金融效率理论框架与我国金融效率实证考察

金融效率相对低下是对中国 2 0余年金融改革与发展历程的最好注解 ,提高金融效率是实现中国金融可持续发展的核心目标。本文首先以金融效率为线索对金融发展理论进行了简要的梳理 ,认为金融效率研究应在赋予了全新金融效率观的金融可持续发展理论的框架下展开 ,由此界定并提出金融效率的涵义与有效的研究方法 ;同时 ,对中国金融效率 ( 1 990～ 2 0 0 1 )实证分析的结果验证了中国金融效率相对低下的结论 ,其根源可归结为高层金融资源的严重缺乏 ;最后 ,本文建议不仅要建立合理的多层次的金融体系 ,更应从系统的视角加强各层次金融系统内部、各层次金融系统之间以及金融系统与经济系统之间的协调。     

AN EMPIRICAL EXAMINATION OF THE IMPACT OF LIMITED REVIEW ON EQUITY PRICES

SEC Accounting Series Release No. 177 required independent auditors to make a limited review of summarized quarterly data included in annual reports. This paper examines the reaction of investors to earnings announcements based on financial statements subject to limited review relative to announcements when no auditor involvement was required. The reaction of market participants is measured by an abnormal daily return metric of the common stock surrounding the published earnings announcement in The Wall Street Journal. As hypothesized, no difference in investor reaction is observed for the sample of firms subject to limited review for the 1977 fiscal year, but exempt in the 1976 fiscal year.     

STOCK MARKET SEASONALITY AND TAXES: AN EXAMINATION OF THE TAX-LOSS SELLING HYPOTHESIS

Recent empirical studies have found evidence that supports the tax loss selling explanation of seasonal effects in stock returns. Using other test procedures, the present authors conclude that the support found in other studies is likely to be the result of spurious correlation between returns of stocks selected as tax-loss selling candidates and the January returns of these stocks.     

CAN STOCK MARKET LIBERALIZATION IN EMERGING ECONOMIES MITIGATE LEGAL SYSTEMS DEFICIENCIES?

We document positive valuation effects around the time of stock market liberalization. We find that the valuation effects are larger for countries with civil law traditions compared with countries with common law origins. Similarly, we find that countries with weaker shareholder protections exhibit greater market valuation increases compared with countries with stronger shareholder protections. The results reinforce the importance of country legal systems and of shareholder protections in determining the quality of corporate governance systems and financial market outcomes. The findings suggest that stock market liberalization may mitigate deficiencies in the existing institutional environments not supportive of effective corporate governance systems.     

COMPARATIVE EFFICIENCY OF MARKET INDICES: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

This study ranks eight widely used market indices using two mean-variance efficiency scores developed from Roll's geometric representation of the Shanken's CRS T² test statistic and the likelihood ratio test statistic of Kandel. The results indicate that, over the period of 1973–1982, the CRSP equally weighted, CRSP value weighted, and S&P 500 emerge consistently as the three most efficient indices under all market conditions.     

EMPIRICAL TESTS OF THE EFFICIENCY OF THE CURRENCY OPTION MARKET

Tests of a hedge and a rational boundary of the efficiency of the currency option market are conducted in this study. These tests use transactions data and account for the effects of currency and option bid/ask spreads, synchronization of option prices and underlying exchange rates, market depth, execution lags, and transaction costs. Currency options, unlike domestic stock options, exhibit continuous dividends. The nature of the option and of the data set employed makes the immediate exercise lower bound test one of the purest tests of market efficiency to date. Results reported here indicate no ability to earn abnormal economic or riskless arbitrage profit for the period when these tests are conducted.     

AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF STOCK MARKET VALUATION OF CORPORATE PROJECTED PENSION LIABILITIES

This study extends the work of Landsman (1986) by making use of the newly available projected benefit pension obligations (PBO) information. Our analysis documents that investors perceive pension assets and pension liabilities, respectively, as corporate assets and liabilities. We also developed and tested a decomposition model of pension obligations by examining the market valuation of the three components of PBO: vested, non-vested and future salary progression. Our results indicate that future salary progression is indeed considered by market participants as a liability of the firm. The results of the study have important implications for accounting policy making.     

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE AND STOCK MARKET BASED MEASURES OF CORPORATE DIVERSIFICATION

This study examines the relationship between corporate diversification and financial performance. The use of a stock market based measure of diversification allowed a much larger database than in previous studies and overcame the subjective nature of measuring internal diversification. Because previous researchers found that firm size affected performance, size was controlled in this analysis. The authors conclude that there is no statistically significant relationship between the degree of internal diversification and financial performance.