Contingent Commissions,Insurance Intermediaries,and Insurer Performance

This research investigates the relationship shared by contingent commission usage and insurer performance. We assess performance using both frontier efficiency and financial performance measures. Our findings reveal that the relationship is complex and varies across differing insurer business models. We find that nonusers of contingent commissions are more cost and revenue efficient than are users of contingents. However, among insurers that use contingents, relatively higher levels of use are associated with more efficient operations and also better financial performance. Additionally, these findings are conditioned on the type of distribution system the insurer employs.     

The Value of Contingent Commissions in the Property–Casualty Insurance Industry: Evidence From Stock Market Returns

Insurance producer compensation has incorporated contingent commissions for decades. In 2004, the New York State Attorney General sued insurers and brokers, alleging compensation abuses and calling for elimination of some forms of contingent commissions. Daily stock price return data reveal negative announcement‐period portfolio returns for property–casualty carriers, suggesting expected negative cash flow effects. Firm‐level losses were related to intensity of contingent commission use, suggesting that the effects of such regulatory changes would be felt most by firms that relied on contingent commissions. Investors believed contingent commissions were valuable not only for producers but also for carriers.     

独立董事:代理问题之一部分

本文研究独立董事制度。经理人的性质在于其是以经营才能方面的人力资本优势加入企业合约而实质拥有企业剩余控制权的人力资本所有者。当董事和董事会实质拥有企业剩余控制权时, 独立董事和内部董事都是企业的经理人, 董事会就是企业的管理层, 董事 (董事会) 与股东之间存在着实质的代理关系和代理问题。因此, 作为经理人的独立董事, 其本身首先是代理问题的一部分, 只有在其与股东之间的代理问题得到较好解决之后, 独立董事才可能成为一种有效的公司治理机制。本文认为, 有关各方缺乏对独立董事的经理人性质和其本身首先是代理问题的一部分的共同认知, 而这正是导致企业董事会的独立性与企业业绩之间不存在显著关系或呈现显著负相关关系的根本原因之所在。     

Agency Conflicts and Risk Management

This paper analyzes the relation between agency conflicts andrisk management. In contrast to previous contributions, ouranalysis incorporates not only stockholder-debtholder conflictsbut also manager–stockholder conflicts. We show that thecosts of both underinvestment and overinvestment are essentialin determining the firm's hedging policy. In particular, firmsthat derive more of their value from assets in place (lowermarket-to-book ratios), although having lower costs of underinvestment,generally display larger costs of overinvestment. Thus, theymay be more likely to hedge to control these overinvestmentincentives. Our analysis explains why large profitable firmswith fewer growth opportunities tend to hedge more (Bartramet al., 2004). It also provides a number of new predictionsrelating the benefits associated with risk management to variousdimensions of the firm's economic environment.     

会计盈余管理与独立审计质量

本文从盈余管理的角度考察了中国注册会计师独立审计的质量,发现中国的注册会计师能够在一定程度上鉴别会计盈余管理的程度,这种鉴别的能力与盈余管理的手段有关。相对操控的经营性应计利润而言,注册会计师在对以操控非经营性应计利润为手段的盈余管理行为的审计中表现出了较高的审计质量。另一方面,审计质量还和盈余管理的方向有关,虽然注册会计师对以增加利润为目的的正向盈余管理行为更加敏感,但是与对负向盈余管理行为的审计比较,并没有体现出更高的审计质量。     

《资产评估收费管理暂行办法》修订意见问卷调查分析报告（摘编）

一、问卷调查的背景及说明(一)背景资产评估行业是随着我国经济体制改革而产生,并逐步发展壮大的专业化中介服务行业,是市场经济体制中不可或缺的重要组成部分,而且随着市场经济的不断发展,资产评估的重要性愈发突出。资产评估机构在为社会主义市场经济提供服务的同时,其自身发展也从政府官办、挂靠的事业单位,逐步过渡到独立经营、自负盈亏、自我积累、自我发展的企业法人实体。资产评估机构的收费直接关系到行业发展和壮大,尤其是1999年我国评估机构普遍完成脱钩改制之后,随着社会、经济的不断发展,评估服务的成本越来越高,而评估收费却依…     

Agency Costs, Risk Management, and Capital Structure

The joint determination of capital structure and investment risk is examined. Optimal capital structure reflects both the tax advantages of debt less default costs (Modigliani and Miller (1958, 1963)), and the agency costs resulting from asset substitution (Jensen and Meckling (1976)). Agency costs restrict leverage and debt maturity and increase yield spreads, but their importance is small for the range of environments considered. Risk management is also examined. Hedging permits greater leverage. Even when a firm cannot precommit to hedging, it will still do so. Surprisingly, hedging benefits often are greater when agency costs are low.     

