Central banks and macroeconomic policy choices: Relaxing the trilemma

Macroeconomic policy choices in open economies are constrained by the trilemma according to which the objectives of exchange rate stability, monetary independence and capital mobility cannot be attained jointly. This paper shows that foreign exchange interventions provide an effective instrument to relax the trilemma. An active reserve policy allows central banks to pursue independent monetary and exchange rate policies when the capital account is liberalised.We use the framework of the portfolio balance model to show that exchange market interventions may substitute for capital controls. Both allow a country to achieve the other two objectives of the trilemma. Our empirical analysis of a large country panel data set covering the period 1970–2010 confirms this theoretical insight: the weighted sum of the three trilemma objectives increases in the degree of foreign exchange market intervention. The capacity to relax the trilemma constraint has increased over time and has been most effective in emerging markets.     

基于“三元悖论”视角 探析我国宏观调控的有效性

目前,“三元悖论”受到学者们的广泛关注,已成为国际经济学中一个著名的论断。本文从“三元悖论”视角对我国货币政策有效性、汇率稳定及资本管制进行了分析,进而提出了要保持货币政策的独立性、保持汇率的相对稳定、控制资本项目开放的节奏等建议。     

基于“三元悖论”视角的我国经济金融发展探析

亚洲金融危机后,"三元悖论"被明确提出,并受到学者们的广泛关注,成为国际经济学中一个著名的论断。本文从"三元悖论"视角对我国货币政策有效性、汇率稳定及资本管制进行了分析,进而提出了要保持货币政策的独立性、保持汇率的相对稳定、控制资本项目开放的节奏等建议。     

The effect of government industrial policies on corporate accounting conservatism

This study examines whether and how firms adjust their accounting conservatism in response to government support through industrial policies, which reduce firms’ dependence on external financing from the capital market. Based on China’s unique economic programme called ‘Five-Year Plan’ from 1991 to 2015, we observe a decline in accounting conservatism among firms covered by government industrial policies. The decline is more pronounced in covered firms, which face higher ex-ante financial constraints, and in the subsample of firms which receive higher government support. These findings are robust to alternative specifications of accounting conservatism and policy timing. Our evidence implies that government industrial policies can have unintended consequences for corporate financial reporting.     

税收国际协调与会计准则全球趋同关系之辨析

本文研究经济全球化下税收国际协调与会计准则全球趋同这两大并存趋势的关系。论文认为 ,这两大趋势是经济全球化在国际税收和国际会计这两个相互联系领域中的反映 ,并从六个方面论述了两者之间的内在联系以及所反映的本质内涵。作者认为 ,二者之间的关系是所谓“经济一体化三难”的反映 ;在中国参与经济全球化的过程中 ,应把握两者关系 ,注意政策的内在协调 ,同时考虑国际税收与会计交叉学科的发展 ,为实务界提供指导     

Strategic Governance and Management Accounting: Evidence From a Case Study

This paper seeks to establish if top management (the board) of a firm should extend its overview of the governance process to the execution of strategy (i.e., strategic governance) and, if so, does the management accounting information system (MAIS) have a role in facilitating this strategy execution process. This study investigated the role of the board and MAIS in strategic governance by examining a company with a public record of both successful governance and integrated strategic management accounting processes in a high‐risk industry. The analysis demonstrates that boards should go beyond the minimum conformance (compliance) requirements of the governance‐regulatory legislation and assume ultimate responsibility for strategy execution and enterprise performance. However, while management accounting techniques, processes and reports were found to be used extensively in strategic governance to integrate the policy‐management interface in numerous conformance–performance domains, the traditional role of the management accountant was found to be limited in terms of their role in such governance. The study demonstrates that a more strategic governance role offers the management accountant a way back into senior management by using the routines of management accounting to socialize the board and curb any opportunism that may arise.     

国家产业政策、地方政府行为与实际税率——理论分析和经验证据

本文从地方政府行为的角度研究国家产业政策对于企业实际税率的影响。理论分析表明,产业政策引致重点扶持行业资本回报率增加,使得地方政府面临降税引资和增税增收的权衡;此时,地方政府将会降低产业政策重点鼓励行业的实际税率。借助国家“五年规划”重点行业的划分度量国家产业政策,我们对理论假说进行了实证检验。研究发现,政策鼓励显著降低了相应行业的实际税率水平;并且地方政府财政收入水平越高,实际税率下降幅度越大;机制分析表明这可能是通过降低对鼓励行业的征税努力的方式实现的。分企业类型研究发现,实际税率的降低主要存在于私营企业而非地方国有企业和中央企业。上述发现对于理解地方政府行为在产业政策中的作用以及产业、财政政策协调有重要意义。     

Rethinking the relationship between local government and financial markets

In the past 20 years local governments have increasingly looked to financial markets for capital financing. The markets want local governments to change their accounting systems and become more transparent, in order to offer information that is more appropriate to private sector investors. The authors argue that this approach is only a partial solution, and that local government and financial institutions would both benefit from changes in their relationships. The article identifies a double knowledge gap that needs to be filled if the public and private sectors want to work together as long-term financial partners.     

