Crisis,internal governance mechanisms and pension fund performance: Evidence from Poland

This study provides new insight on the impact of supervisory board structure as an internal governance mechanism on privately defined contribution pension fund performance in Poland. Using a hand-collected data set, we find evidence that the chairman, as a motivated insider, plays an important role in determining fund performance. The results also show, although with weaker evidence, that outsiders may positively impact fund performance. During the 2007–2008 crisis, however, the insider professional knowledge outweighed the benefits of having motivated outsiders on the supervisory board. Consequently, the results show that both the composition of the supervisory board and the motivation and knowledge of its members are important in explaining pension fund performance. We also find that other governance factors have no impact on fund performance. The results are a relevant contribution to the current regulatory debate on reforms of the pension fund industry in Poland, arguing that modifying the supervisory board structure and electing outsiders with professional knowledge may significantly improve its performance.     

金融发展与融资约束——来自中小企业板的证据

本文使用2005—2007年中小企业板数据,在考虑实际控制人性质和政治关系的背景下,研究金融发展是否可以缓解中小企业融资约束。研究发现:无政治关系的民营中小企业面临较强融资约束,金融发展可以显著缓解其融资约束,这种缓解作用来自信贷资金分配的市场化和金融市场引入外资;具有政治关系的民营中小企业不存在显著的融资约束,但金融业引入外资会显著增加其现金的现金流敏感度,可能导致这类中小企业融资状况或企业绩效弱化;国有中小企业现金的现金流敏感度最高,但其现金持有量与绩效负相关,金融发展对其不产生显著影响。     

金融市场化、融资约束与企业成本加成:来自中国制造业企业的证据

融资约束和成本加成亟需提升是中国制造业企业面临的双重难题,在经济转轨的宏观背景下,能否藉由中国金融市场化改革来破解这一困境?本文以2001—2007年中国制造业企业为样本的实证研究显示:融资约束阻碍了企业成本加成提升,而金融市场化能够有效缓解融资约束对企业成本加成的抑制效应;以工具变量、分样本及替代变量回归等方法进行的稳健性检验进一步证明了本文结论的稳健性。本文的研究结论为进一步推进金融市场化改革,以此作为融资难背景下中国制造业企业成本加成提升的有效路径提供了理论支撑。     

中间品贸易自由化、融资约束与贸易方式转型

本文将贸易方式选择和融资约束纳入异质性企业贸易模型中,分析中间品贸易自由化、融资约束对企业贸易方式选择的影响,并利用2000-2006年中国工业企业数据库和海关数据库,以中国加入WTO作为一个准自然实验,运用倍差估计法对理论假说进行验证。结果显示:中间品贸易自由化会引导企业选择一般贸易的出口方式,并且企业的外部融资依赖度越高,中间品贸易自由化的贸易方式选择效应越明显。从多个角度进行稳健性检验以后,这一结论依然成立。上述研究表明,进一步推行贸易自由化,对于转变中国的贸易发展方式、提升中国在全球价值链分工中的地位具有重要意义。     

我国加工贸易转型升级的制约因素及调整对策

我国加工贸易的发展经历了从来料加工到进料加工、从作坊到外商投资企业为主体、从简单技术加工装配到高新技术产品加工贸易为主的结构转换,这代表着我国加工贸易不断转型升级的轨迹.但我国加工贸易转型升级过程却比较缓慢,存在其他国家或地区的竞争威胁,跨国企业社会责任标准提高等国际因素制约,以及生产力、产业技术水平低下等国内因素制约.我国应建立灵活的人才培养机制,推进加工贸易中间投入品的本地化,加大知识产权的保护力度,加强企业自身建设,以促进加工贸易转型升级.     

