Positivism in finance and its implication for the diversification finance research: Diversifying finance research: From financialization to sustainability

This paper is a complementary comment to the article recently published in IRFA by Thomas Lagoarde-Segot on the necessity of diversification of modelling in finance. In his claim, the author explained that financial concepts used by the mainstream are not neutral because they refer to a particular ethical judgement mainly focused on the shareholders' interest. In this comment, I explain that this ethical judgement historically results from the role playing by the Gaussian distribution in finance: while this statistical framework gave the first scientific foundations to finance in the 1960s, its symmetrical configuration implies that negative changes occur with the same probability than positive ones. In this context, all potential intervention (regulation) could only interfere (disturb) this “ethically fair situation” within the only perturbing element is the shareholder whose behaviours are likely to influence the market. After having explained that this reasoning is based on an a priori statement about observational facts (in opposition with positivism), I present this situation as an opportunity for current researchers in finance to clarify their implicit assumptions; which would open the door to a diversification of modelling in finance as Lagoarde-Segot promoted it in his IRFA article.     

Does too much finance harm economic growth?

This study provides new evidence on the relationship between finance and economic growth using an innovative dynamic panel threshold technique. The sample consists of 87 developed and developing countries. The empirical results indicate that there is a threshold effect in the finance–growth relationship. In particular, we find that the level of financial development is beneficial to growth only up to a certain threshold; beyond the threshold level further development of finance tends to adversely affect growth. These findings reveal that more finance is not necessarily good for economic growth and highlight that an “optimal” level of financial development is more crucial in facilitating growth.     

利率市场化能降低企业营运风险吗?——基于融资约束和企业金融化的双重视角

如何提高金融服务实体经济的结构性调节功能并促进企业有序运营与健康发展是金融供给侧结构性改革的重要目标。利率市场化改革作为金融领域最重要的改革之一,其在微观层面如何影响实体经济运行引起了高度关注。本文首先从理论上诠释了利率市场化通过缓解融资约束、抑制金融化进而降低企业营运风险的逻辑关系。为识别利率市场化与企业营运风险之间的因果效应,本文以中国人民银行2004年10月取消金融机构贷款利率上限和2013年7月取消金融机构贷款利率下限为外生冲击,基于融资约束差异构造准自然实验为上述理论推断提供经验证据。特别地,利率市场化每增加1单位标准差,企业营运风险平均约下降样本标准差的2.39%。异质性分析表明,利率市场化对企业营运风险的抑制效应在融资约束程度较高、行业竞争程度较高、投资机会较多的企业中尤为明显。本文研究对于进一步优化资源配置效率、实现金融与实体经济高质量发展具有一定参考意义。     

An inconsistency in SEC disclosure requirements? The case of the “insignificant” private target

Although the SEC's main charge is to ensure the disclosure of material information, it has not always consistently defined materiality. We show that acquisitions of privately-held targets classified as “insignificant” by the SEC appreciably affect market prices, and therefore are material by the SEC's definition. We find significant returns in transactions with targets as small as 2% – compared with the SEC's disclosure threshold of 20% – of the acquirer. Further, an average of 19 undisclosed private acquisitions per year exceed the median IPO value in the same year for our sample period. However, because the SEC deems these transactions insignificant, information like target financial statements remains undisclosed to the market. Disclosure rules regarding target financial statements thus create a regulatory disconnect, in which information that is material is nevertheless deemed “insignificant” and therefore not disclosed.     

银行价格竞争、融资约束与企业研发投资——基于“中介效应”模型的实证研究

近年来我国利率市场化改革积极推进,实体经济发展积极向创新驱动转型,一个亟须研究厘清的关键问题是,银行业竞争如何驱动企业创新活动?本文关注银行价格竞争对企业创新的影响,以2013—2018年沪深两市的上市企业为样本,采用"中介效应"因果分析模型,实证检验了银行价格竞争对企业研发投资的影响,并识别出以融资约束为中介渠道的作用机制。研究发现,银行价格竞争不仅会提高银行的风险容忍度,直接增加R&D投资的信贷供给意愿,而且还会通过降低贷款价格和增加贷款可得性来缓解企业整体的融资约束,间接促进企业创新活动。这一机制在解除贷款利率管制之后以及在民营企业层面体现得更加明显。本文的研究结果对于深化金融市场化改革、改善金融服务实体经济效果以及实施经济创新驱动发展战略,具有明确的政策启示。     

Regime-switching measure of systemic financial stress

In this paper, I propose an approach to measuring systemic financial stress. In particular, abrupt and large changes in the volatility of financial variables that represent the dynamics of the US financial sector are modeled with a joint regime-switching process, distinguishing “low” and “high” volatility regimes. I find that the joint “high” volatility regime for the TED spread, return on the NYSE index, and capital-weighted CDS spread for large banks is closely related to periods of financial stress. This result suggests that the probability of the joint high volatility regime of these financial variables can be considered as a measure of systemic financial stress.     

