Financing obstacles and growth: an analysis for euro area non-financial firms

This paper investigates the determinants of financing obstacles (FOs) and their impact on firm growth. For this purpose, we rely on both balance sheet data and survey data for a sample of non-financial firms in the euro area. The latter allows us to devise a direct measure of the firms’ probability of facing FOs. First, our results indicate that FOs are linked to characteristics such as the age of the firm, its size, its sales level or the sector in which it operates. Second, we find that, though based on few variables, our measure of FOs appears to be relevant in explaining firm growth in four out of the five countries considered; likewise, growth is found to be positively linked to cash flow.     

Government auditing in China: Problems and reform

This paper evaluates the current government auditing system in China and the proposal to move it from the control of the executive body (the State Council) to the control of the legislature (the National People's Congress). Interviews with government auditors, government and people's congress officials, and leading academics identify the problems caused by lack of audit independence. Although audit independence can be increased by moving the control of government auditing to the legislature, many of our interviewees considered such a move as infeasible in the current political climate. To smooth the reform toward a legislature-led audit system, we propose a “Dual-Track System” in which the different audit responsibilities currently undertaken by the government auditing system are separated. The responsibility for auditing the use and control of fiscal budgets by the central and regional governments would be under the control of the legislature as this area of government auditing has a clear need for audit independence. Other audit functions including economic responsibility auditing, special purpose funds auditing, financial service auditing and state-owned enterprise auditing would remain under the control of the government. This dual track approach would, we argue, be a politically acceptable compromise as it would strengthen audit independence where it is most needed but also enable the government to maintain strong economic control.     

充分利用信息革命有助于中国长期驾驭经济浪潮

世界银行新报告<中国的信息革命:推动经济和社会转型>指出,信息通信技术(ICT)对于应对中国面临的史无前例的经济增长所带来的挑战十分重要.该报告首次全面描述了中国当前信息通信技术的大格局,对于中国的信息化全面融入其经济和社会的准备度做出了一个前瞻的评估.     

超过80％的成员体认购了亚行的普遍增资

亚洲开发银行（亚行）67个成员体中,超过80％已经认购了亚行的第五次普遍增资,其它成员体也很可能在新近延长的认购期限前加入进来。     

Split-share reform and earnings management: Evidence from China

This paper investigates the impact of split-share structure reform on earnings management in China. A unique institutional feature of China was the co-existence of two types of share that endowed all shareholders with equal voting and cash flow rights but different tradability. This split-share structure significantly constrained the tradability of shares that led the Chinese Securities Regulatory Commission to make it mandatory for the conversion of non-tradable shares into tradable shares from 2006 onwards. We investigate whether such a conversion has any effect on information quality through reduced earnings manipulation. We specifically examine the incentives for earnings management during the reform-transition period. A unique feature of the split-share reform has been the requirement for non-tradable share holders to compensate the tradable share holders. We argue that the rational response from the non-tradable share holders would be to pay a lower consideration to tradable share holders by portraying a favorable picture through income-increasing earnings management. We also test for the effect of an increase in tradable shares on earnings management during the reform-transition and post-reform period.     

中国需要知识驱动型增长以避免陷入中等收入陷阱

亚洲开发银行（简称：亚行）的一份新报告指出,中国是世界上经济增长最成功的国家之一,但是该国仍需要更加清晰的知识驱动发展战略,以帮助该国迈入高收入国家行列。 “中国是一个很好的案例,一个曾经极度贫困的经济体,通过利用外国投资与技术成为制造业霸主,继而成为了具有全球竞争力的国家,通过采取适当政策,该国可以转型成为一个知识驱动型经济体,”亚洲开发银行主管知识管理和可持续发展的副行长宾度＆#183;罗哈尼表示。     

