Dividend Stickiness,Debt Covenants,and Earnings Management

Consistent with the notion that dividends are very sticky, Daniel, Denis, and Naveen ( 2008 ) report evidence that firms manage earnings upward when pre‐managed earnings are expected to fall short of dividend payments. However, we find that this evidence is not robust when controlling for firms' tendency to manage earnings upward to avoid reporting earnings declines; only firms with high leverage exhibit a statistically weak tendency to manage earnings to close deficits of pre‐managed earnings relative to dividends. We further report that the decision to cut dividends depends on whether reported earnings fall short of past dividends, but not on earnings management that eliminates a shortfall in pre‐managed earnings relative to dividend payments. Overall, our evidence suggests that firms that face dividend constraints are more likely to cut dividends than to manage earnings to avoid dividend cuts.     

Corporate Governance and Corporate Bond Liquidity

Using a unique dataset of corporate bond trading information and corporate governance evaluation scores, this study examines the determinants of corporate bond market liquidity in Korea. In particular, this study explores whether corporate governance performance of a company influences liquidity of bonds issued by the company. The paper reports three important findings. First, the issue size and age of bond are important determinants of bond liquidity. Second, liquidity of corporate bonds is influenced by changes in macroeconomic conditions. Third, and most importantly, better corporate governance increases liquidity of corporate bonds. This result suggests that corporate governance is an important determinant of bond liquidity, as it lowers transaction costs by improving transparency and reducing asymmetry of information. This paper contributes to the literature by providing new evidence that corporate governance performance is an important determinant of liquidity in corporate bond markets.     

Enhancing direct regional agro-aqua tourism entrepreneurial marketing by farmers＇ market or community supported agriculture in small and medium agro marketing enterprises in Malaysia

The purpose of this study is attempting to examine the feasibility application of the concept of enhancing the Direct Regional Agriculture, Aquaculture and Tourism Entrepreneurial Marketing （DRAATEM） and the Small and Medium Agro Marketing Enterprises （SMAMEs） in Malaysia. This collaborative marketing concept will solve the local agro-aqua and tourism fraternities＇ plight where they are constantly preyed by the marketing scavengers or middleman and the possibility of entrepreneurial ventures by the farmers themselves. The methodology used is to determine the feasibility of Direct Regional Agro-Aqua and Tourism Entrepreneurial Marketing （DRAATEM） in SMAMEs that comprising local farmers in agriculture, aquaculture and its association, Ministry of Agriculture （agencies including district agriculture department, irrigation department, FAMA） and Tourism Industry （local tourist agencies and operator）. Local agro-aqua farmers＇ demographic factors （gender, race, academic level, knowledge and experiences of agro and aqua） will also examine to determine the feasibility of Direct Regional Agro Aqua Tourism Entrepreneurial Marketing concept. This study found that, there is a significant difference among factors stated with the enhancing of Direct Regional Agro Aqua Tourism Marketing Entrepreneurial concept in the Small and Medium Agro Aqua Tourism Marketing Enterprise management. The initiatives and eagerness to be successful in this concept depend on the inter-relatedness and collaborative of the tri-party of agro-aqua and tourism fraternities which constitute to the improving of their income, livelihood and generate national economy. In addition, the leadership quality of local farmer＇s cooperative, networking facility and agro-aqua knowledge are another three essential factors found to be the strong fundamental of improving the income and livelihood of local farmers. The implication of this study is upgrading of farmers income and livelihood minus the role of middleman by enhancing Direct Regional Agro-Aqua Tourism Entrepreneurial Marketing concept which is a pivotal role in managing agro sector effectively. This could contribute since agriculture is considered as the third engine of growth in the Malaysian economy. The devised models could be used to achieve the goal. As well as to provide further groundwork to assist existing and would be agro managers; entrepreneurs or agro-agencies to upgrade farmers＇ income and generate country＇s economy by enhancing Direct Regional Agro-Aqua Tourism Entrepreneurial Marketing （DRAATEM） concept in Small and Medium Agro Marketing Enterprises （SMAMEs）.     