An analysis of the literature on systemic financial risk: A survey

This article presents an analysis of the literature on systemic financial risk. To that end, we analyze and classify 266 articles that were published no later than September 2016 in the databases Scopus and Web of Knowledge; these articles were identified using the keywords “systemic risk”, “financial stability”, “financial”, “measure”, “indicator”, and “index”. They were evaluated based on 10 categories, namely, type of study, type of approach, object of study, method, spatial scope, temporal scope, context, focus, type of data used, and results. The analysis and classification of this literature made it possible to identify the remaining gaps in the literature on systemic risk; this contributes to a future research agenda on the topic. Moreover, the most influential articles in this field of research and the articles that compose the mainstream research on systemic financial risk were identified.     

GAMBLING, SPECULATION, AND INSURANCE: WHY THEY CONTINUE TO BE CONFUSED AND CONDEMNED

Governments and the media have often attacked financiers for “speculating” in their countries' currencies, thereby forcing them to make drastic and sometimes painful changes in monetary and fiscal policies. This article argues that such accusations have no basis in economic theory, and that “such rhetoric should be seen for what it is: an attempt by politicians and policy-makers to divert attention and blame from their own mismanagement.” More generally, the author argues that the failure of the general public to understand the social benefits of financial activies such as trading in government bonds, commodity futures, and, more recently, financial derivatives has led throughout history to “prejudice, bad laws, and bad regulations.” Much as the charging of interest and certain forms of insurance were proscribed by the medieval Church, agricultural commodity futures were attacked in the 19th century (and in much of the 20th as well) in the U.S. and elsewhere as thinly disguised forms of gambling. Moreover, the same restrictions that were imposed on gambling and futures markets during the 19th and early 20th centuries are now imposed in many Third-World countries. Instead of encouraging the use of forward markets by small producers and traders, and promoting the development of organized commodity markets and banks in local centers, most less-developed countries today support national and international “stabilization” measures such as buffer stocks and regulations like price floors, price ceilings, and crop quotas. Meanwhile, in Western nations, governments continue to accuse financial markets of “destabilizing speculation” and of a myopic obsession with short-term profitability—even as the U.S. IPO market continues to assign record values to companies that have yet to show profits. Viewed in this light, the media and regulatory assaults on the junk bond markets in the late 1980s and on derivatives in the early 1990s are only the latest in a long line of misguided attacks on financial innovation.     

微观层面系统性金融风险指标的比较与适用性分析——基于中国金融系统的研究

准确测度金融机构对整体系统性金融风险的边际贡献是加强宏观审慎监管的基本前提。本文对常用的系统性金融风险指标进行了比较分析,并以“能否涵盖规模、高杠杆率和互联紧密性三方面信息”、“排序结果是否与银保监会认定的系统重要性银行名单相吻合”、“是否具有宏观经济活动预测力”三方面对上述指标在我国金融体系的适用性进行了综合评价。结果显示,SRISK更适于作为我国微观层面系统性金融风险的测度。同时,本文发现,“LRMES约等于1-exp(-18*MES)”的经验关系不具有普适性,不适用于我国金融体系。     

The Impact of Denial-of-Service Attack Announcements on the Market Value of Firms

The increase in security breaches in the last few years and the need to insure information assets has created an intensified interest in information risk within organizations and for insurance companies. Risk assessment is an important component in the establishment of security policies. However, very little is known of the financial impact and the risk associated with security breaches. This article reports the impact of Denial‐of‐Service (DOS) attack announcements on the market over a period of 4.5 years. The study was conducted using event study methodology. The results show that in general the market does not penalize companies that experience such an attack. However, there is an indication that the market penalizes “Internet‐specific” companies more than other companies. Our results indicate that large companies who are not “Internet‐specific” might be overreacting to the media hype and may be investing resources to prevent a problem that has marginal impact on their shareholder value.     