外包与生产率和就业:基于中国的实证

文章使用1997、2002和2007年的42部门投入产出表数据,计算了我国22个工业行业的外包比率,并以面板数据模型检验了外包对工业行业劳动力就业及外包对工业行业产出的影响。检验结果表明,材料品外包、服务外包的发展均有效地提升了我国工业行业生产率水平,但服务外包对工业行业生产率的促进效应要远远大于材料品外包,而外包对工业行业就业影响的分析结果是,服务外包对工业行业就业的影响为正效应并且影响显著,材料品外包对于工业行业就业的效应则效果不明显。     

Consumers as risk takers: Evidence from the film industry during the 1930s

This paper examines the risk environment of film consumption in the United States during the 1930s when moviegoing dwarfed all other paid-for leisure activities. We argue that the wide variability in the financial performance of films, reflecting the considerable risks that were involved in film production, can be interpreted as being mirrored in the risks incurred by consumers in the film consumption process. We further argue that production risk needs to be understood within the context of consumer risk. Using a dataset derived from the trade journal Variety, we examine the weekly fortunes of movies in first-run cinemas as consumers rapidly substitute movies that are currently on release for the promised pleasures of yet unseen movies. That expected utility was not always realised was commonplace, as was the pleasurable surprise that came with being thrilled by certain films. These are important results since, perhaps for the first time in modern society, they led to the emergence of the long right tail of consumer preferences for mass distributed goods.     

Entry, Competitiveness and Exports: Evidence from the Indian Firm Data

This paper attempts to evaluate the effects of industrial de-licensing of 1991 and WTO-induced tariff-reforms of 1995 on domestic competitiveness and export performances of the Indian manufacturing during the post-1991. Unlike existing empirical studies not backed by theoretical underpinnings, the paper has been founded on an open-economy-oligopoly-model framework. The paper develops an econometric method of estimating the output from data on sales of the firms, thereby estimating the firms?? marginal cost, which is conducive for the entire empirical analysis with a unified set of firm data. Using firm level data for 14 sectors for the period 1990?C2008, it is observed that there has been an increase in the number of firms resulting in a fall in the concentration ratio and elasticity of demand at the point of equilibrium is generally less than unity and is declining over-time. The panel regression results of increasing exports by bigger firms also conforms the theoretical predictions.     

FDI,Trade, and Growth Dynamics: New Evidence from the Post-Reform India

This article has two aims: first, review the related literature on the relationship among Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Trade, and Economic Growth, and second, empirically examine the linkage between these variables. Our review of the literature indicates that despite a large volume of literature on the relationship among these variables, the direction of causality among them is far from over. Therefore, after observing a gap in the empirical literature, especially for developing economies, we investigate the linkage by using a Vector Autoregression (VAR) model applying the Ganger non-causality test of Toda and Yamamoto (1995) for the period 1991Q3 to 2006Q3. The evidence shows that there is bidirectional causality (two-way feedback) between FDI and economic growth. At the same time, there is also a unidirectional causality exists between exports and FDI, which runs from the former to the latter. Results of the test of causality between FDI and imports indicate the presence of a two-way feedback relationship between the variables.     

Rainfall,financial development,and remittances: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

We use annual variations in rainfall to examine the effects that exogenous, transitory income shocks have on remittances in a panel of 41 Sub-Saharan African countries during the period 1970–2007. Our main finding is that on average rainfall shocks have an insignificant contemporaneous effect on remittances. However, the marginal effect is significantly decreasing in the share of domestic credit to GDP. So much so, that at high levels of credit to GDP rainfall shocks have a significant negative effect on remittances, while at low levels of credit to GDP the effect of rainfall on remittances is significantly positive.     

政府主导资源型城市转型的政策途径与政治约束

我国资源型城市大多进入了资源开采的成熟期或衰竭期,由于资源枯竭引发了一系列经济和社会问题,面对这些问题,迫切需要在政府的推动下对这些依靠资源而兴的城市进行产业转型.本文以德国鲁尔和法国洛林为主要研究对象,通过对欧洲资源型地区在转型过程中政府作用和政治约束条件的研究,对我国资源型城市的转型提供经验借鉴.     

Regionalization of Textile Trade: Evidence from the EU,NAFTA, AFTA,and SAPTA

This study examines the integration effects of four regional trading agreements (RTAs) respectively the EU, NAFTA, AFTA, and SAPTA on textile fabric trade from 1990–2005. A modified gravity model for analyzing textile trade was first generated by the fixed-effects method. Regional dummy variables were then used to identify trade creation and trade diversion effects arising from the RTAs. The results indicated that neither trade creation nor trade diversion effects existed in the EU textile trade. Trade creation in terms of imports was identified in NAFTA and SAPTA. There is no indication of shifting textiles trade from the rest of the world to the member countries with the implementation of these two free trade areas (FTAs). On the contrary, trade diversion was recognised some years after AFTA's enactment. It represents a movement towards free trade and is beneficial for the welfare of the world. This article provides empirical evidence on how textiles trade influenced by the formation of RTAs and elimination of quotas on textiles products.     

