Value Relevance of IAS 27 (2003) Revision on Presentation of Non-Controlling Interest: Evidence From Hong Kong

This study investigates the value relevance of the IAS 27 Consolidated and Separate Financial Statements (2003) revision, which requires the presentation of non-controlling interest as components of equity and earnings. The investigation is carried out in the context of companies publicly listed in Hong Kong during 2004–2006 where IAS 27 (2003) is replaced by the local but word-for-word equivalent standard of HKAS 27 (2004). The results of this study provide strong evidence that the revision has significant value relevance in changing investors' perception about non-controlling interest, which is no longer perceived as liabilities. Investors have apparently not been confused by the revised presentation of non-controlling interest within equity and continue to associate company values only with the equity amount actually owned by the parent company's shareholders. The results of this study give support for the accounting regulator's first move towards the economic unit theory of consolidated financial statements.     

Top-<Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>-lists

Top-k-lists are introduced as sequences of k-dimensional random vectors with ordered components being k largest observations from a sequence of independent identically distributed random variables. Such lists changing in time are natural stochastic models of ranking tables which appear in many situations in real life, when one wants to keep a track of several best results in a given field. Here we study basic properties of top-k-lists as joint distributions, conditional structures, representations, driving examples of top-k-lists from exponential and uniform distributions, asymptotics and a relation to generalized order statistics.     

Structural equation model for predicting technology commercialization success index (TCSI)

Expecting high return, many firms try to invest on R&D of new technology. However, critical loss of assets would occur, when a firm fails to commercialize the developed technology. It would be of interest to provide the ideal environment for commercialization from the R&D stage. In this study, we use a structural equation model (SEM) to forecast the technology commercialization success index (TCSI) in relation to technology developer, technology receiver, technology transfer center, and environmental factors. The proposed SEM is fitted based on partial least square (PLS) estimation procedure. Individual TCSI is then found following the approach used for American customer satisfaction index (ACSI) for various combinations of characteristics of the type of technology, technology receiver, and technology developer. We expect that the proposed approach for TCSI can be used as guidance for an ideal match of technology with technology developer and technology receiver.     

初值为无界情形时解的支集的瞬间收缩性

研究了一类带有强吸收项的半线性热方程的初值问题，在初值数据为无界的情形下讨论了解的支集的瞬间收缩性质，给出了强吸收项的系数与初值数据之间的具体依赖关系．     

Monitoring the cross-covariances of a multivariate time series

In this paper sequential procedures are proposed for jointly monitoring all elements of the covariance matrix at lag 0 of a multivariate time series. All control charts are based on exponential smoothing. As a measure of the distance between the target values and the actual values the Mahalanobis distance is used. It is distinguished between residual control schemes and modified control schemes. Several properties of these charts are proved assuming the target process to be a stationary Gaussian process. Within an extensive Monte Carlo study all procedures are compared with each other. As a measure of the performance of a control chart the average run length is used. An empirical example about Eastern European stock markets illustrates how the autocovariance and the cross-covariance structure of financial assets can be monitored by these methods.     

Return labour migration: an exploratory study of Polish migrant workers from the UK hospitality industry

Incoming labour migration represents an important research field, especially in the context of East-Central Europe, a key source region of labour migrants to the tourism and hospitality sectors of many Western economies, including the UK. Surprisingly, return labour migration from the UK to this region has not been systematically examined and yet there is increasing evidence of its significance, especially in light of Brexit. The labour migrant motivations to return and their re-integration experiences back home remain poorly understood. This study adopts a qualitative method of data collection and analysis to explore return migration of the Polish workforce from the UK hospitality sector. Homesickness and educational pursuits are identified as the key drivers. The UK employment experience enhances career prospects of former migrants and yet it largely benefits non-hospitality related sectors of the domestic economy. While the re-integration experiences of former migrants are generally positive and the majority are content with the decision to return, some consider an opportunity to re-migrate.     

Estimation of Housing Price Jump Risks and Their Impact on the Valuation of Mortgage Insurance Contracts

Housing price jump risk and the subprime crisis have drawn more attention to the precise estimation of mortgage insurance premiums. This study derives the pricing formula for mortgage insurance premiums by assuming that the housing price process follows the jump diffusion process, capturing important characteristics of abnormal shock events. This assumption is consistent with the empirical observation of the U.S. monthly national average new home returns from 1986 to 2008. Furthermore, we investigate the impact of price jump risk on mortgage insurance premiums from shock frequency of the abnormal events, abnormal mean and volatility of jump size, and normal volatility. Empirical results indicate that the abnormal volatility of jump size has the most significant impact on mortgage insurance premiums.     

Analyst Earnings Forecasts for Publicly Traded Insurance Companies

Several trends in the insurance and financial services industry, including demutualizationconsolidation, and deregulation, have attracted increasing attention from investors and financial analysts. This paper investigates the accuracy of the earnings forecasts of financial analysts for insurance companies. Our empirical results indicate that analyst forecasts outperform random walk time-series forecasts. Furthermore, we find that both disagreement over earnings forecasts among analysts and the relative forecasting error in the mean forecasts is smaller for life insurers than for property-casualty insurers, whereas the relative errors for forecasts for multiple-line insurers are in between the two. Forecasting error is a negative function of firm size and the number of analysts who are following a company, and is a positive function of the disagreement among analysts.Analyst forecasts have a timing advantage over the random walk model. Our results also suggest that the fair value reporting requirement (SFAS 115), which has been in effect since 1994, has enhanced the accuracy of analyst forecasts. The SFAS 115 has improved the superiority of analyst forecasts over the random walk forecasts for life insurers, but not for property-casualty insurers, and there is a weak improvement for multiple-line insurers. JEL Classification: G15     

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