The Research on Financial Support for the Development of Agricultural Science and Technology： an Empirical Study of Yulin

2012年中央一号文件《关于加快推进农业科技创新持续增强农产品供给保障能力的若干意见》明确要求积极引导和鼓励金融信贷、风险投资等社会资金参与农业科技创新,大幅度增加农业科技投入。为深入了解金融支持农业科技发展情况,通过对玉林市开展的专项调查发现,由于受多种因素制约,银行业金融机构农业科技贷款逐年下降,金融支持农业科技力度亟需提升。     

ESG for All? The Impact of ESG Screening on Return,Risk, and Diversification

A large body of research has documented a positive relationship between different measures of sustainability—such as indicators of employee satisfaction and effective corporate governance—and corporate financial performance. Nevertheless, many investors still struggle to quantify the value of ESG to investment performance. To address this issue, the authors tested the effects of using different ESG filters on an investable universe that serves as the starting point for a fund manager. In this way, they attempted to determine the extent to which ESG data can add value to any investment approach, regardless of preferences towards sustainable investing. The authors report “an unequivocally positive” contribution to risk‐adjusted returns when using a 10% best‐in‐class ESG screening approach (one that effectively removes companies with the lowest 10% of ESG rankings), both on a global and a developed markets universe. More specifically, as a result of such screening, both the global and developed markets portfolios show higher returns, lower (tail) risk, and no significant reduction of diversification potential despite the reduction in the number of companies. Use of a 25% screening filter was also found to add value, especially by reducing tail risks, but with a larger deviation from the unscreened universe. Overall, then, the authors’ finding is that the incorporation of ESG information contributes to better decision‐making in every investment approach, with the optimal configuration depending on a fund manager's preferences and willingness to deviate from an unscreened benchmark.     

Too Big to Be Efficient? The Impact of Implicit Subsidies on Estimates of Scale Economies for Banks

We examine whether “too‐big‐to‐fail” (TBTF) factors affect estimates of scale economies for large banks. From a standard model of bank production that does not control for any TBTF factors, we find evidence of scale economies for our sample of large banks. We then control for TBTF factors by using a measure of the “implicit subsidy” that emerges from a reduction in TBTF banks’ funding costs due to investor expectations of government support. We do this in two ways: first, we estimate scale economies from an augmented model of bank production that employs a proxy for the counterfactual price of debt that banks would face in the absence of any TBTF funding cost advantage; second, we estimate scale economies from a model of bank production that is estimated only for a sample of banks considered unlikely to be TBTF. After controlling for TBTF factors using either method, we no longer find evidence of scale economies for our sample of large banks. These results suggest that estimated scale economies for large banks are affected by TBTF factors.     

Keeping up or Falling behind? The Impact of Benefit and Tax Uprating on Incomes and Poverty*

Each year, the government decides how much to raise benefits and tax allowances. In the UK, the basis for these upratings is rarely debated, yet has major long‐term consequences for the relative living standards of different groups as well as for the public finances. This paper considers the medium‐term implications of present uprating policies, which vary across parameters of the tax–benefit system. Continuing these policies for 20 years, other things staying the same, would result in a near doubling of the child poverty rate alongside a substantial gain to the public finances. At the same time, pensioners are largely protected by the earnings indexation of pensioner benefits including, in time, the basic state pension. We show how difficult it will be to meet the UK child poverty targets unless the greater inequality inherent in the current regime for uprating payments and allowances is redressed.     

The Economic Impact of Korean Reunification on Major Trade Partners: An Empirical Analysis Based on the World Input–Output Tables

Using the 2011 Word Input–Output Database (WIOD), we examine the economic impact of Korean reunification on Japan, China, the United States, and Russia by industry. We conduct a standard Leontief-type analysis with the assumption of supply constraints in the unified Korea. The results of our analysis show that Korea’s major trade partners would experience a substantial increase in GDP and employment through Korea reunification. In particular, we found that China would benefit the most from Korea reunification.     

The Impact of Business Groups on Investment Efficiency: Does Capital Allocation Matter?

Using data on internal capital markets in China, this paper examines the influence of internal capital markets on investment efficiency in business groups. The empirical results show that using internal capital markets can alleviate over invests within business groups. In addition, it can alleviate deficiencies in R&D investment in business groups effectively. The impact of internal capital markets on investment efficiency varies between state-owned enterprises and private enterprises. At private enterprises, internal capital market operations significantly alleviate overinvestment and promote R&D investment. However, at state-owned enterprises, internal capital market operations increase overinvestment and reduce investment in R&D.     

Does Academic Research Destroy Stock Return Predictability?

