Financial structure,informality and development

The impact of capital market imperfections and costs of creating and operating formal sector firms on total factor productivity is studied. We propose a firm dynamics model with endogenous formal and informal sectors where firms face a technology adoption opportunity. The model predicts that countries with a low degree of debt enforcement and high costs of formality are characterized by low allocative efficiency and large output shares produced by low productivity, informal sector firms. For frictions parametrized using the Doing Business database, the model generates a drop in total factor productivity of up to 25% relative to the US.     

Small business tax policy and informality: evidence from Georgia

Using a panel of administrative data and regression discontinuity analysis, this paper examines how the introduction of preferential tax regimes for Georgian micro- and small businesses in 2010 affected formal firm creation and tax compliance. The results show that the new tax regime for micro-businesses increased the number of newly registered firms by 27–41 % below the eligibility threshold during the first year of the reform, but not in subsequent years. We do not find an effect of the new tax regime for small businesses on formal firm creation in any year. Policy makers are often also concerned about abuse risks stemming from differentiated tax treatment of micro- and small businesses. The analysis in this paper reveals reduced tax compliance among small taxpayers for multiple years after the reform and among micro-business taxpayers only during the first year of the reform.     

Confidence,knowledge, and compliance with emergency evacuation

This article considers how risks are responded to through behavioral adaptations and avoidance strategies. We observe that such behavior can become totemistic and have a limited relationship to the risk it ostensibly answers to. Drawing upon examples such as recycling and original data from a study on drink‐spiking avoidance, the article sets out a new concept for discussing and understanding such risk‐related behavior: the ‘risk ritual’. We elaborate upon this concept in the article, identifying a number of tendencies in risk rituals and drawing upon anthropological and sociological work on the nature and uses of ritual. We compare the ‘risk ritual’ to religious and community rituals, exploring the connections between the former and the rain dance, religious ablutions, abstinence from eating meat on a Friday, and rite of passage ceremonies. Influenced by the cultural approach to risk, we argue that risk rituals, like rituals more generally, are shaped by social conditions, currents, and processes, such as the emphasis on personal responsibility for risk management and the desire to mark out the ‘sacred’ and the ‘profane’. The article concludes that ritualistic risk behavior is better viewed as functional rather than irrational.     

法规遵从,企业发展必经之路

2006年初，中国移动在总公司和部分试点省级公司成立了专项小组，开始了首批萨班斯法案内控项目试点工作，并计划在年内在中国移动各省级全面推广：国内另外几家在美国上市的电信运营商同样加速了内控制度的完善，以达到萨班斯法案的要求。而准备海外上市的中国工商银行已完全按照国际会计标准修订了会计准则。为何这些企业纷纷做出这样的举措？在这里，我们要从“法规遵从”谈起：     

Thresholds in the process of international financial integration

The financial crisis has re-ignited the fierce debate about the merits of financial globalization and its implications for growth, especially for developing countries. The empirical literature has not been able to conclusively establish the presumed growth benefits of financial integration. Indeed, a new literature proposes that the indirect benefits of financial integration may be more important than the traditional financing channel emphasized in previous analyses. A major complication, however, is that there seem to be certain “threshold” levels of financial and institutional development that an economy needs to attain before it can derive the indirect benefits and reduce the risks of financial openness. In this paper, we develop a unified empirical framework for characterizing such threshold conditions. We find that there are clearly identifiable thresholds in variables such as financial depth and institutional quality—the cost-benefit trade-off from financial openness improves significantly once these threshold conditions are satisfied. We also find that the thresholds are lower for foreign direct investment and portfolio equity liabilities compared to those for debt liabilities.     

法规遵从的实践

在之前的文章中，我们已经简要介绍了法规遵从的意义与基本的实现方法，下面我们就通过两个成功案例，从具体应用的角度来了解实现法规遵从的途径和作用。     

The effects of firm size,corporate governance quality,and bad news on disclosure compliance

Motivated by calls for increased compliance, size-based regulation, and continued exemption of small firms from internal control reporting requirements, we assess the incremental effects of firm size, corporate governance quality, and bad news on disclosure compliance. We examine compliance with the disclosure requirements of an SEC-mandated filing that requires no computations or complex judgments but is nonroutine and may reveal value-decreasing information (bad news) that otherwise would not become public. The disclosures studied are those that firms provide in Form 8-K Item 4 when changing external auditors. We find that noncompliant firms have lower quality corporate governance and less need for external financing but are not smaller than compliant control firms. Additional analyses indicate that compliance is negatively associated with bad news.     

The compliance cost of taxing foreign-source income: Its magnitude,determinants, and policy implications

This paper uses survey evidence to estimate the compliance cost of the U.S. system of taxing foreign-source income. The evidence suggests that this cost is about 40 percent of the total tax-compliance cost of large U.S. corporations, which is disproportionately higher than the aggregate share of assets, sales, and employment that is abroad. It is also very high compared to the revenue raised by the United States from taxing foreign-source income, although this comparison must be qualified because arguably a principal purpose of this system is to protect U.S. revenues collected on domestic-source income. The disproportionate compliance cost of foreign-source income is not apparent in a survey of European-based multinational corporations.     

