Competition between branded and nonbranded firms and its impact on welfare

We examine a quantity competition among branded and nonbranded firms. The market comprises two consumer segments: one purchases only branded products (the high-end market), while the other segment's consumers purchase less expensive products (the low-end market). When branded firms take actions sequentially, we show that the branded leader has an incentive to restrict its quantity to avoid entering the low-end market. As the follower recognizes this incentive, it can restrict the leader by implementing a quantity constraint, which is affected by the number of nonbranded firms. We find that both the branded leader and follower could benefit from the nonbranded firms and that the leader prefers to have more nonbranded firms in the market than the follower does. Furthermore, we show that the free entry of nonbranded firms could negatively affect total surplus as well as consumer surplus even without any costs, because of the premium pricing of branded products.     

Where Do the Sick Go? Health Insurance and Employment in Small and Large Firms

Small firms that offer health insurance to their employees may face variable premiums if the firm hires an employee with high-expected health costs. To avoid expensive premium variability, a small firm may attempt to maintain a workforce with low-expected health costs. In addition, workers with high-expected health costs may prefer employment in larger firms with health insurance rather than in smaller firms. This results in employment distortions. We examine the magnitude of these employment distortions in hiring, employment, and separations using the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey from 1996 to 2001. We find that workers with high-expected health costs are less likely to be new hires in insured small firms and are less likely to be employed in insured small firms. We find no evidence that state small group health insurance reforms designed to restrict insurers' ability to deny coverage and restrict premium variability have reduced the extent of these distortions.     

经济减速形势下我国寿险发展的机遇和挑战

由于寿险本身的抗周期性以及我国寿险发展所具有的一系列有利条件，在国际金融危机冲击导致经济减速的形势下我国寿险的保费收入仍有望实现较快增长，而挑战在于低利率环境下逆周期战略所导致的保费过快增长对寿险公司实现长期利差存在较大威胁。当前，通过业务转型提高保赍质量、提高代理人的素质并降低寿险投资对股票市场的依赖性，对实现我国寿险的长期健康稳定发展至关重要。     

保险代理手续费监管制度思考

本文应用博弈论的方法,基于保险代理手续费率市场化的发展趋势,分析了我国保险市场的发展现状与特点,回顾了我国保险代理手续费监管制度的发展过程和存在问题,指出目前在我国推行手续费率市场化的监管政策可能引发"手续费率资源化"问题,并就保险代理手续费市场化应建立在保险费率市场化方面提出政策建议。     

On technical efficiency of China's insurance industry after WTO accession

China joined the WTO in 2001 and has to fully open up its insurance market to foreign competitors by 2006. However, the domestic insurance market is overwhelmingly dominated by a few large state-owned or state-controlled firms. As the market is still underdeveloped and the demand for insurance is rising exponentially, there exists huge potential, opportunities as well as challenges for non-state, foreign and joint-venture insurance companies. Efficiency is a key concern of policy makers to encourage further development of the insurance industry. This paper focuses on this important issue. It uses a panel data set of 22 firms over the period 1999–2004 to evaluate their efficiency scores by applying a DEA approach and decompose the productivity growth into technical efficiency improvement and technological progress by constructing a Malmquist Index. It then employs an econometric model to identify the key determinants of efficiency. The empirical results suggest the direction of how to improve firm efficiency. It is found that firm size, ownership structure, mode of business and human capital are important factors affecting firm performance. The results shed important light on policy design and implementations on future development of the insurance industry with WTO obligations.     

Firms with Inconsistently Signed Earnings Surprises: Do Potential Investors Use a Counting Heuristic?

Although prior research reports that firms that consistently beat their earnings expectations are rewarded with a market‐valuation premium, most firms are inconsistent in the sign of their benchmark performance, sometimes missing and sometimes beating. In this paper, we report the results of multiple experiments to test the idea that potential investors, evaluating firms that have inconsistent benchmark performance, use a counting heuristic to discriminate among them. Our results provide strong support for the hypothesis that these investors distinguish among firms by counting the number of beats and misses they experience over an observed time interval. The judgmental effect of this beat‐frequency is incremental to the effect of the magnitude of the beats and misses of the benchmark. Our study has implications for firm managers who have inconsistent benchmark performance, suggesting that market participants do make systematic discriminations among such inconsistent firms. It also has implications for researchers by introducing a new theoretical construct to the literature—namely, the counting heuristic.     

