The Political Economy of IMF Conditionality: A Common Agency Model

The paper models the relationship between an aid‐providing international financial institution (IFI) and an aid‐receiving government whose economic policy choices are influenced by a domestic interest group. Two assistance schemes are evaluated: conditional aid in which the IFI makes assistance contingent on less‐ distorting economic policies and unconditional aid which is provided without such conditions. Conditional aid is shown to raise welfare of the receiving country and the world as a whole relative to unconditional aid. The paper also examines how conditional and unconditional aid schemes are influenced by the IFI's opportunity cost of providing assistance and the receiving government's political dependence on a domestic interest group.     

管理层持股、股利政策与代理问题

本文基于2004年至2009年沪市和深市所有发行A股的公司数据,通过建立probit和tobit计量模型,从管理层持股和现金股利政策角度讨论了委托代理关系。研究表明,管理层持股能够增加现金股利支付倾向和力度,但是股权激励只有在持股水平相对较高时才能发挥作用。所以只有进一步完善企业的管理者持股机制,才能更有效地保护资本市场中小投资者的利益。     

产权、代理成本和代理效率

本文选择政府管制较少、竞争较为充分的电子电器行业作为研究对象,考察了产权制度与代理成本和代理效率的关系,得到以下结论:(1)在代理成本上,国有产权企业普遍高于混和产权企业,混和产权企业高于个人产权企业;在代理成本差异上,混和产权企业与个人产权企业的差异小于与国有产权企业的差异。(2)长期投资率和职工人数与代理成本呈显著正相关关系,而长期投资率、财务杠杆比率、职工人数等与代理效率呈显著负相关关系。(3)企业规模越大,不同产权的代理成本差异越小;反之代理成本差异越大。(4)随着市场竞争程度的提高,各类产权企业的代理成本都呈现下降趋势,其代理效率呈现提高趋势。我们研究的启示是国有企业改革的突破口应考虑如何降低其代理成本,解决的措施之一是产权改革,尤其是产权多元化的改革,其次是完善对投资和负债及冗员的监督和控制机制,以促进代理成本的降低和代理效率的提高。     

利益相关者与股利政策:代理冲突与博弈

本文以股权分置改革为背景,利用2004—2008年中国上市公司经验数据,从代理冲突和博弈的角度分析了利益相关者与股利政策之间的关系。研究表明,我国上市公司利益相关者各方在股利分配上存在政策博弈现象。博弈的结果表现为具有控股股东的公司比其他公司具有更高的现金股利支付率;具备再融资条件的公司比其他公司具有更高的现金股利支付率;第一大股东参与管理的程度越低,现金股利的支付率越高,但这一特征并不显著。同时,在股权分置改革后,我国上市公司存在少分现金股利的倾向。     

股权结构与代理问题:一个新的分析框架

长期以来,关于股权结构的研究大都以“所有权与控制权分离”为前提,关注于经营者对股东的代理问题。本文对此提出了质疑,并以控制权为切入点,从理论和经验上证明股权集中是一种普遍现象,大股东普遍存在。控制权依然掌握在大股东手中,而大股东与小股东之间的代理问题才是股份制企业中的核心代理问题。     

企业理论:契约,所有权,委托代理

新古典理论主要从技术角度来分析企业,将企业视为黑箱。而新制度学派的企业理论则把目光投向了企业内部,其重点是企业的契约性质理论、所有权安排理论、委托代理理论。尽管对企业理论进行划分和整理具有一定的难度,文章仍然试图以企业的契约理论的递进层次为线索,按照理论的研究领域和核心问题给出一个解释,并给出了企业的契约理论内部框架。     

代理成本、管理层持股与审计质量

所有权和经营权相分离的现代企业制度导致了股东和管理层之间严重的代理冲突。上市公司降低代理冲突的主要途径是激励与监督,其中,管理层持股和审计分别是内部激励和外部监督的重要方式。会计师事务所的规模和审计费用在一定程度上反映了审计质量。文章基于代理成本的角度,采用2005-2009年中国A股非金融类上市公司非平衡面板数据,运用Logistic二元逻辑回归模型和稳健最小二乘法研究了代理成本、管理层持股与审计质量之间的关系。研究发现:代理成本高的公司会寻求高质量的外部审计,倾向于聘请大规模的会计师事务所;管理层持股能起到完善公司内部治理机制的作用,减少代理冲突,从而降低公司对外部审计质量的需求。     

