The Dual-Agency Problem of Labor Union Pension Fund Shareholder Activism

Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal - Through their pension funds, labor unions have grown increasingly active as shareholders over the last 2 decades. As shareholders, research suggests...     

关系投资、内部控制与大股东资金占用

在中国这样一个充满关系信任和关系投资的国家,内部控制在缓解代理冲突方面究竟发挥了怎样的作用?以大股东资金占用作为代理冲突的替代变量,基于关系治理和规则治理的视角,实证检验关系投资、内部控制及其交互作用对大股东资金占用行为的影响。研究发现,企业与供应商/客户的关系投资有助于抑制大股东资金占用;加入内部控制治理因素后,这种抑制作用因关系投资角色不同发生变化:供应商关系投资与内部控制存在替代效应,而客户关系投资与内部控制存在互补效应。进一步研究发现,关系投资与内部控制的互补效应在非政府控制企业和市场进程低的地区更显著。     

Shareholder Activism and Earnings Management Incentives: An Empirical Examination of Shareholder Proposals in the United States

In this article, we investigate the effect of shareholder activism on earnings management. Using a US sample of shareholder pay‐for‐performance proposals sponsored by institutional investors, we find that when compared to control firms, firms targeted by shareholder proposals have a greater magnitude of discretionary accruals (DA) in their reported earnings. In addition, we find that the likelihood of meeting or beating earnings benchmarks through the use of DA is higher for targeted firms whose managers have job security concerns due to the firms’ inferior stock performance in the past or have plans to sell company stock. Our results are consistent with the notion that pay‐for‐performance proposals have unintended consequences by introducing or exacerbating incentives to manage earnings for short‐term gains. The results also indicate that, for financial reporting, the short‐termism effect may dominate the alignment and/or disciplinary effect of shareholder monitoring.     

Unleashing the Power of Networks: Shareholder Activism,Sustainable Development and Corporate Environmental Policy

In recent years, a new trend has emerged in which shareholder activists have formed networks to empower shareholders and magnify shareholder voices. This study explores the structural patterns and effectiveness of shareholder activism networks and shows how those networks affect corporate sustainability policies. We draw upon stakeholder influence theory, stakeholder network management theory and recent studies on activism networks to examine a shareholder activism network formed around environmental issues. The study found that (1) the structure of shareholder activist networks is largely driven by organizational attributes such as organization type, organizations’ human resources, media visibility and history; and (2) activist organizations with high centralities and eigenvector centralities enjoy more efficient results. This study contributes to our understanding of the business responses to shareholder demands on improving environmental performance and paves the way for future research on sustainable development through partnerships with shareholder networks. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Interpreting Voluntary Exchange: Markets,Speech Acts And Communicative Action

This paper uses speech act theory to present a libertarian reinterpretation of the Habermasian concept of communicative action. Voluntary exchange in competitive markets is interpreted as a speech act and a form of communicative action that respects autonomy and obstructs power. Where exchange occurs in monopolistic markets, it is defective in being a form of (a) strategic action aimed directly at rival suppliers rather than buyers and (b) economic coercion. Voluntary exchange is not an isolated act but the outcome of a complex bargaining process, which may lead to negotiated exit, without the possibility of which economic relations are coercive.     

资产重组、股价波动与内幕交易——来自中国A股市场重大资产重组的证据

运用事件分析法构建了基于窗口期的内幕交易研究模型,以中国A股市场2008-2012年度重大资产重组事件为样本,研究了资产重组、股价波动和内幕交易的关系。研究发现,我国资本市场重大资产重组中显著存在内幕交易行为,加强关联交易和非国有控股上市公司资产重组监管有助于遏制内幕信息散布,2008年加强重大资产重组信息管理的政策取得了明显效果。     

分工、交易效率与双边市场的形成

基于分工和交易费用两难冲突,运用新兴古典经济学理论,解释了双边市场形成和演进的根本原因。双边市场是一种特殊的中间平台;它是交易效率改进到一定程度导致的专业化水平提高和分工深化的结果。双边市场的出现和发展也预示着市场经济演进到了更高的层次。     

The Relationship between Voluntary Disclosure and Independent Directors in the Presence of a Dominant Shareholder

