公司慈善捐赠的“信号传递”动机——基于一项自然实验的考察

有效传递公司质量的信号是解决资本市场信息不对称的基本途径。中国证券市场于2010年3月正式放松卖空管制,放大了高质量公司被低估的不良后果,强化了高质量公司通过发送信号将其与低质量公司区别开来的动机。本文利用这一自然实验,分析了我国企业慈善捐赠的"信号传递动机"。研究发现,放松卖空管制显著提高了可卖空公司的慈善捐赠水平,在进行一系列稳健性检验之后结果依然成立。将样本按照信号传递能力和信号传递需求分组分析发现,对于融资约束程度越宽松、盈利能力越强、面临产品竞争越激烈、信息不对称越严重、股权越分散的上市公司放松卖空管制的慈善捐赠效应越显著。上述结果表明,公司的确运用慈善捐赠作为信号工具应对卖空冲击。     

Popular Support for Climate Change Mitigation: Evidence from a General Population Mail Survey

Using a sample of 1,651 US households, we explore some determinants of willingness to pay (WTP) for climate change mitigation programs. Our mail survey had a relatively low response rate, so we first use several additional data sources to build a detailed sample selection model. This model uses features of the survey instrument, measures of geographic vulnerability to climate change, seasonality, the political mix in the county, attributes of the address or addressee, and a set of factor scores from an extensive factor analysis of all census tracts in the US. We estimate this model jointly with a model to explain climate policy preferences as a function of the domestic and international distribution of policy costs as well as the climate change impacts that each respondent believes will occur under a policy of business-as-usual. Despite statistically significant patterns of nonresponse, selectivity effects are minimal in this case. WTP for climate change mitigation is greater when the domestic incidence of mitigation costs is borne mostly through higher energy taxes. It is also greater when costs are understood to be shared internationally with other groups of countries, rather than being borne mostly by a country group including the US. People are generally more willing to pay for climate change mitigation if they believe that the harm caused by climate change impacts will be substantial, rather than just moderate. The assistance of former UCLA undergraduate students Ivka Adam, Tashi Ghale, Michelle Gogolewski, Vilija Gulbinas, and Lindy Olsson was essential to survey development and administration. This paper is based upon work supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 9818875 to UCLA, with additional support from the Raymond F. Mikesell Foundation at the University of Oregon. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of either the National Science Foundation or ICF International.     

The Impact of Climate Change on Regional Government Expenditures: Evidence from Russia

This paper explores an almost untouched topic in the fast-growing climate econometrics literature—the implications of climate change for government expenditures. Using a rich sub-national dataset for Russia covering 1995–2009, we estimate the impacts of changes in climatic conditions through short-term variation and medium-term changes in average regional temperatures and precipitation. We show a strong and robust negative (but non-linear) relation between regional budget expenditures and population-weighted temperature. The results indicate that an increase in temperature results in a decrease in public expenditures and that the magnitude of this effect diminishes the warmer the region. Further, our results suggest that the benefits from warming accumulate and that adaptation measures could help leverage those benefits. The estimated decreases in regional government expenditure are, however, quite small. In mild warming scenarios, according to our estimates Russia saves roughly USD 3–4 billion in regional government expenditures between 2000 and the 2020s without undertaking adaptation measures, depending on the scenario. It should be noted that our results are estimated for a scenario of mild temperature increase (1–2 \(^{\circ }\)C). Larger temperature increases are likely to have dramatic consequences e.g. from loss of permafrost and methane release that are impossible to predict with available historical data.     

Education and Fertility: Evidence from a Natural Experiment*

Declining fertility is often attributed to the increased education of women. It is difficult to establish a causal link because both fertility and education have changed secularly. In this paper we study the connection between fertility and education using educational reform as an instrument to control for selection. Our results indicate that increasing education leads to postponement of first births away from teenage motherhood and towards women having their first birth in their 20s as well as, for a smaller group, up to the age of 35–40. We find no evidence, however, that more education results in more women remaining childless or having fewer children.     

Information and College Access: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment*

High‐school students from disadvantaged high schools in Toronto were invited to take two surveys, about three weeks apart. Half of the students taking the first survey were also shown a three‐minute video about the benefits of post‐secondary education (PSE) and were invited to try out a financial‐aid calculator. Most students’ perceived returns to PSE were high, even among those not expecting to continue. Those exposed to the video, especially those initially unsure about their own educational attainment, reported significantly higher expected returns and lower concerns about costs, and expressed a greater likelihood of PSE attainment.     

Temporary Disability Insurance and Labor Supply: Evidence from a Natural Experiment*

Most developed countries have compulsory insurance programs for temporary disability, that is, cash benefits for non‐work‐related sickness. Despite the economic significance of these programs, little is known about their effects on work absenteeism or labor supply. We exploit a policy reform that consisted of the abolishment of a waiting day together with an increase of cash benefits for short sick leaves. We find that the total number of days of sickness absence was reduced by the reform, which is likely due to the fact that the abolishment of the waiting period made it less costly for workers to be absent for short periods.     