法规遵从路线图

在上一篇文章中，我们已经大致了解了法规遵从的含义和意义，以及一些企业在法规遵从过程中经常会遇到的一些重点法律法规。从下面开始，我们将就企业进行法规遵从的步骤以及其中需要注意的问题，进行更详细的分析。     

基层商业银行合规风险管理现状、问题及改进对策

本文阐述了我国基层商业银行合规风险管理现状,分析了基层银行合规风险管理建设中存在的问题,结合银行合规风险管理的目标,提出了进一步加强商业银行合规风险管理的若干建议。     

Fish consumption advisories: knowledge,compliance and why people fish in an urban estuary

The risk to human consumers from contaminants in fish is often dealt with by issuing consumption advisories. The hypothesis that consumption rates vary as a function of knowledge about advisories was tested for 254 people fishing in the Newark Bay Complex, in the New York/New Jersey harbour estuary. Interviews were conducted in the complex throughout the fishing season. There were no ethnic differences in the percentage of people who fished, crabbed, or did both, Most people either fished or crabbed, but not both, which has implications for risk assessment and communication. Only 45% of the people interviewed had heard about advisories; American Indians had heard little about fish advisories, and Hispanics had heard little about crab advisories. There were ethnic differences in education, consumption patterns, and knowledge about advisories. Knowledge about consumption advisories and the amount of fish and crabs consumed are negatively correlated. Despite laws forbidding catching (and consuming) crabs from Newark Bay Complex, people continue to do so. A higher percentage of people who consume the most fish and crabs are aware of consumption advisories, compared to those at the low end of consumption, but people who consume no fish or crabs from the Newark Bay Complex have the highest level of knowledge. There are few differences in the ratings of the reasons for fishing between those who are, and are not, aware of advisories. Since people mainly fish and crab to be outdoors and with friends and family, relax, and commune with nature, risk assessors and communicators should acknowledge the social and aesthetic nature of the activity, and address consumption by separating the activity (fishing, crabbing) from the risk (pregnant women and children should limit consumption).     

合规经营,一个复杂而现实的问题

经营是合规还是不合规,这是一个复杂而现实的问题。经营当然要合规,但现实是:眼下的中国是潜规则盛行的国家,在一些生意人看来,按照潜规则办事才是"合规"的经营,官场上有人也乐得潜规则的存在。虽说依法治国在中国是既定的,     

跨国公司在华“合规”经营的挑战与应对

反商业贿赂是跨国公司“合规”管理的重要内容。已有许多跨国企业不惜花费巨额用于在华合规管理,但维持可持续的合规管理是一个长期的过程。作为企业负责合规管理和内控体系的财务和法律合规部门,如何构建一个有效的合规框架？在中国面临哪些合规风险？如何识别欺诈风险和展开内部调查？请看     

Media negativity bias and tax compliance: experimental evidence

We study the impact of the media negativity bias on tax compliance. Through a framed laboratory experiment, we assess how the exposure to biased news about government action affects compliance in a repeated taxation game. Subjects treated with positive news are significantly more compliant than the control group. Instead, the exposure to negative news does not prompt any significant reaction compared to the neutral condition, suggesting that participants may perceive the media negativity bias in the selection and tonality of news as the norm rather than the exception. Overall, our results suggest that biased news provision is a constant source of psychological priming and plays a vital role in taxpayers’ compliance decisions.

     

基于业绩门槛监管下增发的长期表现:来自中国公开增发市场的证据

中国证监会通过设定基于业绩门槛的要求,严格控制市场的股权再融资规模。本文对1998至2010年间公开增发的上市公司在增发后的市场表现进行深入研究。结果发现,与匹配的基准相比,我国公开增发的上市公司并不存在成熟市场中较为普遍的增发后弱势表现。此外,本文还发现公开增发后的超额收益与公司增发之前的ROE之间存在显著的正相关关系,这意味着基于ROE的业绩门槛有助于识别增发公司质量。     

法规遵从路线图(续)

当一个经验丰富的法规遵从管理团队就位之后，企业就进入了记录并评估所有业务程序的阶段。在这个步骤中，许多企业会发现自己的一些过时的或者人工处理的流程已经无法适应现今的法规要求。因此，最初看来，对法规遵从过程进行控制仿佛是个“不可能完成的任务”。     

Relationship between tax compliance internationally and selected determinants of tax morale

Tax compliance has been studied by analyzing the individual decision of a representative person between planning and evading taxes. A neglected aspect of tax compliance is the impact of a social contract on tax morale. Such implicit contract between the individual and the state guaranteeing a high level of economic freedom, effective competition laws, an important equity market and high moral norms, is hypothesized to have a positive impact on tax compliance. In this paper, empirical evidence based on data from 30 countries indicate that tax compliance internationally is positively related to the level of economic freedom, the level of importance of the equity market and the effectiveness of competition laws and high moral norms.     

阈值处的盈余分布断层:盈余管理解释的实证检验

本文利用中国沪深两市2008-2010年A股上市公司财务数据,检验了阈值处的盈余分布断层是否由盈余管理引起。检验结果表明,避免报告亏损和避免盈余下降动机诱发了阈值两侧样本公司盈余的异常变动,这些异常变动包括:第四季度初的微损公司和微利公司中有异常高比例的公司报告年度微利;第四季度初的盈余微增长公司和盈余微下降公司中有异常高比例的公司报告年度微增长。正是这些公司的盈余的异常变动导致了阈值处的盈余分布断层。本文的研究不仅为盈余分布断层的盈余管理解释提供了充分证据支持,也为投资者和监管机构及时发现公司的盈余管理行为提供了参考依据。     

构建现代银行合规文化的探索与思考——以农业发展银行湖北省分行为例

文章探讨构建现代银行合规文化问题。