中巴能源关系:石油贸易的机遇与趋势

<正>一、简介20世纪70年代能源危机之后,人们开始更加关注所谓"能源安全"的概念以防能源供应的中断。从那以后,廉价石油的时代结束了,人们必须考虑到多种变化因素以确保长期的石油供应。从需求角度讲,能源需求(尤其是石油)将不断增长。从供应商角度讲,石油资源仅贮于很少一部分国家(尤其是中东国家)会引发使用"石油武器"的潜在威胁。而且,高额的石油价格也使得非传统石油能源在能源市场占有一席之地。     

Organisational change, outsourcing and the impact on management accounting

New empirical evidence is presented on organisational change, outsourcing and the impact on management accounting in three types of organisations: private sector companies, the National Health Service and Local Authorities. Spearman rank correlations are used to examine three propositions: that (i) change in organisational form exists and may be related to an increased use of outsourcing or subcontracting; (ii) outsourcing is expected to improve organisational flexibility and/or the service of an activity, to lead to cost savings, or to allow the organisation to focus more clearly on its core business; and (iii) outsourcing promotes change in management accounting. Statistical support is found for each of our three propositions. This is further supported by reference to three illustrative case studies. Overall, we conclude that organisational change, as effected by the use of outsourcing, is related to specific changes in the organisations' management accounting systems.     

Spotting patterns on the fly

Recognizing and anticipating change in industry patterns is a core competence for companies today, allowing managers to capitalize on opportunities before they are apparent to others. Yet despite the growing realization that recognizing patterns is important, companies are far from mastering how to do it, especially at the strategic level, where information is usually less profuse and much less precise. Pattern recognition is not a new skill, though, at least not to people outside the business world. Since antiquity, naturalists have relied on their ability to spot patterns to make sense of their surroundings. And surprisingly, there is much businesspeople can learn from bird-watching--as removed as it may seem from the fast-paced, bruising world of business--in terms of the cognitive demands pattern recognition requires. To learn more, HBR spoke with David Sibley, perhaps the nation's foremost birdwatcher and illustrator, and Julia Yoshida, a birder since 1965 and a physician at the Lahey Clinic in Burlington, Massachusetts. Sibley explains how expert birders draw on a wealth of tacit knowledge built up over the years to make identifications in a matter of seconds: "Once you've mastered common patterns, the real trick is to educate yourself about where discrepancies are most likely to appear--and to concentrate your attention on those areas." Although so fast as to be almost unconscious, the process he describes seems to be as methodical as one of Yoshida's medical diagnoses. "Recognizing a pattern involves knowing what to look for, what the possibilities are, and then sorting out those patterns when you are actually confronted with the patient," Yoshida says. "I don't think it's a eureka moment at all. It's a methodical process."     

Measurement Errors and Information Content of Segment Reporting

This paper assesses the measurement errors inherent in segment reporting. Measurement errors are gauged by comparing the correlation of segment results with their industry to the corresponding correlation for single line-of-business firms operating in the same industry. The findings show that the measurement errors in segment information, particularly earnings, are larger than those in the financial information reported by single line-of-business firms. The cross-sectional variation in the measurement errors can be traced to cost/revenue allocations, management intervention in segment reporting, and the operational structure of multi-segment firms. Market tests indicate that the information content of segment information is inversely related to the estimated measurement errors. This revised version was published online in November 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Canada's Supreme Court rules no fiduciary obligation towards creditors on insolvency—Peoples Department Stores v. Wise

In Canada, the law is now clear that directors and officers do not owe a fiduciary duty to creditors at the point of insolvency pursuant to corporate and insolvency laws. The Supreme Court of Canada in Peoples Department Stores Inc. v. Wise ruled that the duty of directors and officers under the Canada Business Corporations Act (CBCA) does not change when the corporation is in financial distress and that directors and officers owe their fiduciary duties solely to the corporation at all times. 1 The judgment, which is likely to be the only declaration of Canada's highest court on this issue for some time, leaves a number of unanswered questions for directors and those advising directors of the extent of their obligations both in and outside of insolvency. The Court did find that directors owe a duty of care to creditors, but no fiduciary obligation. The judgment changed the standard of assessment of the duty of care to a purely objective test; enshrined the business judgment rule in Canada; may have provided greater access to the oppression remedy for creditors; and provided direction on the meaning of ‘privy’ with respect to reviewable transactions under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (BIA). 2 These issues are canvassed in this brief case comment. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

1 Peoples Department Stores Inc. v. Wise 2004 SCC 68; Canada Business Corporations Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. C‐44, as amended (CBCA).

2 Canada Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. B‐3, as amended (BIA).

     

THE IMPACT OF BOND RATING CHANGES ON COMMON STOCKS AND BONDS: TESTS OF THE WEALTH REDISTRIBUTION HYPOTHESIS

Past studies on the impact of bond rating changes have focused on bonds or stocks and the information content of rating change announcements. This paper examines both bonds and stocks and investigates the wealth redistribution effect as well as the existence of information content. The results imply that information content of “bad’ news dominates firm downgradings, while the wealth redistribution effect dominates firm upgradings. Furthermore, this study attributes the lack of information content for bond upgradings to the offsetting effects of wealth redistribution and information content.     

Job Assignments under Moral Hazard: The Peter Principle Revisited

We show that inefficient job assignments arise in organizations even if there is full information about employees’ types and complete contracts are possible. Our model also provides a new perspective on the Peter Principle: the output of an employee who is promoted into a job for which he is not well suited need not decline postpromotion, because he is pushed to exert more effort. Although promotions are desirable for most employees, they make the least able in a hierarchy level worse off: for them earnings increase only because they work harder to compensate for their “incompetence.”     

Consumer support for environmental policies: An application to purchases of green cars

This paper focuses on how consumer motivation can be tapped in order to encourage the adoption of cleaner technologies. Consumers are heterogeneous — they may be guided by intrinsic motivation or extrinsic motivation. While information provision policies (such as the energy label for cars) may be effective in encouraging certain consumers to adopt green cars, financial incentive schemes (such as subsidies or fines) may be more persuasive for extrinsically-motivated consumers. We develop a dynamic theory of adoption of environmental innovations, in which information-provision policies are followed by financial incentives (first ‘carrot’, then ‘stick’ incentives). Analysis of a survey dataset of Swiss households observes considerable heterogeneity in terms of support of information-provision or financial incentive policies, in line with our conjectures. Our results will be of particular interest to policymakers interested in guiding consumers towards cleaner technologies.     

Water quality and cottage prices in Ontario

We use hedonic analysis to show that water clarity has a significant effect on lakefront property values in the Near North Ontario, Canada. In this study, water clarity is measured by Secchi disc reading. Based on two different dependent variables; sales price and sales price per square foot, and the estimation of linear, log–linear and log–log models, we find that water clarity does matter to lakefront property buyers in the Near North, Ontario. In particular, our results indicate that buyers are willing to pay about 2% more for each 1-foot increase in water clarity or Secchi depth. This finding is consistent across all of our specifications.