Empirical Analysis on Influencing Factors of Capital Structure ——The Case of China Real Estate Listed Companies

We choose 16 main financial indices reflecting the profitability, liquidity, velocity, growth, size, volatibility, collateral value of assets, and ＂tax shield effect＂ from the Annual Report （2000-2002） of 35 real estate listed companies in China. Then we extract six factors （as independent variables） from the index mentioned above Multi-regression was made between Asset-Liability Ratio and Ratio of Borrowed Capital to Assets （dependent variable） and six independent variables. It indicates that the velocity is significantly negatively related to the capital structure and the ＂tax shield effect＂ is positively related to the capital structure in some degree. The profitability, liquidity, growth, size, volatibility are almost not related to the capital structure.     

Who Influences the Asian–Pacific Real Estate Markets: The US,Japan or China?

As rapid economic growth in China has led to significant appreciation of urban real estate market values, this study examines China's influence on Asian–Pacific real estate markets by focusing on their respective market integration with the US, Japan and China during the period January 2005 to December 2017. Market integration is examined by unconditional and time‐varying conditional correlations, nonlinear Granger causality and dynamic connectedness effects. Overall, although the US and Japanese real estate markets have significantly influenced return and volatility in the regional markets, China has emerged as another major regional real estate volatility leader with rising influence over volatility integration, especially during the 2007–2011 crisis period. Financial crises have strengthened China's volatility connectedness effects and market integration with other Asian–Pacific real estate markets. Our results imply that the benefits of regional portfolio diversification may be declining as volatility integration across the Chinese and Asian–Pacific real estate markets becomes stronger. Therefore, diversified global investors should pay greater attention to these real estate markets.     

The Scholarly Status of Blacks in the Economics Profession: Have the National Economic Association and the Review of Black Political Economy Mattered?

This paper considers whether the National Economic Association and its journal the Review of Black Political Economy have enhanced the scholarly status of black economists. A bibliometric analysis reveals that while the typical black economist has never published in the Review of Black Political Economy, the share of black economists publishing in the Review of Black Economy approximates the share of all articles published on the economic and political economy of race by black economists, and the share of articles published in the Review of Black Political Economy by black economists appears higher than typical journals in economics—particularly for black economists employed at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. We also find that similar to other economics journals non-black economists dominate the share of published articles, and publications in the Review of Black Political Economy appear to be consistent with Lotka’s Law of scientific productivity suggesting that the journal is a standard outlet for research no different from any other science journal. Our results imply a plausible counterfactual that if the National Economic Association and Review of Black Political Economy did not exist, the scholarly status of blacks in the economics profession would have been lower than currently observed.     

Economic policy uncertainty and firm’s cash holding in China: The key role of asset reversibility

This paper investigates how asset reversibility affects the sensitivity of firm’s cash holding to economic policy uncertainty in China. Using the 2012 national input-output table for 139 industries, we measure the industry-level asset reversibility and match them with nonfinancial publicly listed firms over 2007−2017. The results show that asset reversibility has a significant and negative effect on the positive uncertainty-cash holding sensitivity, especially for firms with more severe financial constraints. Furthermore, we find that firms with higher asset reversibility invest more in fixed assets, suggesting that real investment is an important mechanism. In addition, baseline results are robust to potential endogeneity and alternative measures of asset reversibility and economic policy uncertainty. Our findings reveal that asset market friction is a critical determinant of firm’s cash holding.     

You’re Fired!: The Impact of Race on the Firing of Black Head Coaches in Major College Football

It is well known that the hiring rate of black head coaches in major college football is not representative of the number of student-athletes that are black. However, less obvious is the fact that black head coaches may be treated unfairly when decision-makers decide whether to retain or fire their institution’s current head coach. In this paper, I use a rich dataset of National Collegiate Athletic Associate football coaches from 1990 to 2012, containing measures of coaching performance and school expectations, as well as information on each coach’s race and whether he was fired or retained in each season. Using this data, I estimate a discrete-time hazard model of the probability that a head coach is fired, allowing the hazard rate of black head coaches and white head coaches to differ, and find that black head coaches are 5.28 percentage points more likely to be fired than their white counterparts. Additionally, I find that black head coaches are more likely to be fired in the initial 3 years of tenure, and again in their seventh and eighth years, but that the difference in the probability of release between black and white head coaches in the fourth through sixth years of tenure is small and statistically insignificant.     