Globalisation,E-Business and SMEs: Evidence from the Italian District of Prato

The paper explores how SMEs located in industrial districts explore e-business as a means to face the challenges posed by globalisation. By resorting to case studies conducted in the textile district of Prato, the research evidences the positive attitude of the interviewed entrepreneurs towards e-business. However, the characteristics of the considered products (textiles) and the district structure strongly affect the path followed to explore the scenarios opened by e-business. The collected evidence suggests that only few firms in the district are actively pursuing the full range of opportunities provided by e-business, and that isolated actions are not enough to foster collective learning and growth processes involving the whole district.     

Cartelization,Cartel Breakdown,and Price Behavior: Evidence from the German Cement Industry

We use a unique dataset of about 340,000 market transactions from 36 smaller and larger customers of German cement producers to study the price behavior before and after the breakdown of a German cement cartel. We find that, first, while the cartel agreement was active, cartel members set higher list prices than non-cartel members; however, larger rebates granted by the cartel members led to similar transaction prices. Second, after the cartel breakdown, both cartel- and non-cartel members reduced transaction prices to a far larger extent than list prices. We build on these results and discuss implications for competition policy.     

Globalization, regional wage differentials and the Stolper-Samuelson Theorem: Evidence from Mexico

In this paper, I study what factors determined the changes in Mexico's regional wage differentials during the nineties. I exploit the regional variation in exposure to international markets to identify the effects of NAFTA on wages and the skill premium. The results support the presence of Stolper-Samuelson type of responses during Mexico's trade liberalization: regions more exposed to globalization appear to have exhibited an increase in overall wage levels, but a decrease in the skill premium, relative to other regions of the country. The results suggest that trade liberalization has a spatial dimension that is usually neglected in traditional models.     

Fraud,Enforcement Action,and the Role of Corporate Governance: Evidence from China

We examine enforcement action in China’s emerging markets by focusing on (1) the agents that impose this action and (2) the role played by supervisory boards. Using newly available databases, we find that supervisory boards play an active role when Chinese listed companies face enforcement action. Listed firms with larger supervisory boards are more likely to have more severe sanctions imposed upon them by the China Security Regulatory Commission, and listed companies that face more severe enforcement actions have more supervisory board meetings. Our findings are of interest, as supervisory boards in China are generally perceived to be dysfunctional. This study contributes to the existing literature in three ways. First, we shed light on the effects of supervisory boards whose role in a fraud setting has not yet been examined. Second, the study has important policy implications for governance reform. Finally, our analyses provide the most up-to-date picture of fraud and governance issues in China’s ever-growing markets.     

Perceived Behavioral Integrity: Relationships with Employee Attitudes, Well-Being, and Absenteeism

Relationships between the behavioral integrity of managers as perceived by employees and employee attitudes (job satisfaction and life satisfaction), well-being (stress and health), and behaviors (absenteeism) were tested using data from the 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce (n = 2,820). Using multivariate and univariate analysis, perceived behavioral integrity (PBI) was positively related to job and life satisfaction and negatively related to stress, poor health, and absenteeism. The effect size for the relationship with job satisfaction was medium-to-large while the effect sizes with respect to the other variables were small-to-medium. There was no support for the hypotheses that women would perceive lower levels of behavioral integrity and that the strength of the relationships between PBI and the outcomes variables would be stronger among women than among men.     

引资转型、FDI质量与环境污染——来自珠三角九市的经验证据

本文在Copeland和Taylor(2003)模型的基础上,构建包含外资质量特征的外资和污染排放关系的理论框架,提出理论假说,认为FDI对环境污染排放的影响不但取决于FDI的数量,还取决于FDI的质量,相异的FDI质量特征能使FDI数量对污染排放产生不同的作用效应。同时利用1999-2012年珠三角九市面板数据的实证检验印证了理论假说,结果显示,单项FDI规模越大、FDI越投向高端制造业部门、FDI出口比重越高、FDI承载技术越先进,就越有利于珠三角的污染减排。