会计师事务所变更、盈余管理与审计质量

上市公司变更会计师事务所的现象日益严重并受到广泛的关注.从会计师事务所变更与盈余管理、审计质量之间的关系看,盈余管理是事务所变更的主要动机,上市公司管理层的主导地位使盈余管理由动机成为现实,而由此引起的事务所变更将会降低审计质量.     

存款保险机构与四大资产管理公司的出路

我国在设计存款保险制度时,可优化整合已有资源,将四家金融资产管理公司重组合并后纳入存款保险体系,使之成为存款保险机构内设资产处置部门,专门负责问题银行市场退出的清理和清算工作。     

Procedure for the Implementation of the Precautionary Principle in Biosafety Commissions

In order to fulfil their responsibilities under the precautionary principle, biosafety commissions should lay down guidelines concerning the understanding and application of this principle and work towards an operational procedure. With this contribution, we propose a step‐wise procedure that aims to establish the understanding of the precautionary principle within biosafety commissions and to provide a methodological approach for the application of this principle to specific cases in the course of risk assessment. This approach is based on systematically investigating the consensus view within a group of 15 biosafety experts with the help of sets of checklists. For step 1, we propose a checklist of 13 criteria aimed at defining the understanding of the precautionary principle. For step 2, we propose 4 criteria for the decision on whether or not to use the precautionary principle. For step 3, 11 criteria for the use of the precautionary principle are presented. In step 4, additional criteria for specific applications could be included. In step 5, possible recommendations to decision‐making authorities are proposed.     

独立学院资产管理研究与实践

论述了独立学院资产问题研究的理论基础和现实基础,阐明了独立学院资产管理研究的必要性、可行性,揭示了当前独立学院资产管理现状以及普遍存在的问题,分析了独立学院资产管理中核心问题之一--无形资产和产权管理,并专门作了剖析,最后,探讨了独立学院资产管理的对策与建议,为独立学院乃至公立高校资产管理提供了又一种新思路.     

Earnings Management through Transaction Structuring: Contingent Convertible Debt and Diluted Earnings per Share

In this article we examine whether firms structure their convertible bond transactions to manage diluted earnings per share (EPS). We find that the likelihood of firms issuing contingent convertible bonds (COCOs), which are often excluded from diluted EPS calculations under Statement of Financial Accounting Standard (SFAS) 128, is significantly associated with the reduction that would occur in diluted EPS if the bonds were traditionally structured. We also document that firms' use of EPS‐based compensation contracts significantly affects the likelihood of COCO issuance and find weak evidence that reputation costs, measured using earnings restatement data, play a role in the structuring decision. These results are robust to controlling for alternative motivations for issuing COCOs, including tax and dilution arguments. In addition, an examination of announcement returns reveals that investors view the net benefits and costs of COCOs as offsetting one another. Our results contribute to the literature on earnings management, diluted EPS, financial reporting costs, and financial innovation.     

Contingent Capital vs. Contingent Reverse Convertibles for Banks and Insurance Companies

During the credit and liquidity crisis in 2007 and 2008, banks found themselves largely unable to raise significant new equity quickly from parties other than sovereign wealth funds and governments. Some banks have thus recently begun to consider contingent capital as a means of pre‐arranging recapitalizations for future crises. Contingent capital is a type of put option that entitles a company to issue new securities on pre‐negotiated terms, often following the occurrence of one or more risk‐based triggering events. This article compares the economic merits of a new security—a “contingent reverse convertible” or CRC—against more traditional forms of contingent capital. In November 2009, Lloyds Banking Group plc issued “Enhanced Capital Notes”—subordinated debt that converts into common stock if Lloyds's core regulatory capital falls below 5% of its regulatory risk‐weigh ted assets. This CRC is not strictly speaking a form of contingent capital, but it does give banks the potential to recapitalize themselves quickly in the face of a crisis without having to turn to governments and taxpayers. One important limitation of CRCs is that because they do not generate new cash for a bank at the time of conversion, they are unlikely to stop a liquidity crisis once it has begun. More traditional contingent capital facilities, by contrast, do put cash in the hands of the issuer at the time the facility is drawn. But even for those inclined to use CRCs, it may be unrealistic to expect many other institutions to imitate the structure of the Lloyds offering. Persuading existing investors to take a more subordinated position in a bank's capital structure and write a put option to the bank on its own stock will be neither cheap nor easy. For this reason, the more traditional solutions used to date may have more success with banks, though arriving at a price that helps issuers and satisfies investors will be a challenge for those structures as well.     

