The Robustness of the APT to Alternative Estimators

We test the robustness of the APT to two alternative estimation procedures: the Fama and MacBeth (1973) two-step methodology; and the one-step procedure due to Burmeister and McElroy (1988). We find that the APT is indeed sensitive to the chosen estimator and assumptions about the factor structure of stock returns. We believe that our findings have implications for the estimation of asset pricing models in general.     

构建中型商业银行竞争优势策略研究

随着商业银行主体意识和危机意识的不断增强．“营销管理”也不断被商业银行所采纳、运用，逐步渗透到其经营活动中。从而形成了新一轮竞争的特点。规模不同、地位不同的竞争个体，其营销战略选择是不一样。正是基于此，本文把我国商业银行划分为三类：国有商业银行、中型商业银行和地区性商业银行。国有商业银行特指四大国有商业银行；中型商业银行是指全国性的新兴股份制商业银行：地区性商业银行是指其他机构网点仅限于当地的银行机构。     

Condition-Based Depreciation — The Engineering Perspective

Condition-based depreciation (CBD) is a method of accounting for the combined maintenance and renewal effort required to ensure infrastructure asset networks retain their service potential. CBD methods entail the calculation of an annuity based on detailed asset management plans, which forecast works programs over the foreseeable lifecycle of the network and link them to service need projections. CBD has not gained wide acceptance by the accounting profession, because of concerns about the methos underlying assumptions and potential problems with its application. These concerns are analysed from the perspective of the engineering profession (which is frequently the custodian of such assets), and the feasibility of the method demonstrated in a number of case studies.     

论知识经济学的一个重要基本原理——消费决定生产原理

一、马克思主义的“生产决定消费”原理模型与知识经济学的“消费决定生产”原理模型生产是社会再生产过程诸环节中的决定性环节,对交换、分配和消费各环节起主要的决定的作用,没有生产就没有交换、分配和消费;交换、分配和消费反过来又影响生产。这是马克思主义的一个基本原理     

Statistical Decision Problems and Bayesian Nonparametric Methods

This paper considers parametric statistical decision problems conducted within a Bayesian nonparametric context. Our work was motivated by the realisation that typical parametric model selection procedures are essentially incoherent. We argue that one solution to this problem is to use a flexible enough model in the first place, a model that will not be checked no matter what data arrive. Ideally, one would use a nonparametric model to describe all the uncertainty about the density function generating the data. However, parametric models are the preferred choice for many statisticians, despite the incoherence involved in model checking, incoherence that is quite often ignored for pragmatic reasons. In this paper we show how coherent parametric inference can be carried out via decision theory and Bayesian nonparametrics. None of the ingredients discussed here are new, but our main point only becomes evident when one sees all priors—even parametric ones—as measures on sets of densities as opposed to measures on finite-dimensional parameter spaces.     

Initial public offerings in the gaming industry: an empirical study

The fastest growing segment of the hospitality industry is gaming-related business. This industry has experienced record numbers of companies going public, and their stocks are considered favorable long-term investments. Research in the initial public offering (IPO) area suggests that investors acquiring stock at the initial offering price earn large returns. The purpose of this study was to determine if large returns are being experienced for IPOs in the gaming segment of the hospitality industry, and if these large returns were limited to investors who purchased the stock at the initial offer price. There were 14 gaming-related companies selected for the study. The conclusions supported research reporting that the highest returns from IPO investments are made when the stock is purchased at the initial offer price. This study concludes that returns based on the initial offer price were greater than the casino index and the IPO index. When the investor purchased the stock at the first day's closing price, however, returns compared to the two indices were surpassed only after holding the stock for 8 weeks.     

Integration in the mortgage market

The deregulatory trend and advances in technology during the 1980s removed many restrictions on the ability of U.S. depository financial institutions to obtain and redistribute funds across diverse geographical markets. This pervasive deregulation and innovation should have increased the degree of integration between different geographical financial markets. Yet there is little empirical evidence available on the validity of this expectation. It is important to provide such evidence since much of the U.S. depository institution regulatory policy is predicated on the assumption of highly localized, segmented financial markets. Considering alternative breakpoints at 1980 (DIDMCA) and at 1982 (Garn-St Germain), the current study tests the hypothesis that the degree of geographical financial integration after this period exceeded that prior to this period. Mortgage markets are focused on due to their historical importance in the regulation of funds flows. The study finds a significant increase in the mean contemporaneous correlation among FHLB districts' mortagage rate residuals in a vector-autoregressive system between two test periods. Further analysis shows that the distance between FHLB districts' headquarters and their respective pairwise interdistrict correlation coefficients are negatively related in the prior period but not significantly related in the later period. Economic booms and busts alternated among the districts over the two sample periods in a manner consistent with the reallocation of capital among more integrated financial markets. Individual districts' mortgage rates have been more sensitive to variations in national credit market conditions since deregulation was legally recognized by DIDMCA in 1980. Thus, the collective empirical evidence found in this study indicates that mortgage markets have responded to deregulation and marked technological advances by moving toward a national, highly integrated market. Regulators' preoccupation with highly localized, segmented markets must consequently be reexamined.