The Usefulness of Accrual Information in Non‐mandatory Environments: The Case of Japanese Local Government

This study investigates how accrual accounting is used in a system in which it co‐exists with cash accounting. It uses a survey methodology to explore the factors that influence the extent to which accrual information is useful for decision making, when used in a dual system. The results show that although accrual information was used less for budgeting, evaluation, asset management or debt management, officials found accrual information useful for performance management. Moreover, neither experience nor leadership significantly contributed to decision‐making effectiveness. The study also found that the central government was the most influential promoter of accrual accounting in Japan. Of particular interest is the link between performance measurement and accrual information.     

Strategy switching in the Japanese stock market

This paper investigates the expectation formation process of Japanese stock market professionals. By utilizing a monthly forecast survey dataset on the TOPIX distributed by QUICK Corporation, we sort forecasters into buy-side and sell-side professionals. We empirically demonstrate that the buy-side and sell-side professionals use either fundamental or trend-following strategies throughout their expectation formation processes and that they switch between fundamental and trend-following strategies over time. We also discuss that strategy switching can be key in understanding the persistent deviation of the TOPIX from the fundamentals.     

RAISING CAPITAL BY ISSUING TRANSFERABLE MEMBERSHIP IN A WORKER COOPERATIVE

It is generally recognized that worker cooperatives have a disadvantage in raising capital compared with conventional capitalist firms. In this paper, we explore a method for a worker cooperative to raise non‐redeemable equity by issuing transferable membership shares as financial securities.     

Proxy contests and corporate democracy

A proxy contest is a fight between two management teams to gain proxies from shareholders.The management team which accumulates a majority of votes wins the competition for corpo rate control. This paper attempts to construct a formal model of proxy contests and analyze their implications for the shareholders’ benefit and power of control over the firm.     

Emission Allowance as a Derivative on Commodity-Spread

We provide a valuation formula for emission allowance. Assuming that the value of emission allowance on the last day of a trading phase is equal to a spread of commodity prices (e.g. electricity and natural gas) when the spread is positive and less than the penalty, we show that the emission allowance price is equal to the value of a portfolio of European call options on the spread of the commodities. Using the formula, we obtain a hedging strategy for emission allowance trading. We also empirically analyze option value embedded in emission allowance, and find by numerical analysis that the option value is relatively large.     

Return Dynamics of Japanese Stock Index Options

This paper addresses the return dynamics of stock index options. Distributional moments are suggestive of a skewness preference hypothesis that provides an economic rationale for investors' interest in options. There is no evidence of detectable intermarket arbitrage opportunities from cross- sectional tests of volatility ratio and implied elasticity. Joint tests of market efficiency and parity dynamics suggest that the longer the remaining life of at-the-money options, the higher the likelihood of parity deviations being absorbed in response to percentage index changes. There are also indications of maturing Japanese options markets from rational expectations and parity regression tests.     

Are cooperative firms a less competitive form of business? Production efficiency and financial viability of cooperative firms with tradable membership shares

Cooperative firms are generally considered a less competitive form of business than conventional capitalist firms in a market system. In this study, we consider cooperative firms that issue tradable membership shares and show that they are in principle as efficient and financially viable as capitalist firms. This implies that, if allowed to issue tradable membership shares, cooperative firms could be a promising alternative to capitalist firms in a wider range of circumstances.     

Is FTA/EPA effective for a developing country to attract FDI? The knowledge‐capital model revisited

To prepare an answer to the question of how a developing country can attract foreign direct investment (FDI), this paper explored the factors and policies that may help bring FDI into a developing country by utilising an extended version of the knowledge‐capital model. With a special focus on the effects of a free trade agreement (FTA) or an economic partnership agreement (EPA) between a pair of market and non‐market countries, simulations with the model revealed the following: (i) although FTA/EPA generally tends to increase FDI to a developing country, the possibility of improving welfare through increased demand for skilled and unskilled labour decreases as the size of the country grows; (ii) a developing country may suffer severe welfare losses through FTA/EPA if the availability of skilled labour is extremely limited; and (iii) a developing country can enhance welfare gains from a FTA, and it is even possible to recover the welfare effects from negative to positive, by making the arrangement an EPA.     

Asymptotic properties of the efficient estimators for cointegrating regression models with serially dependent errors

In this paper, we analytically investigate three efficient estimators for cointegrating regression models: Phillips and Hansen’s [Phillips, P.C.B., Hansen, B.E., 1990. Statistical inference in instrumental variables regression with I(1) processes. Review of Economic Studies 57, 99–125] fully modified OLS estimator, Park’s [Park, J.Y., 1992. Canonical cointegrating regressions. Econometrica 60, 119–143] canonical cointegrating regression estimator, and Saikkonen’s [Saikkonen, P., 1991. Asymptotically efficient estimation of cointegration regressions. Econometric Theory 7, 1–21] dynamic OLS estimator. We consider the case where the regression errors are moderately serially correlated and the AR coefficient in the regression errors approaches 1 at a rate slower than 1/T$1/T$, where T$T$ represents the sample size. We derive the limiting distributions of the efficient estimators under this system and find that they depend on the approaching rate of the AR coefficient. If the rate is slow enough, efficiency is established for the three estimators; however, if the approaching rate is relatively faster, the estimators will have the same limiting distribution as the OLS estimator. For the intermediate case, the second-order bias of the OLS estimator is partially eliminated by the efficient methods. This result explains why, in finite samples, the effect of the efficient methods diminishes as the serial correlation in the regression errors becomes stronger. We also propose to modify the existing efficient estimators in order to eliminate the second-order bias, which possibly remains in the efficient estimators. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we demonstrate that our modification is effective when the regression errors are moderately serially correlated and the simultaneous correlation is relatively strong.