Second language skills and labor market outcomes: Evidence from the handover of Hong Kong

This paper analyzes the effects of second languages skills on labor market outcomes in Hong Kong. Using data from the Hong Kong Population Censuses, we find that both Mandarin and English language skills are linked to improved labor market performance, and the premiums for English are much larger than those for Mandarin. We further show that the sovereignty transfer of Hong Kong from the UK to China in 1997 has strengthened the positive role of Mandarin and English language skills in finding a job in Hong Kong. The political change has also increased the earnings of people with the ability to speak Mandarin. As a comparison, the earnings premium for speaking English has declined in magnitude after the sovereignty transfer. Investigating into the mechanisms, we show that the rising premiums for Mandarin language skills are operated through choices of occupations and industry sectors. Our findings suggest that important political changes can affect the economic returns to language skills in the labor market.     

我国球场暴力的现状及其成因研究

研究发现,我国球场安检与管理存在很多问题,球迷乱扔杂物现象严重,足球从业人员暴力行为不断增多.中国球场暴力出现的主要原因是裁判的执法水平和职业道德水平不高,球迷观众的心理倾向性受挫,球员自身的文化素养较低,赛场存在管理等方面的问题.应通过建立严密科学的球场管理体系,提高打击力度、球员的文化素养、思想道德素质和裁判的执法水平、职业道德水平等有效措施来减少或消除球场暴力.     

The Midweek Match: Premiership Football and the Urban Economy

The financial aspect of Premiership football is currently attracting huge attention. Hardly a week goes by without some new story breaking about the game, whether it is a record transfer, a wage or television deal, or the building of a new stadium. Yet there has been little, if any, investigation into just how the newfound wealth from Premiership football impacts on the locality. In this article, the authors present an initial indication of how the two Premiership clubs situated in Merseyside are linked into the local economy. It is based on a survey of club suppliers and local businesses located around the two grounds of Everton and Liverpool Football Clubs. It shows Premiership football to be more than a dependent consumer service activity in the local economy with a potential for exploitation in terms of supplier networks, tourism and image boosting. The authors argue that this is a subject area that requires further research and understanding, and more serious attention as a feature of local economic policy.     

论我国电影收益风险的可保性

电影行业具有高风险高收益的特征，这种行业特征需要保险进行风险转嫁，但无论是我国还是国外目前都没有相关的保险产品。针对电影行业的这种行业特征，可以借鉴目前国内外保险市场上已经存在的经营保险和创业保险的保险险种，对电影的收益进行保险。当收益没有达到盈亏点的时候由保险公司赔偿保险金以为电影公司挽回一部分损失。     

Firm-specific human capital in different market conditions: Evidence from the Japanese football league

This paper examined how and the extent to which obtaining skills to meet team specific human capital is important to improve football player’s performance by comparing the top league and the second league. Based on panel data of individual players during the 2012–2016 seasons of the Japan Professional Football League (J League), we found; (1) In the top-league, changing team reduced player’s performance and their performance improved as player’s tenure of the team and also tenure of J League increased. (2) returns from acquiring team specific skills on time of play in the game increase and then decrease as years have passed. (3) benefit from moving team depends on the timing of moving, and so rookie players can benefit from moving when team tenure reach 4 years or more. (4) In the second league, neither team tenure nor experience of the professional football player does not influence player’s performance.     

What Are SEC Football Tickets Worth? Evidence from Secondary Market Transactions

Tickets to sporting events are highly differentiated—seat location, date and time of the game, and home‐team and opponent qualities make each ticket unique. Preferences also differ nontrivially across fans, all of which make the supplier's pricing problem complex. We examine strategies employed by Southeastern Conference (SEC) universities in pricing their football tickets and evaluate their effectiveness in extracting surplus from fans. We use hedonic analysis of data collected from online secondary market transactions to construct a synthetic season ticket, which we compare to prices actually charged by university athletic departments. We also compare quality premiums charged by universities for better seats with market evaluations of those quality differences.     