A Dynamic Model of Export Competition, Policy Coordination, and Simultaneous Currency Collapse

This paper shows that the "price wars during booms" logic of Rotemberg and Saloner ( American Economic Review , vol. 76, 1986, 390–407) provides an explanation of contagious currency crises. The idea is as follows. When a group of countries relies on exports to a common foreign market, pressures for competitive devaluations arise. In response, competing exporters peg their exchange rates to the currency of their export market. However, it must be in each country's self-interest to adhere to its peg, and a common adverse external shock can make an existing (implicitly) cooperative arrangement unenforceable. Maintaining the arrangement requires a collective devaluation that reduces the unilateral incentive to devalue.     

Trade,Job Losses and Gender: A Policy Perspective

This paper presents a gender perspective of the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program. The TAA is the primary US policy to assist the transition of workers displaced due to trade related economic restructuring. In comparison to the relatively substantial research on gendering trade policies in developing economies there is very limited focus on gendering policy responses to trade in the US. We argue that there is a specific gender trend in the trade-displacement patterns in the US which calls for a gender sensitive policy response. We examine the TAA in light of this trend and offer some suggestions for a gendered approach to providing assistance to workers negotiating an increasingly flexible global labor market.

股权结构与公司绩效关系研究综述——基于内生性和动态性视角

国内外有关股权结构与公司绩效关系的研究文献非常丰富,但这些文献绝大部分都先验地把股权结构作为外生变量来处理,认为二者是从股权结构到公司绩效的一种单向静态关系。在这种假设下,得出的结论与观察到的事实并非一致。股权结构不是一个独立外生变量,而是包括绩效在内的多种因素共同作用的均衡结果。它不仅受当期和上期绩效的作用,同时也可能对当期和下期绩效产生影响,即股权结构不仅是内生的,而且还是动态的。本文综述了国内外目前在这方面的最新研究成果。     

Monetary Policy, Agency Costs and Output Dynamics

This paper examines the role of financial market imperfections for output reactions to nominal interest rate shocks. Empirical evidence shows a hump-shaped impulse response function of output and suggests that credit supply co-moves with output. A monetary business cycle model with staggered price setting is presented where the firms' outlays for capital and labor must be covered by the sum of net worth of entrepreneurs and loans in the form of debt contracts. These properties are shown to generate a hump-shaped impulse response of output, which takes on the smooth and persistent appearance of the empirical output response when nominal wages are set in a staggered way, too.     

Staged Financing: An Agency Perspective

This paper investigates the structure of outside investment in a profitable entrepreneurial venture. Though efficient, financing the venture up front may be infeasible because the entrepreneur cannot commit to not renegotiate down the outside investor's claim once she's sunk her investment. Staging the investment over time helps to mitigate this commitment problem. The early rounds of investment create collateral that support the later rounds. We characterize the optimal staged investment path and show how it is affected by various features of the venture. The predictions of the model are consistent with observations on staged financing in venture capital.     

A Dynamic Model of the Environmental Kuznets Curve: Turning Point and Public Policy

We set up a simple dynamic macroeconomic model with (i) polluting consumption and a preference for a clean environment, (ii) increasing returns in abatement giving rise to an EKC and (iii) sustained growth resulting from a linear final-output technology. There are two sorts of market failures caused by external effects associated with consumption and environmental effort. The model is employed to investigate the determinants of the turning point and the cost effectiveness of different public policies aimed at a reduction of the environmental burden. Moreover, the model offers a potential explanation of an N-shaped pollution–income relation. It is shown that the model is compatible with most empirical regularities on economic growth and the environment.      