Using a robust performance measurement system to illuminate intellectual capital

The central premise of the “fit-as-mediation” view states that knowledge-related factors could determine the usage and design of specific organizational systems, such as management accounting and control systems. This could, in turn, facilitate information processing and bring about positive organizational outcomes. While the influence of knowledge-based assets on measurable performance has been examined extensively in the intellectual capital literature, little is known concerning the role of an organizational control system in fostering the management of intellectual capital as the most strategic asset for organizations. As such, this study primarily aims to explore what role a performance measurement system plays in terms of the diversity of measurement in the relationship between intellectual capital and organizational performance. We incorporate social capital into the general three-dimensional classification of intellectual capital; namely, human capital, structural capital, and relational capital, to provide a more comprehensive measure of intellectual capital. Further, we conceptualize the diversity of measurement by supplementing the original Kaplan and Norton's BSC model with a new perspective, social and environmental measures. Such integration of financial, customer, internal business process, learning, and growth, along with social and environmental measures could result in an overarching and robust conceptualization of performance measurement; a concept that was barely mentioned in previous literature. We conducted a questionnaire survey involving chief financial officers of 128 Iranian public listed companies. Using the partial least squares (PLS), we find that companies with higher levels of intellectual capital emphasize a greater diversity of performance measures. The findings also show that the diversity of measurement mediates the relationship between intellectual capital and organizational performance. This paper may offer guidance to companies concerning the competencies needed for securing positive organizational outcomes from their knowledge resources, such as intellectual capital.     

商业银行影子银行业务风险监管研究

美国金融危机的爆发,使影子银行成为国际社会关注的焦点。由于我国稳健货币政策的实施,使得商业银行传统信贷业务被进一步压缩,一些商业银行纷纷通过业务创新来寻找新的利润增长点。我国商业银行在进行金融创新的同时,影子银行业务也得到不断发展。但是,这些影子银行业务将传统的表内资产转到表外,具有监管套利的性质,给影子银行的运行带来较大的潜在风险,同时也加大了政府宏观调控的难度。本文结合当前国内商业银行影子银行业务发展现状,对商业银行影子银行业务的风险监管进行了研究,并提出相关监管对策。     

A Perspective on UK Productivity Performance

The paper reviews recent UK productivity performance using insights from new growth economics and its embodiment in growth accounting techniques. The sources of the UK labour productivity gap are found to differ across countries; broad capital per worker plays a larger part with regard to France and Germany while innovation matters more compared with the USA. The role of incentive structures is examined and the importance of competition as an antidote to agency problems in UK firms is highlighted. Current UK policy is reviewed and the need to address government as well as market failures is stressed.     

初创小微企业资金管理绩效影响因素实证研究

依据湖南省229家初创小微企业的调研数据,考量社会资本、政策支持对初创小微企业资金管理绩效的影响。实证表明：社会资本显著影响初创小微企业资金管理绩效;政策支持在社会资本与资金管理绩效中起调节作用,拥有良好政策支持的初创小微企业资金筹集管理绩效与运营管理绩效显著优于缺少政策支持的企业。初创小微型企业应不断丰富自身社会资本,积极利用政府提供的有利环境,提高资金管理绩效。     

Fearful asymmetry: The consumption of accounting signs in the Algoma Steel pension bailout

This paper examines the role of accounting in society by looking at the consumption of accounting signs during the financial restructuring of a corporation. The paper builds upon insights from prior research on accounting as simulacrum and hyperreality. It examines how accounting numbers serve as reconfigurable signs that construct appropriate “crises”, motivate government intervention, and marshal stakeholders towards solutions. The incident at the heart of this study is the 2001 bailout of the Algoma Steel pension plan by the Ontario government. The incident demonstrates how accounting technologies are required both for the production of accounting signs and for their consumption. The paper asks how the production and consumption of accounting signs is different from that of other communication signs, what role consumers of accounting signs play in determining their meaning, and what difference this makes in how corporate pension plans are protected by government. It concludes that the structures and mechanisms surrounding the consumption of accounting signs enable different stakeholders to influence the production of meaning at the moment when accounting signs are consumed, changing the way that risk and wealth are redistributed, and shaping government intervention.     

Accounting for banks,capital regulation and risk-taking

This paper examines risk-taking incentives in banks under different accounting regimes in presence of capital regulation. In the model the bank jointly determines the capital issuance and investment policy. Given an exogenous minimum capital requirement, lower-of-cost-or-market accounting is the most effective regime that induces the bank to issue more excess equity capital above the minimum required level and implement less risky investment policy. However, the disciplining role of lower-of-cost-or-market accounting may discourage the bank from exerting project discovery effort ex-ante. From the regulator’s perspective, the accounting regime that maximizes the social welfare is determined by a tradeoff between the social cost of capital regulation and the efficiency of the bank’s project discovery efforts. When the former effect dominates, the regulator prefers lower-of-cost-or-market accounting; when the latter effect dominates, the regulator may prefer other regimes.     

