The Ethical Mutual Fund Performance Debate: New Evidence from Canada

Although the academic interest in ethical mutual fund performance has developed steadily, the evidence to date is mainly sample-specific. To tackle this critique, new research should extend to unexplored countries. Using this as a motivation, we examine the performance and risk sensitivities of Canadian ethical mutual funds vis-à-vis their conventional peers. In order to overcome the methodological deficiencies most prior papers suffered from, we use performance measurement approaches in the spirit of Carhart (1997, Journal of Finance 52(1): 57–82) and Ferson and Schadt (1996, Journal of Finance 51(2): 425–461). In doing so, we investigate the aggregated performance and investment style of ethical and conventional mutual funds and allow for time variation in the funds’ systematic risk. Our␣Canadian evidence supports the conjecture that any␣performance differential between ethical mutual funds and their conventional peers is statistically insignificant.      

市场经济条件下我国高校筹资问题探讨

随着我国社会主义市场经济的逐步完善和高等教育规模的不断扩展 ,筹资已成为制约我国高校健康、快速发展亟待解决的问题。文章探讨了在市场经济条件下高校筹资的主体地位 ,回顾了我国高等教育投资结构发生的变化 ,分析了高等院校筹资的难点问题并提出了相应对策。     

Gold price risk and the returns on gold mutual funds

A model is presented for estimating the theoretical gold price elasticity of the value of mutual funds investing in gold mining companies. The theoretical elasticity shows that if the funds invest in companies whose assets are comprised primarily of operating gold mines, then the return of an investment in the fund will be at least as great as an investment in gold (i.e., the gold price elasticity of the gold fund is greater than 1). Empirical tests of the above propositions are presented. Empirical tests also show, however, that the gold mutual funds contain a substantial amount of risk which is not explained either by market risk or gold price risk. Accordingly, gold mutual funds and gold bullion do not bring identical risks to an investor's portfolio.     

基于DEA的投资基金业绩分析

由于传统投资基金业绩评估方法的局限性,将数据包络分析(DEA)作为工具,建立一种投资基金业绩评估模型。意在研究基金起点基本相同和系统风险相同的前提下基金的运转效率,选取2002年成立的10家开放式投资基金作为实例,分别对他们的投入,产出和经营业绩进行分析和比较。目的是考察基金的经营效率差异及分析其中原因,以挖掘提高基金管理业绩的潜力。     

韩国利用外资的特点及启示

韩国在金融危机前,实施外向型经济发展战略,使其经济迅速发展,而外资在其中的作用是巨大的,它缩短了韩国实现现代化的过程,仅20多年韩国就跃入新兴工业化国家的行列。但是,韩国在利用外资中以贷款为主,尤其是以商业贷款为主,这使其外债不断增加,最终给韩国的经济造成重大影响。金融危机后,韩国及时调整利用外资的政策,使其经济不断走向正轨。     

商业银行网上资金转移的法律风险及其防范

网上资金转移是在计算机技术基础上发展起来的新型金融资金收付、结算方式,与传统方式相比,具有便捷、费用低等优点,同时也会产生网络材料的证据能力不足等法律问题。商业银行应采取相应的措施,防范和减少网上资金转移所面临的各种法律风险。     

The Financial Performance of a Socially Responsible Investment Over Time and a Possible Link with Corporate Social Responsibility

This paper empirically examines the financial performance of a UK unit trust that was initially “conventional” and later adopted socially responsible investment (SRI) principles (ethical investment principles). Comparison is made with three similar conventional funds whose investment objectives remained unchanged. Analysis techniques employed in previous studies find similar results: mean risk-adjusted performance is unchanged by the switch to SRI, with no evidence of over-or under-performance relative to the benchmark market index by any of the four funds. More interestingly, changes in variability of returns over time are also modelled using generalised autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity models, not previously applied to SRI funds so far as is known. Results show a temporary increase in variability of returns, followed by a return to previous levels after around 4 years. Evidence shows the increased variability to be associated with the adoption of SRI rather than with a change in fund management. Possible explanations for the subsequent reduction in variability include the spread of corporate social responsibility activities by firms and learning by fund managers. In addition to reporting on a previously unobserved phenomenon, this paper raises questions for further research.     

大股东资金占用与盈余管理

本文以深沪两市2000-2002年所有A股公司作为样本,研究了大股东的资金侵占与上市公司盈余管理的关系。实证结果表明,大股东及其附属公司对上市公司的资金侵占越严重,上市公司进行盈余管理的程度越高,说明大股东的资金占用不仅可能影响上市公司的经营业绩,还会降低上市公司会计信息质量。     

优化财政性三级教育支出结构

本文认为,财政性三级教育支出结构不合理,极大地影响了我国教育事业的发展。我国财政性三级教育支出结构存在的主要问题,是高等教育投资比例明显偏高,而初、中等教育投资比例较低,与我国经济发展水平不相适应。优化财政性三级教育支出结构,应加大国家对初、中等教育的投入力度,促进高等教育投资多元化。高等教育投资多元化应从两方面着手:一是鼓励个人和企业向现有高校进行投资;二是大力发展民办高等教育。     

Combining the Effects of OLS and Spread on Futures Hedging: Evidence from the Taiwan Stock Index

Abstract:

This study proposes a dynamic hedge ratio, the combined ordinary least squares spread (COLSS), which combines the hedge ratio of ordinary least squares and the value of spread. Using this dynamic ratio for hedging with futures contracts, one can replace spot risk with spread risk. The COLSS captures not only the long-run equilibrium between spot and futures returns, but also the short-run deviation from equilibrium. The spread is forecast by one-period lagged stock market factors and high-order moments that are estimated by an options model. In the in-sample and out-of-sample tests, the COLSS strategy achieves significant risk reduction and outperforms the alternative models by a large utility improvement.