On the Competitive Land Market: Evidence from Hong Kong

This paper examines both theory and empirical evidence on the relationship between market concentration and profitability in Hong Kong's land market. Such a relationship has been the subject of substantial debate among academics and practitioners. The study highlights several distinctive characteristics of property development in Hong Kong, and particularly various competitive strategies. In Hong Kong, land can be acquired through public auction, redevelopment and lease modifications. Thus, those developers without a sufficient land bank tend to be very aggressive in land auction. However, in the land auction market, competition is keen and the land acquired expensive. This study found that the leading property developers do not take the largest share in the land auction market. We argue that the developers tend to locate themselves in a suitable market position or strategic domain, within which they sustain competitiveness by increasing their market share. We also found that the property developers undertaking a relatively high proportion of large-scale projects tend to have a higher proportion of profits from such projects.     

Do Investors Really Value Corporate Governance? Evidence from the Hong Kong Market

To examine the relation between corporate governance and firm value, we develop an instrument to assess the corporate governance practices of listed companies in Hong Kong. Based on the Revised OECD Principles of Corporate Governance (OECD) and the Code of Best Practices (HKEx), we construct a corporate governance index (CGI) for Hong Kong listed companies. Unlike measures used in other studies, the CGI score reflects the presence of good corporate governance practices as well as variation in the quality of corporate governance practices. Empirical evidence shows that a company's market valuation is positively related to its overall CGI score, a composite measure of a firm's corporate governance practices. We also find that the transparency component of the CGI score drives the relation with market valuation. In summary, this study provides supporting evidence for the notion that, in Hong Kong, good corporate governance practices are consistent with value maximization.     

香港地区建筑市场研究与分析

文章从香港建筑市场的特点、项目管理特点、存在的风险及应对措施等方面对香港建筑市场进行全面研究与分析,旨在为有致力于开发香港建筑市场的承建商提供一些借鉴。     

The Impact of the Asian Financial Crisis on Conservatism and Timeliness of Earnings: Evidence from Hong Kong,Malaysia, Singapore,and Thailand

This paper examines conservatism and timeliness of earnings in the period surrounding the 1997 Asian financial crisis in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. Prior research suggests that managers tended to be more aggressive in reporting good news and delayed recognition of bad news during the financial crisis (less conservative and less timely in financial reporting). After the crisis, these four countries implemented corporate governance measures to stabilize their financial systems and improve regulation and supervision (that should improve conservatism and timeliness). We examine and find that conservatism and timeliness of earnings during the crisis period are low, but improved in the post‐crisis period. More importantly, conservatism and timeliness in the post‐crisis period is even greater than in the pre‐crisis period. We measure conservatism using Basu's model and the accumulation of non‐operating accruals suggested by Givoly and Hayn. The findings from both measures are consistent with an increase in conservatism after the crisis period. Overall, the results indicate that corporate governance reforms in these four countries had a positive impact on conservatism and timeliness of earnings.     

The Coupling of Ownership and Control and the Allocation of Financial Resources: Evidence from Hong Kong

Theoretical and empirical research regarding the impact of corporate ownership on the behaviour and performance of firms have typically focused on consequences stemming from the separation of ownership and control. While large scale business enterprise characterized by such a separation is dominant in the US, Japan and the UK, firms in which ownership and control is coupled in the hands of individuals and their families are apparent in many other large developed economies and are dominant in most emerging markets. This paper examines consequences regarding the generation and allocation of financial resources stemming from the coupling of ownership and control among Hong Kong based firms. In doing so, we join insights from the economics literature regarding the incentive and risk bearing consequences of coupled ownership and control with the extant management, sociology and history literatures regarding Chinese family business groups and develop and six hypotheses pertaining to patterns in the allocation of financial resources. Results indicate that coupled ownership and control is positively related with dividend payout levels and financial liquidity while it is negatively related to investments in capital expenditures. Consistent with these results, we also find that coupled ownership and control is positively related to short-term (accounting) profitability.     