We study the out‐of‐sample and post‐publication return predictability of 97 variables shown to predict cross‐sectional stock returns. Portfolio returns are 26% lower out‐of‐sample and 58% lower post‐publication. The out‐of‐sample decline is an upper bound estimate of data mining effects. We estimate a 32% (58%–26%) lower return from publication‐informed trading. Post‐publication declines are greater for predictors with higher in‐sample returns, and returns are higher for portfolios concentrated in stocks with high idiosyncratic risk and low liquidity. Predictor portfolios exhibit post‐publication increases in correlations with other published‐predictor portfolios. Our findings suggest that investors learn about mispricing from academic publications.     

The Impact of Range Pricing on Marketing Time and Transaction Price: A Better Mousetrap for the Existing Home Market?

In various markets around the country, some real estate professionals are employing a new pricing strategy that involves marketing homes for sale with a price range rather than a single asking price. This strategy is often touted as a mechanism that will attract more potential buyers to look at a house and thus result in reduced marketing times for existing homes, with prices determined by competitive forces. The purpose of this study is to empirically examine whether houses using range pricing, often referred to as value range marketing, sell in the same amount of time and sell for similar prices as those marketed in the traditional manner. Two staged least squares with a correction for sample selection and Weibull duration models are used to test the hypotheses, employing a sample of 5,852 residential houses that were sold during the period January 1999 to December 2000. In contrast to claims of the strategy’s proponents, the results indicate that houses take longer to sell when using the range pricing strategy after controlling for physical characteristics and market conditions. Furthermore, there is no evidence that this strategy has any significant impact on transaction prices.     

The Impact of Early Childhood Nutritional Status on Cognitive Development: Does the Timing of Malnutrition Matter?

This article uses longitudinal data from the Philippines toexamine whether the timing of malnutrition in early childhoodis a critical factor in determining subsequent cognitive development.Although some observers have argued that the first six monthsof life are the most critical in the sense that malnutritionduring that time period harms cognitive development more thanmalnutrition later in life, analysis of the Philippines datadoes not support this claim. To the contrary, the data suggestthat malnutrition in the second year of life may have a largernegative impact than malnutrition in the first year of life.     

How Does Financing Impact Investment? The Role of Debt Covenants

We identify a specific channel (debt covenants) and the corresponding mechanism (transfer of control rights) through which financing frictions impact corporate investment. Using a regression discontinuity design, we show that capital investment declines sharply following a financial covenant violation, when creditors use the threat of accelerating the loan to intervene in management. Further, the reduction in investment is concentrated in situations in which agency and information problems are relatively more severe, highlighting how the state‐contingent allocation of control rights can help mitigate investment distortions arising from financing frictions.     

The Impact of Short-Sales Constraints on Liquidity and the Liquidity–Return Relations

Baker and Stein's (2004) model predicts that individual stock liquidity, commonality in liquidity across stocks, the contemporaneous correlation between stock returns and liquidity, and the degree of high liquidity associated with low subsequent stock returns decrease in the absence of short-sales constraints relative to in the presence. To test these theoretical predictions, we examine both the component stocks of the Taiwan 50 index and other nonindex stocks for the sample period before and after the removal of short-sales constraints on the former and use trading turnover and Amihud's (2002) illiquidity ratio as the measure of liquidity to proxy for investor sentiment. Overall, our empirical results are consistent with these theoretical predictions and therefore provide evidence in support of Baker and Stein's (2004) model.     

Are All Ratings Created Equal? The Impact of Issuer Size on the Pricing of Mortgage‐Backed Securities

Initial yields on both AAA‐rated and non‐AAA rated mortgage‐backed security (MBS) tranches sold by large issuers are higher than yields on similar tranches sold by small issuers during the market boom years of 2004 to 2006. Moreover, the prices of MBS sold by large issuers drop more than those sold by small issuers, and the differences are concentrated among tranches issued during 2004 to 2006. These results suggest that investors price the risk that large issuers received more inflated ratings than small issuers, especially during boom periods.     

Coaches or Speculators? The Role and Impact of Venture Capital on Executive Compensation in Chinese Listed Companies

In this paper, we utilize a panel dataset that covers 1245 listed companies which accomplished their IPO during 2006 to 2014 in China to investigate the impact of venture capital (VC) firms on executive compensation, equity incentive and pay-performance-sensitivity. We make several key findings: First, we find the presence of VCs can significantly raise the executive compensation. Second, high reputation VCs and private VCs increases the likelihood of granting executive equity incentives, whereas foreign VCs are significantly negatively related with executive equity incentive. Third, the pay-performance sensitivity of government VCs and foreign VCs is significant on stock return (RET) whereas insignificant on accounting performance (ROA). Moreover, the increasing VCs share in portfolio companies enhance the pay performance sensitivity on RET. Our results show that before VCs final exiting their post-IPO portfolio companies in China, VCs’ impact on executive compensation are more consistent with grandstanding theories and intending to provide higher cash compensation to encourage executives to raise the companies’ stock price, which is indicating VCs’ changing role from a coach into a speculator after the portfolio companies’ IPO.     

