The uncertainty challenge of contingent collaboration

Contingent knowledge workers will play an increasingly important role in organisational success as workers transition in and out of project‐based innovation teams with more frequency. Our research finds that collaborators in the contingent, high‐skill workforce face uncertainty challenges to their work that are unique from the independent, contingent professionals more often studied. The article proposes a theoretical framework of uncertainty to guide us in understanding collaborative contingent knowledge workers’ work experience. Interviews with postdoctoral researchers reveal four findings about the influence of these highly uncertain work environments on collaborative contingent knowledge workers – collaboration isolation, frustrated independence, performance anxiety and internalised blame. Perhaps most concerning is that the workers internalise the negative impacts as personal failings instead of recognising them as consequences of a poorly designed work environment. This study argues for the need to manage and mitigate different sources of uncertainty to avoid creating an unnecessary burden on contingent knowledge workers, and to enable a sustainable, contingent knowledge workforce.     

China＇s Outward Direct and Portfolio Investments

This paper analyzes developments and trends related to China's outward direct and financial investments by examining Chinese firms’overseas acquisitions, China's holdings of US Treasury securities, and the recently formally launched Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor programs. Strategies should be developed to reach optimal decisions for both direct and portfolio investments. We argue that China should have a longer‐term view for both direct and portfolio investments, enabling China to become the leader in Asia while maintaining its sustainable growth objective. China should invest heavily in the development of the Asian bond market and the Asian Currency Fund when making both portfolio and direct investment decisions.     

IMPACT OF DIVIDEND‐PROTECTED EMPLOYEE STOCK OPTIONS ON PAYOUT POLICIES: EVIDENCE FROM TAIWAN

Abstract. This study used a sample of 1035 Taiwanese firms to examine the impact of dividend protected employee stock options on stock repurchase and cash dividend policies from 2000 to 2005. This study finds a positive relationship between cash dividends and executive options, implying that executives holding stock options might prefer to distribute cash dividends to boost the stock price. This result, unlike in earlier studies, arises from the dividend protected characteristic of Taiwanese employee stock options. Finally, free cash flow, firm profitability, level of debt, investment opportunities and firm size are found to considerably influence payout decisions.     

Simultaneous screening and college admissions

We analyze a simultaneous screening problem in competition among top schools. The model predicts that when the second best school has similar prestige to the best one it could attract better students by choosing the same entrance examination date.     

公积金：内地要向香港学习

为解决人口急剧老龄化问题，保障大多数人的退休生活，香港特区政府自2000年12月起正式推行强积金（强制性公积金）计划。强积金是以职业为基础的退休保障计划，除豁免人士外，凡年龄在侣岁至65岁之间的雇员和自雇人士都必须参加强积金。强积金计划推行时间虽然不长，但其效果非常明显，目前已覆盖了86％的香港就业人士。在强积金投资上，香港特区政府对投资范围、投资比例及投资工具等都作了详细的规定，保证了基金的稳健运营。由于人们可以灵活地选择其养老金账户的投资方式，近年来，强积金的总资产净值每年增长超过三成，截至去年底已滚存至1200亿港元。     

Data-driven tree structure for PIN models

Probability of informed trading (PIN) models characterize trading with certain types of information through a tree structure. Different tree structures with different numbers of groups for market participants have been proposed, with no clear, consistent tree used in the literature. One of the main causes of this inconsistency is that these trees are artificially proposed through a bottom-up approach rather than implied by actual market data. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a method that infers a tree structure directly from empirical data. More precisely, we use hierarchical clustering to construct a tree for each individual firm and then infer an aggregate tree through a voting mechanism. We test this method on US data from January 2002 for 7608 companies, which results in a tree with two layers and four groups. The characteristics of the resulting aggregate tree are between those of several proposed tree structures in the literature, demonstrating that these proposed trees all reflect only part of the market, and one should consider the proposed empirically driven method when seeking a tree representing the whole market.

     

Measuring traveler involvement in urban public transport services: The case of Kaohsiung

The city of Kaohsiung has been urgently reducing its rates of ownership and usage of privately owned motor vehicles. The most important strategy undertaken thus far has been to build mass rapid transit systems. This study aims to apply the Involvement Theory to construct an inventory to measure level of travelers’ involvement in public transport services. The results indicate that the number of low involvement travelers is the critical factor that determines whether the new public transport system can effectively operate. They also provide authorities with precise marketing strategies targeting different groups in order to allow the new public transport systems to sufficiently meet public needs.     

Joint estimation of technical efficiency and production risk for multi-output banks under a panel data cost frontier model

This article generalizes production risk from a single output production function to a multiple output cost frontier, which is able to examine input-oriented technical efficiencies and production risk simultaneously in the context of a panel data. Furthermore, the joint confidence interval estimates for technical efficiencies are constructed by means of multiple comparisons with the best approach. Whether taking production risk into account or not offers quite dissimilar implications in terms of the average technical efficiency measure and the identification of multiple efficient banks achieving the optimal cost frontier. It is suggested that inferences drawn on the basis of the confidence intervals of technical efficiency provide much more fruitful and insightful information than the point estimation alone. Bank specific risk parameters are found to be highly and positively correlated with fixed-effect estimates, implying that the more risk-averse a bank is, the more technically efficient it will be.

Co-opted directors,gender diversity,and crash risk: evidence from China

Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting - This study examines how the composition of the board of directors at Chinese firms affects crash risk. The results indicate that co-opted directors...     

西部地区村级规划体系构建研究

构建适于西部地区农村发展的村级规划体系、编制实用型村庄规划,对于实施乡村振兴战略和农村人居环境整治工程具有重要的理论探索和实践意义。文章在剖析西部地区村级规划编制中存在的"缺位或流于形式、实用性较差、无视规划用地"等问题基础上,采用对比分析法,厘清村级层面各类规划相互关系,进而提出村级规划体系构建的原则与框架。研究表明:(1)西部地区村庄规划体系建立与规划编制迫在眉睫;(2)现有主要村级层面规划中,乡村振兴战略规划是村庄产业发展导向与战略功能定位,村土地利用规划是村庄用地空间布局与管制规划,共同构成多元化完整的村庄规划体系;(3)"一张图"融合、战略定位先行、公众参与等是构建实用型村级规划体系的基本原则;(4)村级规划体系的逻辑架构为"双结构""双理念"和"5维导向",实施模式以"1+N模式";(5)西部地区村级规划应以多个村落共同编制为主要形式,同时探索留白机制,提高规划弹性。