Learning from Coworkers: Peer Effects on Individual Investment Decisions

Using unique data on employee stock purchase plans (ESPPs), we examine the influence of networks on investment decisions. Comparing employees within a firm during the same election window with metro area fixed effects, we find that the choices of coworkers in the firm's ESPP exert a significant influence on employees’ own decisions to participate and trade. Moreover, we find that the presence of high-information employees magnifies the effects of peer networks. Given participation in an ESPP is value-maximizing, our analysis suggests the potential of networks and targeted investor education to improve financial decision-making.     

Economic, Demographic, and Institutional Determinants of Life Insurance Consumption across Countries

Life insurance has become an increasingly important part ofthe financial sector over the past 40 years, providing a rangeof financial services for consumers and becoming a major sourceof investment in the capital market. But what drives the largevariation in life insurance consumption across countries remainsunclear. Using a panel with data aggregated at different frequenciesfor 68 economies in 1961–2000, this article finds thateconomic indicators—such as inflation, income per capita,and banking sector development—and religious and institutionalindicators are the most robust predictors of the use of lifeinsurance. Education, life expectancy, the young dependencyratio, and the size of the social security system appear tohave no robust association with life insurance consumption.The results highlight the importance of price stability andbanking sector development in fully realizing the savings andinvestment functions of life insurance in an economy.     

寿险资金运用中的投资理念分析

投资理念是主导金融机构投资行为的关键,有什么样的投资理念就会有相应的投资策略和投资组合。简单地说,投资理念就是投资的指导思想,是投资者理论与实践的总结。     

我国寿险投资问题分析及国际借鉴

我国保险业近年来飞速发展,但是保险资金存在着运用比重低、结构不合理等诸多问题.本文分析了我国寿险投资的现状和存在的问题,并同时与国际寿险公司投资的做法进行比较,提出了应该采取的风险管理对策.     

Tax Rate Uncertainty, Investment Decisions, and Tax Neutrality

This article deals with the effects of tax rate uncertainty (TRU) on individual investment behavior. We show that under risk neutrality as well as under risk aversion, increased TRU has an ambiguous impact on investment, depending on the investment project's structure of cash flows and depreciation deductions. Although the investment effects are small the popular view that tax policy uncertainty depresses real investment is rejected. Further, tax neutrality in the light of tax policy uncertainty is defined more precisely. Neutrality results for the Johansson-Samuelson tax and the cash flow tax that are known from certainty are confirmed under TRU.     

国内居民个人寿险产品购买行为的规范分析

今天,个人寿险产品的购买成为越来越普及的一种消费活动,按着消费者购买行为规范分析的框架,分析发现:个人寿险产品兼有选购品和非渴求商品的特征;其消费者的购买决策行为属于一种“高介入度-理性”的活动;收入、教育水平、年龄、家庭生命周期、职业、产品提供的利益、消费态度和顾客品牌忠诚度等成为影响消费者对其进行购买的主要因素。     

Investment Decisions and Managerial Performance Evaluation

This paper considers incentive provisions for a manager who makes investment decisions. The manager's performance measure can be based on current accounting information: cash flow, depreciation, book value, and current investment. We argue that Residual Income is the unique (linear) performance measure that achieves goal congruence, i.e., the manager accepts all positive NPV projects, and only those. If the manager has the same discount rate as the owner, the depreciation rules remain indeterminate. However, if the manager's discount rate assumes potentially a whole range of values, then a particular depreciation policy combined with Residual Income is the unique way to achieve goal congruence.     

基于pair_Copula_CVaR模型的保险投资组合优化

本文基于pair_Copula_CVaR模型对保险投资组合进行优化.选用977个交易日的上证指数、上证国债指数、上证基金指数和SHIBOR为样本数据,采用GARCH模型对单个资产建模,运用pair_Copula模型估计投资组合的联合分布,并通过Monte Carlo方法得到投资组合未来收益的多个可能情景,求得组合VaR和CVaR,得到使CVaR最小时的投资比例.实证研究表明,为了使风险值最小,保险资金可以将大部分的资金投资到风险较小的银行存款和国债中,适当地投资到风险较大的股票和基金中.通过理论最优比例结合实际情况可动态调整保险投资的结构,有利于保险资产的合理配置和保险资金的高效利用.     

