Family control and idiosyncratic volatility: Evidence from listed firms in Hong Kong

Family control of listed firms in Hong Kong is substantively different and materially higher than in the US which could offer different insights into the effects of family ownership on corporate transparency. Using a sample of listed Hong Kong firms and idiosyncratic volatility as a proxy for firm-specific stock price informativeness, we find that family firms exhibit higher idiosyncratic volatility of stock prices than similar non-family firms. Further, the relation between family ownership and idiosyncratic volatility is weaker for firms with higher leverage but stronger in periods before equity issues. Additionally, we find that family firms disclose more information, particularly related to operations, than nonfamily firms in annual reports. These results are consistent with the argument that family firms disclose more information than their nonfamily peers to reassure skeptical outside investors that they are not expropriating their investment.     

Random polymers

This paper is a mini-review of some recent developments on probabilistic models for polymer chains.     

Competition Policy and Innovation

The question addressed by the paper is whether standard proceduresand widely accepted insights of competition policy remain validwhen one deals with potentially anti-competitive conduct ininnovative industries. The question of appropriateness arisesbecause competition in these industries displays features thatare radically different from those encountered in traditionalsectors of the economy. Competition is for the market ratherthan in the market, dynamic aspects of competition matter morethan allocative aspects, intellectual property rights (IPR)reinforce network effects present in knowledge-based industries.The paper examines why these differences matter with respectto market delineation, assessment of intensity of competition,and predatory conduct. It also raises the question as to whatextent competition law limits the innovators' rights not tolicense their inventions to others, especially when they correspondto essential facilities. It explores the problem created byexcessive protection as well as the hold-up problem that arisesin a context of sequential innovations. It examines the antitrustposition in regard to the treatment of collaborative arrangementsamong holders of IPRs, such as cross-licences, patent-pools,and joint-standard settings. Finally, it presents a discussionon a possible role of competition law in shaping intellectualproperty laws in order to benefit from the complementarity betweenintellectual protection and antitrust rules.     

Extreme Value Theory as a Risk Management Tool

The financial industry, including banking and insurance, is undergoing major changes. The (re)insurance industry is increasingly exposed to catastrophic losses for which the requested cover is only just available. An increasing complexity of financial instruments calls for sophisticated risk management tools. The securitization of risk and alternative risk transfer highlight the convergence of finance and insurance at the product level. Extreme value theory plays an important methodological role within risk management for insurance, reinsurance, and finance.     

Monetary policy and transmission mechanism in Brazil: an empirical model

We propose an econometric model for the transmission mechanism in Brazil after the inflation target regime (IT) implementation. We follow the statistical approach based on the LSE methodology by means of the Spanos (J Econom 44:87–105, 1990) categorization. Our proposed model includes the ratios of the debt and primary surplus to the GDP representing the government fiscal effort. We identify two long run relationships that produce new information on how to evaluate the real interest rate and the nominal interest rate links, respectively, with the output gap and the nominal inflation derived from the IS and the interest rule theoretical models. Such specification explores the role played by fiscal variables in monetary transmission; considering the government fiscal effort, a relevant issue for Brazil. We were also able to identify a third long run relationship that might help to uncover how output gap is related not only with nominal variables but also with the debt to the GDP ratio.     

Jeremy Bentham and Adam Smith on the usury laws: a ‘Smithian’ reply to Bentham and a new problem

Adam Smith justified the contemporary usury laws and was severely criticised by Bentham and most modern writers with the important exception of J.M. Keynes. We argue that pace Bentham, Smith did not intend to preclude loan financing of all ‘risky’ ventures and give a ‘monopoly’ to safe investments and did not neglect the potential emergence of black credit markets. Yet Smith ought to have modified his position independently of Bentham's criticism, considering a marked rise in the rate at which governments borrowed in the late 1770s.     

Stabilization: The political economy of overkill

This paper considers whether national and international aspects of the IMF's stabilization programmes during the 1970s and early 1980s have resulted in a process of ‘overkill’ — or, in other words, a process of economic retrenchment which went much further than was strictly necessary in terms of what could have been regarded as reasonable objectives. In the international context, the author describes how the attack on inflation has become an end in itself, at the expense of other stated objectives of the IMF, thus creating a distortion of its priorities. The paper discusses errors of diagnosis which have led to this disorientation and explains why deflationary policies should not be regarded as a panacea. The paper then considers the nead for equity and efficiency in the distribution of the political and economic costs of adjustment.The next section of this paper discusses the assumptions underlying the IMF's treatment of Fund members and to what extent ‘even-handedness’ in the application of stabilization measures may result in inequality of burden-sharing among borrowers. Problems related to monetarist theories and the consequent policies are examined, followed by a consideration of the dangers involved in devising ‘straightforward’ performance criteria in the form of precise monetary targets that can readily be monitored by the IMF. This means of evaluating the national adjustment policies' success is seen to be unsatisfactory, viz. the frequency of stand-by arrangement breakdowns and mistakes in forecasting.The paper concludes that the concept of unilateral adjustment is not an acceptable basis for IMF supervision of the international monetary system. In addition, care should be taken to avoid overkill in determining the degree and character of adjustment needed in stabilization programmes. One possible solution to the extra burden imposed on the LDCs might be a liberalization of the compensatory financing facility with the objective of applying the same kind of regime to imports as to exports.