Shareholder Value Maximization—Is There a Role for Corporate Social Responsibility?

Although often viewed as inconsistent with the corporate goal of value maximization, the corporate social responsibility (CSR) movement can add value by helping companies develop and maintain their reputations for fair dealing with each of their important non-investor stakeholder groups, including employees, suppliers, and local communities. Such "reputational capital" in turn helps reinforce the commitment of those stakeholders through what amount to informal or implicit contracts—contracts that are often critical to a company's long-run success.
Nevertheless, the importance and difficulty of balancing stakeholder interests against the overarching goal of efficiency and value maximization cannot be overstated. As with any corporate investment, each dollar of investment in a corporate stakeholder group should be justified by at least a dollar of expected return over a finite time horizon. By practicing this kind of "enlightened value maximization," to borrow Michael Jensen's phrase, management is likely to end up increasing not only its returns to shareholders, but the size of the corporate pie that is divided among all its stakeholders. Viewed in this light, CSR and value maximization have the potential to be complementary undertakings that result in a virtuous circle in which "doing good" helps companies do well, and doing well provides the wherewithal to do more good.     

煤矿巷道冒顶区的加固充填技术

矿井生产或掘进过程中,巷道顶板或顶煤在上覆岩层压力下会经常发生冒顶等事故,若处理不当,将影响矿井的安全生产.本文介绍的用充填化学材料进行冒顶区的处理方法,取得了较好的效果,可供类似条件的矿区参考.     

The Influence of Improvements in Accounting Standards on Earnings Management: The Case of IFRS

This article examines the effect of improvements in the quality of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) on the level of earnings management. In order to achieve this aim, we study the accounting quality of German listed companies through discretionary accruals yielded from 1998 to 2006. We assess the effectiveness of efforts by the International Accounting Standards Board to improve IFRS by using two indices that consider the revision process of the standards, and their mandatory application. Our results indicate that the improvement of accounting standards quality significantly reduces the level of reported negative discretionary accruals of the German listed firms during the period of analysis, once incentive variables are controlled. Further, companies gradually assume the quality of the new standards from the moment they can be voluntarily applied.     

意大利城邦的政府债券（下）

通过对意大利城邦的政府债券市场方面进行分析,包括债券持有人和政府债券价值、收益率等相关问题,得出政府债券具有经济性功能和政治性功能,债券收入通过再分配体系促进民生经济发展,以及政府债券和利息权利的交易开启了复杂的投机和投资形式等的结论。     

SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS MEASUREMENT WITH DISCRETE PROXY VARIABLES: IS PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSIS A RELIABLE ANSWER?

The last several years have seen a growth in the number of publications in economics that use principal component analysis (PCA) in the area of welfare studies. This paper explores the ways discrete data can be incorporated into PCA. The effects of discreteness of the observed variables on the PCA are reviewed. The statistical properties of the popular Filmer and Pritchett (2001 ) procedure are analyzed. The concepts of polychoric and polyserial correlations are introduced with appropriate references to the existing literature demonstrating their statistical properties. A large simulation study is carried out to compare various implementations of discrete data PCA. The simulation results show that the currently used method of running PCA on a set of dummy variables as proposed by Filmer and Pritchett (2001 ) can be improved upon by using procedures appropriate for discrete data, such as retaining the ordinal variables without breaking them into a set of dummy variables or using polychoric correlations. An empirical example using Bangladesh 2000 Demographic and Health Survey data helps in explaining the differences between procedures.     

ANTI-POVERTY EFFECTIVENESS OF THE MINIMUM LIVING STANDARD ASSISTANCE POLICY IN URBAN CHINA

Since its inception 15 years ago, the Minimum Living Standard Assistance (MLSA) has served as a last resort for China's urban poor. Using national household survey data, this study provides updated evidence on the participation rate, receipt amount, and anti-poverty effectiveness of MLSA. Families eligible for MLSA make up 2.3 percent of the urban population, but only about half of them are actual beneficiaries. City MLSA generosity and household entitled benefit amount both positively correlate with participation rate and household receipt amount. MLSA lowers the poverty rate somewhat, but substantially reduces the poverty gap and severity for its eligible participants. Nevertheless, the poverty reduction role of MLSA is restricted by its partial coverage and delivery. Consequentially, poverty remains a serious problem for MLSA's target population. The anti-poverty effectiveness of MLSA can be strengthened by full coverage and delivery of benefits and by paying special attention to disadvantaged subgroups.     

JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONAL ACCOUNTS IN BRITAIN, 1895–1941

This history of National Accounts in Britain is done with two specific considerations in mind. First, the role of the economist John Maynard Keynes—as theoretician, compiler, supporter and user—is addressed. This role is substantial and has been greatly misunderstood or misrepresented by a large part of the literature. Second, the pioneering contributions made at the start of the 20th century by Alfred Flux, Arthur Bowley and Josiah Stamp, and later by Colin Clark, are detailed. The debates between these men mark the emergence of National Accounts as a serious discipline. Their work was supported by the earlier theoretical contributions of Alfred Marshall, and by practical developments, in particular the instigation of a Census of Production in 1907. Taken together, the two considerations tell a good part of the story of the emergence of National Accounting on the world stage.     

核心竞争力观念对当代企业管理理念的影响

核心竞争力观念对企业管理，尤其是企业的战略管理理论与实践正产生着极其深刻的影响，21世纪的企业管理者将因此在企业管理的理念上发生八个重大方面的转变与变化。     

漳州市绩效考评情况调研报告

通过对漳州市绩效考评具体做法的调查，认为绩效考评对提高政府效能建设的成效与作用是十分显著的，同时也提出了绩效考评中存在的一些尚待探讨完善的问题。