发达国家解决中小企业融资难题的主要模式及借鉴意义

解决中小企业融资难问题必须以政府为核心,在突破现有政策的基础上,通过制度创新重新制定整体方案.其核心内容包括:建立以中央政府为核心,各级政府和企业参与的多层次社会的中小企业信用担保体系;深化中小企业改革,建立和完善中小企业法人治理结构和信用体系;深化金融体制改革,在引进国内外战略投资者的同时,通过对现有城市商业银行的重组,设立以中小企业服务为核心的中小企业银行;加快资本市场的制度创新,推出创业板市场,在增加中小企业对风险投资吸引力的同时,使更多合格的中小企业进入资本市场,打通中小企业的直接融资渠道.     

以外储战略性注资推动中国商业银行国际化研究

跨国银行集团是发达国家核心竞争力之一,在历次危机中(尤其是在此次全球金融风暴的冲击下),西方发达国家都大幅注资本国大型金融机构,力图稳定其在国际金融领域的优势地位。中国商业银行经过多年来发展和海外经营,实力明显上升,并多次运用资本市场补充资本金,具备了提升国际化经营水平的基础,目前也迎来了国际化的良机,但仍然面临着资本约束的瓶颈。2003年以来,国家以外汇储备对中国大型商业银行进行的战略性注资,获得的回报远大于投入,并健全了我国的金融体系。从提高我国外汇储备战略性投资作用的角度,建议国家以强国方略再度以外储对大型商业银行进行战略性注资,再辅之以监管部门进一步改革监管和资本账户管制,以及商业银行在国际经营中充分发挥自身的主体作用,多管齐下来共同推动中国商业银行的国际化。     

De facto exchange rate regimes and currency crises: Are pegged regimes with capital account liberalization really more prone to speculative attacks?

This paper empirically examines whether de facto exchange rate regimes affect the occurrence of currency crises in 84 countries over the 1980–2001 period by using the probit model. We employ the de facto classification of Reinhart and Rogoff (2004) that allows us to estimate the impact of relatively long-lived exchange rate regimes on currency crises with much greater precision. We find that pegged regimes significantly decrease the likelihood of currency crises compared with floating regimes. By using the combined data of exchange rate regimes and the existence of capital controls, we also find interesting evidence that pegged regimes with capital account liberalization significantly lower the likelihood of currency crises compared with other regimes. These results are robust to a wide variety of samples and models. From the standpoint of the macroeconomic policy trilemma, we can conjecture that pegged regimes with capital account liberalization are substantially less prone to speculative attacks because they can enhance greater credibility in their currencies by abandoning monetary policy autonomy.     

The association between privatisation and voluntary disclosure: Evidence from Jordan

This paper investigates the impact of privatisation on the extent of corporate voluntary disclosure in Jordan.We conduct a longitudinal examination using 243 annual reports of 27 privatised firms in Jordan over a period of nine years from 1996 to 2004. Employing univariate and pooled regression models our results show that privatisation is positively associated with voluntary disclosure. Specifically, we find that accounting regulation reforms and foreign investments accompanying privatisation have a significant impact on the levels of accounting disclosure in Jordan. Our study provides evidence on the role of privatisation in improving the disclosure culture as an important pre‐condition for the development of active capital markets.     

从汇率制度视角看我国商业银行的流动性过剩

从汇率制度角度透视我国当前的商业银行流动性过剩现象,目的在于为经济金融的进一步开放提供理论依据和决策参考。本文通过对“三元悖论”理论的解读和1998～2006年各季度数据的实证检验,揭示了我国商业银行流动性过剩与汇率制度之间存在密切相关性,即在我国现行的汇率制度下,外汇储备的不断增加直接导致了商业银行存差的扩大,造成金融系统乃至整个社会的流动性过剩。基于上述研究,作者提出了如下相关建议:完善我国汇率形成的市场机制,培育相对均衡汇率;深化我国外汇管理体制改革,有序开放资本市场;汇率制度改革要与其他政策改革协调配合。     

The influence of the nature of government accounting and reporting in decision-making: evidence from Switzerland

A key objective of government accounting and reporting has been to achieve accountability and its use in that respect has been well documented, however its use for decision-making has had less coverage. This article addresses the latter issue, providing evidence from Switzerland that the accounting basis used (accrual versus cash) influences decision-making. This is the result of the effect that the different approaches have on the nature of the information used for decision-making. Switzerland was among the first western democracies to adopt accrual accounting at both state (canton) and local levels of government in the 1980s. The Swiss federal government followed in 2007. The main examples of the use of accrual information in decision-making are: the focus on self-financing of investments in order to control borrowing, as well as the fiscal policy targets of debt reduction and maintenance of capital. All three require accrual basis information. Therefore accrual basis information is key in fiscal decision-making in Switzerland.