Abstract

Differently from prior studies that examine the role of stand-alone control systems within the relationship between owners and managers, our study investigates the correlation between two control mechanisms – voluntary disclosure and independent directors – in companies characterized by the presence of a dominant shareholder that is supposed to mitigate the classical agency problem. Based on agency theory, we hypothesize that the two mechanisms tend to coexist, since the presence of either one reduces the costs of introducing the other. Two further effects – the reputation and the domino effect – contribute to determine a positive relationship between the two mechanisms. We carried out the empirical analysis on 175 non-financial Italian listed companies, all controlled by a dominant shareholder. Voluntary disclosure is measured through three alternative disclosure indexes. Independent directors are identified not only according to a formal/legal definition, but also through stricter criteria. The empirical test is based on a multivariate analysis controlling for size, residual ownership diffusion, leverage, profitability and labour pressure. Results support our hypothesis and are robust to alternative criteria to identify dominant shareholders. Our study contributes to a better understanding of the relationship between different control mechanisms in particular agency settings.     

代理成本与内部资本市场效率

从代理成本的视角对内部资本市场效率的理论和经验研究进行了系统的回顾,内容包括内部资本市场效率的界定及代理成本对内部资本市场效率的影响。评价现有文献,掌握国内外研究动态,为我国企业内部资本市场效率的研究提供依据和方向。     

Internal Markets,Management by Targets,and Quasi‐Markets: An Analysis of Health Care Reforms in the English NHS

There have been two major attempts to introduce market mechanisms into England's National Health Service: the ‘internal market’ reform project of the 1990s, and the ‘quasi‐market’ of the 2000s. Despite their similarities, the former attempt was on balance unsuccessful while the latter succeeded. This article examines and compares the outcomes of the two periods, analysing the reasons for their relative successes and failures. It goes on to highlight options for future reforms that would build on those achievements.     

Regulation, Corporate Social Responsibility and Activism

This paper analyzes the interplay between firms' self-regulation (often denoted as corporate social responsibility) as opposed to the formal regulation of a negative externality. Firms respond to increasing activism in the market (conscious consumers that take into account the external effects of their purchase) by providing more socially responsible goods. However, because regulation is the outcome of a political process, an increase in activism might imply an inefficiently high externality level. This may happen when a majority of non-activist consumers collectively free-ride on conscious consumers. By determining a softer than optimal regulation, they benefit from the behavior of firms, yet they have access to cheaper (although less efficient) goods .     

对国内外物流市场发展的研究与思考

介绍了当前国内“物流热”的一些表现,并对国内第三方物流市场发展中存在的问题进行了地对上述问题,通过对欧美物流思想以及第三方物流提供商在发展与厂商关系,变革供应链的创新方法的研究,为国内物流企业提供了新的思路。     

Tender Offers, Proxy Contests, and Large-Shareholder Activism

The paper analyzes tender offers and proxy contests as alternative means of resolving corporate governance conflicts between dissidents and incumbent management. We show that when a dissident shareholder is sufficiently confident about the potential benefits from changing corporate policy, he will seek majority control by making a tender offer rather than initiating a proxy contest. When the dissident is relatively uninformed, however, he may opt for a proxy contest, thereby utilizing the information of other shareholders to implement the better policy. Consistent with empirical evidence, the model predicts that announcements of tender offers will tend to be associated with larger positive stockprice reactions than announcements of proxy contests. The model is easily extended to allow for promanagement bias in proxy voting by institutional investors. Empirical observations that have been viewed as evidence of such promanagement bias are shown to be quite consistent with the absence of such bias. Policy issues are discussed as well. An interesting result is that even policies targeted at reducing the costs of conducting proxy contests may have ambiguous social consequences, given the possibility of substitution between tender offers and proxy contests.     

《劳动合同法》修改的“希克斯”与“帕累托”之争

资本主义生产力的不断提高,劳动法也在不断的发展.每一次的立法进步皆深深地植根于社会经济发展进程,每一次的立法进步都是因资本升级而需要对劳动关系进行调整.笔者认为我国的现实选择是继续推行“希克斯标准”进行劳动保护的立法、执法工作,而“帕累托最优”只能作为我们今后为之努力的奋斗目标,在今后很长的一段时间内我国将不断进行城乡、地域与产业结构的调整, “十三五规划”也明确提出了“推动区域协调发展,推动城乡协调发展.”等到未来某一时期,行业与地域结构调整到位,以“帕累托最优”方式来保护劳动者权益就会是水到渠成的一件事.     

