Do analysts who understand accounting conservatism exhibit better forecasting performance?

This study investigates the performance of analysts when they match the asymmetric timeliness of their earnings forecast revisions (i.e., asymmetric forecast timeliness) with the asymmetric timeliness of firms’ reported earnings (i.e., asymmetric earnings timeliness). We find that better timeliness‐matching analysts produce more accurate earnings forecasts and elicit stronger market reactions to their forecast revisions. Further, better timeliness‐matching analysts issue less biased earnings forecasts, more profitable stock recommendations and have more favorable career outcomes. Overall, our results indicate that analysts’ ability to incorporate conditional conservatism into their earnings forecasts is an important reflection of analyst expertise and professional success.     

Strategic HRM in China: Configurations and competitive advantage

The strategic HR literature suggests that a firm will perform better through internal appropriate fit among HRM practices (the configuration fit) and through external appropriate fit between a firm's HRM practices and business strategy. The present study adopts a configuration approach to identify unique patterns of HR practices and business strategy that are posited to be maximally effective. The proposed relationships were empirically tested by surveying with a sample of 241 business firms in Guangzhou, South China, to find out the extent that four HR configurations could be successfully adopted in the Chinese context. The results revealed that HR configurations are significantly related to effect in predicting overall outcome performance and turnover, but not significantly related to effect on sales growth and profit growth rates. Research findings showed not only competitive strategies are significantly related to effect on HR configurations. The results also showed significant interaction effects between HR configurations and business strategy in their effect on profit and sales growth. These results further extended support for a contingency perspective in strategic HRM to the Chinese context, with significant practical implications for managing HRM in China. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Measurement of Quality of Life and Well‐Being in France: The Drivers of Subjective Well‐Being

Ever since the publication of the Stiglitz Report, France has been heavily involved in the measurement of well‐being. The French Statistical Institute (INSEE) has expanded the scope of its existing surveys. It has also launched an innovative experimental survey which, drawing upon a single statistical source, aims for the first time to explore the different dimensions of both objective and subjective quality of life, as highlighted in the Stiglitz Report. It allows us to study, at the individual level, correlations between these dimensions and the accumulation of deprivations. It has enabled us to better understand the links between determinants generally referred to as objective dimensions of quality of life (such as health or education) and subjective well‐being. This information is of paramount importance for policy makers who cannot act directly on the level of people's satisfaction but can only act upon the levers of objective dimensions. This paper presents the main findings of the experimental survey.     

Testing for the Presence of Moral Hazard Using the Regulatory Reform in the Car Insurance Market: Case of Korea

The aim of this paper is to investigate the presence of the moral hazard phenomenon in the Korean car insurance market. In the context of natural experiment, I examine whether the regulatory reform introduced in 2000 generates significant difference in accident probability between before and after the reform. Further, I analyse the different effects of regulatory reform on different parts of the outcome distribution. In any case, I do not find the significant effects of regulatory reform on accident probability.     

Do networks or performance impact the promotion of Chinese officials? Evidence from prefecture‐level cities

This study examines the effects of connections and economic performance on the promotion of Chinese city mayors. Our study differs from the published literature in four respects. First, this study covers a comprehensive data set, including 1,422 mayors from 284 prefecture‐level cities. The use of a large data set helps resolve mixed results of past studies. Second, we use a broader range of top leaders. Third, we apply a more comprehensive definition of connections than earlier studies. Finally, we examine the effects of the policy shift of the 11th 5‐year plan on promotion of mayors. Our results reveal that the performance of a city mayor assisted his/her promotion to party secretary before 2006 but not afterwards. However, a mayor's connection with five types of top leaders is helpful. Among the four types of connection, colleagueship is the most effective in expediting the promotion of mayors. Graduating from the same university and department is also helpful but to a lesser extent. Township connection is not useful.     

LABOR MOBILITY OF IMMIGRANTS: TRAINING,EXPERIENCE, LANGUAGE,AND OPPORTUNITIES*

This article analyzes the labor mobility and human capital accumulation of male immigrants from the former Soviet Union to Israel. We estimate a dynamic choice model for employment and training in blue‐ and white‐collar occupations, where the labor market randomly offered opportunities are affected by past choices. The estimated model accurately reproduces the patterns in the data. The estimated direct earning return to local training, local experience, and knowledge of Hebrew are very high, whereas imported skills have zero (conditional) return. The welfare gain from the impact of training on job offer probabilities is larger than its effect on wages.     

Bond offerings in China

This study appraises the value created by a bond offering in China, where high levels of state ownership and insider ownership raise concerns about the use of the proceeds. To estimate the impact of a bond issue on the firm's value, we apply an event‐study methodology on a sample of 481 issues of 347 Chinese companies over the period 2009–2013. It turns out that state ownership has a positive impact on the value of a bond offering for shareholders, which is consistent with an implicit guarantee of the issue by the state. For privately owned companies, insider ownership exerts a nonlinear impact on the firm's value, supporting an aligning effect in the use of the proceeds. Overall, the study confirms the key role of ownership structure in Chinese firms.     

The Effect of Regulation on Insurance Pricing: The Case of Germany

This article analyzes the impact of policy form regulation on the unit price of insurance and determinants of premium changes using the 1994 deregulation of the German property–liability market as a natural experiment. Our result show that policy form regulation did not increase prices above competitive levels. Factors influencing premium changes are significantly different for the two time periods, pre‐ and post‐deregulation, indicating that regulation affects insurance pricing. Focusing on highly competitive lines after deregulation, we find a significant price decrease, and this decrease is offset by higher prices in the remaining other lines.     

Nonlinearity between Trade Openness and Economic Development

This paper utilizes the instrumental variable threshold regressions approach to reassess the trade–development link. It finds evidence that trade openness contributes to uneven development. Greater trade openness tends to have beneficial effects on real development of high‐income countries. For low‐income ones, however, trade openness appears to influence real income in a significant and negative way. The data also reveal that greater trade openness has a positive effect on capital accumulation, productivity growth, and financial development in high‐income countries, but a negative impact in low‐income ones.     

Do Immigrants Affect Firm‐Specific Wages?*

We propose and test a novel effect of immigration on wages. Existing studies have focused on the wage effects that result from changes in the aggregate labour supply in a competitive labour market. We argue that if labour markets are not fully competitive, immigrants might also affect wage formation at the most disaggregate level – the workplace. Using linked employer?employee data, we find that an increased use of low‐skilled immigrant workers has a significantly negative effect on the wages of native workers at the workplace – also when controlling for potential endogeneity of the immigrant share using both fixed effects and instrumental variables.