Commercial Policy and Foreign Ownership

Foreign multinationals often not only export but also control local firms through FDI. This paper examines the various effects of trade and industrial policies when exports and FDI coexist. We focus on the case in which a foreign firm has full control of a local firm through partial ownership. Cross‐border ownership on the basis of both financial interests and corporate control leads to horizontal market linkages through which tariffs and production subsidies may harm locally owned firms but benefit the foreign firm. Foreign ownership regulation benefits locally owned firms. These results could have strong policy implications for developing countries that attract an increasing share of world FDI.     

企业创新资源配置结构对创新绩效的影响：基于不同产权性质视角

产权性质与企业创新投入及创新绩效的关系一直是学术界争论的焦点之一。尽管整合制度逻辑和效率逻辑有助于调和现有矛盾,但是采用投入—产出模型忽略了影响创新绩效的微观要素与配置结构间的差异。以要素配置为切入点,将企业创新资源配置划分为人员结构、人员层次结构与经费结构3部分,从产权性质视角打开企业创新投入的“黑箱”。结果发现：①与民营企业相比,国企倾向于配置更多创新资源;②在国企的3种资源配置结构中,仅经费结构配置合理,能够显著提升创新绩效,人员结构配置对创新绩效的提升作用不显著;③相比之下,民企人员结构配置较为合理,对创新绩效的提升发挥着重要作用;④国企、民企人员层次结构配置均不合理且无显著差异。研究表明：民企善于发挥人的优势,而国企更能发挥物的优势。研究结论可为解释产权性质与创新绩效差异提供新视角。     

Collateralized Lending by Indian Banks: Some Explanations and Policy Implications

This paper draws a parallel between the extent of unsecured lending that a bank does and the screening effort extended by the bank. Since unsecured lending requires screening on the part of the bank, higher the percentage of unsecured loans in total loans, higher is likely to be the screening effort while processing loan applications. Using panel data relating to banks in India, we find that on an average a higher extent of screening effort or unsecured loans is likely to be provided by banks that are large, have low level of non-performing assets, and are in the private sector. Further, persistence in the extent of unsecured lending seems to suggest that any change in unsecured lending/ screening effort is likely to be rather slow.

     

Foreign Ownership,Equity Arbitrage and Strategic Trade Policy *

This paper investigates whether the cost of environmental regulation influences the international location of polluting industries. Industries that operate production facilities in developing countries are identified through their use of the offshore assembly provisions in the U.S. tariff Code. Pollutions Intensity of industry output is found to significantly reduce the probability of conducting offshore assembly in developing countries. This finding contradicts the arguments that developing countries are becoming pollution havens as a result of offshore assembly independent of their general disregard for the environment. Integrating production across national boundaries might actually enhance worldwide environmental quality. Relatively clean stages of the production process are being transferred to developing countries with lax environmental regulations, while polluting segments remain in the U.S. where strict environmental controls are enforced. [F1, Q2]     

Managerial Incentive Problems: A Dynamic Perspective

The paper studies how a person's concern for a future career may influence his or her incentives to put in effort or make decisions on the job. In the model, the person's productive abilities are revealed over time through observations of performance. There are no explicit output-contingent contracts, but since the wage in each period is based on expected output and expected output depends on assessed ability, an "implicit contract" links today's performance to future wages. An incentive problem arises from the person's ability and desire to influence the learning process, and therefore the wage process, by taking unobserved actions that affect today's performance. The fundamental incongruity in preferences is between the individual's concern for human capital returns and the firm's concern for financial returns. The two need be only weakly related. It is shown that career motives can be beneficial as well as detrimental, depending on how well the two kinds of capital returns are aligned.     

Fake Sales: A Dynamic Pricing Perspective

Some sellers display high “regular” prices, but mark down these prices the vast majority of the time, advertising the good as “on sale” or “discounted”. This note suggests a framework for understanding the practice, emphasising the role of buyer uncertainty about their future valuations for the good. We argue that so‐called “regular” prices set buyers’ expectations regarding future prices, expectations that need not be tethered to the prices actually set. By manipulating upwards buyers’ expectations of future prices, the seller can increase demand for the good at the current “sale” price, increasing profits.