Determinants of credit loan securitization in Chinese banking

This paper investigates the factors that drive securitization in China using a panel dataset drawn from the financial statements of 83 commercial banks. Given the unique banking and regulatory environment in China, we consider both conventional motivations for securitization and the role of nontraditional factors, including shadow banking. Across a variety of econometric specifications, there is little evidence that banks securitize for typical reasons, including to fund liquidity, transfer credit risk, or reduce regulatory capital. We do find, however, that as banks approach limits on loan to deposit ratios, subsequent securitization activities rise. In addition, robust evidence is presented to show that high levels of nontraditional banking activities precede a decision to securitize. As there is little evidence to suggest that shadow banking activities are receding, the overall findings indicate that banks may be using securitization to mitigate regulatory risk.     

Wage and Price Dynamics in China

We study wage‐price dynamics in Mainland China with a novel data set using province‐level data from 1994 to 2010. We find that the growth in labour costs in China is not passed through fully to final prices, neither in the tradable goods sector nor in the economy as a whole. This probably reflects the strong pressure on profit margins from a highly competitive environment, especially in manufactured goods. These findings have potential implications for global price developments, given China's relevance in global supply chains.     

The case for price level or inflation targeting—What happened to monetary policy effectiveness during the Japanese disinflation?

This paper examines whether price level or inflation targeting would have been appropriate policy choices for Japan during its disinflation and deflation period. We employ Markov switching and structural vector autoregressions, together with structural IS equations, to investigate monetary policy effectiveness during the Japanese disinflation. We find evidence of regime switching in the mid-1990s in a model including the nominal policy interest rate. When monetary policy shocks are identified by using the McCallum rule for monetary base, a monetary expansion is found to have a statistically significant impact on prices. Moreover, a lower real ex ante interest rate can still stimulate the economy despite the zero lower bound on nominal interest rates.     

Theorising change and stability in service ecosystems: a morphogenetic approach

Service scholars are recognising the complex, adapting, and dynamic nature of value creating service systems. There remains an opportunity to explore the dynamic properties of these multilevel systems and build explanations of how these complex systems change and stabilise providing the context for value creation. This paper builds on the continuing work and use of sociological theory in these efforts and argues for an alternative meta-theoretical approach and accompanying framework. Together this contribution provides a basis for building midrange theory to address the stabilising (morphostatic) and change inducing (morphogenetic) mechanisms in service ecosystems.     

What Drives Urban Consumption in Mainland China? The Role of Property Price Dynamics

This paper adds to the literature on wealth effects on consumption by disentangling house price effects on consumption for mainland China. In a stochastic modelling framework, the riskiness, rate of increase and persistence of house price movements have different implications for the consumption/housing ratio. We exploit the geographical variation in property prices by using a quarterly city‐level panel data set for the period 1998Q1–2009Q4 and rely on a panel error correction model. Overall, the results suggest a significant long‐run impact of property prices on consumption. They also broadly confirm the predictions from the theoretical model.     

The Market Reaction to Discontinuing Regular Stock Dividends

This paper investigates the behavior of returns to share-holders of NYSE and AMEX firms that publicly announce the discontinuance of regular stock dividends. Using event-type methodology, the results show that the average abnormal return for NYSE and AMEX firms is negative but not statistically significant on the event date. Partitioning the sample by stock-related characteristics shows that for small firms with low stock prices and low institutional ownership, management's decision to drop regular stock dividends conveys a significantly negative signal, which, in turn, causes stock prices to decline. Firms that drop a stock payment and simultaneously initiate or increase cash dividends experience a significant increase in shareholder wealth. However, firms that drop the stock dividend policy and do not begin a cash dividend policy experience a sharp decline in shareholder wealth.     

The Impact of Pension Age Changes — The Case of Malta

After remaining unchanged for several decades, the pension age in Malta started to rise in 2012. This process, which will continue until 2026, was introduced to help boost the workforce and partially countervail the impact of the country’s demographic transition. The scope of this article is to review evidence on the impact to date of these changes and to use this to try to understand the potential impact of remaining pension age changes.     

Participation in Philanthropic Activities: Donating Money and Time

The 1994 Independent Sector Survey of Giving and Volunteering conducted by the Gallup Organization was used to study the propensities with which people are solicited for money or time as well as the probabilities that people will volunteer time or donate money or property, given they have been solicited or not solicited, utilizing a two-stage probit analysis. Forty-five percent of respondents were asked by philanthropic organizations to volunteer time in 1994. Of those, 80% did volunteer. Some 78% of respondents were asked to donate money or property in 1994. Of those, 85% donated some money or property. Human, social, and cultural capital explained those who were solicited to volunteer. The same variables plus income variables determined whom to be solicited for donating money or property. Human, social, and cultural capital and income variables accounted for more variation in the probabilities to volunteer or donate, given respondents were not asked to contribute, than the probabilities to volunteer or donate, given respondents were asked to contribute.     

Exchange rate puzzles and distorted beliefs

We propose a new explanation for the foreign exchange forward-premium and delayed-overshooting puzzles. We show that both puzzles arise from a systematic distortion in investors' beliefs about the interest rate process. Accordingly, the forward premium is always a biased predictor of future depreciation; the bias can be so severe as to lead to negative coefficients in the ‘Fama’ regression. Delayed overshooting may or may not occur depending upon the persistence of interest rate innovations and the degree of misperception. We document empirically the extent of this distortion using survey data for G-7 countries against the U.S. and find that it is strong enough to account for these irregularities.     

"生活方式"研究综述:一个消费者行为学的视角

“生活方式”自19世纪60年代被引入消费者行为学研究领域以来,已取代人口统计学方法,成为最重要的市场细分工具之一。本文首先回顾了生活方式市场细分研究的历史,然后针对中国市场的特殊情况,着重介绍了AIO方法的理论和应用,并指出对消费者生活方式的深入研究,是现阶段中国营销人在市场竞争中取胜的关键。