Past Returns and Investment Trust Discounts

Abstract:   The relationship between past net asset value returns and the current discount on investment trusts is investigated. The relationship is weaker for the component that is common to all trusts in the same sector, and is significantly stronger for more liquid trusts. The time lag before returns have their full impact on discounts is consistent with the requirements of distinguishing 'skill' from noise. Although discounts vary widely even within the same sector, the range of variation appears to be consistent with an arbitrage equilibrium, in which the profits of exploiting apparent pricing anomalies are just insufficient to invite arbitrage trades.     

发展我国养老保险的思考

本文分析了现阶段养老保险中人口老龄化的压力日益加剧，覆盖范围明显过窄，已入保群体“空账运行”，养老待遇过低等问题，提出了提高退休年龄、降低缴费比率、将社会统筹基金与个人账户基金实行分账管理、让基金保值增值加快社会保障制度立法等若干相关政策建议。     

英国养老保险制度浅析

英国是世界上最早建立社会保障制度的国家之一。英国建立的多层次养老体系以及一直贯彻的“普遍性”原则、“最低”原则和“个人责任”原则，值得我们这样一个发展中的经济转型国家研究和借鉴。     

Tolerance for uncertainty and the growth of informationally opaque industries

Hofstede's [Hofstede, Geert H. 1980. Culture's consequences: international differences in work-related values. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.] cross-country psychological survey of IBM employees finds that some countries (societies) are systematically less tolerant of uncertainty, while uncertainty-tolerance is shown by some theoretic models to be essential to the growth of emerging sectors about which less is known. This paper first uses Durnev, Morck, and Yeung's [Durnev, Art, Morck, Randall, and Yeung, Bernard. 2004. Value-enhancing capital budgeting and firm-specific stock return variation. The Journal of Finance. 59(1): 65–105.] methodology to identify these informationally opaque industries. The hypothesis is then made that countries characterized by high uncertainty aversion (measured by Hofstede's indicator, and two other alternative indicators) will grow disproportionately slower in industrial sectors where information is less available. Using the Rajan and Zingales [Rajan, Raghuram G. and Zingales, Luigi. 1998. Financial Dependence and Growth. American Economic Review. Vol. 88(3): 559–586.] “difference-in-differences” methodology, which is relatively free from the endogeneity problem, the study provides robust evidence of such an industrial growth pattern in 34 countries and 36 manufacturing industries. It also shows that national uncertainty aversion is not driven by underdevelopment of financial sector, inadaptability of civil law systems, lower level of economic or human capital development, labor market inflexibility, or any of many other institutional factors. The results remain robust when religious (Catholic vs. Protestant) composition is used as an instrumental variable for national uncertainty aversion. The international evidence presented helps explain why some countries are slower in embracing “new” (vs. traditional) industries.     

开放式基金投资风格浅析

近年来，开放式基金在我国发展极为迅速，在数量不断增加的同时，呈现出的风格日趋多样化。面对种类繁多的开放式基金，投资者很难分清哪种投资风格更适合自己的风险偏好，因而投资风格逐渐成为基金最重要的识别系统之一。本文首先介绍了开放式基金的定义，其次，根据财务指标对开放式基金的投资风格进行分类并描述不同类型基金的特点。最后分析了基金最终风格出现趋同的原因。     

我国财政支农的资金效益问题研究

本文通过一系列数据对我国财政支农资金的效益进行分析得出农村居民纯收入的缓慢增长与财政支农资金的快速增加形成了明显反差,我国财政支农资金使用效益不高。针对这样的现状,分析了产生财政支农资金效益不足的原因,并提出相应措施来提高财政支农资金的使用效益。     

构建我国进城务工人员社会保障制度体系的思考

从进城务工人员这个群体的特殊性出发，构建他们的社会保障制度必须要从我国城乡社会保障及其对接角度通盘考虑。通过建立进城务工人员双重社会保障制度，逐步实现城乡社会保障制度的对接。这既关系进城务工人员的权益问题，也关系城乡社会保障衔接问题，更关系着我国社会保障制度一体化目标的实现问题。     

Consistency of UK Pension Fund Investment Performance

Transition matrix techniques are used to relate the past and present performance of pension fund portfolios. In particular, funds are ranked to study the tendency of portfolios to remain in the same quartile of the ranking as they were in the previous period. For raw returns, funds in both of the top quartiles are found to be more likely to remain in the same quartile than would be expected by chance. This result can be taken as limited evidence for the consistency of performance. Similar systemic effects are observed on a risk-adjusted basis. There appears to be clear evidence that some fund managers can offer a degree of consistent good performance.     

Experiments in Environmental Economics and Some Close Relatives

Abstract.  It is not only the great number of papers written on environment economics that make it worth dealing with this special branch of experimental research, but the environmental problem in all its facets seems to serve as a catalyst for identifying some methodological problems of the experimental method. For this reason, we will not only try to give an overview of recent experiments in environmental economics but also add some thoughts on the methodological implications of this work. We identify three direct connecting factors for the experimental method and environmental economics. First, social dilemmas are, in many cases, at the core of environmental problems. Experiments are able to test theoretical hypotheses for individual behavior in such social dilemma situations. The second connecting factor comes from the field of applied experimental work and can be characterized as the testbedding of institutional arrangements for the solution of environmental problems. The last direct application of experimental methods to environmental economics concerns the individual evaluation of environmental resources.     

析证券投资基金的治理结构

投资基金有两种类型:契约型与公司型。两种投资基金的治理结构所依据的法理并不同,契约型基金是依据信托而为构造,公司型基金当然是依据公司法而为构造。但两种基金的治理结构仍有相似之处,一般的基金治理结构都包含基金投资人、基金管理人、基金托管人,究其实,公司型基金是基金主体化的类型。我国在大力发展基金业中出现了各种观点,结合《证券投资基金法》,从法学的角度澄清概念间、主体间的关系。