基于CDaR的保险资金运用风险管理模型

基于对国内保险资金投资风险测量的主流方法VaR和CVaR模型的缺陷进行分析后,本文提出将新的风险度量方法CDaR模型引入到国内保险资金的投资风险管理实践,结合我国保险资金投资管理条例中的相关投资风险约束条件和国内金融市场的实际情况,并考虑到保险资金的资产负债匹配管理要求,提出了有投资约束条件下的保险资金风险管理拓展模型.     

Long-Term Care Insurance and Life Insurance Demand

This article investigates the interaction between life insurance and long-term care insurance markets on the demand side. In the model utility depends on both consumption and bequest, and utility from consumption is contingent on the state of health. While the demand for life insurance increases both with decreasing income and with a rising degree of altruism, the influences of these two parameters on the demand for long-term care insurance are ambiguous. If the utility shock arising from disability declines, both insurance demands will rise.     

养老保险与教育投资

目前我国地方政府面临着养老保险支出日趋增加的压力,这也给地方经济发展形成了一定阻力。因而地方政府不得不对财政支出进行调节,以满足地方经济发展的需要。教育支出虽然对经济当期的增长贡献不大,但却是经济长期发展的主要推动因素。在养老保险支出比例增加的形势下,地方政府是否会因此而减少教育投资比例是一个值得思考的问题。本文正是基于这种考虑,以2007-2011年我国31个省市自治区的面板数据为样本,从教育的正外部性以及对经济发展影响的角度分析了不同经济水平的地方政府的调控行为。结果显示养老保险支出对教育投资确实存在挤出效应,但对于不同经济水平地区挤出效应力度不同。教育的正外部性并没有较大的阻碍经济落后地区对教育的投资;教育对经济的促进作用是地方政府考虑是否减小教育投资比例的主要因素,这也促成了经济发达地区的减小幅度较大,而经济落后地区的减小幅度较小的结果。     

扩大消费,实现经济发展由消费、投资、出口协调拉动

我国经济增长主要靠投资和出口拉动,而消费需求增长相对滞后,不利于经济的健康稳定发展。因此,必须按照科学发展观的要求,加快转变经济发展方式,把扩大消费需求作为当前经济工作的着力点,增强消费对经济增长的拉动作用,实现消费、投资、出口协调拉动的格局。     

Experimental Tests of Self-Selection and Screening in Insurance Decisions

A major characteristic of insurance markets is information asymmetry that may lead to phenomena such as adverse selection and moral hazard. Another aspect of markets with asymmetric information is self-selection, which refers to the pattern of choices that individuals with different personal characteristics make when facing a menu of contracts or options. To combat problems of asymmetric information, insurance firms can use screening. That is, they can offer the clients a menu of choices and infer their characteristics from their choices.This article reports the results of several studies that examined the degree to which people behave according to the notions of self-selection and screening. Subjects played the role of either insurance buyers or sellers. The results of these studies provide partial support for the hypothesis that subjects use self-selection and screening in insurance markets. Our study also points at the importance of learning in experimental studies. In one-stage experiments where subjects did not get feedback, screening was not detected. When multistage experiments were conducted, and the subjects learned from experience and were also taught the relevant theories, their decisions were more aligned with screening.     

城镇企业养老保险个人账户给付期测算研究——基于预期寿命的视角

养老保险个人账户给付期的科学设计是养老保险个人账户制度持续、稳定运行的关键.本文从预期寿命的角度构建了城镇企业职工养老保险个人账户给付期的测算模型,并从分性别和分地区预期寿命角度对养老保险个人账户给付期进行了测算,测算表明我国法定养老保险个人账户给付期设计与预期寿命变化不协调,并导致个人账户超支月数越来越大.可通过适当延长养老保险个人账户给付期、推迟退休年龄提高我国养老保险个人账户制度的运行效率.     

