Empirical Evidence of the Leverage Effect in a Stochastic Volatility Model: A Realized Volatility Approach

Increasing attention has been focused on the analysis of the realized volatility, which can be treated as a proxy for the true volatility. In this paper, we study the potential use of the realized volatility as a proxy in a stochastic volatility model estimation. We estimate the leveraged stochastic volatility model using the realized volatility computed from five popular methods across six sampling-frequency transaction data (from 1-min to 60- min) based on the trust region method. Availability of the realized volatility allows us to estimate the model parameters via the MLE and thus avoids computational challenge in the high dimensional integration. Six stock indices are considered in the empirical investigation. We discover some consistent findings and interesting patterns from the empirical results. In general, the significant leverage effect is consistently detected at each sampling frequency and the volatility persistence becomes weaker at the lower sampling frequency.     

Organizational Change in Difficult Times: A Case Study on the Top Management Team of Founder Group from 1999 to 2008

This paper examines organizational changes in Founder Group during 1999–2008, one of the leading computer manufacturers in China. It aims to reveal the basic logic behind the top management team’s behaviors for organizational change in firms facing difficulties. Results show that building a strong management team is a prerequisite for successful organizational changes. Furthermore, there is evidence indicating that top managers should make strategic adjustment, and seek solution to cash-flow-related problems to achieve successful organizational transition.     

Trade Liberalization and Wage Inequality: Evidence from the U.S. States

This paper examines the relationship between trade liberalization and wage inequality for 50 U.S. states during the period from 1999 to 2008. The Difference-in-Differences and fixed effects methods are employed to evaluate the effect of trade liberalization on wage inequality in the U.S. states. Empirical results reveal that trade liberalization and de-unionization do increase the wage inequality between skilled and unskilled workers. Evidence shows skill-biased technological change has no significant impact on rising wage inequality. As Difference-in-Differences estimation on time-series cross sectional data involves many years, the conventional standard errors often understate the standard deviation of the estimators. This paper employs the standard bootstrapping procedure and the clustering error procedure to correct the problem, and all sign patterns still hold.     

Upgrading from OEM to OBM through Reverse Acquisition in China’s Emerging Economy: The Case of Lacquer Craft Mfg

In this paper, we review how original equipment manufacturing (OEM) firms break the “lock in the global value chains” (GVCs) and upgrade to original/own brand manufacturing (OBM) through accelerated internationalization. We focus on investigating how Lacquer Craft Mfg (later referred to as Lacquer Craft), an OEM firm in southern China successfully upgraded to OBM through reverse acquisitions. By proactively utilizing the resources (including the mindset or perspectives formulated) generated from practicing OEM, Lacquer Craft developed the needed capabilities to build its own brand in an international setting. Lacquer Craft’s successful experiences show that in a globalized economy, the ability to identify and exploit opportunities to link with established players, and the ability to search, acquire, and integrate strategic assets from the developed world rather than replicating the entire previous technological trajectory greatly facilitate the OEM firm in climbing up the value-added ladder and upgrading to OBM. This is a more aggressive upgrading approach. Its experiences also reveal that a firm’s product and technological upgrading strategies are closely interwoven with its internationalization strategy.     

You Don’t Actually Want to Get Closer to the Star: How LMX Leads to Workplace Ostracism

High-quality leader-member exchange (LMX) is commonly seen as beneficial to employees. However, this is not always the case in the eyes of other members of the same team. Based on social comparison theory, we propose that members who have high-quality LMX relationships with team leaders might face workplace ostracism through being envied by other members of the same team. Further, we hypothesize that this indirect influence is mitigated by the high-quality LMX member’s agreeableness. Based on data from 196 employees, we found that though ostensibly LMX quality directly led to less workplace ostracism, it had a positive effect on workplace ostracism through being envied by other team members, and agreeableness buffered this indirect positive effect. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

A CGE analysis of oil price change

As Chinese economy system has been depended more on the import of petroleum with the development of China, the change in the price of international oil have caused concern among economists and policy makers. This paper is to present a financial Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model of the Chinese economy which integrates real economy and financial sectors, and to apply it to quantitatively evaluate the impacts on Chinese economy caused by international oil price changes. And the model endogenously determines the exchange rate, covering fixed, partially flexible, and completely flexile exchange rate system to consider the effect of foreign oil price changes from the point of view of macro and industrial aspects. Finally, this paper presents concluding remarks.     

Exchange rate pass-through: The case of China

This paper studies the degree of the exchange rate pass-through (ERPT) to import and consumer prices in China with both the ratio of China’s imports to GDP and domestic prices of China’s main trade partners going up. Statistic results show that the degree of ERPT is somehow less than the degree of marginal cost plus mark-up pass-through of exporters, and econometric analyses reach the same conclusion. Besides, the ERPT to import prices is found to be high while the ERPT to CPI is low owing to some factors that obstruct the import prices pass-through channel to domestic CPI. But this situation has been changing significantly since August 2005. Thus, a more flexible exchange rate system is needed for China to absorb the price shock from aboard efficiently.     

China’s value-added tax reform,firm behavior and performance

China reformed value-added tax (VAT) by removing investment from the tax base in northeastern provinces in 2004, which is a “natural experiment” of its tax system. Using difference-in-differences method, this paper for the first time investigates the impact of VAT reform on China firms’ fixed asset investment, employment behavior, innovative activities, and productivity, and furthermore discusses the impact of firm behavior on industrial structural upgrade and employment with a firm-level panel data of large and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises in China. We find that VAT reform significantly promotes firms’ fixed asset investment, and increases firms’ capital-labor ratio and productivity; while enhancement of firms’ productivity is mainly achieved by means of substituting labor with capital, rather than independent technology innovation; meanwhile, VAT reform distinctly decreases employment. Our findings have essential policy implications on the extension of VAT reform in the entire China.     

如何重振A股市场信心

从九十年代第一发行股票开始,中国股票市场经历了二十多年的发展历程。但作为欠缺成熟的市场．我国股市存在着许多深层次的问题。严重损害了投资者的信心,违背了股市的基本原则。无论是在国内还是海外,“中国股票市场缺的不是资金．而是信心”已经成为投资者的共识,．重新建立起股民对中国股市的信心到底难在何处？它有赖于包括政府、企业、中介机构、投资者自身、制度的完善等一系列系统工程的跟进。对这个问题进行一个较全面的探讨就是本文的目的所在     

Home Market Effects of Foreign Trade in China＇s Manufacturing Sector： Analysis Using International Standard Industry Classification Panel Data

In this paper,we use 2002-2008 International Standard Industry Classification two-digit bilateral trade panel data for manufacturing industries in China and the OECD countries to test for the existence of home market effects.We find that significant home market effects exist in 8 out of 12 industries.These industries include the food,beverage and tobacco industry, wood products,the paper products and printing industry,chemical products,other nonmetallic mineral products,machinery and equipment,transport equipment,and miscellaneous products and waste resources recycling industry.Textile,clothing and leather manufacturing,oil refining and nuclear fuel manufacturing,rubber and plastics,and basic metals and fabricated metal products industries do not exhibit home market effects.Indeed, strong reverse home market effects occur for oil refining and nuclear fuel manufacturing and for the rubber and plastics industry.The empirical results reveal that certain industries benefit from new export opportunities due to the expansion of domestic demand in China.