Measuring the Foreign Exchange Premium and the Premium for Non‐Tradable Outlays for 20 Countries in Africa

In this paper, we develop an analytical general equilibrium framework to measure the foreign exchange premium and the premium for non‐tradable outlays for a country. The framework allows us to capture in a consistent manner the impacts of the sourcing of funds and their expenditure on tradable and non‐tradable goods and services of investment projects. An application of the model is carried out for 20 countries in Africa. The results show that the foreign exchange premiums range from 2.4% to 9.0% and the premium for non‐tradable outlays from ?0.7% to 2.9%. The empirical values depend on a number of factors, including the indirect taxes, production subsidies and international trade distortions of a country. These premiums should be incorporated into the economic evaluation of investment projects.     

How Does Transfer Pricing Risk Affect Premiums in Cross‐Border Mergers and Acquisitions?

This study investigates how transfer pricing risk affects the premiums in cross‐border mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Differences in the rigor of transfer pricing enforcement and the severity and clarity of rules across countries create differential risk of material costs for multinationals as they expand globally. We use 448 country‐level transfer pricing risk assessments by global transfer pricing partners and managers from two firms in 33 countries to develop a metric of country‐year transfer pricing risks. The resulting measure of transfer pricing risk is used to analyze the premiums of 3,103 cross‐border M&A from 2000 to 2012. We find that lower bid premiums are associated with higher transfer pricing risk in the target's country. We find the relation is stronger when expected future transfer pricing benefits are larger. Our results, consistent with the views of experts in the field, provide the first archival evidence that acquirers consider synergies created by future tax planning when estimating the value of a target.     

The Impact of Fantasy Football Participation on NFL Attendance

The fantasy sports industry, primarily led by fantasy football, has reportedly grown to 18 million unique players generating over $2 billion dollars annually according to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association. Anecdotal evidence suggests that this impressive growth is also generating increased interest for the sports on which the games are based. We use survey data from the ESPN Sports Poll to determine whether fantasy football participation increases NFL game attendance. The results suggest that fantasy football participants are not only more likely to attend at least one game per year, but also that they attend between 0.22 and 0.57 more games per season.     

The Impact of Early Commitment on Games Played: Evidence from College Football Recruiting

We use data on athletic scholarship acceptance decisions to show that high school football players signal their ability level by delaying commitment. Although colleges can obtain information about student athletes, National Collegiate Athletic Association regulations limit information flow, making private information an important component of the scholarship market. Using ordinary least squares, censored regression, and negative binomial estimation, we show that for a given observed ability level, committing to a scholarship offer early is associated with less playing time after acceptance. In one season and at a typical average early signing date, early‐committing athletes played in 0.21 fewer games per season, or about 4% of the average number of games played.     

沈晗耀：近年不能推出“国际板”

近期,关于“国际板”上市的信息、传闻充斥各类媒体,并一度引发了股价波动。     

Successful workers or exploited labour? Golf professionals and professional golfers in Britain 1888–19141

Golf was one of the fastest growing recreational sports in Britain before 1914. It created a market for professional golfers as shopkeepers, teachers, green‐keepers, and craftsmen. A database of 3,000 players was used to examine their social and economic experience at club and competitive level, and this experience was then compared to that of professionals in horseracing, cricket, and football. Golfers were the first sportsmen to permanently organize themselves with the establishment of the PGA in 1901, which provided welfare services and promoted tournaments, thus actively and uniquely assisting the development of the industry within which its members worked.     

Targets' Tax Shelter Participation and Takeover Premiums

This paper examines the effect of targets' participation in tax shelters on takeover premiums in mergers and acquisitions. Using a novel data set in which targets disclose that they have not participated in tax shelters, we find that targets that make this statement in their merger filings are associated with 4.6 percent higher takeover premiums, on average. These findings suggest that acquirers are concerned about the potential future liabilities when targets have engaged in tax sheltering. Consistent with this interpretation, the results also indicate that the positive association between targets' nonsheltering disclosure and acquisition premiums is stronger for less tax‐aggressive acquirers. This paper demonstrates the importance of targets' aggressive tax positions in the determination of premiums offered to targets' shareholders.     