Director Ownership and Voluntary Segment Disclosure: Hong Kong Evidence

Weakness of corporate governance and lack of transparency are often considered causes of or contributors to the Asian Financial Crisis. Publicly listed companies in Hong Kong, like other Asian firms, have concentrated director ownership. The study uses voluntary segment disclosure above the benchmark minimum as a proxy for transparency and examines its relationship to the ownership structure and composition of corporate boards in Hong Kong. We find that: (1) high (concentrated) board ownership explains the extent of low voluntary segment disclosure and this negative relationship is stronger when firm performance is very poor; (2) the contribution of non‐executive directors to enhance voluntary segment disclosure is effective for firms with low director ownership but not for concentrated‐ownership firms. These results have implications for policy makers and regulators in the Asia‐Pacific region striving to improve governance and transparency.     

Choice of Accounting Method for Valuation of Investment Securities: Evidence from Hong Kong Firms

This study examines whether Hong Kong managers choose “benchmark” or “alternative” valuation method for investment securities, after the Hong Kong SSAP 24 became effective starting with fiscal‐year ending December 31, 1999. Tests are conducted on a sample of 292 firms, out of which 155 Hong Kong firms reported unrealized gains and losses and 128 firms that did not report holding gains/losses, but reported investment securities. The findings indicate that firms with strong relative performance, i.e. current year's EPS higher than that of the last year, chose the alternative valuation method when the investment securities had holding gains and recognized the unrealized holding gains in the equity section of the balance sheet. This finding is consistent with the Cookie Jar hypothesis because these holding gains would be used in the income statement in future periods, when needed. With regard to firms with strong relative performance and holding losses, the findings indicate that the benchmark valuation was used. The losses were reported in the income statement to the extent that they did not reduce the EPS below that of the last year. This finding is consistent with the Income Smoothing Hypothesis, because the use of benchmark valuation reduced EPS of the current year to bring it in line with that of the last year. Evidence on firms with weak economic performance and holding gains or losses provided weak support to the Income Smoothing Hypothesis and Big Bath Hypothesis. Additionally, the results indicate that the firms with high debt‐equity ratio preferred the benchmark method and recorded securities at cost. This treatment provided managers with an opportunity to liquidate or reclassify the securities in future periods and use the accrued gains, when needed. The findings are inconclusive with regard to the impact of bonus plan on the choice of valuation method.     

Modeling Speculative Activity in the Hong Kong Residential Property Market

Using the Granger definition in a bivariate context, this paper investigates the relation between speculation and real estate prices in Hong Kong. Based on monthly data, the paper shows that in the mass residential property market, speculation and property prices are each integrated of order one, and hence cointegrated. A vector error correction model is then estimated for speculation. The error correction term is found to be statistically significant, implying Granger causality running from property prices to speculation in the mass residential property market. The empirical findings provide evidence that fluctuations in residential property prices cause fluctuations in housing speculation. A long-term solution to curb speculative activities and stabilize property prices is to increase the supply of housing land, and in turn the supply of private residential property. Steady property supply of will reduce acceleration of property prices and thus restrict speculation.     

The Impact of a Rapidly Expanding Service Sector on Private Office Property: The Case of Hong Kong

Hong Kong's economy has undergone a remarkable transformation over the past two decades. The rapid expansion of the service sector is a major outcome. Within the services sector, the finance, insurance, real estate (FIRE) and business services sub-sector is the most influential and also the major source of generating demand for office space in the economy. This paper examines how the rapid expansion of the FIRE and business service sub-sector influences new office construction. Using the Engle-Granger (1987) methodology for cointegration and error correction mechanism (ECM), the causal relationships between growth of sub-sectors of the services sector and the new office space construction were explored. The FIRE and business services sub-sector growth is shown to be cointegrated with new office space construction. The paper reports empirical findings based on a sample survey on location and quality of space. The study reveals that the growth of the FIRE and business service sector has influenced office space development in terms of location of space, per capita space and the type and quality space during 1981-2000.     

On the Performance of Naïve, Analyst and Composite Earnings Forecasts: Evidence from Hong Kong

In this paper, we compare the information content and performance of naïve, analyst and composite forecasts in Hong Kong. Empirical evidence shows that superior performance can be obtained by a composite measure combining both analyst and naïve forecasts. In addition, analyst forecasts become more conditionally efficient over the naïve model as the actual announcement approaches. The superiority and timing advantage of analyst forecasts suggest that more emphasis should be placed on the services of analysts for predicting future earnings figures, particularly when the announcement is approaching.     

