Valuing traceability of imported beef in Korea: an experimental auction approach*

The major objective of this study is to estimate Korean food shoppers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for imported beef with traceability. We use an experimental elicitation method, the random nth price auction, to identify consumers’ valuation for traceable imported beef. We also analyse the effect of different types of information on these valuations. Results indicate that consumers are generally willing to pay a 39 per cent premium for the traceable imported beef over similar beef without traceability. Results also suggest that in contrast to the insignificant effect of positive information, negative and two‐sided information about traceability significantly reduces WTP.     

大豆大杂粉碎及重杂灭活工艺改造

随着国家对环保的重视,改变进口大豆大杂(豆荚、豆杆)焚烧处理的传统做法尤为重要,采用风选、粉碎等手段,区分处理轻重杂,杂质分别采用生产线高温高压和蒸汽湿热灭活法进行处理后,可充当纤维类物质掺入到成品豆粕中。根治环境污染的同时降低厂内安全风险,充分利用进口大豆秸秆类纤维物质,减少大豆损耗,以较小的投入实现经济效益和环境保护。     

Microstructure-based manipulation: Strategic behavior and performance of spoofing traders

We examine how investors strategically spoof the stock market by placing orders with little chance of being executed, but which mislead other traders into thinking there is an imbalance in the order book. Using the complete intraday order and trade data of the Korea Exchange (KRX) in a custom data set identifying individual accounts, we find that investors strategically placed spoofing orders which, given the KRX's order-disclosure rule at the time, created the impression of a substantial order book imbalance, with the intent to manipulate subsequent prices. This manipulation, which made use of specific features of the market microstructure, differs from previously studied forms of manipulation based on information or transactions. Roughly half of the spoofing orders were placed in conjunction with day trading. Stocks targeted for manipulation had higher return volatility, lower market capitalization, lower price level, and lower managerial transparency. We also find that spoofing traders achieved substantial extra profits. The frequency of spoofing orders decreased drastically after the KRX altered its order-disclosure rule.     

Population Aging and the Possibility of a Middle-Income Trap in Asia

We present three conditions for a demography-driven middle-income trap and show that many economies in East, South, and Southeast Asia satisfy all of them. The conditions involve (1) the support ratio of workers to consumers has an impact on economic growth, (2) economic development accompanies more investment in human capital and lower fertility due to the quantity–quality trade-off, and (3) a current low level of fertility corresponds to very low support ratios for keeping up with frontier economies in the long run. Panel analysis for 178 countries shows that (1) and (2) are satisfied for Asia with higher elasticity than others. As for (3), we set up a dynamic model for simulations, showing that approximately two-third of Asia’s developing countries have an unsustainable level of support ratios, implying possibility of a middle-income trap due to future demographic headwinds.     

IPO anomalies and innovation capital

Innovation capital are typically expensed and/or unrecognized as assets under current generally accepted accounting principles. This results in accounting-related information asymmetry. This paper examines the association of innovation capital (as measured here by the proxies of R&D expenditures and granted patents) and initial public offerings (IPO) anomalies. These anomalies include initial IPO underpricing, duration of honeymoon (a distinct feature of the Taiwanese IPO environment), and long-term performance. The theoretical model underlying this research is a signaling model. The results indicate that more innovative firms are more likely to be underpriced, and have longer honeymoon periods than less innovative firms. Further, the more innovative firms have positive and growing long-term market-adjusted returns. This stands in contrast to the declining long-term stock performance of initial public offering firms that is evidenced in the literature. We conclude that pre-IPO research and development expenditures disclosed in the IPO prospectus, official monthly reports of newly developed patents released to the public, and the frequency of patent citations significantly signal both underpricing and future market performance of IPO firms in Taiwan.     

The conditional nature of the value of corporate governance

Agency theory suggests that governance matters more among firms with greater potential agency costs. Rational investors are unlikely to value safeguards against unlikely events. Yet, few studies of the relation between governance and firm value control for investor perceptions of the likelihood of agency conflicts. Shleifer and Vishny [Shleifer, A., Vishny, R.W., 1997. A survey of corporate governance. Journal of Finance 52, 737–783] identify investment-related agency conflicts as the more severe type of agency conflicts in the US. We measure the perceived likelihood of this type of agency conflict using free cash flow (Jensen, M.C., 1986. Agency costs of free cash flow, corporate finance, and takeovers. American Economic Review 76, 323–329). We find that firm value is an increasing function of improved governance quality among firms with high free cash flow. In contrast, governance benefits are lower or insignificant among firms with low free cash flow. We show that not controlling for this conditional relation between governance and firm value could lead to erroneous conclusions that governance and firm value are unrelated.     

中央银行沟通可以作为货币政策工具吗——基于中国数据的分析

本文通过检验我国中央银行沟通对金融市场的影响,间接考察了其是否具有货币政策工具的效力。分析结果表明:我国中央银行沟通对短期利率和股票日收益率水平及波动性具有显著的、与预期一致的影响,但对长期利率的影响不明显;书面沟通与口头沟通相比,后者的效力更强一些,并且在口头沟通中,中央银行行长比其他人更能影响金融市场。主要的政策含义是沟通可以作为我国货币政策一种新的工具,与传统的工具配合使用有利于提高货币政策的有效性。     

Confined exponential approximations for the valuation of American options

We provide an alternative analytic approximation for the value of an American option using a confined exponential distribution with tight upper bounds. This is an extension of the Geske and Johnson compound option approach and the Ho et al. exponential extrapolation method. Use of a perpetual American put value, and then a European put with high input volatility is suggested in order to provide a tighter upper bound for an American put price than simply the exercise price. Numerical results show that the new method not only overcomes the deficiencies in existing two-point extrapolation methods for long-term options but also further improves pricing accuracy for short-term options, which may substitute adequately for numerical solutions. As an extension, an analytic approximation is presented for a two-factor American call option.     

基于Kronecker法的MIMO信道模拟及硬件实现

针对多输入多输出（Multiple-Input Multiple-Output,MIMO）无线通信系统,在基于Kronecker 的MIMO信道模型中综合考虑了路径损耗、阴影衰落和多径衰落等因素,实现了基于现场可编程门阵列（Field Programmable Gate Array,FPGA）的MIMO信道模拟器,并分析了硬件设计方案以及MIMO信道模拟的实现方法。实测结果表明,设计的MIMO信道模拟器可以模拟瑞利衰落、莱斯衰落以及阴影衰落等常见的信道衰落类型,能够应用于3GPP、COST-207等标准信道模型的复现。该模拟器可作为无线通信系统研究的测试设备,辅助通信系统研究的算法验证、方案优化以及性能分析。     

Rare disaster risk and the expected equity risk premium

Consistent with the predictions of rare disaster models, we find that a proxy for the time‐varying probability of rare disasters helps to explain fluctuations in expectations of the equity risk premium. Our proxy for disaster risk is a recently developed measure of global political instability, and the expected market risk premium is from Value Line analysts' expected stock returns. Consistent with long‐run risk models, uncertainty about expected GDP growth and expected consumption growth is also significantly positively related to the expected market risk premium. We obtain similar results when we use the earnings–price ratio and the dividend–price ratio as proxies for the expected market risk premium.