Bank credit risk and credit information sharing in Africa: Does credit information sharing institutions and context matter?

The study examines credit information sharing through private credit bureaus and public credit registries and their effect on bank credit risk in low and high income countries in Africa. The study covers periods between 2006 and 2012 with 548 bank observations in Africa. Employing a Prais-Winsten panel data estimation, the study established that credit information sharing whether through private credit bureaus or public credit registries reduces bank credit risk in both low and high income countries and Africa as a whole. Further analyses reveal that credit information shared through public credit registries was only negatively and significantly related to bank credit risk when all countries that share credit information through public credit registries are observed as one unit but had no significant effect in low or high income countries. On the contrary, credit information shared through private credit bureaus reported a negative and significant effect on credit risk in low and high income countries as well as all countries that shared information through private credit bureaus. This suggests that credit information shared through private credit bureaus are more robust in dealing with bank credit risk regardless of a banks’ income bracket. Hence, countries that do not share credit information should do so especially through private credit bureaus so as to help reduce bank credit risk regardless of the income bracket differences. Again, governments in Africa must enact laws that expand the coverage and scope of credit information shared so as to enhance the effectiveness of information sharing.     

公共服务合同外包中的交易成本及其控制

公共服务合同外包作为一项交易,不可避免地存在不少交易成本变量,公共服务合同外包不一定能降低交易成本、公共服务合同外包中存在不确定性成本、公共服务合同外包难以合理界定交易成本等都是这些变量的体现。基于这些交易成本变量,大胆而细致地选择公共服务合同外包,建立公共服务合同外包风险防范机制,建立较为公平、合理的风险分担机制,提高政府对公共服务合同外包的控制能力等应是降低公共服务合同外包交易成本的可行路径。     

Cross-boundary information sharing in regulatory contexts: The case of financial markets

Most studies about cross-boundary information sharing (CBIS) focus on private or public sector organizations only. There is limited research within regulated environments, which often requires information to be shared among multiple public, private and nonprofit organizations. This paper explores CBIS in different regulatory contexts, with a focus on financial markets in the USA, and finds some unique characteristics in terms of information asymmetries, incentive and governance structures, and structural complexity.     

Business credit information sharing and default risk of private firms

We investigate whether and how business credit information sharing helps to better assess the default risk of private firms. Private firms represent an ideal testing ground because they are smaller, more informationally opaque, riskier, and more dependent on trade credit and bank loans than public firms. Based on a representative panel dataset that comprises private firms from all major industries, we find that business credit information sharing substantially improves the quality of default predictions. The improvement is stronger for older firms and those with limited liability, and depends on the sharing of firms’ payment history and the number of firms covered by the local credit bureau office. The value of soft business credit information is higher the smaller the firms and the lower their distance from the local credit bureau office. Furthermore, in spatial and industry analyses we show that the higher the value of business credit information the lower the realized default rates. Our study highlights the channel through which business credit information sharing adds value and the factors that influence its strength.     

资本市场会计信息披露暨治理问题研究--基于上市公司会计信息披露不对称的视角

上市公司会计信息生产和披露质量直接影响了资本市场的稳定健康发展。资本市场会计信息生产和披露存在着一定的供求机理,直接影响了会计信息生产和披露的质量。由于管理主体上的虚化、内控弱化和治理结构上的偏差、会计信息系统的集成和共享性弱以及从业人员素质上的差异,使得上市公司会计信息披露存在着不充分性、非主动性、虚假性和滞后性问题,由此增加了资本市场信息不对称和风险发生的可能。因此,严厉打击资本市场会计信息造假,规范资本市场会计信息披露,需要进一步完善资本市场会计信息披露制度,创新和完善新技术背景下会计准则和会计制度,加强对现有上市公司会计信息生产和会计信息披露标准的制定和使用,提升上市公司会计信息生产和会计信息披露独立审计监督的标准化和规范化水平,加强上市公司会计信息生产和披露监督标准化体系建设。     

Private credit in 129 countries

We investigate cross-country determinants of private credit, using new data on legal creditor rights and private and public credit registries in 129 countries. Both creditor protection through the legal system and information-sharing institutions are associated with higher ratios of private credit to gross domestic product, but the former is relatively more important in the richer countries. An analysis of legal reforms shows that credit rises after improvements in creditor rights and in information sharing. Creditor rights are remarkably stable over time, contrary to the hypothesis that legal rules are converging. Finally, legal origins are an important determinant of both creditor rights and information-sharing institutions. The analysis suggests that public credit registries, which are primarily a feature of French civil law countries, benefit private credit markets in developing countries.     

The effect of information sharing between lenders on access to credit,cost of credit,and loan performance – Evidence from a credit registry introduction

Using a rich dataset from a commercial bank in Albania, we utilize the introduction of a public credit registry by the Albanian central bank in January 2008 as a natural experiment to analyze the effect of information sharing between lenders on (1) access to credit, (2) cost of credit, and (3) loan performance. Our results suggest that information sharing by means of a credit registry does not affect access to or cost of credit, but improves loan performance. Specifically, loans granted after the introduction of the credit registry are 3% points less likely of turning problematic, representing a 35% reduction of the overall sample average arrear probability. We further find that the effect is more pronounced for repeat borrowers and in areas, where competition is weak. This indicates that information sharing among lenders improves loan performance mainly by disciplining borrowers to repay in their concern about future access to credit.     

