The Role of Holding Company Financial Information in the Insurer-Rating Process: Evidence From the Property-Liability Industry

We examine data for the year ended December 31, 1997 for 80 publicly traded property‐liability insurers that have Best financial strength ratings of their consolidated insurance‐operating subsidiaries. These firms employ a holding company structure, in which a parent owns the stock of multiple insurance‐operating subsidiaries. The operating subsidiaries prepare a consolidated annual report using the Statutory Accounting Principles (SAP), and an analogous set of financial statements based on the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) is released by the parent. We find that the financial characteristics important in determining ratings at the individual firm level—capitalization, liquidity, profitability, and size—are also important at the group level. Further, financial ratios from holding company statements are incrementally useful in the ratings' process, after group‐level ratios have been taken into account. Robustness tests based on a subsample of holding companies with minimal investment outside of the property‐liability industry reinforce our conclusion that parent company statements influence consolidated group ratings. However, our data do not allow us to separate the relative contribution of the GAAP model and underlying transactions to the ratings decision.     

感受志愿者的微笑

奥帆赛期间,回青岛休假的我住在奥帆基地附近,近距离地感受到了青岛市民迎接奥帆赛的热情.     

贯彻“三个代表”思想 搞好行业协会建设

贯彻“三个代表”的重要思想，电力行业协会想问题、办事情要以是否符合电力行业先进生产力的发展要求为根本标准。江泽民同志提出的“三个代表”，其中第一条是中国共产党必须始终代表中国先进生产力的发展要求。这条包括两层意思：即中国共产党所创立的理论、方针政策、工作制度和工作体系，以及党组织开展的一切活动必须促进中国先进的生产力的发展；中国共产党领导下的一切社会团体必须适应中国生产力发展的需要，必须促进社会生产力向先进生产力转化和发展。我国已经和将要建立的行业协会等市场中介组织，是我国社会主义市场经济体制的…     

浅谈银行信贷管理的权责对等原则

本论述了银行信贷管理工作中存在权责不一致的问题，旨在说明贯彻执行权责对等原则的必要性。     

Interpreting IS alignment: A multiple case study in professional organizations

This paper centers on the interpretation attributed by organizational members to the information systems (IS) alignment concept. Its objective is to study IS alignment in professional organizations. Specifically, it reports on an interpretive study conducted in five Chilean organizations; four professional and one entrepreneurial, of which two are private and three are public. The theoretical background of our study is derived from three IS strategic alignment conceptualizations: managerial, emergent and critical. These concepts formed our theoretical framework that guided data collection and analysis. The study centers on the meanings organizational members assigned to IS strategic alignment, as well as their views on the barriers that hinder achieving this level of organizational integration. The analysis results are summarized in seven hermeneutic themes that point out the different connotations the organizations assigned to IS alignment. The significance of the findings are summarized in four insights that formulate theoretical and practical implications. These insights refer to: (1) the difficulties of achieving alignment for professional organizations, particularly public ones, (2) the limitations these organizations have in being agile, (3) the rationale for acquiring technology and determining IT skills, and (4) the imperative meaning that CIOs attribute to IS alignment. The paper concludes with a reflection on the limitations and relevance of the research.     

江苏居民收入分配差距及其治理分析

改革开放以来,江苏居民收入普遍提高,人民生活得到很大改善,但近年来居民收入开始出现差距并且日益扩大,已成为影响社会稳定和经济发展的重要问题。文章首先分析了江苏居民收入分配的现状,然后剖析了影响居民收入分配差距过大的成因,在此基础上提出了防止居民收入差距过大的治理对策。     

古典玫瑰园正统英国茶艺术

这是一个充满诗意的地方，就像它的名字：古典玫瑰园，一切的开始，都源于对玫瑰的喜爱。     

Option Trading and the Intervalling Effect Bias in Beta

Prior studies show that the beta coefficient of a security changes systematically as the length of measurement interval is varied. This phenomenon, which is called the intervalling effect bias in beta, has been attributed to the friction in the trading system that causes the delays in the price-adjustment process. This study shows that option listing is associated with a decline in the beta intervalling effect bias. The decline is most pronounced for small firms. We also find that our sample firms grow significantly after option listing. Since prior research indicates that market value is a major determinant of the magnitude of the intervalling effect, we re-examine our results using a subsample that controls for market value. The results indicate that the decline in the beta bias from the pre-listing to post-listing period is still prevalent after we control for the change in firm size. Overall, the evidence is consistent with the notion that option trading reduces the delays in the price-adjustment process, which in turn reduces the intervalling effect bias in beta.     

Firm-level interactions between exporting and productivity: Industry-specific evidence

This paper investigates interactions between exporting and productivity at the firm level, using a panel of firms in the UK chemical industry. This is both highly technology intensive and the UK’s largest exporting sector. We find exporters are more productive than non-exporters, but are also on average smaller. This superior productivity performance among exporters appears to be caused by both self-selection and learning-by-exporting effects. In contrast to other studies, we find learning effects are significantly positive among new entrants, weaker for more experienced exporters and negative for established exporters. JEL no. F14, D21, L65