GENERAL PROPERTIES OF ISOELASTIC UTILITY ECONOMIES

This paper studies the class of single‐good Arrow–Debreu economies in which all agents have isoelastic utility functions and homogeneous beliefs, but have possibly different cautiousness parameters and endowments. For each economy in this class, the equilibrium stochastic discount factor is an exponential function of the inverse mapping of a completely monotone function, evaluated at the aggregate consumption. This fact allows for general properties of the class to be studied analytically in terms of known properties of completely monotone functions. For example, conditions are presented under which the agents’ cautiousness parameters and a distribution of initial wealth can be recovered from an equilibrium stochastic discount factor, even if nothing is known about the agents’ endowments. This is a multiagent inverse problem since information about economic primitives is extracted from equilibrium prices. Several example economies are used to illustrate the results.     

A METHOD FOR PRICING AMERICAN OPTIONS USING SEMI‐INFINITE LINEAR PROGRAMMING

We introduce a new approach for the numerical pricing of American options. The main idea is to choose a finite number of suitable excessive functions (randomly) and to find the smallest majorant of the gain function in the span of these functions. The resulting problem is a linear semi‐infinite programming problem, that can be solved using standard algorithms. This leads to good upper bounds for the original problem. For our algorithms no discretization of space and time and no simulation is necessary. Furthermore it is applicable even for high‐dimensional problems. The algorithm provides an approximation of the value not only for one starting point, but for the complete value function on the continuation set, so that the optimal exercise region and, for example, the Greeks can be calculated. We apply the algorithm to (one‐ and) multidimensional diffusions and show it to be fast and accurate.     

Blaming suicide on NASA and divorce on margarine: the hazard of using cointegration to derive inference on spurious correlation

Contrary to common belief, cointegration testing may not distinguish between spurious relations and genuine ones. It is demonstrated that highly correlated series appear as cointegrated, even though common sense tells us that the underlying relation does not make sense. Empirical testing using simulated data, data from daily life and historical data on interest rates shows that cointegration may fail not only to detect spurious correlation but also to capture cointegration in a genuine relation. Cointegration testing to reveal spurious correlation can only be used in conjunction with theory, common sense and intuition.     

Who matters more? The impact of functional background and top executive mobility on firm survival

Do some top executives matter more than others? Integrating insights from upper echelons and executive mobility research, we suggest that the functional roles performed by top executives shape their value to the firm. We examine the effects of interfirm executive mobility on firm survival for New York City advertising firms from 1924 to 1996. We find that, while losing any top executive is damaging, the loss of a top executive whose functional role focuses on internal firm processes is more detrimental to firm survival than losing a top executive whose functional role focuses on managing external exchange relationships. Additionally, in situations when multiple executives leave simultaneously, firms are more negatively affected when the group departing is functionally heterogeneous. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Top management conservatism and corporate risk strategies: Evidence from managers' personal political orientation and corporate tax avoidance

We investigate whether managers' personal political orientation helps explain tax avoidance at the firms they manage. Results reveal the intriguing finding that, on average, firms with top executives who lean toward the Republican Party actually engage in less tax avoidance than firms whose executives lean toward the Democratic Party. We also examine changes in tax avoidance around CEO turnovers and find corroborating evidence. Additionally, we find that political orientation is helpful in explaining top management team composition and CEO succession. Our paper extends theory and research by (1) illustrating how tax avoidance can serve as another measure of corporate risk taking and (2) using political orientation as a proxy for managerial conservatism, which is an ex ante measure of a manager's propensity toward risk. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

从结构调整中寻求土地市场健康发展之路

土地市场结构性的混乱是影响市场健康发展的根本原因之一。在我国，土地市场主要由于土地出让，转让和租凭等市场关系组成，当前，由于土地转让市场的无序膨胀，造成土地市场结构遭到破坏，文单指出，政府作为土地市场宏观的调控者，应从结构调整着手，并指明从三个方面进行宏观调整。     

重庆“购物之都”定位及核心功能研究

重庆提出建设长江上游贸易中心,完善购物功能,打造"购物天堂"。本文通过借鉴相关评价标准界定"购物之都"内涵,通过相关城市比较明确重庆建设长江上游"购物之都"的战略定位,确定其消费购物、生产采购、品牌集聚、时尚引领、信息集中、价格形成六大核心功能,从主体、载体、产业体系、支持系统上形成建设长江上游购物之都的总体思路与框架。     

LONG‐RUN DETERMINANTS OF SAVINGS RATES IN WAEMU COUNTRIES: AN EMPIRICAL ASSESSMENT FROM ARDL BOUNDS TESTING APPROACH

In this paper, we examine the long‐run determinants of savings rates for seven member countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union over the period 1970–2006. We use the bounds testing approach to cointegration developed by Pesaran et al. This methodology has several advantages with respect to other cointegration tests. The long‐run determinants of savings rate vary across countries. Results reveal that the financial liberalization process undertaken at the end of 1989 and the existing monetary policy have not been effective to increase the domestic savings rates within the area.     

The government expenditure–economic growth relation in Japan: an analysis by using the ADL test for threshold cointegration

Based on annual data from Japan for the period 1960 to 2010, we investigate the government expenditure–economic growth relation in Japan by using the autoregressive distributed lag test for threshold cointegration developed by Li and Lee (2010). In particular, we evaluate the validity of Wagner’s view and the Keynesian view in the case of Japan. The empirical results presented herein indicate that of these two classical economics perspectives, only Wagner’s view holds for Japan. The findings also demonstrate that the adjustment process towards its long-run equilibrium is asymmetric.     

On the impact of financial development on income distribution: time-series evidence

Financial market development is said to have equalizing or unequalizing effects on income distribution. Previous research used cross-sectional and panel data and provided mixed results. Suspecting that they suffer from aggregation bias, we adhere to time-series data and error-correction modeling technique and address the issue one more time in each of the 17 countries for which we have time-series data. In 10 counties, short-run effects of financial market development on income distribution were found to be equalizing. In five countries, the effects were unequalizing. However, the equalizing effects lasted into the long run only in three countries of Denmark, Kenya and Turkey.