贸易财属性与贸易政策竞争均衡

本文利用两国两异质财货的产业内贸易模型,讨论贸易财属性与贸易政策竞争均衡的决定,并获得以下结论:(1)当两国政府均采取相同的进口或出口政策时,不论产品的消费性质,最适进口贸易政策均为课税;最适出口贸易政策将随贸易财的消费性质而定.替代品为出口补贴,互补品为出口课税.(2)当产品为替代品且厂商在两国市场均实行数量竞争的情况下,进口课税政策虽将成为两国政府的优势策略,但出口补贴政策则更具有效率.在产品为互补品且厂商在两国市场均实行价格竞争的情况下,当产品的互补程度较小(大)时,进口课税(出口课税)政策将成为两国政府的优势策略;当互补程度中等时,两国政府有可能采取差异性的贸易政策.     

中韩产业结构高度化的比较分析——以两国制造业为例

展望未来韩国产业的发展与结构变化,中国产业结构变化是必须考虑的重要因素之一。本文为了探析中国的产业结构高度化趋势与程度,根据OECD技术分类标准,以制造业为中心,对中、韩两国的产业结构进行了详尽的比较分析。研究结果表示,两国都呈现出比较明显的产业高度化态势。在制造业中,高端技术产业的比重显著增加。韩国高端技术产业比重的增长快于中国,中国在中端技术产业与低端技术产业的比重大于韩国。     

Who Are the Potential Smokers of Smuggled Cigarettes?

Although smuggled cigarettes have been a prevalent problem and a severe challenge to public health and welfare around the world, little is known about the behavior associated with smoking smuggled cigarettes and the issue is difficult to study due to data limitations. By means of a population‐based tobacco survey conducted in Taiwan, the present paper applies a latent class model to identify potential smokers who are either currently or will at some point in the future be consuming smuggled cigarettes. This methodology, in contrast to the traditional discrete models, allows potential smokers who are more inclined to smoke smuggled cigarettes to be endogenously classified. The empirical results indicate that socio‐demographic factors do increase the inclination to smoke smuggled cigarettes after unobserved heterogeneity has been accounted for.     

Evolutionary Characteristics of China＇s Intermediate Manufactures

China's economic development is characterized by progressive integration with international production chains as an assembly producer. Japan and South Korea are the major partners providing intermediate products to China. The present paper analyzes the Chinese intermediate sector's present condition and evolutionary characteristics revealed in bilateral trade with Japan and South Korea. The analysis uses the framework of new trade theory represented by “intra‐industry trade”. Trade statistics from 1997 to 2004 are analyzed using the database published by the OECD. Results show that China's inter‐industrial evolution is characterized by its expanding positioning in the manner of the flying geese development paradigm of Asian countries. Furthermore, intra‐industrial evolution is characterized by a concentration on price competitiveness. The framework and results of the industrial analysis presented in this paper assist in the understanding of China's manufacturing evolution and of the policy‐making decisions taken in the process.     

Economic Effect of Zoning Regulations on Korea's Small and Medium‐Sized Retailers*

In this paper, we investigated the economic effects of zoning regulations on the retail industry in Korea. We estimated the changes in the number of sales for retail stores using a panel regression analysis for stores in traditional markets. This analysis was conducted to examine the benefit of zoning regulations on retail stores. Our results show that the zoning regulations (called Traditional Commercial Activity Protection Zones) have contributed to an improvement in the actual business performance of small independent retailers. We found that the amount of sales for each store clearly increased on average in the areas designated as Traditional Commercial Activity Protection Zones where there was no market entry of mega supermarket chains (called SSM in Korea). We also present evidence that the effects of this policy differ geographically: the effects were stronger for small and medium cities than for large metropolitan cities. These results suggest that zoning regulations enacted by the government to protect traditional markets and small retailers should also consider regional differences when assessing policy effectiveness.     

Bank Income Diversification,Asset Correlation and Systemic Risk

This paper explores whether the asset correlations among the non-interest activities of banks are the key causes for enhancing the bank diversification-systemic risk nexus. Our empirical evidence indicates that banks' income diversification significantly raises systemic risk. After removing those banks with high asset correlations, the effect of individual banks' diversification on banking systemic risk turns insignificant or even inverse. The results show that high asset correlations among banks could introduce bank failures, thereby leading to higher systemic risk in the financial sector.