Piece Rates, Fixed Wages and Incentives: Evidence from a Field Experiment

Data from a field experiment are used to estimate the gain in productivity that is realized when workers are paid piece rates rather than fixed wages. The experiment was conducted within a tree-planting firm and provides daily observations on individual worker productivity under both compensation systems. Unrestricted statistical methods estimate the productivity gain to be 20%. Since planting conditions potentially affect incentives, structural econometric methods are used to generalize the experimental results to out-of-sample conditions. The structural results suggest that the average productivity gain, outside of the experimental conditions, would be at least  21.7  %.     

Choice of Ownership Structure and Firm Performance: Evidence from Estonia

This article uses panel data for a representative sample of Estonian enterprises to analyse diverse issues related to the determinants of ownership structures and ownership changes after privatisation. A key focus is to determine whether ownership changes are related to economic efficiency. While employee-owned firms are found to be much more prone than other firms to switch ownership categories, often ‘employee-owned’ firms remain ‘insider-owned’ as ownership passes from current employees to managers and former employees. Logit analysis of the determinants of ownership structures and ownership changes provides mixed support for several hypotheses. As predicted: (i) wealth and resource constraints play a crucial role in the determination of ownership, with foreigners buying firms with the highest equity levels and insiders buying firms with the lowest equity valuations; (ii) risk aversion explains subsequent ownership changes, especially away from employee ownership; (iii) allocation of ownership depends on the pre-privatisation origin and location of the firm, and these factors also influence subsequent ownership changes. Our findings provide mixed support for the hypothesis that ownership changes are related to economic efficiency.     

School Choice and Segregation: Evidence from an Admission Reform*

We evaluate the effects of school choice on segregation using data from an admission reform in the Stockholm upper secondary schools. Before 2000, the students were assigned to their nearest school, but from the fall of 2000, the students can apply to any school within Stockholm and admission decisions are solely based on grades. As expected, the new admission policy increased segregation by ability. However, segregation by family background, and especially segregation between immigrants and natives, also increased significantly. The increase in segregation by family background can be explained by ability sorting, but the increase in ethnic segregation can not.     

融券制度与内部人寻租——来自准自然实验的经验证据

内部人寻租一直以来是理论与实务界关心的重点,如何有效抑制内部人寻租行为是资本市场的重大课题。本文以内部人交易度量内部人寻租,分析了融券制度对内部人寻租的影响。研究发现:(1)融券制度对内部人寻租有显著抑制作用,并且融券规模越大,内部人寻租越少。(2)相比于国有企业,非国有企业当中融券制度对内部人寻租的抑制作用更加明显。本文还将内部人交易分方向进行回归,结果显示融券制度对内部人寻租的抑制作用主要体现在卖出方向上。本文进一步分析了融券制度影响内部人寻租的路径,发现“竞争效应”和“信息效应”是融券制度影响内部人寻租的两条重要路径。本文考虑了竞争性解释——分析师关注的作用,发现分析师关注并不能影响本文结论的正确性;本文还利用反面事实推断、倾向得分匹配、反向因果检验等方法,确保实证结论的稳健性。本文的研究结果,丰富了内部人寻租的特征及影响因素研究,有利于市场监管部门加强对内部人寻租行为的控制;扩充了有关融券制度的文献,为卖空制度的推行及完善提供理论依据。     

Water Security and Irrigation Investment: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Rural Pakistan

This study examines the relationship between water security features and irrigation investment using data from a field survey with a choice experiment conducted in rural Pakistan. Our results generally support Besley’s framework on the link between property right and investment incentive with an application to irrigation, although not all aspects of water security features can significantly affect farmers’ investment in irrigation. Investment increases significantly with groundwater share, but there is insufficient evidence to support that farmers’ investment is significantly and positively affected by surface water reliability. Farmers who own land or who are located further down the watercourse tend to invest more than their peers do. Existing conditions on surface water reliability significantly affect this relationship. Overall, groundwater use dominates the decision-making of investment and the role of surface water source in securing irrigation water is relatively weak from a farmer’s perspective.     

Motivation crowding in environmental protection: Evidence from an artefactual field experiment

This paper examines how motivation, crowding and social image affect environmental conservation decisions. An artefactual field experiment conducted in Bolivia is used to reproduce the trade-off between individual and social benefits in natural resource use and test the effect of non-monetary and non-regulatory incentives on pro-social behavior for environmental conservation. The results show the presence of a social norm prescribing positive contribution towards environmental protection, and that external incentives have heterogeneous effects on pro-social behavior depending on how they influence reputation and self-image. The experimental results differ from those of analogous experiments conducted in the laboratory, and are instead consistent with those from field experiments on common-pool resource management. This fact suggests caution in generalizing conclusions, reached in the laboratory, to different settings and populations.     

