THE ROLE OF FINANCIAL RELATIONSHIPS IN THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN CORPORATE FINANCE

The American corporate financing system, unlike that of most other countries, has not been organized around a set of “universal banks” that perform a variety of functions for their clients. Indeed, the distinguishing feature of American financial history is the number and variety of financial intermediaries, and their relationships with corporations (and one another). Besides commercial banks, there are investment banks, insurance companies, venture capitalists, commercial paper dealers, mutual funds, and many others. The economic role of such intermediaries is to reduce market frictions such as “asymmetric information” and “agency problems” that otherwise raise the cost of outside capital for U.S. companies. This article views the changing menu of such intermediaries and their networks as the driving force behind the evolution of American corporate finance. U.S. financial history is seen as a series of institutional and financial innovations designed in large part to work around costly restrictions on relationships–particularly, limits on the scale and scope of U.S. banks–that do not exist in most other countries. In terms of its success in reducing the information and control costs of corporate finance, the history of the American financial system includes periods of significant progress as well as major reversals. Three relatively successful periods– the early 19th-century in New England, the “incipient” universal banking of the 1920s, and modernday financial capitalism–are separated by periods of drastic reductions in the menu of financial relationships– particularly the Great Depression and its 20-year aftermath. Besides new financial claims like preferred stock and new intermediaries such as venture capitalists, another important innovation is new forms of cooperation among intermediaries– especially among banks, venture capitalists, trusts, pensions, and investment banks–that have enabled the U.S. financial system to provide some of the key advantages of universal banking systems. Some of the largest U.S. commercial banks today can be viewed as positioning themselves to play a central coordinating role in these new coalitions of intermediaries. In so doing, they may become the platform for a distinctively American universal banking system.     

反商业贿赂与政府采购机制的完善

政府采购已成为财政支出的重要组成部分.巨大的利润空间给政府采购带来了商业贿赂的风险.运用成本-收益理论、政府规制俘获理论和公平理论,分析其产生的根源及可能带来的后果,可采取相应措施消除政府采购中商业贿赂因子的现实途径.     

个人教育投资的均衡分析

人力资本投资的关键形式是教育投资。文章认为,个人教育投资的均衡条件是边际成本等于边际收益。因为个人教育投资的边际成本递增,边际收益递减,所以必须采取多种措施刺激个人教育投资的积极性,才能促进我国教育事业的大发展。     

Financial acumen, women speculators, and the Royal African company during the South Sea bubble

Price bubbles provide a unique opportunity to study the financial acumen of shareholders. We focus on the 1720 South Sea episode as experienced by the Royal African Company whose stock was more speculative than other joint stocks. During 1720 the company had a new large stock issue. This paper examines the financial acumen of those women who traded senior and engrafted stock across 1720. We find that depending on the pricing regime, these women at worst broke even on their activities or had positive speculative gains. Our findings are consistent with a growing literature on the positive link between gender, capital gains and financial markets.     

The Impact of Basel II on Lending to Small- and Medium-Sized Firms: A Regulatory Policy Assessment Based on Spanish Credit Register Data

The objective of this paper is to evaluate the impact on bank credit exposures to small- and medium-sized Spanish firms of the current proposal for reform of the 1988 Capital Accord using information from the Spanish Credit Register. Capital requirements for exposures to those firms, according to the various revisions of the proposed capital reform (from the January 2001 consultative document to the April 2003 one), are calculated to analyze whether the existing pattern of bank financing of small- and medium-sized firms might be altered. Finally, the incentives for individual banks to adopt the advanced internal ratings-based approach proposed by Basel II are evaluated.     

对发展我国汽车金融公司的思考

随着我国加入WTO以后对汽车金融服务业的进一步开放,国外汽车金融公司纷纷进驻这个极具潜力的庞大市场.2003年底我国先后颁布了<汽车金融公司管理办法>和<汽车金融公司管理细则>,至2005年1月,通用、大众、丰田汽车金融(中国)公司相继开业.本文在介绍成熟汽车金融公司特点的基础上,针对我国汽车金融公司的具体情况,提出一些对策与建议,希望能够对我国的汽车金融公司的发展有所裨益.     

LONWORKS现场总线质量控制技术在油田生产中的应用

现场总线是一种安装在生产过程区域的现场设备或过程仪表和控制室内的自动化控制系统之间的开放式、数字化、双向串行、多节点的数据通信总线。该技术是近年来随着计算机、通信、控制技术的进步，数字通信网络应用到工业过程现场控制后，逐渐发展．并得到广泛应用的现代控制技术，目前，比较有名的有FF、Profibus、LONWORKS、HART、CAN等总线。     

Can employee ownership and human resource management policies clash in worker cooperatives? Lessons from a defunct cooperative

The article analyzes the interaction between employee ownership, HRM policies and practices, and HRM outcomes in what was the world's biggest industrial worker cooperative for decades, and now defunct, Fagor Electrodomésticos. Using longitudinal internal data and detailed interviews with key stakeholders, this paper sheds light on how employee ownership conditioned HRM policies. HRM outcomes—such as job satisfaction and absenteeism—are also analyzed over a long period of time. Chronic nepotism when recruiting new members, failures in the training policy, impoverished and Taylorist working systems, and reverse dominance hierarchies are analyzed as factors that increased free riding and caused low satisfaction and the disengagement of working members. This case study contributes to the literature on HRM and worker cooperatives as it provides some insights that are rarely found in that literature. It also provides guidance to worker cooperatives about increasing the fit between employee ownership and HRM policies and outcomes.     

长三角区域劳动力市场一体化发展的问题分析与建议

长三角区域要素市场中,劳动力市场化改革滞后于商品、资本市场,且劳动力市场的分割指数较大。劳动力市场呈现出“招工难”与“就业难”矛盾并存、流动人口的人力资本存量省市间差异显著、“收敛”与“发散”趋势并存、工资差距未现明显收敛等演变态势,同时也存在差异化的经济发展水平、不合理的产业结构、歧视性的户籍制度、分割的就业壁垒、不同的社会保障体系等主要瓶颈。基于此,本文在廓清劳动力市场一体化内涵释义、总结国外劳动力市场一体化模式与经验的基础上,针对长三角劳动力市场一体化发展面临的问题与困难,结合长三角区域一体化战略目标,提出了具有针对性的思考和实践举措。     

关于构建我国银行危机预警指标体系的思考

银行危机预警指标体系是我国银行危机预警体系中的重要组成部分.结合国内外的一些研究成果,认为银行危机预警属于宏观与微观相结合的研究范畴,所以在构建预警指标体系时综合考虑外部环境对银行业的影响和冲击以及银行业自身运营状况两个方面,选取8个宏观经济指标和5个大类、13个分类银行体系自身指标构建起我国银行危机预警指标体系.