中国体育产业发展研究

体育产业是国民经济产业结构高级化的重要组成部分,对其他产业具有较大的前后向效应。文章研究分析了中国体育产业的现状,探讨了存在的问题,提出了制定产业振兴规划、调整体育产业结构政策和加强体育产业投融资改革等对策,以加快我国体育产业的发展。     

Export Activity,Firm Size and Wage Structure: Evidence from Taiwanese Manufacturing Firms*

This study adopts a semiparametric smooth coefficient model to evaluate the export–wage premiums, firm size–wage premiums, and the wage gap between skilled and unskilled labor. Particular focus is placed upon widespread evidence indicating that pay levels in ‘large’ and ‘export‐oriented’ firms are higher than in their ‘small’ and ‘domestic‐oriented’ counterparts. Applying the firm‐level data for Taiwanese manufacturing firms, we find a positive export–wage premium for skilled workers and a negative export–wage premium for unskilled workers. The hypothesis of a constant export premium across firm size is rejected. While most of the export–wage premiums for skilled labor can be attributed to the small and medium firms, the large exporting firms have a significant adverse effect on wages for unskilled labor. Moreover, our results suggest that the firm size–wage premiums for skilled workers are larger than those for unskilled workers. The wage gap between the two skill groups is also sensitive to size categories.     

Do Clients Get What They Pay For? Evidence from Auditor and Engagement Fee Premiums

Despite the intuitive appeal, prior research finds mixed evidence on whether higher audit fees translate to superior audit quality. Under the assumption that product differentiation between auditors is based, in large part, on the level of financial statement assurance, we propose more refined measures of excess audit fees that separate auditor premiums from other fee premiums. Consistent with our conjecture, we identify significant variation in audit pricing across auditors (i.e., auditor premiums) that relates positively to audit quality. Conversely, we find no evidence that higher engagement‐specific fee premiums (i.e., fee model residuals) are positively related to proxies for audit quality. Additional tests indicate that our results do not simply reflect premiums attributable to auditor characteristics evaluated in prior research (e.g., Big 4 membership, office size, and industry expertise). In fact, our findings suggest that the positive association between auditor premiums and audit quality is better captured at the auditor level than it is at the auditor “tier,” office, auditor‐industry, or engagement levels. In sum, our results suggest that auditors charging higher fees, on average, deliver superior levels of financial statement assurance, but engagement‐specific fee premiums do not reflect quality‐enhancing audit effort. These contrasting results provide a possible explanation for the mixed findings in prior research.     

Most-favoured-nation treaty in service of trade? Case: early trade policy relations between Finland and Japan and their impact on the sales networks of the Finnish forest industry

This article scrutinises the significance of the most-favoured-nation (MFN) treaty in promoting the development of commercial activity and its results in transnational trade. As cardinal agents of trade policy, governments act as ‘umpires’ in formulating and guarding the rules of international trade, while the ‘players’ are private corporations which conduct commercial operations in the playing field of international trade. Within the framework of Finno-Japanese trade relations, the players established and developed their trade networks (corporate interconnections) regardless of the umpires and their official rules, meaning the commercial treaties. Through a close examination of the early trade policy relations between Finland and Japan along with the formation and development of the Finnish forest industry’s sales networks into the Japanese market in the early twentieth century, this study demonstrates that there was no explicit causal connection between MFN treaties and the evolution of the Finnish forest industry’s export efforts – and their results.     

Auditors' Fee Premiums and Low‐Quality Internal Controls*

We examine the relation between low‐quality internal controls and audit fee premiums. Using a novel data set of audit hours and audit fees we find, consistent with the audit risk model, that auditors increase their effort (hours) owing to low internal control quality. We find that auditors also charge a significant fee premium to clients with internal control weaknesses. This premium is observed for severe internal control weaknesses and companies with low‐quality alternative governance mechanisms. The results are robust to multiple methods to address endogeneity, including company fixed effects, difference‐in‐differences design, and a propensity score‐matched sample. Taken as a whole, low internal control quality leads to fee premiums, which are a deadweight loss to client companies.