Does Brazilian allowance for corporate equity reduce the debt bias? Evidences of rebound effect and ownership-induced ACE clientele

We analyse if the Brazilian Allowance for Corporate Equity (ACE-type system) reduces the debt tax bias. Specifically, we study if the continuous treatment effect of interest on equity negatively affects the level of financial leverage. We find that the tax policy implemented is similar to the deductible cash dividends and not to an ACE. The empirical implication is that the interest on equity treatment increases the debt tax bias, producing a rebound effect to what is expected for this policy on the risk-taking behaviour and corporate capital structure. This rebound effect is homogeneous in firms with different financial constraints status. There are evidences that shareholders influence the cash distribution policy, adjusting the later to their own tax preferences. Therefore, there may be an “ACE clientele effect” induced by heterogeneity in tax preferences among shareholders.     

以金融自由化为背景的上海自贸区金融改革创新的思考

上海自贸区金融改革是顺应世界金融自由化主流趋势的制度创新,为此推动了利率市场化、汇率市场化等先行先试,对于改进金融开放及金融服务贸易之不足,弥补其短板效应将发挥积极效果,从而更好服务贸易,实现贸易及投资便利化。为规避自由化导致相关的风险,我国金融自由化尤其是自贸区金融自由化相关领域先行先试,应该有边界、循序渐进;要用“三明治”思维优化金融自由化在金融中心建设、浦东综合配套改革、自贸区金融改革先行先试三方面的联动机制。     

智能财务分析与诊断机器人的开发及实证检验——来自我国A股上市公司的经验证据

近年来,随着人工智能技术的发展,金融、财务、投资、审计与会计的智能化问题引起广泛关注。本文应用人工智能技术,依据财务分析的基本理论和方法,结合中国上市公司财务特征,率先尝试开发了"智能财务分析与诊断机器人",用于评价上市公司的综合财务绩效。该款智能机器人具有"速度快""智能化程度较高""专业能力较强""相对公正客观"和"实用性较强"五大特点。本文应用该款机器人设计了两个投资决策实验,个股和组合实验结果均表明该款智能机器人能有效地评价和区分上市公司的财务绩效类型。根据其输出的综合绩效,买入高绩效型股票或组合,或买入绩效成长型的股票或组合,具有显著的超额收益;买入高绩效型股票或组合,比买入绩效成长型的股票或组合,具有更高和更稳定的超额收益。可见,基于人工智能的财务分析与诊断机器人具有稳健和有效的择股能力。     

创新驱动国策下公司研发指数的构建研究——公司研发综合实力的会计评价方法

企业创新活动具有“高风险”、“高独占性”特征.在实施创新驱动战略时,很难对企业创新活动进行科学、高效地反映和评价.本文以A股上市公司为研究对象,使用2007-2017年的财务数据构建公司研发指数,将企业研发行为从“创新投入”、“技术水平”、“创新环境”和“创新产出”四个维度分别进行指数化评价.此外,本文对研发指数的信度、效度进行了检验,结果显示:研发指数通过了Kappa一致性检验,证明指标权重具备稳定性;研发指数在高新技术企业认定的效度测试中,表现出比传统研发强度指标更强的解释力度,也证明了研发指数具有较强的使用效度.本文的研究为公司研发绩效评价提供了新的思路.     

金融政策与经济低碳转型——基于增长视角的研究

在“碳中和”目标背景下,本文基于经济“增长”视角,从理论上分析金融政策在经济低碳转型中能够发挥的作用。我们构建了一个包含清洁(绿色)与非清洁(非绿色)生产部门、定向技术进步、金融约束与金融政策的内生增长模型。通过基于模型的理论证明与数值模拟,我们发现:(1)清洁部门相对非清洁部门更强的金融约束会推迟经济低碳转型过程、导致环境恶化,绿色金融政策能够缓解清洁部门的金融约束。(2)绿色金融政策能够增加清洁部门的产量,在一定条件下,还能促进经济实现低碳转型并阻止环境恶化。(3)通过金融政策推动经济低碳转型,相比部分财政政策具有成本效益优势;两类政策存在组合搭配的空间。(4)在疫情冲击后加大绿色金融政策力度,将有益于实现“绿色复苏”,并有可能以相对平时更低的成本,加快“碳达峰”与经济低碳转型的进程。     

