Inferring latent social networks from stock holdings

We infer the latent social networks of investors using data on their stock holdings. We map linkages to portfolio weights using a portfolio-choice model. The precision of an investor’s private signal about firm value is assumed to increase with his connections in the city where the firm is headquartered. Using money-manager data, we find that managerial linkages to a city are overly dispersed relative to the Erdös–Rényi model of i.i.d. connections. Managers at the tail of this distribution with non-i.i.d. linkages have more university alumni in that city. Their stock holdings there outperform their holdings in other cities.     

Systematic Mortality Improvement Trends and Mortality Heterogeneity: Insights from Individual-Level HRS Data

Providers of life annuities and pensions need to consider both systematic mortality improvement trends and mortality heterogeneity. Although how mortality improvement varies with age and gender at the population level is well studied, how trends vary with risk factors remains relatively unexplored. This article assesses how systematic mortality improvement trends vary with individual risk characteristics using individual-level longitudinal data from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study between 1994 and 2009. Initially a Lee-Carter model is used to assess mortality improvement trends by grouping individuals with similar risk characteristics of gender, education, and race. We then fit a longitudinal mortality model to individual-level data allowing for heterogeneity and time trends in individual-level risk factors. Our results show how survey data can provide valuable insights into both mortality heterogeneity and improvement trends more effectively than commonly used aggregate models. We show how mortality improvement differs across individuals with different risk factors. Significantly, at an individual level, mortality improvement trends have been driven by changes in health history such as high blood pressure, cancer, and heart problems rather than risk factors such as education, marital status, body mass index, and smoker status.     

基于逆向工程的玩具汽车内饰部件模具设计与研究

本研究运用逆向工程技术,对玩具汽车内饰的模型进行重建并完成其成型工艺与模具设计。玩具汽车内饰的外形曲面比较复杂,采用逆向工程方法,利用三维扫描仪高效率、高精度地完成了该部件的点云数据采集工作。同时应用Geomagic软件完成玩具汽车内饰的点云数据处理和曲面重构。然后以UG软件完成玩具汽车内饰模型重建并用其Mold Wizard模块完成产品的成型工艺与模具设计。     

普惠金融征信体系建设路径研究

建立普惠金融征信体系,出发点和落脚点在于提高征信信息的覆盖面.现阶段,征信体系建设路径应以政府推动、市场化主导的模式,构建以央行征信系统为主、商业征信机构为补充的多层次征信体系.     

Optimal insurance under rank‐dependent utility and incentive compatibility

Bernard, He, Yan, and Zhou (Mathematical Finance, 25(1), 154–186) studied an optimal insurance design problem where an individual's preference is of the rank‐dependent utility (RDU) type, and show that in general an optimal contract covers both large and small losses. However, their results suffer from the unrealistic assumption that the random loss has no atom, as well as a problem of moral hazard that provides incentives for the insured to falsely report the actual loss. This paper addresses these setbacks by removing the nonatomic assumption, and by exogenously imposing the “incentive compatibility” constraint that both indemnity function and insured's retention function are increasing with respect to the loss. We characterize the optimal solutions via calculus of variations, and then apply the result to obtain explicitly expressed contracts for problems with Yaari's dual criterion and general RDU. Finally, we use numerical examples to compare the results between ours and Bernard et al.     

Asset specificity and conditional accounting conservatism

Asset specificity, the redeployability of an asset to alternative uses, is a key determinant of an asset's resale value. Asset specificity has a direct impact on a firm's ongoing fair value determination, bankruptcy risk, liquidation value, and abandonment option. We document a significant negative association between asset specificity and conditional conservatism. Further tests reveal that this inverse relation manifests as bad news being less quickly incorporated in earnings as asset specificity increases. We find no difference in the extent to which good news is delayed in earnings for firms conditional on asset specificity. In addition, the documented association is stronger when asset specificity arises from lower within‐industry acquisition activity. The association is also more pronounced for firms that are in less competitive industries, have institutional investors, have limited access to the public debt market, and/or have more unsecured debt. Our findings are noteworthy for regulators and researchers given the recent interest in the determinants of conservatism.     

新冠疫情全球蔓延对我国就业的影响及机制分析

新冠疫情全球蔓延对需求端与供给端都造成巨大的冲击,评估此次疫情对我国就业的影响及机制分析变得重要.基于统计比较和使用DID模型,我们研究表明:(1)新冠疫情爆发前,我国总体失业率基本稳定,地区间失业差异趋于缩小;2020年疫情爆发后,我国城镇调查失业率出现明显上升,但其影响在下半年趋于缓解.(2)新冠疫情全球蔓延对我国就业市场产生显著不利的冲击,但对我国31个大城市就业的不利冲击要相对小于总体城镇.新冠疫情导致我国城镇调查失业率总体上升0.31个百分点,导致全国31个大城市调查失业率总体上升0.218个百分点.新冠疫情爆发4个月后我国就业受到的不利影响开始减小.(3)新冠疫情对我国制造业和服务业的经济活动均造成不利冲击,进而对我国就业造成显著不利的影响,且对我国服务业经济活动产生的不利冲击更大.据此,需要严格防控国内疫情反弹,提升一流的营商环境,对受疫情不利影响的企业和劳动者提供优惠政策支持,出台人力资本政策支持建立国家高端人力资本储备池,拓展数字贸易、数字平台等就业创业.     

The State as Both Regulator and Player: The Politics of Transfer of Development Rights in China

The conventional argument that the introduction of transfer of development rights (TDR) shifts the power of land use regulation from the state to the market is increasingly under challenge. In China, the state's grip on land is reinforced through TDR, in which the state is both regulator and player. This state-dominated form of TDR affects China in three ways. First, competing aspirations of different scales of government complicate how TDR is implemented. Although the central state promotes TDR to maintain a national balance of arable land, some local states instrumentalize it to expand their landed basis of accumulation. Secondly, TDR tends to benefit the state but not its people. It may increase the fiscal income of the sending government and lessen the land shortage of the receiving government, but sometimes at the expense of the interests of land users without land ownership. Thirdly, given the state's deep involvement in TDR programs, the key for China's TDR to protect arable land lies not so much in clear property rights or a fully fledged market as in effective checks and balances regarding the state's powers over TDR. These three observations attest to the embeddedness of TDR in the local political economy.     

Long‐term economic consequences of corporate environmental responsibility: Evidence from heavily polluting listed companies in China

In this study, we aim to investigate the long‐term economic consequences of corporate environmental responsibility (CER) by companies from the perspective of earnings persistence and investors' response. Based on firm‐level data of 1,010 heavily polluting listed companies in China, the empirical results are as follows. First, the CER of China's heavily polluting listed companies has significantly improved their earnings persistence, that is, earnings quality. Second, the positive long‐term economic effect of CER has been achieved through two paths: improving companies' operational efficiency and reducing their credit costs. Third, CER increases investors' response to heavily polluting companies' accounting earnings. Moreover, state‐owned listed companies achieve more significant positive long‐term economic effects from CER than others. The results suggest that heavily polluting companies should correctly identify the long‐term value of CER rather than pay excessive attention to the impact of CER on their current costs and benefits.