金融数据共享利益冲突平衡的法律进路

数据是数字经济时代最重要的生产要素之一，流动的数据才能发挥数据价值，金融数据共享是数据流动的一种形式。金融活动中金融数据在不同金融机构之间、金融机构与科技企业之间、金融机构与金融监管机构之间共享，金融数据控制者对其所控制的数据的财产性权益期待是促进数据共享的动力。金融数据中有大量关涉个人信息的数据，而且金融数据安全关系到国家金融体系安全，在确保国家金融体系稳健和个人信息安全的前提下，将金融数据权利赋予金融数据控制者，有利于促进金融数据共享，最大限度地挖掘金融数据价值。为平衡金融数据共享主体之间的利益冲突，应当以确定数据权属为底层逻辑，优先保障个人信息权益，并通过引进侵权惩罚性赔偿机制，调整惩罚性赔偿金分配机制和个人信息侵权公益诉讼规则，完善个人信息侵权赔偿制度。     

New development: Parliamentary ‘watchdogs’ taking a higher profile on government programme performance and accountability?

The ‘Holy Grail’ of decades of public sector reform has been the public availability of readily-understandable, reliable and meaningful performance information about government activities and programmes. Maps have been drawn; processes have been developed; some actual progress has been made in a number of countries; but the end is not in sight. Put simply, particularly in Westminster government-type systems, it remains the case, at least in broad terms, that the government is responsible for policy; the public service for administration and service delivery; and the parliament for oversight and review. In reality, the situation has become more complicated with the growth of the ‘information economy’, internationalization, the greater involvement of the private sector in government activities generally and changing public views and expectations of government, not least in respect of trust and confidence in politicians and public institutions. At the very least, it is still a situation of ‘work-in-progress’ trying to catch up with the changing national and international environment.     

Communicating with the public during health crises: experts' experiences and opinions

Governments and health agencies worldwide are planning for a potential influenza pandemic. Their plans acknowledge the importance of public communication during an outbreak and include related guidelines and strategies. Emerging infectious disease (EID) communication is a new addition to the literature, drawing on health promotion communication, crisis communication and environmental/technological risk communication. This paper adds to the literature, exploring the notion of ‘effective communication during health crises' by reporting on interviews with 22 public health officials, scientists and communications professionals responsible for communicating with the public. When analyzed in the context of the risk communication literature, the interviews reveal several considerations for health risk communicators. First, given the important role that mass media will play in an EID outbreak, there is an urgent need for public health to build partnerships with journalists based on an understanding of the two parties' unique societal roles. Second, seemingly practical communications considerations – such as how certain to be about information before sharing it and whether to engage in two‐way communication with the public – have ethical dimensions that deserve attention. Third, there are unique challenges associated with communicating uncertainty, which would benefit from an exploration of the role of trust in health crisis communication.     

Corporate foresight in emerging markets: Action research at a multinational company in Turkey

The corporate foresight—future studies in business—is gaining importance globally. However, research to date has largely focused on the multinational companies (MNC) and yet revealed little about the implementation of corporate foresight in the regional subsidiaries of MNCs in emerging markets. An action research in the regional subsidiary of an MNC in Turkey was carried out to address this gap. Seven major findings/challenges were recorded during the action research: (1) changing mental models about the future, (2) controlled two-tier structure, (3) customisation of methodologies, (4) thorough examination of information sources, (5) external participation, (6) changing the primary dimension of the company and (7) sharing with other regional subsidiaries and corporate headquarters. These findings were categorised under a new framework—Knowledge-People-System-Organisation (KPSO) framework for managing the corporate foresight process at MNCs in emerging markets. The balanced distribution of the findings in this new framework shows that it could be used for further theory development in the area of corporate foresight and implemented in further corporate foresight exercises.     

Institutional investor information network,analyst forecasting and stock price crash risk

In this paper, we construct the information network of fund investors based on the theory of social relationship networks and examine its impact of fund information sharing with analysts on stock price crash risk. Our results show that private information sharing among institutional investors reduces crash risk. Further results show that fund information sharing can alleviate analyst optimism bias and improve analyst forecast accuracy, which further reduces stock price crash risk. Moreover, these identified effects are more pronounced in a bull market than a bear market. Our study contributes to the research on private information transmission in fund information networks, and provides a new perspective for recognizing the relationships among institutional investor behavior, analyst forecasting, and stock price crash risk.     

Optimal Release of Information By Firms

This paper provides a positive theory of voluntary disclosure by firms. Previous theoretical work on disclosure of new information by firms has demonstrated that releasing public information will often make all shareholders worse off, due to an adverse risk-sharing effect. This paper uses a general equilibrium model with endogenous information collection to demonstrate that there exists a policy of disclosure of information which makes all shareholders better off than a policy of no disclosure. The welfare improvement occurs because of explicit information cost savings and improved risk sharing. This provides a positive theory of precommitment to disclosure, because it will be unanimously voted for by stockholders and will also represent the policy that will maximize value ex ante. In addition, it provides a “missing link” in financial signalling models. Apart from the effects on information production analyzed in this paper, most existing financial signalling models are inconsistent with a firm taking actions which facilitate future signalling because release of the signal makes all investors worse off.     