What Are the Research Standards for Full Professor of Finance?

Based on a sample of 126 recently promoted faculty, different standards for full professor are observed between top 20 finance departments and lower ranked departments. Full professors affiliated with a top 20 department place an average of 1 out of 3 articles in either Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies , or Journal of Financial Economics compared to 1 out of 6 articles for professors at lower-ranked schools. Total citations and cites per year are also significantly different between top- and lower-ranked departments, but total articles and articles per year are not significantly different between these two groupings.     

Dupes or Incompetents? An Examination of Management's Impact on Firm Distress

This article examines whether managers impact firm performance. We conservatively define managerial ability as the manager's capacity to deploy the firm's resources. We verify the validity of our metric using a manager–firm matched panel data set that allows us to track managers (CEOs) across different firms over time. We find managerial ability is inversely related to the amount of time a firm spends in distress, the likelihood of a firm's failure, and the cost of failure. These results suggest that the managers of failed firms are less skilled than their counterparts. But even within failed firms there is heterogeneity in the talents of managers.     

Working for the enemy? The impact of investment banker job changes on deal flow

This paper examines the impact of job changes by prominent investment bankers on the M&A and equity market shares of investment banks. Using a hand-collected sample of job changes between 1998 and 2006, we find that after controlling for deal and bank-level characteristics, hiring a banker from an investment bank with a more prominent industry presence has a positive impact on both equity and M&A market share for the gaining bank and a negative impact on the losing bank's M&A market share. After the banker switches firms, we find a significant amount of business following the banker from the losing bank to the gaining bank, particularly when the relationship is strong between the client firm and the banker. Abnormal returns around the announcement of a banker changing employers are positive and significant for the gaining bank, suggesting that the market views banker additions as value increasing. Overall, our results suggest human capital is a critical component of investment banking deal flow.     

The Impact of Journal Rankings on Australasian Accounting Education Scholarship – A Personal View

Abstract

The higher education environment in which academics currently find themselves is one characterised by corporatisation and commodification. The pursuit of scholarly academic research is increasingly plagued by quantification, ranking pursuits, and what might be referred to as a ‘publication’ maximisation culture. This paper provides reflective insight into the impact felt of journal rankings on Australasian accounting education research. The paper challenges the short-termism and narrow focus currently adopted by many business faculty executives, who continue to use journal rankings as the sole measure of academic performance. The paper argues that this results in incentive schemes not too dissimilar to that recently found within the financial industry. The paper concludes that such a narrow approach to measurement should be abandoned in order to encourage creativity and innovation in business research that assists in solving business problems today and well into the future.     

The Impact of Institutions and Exchange Rate Volatility on China’s Outward FDI

Over the past decade, China’s outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) has rapidly increased. However, its characteristics are not sufficiently studied. In this article, we explore the host country’s determinants of China’s OFDI, with a focus on institutional quality, exchange rate volatility, and natural resources by performing an econometric analysis for the period 2003–2013 for a sample of 49 countries. Our results reveal that China’s OFDI is invested in countries with relatively poor institutional quality and abundant natural resources. Exchange rate variability has a dampening effect on China’s OFDI and that the appreciation of the Chinese renminbi enhances OFDI flows.     

The Reform of UK Universities: A Management Dream,An Academic Nightmare?

This paper studies the impact on universities of operating in a new public management (NPM) world by examining UK experiences, in general, and the specific cases of two UK universities. As institutions with high levels of human capital and articulate professionals, universities offer a complex setting in which to study the tensions between professions and managerialism. This study identifies the importance of accounting and calculative practices in the contemporary university and distinct professional reactions fostered by intense NPM experiences prompted by the 2010 UK Government's austerity program.     

The Evolution and Impact of Infrastructure in Middle-Income Countries: Anything Special?

We examine the evolution of infrastructure, and the impact of infrastructure investment, in middle-income countries (MICs). We document how different types of infrastructure stocks, as well as infrastructure investment, vary with the level of development and growth performance. We then use the two-stage approach of Corsetti, Meier, and Müller (2012) to identify exogenous public investment shocks and investigate the macroeconomic impact of these shocks. We find that the provision of infrastructure varies across development stages; there is a focus on basic infrastructure, such as transport, water, and sanitation, during early stages, and an emphasis on “advanced” infrastructure, such as power and especially information and communication technology, in later stages. Better-performing MICs tend to invest more on infrastructure. They also have more information and communication technology infrastructure. Finally, we find a more significant and sustained impact of exogenous public investment shocks on output in MICs than in low-income countries.