Do Exporting Firms Pay Higher Wages? Evidence from Kenya's Manufacturing Sector

Abstract: When trade liberalization was first embarked on in Kenya some 20 years ago, a key argument against it was that it would reduce domestic wages, as exporting firms sought to remain competitive versus, for example, the low‐cost Asian countries. A counter argument was that manufactured exports require more elaborate design, supervision, packaging and handling, and thus a more educated labor force than production for the domestic market. To attract such skills, exporting firms would need to pay higher wages than non‐exporting ones. This paper uses data from Kenyan manufacturing to study the impact of trade liberalization on earnings, distinguishing between exporting and non‐exporting firms. In particular, it investigates whether exporting firms paid a wage‐premium to their employees. The study uses manufacturing firm survey data from a World Bank regional project. The study has three important findings: (1) There was a large and significant effect of exporting on wages in the first decade of trade liberalization. During the first half of the 1990s, workers in exporting firms earned up to 30 percent more than those engaged in non‐exporting firms. The results are robust even after controlling for individual and firm‐level characteristics such as employee demographics, productivity, firm location and occupation. (2) After a decade of trade liberalization, exporting ceased to be a significant determinant of wages in Kenyan manufacturing, after controlling for productivity and firm location. (3) During the 2000s, casual or irregular employment became a more common feature of exporting firms. The results suggest that while higher wages were important in attracting skilled labor to exporting firms at the beginning of trade liberalization in the 1990s, domestic competition has since reduced the wage premium. Cost cutting pressures are instead reflected in the substitution of casual and low wage labor for permanent and better educated labor and in increased automation.     

Is Bigger Still Better? The Decline of the Wage Premium at Large Firms

This study shows that the wage premium paid by large firms fell over the past 20 years and that this decline in the size premium is most pronounced among the least educated workers. Empirical evidence supports several explanations for the shrinking size premium. First, there has been a convergence in the returns to worker characteristics at large and small firms over time. Second, small and large firms are hiring more workers with similar characteristics. Particularly important are the declining share of workers at large manufacturing firms and the rising share of workers at large retail firms. Also, the greater decline of unionism at large firms has contributed significantly to the decline in the size premium.     

监管宽容下的存款保险定价应用研究

本文介绍了Merton期权模型及其扩展对存款保险进行定价的方法,并采用考虑监管宽容的Ronn and Verma(1986)模型来估算上市银行的保费率,针对我国存在大量的非上市银行提出采用"市场对照"法,用上市银行的数据间接的估计出非上市银行的风险特征,再带入Ronn and Verma(1986)模型间接地估计出非上市银行的存款保险费率。本文为我国实行基于风险调整的差别存款保险费率提供了可行的操作方案,最后通过实证研究提出一些政策建议以促进我国存款保险制度的建立。     

寿险业转型期完善保险代理人制度的对策研究

中资寿险公司现行的保险代理人制度在快速发展中暴露出了许多缺陷。作为寿险企业优质服务的实现者,如何完善现行代理人制度将对寿险业的成功转型至关重要。本文分析了现行保险代理人制度存在的问题,在借鉴国外相关经验的基础上,从人力资源管理的角度对改善保险代理人制度的对策进行了探索。     

我国农业保险业存在的问题及对策

农业保险在我国起步较晚,当前,由于农业保险的保费较高与赔付率较高,加之缺乏良好的政策环境支持。我国农业保险市场出现了有效需求不足和供给短缺并存的现象。本文通过研究美国农业保险的成功经营经验,结合我国国情,提出了我国农业保险的应对措施以尽快完善我国农业保险市场,发挥对农业的保障作用,从而促进我国经济的发展。     

Effect of Participation of Foreign Migrant Workers in Labour Market on Native Workers: Evidence Based on Change Noticed in College Premium in Taiwan ROC

Using Manpower Utilization Survey data for 14 years from 1999 to 2012, we applied the DDDD (Differences–in–differences–in–differences–in–differences) estimation method to check if rising presence of foreign migrant workers in Taiwan’s domestic labour market had any impact on employment opportunities and wages earned by native Taiwanese workers over time. We used the data capturing the effect of college premium (viz., the additional cost to be borne for getting admission into college) paid by the natives on domestic wage rate during this period. College premium is an indicator of demand and supply for educated labour and we intend to see if the premium has grown with time when influx of foreign migrant workers has grown too. From the results, two interesting phenomena caught our attention. First, labour policy adopted by the Government in Taiwan has played an important role in increasing the influx of foreign workers into domestic labour market, which resulted in significant change in college premium paid by the natives. And, this effect lasted even when instances of strikes and reported cases of labour disputes were relatively higher. Second, the effect of the policy has been varying across genders as our data shows that policy on employment of foreign workers has affected job opportunities of native men workers more than it affected job opportunities of their female counterpart.     