证券领域行政执法与刑事司法的衔接问题研究

在我国,证券领域行政执法与刑事司法的衔接并不畅顺,大部分符合刑事追诉标准的案件仅被处以行政处罚,造成违法成本的低廉。其原因是多方面的,包括刑事与行政证明标准的差异,证据转换的困难,专业知识上的阻隔,以及监督的缺位等。建议通过推定方式转移公诉机关指控特殊类型证券犯罪的部分举证责任,减轻公诉机关的举证负担;根据不同证据的特点,完善行刑衔接证据转换规则;加强证券监管机构与公安机关、检察机关的沟通协调,建立信息共享及工作交流机制;增强规范执行力,确立有效的案件移送监督制度。     

2000年的企业战略企业的核心能力三:复杂性的管理

<正> 今天,大企业的经营者所面临的课题与20年前的经营者相比,变得越来越复杂,就像解多元多次联立方程式一样。下面我介绍几个实际面临的复杂性的实例。 首先是具有世界规模的电气机械制造厂A公司的实例。A公司的客户在北美占40％,在欧洲占30％,在日本和亚洲地区占25％,横跨世界三大市场,客户总数达数万家。产品大体可分为10种以上,每个品种又有十几个规格,即使分类分得很粗,整个产品也可分为100种以上。其中多数产品是在亚洲和东欧的十几家工厂组装、生产,一部分产品从亚洲发到欧洲,从欧洲发到美国,而且,这些工厂从亚洲、美国和欧洲的100家以上的零部件制造厂采购几千件零部件。另一方面,客户的订货     

The emergence of information sharing in credit markets

We provide the first systematic empirical analysis of how asymmetric information and competition in the credit market affect voluntary information sharing between lenders. We study an experimental credit market in which information sharing can help lenders to distinguish good borrowers from bad ones. Lenders may, however, also lose market power by sharing information with competitors. Our results suggest that asymmetric information in the credit market increases the frequency of information sharing between lenders significantly. Stronger competition between lenders reduces information sharing. In credit markets where lenders may fail to coordinate on sharing information, the degree of information asymmetry, rather than lender competition, drives actual information sharing behavior.     

Transforming frameworks of accountability: The case of water privatization

The U.K. Government's belief in the innate inefficiency of traditional public sector provision of goods and services has inspired a number of initiatives which have resulted in management of public sector enterprises being confronted by an increasingly commercial environment, tighter financial controls, increased competition, and in some cases transfer to the private sector through privatization. This paper is concerned with investigating the ways in which accounting and accounting information has contributed to and shaped processes of organizational change in one area of the public sector, the ten Regional Water Authorities of England and Wales. In the early 1980s, the Water Authorities were subject to pressures from new Government financial controls and performance aims to become more efficient. These pressures intensified when the Government announced its intention to privatize them in 1986, and continued up to 1989 when privatization took effect. Since privatization the Water Authorities have been subject to “yardstick” competition under a new regulatory framework, and comparative judgements by the financial markets. In considering these changes, the paper examines the constitutive role of accounting in articulating changing organizational priorities, and in promoting first a vocabulary of costs and subsequently a vocabulary of profits as languages of organizational motive.     

中国上市公司初始审计的定价折扣考察——来自审计师变更的经验证据

初始审计的定价折扣具有重要的与审计独立性相关的公共政策含义。本文基于DeAngelo(1981)和Dye(1991)关于初始审计定价折扣的竞争性理论预期,利用2002——2004年我国审计市场的数据对初始审计的定价行为与特征进行了较为细致的实证考察。经验结果支持中国证监会关于审计费用的强制性公开披露政策,准租金和低价折扣引起的潜在的审计独立性问题会随着审计费用的公开披露而得到消除或减轻。本文还具有重要的监管含义:对审计师变更的监管应着重关注那些大型上市公司在小型会计师事务所之间进行变更的行为。     

对德国储蓄银行的考察与启示

本文通过对德国两家储蓄银行的考察,总结了其有益的经营理念。一是德国储蓄银行非常重视企业CI的建设工作;二是重视机构合作和资源共享;三是重视信息系统的研发工作;四是重视企业文化的积累和提炼;五是重视风险的管理和防范工作;六是重视对公益事业的支持;七是德国储蓄银行与地方经济共成长。     

Public‐private partnerships versus traditional procurement: Innovation incentives and information gathering

A government agency wants a facility to be built and managed to provide a public service. Two different modes of provision are considered. In a public‐private partnership, the tasks of building and managing are bundled, whereas under traditional procurement, these tasks are delegated to separate private contractors. The two provision modes differ in their incentives to innovate and to gather private information about future costs to adapt the service provision to changing circumstances. The government agency’s preferred mode of provision depends on the information‐gathering costs, the costs of innovation efforts, and the degree to which effort is contractible.