Contesting Flexibility: The Restructuring of Taiwan’s Labor Relations and Spatial Organization

This article analyzes the transformation of labor relations in Taiwan. Employing a regulation approach to decipher the patterns of labor relations prevalent before the 1980s and the existing patterns characteristic of the 1990s, I argue that the former stage was a flexible Taylorist labor regime. This labor regime was coupled with an export‐oriented economy where the flexible use of labor was necessary to keep wages at low levels and to respond quickly to the world economy. In the 1990s, however, due to the upgrading and differentiation of the economy, plus a democratic movement that nurtured the emergence of unionism, this has been transformed into a new type of flexible labor regime in which different types of labor relations coexist. Different industrial sectors in this stage tend to adopt different forms of labor regulation within which none of them occupy a dominant position. Finally, the article discusses the spatial implications of labor relations in Taiwan with regard to geographical distribution. It is argued that, while geographical location did not matter in the former stage, in the 1990s geography does matter because of the differentiation of labor relations in different industrial sectors that exhibit distinctive patterns of geographical distribution. Cet article analyse la transformation des relations du travail à Taiwan. Utilisant la théorie de la régulation pour déchiffrer les modèles de relations dominants avant les années 1980, puis dans les années 1990, l’article démontre que la première phase se caractérisait par un régime tayloriste flexible; celui‐ci était associéà un économie orientée à l’exportation o? la souplesse d’utilisation de la main d’?uvre permettait de maintenir de faibles niveaux de salaires et de répondre rapidement au marché mondial. Dans les années 1990, en revanche, l’économie s’étant développée et diversifiée, parallèlement à l’émergence d’un mouvement démocratique d’oùétait né le syndicalisme, un autre régime de main d’?uvre flexible s’est dessiné, dans lequel plusieurs types de relations du travail coexistent. Dans cette phase, différents secteurs industriels ont tendance à adopter différents modes de régulation du travail sans qu’aucun ne prédomine. Pour finir, l’article aborde les implications des relations du travail dans l’espace taiwanais par rapport à la géographie; il affirme que, si le lieu n’importait pas dans la première phase, il rev? t un intér? t dans la seconde à cause de la différenciation des relations du travail dans des secteurs industriels présentant ainsi des modèles distincts de répartition géographique.     

Markets, Materialism and Messages

Lord Harris's critical review of the Bishop of Durham's book 'God, Politics and the Future', in the February/March issue of Economic Affairs, inspired the following reply from the author. Readers must fudge for themselves.     

非控股股东参与、公司治理水平与非效率投资

本文以2011-2017年沪深两市A股上市企业为研究对象,对非控股股东参与和公司治理水平对企业非效率投资影响机理进行研究。研究发现:公司治理水平与非效率投资显著负相关,即公司治理水平的提升显著抑制了非效率投资;非控股股东参与和非效率投资之间显著负相关,即非控股股东的积极参与能显著抑制企业的非效率投资;非控股股东参与显著增强了公司治理水平与企业非效率投资之间的相关性。     

大股东资金占用、业绩困境与盈余管理

文章手工搜集了中国资本市场上市公司2002年-2006年大股东资金占用的财务数据,实证研究了上市公司"大股东资金占用(掏空)→业绩困境→利用财务报表的盈余管理加以掩饰"的行为模式。研究发现:对于陷入经营困境的亏损公司而言,大股东资金占用越严重,上市公司越可能向上盈余管理、美化业绩。大股东资金占用的上市公司为了避免投资者、监管部门等将公司业绩恶化归咎于其非法的"掏空"行为,从而竭力延迟坏消息、进行盈余管理、虚增收益。     

Efficient Markets, Fundamentals, and Crashes

A bstract .Economists have struggled to characterize and model the dynamic evolution of economic phenomena throughout this century. For at least eight decades, American economists have faced the persistent choice between structural or formal models of evolving dynamics and those alternative portrayals that focused on historical narratives or qualitative features. In this article we compare the models and methods used by representative authors who have sought to address the swings in stock prices. Our rather terse comparison between the orthodox theorists and those we label heterodox demonstrates the wide divergence between the foci of approaches adopted. Their methods, conclusions, and implications differ markedly. Where the orthodox approaches focus all but exclusively on statistical issues, the heterodox group stresses the importance of incomplete information and markets in an institutional and historical context. Such fundamental differences prohibit any meaningful dialogue between proponents of the two basic approaches. Moreover, substantial deficiencies–technical and otherwise–of contributions within the two groups limit ability to discriminate between rival views within each group. The clearer identification of transparent roles for credit, technology, and institutions in the heterodox approaches, however, makes the awkward translation from theoretical model to social commentary much easier.