金融发展、产业升级与跨越中等收入陷阱——基于新结构经济学的视角

本文在引入结构转型的内生增长理论框架下,重点考察了金融发展(包括金融深化和金融结构)对于产业升级促进作用的动态变化。研究发现,给定一国的发展阶段,不仅存在最优技术进步方式和最优产业结构,还存在一个对于金融深化程度的“最低要求”,低于这一临界值的国家将难以实现下一阶段的产业升级。另一方面,产业升级对金融深化程度的要求并非一成不变,而是随着经济发展呈现出先快速上升、在达到中等收入水平后缓慢递减的特征。在资本积累相对有限的约束条件下,中等收入国家要实现经济增长方式从模仿驱动转向创新驱动,需要首先实现金融深化程度的提升,并推动金融结构转型和制度完善,以实现对创新型产业的有效金融支持,否则很可能陷入“模仿陷阱”,长期徘徊在中等收入水平。本文从新结构经济学的视角,为金融发展与经济发展之间关系的动态变化提供了理论基础,并揭示出跨越中等收入陷阱是一个产业升级、金融发展和制度完善“三位一体”的转型过程。     

The Evolution of Integrating ESG Analysis into Wealth Management Decisions

Retail investors rely heavily on the advice of their financial advisors. But relatively few of those advisors have begun to incorporate investment strategies based on environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors for their client's portfolios. The author attributes this lack of interest to the disappointing returns of the “first generation” of ESG retail investment products, which approached the topic through a “socially responsible investing” (SRI) lens with mandates to exclude companies and industries viewed as having negative impact on society. These early “negative screening” directives had the effect of reducing the size of the manager's investable universe, which effectively ensured that SRI portfolio would underperform the overall market. The author, who is himself a practicing financial advisor, proposes that an innovative evolutionary process is underway in which investment managers are shifting away from a penchant for “negative screening” to a more inclusive approach he refers to as “best‐in‐class ESG Factor Integration.” And he identifies three main catalysts for this evolution: (1) greater disclosure of ESG data by public companies; (2) the growing accuracy and accessibility of ESG research, from commercial as well as academic sources; and (3) the inclusion of ESG factors with the traditional value drivers emphasized by the fundamental and quantitative methods used by portfolio managers. Although such integration is yet in its early stages, the author is optimistic that this growing trend will become an important part of an overall sustainable investing movement. No longer confined to large institutional investors, ESG factor integration is now available through a growing number of products and investment platforms.     

Ethical behavior and trustworthiness in the stock market-growth nexus

While formal institutional quality has been used to explain the finance-growth nexus, the role of social capital has not been fully addressed. The proposition of “better finance, more growth” is important amidst concerns over the erosion of ethics and trust in finance in the aftermath of the 2007/2008 global financial crisis. Using threshold estimation technique, this study examines whether the growth effect of stock market development differs according to the distinct levels of ethical behavior and trustworthiness in a cross-section of 73 jurisdictions during the post-crisis period. The results demonstrate that the impact of stock market liquidity on gross domestic product (GDP) and total factor productivity (TFP) growth is positive and significant only where there is high level of ethical behavior in firms. Similar effect is discerned in the case of strong trustworthiness and confidence. However, there is mixed evidence when formal institutional quality in the form of regulation and supervision of securities exchanges is considered. In terms of policy implications, this study upholds the “better finance, more growth” proposition and contributes to the identification of thresholds above which ethical behavior and trustworthiness can influence positively the relations between stock market development and macroeconomic performance.     

Financial statement users’ institutional logic

In this paper, we investigate what we call “financial statement users’ institutional logic,” defined as users’ expressed fundamental views and beliefs about accounting information. We analyze users’ comment letters to standard setters in response to the proposed standards on lease accounting to identify the dimensions of the institutional logic that underlie their views on accounting information. Our qualitative analysis identified and validated ten principal dimensions, namely economics and substance, due process issues, measurement, readiness and relevance for use, conceptual foundations, clarity, presentation and disclosure, cost-benefit issues, comparability and consistency, and financial statement manipulation. Quantitative analyses revealed that four of these dimensions, i.e. due process issues, readiness and relevance for use, comparability and consistency, and cost-benefit issues, occupy a medium or large amount of space in users’ comments and are referred to in strong terms, while economics and substance and measurement, although also widely discussed, are addressed in weaker terms. Overall, our study begins to fill a gap in the literature by providing insights into users’ views on accounting information. These insights challenge the “homo economicus user” currently constructed in standard-setting debates.