Controlling Investment Decisions: Depreciation- and Capital Charges

This paper examines a multiperiod principal-agent model in which a divisional manager has superior information regarding the profitability of an investment project available to his division. The manager also contributes to the periodic operating cash flows of his division through personally costly effort. We demonstrate that it is optimal for the principal to delegate the investment decision and to base the manager's compensation on the residual income performance measure. Our analysis points to a class of depreciation rules and to a particular capital charge rate which together ensure that a profitable (unprofitable) project makes a positive (negative) contribution to residual income in every period. As a consequence, the compensation parameters for each period can be chosen freely so as to address the moral hazard problems without impacting the manager's investment incentives.     

人寿保单个人所得税课税制度的国际比较

人寿保单的个人所得税课征条款主要涉及到保费税前扣除制度、保单给付课税制度、未支付积累收益课税制度等三方面内容。人寿保单个人所得税制度的选择因国而异,在具体安排上不但要考虑与人寿保单特性相适应的技术,更多地是从国家的产业政策和宏观经济调控目标考虑。     

Capital Structure, Information Acquisition and Investment Decisions in an Industry Framework

This paper analyzes the relationship between a firm's capital structure and its information acquisition prior to capital budgeting decisions. It is found that low-growth industries can sustain a large number of levered firms. In these industries, leverage is negatively related to a firm's incentive to acquire information during the capital budgeting process. In contrast, high-growth industries only sustain a small number of levered firms. In these industries, levered firms acquire more information than all-equity financed firms. The model yields empirical predictions regarding the effects of leverage on the expected amount and the volatility of corporate investment. While leverage does not affect firm value, highly levered firms generate a more volatile cash flow than firms with low debt levels.     

基于DEA和SFA方法的寿险公司经营效率实证研究

本文以某寿险公司8家大中城市分公司为样本,分别基于DEA和SFA两种方法对其总保费、标准保费和分渠道保费产出效率进行了估算.结果表明,该公司大中城市分公司的经营效率不容乐观,资金推动业务发展的特征比较明显,经营绩效仍待提高.虽然这是基于一家寿险公司样本分析得出的结论,但是,当前寿险公司在大中城市经营效率不高这一现象是比较普遍的,需要引起寿险行业的高度关注.     

履约保证保险与消费信贷

消费信贷业务作为一项独立、高效的优势金融产品,与银行公司业务齐头并进,正日益为各商业银行所瞩目,并逐渐成为银行经营系统中的重要资源。在大力发展这一业务时,其授信风险的防范、分散和转移自然也就成为各家银行所要研究的课题。正是顺应这一需要,银行个人消费信贷业务中的履约保证保险应运而出,并为各利益主体所接受,显现出其强大的生命活力。     

Determinants of Regional Investment Decisions in China: An Econometric Model of Tax Incentive Policy

This paper examines whether concessionary tax rates and tax incentives can attract foreign direct investment (FDI) into certain designated areas in China. Since China opened its doors to foreign investors in 1979, tax benefits have been used extensively to attract FDI into different areas. In 1991, a new tax law was introduced which superseded two previous income tax laws. This new law provides additional tax benefits which improve the investment environment for foreign investors. This study investigates the effect of China's tax rates and tax incentive policy on FDI and on the locational choices of foreign firms. Our empirical results indicate that tax rates and incentives are important determinants of regional investment decisions in China, after controlling for potential confounding variables covering infrastructure, unemployment rate, wage rate and agglomeration economics. Specifically, areas offering lower tax rates and increased tax incentives are found to attract greater amounts of FDI. The impetus of the tax effect on FDI is more apparent in the post-1991 period due to changes in the tax laws. Our results also suggest that infrastructure variables are important determinants of regional investment decisions.