Does economic policy uncertainty raise corporate precautionary cash holdings? Evidence from China

Using China as the research setting, this paper investigates the relationship between economic policy uncertainty and corporate precautionary cash holdings. Empirical results show a U-shaped relation between economic policy uncertainty and corporate precautionary cash holdings. Empirical analysis, in terms of ownership structure, firm size, corporate competitiveness and geographical location, further shows that (i) the effects for economic policy uncertainty in both state-owned and non-state-owned enterprises are significant, but the effect is stronger for state-owned enterprises; (ii) such significant effect is also found more strongly in small and medium-sized enterprises and highly competitive enterprises; and (iii) the effects for eastern, central and western China are all statistically significant, but the effect is strongest for eastern China.     

Back to the future. Is industry 4.0 a new tecno-organizational paradigm? Implications for Latin American countries

ABSTRACT

The objective of this article is to establish a dialogue between the recent ‘Industry 4.0’ (I4.0) literature and evolutionary neo-Schumpeterean studies about techno-organizational paradigms. In that direction, we wonder whether I4.0 constitutes a new paradigm, as it is assumed by the first group of literature, or it represents – until the moment – an intensification of key features of the information and communication technology (ICT) paradigm, following the second group of studies. Some questions are raised about the implications of I4.0 for developing countries (DEC), afterwards. Specifically, we reflect on the possibilities of these countries to identify and take advantage of new windows of opportunity, opened by the development and diffusion of these technologies. In this regard, the review of recent Latin American experience raises strong concerns regarding I4.0 as a new source of intra- and international heterogeneity, linked to the severe difficulties these countries have in appropriating these technologies in the form of productivity gains and quasi-rents. It seems that this is partially derived from weak technological, organizational, and connectivity capabilities paths of accumulation between institutions and actors.     

Antecedents of Purchase Intention in the Online Context

The understanding of the determinant factors of customer purchase intention is necessary, and it is equally important to study the online purchase context, since this context is disseminated among customers. A theoretical model has been elaborated on and tested, considering the constructs of information quality, distrust, and perceived risk as antecedents of purchase intention, and aiming to analyze the relationship among these constructs in the online purchase context. A quantitative research study has been performed by means of the application of a survey. Multivariate statistics techniques have been applied for data analyses, including structural equation modeling. This study contributes to the evolution of the empirically tested concepts by providing a greater individual understanding of each construct presented in the theoretical model, as well as the relationship among them as determinants of purchase intention; the indication is that meaningful relationships were found which may impact greater profitability and, consequently, greater competition for online retailers.     

完善高校内部会计控制的有效途径

内部控制制度是现代管理理论的重要组成部分，也是高校发展必不可少的管理工具之一。而目前内部控制制度的适用范围，多是针对企业而言，涉及高校的部分较少，即使是涉及到了也是不完善的。为更好地提高高校财务管理，使原本不够完善的内部控制模式实现其管理的功能，必须完善高校内部控制制度。更好地利用各种现代化管理方法等来发挥管理高校的职能，已经成为当前高校管理的重中之重。     

保险公司诉讼与诉讼预期相关性研究

近年来我国保险诉讼案件增势不减,有的历经一审、二审,有的还要再审。从媒体披露的结果看,保险公司无论作为原告还是被告,似乎都是胜少败多。本文通过对北京某人寿保险股份有限公司2005年～2008年诉讼、诉讼预期数据的实证调研,探讨保险公司诉讼预期是否实现及实现程度,在此基础上提出更理性、更具可操作性的建议。     

央视有责任承担制定广告标准的任务

国内的电视业正处在激烈竞争、白热化追求栏目收视率的状态中，同时各种广告真真假假地充斥着荧屏，在这样的大环境下，央视赵台长提出了“绿色收视率与绿色收入”的概念，倡导以先进文化、构建和谐社会为己任，我认为从微观上看无论是对广大的电视观众来说，还是对广告主来说是都一件值得倡导的好事。     

“取人之短”亦生财

美国休勒特——派克德公司有着一套自己独特的营销策略，即从不首先研究开发新产品，而是等别的公司新产品露面后，立即派出员工，深入用户那里调查取证，虚心向用户探询新产品的优缺点、用户的建议，然后再依据用户的这些意见和建议，迅速开发出完全符合顾客要求的“新产品”。由于它在借鉴其他公司优点的同时克服了其中的缺点，     

China's economic development: does exchange rate and FDI nexus matter?

This study aims to investigate the relationship between China's exchange rate, foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows, and economic development. We applied the bound testing approach on aggregate level data from 1981 to 2013. The results showed that the Chinese economy benefitted from a lower exchange rate over this period, and that there was a direct link between FDI inflows and economic development on an aggregate level both in the long and short run. The results of the Granger causality test identified a long‐ and short‐run association among these variables. The GMM estimations with dummies for financial crises and RMB exchange rate policy fluctuations also confirmed the growth enhancing impact of the exchange rate and FDI inflows. To promote sustainable economic development in the future, China should focus on improving the levels of domestic investment and human capital, as well as supervising the level of openness and capital controls.     

A consistent characteristic function-based test for conditional independence

Y is conditionally independent of Z given X   if Pr{f(y|X,Z)=f(y|X)}=1$\{f(y|X,Z)=f(y|X)\}=1$ for all y on its support, where f(·|·)$f(·|·)$ denotes the conditional density of Y   given (X,Z)$(X,Z)$ or X.$X.$ This paper proposes a nonparametric test of conditional independence based on the notion that two conditional distributions are equal if and only if the corresponding conditional characteristic functions are equal. We extend the test of Su and White (2005. A Hellinger-metric nonparametric test for conditional independence. Discussion Paper, Department of Economics, UCSD) in two directions: (1) our test is less sensitive to the choice of bandwidth sequences; (2) our test has power against deviations on the full support of the density of (X,Y,Z$X,Y,Z$). We establish asymptotic normality for our test statistic under weak data dependence conditions. Simulation results suggest that the test is well behaved in finite samples. Applications to stock market data indicate that our test can reveal some interesting nonlinear dependence that a traditional linear Granger causality test fails to detect.