Does international capital flow lead to a housing boom? A time-varying evidence from China

This paper examines the causal relationship between the housing prices (HP) and the international capital flows (ICF) in China. With structural changes existing, we find that long-run relationship using full-sample data is unstable, suggesting that traditional Granger causality test is not reliable. However, we further find an unstable short-run relationship between ICF and HP when assessing the stability of the parameters and there are bidirectional causal relationships between ICF and HP for several sub-periods. Additionally, our findings indicate both positive and negative bidirectional causal relations between the series. Based on the arbitrage of ICF, the results suggest that the rise of Chinese HP is the underlying force for the inflows of international capital. Meanwhile, a surge in capital inflows may be accompanied by a rise in the price of housing. This confirms the theoretical analysis that there is an interconnected transmission mechanism between the ICF and the HP, which is diverse and depends both on the flow of ICF and on other factors.     

地理邻近在区域创新中的作用机理及其启示

由于隐性知识需要直接交流的特性与创新的背景依赖,邻近性在创新研究中越来越受到重视。文章从知识流动和集体学习的视角,探讨了地理邻近在区域创新中的作用机理。地理邻近是"距离产生美",太多或太少的地理邻近都不利于集体学习和区域创新,地理邻近与其它类型的邻近之间相互促进,并可以相互替代。最后给出了研究结论带来的启示。     

上海国有企业外部董事运作机制研究

外部董事制度是加强董事会建设的一项重要举措,要充分发挥外部董事制度的作用就要形成一套有效的运作机制。在借鉴央企董事会试点经验的基础上,上海国有企业集团积极开展外部董事制度试点工作,逐步建立起与外部董事制度相配套的运作机制,且已取得一定成效。     

现金股利对会计信息的治理

会计只能提供相对相关和可靠的信息,在控制逆向选择和道德风险方面作用有限,形成了会计目标实现的障碍,这迫使投资者不得不去寻找其他信息渠道,以期更有效地决策。现金股利就是投资者寻找的信息渠道之一,它和会计信息在提高信息的相关性、可靠性以及控制逆向选择和道德风险方面共同发挥作用,并形成竞争态势,这种竞争态势实质上起到了对会计信息的治理作用。     

Do contagion effects exist in capital flow volatility?

The cross-border transmission of a financial shock has been a subject of rich literature. While a large number of studies have focused on the phenomenon of strong co-movements of asset prices and capital flows in the event of financial stress, very few discussed the contagion or spillover effects in terms of capital flow volatility. This paper is one of the first attempts to assess, empirically, whether or not there is a global and regional spillover effect in the volatility of capital flows to emerging and developing countries. Based on the sample of 49 emerging and developing countries for the period 1980–2009, the empirical results suggest strong and significant contagion effects in the volatility of capital flows to individual economies. The magnitudes of contagion vary depending on the type of capital flows, whether it is foreign direct investment (FDI) or portfolio and other investment (mostly bank lending). The findings also suggest the volatility dynamics of gross flows is different from that of net flows. The volatility of net inflows is more exposed to intra-regional contagion compared to that of gross inflows.     

Inflation Developments and Perceptions after the Euro Cash Changeover

Abstract. This paper analyses the evolution of inflation and of consumers' inflation perceptions in the aftermath of the euro cash changeover. It finds that the cross‐country variation of food product inflation was dependent on the complexity of conversion rates, with statistically significant and economically sizeable effects especially for low‐priced items sold in midpriced stores. The paper also shows that cross‐country differences in the mismatch of perceived and actual inflation were linked to differences in the complexity of conversion rates. These results are in line with theories of finite information‐processing capacities on the side of consumers.     

Compensation of owner managers in Canadian family‐owned businesses: expropriation of minority shareholders

The aim of this paper is to test the hypothesis of owner managers expropriating minority shareholders by receiving excessive compensation. Using a sample of Canadian family firms, we found that when there is divergence between voting rights and cash flow rights, owner CEOs receive higher compensation than non‐owners. The higher the divergence between voting rights and cash flow rights, the higher the excess compensation. Further analysis shows that only poorly governed firms are affected by the expropriation problem. Copyright © 2010 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Operating performance of European bank mergers

With very few exceptions the accepted viewpoint established by (predominantly) US research is that bank operating performance is not improved after merger. In this article we concentrate on European banks and investigate post-merger operating performance for 35 publicly listed bank mergers that were completed between 1992 and 1997. We find that industry-adjusted mean cash flow return did not significantly change after merger but stayed positive. We also find that the merger led to a significant decrease in profitability and capitalisation. Our key finding, in contrast to the US evidence, is that cost-efficiency ratios improved, although the improvement was not large enough to offset the profitability decrease. We also find that low profitability levels, conservative credit policies and good cost-efficiency status before merger are the main determinants of industry-adjusted cash flow returns and provide the source for improving these returns after merger.