Share buybacks in India

We examine the market price and liquidity reaction to 239 share repurchase announcements in India. The average abnormal return on announcement day is 2.07 percent. Firms with larger promotor ownership stakes experience higher market reactions. Using the Amihud illiquidity measure and volume, we show that liquidity improves after the announcement. Open market repurchase programs increase market liquidity while tender offers do not. Liquidity improves more for high promotor ownership firms. Lastly, shorter duration repurchase programs improve liquidity more than longer duration programs. These results are consistent with our discussion of the pecking order of ownership structure in the low information transparency environment of India.     

Bankruptcy practice in India

The bankruptcy framework prevailing in India, traces its roots back to colonial rule. That framework has undergone a number of amendments over the past 200 years, creating a plethora of overlapping and sometimes conflicting articles. The latest attempt at reconciliation of these various Acts was made under the Companies Act, 2013. This paper drives through the land mark amendments in the history of India, leading to the current bankruptcy framework. Each Act is discussed based on the requirements, procedures and outcomes post enactment. Also, the major pros and cons of the different Acts are identified, and a critical analysis is presented of the latest Act, Companies Act, 2013. Moreover, the provisions of Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 of the U.S Bankruptcy Framework are compared against the provisions of these Acts. The paper then presents a diluted, easy to understand, step by step procedure of the current bankruptcy framework. Followed by a case analysis of a recent prominent Bankruptcy, to elicit the issues in the current framework. In conclusion, a list of recommendations is presented, to improve the Bankruptcy Framework in India.     

Forest resources in India

Poor planning, management, and pricing have resulted in overexploitation and underinvestment in the Indian forest sector. Without reforms, the sector will not be able to perform its two major functions—a source of fuel for the poor and an input to industry.     

Corporate Governance in India

The Indian corporate governance system has both supported and held back India's ascent to the top ranks of the world's economies. While on paper the country's legal system provides some of the best investor protection in the world, enforcement is a major problem, with overburdened courts and significant corruption. Ownership remains concentrated and family business groups continue to be the dominant business model, with significant pyramiding and evidence of tunneling activity that transfers cash flow and value from minority to controlling shareholders. But for all its shortcomings, Indian corporate governance has taken major steps toward becoming a system capable of inspiring confidence among institutional and, increasingly, foreign investors. The Securities and Exchanges Board of India (SEBI), which was established as part of the comprehensive economic reforms launched in 1991, has made considerable progress in becoming a rigorous regulatory regime that helps ensure transparency and fair practice. And the National Stock Exchange of India, also established as part of the reforms, now functions with enough efficiency and transparency to be generating the third‐largest number of trades in the world, just behind the NASDAQ and NYSE. Among more recent changes, the enactment of Sarbanes—Oxley type measures in 2004—which includes protections for minority shareholders in family‐ or “promoter”‐led businesses—has contributed to recent increases in institutional and foreign stock ownership. And while family‐ and government‐controlled business groups continue to be the rule, India has also seen the rise of successful companies like Infosys that are free of the influence of a dominant family or group and have made the individual shareholder their central governance focus.     

大米欧佩克的冲动与未来

表面上看,成立“大米欧佩克”的主要背景是全球粮食价格的普遍性上涨,但深入分析后我们发现,0REC呼声高涨的背后实际隐含着的是资源及其利益的博弈。     

The Implications of Dispersion in Analysts' Earnings Forecasts for Future ROE and Future Returns

Dispersion in analysts' forecasts is empirically evaluated by associating dispersion with a firm's future accounting rate of return-on-equity (ROE) and future returns. Forecast dispersion is significantly and negatively associated with future ROE, consistent with the notion that firm disclosures and analysts' information acquisition efforts increase as firm prospects improve. Forecast dispersion is negatively associated with future returns. This appears due to the implications of dispersion for future ROE, and suggests that the market does not immediately assimilate the information contained in forecast dispersion. Dispersion also conveys information about firm-specific risk not captured by beta and firm size.     

寻找未来的竞争焦点

邮储银行的市场定位可以概括为“城市批发＋农村零售＋中间业务”，即邮储银行成立后大力发展的业务重点为资金营运、中间业务、小额贷款、银团贷款和储蓄，而这也是今后邮储银行与现有商业银行竞争的焦点所在。[编者按]     

Life Expectancy in the Future

Abstract

The public responsibility of life insurance actuaries has changed from supervisory compliance with detailed state laws to certifying adherence to more general regulatory objectives complemented by actuarial standards of practice.     

未来的中央银行家

<正>金融业发生重大变革当今社会,技术进步推动金融业和中央银行发生了一系列重大变革,突出体现为以下几个方面。第一,各方都希望获得尽可能多的信息。这样就需要决策者作出权衡,以便在获得必要信息的同时,保护好个人隐私。第二,货币正在转化成为纯粹的信息。货币支付已与数字通信集成在一起,如何看待货币的本质,如何理解中央银行的角色,都需要新的思考。     

Book-to-Market Components, Future Security Returns, and Errors in Expected Future Earnings

This study investigates whether the ability of book-to-market to predict returns derives from systematic errors in the market's expectation of future earnings. We extend Beaver and Ryan (1996, 2000) by decomposing book-to-market into a more persistent (bias) component and a delayed recognition (lag) component. We find that both components are related to analyst expectations of future earnings, but the lag component is the dominant factor across all forecast horizons. Similarly, we find that the lag component explains most of the inverse relation between book-to-market and future returns. Given that lag is constructed by regressing book-to-market ratios on lagged price changes, our results are consistent with the lag component capturing systematic stock price reversals. We find that the components have unique relations with subsequent earnings forecast revisions, and controlling for these relations substantially mitigates the components' ability to predict returns. Our component-level analysis provides insight into how expected future earnings, summarized in book-to-market ratios help to explain this market anomaly.     

Health insurance--a challenge in India

In India, indemnity health insurance started about 3 decades ago. Mediclaim was the most popular product. Indian insurers and multinational companies have not been enthusiastic about starting health insurance in spite of the availability of a good market because health insurers have historically incurred losses. Losses have been caused by poor administration. Because it is a small portion of their total businesses, insurers have never tried sincerely to improve deficiencies or taken special interest. Hospital management and medical specialists have the spirit of entrepreneurship and are prepared to learn quickly and follow managed care principles, though they are not currently practiced in India. Actuarial data from the health insurance industry is sparse, but data from alternative sources will be helpful for starting managed healthcare. In my opinion, if properly administered, a "limited" managed care product with appropriate precautions and premium levels will be successful and profitable and will compete with present indemnity products in India.     

Exchange market pressure in India

We empirically investigate episodes of currency market stress in India during the period January 1992–August 2014 with the help of a monthly EMP index for India constructed for this period. We analyse the distribution of the extreme values of the EMP index by using Extreme Value Theory (EVT) and utilize the knowledge of the extreme values of our EMP index to identify currency market stress in India during this period. We analyse these stress episodes in the context of the prevailing economic situation. We also present a decomposition of the contribution of different factors towards exchange market pressure.     

Interest rate pass-through in India

The success of the interest rate channel depends upon the size and speed with which retail interest rates respond to changes in policy or money market interest rates. This study estimates the dynamic elasticities of the pass-through of the official monetary policy rate to the money market and retail interest rates in India and examines whether the speed and magnitudes of the pass-through have changed following introduction of the Liquidity Adjustment Facility in 2000. The results show that the speed of adjustment is highest for call rates and lowest for 364-day Treasury Bill yield. The pass-through elasticities with respect to call rate show marginal improvement in the case of deposit and lending rates and worsening in the case of Treasury Bills.