Ownership Structure, Agency Costs, Specialization, and Efficiency: Analysis of Keiretsu and Independent Insurers in the Japanese Nonlife Insurance Industry

This article uses the nonparametric frontier method to examine differences in efficiency for three unique organizational forms in the Japanese nonlife insurance industry—keiretsu firms, nonspecialized independent firms (NSIFs), and specialized independent firms (SIFs). It is not possible to reject the null hypothesis that efficiencies are equal, with one exception. Keiretsu firms seem to be more cost‐efficient than NSIFs. The results have important implications for the stakeholders of the NSIFs. An examination of the productivity changes across the different organizational forms reveals deteriorating efficiency for all three types of firms throughout the 1985–1994 sample period. Finally, the evidence also suggests that the value‐added approach and the financial intermediary approach provide different but complementary results.     

农村信用社一级法人社管理模式分析--以陕西省为例

在大量实地调查的基础上,按照我国农村信用社新一轮改革的目标,提出了陕西省农村信用社一级法人社组建成功以后的管理模式,即省联社管理模式、县一级法人社管理模式与信用社基层社管理模式,并论述了各级管理模式的关键环节与主要内容,这一设计思路可以为推进陕西农村信用社管理模式转变提供依据。     

Imperfect Agency and the Regulation of Hospitals

This article addresses the combined problem of imperfect agency and asymmetric information in the regulation of hospitals by modeling the physician as a utility maximizer with both the utility of patients and profit of the hospital as arguments in his or her utility function. The article concludes that optimal regulation of hospitals is based on three important factors: the doctor's marginal rate of substitution between profit of the hospital and utility of the patients, moral hazard in the relationship between the regulator and the hospital, and adverse selection in the same relation.     

公司治理与代理崇拜

代理理论——适用于公司治理中的争论——构建在所有权和控制权分离的神话之上。然而,真正的分离存在于所有权和所有权,即股东股份所有权和公司资产所有权之间。股东不是被代理人;董事和高管亦不是股东的代理人。股东确实选举董事,不过董事奉公司法为圭臬,根据公司法行事,而公司法极少要求最大化现有股东价值。相反,公司法允许甚至鼓励董事为公司的基业长青而行事,只要董事有合理理由认为其行为符合股东的长远利益。然而,代理理论对此现实置若罔闻。与此不同,正如早期文明通过参照现实世界中的现象与看不见的神之间的关系来解释前者,代理理论学者讲述的是股东们为保持安宁而有所牺牲（支付监督成本）,而管理层则做出承诺并以此行事（引发约束成本）,但股东们最终还是要处理不受诸神控制的一时冲动（剩余经理自主权）。然而,尽管研究成果丰硕纷呈,但表明这场战斗是真实的证据尚付阙如。管理者通常忠诚可靠,这可能是因为现行公司法的重点在于规制管理者不忠,并且商业领域的竞争远比大多数代理成本模型所设想的要激烈得多,其几乎没有留给管理者任何松懈余地。相反,有证据表明管理者受认知偏见的影响,最为重要的是,管理者显得乐观。管理者乐观主义和公司法的灵活性可以为最大化现有股东价值的大多数有争议理论的失败提供解释。如果学者直面现实,将代理崇拜抛之脑后,经济学与法学研究的学术水平都将得到提振。     

“大部制”改革背景下我国养老保险制度的再思考

组建人力资源和社会保障部具有极其重大的现实意义。现行养老保险制度有三个层次,但各层次发展很不平衡。“大部制”改革后,养老保险模式必然具有多层次、多元化和多样性特征。     

内蒙古旅行社发展和经营中的问题与对策

内蒙古旅行社数量增长超过全国平均增长速度.但无论是从宏观的制度层面还是微观的管理层面,内蒙古旅行社业的生存和发展都面临一系列问题.对内蒙古旅行社业的发展和经营的现状进行评析,从政府宏观调控、人力资源开发、产品和服务的创新以及企业信息化建设等几个方面提出内蒙古旅行社业发展的思路.