Uncertainty and Climate Change

Uncertainty is pervasive in analysis of climatechange. How should economists allow for this? And how have they allowed for it? This paperreviews both of these questions.     

Market Effects of Voluntary Climate Action by Firms: Evidence from the Chicago Climate Exchange

Are private voluntary environmental actions by firms a sign of mismanagement, or a profitable “win-win” replacement for regulation? Empirical evidence is decidedly mixed. In this study, we use 19 years of monthly stock price returns, from 1991 to 2009, to examine the profitability of participation in CCX, a large voluntary greenhouse gas mitigation program. After controlling for systemic market risk as well as industry-specific shocks, we find statistically significant and positive excess returns for firms that announce their decision to join CCX. In addition, the progress of proposed greenhouse gas legislation (the Waxman–Markey bill) had a positive and large impact on excess returns for CCX member firms, suggesting that a major incentive for firms to join CCX may be to prepare for future regulation. Marginal abatement costs (proxied by the carbon price), on the other hand, were unrelated to excess returns. Our results imply that voluntary approaches should play a role in combating climate change, but that relying on them alone is not enough.     

增强应对气候变化的能力：世界各国的战略选择

全球气候变暖是全人类共同面临的巨大挑战，维护气候安全是国际社会的共同目标。气候变化会导致自然灾害频发、经济下滑、农业减产以及气候移民等一系列问题。应对气候变化，发展低碳经济是现在时代的要求，也是全社会的责任。全球范围多发的自然灾害给人类经济生活到底会带来什么样的危害，已成为人们普遍关心的话题，无论是哪个国家和地区发生严重自然灾害都会引起国际社会强烈关注。为此，世界各国提出了自己未来的战略重点：日本提出了低碳社会行动的线路图，印度出台了一系列的国家行动计划，中国香港将重点放在建筑节能上，美国通过了《美国清洁能源安全法案》，欧盟大幅削减温室气体排放量。     

The Determinants of Capital Structure Choice: Evidence from Polish Companies

The main objective of this paper is to investigate which of the two competing capital structure theories – the pecking order of financing choices or the traditional static trade-off model – better describes the financing decisions in Polish companies traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE). The data come from financial statements of the companies and cover a 5-year period, 2000–2004. First, a correlation is run in order to separate a set of significant factors influencing the capital structure from the list of the following independent variables: assets structure, profitability, growth opportunities, liquidity, firm size, product uniqueness, earnings volatility, non-debt tax shields, dividend policy, and the effective tax rate. Next, in order to test the relationship between capital structure and its potential determinants, multiple regression is run. The evidence generally suggests the relevance of the pecking order hypothesis in explaining the financing choices of Polish firms.

股市谣言与股价波动:来自行为实验的证据

信息是引起股票价格波动的核心因素,谣言作为一种特殊的信息如何影响投资者的风险决策至今仍然是一个谜。由于利用真实股票市场数据来检验谣言与股价的关系无法控制预期等因素的影响,本文采用了行为实验方法,首先建立一个包括情绪因子的行为风险决策模型,然后设计了一个2×3×3的风险决策实验,考察仅包括虚假信息的谣言对股票市场买卖双方风险决策的影响。我们利用双重差分计量模型检验发现,与有效市场理论不同,买卖双方面对负面谣言冲击时会显著降低风险资产比例,面对正面谣言冲击时卖方显著提高风险资产比例,但买方不显著。除买方负面谣言组外,谣言影响风险资产比例不具有持续性或外部性。本文首次证实了谣言会直接影响人们的风险投资行为进而导致股价过度波动,为监管部门打击造谣、传谣提供了有力的经验证据。     

双边投资协定与中国企业海外并购——来自准自然实验的证据

双边投资协定旨在为企业跨境投资活动提供制度性保障作用,在双边国际投资中扮演着重要角色。文章以双边投资协定的签订与实施作为一项准自然实验,采用2004-2018年140个国家的国别面板数据,基于渐进型双重差分模型,考察双边投资协定对中国企业海外并购的影响效应。研究发现:(1)双边投资协定显著促进了中国企业的意愿并购,并提升了并购成功数量。(2)在动态效应上,双边投资协定的促进效应具有长期性,且促进幅度逐步提升。(3)双边投资协定的促进效应具有显著异质性,双边投资协定的促进效应在亚洲和非洲地区更为显著,对高制度质量国家和发达国家的促进效应更强,且对非国有企业的促进作用更强。(4)拓展性检验发现,双边投资协定的文本质量对中国海外并购具有显著促进效应。(5)内在机制检验发现,通过对投资协定具体条款进行分解和量化后,"投资定义与范畴""公平公正待遇"和"最惠国待遇"是影响双边投资协定促进中国海外并购的关键性条款。文章丰富了双边投资协定与海外并购关系领域的理论研究,并为中国企业海外并购及新一轮双边投资协定实践提供了政策启示,为全球经济治理贡献了中国智慧。