On the obstacles to international policy coordination

Notwithstanding a handful of exceptions, examples of international macro policy coordination have been few. Why is this so? We argue that the most compelling reasons are asymmetries in country size; disagreement about the economic situation and cross-border transmission effects of policies; and often policymakers' failure to recognize that they face important trade-offs across various objectives. Coordination works by allowing countries to improve the policy trade-offs they face under autarky. Like most efficiency arguments, welfare gains will not be huge (they are, in fact, very similar to estimated gains from global trade liberalization) but certainly measurable and worth pursuing. Given that uncertainty and disagreements are genuine impediments to coordination, we suggest that a neutral assessor may play a useful role in helping to bridge the divergent views of national policymakers, and that some multilateral rules of the road are likely to be needed to limit negative spillovers when coordination proves impossible to achieve.     

中国需要加快结构改革以支持经济增长

亚洲开发银行(简称:亚行)新发布的一份报告称,中国需要加快结构改革,促进生产率提高,并保持经济增长势头. 在其发布的《2017年亚洲发展展望》中,亚行预测中国国内生产总值(GDP)增长率将从2016年的6.7％放缓至2017年的6.5％,2018年则为6.2％.《亚洲发展展望》是亚行年度旗舰经济报告.     

世界银行建言中国改革和加强水资源管理框架

世界银行在北京发布新报告《解决中国的水稀缺：关于水资源管理若干问题的建议》，建议中国改革和加强水资源管理的机构设置、法律法规、信息和公众参与，重点放在明晰政府、市场、社会三者各自的作用及其相互关系；提高水资源管理部门的效率，充分利用市场手段，如水权、水价和生态补偿机制；强化水污染控制措施的执行以及对污染突发事件的准备。     

Business Tax reform and CSR engagement: Evidence from China

This study investigates the impacts of tax incentives on firms' CSR engagement. Using the staggered Business Tax reform in China as exogenous shocks, our difference-in-differences estimation shows that tax incentives facilitate firms' CSR disclosure, and a plausible mechanism is the released financial burden. The result remains valid under a battery of robustness checks and is more pronounced for state-owned firms, firms with tighter political connections, firms with transparent information and firms locate in areas with higher degree of social trust. The study provides clear policy implications by elaborating on the favorable impacts of tax incentives on firms' CSR performance.     

Reunifying Britain's railways: obstacles and opportunities

During the European drive for rail liberalization in the 1990s Britain moved far beyond its continental neighbours. Amid signs of a resurgent political debate about Britain's privatized railways, the authors examine the obstacles confronting any policy-makers who may wish to re-integrate Britain's railway under public ownership. The paper considers what structural models could satisfy European rail directives, the potential for a government to reclaim rail passenger service franchises at minimal cost, and cost savings available to a de-fragmented railway without profit leakage.     

中国金融改革滞后探因

金融改革牵涉诸多方面的内容．必须创新改革思路,否则或难改变先前改革迟缓的问题,对此,结合中国当前经济发展诉求．加快金融改革必须实现四大转变     

The stock market reaction to the 2005 split share structure reform in China

During 2005–2006, the Chinese government implemented the split share structure reform, aimed at eliminating non-tradable shares (NTS), i.e. the shares typically held by the State or by politically connected institutional investors that were issued at the early stage of financial market development. Our analysis, based on the time series of risk factors and on the cross-section of abnormal returns, confirms that the split share structure reform was particularly beneficial for small stocks, stocks characterized by historically poor returns, stocks issued by companies with low transparency and weak governance, and for less liquid stocks. Historically neglected stocks also witnessed an increase in the volume of trading and market prices. We conclude that the reform laid down the conditions for important future changes in ownership, liquidity and corporate governance in China.     

我国消费金融公司发展的制约因素与对策研究

为应对全球金融危机造成的消费不足,2009年8月13日,我国银行业监督管理委员会正式实施<消费金融公司试点管理办法>.在2010年初,全国首批获准试点的四家消费金融公司:北银、中银、捷信和四川锦程,分别在北京市、上海市、天津市和成都市正式成立.本文就消费金融公司的特点及在我国发展的障碍进行了阐述,在此基础上提出了相应的...