Financial planning issues concerning funding, pricing and organization of corporate R&D activity: A case study

This paper is a case study of financial planning issues concerning funding, pricing, and the organization of corporate research and development (R&D) activity faced by American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) after the break up of the Bell System. The paper concludes that from the standpoint of financial planning, and in the context of firms similar to AT&T, a variant of the predivestiture model, rather than a profit centre model or a market model, appears to be the most efficient way of funding, pricing and organizing corporate R&D activity.     

INFORMATION ASYMMETRY AND OPTIONS TRADING

This paper demonstrates that options trading does not have a uniform impact on the volatility of underlying stocks. Although uninformed traders are able to hedge the risk of underlying stocks by maintaining opposite positions in the options market, informed traders hold outright options positions to capitalize on their information. This hedging behavior tends to reduce noise in the stock market, whereas the speculating behavior tends to generate noise in the stock market. As a result, stocks that were originally volatile, i.e., traded primarily by uninformed traders, will be stabilized by the introduction of options. Conversely, stocks that were more stable become destabilized by options trading.     

民政福利企业税收优惠政策分析

现行民政福利企业的税收政策其实主要是安置残疾人员就业的政策,具有出台的时间早、享受优惠的条件宽松、优惠的期限长和优惠的额度最大等特点。该项政策对促进福利企业的发展无疑是有益的,对企业安置残疾人员也有一定的引导作用,但是实施成本太高、效果太差,政策和征管的漏洞多。同时外资企业不适用本优惠政策,违背了WTO的“公平”规则。因此,改革和完善民政福利企业的税收优惠政策已是必然。     

对发展我国风险投资的几点思考

风险投资是一种由职业金融家向新创的、迅速发展的、有巨大竞争潜力的企业／产业（一般属于高科技性质）投入权益资本的行为。首先分析了风险投资的基本特征，然后简述了我国发展风险投资的重要意义；根据当前我国风险投资发展中存在的问题，提出了发展我国风险投资的相应对策建议。     

On generalized maximum likelihood estimation in the proportional hazards model with partially informative censoring

The generalized maximum likelihood estimator (GMLE) is derived and some of its variants are compared with the partial Abdushukurov-Cheng-Lin (PACL) and Kaplan-Meier (KM) estimators under the proportional hazards model with partially informative censoring. A comparison of small sample properties is conducted based on a simulation study. The results show that the GMLEs perform competitively with the PACL estimator.Acknowledgements.The authors are very much thankful to the referee for perceptive and illuminating comments. A substantial credit goes to the referee for an overall improvement of the paper.     

Estimating the Parameters of Principal Agent Models

The estimation of principal agent models is a subset of inverse optimal problems. As of now there is no consistent method of estimating all its parameters. In general, some proxies for the parameters have been utilized to test plausible economic implications of such models. This study develops a method of estimation for all the parameters using a very limited time series data for one contracting pair. Progress towards empirical reality, based on stylized facts, has been achieved by iteratively modifying the theoretical models and econometric methods. One of these results provides a theoretical justification for the econometric tools utilized in practice as well. However, a fundamental modification of the underlying assumptions is necessary. Given the emphasis on contracts in economic exchange it is necessary to develop the methods further. The study also outlines some of the pertinent issues.

     

An Empirical Analysis of Follower Entry Timing Decisions

Followers frequently incur market share penalties due to delayed entry. How might they then respond to a pioneer? This paper attempts to answer this question. Followers are assumed to be able to respond by choosing a time interval of entry relative to the pioneer, and by focusing on consumer relative preferences for their brand. These choices potentially involve different trade-offs. For example, achieving higher relative preferences may result in an entry delay that would increase the leadtime. We argue that the follower's response will depend on the magnitude of the pioneering effect. Our analysis of the ASSESSOR database indicates that followers respond primarily by reducing leadtimes. We further find that later followers achieve higher consumer relative preferences than earlier followers do. While these findings merit generalizability as they concern multiple brands and categories, many of which still exist, their implications should be qualified with caution since the data do not go beyond 1984.

     

Experimental Strategies for Preference Information Acquisition: A Lattice Path Treatment

This paper investigates strategies for the acquisition of consumer preference information by a market researcher. Such preference information is obtained by the market researcher through an experimental process that entails polling consumers about their preference profiles with a view to completely specifying the preference order. In this paper, we limit the focus to one or two consumers.In this environment, the experiments are pairwise comparisons between resource bundles about which there is no a-priori preference information. Each such experiment can have three possible signals: one bundle is more preferred, indifferent, or less preferred over another. Choice of an experiment in the experimental sequence is important because different choices result in different average amounts of information.For the analysis the paper establishes a link between preference theory and lattice path counting. Combinatorial arguments that allow the market researcher to calculate quantities of information at the start of the information acquisition process are presented. A recursion for finding the impact of choosing different experiments on the average values of information gain is constructed. The paper studies how the experiments chosen subsequently can affect the elimination of other experiments from the experimental set and thus have an effect on the efficiency of information acquisition. The measures derived could be used by the market researcher as a benchmark with which to compare information gathering strategies.