The association between the length of the QT interval and mortality in the Cardiovascular Health Study: a mortality analysis

Prolonged QT interval was found to be associated with increased cardiac and all-cause mortality in a subgroup of the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS). A mortality analysis is presented of this study, underscoring the need to use the appropriate expected group.     

Questionnaire based mortality assessment: an exploratory analysis of NHANES III

The need for speed and efficiency in life insurance underwriting has never been greater. With increasing acquisition costs, the need for timeliness to complete the sales process, and the need for accurate mortality prediction a great deal of resources have been devoted to the development of non-traditional underwriting processes and criteria in hopes of streamlining the process. In this paper, we describe an exploratory analysis of mortality linked data from the US NHANES III study. Our goal for this analysis was to identify mortality predictors that would be good candidates for further investigation in insurance applicants, especially in the context of simplified issue products which focus on younger age applicants. We identified aerobic exercise, dental health, alcohol beverage type and quantity, and dietary components and patterns as factors that may hold promise as mortality predictors in persons age 17-65. Though the limitations of this analysis preclude the immediate use of these factors as underwriting criteria, it does appear that several of these hold promise, and should be tested in an insurance application context. Focus groups, market testing, or even insertion as non-actionable questions in a subset of applications may be ways to collect further data on them.     

On the effects of sterilized intervention: An analysis of weekly data

As the recent empirical studies surveyed here illustrate, it is very difficult to demonstrate that the exchange rate risk premium depends (through a portfolio balance channel) on the currency composition of outside assets. The existence of a ‘portfolio balance effect” is a necessary condition for sterilized intervention to be a genuinely independent tool of monetary policy. This paper studies U.S./Canadian data, and attempts to improve on earlier studies by using higher frequency (weekly) data and by implementing an appropriate instrumental variables technique (2S2SLS). However, we still fail to detect evidence of a portfolio balance effect.     

数据仓库实践与技术系列专题(三)数据仓库模型构建技术

一、数据仓库模型构建的原则 模型是对现实事物的反映和抽象,它可以帮助人们更加清晰地了解客观世界.数据仓库的模型构建开始于业务需求分析之后,是数据仓库构造工作正式开始的第一步.正确完备的数据模型是用户业务需求的体现,是数据仓库项目成功与否最重要的技术因素.     

数据仓库实践与技术系列专题(四)利用数据仓库技术实现现代金融企业管理

在中国加入世界贸易组织之后，金融市场逐步对外开放，金融体制逐步与国际接轨。国内金融企业面临着越来越大的竞争压力，制定正确有效的运营策略是在激烈的竞争中制胜的关键，在风云变幻的金融市场，正确地运营策略依赖于金融企业把握信息的能力。金融企业的产业特点是，资本密集、经营风险多样、信息化程度高、服务品质要求高、与政策关联紧密等，这使得金融企业在运营中对信息的依赖程度很高。在当前变动的市场环境中，传统的信息技术所提供的手段已无法满足金融企业各阶层领导的需求，金融业数据仓库系统正是在这样的背景下获得了长足的…     

数据仓库实践与技术系列专题(五)数据仓库项目中平台、工具和产品的选择

一、引言 庞大的市场需求吸引了大量的IT厂商.当前,金融企业进行数据仓库系统建设时,经常需要在多种不同的平台和工具中进行选择.与其他IT系统不同,由于数据仓库系统直接服务于最终用户,与用户的需求紧密结合,因此只有用户和IT人员共同参与,才能确保正确的选择.而错误的选择经常会造成数据仓库项目的完全或部分失败,主要表现为以下几种情况:     

数据仓库实践与技术系列专题(二)数据仓库规划与项目管理

有机构在调查之后宣布"一半以上的数据仓库项目以失败告终",虽然对这个论断的准确性存在颇多争议,但数据仓库项目失败率高已经是众所周知的事实,据此国内企业对数据仓库投资的谨慎态度也在情理之中.     

数据仓库实践与技术系列专题(一)数据仓库项目投资回报评估的方法

在数据仓库概念进入中国的六年时间里,企业对数据仓库走过了一条从拒绝、怀疑到接受的道路.但即使是数据仓库概念被普遍了解的今天,企业在投资数据仓库时也还要思之再三.在谈到数据仓库时,经常听到这样的声音:     

Financial factors in foreign direct investments: A dynamic analysis of international data

In contrast to existing empirical foreign direct investment (FDI) studies that examine the static effects of strategic or real economic variables, this paper focuses on the impacts of financial variables on FDI outflows for four largest industrial countries using dynamic time series methods. The results show that FDI outflows are non-stationary but have a long-run cointegrating relationship with real exchange rates. In addition, there are causal effects of exchange rates on direct investments in the short run. Multivariate cointegration analysis shows the significance of financial channels such as cost of capital and real wealth through which the real exchange rate effects operate. The effects of financial channels are comparable to those of the real wage rate channel. Overall, the present paper provides significant and methodologically consistent international evidence for dynamic interactions between FDIs and financial variables.     

