高效率并不意味高利润

正服务业企业的生产率与利润率之间,呈现一种"倒U型"关系,存在一个最优的生产率水平。对服务业企业而言,与其把生产率作为最大化的目标来对待,不如当作战略决策变量,即选择最合适的生产率,从而最大化利润率     

Home-country government support,the belt and road initiative,and the foreign performance of Chinese state-owned subsidiaries

State-owned (SO) multinational enterprises (MNEs) from emerging economies face two contradictory effects on their foreign operations due to their linkage with their home-country governments. Although home governments provide SO MNEs with resources, the affiliation also exposes SO MNEs to the legitimacy challenges in the host countries. Given this theoretical debate, we propose that home government support may facilitate SO MNEs’ post-entry operations in the host markets. Furthermore, because the legitimacy pressures directed at SO MNEs may be contingent on the interstate relations between the host and home governments facilitated by China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the BRI cooperative relations may shift the effect of home government support. Using survey and archival data, we find that home government support has a positive impact on the foreign performance of SO subsidiaries. This effect is weaker in countries that are cooperating with the BRI than in those that are not. Moreover, institutional distance weakens the negative interactive effect between BRI cooperation and home government support on the performance of SO MNEs’ foreign subsidiaries. These findings extend the institutional perspective by highlighting an alternative source of legitimacy for MNEs with distinctive attributes and in various host conditions.

     

Political hazards and entry modes of Chinese investments in Africa

Africa has achieved the fastest growth rate of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) recently. Yet heightened political hazards present substantial challenges to foreign firms in Africa. This study examines the entry strategies that firms may take to mitigate such hazards by exploring the relationship between political hazards and entry mode choices in Africa. We further consider how an investing firm’s host country experience and foreign aid provided by its home country government to host countries in Africa can influence this relationship. In a sample of listed Chinese firms’ investments in Africa from 2000 to 2014, we find that Chinese firms tend to use the joint venture mode when political hazards are high in an African country. This relationship is weakened when they accumulate host country experience and when the Chinese government’s foreign aid to an African country increases. Our findings point to firm-level strategies to mitigate political hazards as well as instruments available to home country governments to help their multinational firms operating in host countries characterized by unstable political environments.     

Do Court Decisions Drive the Federal Trade Commission’s Enforcement Policy on Merger Settlements?

Mergers are generally conglomerate in nature with only minor (if any) horizontal overlaps. Under U.S. law, an enforcement agency may challenge any anticompetitive aspect of the merger and the consequent delay associated with litigation would impose costs on the firm. These costs may give the enforcement agency “leverage” to extract a settlement even when the firm would prevail in court. This paper explores whether the FTC’s decisions to challenge transactions approximate the case law. We find that the representative enforcement regimes of the FTC and the courts are remarkably similar, although the FTC credits efficiencies, while courts consider buyer sophistication as a mitigating factor.     

Market liquidity, asset prices, and welfare

This paper represents an equilibrium model for the demand and supply of liquidity and its impact on asset prices and welfare. We show that, when constant market presence is costly, purely idiosyncratic shocks lead to endogenous demand of liquidity and large price deviations from fundamentals. Moreover, market forces fail to lead to efficient supply of liquidity, which calls for potential policy interventions. However, we demonstrate that different policy tools can yield different efficiency consequences. For example, lowering the cost of supplying liquidity on the spot (e.g., through direct injection of liquidity or relaxation of ex post margin constraints) can decrease welfare while forcing more liquidity supply (e.g., through coordination of market participants) can improve welfare.     

模型危机还是应用不当造成的危机?——对《高盛风险之海市蜃楼》一文批驳VaR模型之反驳

次贷风波所引起的金融危机不但使国际银行业一度岌岌可危,而且沉重打击了世界经济。作为市场风险管理的核心,Vag模型遭到各方诟病。通过分析《高盛风险之海市蜃楼》一文,本文归纳了对Vag模型的几点认识误区,包括忽略对外部数据准确性的考核与检验,在模型应用上未能对正常市场情况与极端市场情况区别对待等。本文进而论证Vag仍是当前风险管理的首选工具,提出对收益率概率密度分布的选择将是Vag模型进一步发展的核心与关键,强调数据分析,指出量化研究应作为主观判断的前提与基础等观点。     

海南新政策与商业银行的机遇及策略研究

《国务院关于推进海南国际旅游岛建设的若干意见》为海南经济发展提供了强大的推动力,给商业银行传统业务拓展和创新业务探索带来新的契机,也给商业银行区域业务的可持续发展注入新活力。秉承收益与风险并重的原则,积极主动地在海南拓展市场与业务,深谋策略,远虑风险,应是我国商业银行的理性选择。     

统筹城乡发展:理论演进与财税政策

新中国成立以来,非均衡发展的战略使我国形成了以二元户籍制度为核心的城乡分割的二元经济、社会体制。本文对二元经济理论的演进路径进行了梳理,提出我国财税政策要从保障城乡公民基本权利、促进劳动力自由流动、提高农业劳动生产率、加快农村专业化水平与分工等方面支持统筹城乡发展,并对财税体制进行相应变革。     

贷款准备金政策框架下的区域货币政策独立性

美国次贷危机引发这轮全球性金融危机凸显了以美国为核心的金融资本主义模式和以美元为核心国际货币金融体系的制度性缺陷,改革现行以美元为核心的国际货币金融体系势在必行,建立货币区是较为现实的选择。但在现行货币政策框架下,货币区建设不可避免会陷入三元悖论困境。本文提出在贷款准备金政策框架下,货币区能在保证其内在要求的资本自由流动和汇率稳定基本前提下,区内各个成员仍能保持货币政策独立性。     

An Optimal Product Mix for Hedging Longevity Risk in Life Insurance Companies: The Immunization Theory Approach

This article investigates the natural hedging strategy to deal with longevity risks for life insurance companies. We propose an immunization model that incorporates a stochastic mortality dynamic to calculate the optimal life insurance–annuity product mix ratio to hedge against longevity risks. We model the dynamic of the changes in future mortality using the well‐known Lee–Carter model and discuss the model risk issue by comparing the results between the Lee–Carter and Cairns–Blake–Dowd models. On the basis of the mortality experience and insurance products in the United States, we demonstrate that the proposed model can lead to an optimal product mix and effectively reduce longevity risks for life insurance companies.