Market liberalization and tax avoidance: Evidence from the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect Program in China

This study employs two market liberalization programs in China, the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect (SHSC) program and the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect (SZHSC) program, as an exogenous shock to stock market liberalization to explore the impact of market liberalization on tax avoidance. By employing the staggered difference-in-difference regression on Chinese listed firms, we found that market liberalization reduces tax avoidance by approximately 13.1%. This result is robust under parallel trend examination, falsification test, alternative regression methodology, and different measurements for tax avoidance. Additionally, this effect is greater for non-state-owned firms and for firms that have less external monitoring, higher information asymmetry, and stronger financial constraints.     

市场势力对银行效率影响分析——来自我国商业银行的经验数据

运用我国14家上市和50家未上市商业银行2000~2009年的数据探讨商业银行市场势力对效率的影响。分别测量我国商业银行的市场势力、成本效率以及利润效率,结果发现与未上市商业银行相比,上市商业银行具有较高的市场势力和利润效率以及较低的成本效率。同时分别建立线性模型和非线性模型分析市场势力对效率的影响,结果发现在我国特殊金融环境下,商业银行市场势力与成本效率或利润效率之间均为线性关系;提高商业银行的市场势力,会导致其成本效率显著下降和利润效率显著提升;在所有显著的变量中,信用风险对成本效率和利润效率的影响都是最大的。     

异质性对新建商品住房市场交易速度的影响——来自北京市的微观证据

基于异方差修正的久期似然模型,利用北京市新建商品住房市场大样本数据,实证检验了城市住房异质性特征对住房市场交易风险率的影响效果及其稳健性。实证结果表明,地铁及通勤设施、教育资源、医疗资源和休闲购物等因素对新建商品住房交易速度的影响逐次减弱,且上述影响在大户型住房、预售住房以及小规模项目住房中更加显著。结论可以为市场参与者调整住房交易决策提供依据,也可以为政府制定住房市场和保障性住房相关政策提供参考。     

Insider Trading, Earnings Management and Corporate Governance: Empirical Evidence Based on Hong Kong Firms

We document positive association between earnings management and insider selling after the fiscal year‐end for Hong Kong firms. This positive association is especially evident before the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. Our findings suggest that Hong Kong executives manage reported earnings to maximize their private benefits from insider selling. Additionally, we find that a higher proportion of independent directors (INED) on corporate boards moderate the positive association between insider selling and earnings management. Stricter monitoring of earnings management by INED is especially evident when no member of the family with majority ownership is present on corporate boards as a director. This suggests that the presence of family members with majority ownership on corporate boards significantly reduces INED's monitoring effectiveness. Our findings suggest that strict regulations are needed to control insider trading, and independence of corporate boards is important for monitoring of earnings management associated with insider trading. Furthermore, appointment of family members with majority shareholdings should be avoided to enhance independence and to monitor effectiveness of corporate boards.     

港股跃居全球之首,廉署肃贪功不可没——廉政公署在规范证券市场上的作用

2009年,香港成为世界最大的首次公开上市(IPO)证券融资市场,被誉为全球最自由的经济体系和最廉洁的地区之一。随着内地企业在港上市数量日益增多,廉政公署加强打击金融业界贪污罪行,基于属地管辖原则,近年来"国美电器"黄光裕、"创维数码"黄宏生等内地企业案中发挥显著作用。面对金融海啸,廉政公署将上市企业规范的问题摆在首位,开展廉署及企业的专业培训,全方位治理贪腐问题,值得研究与借鉴。     

The Profitability of Trading Strategies Based on Book Value and Earnings in Hong Kong: Market Inefficiency vs. Risk Premia

Using a sample of Hong Kong firms, we have examined the relative and incremental usefulness of book-to-price ratio (B/P), and earnings-to-price ratio (E/P) for providing profitable trading strategies or for predicting stock returns. Our results show that trading strategies based on B/P or E/P yield significant excess returns for various holding periods up to two years, and that B/P and E/P are not only individually but also incrementally useful for predicting stock returns. Further, results of various tests indicate that trading profits observed from the B/P strategy are likely to be a result of B/P proxying for risk differentials, while those from the E/P strategy are related to gains from exploitation of market inefficiency or mispricing. The two ratios appear to capture different aspects of firm value in Hong Kong.