The EMU’s Twisted Foundations: How to Use and Misuse Economic Theory

The creation of common European currency is the most ambitious institutional project of the European Union for decades. The idea of launching this kind of currency has merits. However, the implementation of this idea has already led to very negative consequences, as political considerations had priority over economic ones. The article shows how theoretical approaches to common currencies have been evolving since 1960s and why misuse of economic theory provokes inevitable collapse of the European monetary union.     

An Analysis of Perceptions of Job Insecurity among White and Black Workers in the United States: 1977–2012

While objective measures indicate that the risk of job loss is higher for black workers than for white workers, there is little research on how what workers’ expectations of job loss differ by race. This study looks at how secure black and white workers are feeling about their jobs and how their perceptions of job insecurity have been affected by time trends and regional unemployment rates. I find that perceptions of job security of black male workers, older black workers, and black high school graduates have deteriorated relative to their white counterparts during the period 1977–2012. Among those who attended college, white workers’ perceived job insecurity has increased. Black blue-collar workers’ and construction workers’ perceptions of job insecurity also have increased relative to their white counterparts. Moreover, perceptions of job insecurity among several black groups, such as high school dropouts and old workers, are more sensitive to regional unemployment rates than their white counterparts.     

Botshabelo: The face of ‘orderly urbanisation’?∗

Botshabelo (also known as Onverwacht) is the largest relocation area in South Africa, but very little is known about it. Towards the middle of 1986 a multi‐purpose survey was conducted in this area, covering, among others, topics such as cooperative development, the informal sector, the roles of religion and of women in development. social services and the general experience of urbanisation.

The main research findings centre on the politico‐ideological factors responsible for the establishment of Botshabelo, the consequences of the uncontrolled and uncontrollable urbanisation process, the absence of broad political and social solidarity and the specific forms of dependency facing Botshabelo. The majority of the population of Botshabelo find it difficult to cope with the demands of urban life. Various characteristics of a culture of poverty are present and there is a lack of integrated participation by a wide spectrum of participants in the area as a whole. The way in which Botshabelo came into being is by no means conducive to the formation of a sense of belonging.

Direct efforts have to be launched in order to break the stalemated position of Botshabelo's political, economic and social dependency. In this regard the need for opinion leaders, active involvement by women, the informal sector and cooperative development as well as the necessity for a high degree of participation are listed.     

The Functions of Australian Banks’ Branch Networks: The Diversification of Risks and Spatial Allocation of Capital

This paper examines the consequences of branch banking for the Australian economy. There is little evidence to show that branching increased the stability of Australian banking. During the 1893 crisis, banks with more extensive branch networks, particularly those that had rapidly expanded their networks during the long boom of 1866-89, were more likely to suspend payments. However, it is shown that branching increased the availability of capital and provision of banking services in rural areas. This occurred because, unlike unit banks, which were tied to a specific location, branch banks could internally reallocate capital from urban to rural regions at low cost.     

The Economy of Territories Reformed into Statehood: The Donetsk People’s Republic

Recent sociopolitical processes are showing a trend towards the formation of an increasing number of new states with truncated political status. The Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) is an example of this kind of territory. The presented material allows us to evaluate the economic situation, compounded by military operations, in order to see the current problems faced by the DPR and outline ways to resolve them.     