Trading volume: definitions, data analysis, and implications of portfolio theory

We examine the implications of portfolio theory for the cross-sectionalbehavior of equity trading volume. Two-fund separation theoremssuggest a natural definition for trading activity: share turnover.If two-fund separation holds, share turnover must be identicalfor all securities. If (K + 1)-fund separation holds, we showthat turnover satisfies an approximately linear K-factor structure.These implications are examined empirically using individualweekly turnover data for NYSE and AMEX securities from 1962to 1996. We find strong evidence against two-fund separation,and a principal-components decomposition suggests that turnoveris well approximated by a two-factor linear model.     

工行数据中心(上海)ECC大屏的物理建设

一、大屏的系统网络结构 中国工商银行数据中心(上海)ECC(Enterprise Control Center,企业控制中心)的大屏幕由8×3单块屏幕拼接缝合而成,整体大屏幕墙净尺寸达到10944mm(宽)×3078mm(高),分辨率达到8192×2304,其单屏性能指标如表1所示.     

Dividend policy of German firms: A panel data analysis of partial adjustment models

German firms pay out a lower proportion of their cash flows, but a higher proportion of their published profits than UK and US firms. We estimate partial adjustment models and report two major findings. First, German firms base their dividend decisions on cash flows rather than published earnings as (i) published earnings do not correctly reflect performance because German firms retain parts of their earnings to build up legal reserves, (ii) German accounting is conservative, (iii) published earnings are subject to more smoothing than cash flows. Second, to the opposite of UK and US firms, German firms have more flexible dividend policies as they are willing to cut the dividend when profitability is only temporarily down.     

Compensation discussion and analysis (CD&A): Readability and management obfuscation

This paper examines the relationship between the readability of the CD&A section in proxy statements and management motives to obfuscate executive compensation disclosures. Using the CD&As in the 2007 and 2008 proxy statements, we examine whether the CD&A readability is associated with the proportion of CEO pay not related to the economic determinants of compensation. We note that the average CD&A is difficult to read. We find that firms with CEO pay exceeding the benchmark pay have a more difficult to read CD&A in the 2007 proxy season. The result suggests that, in its first CD&A report, top management tends to cloak its compensation practices when the practices are not tied to the economic determinants of pay. However, we also find those firms with CEO pay exceeding the benchmark pay improve the readability of their CD&As in the 2008 proxy season, suggesting that executive compensation disclosure improves under regulatory oversight and public pressure.     

The determinants of contract length: An empirical analysis based on Canadian micro data

Recent theoretical work on the determinants of wage-contract length focuses on inflation uncertainty as an explanatory variable additional to the more traditional variable of transactions costs. This paper analyses the empirical determinants of contract duration using a large sample of contract data and confirms the conclusions reached in the theoretical literature.     

Interdependence and dynamics in currency futures markets: A multivariate analysis of intraday data

This paper investigates long-term interdependencies and short-term dynamics in currency futures utilizing intraday data for six major foreign currencies: the British Pound, Deutsche Mark, Swiss Franc, Australian Dollar, Canadian Dollar, and Japanese Yen. Lack of cointegration (CI) among the foreign exchange futures is found to be the prevailing mode of behavior, but some temporary deviations from the no-CI condition are detected. There is a notable overlap between detected CI relationships and the timing of policy changes, world events, and regime shifts, indicating that the observed CIs are event-driven. The robustness of the CI results is checked with respect to variations in the model, lag structure, data period, sample horizon, and currency basket grouping. Impulse–response functions (IRFs) reveal that currency markets are in general efficient and absorb new information within the day. The interdependence among currencies is found to be asymmetric.     

消费者人格对商业保险参与的影响研究——来自中国家庭追踪调查(CFPS)数据的实证分析

根据已有文献对"大五"人格分类,并采用2014年中国家庭追踪调查(CFPS)数据,通过实证分析探究了消费者人格特征对商业保险购买行为的影响。研究结果表明,人格特征的"大五"维度下,仅有外向性对商业保险的购买行为有显著且积极的影响。消费者的人际关系越好,正向情绪的程度越强,更加乐于成为其他人的伙伴,进而其家庭商业保险参与的可能性越高,且支出份额与支出比重都相对更大。该研究为相关部门在制定关于商业保险政策时,需要充分关注外向性人格特征的作用。