantage enjoyed by diversified firms could attribute to both their easy access to external capital and their ability to substitute internal capital markets for costly external markets. Consistent with the internal capital market argument, our findings show that the investment advantage exists for diversified firms even after we control for their easy access to external markets. We also find that the role of internal markets in financing investment is more important for diversified firms that are more financially constrained in external markets. Finally, we find that the segment-level investment becomes more efficient in conglomerates’ internal capital markets under depressed external capital market conditions. Overall, our findings suggest that internal capital allocation functions as a valuable and efficient substitute for diversified firms in a tightened external capital market.     

Two-person dynamic equilibrium in the capital market

When several investors with different risk aversions trade competitivelyin a capital market, the allocation of wealth fluctuates randomlyamong them and acts as a state variable against which each marketparticipant will want to hedge. This hedging motive complicatesthe investors' portfolio choice and the equilibrium in the capitalmarket. This article features two investors, with the same degreeof impatience, one of them being logarithmic and the other havingan isoelastic utility function. They face one risky constant-return-to-scalestationary production opportunity and they can borrow and lendto and from each other. The behaviors of the allocation of wealthand of the aggregate capital stock are characterized, alongwith the behavior of the rate of interest, the security marketline, and the portfolio holdings.     

中国资本市场的国际化

在“中国资本市场开放与发展论坛”上,高盛亚洲董事总经理、清华大学中国经济研究中心的胡祖六教授对中国资本市场如何开放提出了自己的观点。请看     

Incomplete-information capital market equilibrium with heterogeneous expectations and short sale restrictions

This article extends Merton's (1987) asset-pricing model under incomplete information to consider the situation when investors' beliefs are divergent and short selling is restricted. The article finds that the diversity of beliefs increases the mean variance inefficiency of the market portfolio and the shadow cost of information. However, the inefficiency of the market portfolio due to divergent beliefs is mitigated by short-sale restrictions. The article also finds that the effect of firm size is intertwined with the residual return variance risk. Consistent with the findings of Levy (1978) and Carroll and Wei (1988), the residual return variance plays an important role in determining the risk and risk premium of each security. Finally, the shadow cost of information is larger and the equilibrium security return is higher when expectations are more diverse. And the effects of divergent beliefs on both information cost and required rates of returns are negatively related to the relative size of investor base for a particular security.     

International fund investment and local market returns

International fund investment in bonds and equities is characterized by a positive association between current net inflows and contemporaneous and past market returns: positive-feedback trading, while being possibly profitable for international fund investors, could be destabilizing for the underlying markets. Allowing for interactions between equity investment and bond investment, our panel vector autoregression shows that past equity returns contain useful information in forecasting equity and bond flows and that bond flows impact future equity returns positively.     

个人直接投资境外股市可以缓解中国流动性资本过乘

问：国家外汇管理局8月20日宣布，中国居民个人可在国内试点地区（首选天津滨海新区）以自有外汇资金及人民币购汇直接从事对外证券投资，投资规模不受《个人外汇管理办法实施细则》规定的每年不超过5万美元的购汇总额限制。香港H股市场被确定为初期可直接投资的境外股市，据悉该项业务的名称初定为“港股直通车”，估计居民个人半个月后就可以开立港股账户。[第一段]     

Cash demand,liquidation costs and capital market equilibrium under uncertainty

In this paper, the portfolio and the liquidity planning problems are unified and analyzed in one model. Stochastic cash demands have a significant impact on both the composition of an individual's optimal portfolio and the pricing of capital assets in market equilibrium. The derived capital asset pricing model with cash demands and liquidation costs shows that both the market price of risk and the systematic risk of an asset are affected by the aggregate cash demands and liquidity risk. The modified model does not require that all investors hold an identical risky portfolio as implied by the Sharpe-Lintner-Mossin model. Furthermore, it provides a possible explanation for the noted discrepancies between the empirical evidence and the prediction of the traditional capital asset pricing model.     

Stock exchange competition in a simple model of capital market equilibrium

This paper uses a simple model of mean-variance capital markets equilibrium with proportional transactions costs to analyze the competition of stock markets for investors. We assume that equity trading is costly and endogenize transactions costs as variables strategically influenced by stock exchanges. Among other things, the model predicts that increasing financial market correlation leads to a decrease of transaction costs, an increase in cross-border trading activity, and to a decrease in the home bias of international equity flows. These predictions are consistent with the recent evolution of international stock markets.     

Sharing rules and equilibrium in an international capital market under uncertainty

International capital market equilibrium is characterized for a world economy in which consumption preferences are defined multiplicatively over many commodities. It is shown that the set of relative asset prices under pure exchange in international capital markets depends on the real purchasing power of nominal payoffs under uncertainty and does not depend on the currency in which the nominal payoffs are denominated. A Sharpe-Lintner type international capital asset pricing model is derived as a special case. Proportional ad valorem commodity taxes and transportation costs are incorporated in the valuation model, interest rate parity and purchasing power parity are reinterpreted under uncertainty, and international differences in borrowing and lending are shown to reflect, in part, differences in risk aversion across countries.     