日本债券市场的发展及对中国的启示

对于始终以间接金融发展为主线的日本来说,资本市场的发展呈现出了较为特殊的轨迹和脉络.债券市场是一国资本市场的重要组成部分.日本债券市场作为一个较为成熟的债券市场,有其自身的发展历程并形成了其自有的特点,如资产担保证券市场发展不充分、证券公司在债券市场上的垄断地位突出、证券市场的监管实施的是统一监管的模式,但显现出分业监管的特征以及债券市场的国际化程度不断提高等.这些特征导致了日本债券市场发展不均衡、日本债券市场缺乏多层次的投资者等诸多的弊端.因此需要采取相应的对策促进日本债券市场的发展.而这些改革的措施同时也是中国债券市场急需借鉴和学习的.     

Life-insurance Efficiency in China： A Comparison of Foreign and Domestic Firms

The Chinese life-insurance industry has experienced major structural changes in recent years, primarily because of increasing demand and the entry of foreign insurers. Although the market is clearly booming, the efficiency of its growth and development is unclear. In this paper, we evaluate the efficiency of life insurers operating in China and compare foreign firms with domestic firms. We find that foreign insurers have not brought efficiency into the Chinese market, and that the market is still dominated by domestic giants. However, the gap between foreign insurers and domestic insurers is narrowing. After testing hypotheses regarding scale economy, technical progress andpotential improvements, we discuss several issues＇ of importance to life insurers, market investors and government regulators.     

关于存款保险费费率的推算问题

影响存款保险费费率的因素有许多。由于我国的存款保险制度尚在筹划之中,影响存款保险费费率的各种因素均不存在经验值,但是,该费率的性质表现为,它与“期望保费收入”以及“期望赔付成本率”成正比,与“平均每份保单的期望保险金额”成反比,即R=Ep/Tn·M-G/n（1-Ep）。通过确定存款保险基金的预期规模,保险基金达到该规模所须年数的预设,存款保险人投入作为保险基金的资本金总额的确定,以及对保单集合期望赔付成本、期望赔付成本率、期望保费收入等的预定就可以测算存款保险费费率的数值。     

Global value chains,firms, and wage inequality: Evidence from China

How does participating or moving to more upstream in the global value chains (GVCs) affect the premium paid to skilled compared to unskilled labor within firms? In this paper, we develop a model of heterogeneous firms with intermediate trade and two skill inputs, in which we apply the fair wage hypothesis to predict the wage premium changes according to firms' GVCs activities. The model predicts that firms' backward GVC participation, as measured by the share of foreign value-added content in exports (FVAR), has an ambiguous impact on wage inequality of skills, which depends on the relative importance of “FVAR-labor substitution effect” and “FVAR-profit effect.” However, moving to upstream sectors in GVCs, as measured by the export varieties' upstreamness (or average distance from final use), raises a firm's wage premium. Using detailed Chinese firm-level data from 2000 to 2006, we develop a Mincer-type empirical model to study the wage premium changes associated with FVAR and upstreamness. We find robust empirical evidence that the rise of wage inequality in China mainly arises from moving to more upstream sectors rather than changing GVC participation.     

Firm Size and Work Compensation in China

Remarkably, recent research on the Chinese labor market has suggested that the situation in China is inconsistent with the stylized fact that large firms pay higher wages and offer more generous benefits. Expanding the empirical basis from 78 to 300 000 industrial firms, I overturn theprevious result andshow that wage determination in the averagefirmfits the international norm. Exploring subsamples of firms I also point to a likely source for the conflictingfindings： firm size is positively correlatedwith the average wage in private firms, but negatively correlated with the average wage in the state-owned sector. These novel results couM guide future studies aiming to understand the sources of the firm size wage premium, and, in particular, studies that target the largest industrial labor market in the world     

外资所有权与工资升水——来自中国制造业的证据

很多研究发现外商投资企业比内资企业对同等情况下的工人所付工资要高,本文利用中国省际制造业分大类数据对此进行了实证研究,研究的结果表明,在控制了各种对工资影响因素(产业、地区、企业、工人素质)后,外资所有权工资升水显著存在,大约为10%。同时还对平均薪酬进行了研究,外资所有权薪酬升水大约为7%。此外,本文还得出了其他一些有意义的结论。     

Market power,uncertainty, and the level of trade

We consider a set of home firms, each of which has a stochastic requirement for a particular input. High-cost home firms can produce the input themselves. Low-cost foreign firms produce the input to sell it to home firms through an international market. Efficiency requires the input to be produced by foreign firms and traded in the market. Yet, home firms will always engage in inefficient home production. By producing some of its own input needs, a home firm cuts down on aggregate input demand, thus depressing prices in the market.     

保险资金对资本市场的影响分析

保险资金投资于资本市场是保险业发展的必然选择,同时也是资本市场快速发展的契机。保险资金的入市在给保险公司带来高额回报的同时,还有利于扩大我国机构投资者的队伍,避免市场的剧烈波动,有利于资本市场的稳定和长远发展。