The Collapse of the ‘New EMS’: An Interpretation

Existing theoretical models cannot explain the following features of the EMS and its crisis in 1992: its progressive hardening from 1987 onwards; the fact that credibility was shared the progressive deterioration of credibility after the first Danish referendum without changes in the economic fundamentals. This paper argues that the reason lies in the fact that the literature has not accounted for the changes in the perceived prospects of EMU. We show that an adjustable peg regime that incorporates these prospects can explain the three features listed above.     

Anchors Away: The Cost and Benefits of Brazil’s Devaluation

This paper analyzes the impact of Brazil’s devaluation in 1999. This event represents an abandonment of the exchange rate anchor which had been used as a stabilization plan since the introduction of the Real Plan in 1994. The reasons behind the abandonment of the exchange rate anchor are determined as well as the explanation for its benign impact.     

Basel regulations and banks’ efficiency: The case of the Philippines

Using stochastic frontier analysis, this paper has examined the impact of Basel II on the cost efficiency of Philippine commercial banks from 2001 to 2011. The overall mean cost efficiency estimate is 0.75, indicating substantial inefficiencies in the banks averaging to 25% of total costs. Findings show that higher capital requirement tends to improve the cost efficiency but more powerful supervisors can adversely affect the efficiency of the banks. The other potential correlates that may help explain the efficiency of the banks are risk and asset quality and bank-specific variables. From a policy perspective, this study is informative to policymakers on the general direction in which to proceed with reforms (i.e., maintain higher capital requirements, curtail powerful supervisors, and enhance private monitoring) and in identifying factors that could contribute to banks’ efficiency especially in light of the newly implemented Basel III in the country. In effect, this paper also assesses the readiness of the banks toward the implementation of Basel III.     

China’s expansion of higher education: The labour market consequences of a supply shock

In the decade 1998–2008 China expanded enrolment in higher education almost six-fold. For the examination of its short term labour market consequences, this unprecedentedly huge and sudden policy change might be regarded as a natural experiment. After providing a theoretical framework for analysis, the paper uses urban labour market surveys to analyse how the labour market adjusted to the supply shock. Three outcomes are examined: the effect of the expansion on wages, on unemployment, and on access to ‘good jobs’. The shock is found to reduce relative wages, raise the unemployment rate, and reduce the proportion in good jobs, but only for the entry-year or entry-period cohort of graduates. The effect is fairly powerful for entrants, especially university rather than college graduates, but incumbent graduates are largely protected from the supply shock. An attempt is made to examine the labour market effects of the quantitative expansion on educational quality. The paper provides insight into the operation of China's labour market in recent years.     

The quality of host government and China’s OFDI: Construction of micro-evaluation model of government quality

Government is not only an important participant in the process of national governance, but also a firm executor and supervisor of national policies. In the process of China’s active promotion of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI), the risks caused by the poor quality of the host government have not been paid enough attention to. This paper builds a micro-evaluation model of government quality from four aspects based on the quality of government expert survey. The results show that although the scores of developed countries are generally higher than those of developing countries, the growth of China’s OFDI in developing countries is higher than in developed countries. In particular, the growth of investment to the member states of The Belt and Road Initiative is more significant. How to realize mutually beneficial achievements between China's overseas investment and host countries with low government quality is an important issue for China.     

The road to liberalization: Policy design and implementation of Taiwan’s privatization

Among newly industrializing economies, Taiwan represents an archetypical example of a country in the process of economic catching up with institutional environments standing somewhere between Western and transition countries. Thus, Taiwan’s privatization experience may provide a means to assess the generalizability of conclusions drawn from prior research conducted in both kinds of countries. In the face of changing economic and political environments, Taiwan revamped its blueprint for privatization in 1989 as a major plank of its economic shift toward liberalization. Although it has proceeded on a trial-and-error basis, the policy has thus far yielded substantial though mixed results. This study systematically reviews Taiwan’s policy design and implementation of privatization, which originally was modeled on but later diverged from the Western experience as a result of the immature institutional settings and political compromises in various regards. Taiwan’s privatization, in a relative small scale to those in transition economies, is characterized by a set of stylized policy initiatives that provide a reference point for other developing countries.