Evaluating Board Roles Performance in Adopting Corporate Social Responsibility （CSR） Practices

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the board roles that make a board effective in the performance of adopting corporate social responsibility （CSR） practices. This paper examines directors＇ perceptions of the three main roles： monitoring, service, and strategic, which provide tools for critically understanding how the board adds the value in moving the organization towards more CSR practices. The stakeholder theory is used to distinguish the influence of the three main roles on the adoption of CSR practices. Primary data were collected for this research by conducting structured questionnaires with a sample of 461 directors from Saudi listed companies for study purpose. The results show that an appropriate mix of directors＇ roles and the development of sound board monitoring and service roles are the most crucial determinants of CSR adoption in Saudi listed companies. As the extant corporate governance and CSR literatures do not provide a clear perspective with contradictory outcomes about board roles in influencing CSR practices, the originality of this research is its contribution by evaluating the directors＇ perceptions of developing a direct relationship between the board roles and the adoption of CSR practices. Furthermore, the use of the stakeholder theory provides additional insights into identifying the most influential board role factors enhancing stakeholders＇ expectations of CSR practices.     

Stock Market Mean Reversion and the Optimal Equity Allocation of a Long-Lived Investor

This paper solves numerically the intertemporalconsumption and portfolio choiceproblem of an infinitely-lived investor whofaces a time-varying equity premium.The solutions we obtain are very similarto the approximate analytical solutionsof Campbell and Viceira (1999), except atthe upper extreme of the state spacewhere both the numerical consumption andportfolio rules flatten out.We also consider a constrained version ofthe problem in which the investor facesborrowing and short-sales restrictions.These constraints bind when the equitypremium moves away from its mean in eitherdirection, and are particularly severe forrisk-tolerant investors. The constraints havesubstantial effects on optimalconsumption, but much more modest effects onoptimal portfolio choice in theregion of the state space where they are notbinding.     

Deviations from optimal corporate cash holdings and the valuation from a shareholder’s perspective

The trade-off theory of corporate cash holdings predicts that there is an optimal level of cash. We test the trade-off theory by investigating the relation between deviations from optimal cash holdings and the valuation of cash from a shareholder’s perspective. We decompose corporate cash holdings into the optimal level of cash and the deviations from the optimum. We find that the marginal value of cash for shareholders is higher when a change in cash moves corporate cash holdings towards the optimal level and that this relationship holds for both the above-optimal deviations and the below-optimal deviations. We conclude that the results are consistent with the prediction of the trade-off theory of corporate cash holdings.     

我国证券公司法人治理结构规范与发展探析

证券公司法人治理结构的规范与发展是证券公司健康发展的内在需要 ,也是我国证券市场乃至国民经济健康发展的需要。本文通过阐述公司法人治理结构的基本范畴、治理原则、组织形式 ,阐明其基本作用 ,通过比较国际上证券公司法人治理结构的特点及我国特征 ,指出了中国证券公司法人治理结构存在的问题和缺陷 ,提出完善中国证券公司法人治理结构的具体措施 ,强调了法人治理结构的规范和发展中应进一步鼓励股权结构多元化、分散化 ,积极引入独立董事制度 ,进行以经营者为主体的约束和激励制度创新 ,建立完善风险监控机制和信息披露规则。     

Severance Pay and Corporate Finance: Empirical Evidence from a Panel of Austrian and Italian Firms

This paper examines the empirical link between severance pay and corporate finance. Severance pay is an economic debt of the employer and hence should be taken into account by the market in its assessments of risk. Using a hand-collected dataset of accounting data from Italy and Austria we find there is only a limited relationship between severance pay and market risk indicators. This suggests that arguments that severance pay systems destroy corporate value may need to be reassessed.     

股份制商业银行公司治理绩效的实证分析

作为银行治理研究中的重要内容之一--股份制商业银行公司治理绩效的研究近年来受到较多的关注.本文采用2001-2004年间9家股份制商业银行的23份年报样本为依据,对我国股份制商业银行的治理结构及其与银行绩效的关系进行实证分析.回归分析的结果表明:股权结构对股份制商业银行的绩效产生了负面的影响;董事会规模、董事会会议次数不是影响银行绩效的重要因素;高管人员薪酬对银行绩效有正面的影响.     

Banking System Reform in China: The Challenges to Improving Its Efficiency in Serving the Real Economy

The Chinese banking system reform since the country's accession to the World Trade Organization has yielded remarkable success. The major listed commercial banks have improved their operational performance significantly. However, there are some signs of changes in their financial results recently. The expanding debt of non‐profitable enterprises and local governments raises a question on the achievements of the previous reform. Considering that the competition among banks will become severer with financial liberalization under slower economic growth, the banks and supervisory authorities must continue to make greater efforts towards further reform in order to improve the banks' corporate governance and the risk management system.