Equity market timing and capital structure: International evidence

We investigate the equity market timing hypothesis of capital structure in major industrialized (G-7) countries. As claimed by its proponents, we find that leverage of firms is negatively related to the historical market-to-book ratio in all G-7 countries. However, this negative relationship cannot be attributed to equity market timing. We find no association between equity issues and market-to-book ratios at the time of equity financing decisions by Japanese firms. Firms in all G-7 countries, except Japan, undo the effect of equity issuance and the impact of equity market timing attempts on leverage is short lived. This is inconsistent with the prediction of the equity market timing hypothesis and more in line with dynamic trade-off model.     

International capital market frictions and spillovers from quantitative easing

This paper analyzes the impact of large-scale, unconventional asset purchases by advanced country central banks on emerging market economies (EMEs) from 2008 to 2014. I show that there was substantial heterogeneity in the way these purchases affected EME currency, equity, and long-term sovereign bond markets. Drawing on the gravity-in-international-finance literature, I show that the degree of capital market frictions between EMEs and advanced countries is significant in explaining the observed heterogeneity in how these asset prices were affected. This result is robust to considerations of domestic monetary policy, exchange rate regime, and capital control policies in EMEs. Furthermore, I show that the size and direction of asset price movements in EMEs depended both on the type of assets purchased and on whether it was the U.S. Federal Reserve or other advanced country central banks engaging in the purchases.     

Intermediation and the equilibrium allocation of investment capital : Implications for economic development

We investigate several common assertions about intermediation and how it affects the allocation of investment capital. We use a model with adverse selection and costly state verification in which both debt contracts and credit rationing are observed. Intermediaries arise due to a comparative advantage in information acquisition. Relative to the situation absent intermediation, intermediaries reduce credit rationing and (inefficient) interest rate differentials. The model also shows how large interest rate differentials can be observed when financial markets are not integrated and how the volume of intermediation is affected by changes in the environment.     

The impact of capital market imperfections on investment–cash flow sensitivity

We examine the investment–cash flow sensitivity of US manufacturing firms in relation to five factors associated with capital market imperfections – fund flows, institutional ownership, analyst following, bond ratings, and an index of antitakeover amendments. We find a steady decline in the estimated sensitivity over time. Furthermore, we find that investment–cash flow sensitivity decreases with increasing fund flows, institutional ownership, analyst following, antitakeover amendments and with the existence of a bond rating. The overall evidence suggests that investment–cash flow sensitivity decreases with factors that reduce capital market imperfections.     

International asset allocation using the market implied cost of capital

The Black and Litterman (Financ Anal J 48(5):28–43, 1992) (BL) approach to portfolio optimization requires investor views on expected asset returns as an input. I demonstrate that the market implied cost of capital (ICC) is ideal for quantifying those views on a country level. I benchmark this approach against a BL optimization using time-series models as investor views, the equally weighted portfolio, and allocation methods based on stock market capitalization and GDP. I find that the ICC portfolio offers an increase in average return of 2.1 percentage points (yearly) as compared to the value-weighted portfolio, while having a similar standard deviation. The resulting difference in Sharpe ratios is statistically significant and robust to the inclusion of transaction costs, varying BL parameters, and a less strictly defined investment universe.     

个人直接投资境外股市可以缓解中国流动性资本过剩

摘自潘石屹博客 http://pan-shiyi.blog.sohu.com/ 问:国家外汇管理局8月20日宣布,中国居民个人可在国内试点地区(首选天津滨海新区)以自有外汇资金及人民币购汇直接从事对外证券投资,投资规模不受《个人外汇管理办法实施细则》规定的每年不超过5万美元的购汇总额限制.     

Start-up investment with scarce venture capital support

Venture capitalists, representing informed capital, screen, monitor and advise start-up entrepreneurs. The paper reports three new results on venture capital (VC) finance and the evolution of the VC industry. First, there is an optimal VC portfolio size with a trade-off between the number of companies and the value of managerial advice. Second, advice tends to be diluted when the industry expands and VC skills remain scarce in the short-run. The delayed entry of experienced VCs eventually restores the quality of advice and leads to more focused company portfolios. Third, as a welfare result, VCs tend to provide too little advisory effort and to invest in too few companies. Testable implications are also discussed.     

双向市场的趋势投资

有关市场的一个新交易工具,期指准备了十年,希望未来利用双向交易获利的企业一定要记住：我们只是市场趋势的追随者。     

Home bias in equity portfolios, inflation hedging, and international capital market equilibrium

We test whether the home bias in equity portfolios is causedby investors trying to hedge inflation risk. The empirical evidenceis consistent with this motive only if investors have very highlevels of risk tolerance and equity returns are negatively correlatedwith domestic inflation. We then develop a model of internationalportfolio choice and equity market equilibrium that integratesinflation risk and deadweight costs. Using this model we estimatethe levels of costs required to generate the observed home biasin portfolios consistent with different levels of risk aversion.For a level of risk aversion consistent with standard estimatesof the domestic equity market risk premium these costs are abouta few percent per annum greater than observable costs such aswithholding taxes. Thus, the home bias cannot be explained byeither inflation hedging or direct observable costs of internationalinvestment unless investors have very low levels of risk aversion.