What governs directors’ monitoring behavior in China? The influence of director social identification,learning goal orientation,and avoidance orientation

Drawing together literature on corporate governance, organizational behavior, and educational psychology, and using survey data from a sample of 300 Chinese company directors, this study examines the mediating role of director learning goal orientation in linking two widely-acknowledged director social identifications (identification with the organization and identification with executive-agents) and a key director task behavior, namely the monitoring of executive-agents. We also investigate the moderating role of director avoidance orientation in influencing this mediation since a predisposition to avoid loss of “face” is widely posited as having particular relevance in the Chinese context. Results show, first, that directors with stronger organizational identification monitor executive-agents more diligently than those with stronger executive-agent identification. Second, we find that while learning goal orientation mediates the positive effects of both organizational identification and executive-agent identification on monitoring, the mediated indirect effect of organizational identification on monitoring is stronger than the mediated indirect effect of executive-agent identification on monitoring. Third, results show that the indirect effects are stronger when director avoidance orientation is low. These findings underscore the importance of director social identification and learning goal orientation in inducing director monitoring in the Chinese context, as well as the worth of selecting directors who exhibit a low disposition to avoidance.     

Global Cities and Local Housing Market Cycles

The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics - In this paper, we consider the dynamic features of house price in metropolises that are characterised by a high degree of internationalisation....     

Motivations behind users’ participation in the standard-setting process: Focus on financial analysts

The aim of this study is to investigate what motivates financial analysts to participate in the accounting standard-setting process. We focus on financial analysts because they are an important group of the financial statements users. The paper employs the meso-level approach used by Durocher et al. (2007) that integrates the macro domain’s focus on the standard setters with the micro domain’s focus on individuals and thus it links the characteristics of due process for standard setting with users’ attitudes. We develop a survey for the Chartered Financial Analysts Institute (CFA), which is one of the largest associations of investment professionals in the world, and collected data through computer-assisted Web interviews. We use a structural equation model with PLS to test our hypotheses. Our main findings confirm that a combination of micro and macro domains explains the frequency of financial analysts’ participation in the standard setting process. This investigation, thus, deepens our understanding of motivations behind analysts’ involvement in the accounting standard-setting process and delivers both theoretical contributions and practical insights.     

Conceptualization and measurement of disability in studies on subjective well-being: a critical review and evidence from the Italian Health Surveys

The main aim of this study is to assess, through a wide literature review, whether the concept of “disability,” as variously formulated, can be considered a good foundation for scientific research on happiness and subjective well-being, as well as the effect of some conceptualizations on the understanding of the relationship between happiness and disability. The literature review includes longitudinal population studies, cross-sectional surveys and longitudinal clinical researches. The empirical part of the study, based on the 2013 Italian Health Interview Survey, shows some examples of the impact of different definitions of disability on the subjective well-being variability. The Italian Health Interview Survey is conducted every 5 years and carried out on a sample of about 60,000 households and 162,000 respondents distributed in 1456 municipalities. Some suggestions for future research, based on a vision of the multifaceted nature of disability, are proposed.     

Cheating in markets: A laboratory experiment

We develop a two-market model under three conditions: autarky, frictionless free trade, and free trade with cheating. With cheating, buyers can underpay by π% in cross-market trades and sellers can deliver π% of full value. We solve for competitive equilibrium with cheating and obtain novel testable predictions on price, volume and surplus. We test these in a laboratory experiment using parameters intended to challenge the theory. The results are generally consistent with competitive equilibrium. We find evidence of price unification, market segmentation, a cross-market volume of trade lower under cheating than in frictionless free trade, but a higher overall volume.     

Market power under income polarization

We study the reaction of a monopolistic firm to distributive shocks which lead to income polarization. We show that the movements in the set price and in the sold quantity depend on the served market share. In particular, we identify a region of parameters where the optimal markup moves in the opposite direction of market demand: in this respect, distributive shocks can provide an explanation for countercyclical movements of the markup.     

Foreign Human Capital and Total Factor Productivity: A Sectoral Approach

We analyze the role of migrants in productivity growth in the three largest European countries—France, Germany and the United Kingdom—in the years 1994–2007, using Total Factor Productivity. Unlike previous research, which mainly employs a regional approach, our analysis is at the sectoral level: this allows to distinguish the real contribution of migrants to productivity from possible inter-sectoral complementarities, which might also foster growth. We control for the share of migrants and the different components of human-capital, such as education, age and diversity, and adopt instrumental variables strategies to address the possible endogeneity of migration. The results show that migrants contribute to the productivity of the sectors in which they are employed, but with important differences: highly-educated migrants show a larger positive effect in high-tech sectors, and to a lesser extent in services sector. The diversity of countries of origin contributes to productivity growth only in the services sectors.     

Exploring the determinants of green bond issuance: Going beyond the long-lasting debate on performance consequences

In recent years, the need to create new financial tools to mobilize private capital and generate suitable resources to face both social and environmental challenges led to the development of new tools and ideas. In this context, green bonds have emerged as a new financial tool to better respond to sustainability themes. This study is the first attempt to explore in depth the determinants of green bond performance. We focused on three perspectives: the specific characteristics of projects financed through a green bond, the broader firm-specific corporate sustainability-oriented strategy of the firm, and a country-level perspective analyzing the country-specific determinants of green bond performance. To test the hypotheses a sample of 306 corporate green bonds issued by 85 companies and referring to 1,788 green projects between 2013 and 2016, were retrieved from the Bloomberg database. The results provide interesting theoretical and practical implications for green bond issuers as well as investors and governments interested in green bonds.