Equity Valuation Effects of the Pension Protection Act of 2006*

We investigate the equity valuation effects of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA 2006). The PPA 2006 has two main provisions: (1) firms must fully fund their pension plans within seven years (previously allowed 30 years to fund 90 percent of the pension liability) and (2) firms receive a tax deduction for contributions up to 150 percent of the pension liability (previously 100 percent). After controlling for the effects of SFAS 158, growth opportunities, the cost of external funds, and other information released during our sample period, we examine pension firms’ abnormal returns surrounding key dates in the legislative process leading to the adoption of the PPA 2006. First, we find a mean negative abnormal return of ?4.20 percent during the period in which the PPA 2006 was first voted on by Congress. The mean (median) firm in our sample experienced a $310 million ($60 million) decline in market capitalization. Second, we find that the valuation effect was more negative for firms with larger unfunded pension liabilities and larger capital expenditure requirements, while firms with higher marginal tax rates experienced a positive effect. Third, we find no evidence of differential valuation effects for firms in different “at risk” categories as defined by the PPA 2006. Finally, we find a significant number of pension freezes occurred during our sample period. Our results are stronger when excluding these firms from our sample.     

三青团井陉分团与井陉县国民党党部的关系

三民主义青年团简称三青团,是中国国民党史上,也是中国现代史上一个重要的政治组织。河北省井陉县三青团组织是国民党三青团组织的基层组织之一。蒋介石成立三青团有让其辅助国民党的意图。但三青团成立后,随着其组织势力的发展壮大,与国民党的矛盾越来越大,互相争权夺利、勾心斗角,党团之争成为国民党与三青团关系的焦点。三青团井陉分团成立后,与井陉县国民党党部的关系也并不融洽。     

Domestic and Foreign Earnings, Stock Return Variability, and the Impact of Investor Sophistication

We examine the importance of foreign earnings relative to domestic earnings for a sample of U.S. multinationals using variance decomposition. Our methodology represents an alternative and complementary approach over the prior literature, which is based on traditional regressions and earnings response coefficients. We document that domestic earnings are more important in explaining the variance of unexpected returns than are foreign earnings and that the relative importance of domestic earnings is a decreasing function of investor sophistication. Last, we classify institutional investors as either short‐ or long‐term oriented following Bushee [1998]. We find that the variance contribution of foreign earnings increases with the level of investment by long‐term investors. In contrast, there is no significant relation between the degree of ownership by short‐term (or transient) investors and the variance contribution of domestic and foreign earnings. Overall, our results are consistent with Thomas's [1999] finding that investors on average underestimate the persistence of foreign earnings.     

拉萨市乞讨的未成年人生存现状分析与对策研究

近年来,"乞讨人员"的话题一直备受社会各界的关注。而"乞讨"大军中的"未成年人"却鲜有关注,从拉萨市"未成年乞讨者"的角度出发,通过对未成年乞讨人员的问卷及社会调查问卷的整理分析,力图为完善拉萨社会救助体系提供一些参考。     

湖北荆门建设现代林业的SWOT分析及对策研究

根据湖北荆门的实际情况,对荆门建设现代林业进行了系统的SWOT分析,分析了荆门建设现代林业的优势和劣势、面临的机会和威胁,在此基础上,提出了生态建设产业化与产业建设生态化,构建完善的生态体系和发达的产业体系等相应的战略对策,希望为荆门现代林业建设提供决策依据.     

Relationship Trading in Over-the-Counter Markets

We examine the network of trading relationships between insurers and dealers in the over-the-counter (OTC) corporate bond market. Regulatory data show that one-third of insurers use a single dealer, whereas other insurers have large dealer networks. Execution prices are nonmonotone in network size, initially declining with more dealers but increasing once networks exceed 20 dealers. A model of decentralized trade in which insurers trade off the benefits of repeat business and faster execution quantitatively fits the distribution of insurers' network size and explains the price–network size relationship. Counterfactual analysis shows that regulations to unbundle trade and nontrade services can decrease welfare.