A comparative institutional analysis of agreements on product standards

The WTO and the EU have chosen two different agreements on product standards. While the WTO's approach is primarily based on a “National Treatment” (NT) principle, the EU's approach crucially relies on a principle of “Mutual Recognition” (MR). This paper offers a first look at the comparative performance of these two principles. We show that standards are imposed for levels of externalities that are too low under NT and too high under MR. This suggests that NT should be preferred to MR when the amount of trade in goods characterized by high levels of externalities is large.     

Stock market booms and real economic activity: Is this time different?

Since World War II, the United States has experienced two large booms on the stock market. During the first boom, which lasted from the late 1940s to the mid-1960s, stock returns were clearly leading real activity. Moreover, the evidence also suggests the existence of predictable return variations in the discount rate through time as a response to changing business conditions. Therefore, the first boom does not stand out as unusual because previous studies, such as Fama (1990) or Chen (1991), confirm these results for the whole period from the 1950s to the 1980s. But during the current boom, which started in the early 1980s, these results do not hold up any more. Stock returns do not seem to lead real activity and predictable return variations as a response to business conditions cannot be detected.     

价值溢价与一月效应——来自上海A股市场的经验证据

以2000年1月至2011年12月沪市A股上市公司为样本,按Size-B/M方法构建6投资组合,考察我国股市的价值溢价是否存在一月效应现象,检验大盘股、小盘股价值溢价在1月和非1月是否不同,并采用CAPM模型检验价值溢价的一月效应。实证结果发现:1)采用账面市值比B/M划分成长-价值型股票组合,大盘股和小盘股股票都存在价值溢价;2)大盘股和小盘股的价值溢价在1月与非1月存在不同的模式——大盘股在1月存在显著的价值溢价,而小盘股的价值溢价主要在非1月的月份出现;3)CAPM模型能够解释我国股市从2007年1月至2011年12月期间的价值溢价。相对小盘股,大盘股的价值溢价的一月效应更为显著。     

复杂产品协同创新专利管理研究——以客机协同研制为例

复杂产品研制具有周期较长、成本较高、产品设计过程复杂、跨学科交叉及融合等特征,在研制过程中需要企业、高校、科研院所等众多机构协同创新,众多产学研协同创新的复杂性导致了专利管理的复杂性。围绕复杂产品协同创新,以客机产品为例,对复杂产品专利体系构建、专利演化历程及专利管理策略等进行了研究。自顶向下划分复杂产品部件(子系统),自底向上围绕每一部件的核心技术产生系列专利,再与其它所需技术的专利持有人共同组建专利池,构建了客机产品专利体系;将复杂产品协同研制的专利演化历程划分为孕育期、创建期、成长期、成熟期和衰退期等阶段,根据不同阶段创新主体掌握专利技术的程度,提出了相应的专利策略或专利策略组合,研究成果可为我国复杂产品协同创新专利管理提供借鉴。     

Failures to Deliver,Short Sale Constraints,and Stock Overvaluation

Studying a large sample of publicly available data on failures to deliver, we find that stocks reaching threshold levels of failures become significantly overvalued. Where short sale constraints are especially binding, we report extreme overpricing and subsequent reversals. These findings support the overvaluation hypothesis, although the mispricing is likely to be difficult to arbitrage because of extreme shorting costs. In addition, threshold stocks with low short interest become more overvalued than threshold stocks with high short interest. This suggests that the level of short interest reflects supply‐side effects when the examination conditions on the difficulty of borrowing shares.     

审计师行业专长、产品市场竞争与财务重述——来自中国证券市场的经验证据

以2007~2012年我国 A 股上市公司为样本,对审计师行业专长与财务重述的关系,以及产品市场竞争程度对两者关系的影响进行实证研究。结果表明：审计师行业专长有助于降低财务重述发生的概率;产品市场竞争则削弱了审计师行业专长对财务重述行为的抑制作用。     

Financial density selection

We propose and study simple but flexible methods for density selection of skewed versions of the two most popular density classes in finance, the exponential power distribution and the t distribution. For the first type of method, which simply consists of selecting a density by means of an information criterion, the Schwarz criterion stands out since it performs well across density categories, and in particular when the DGP is normal. For the second type of method, general-to-specific density selection, the simulations suggest that it can improve the recovery rate in predictable ways by changing the significance level. This is useful because it enables us to increase (reduce) the recovery rate of non-normal densities by increasing (reducing) the significance level, if one wishes to do so. The third type of method is a generalisation of the second type, such that it can be applied across an arbitrary number of density classes, nested or non-nested. Finally, the methods are illustrated in an empirical application.     

Maximizing customer value via mass customized e-consumer services

While the Internet provides an ideal marketplace for customized services, its strategic potential has yet to be fully realized. In particular, multi-seller (or “cross retail”) partnerships are the key to a largely unexploited Internet strategy for mass customizing bundles of goods or services as value-added solutions to individual customer needs. This article uses mass customization successes to advance cross retailing as a comprehensive strategy that frames current Web initiatives specifically in terms of customer value. Exploiting the strategy will necessitate an understanding of the enablers and dimensions of mass customized “e-consumer services” (i.e., e-tail services, as well as service-related consumer products, that are defined and sold via the Internet). The overall success of the broader Internet marketplace will be determined not just by industry-wide cooperation, but also by the development of rich standards that allow for the highly customized bundling of products. More importantly, service providers will be differentiated by their ability to employ powerful Web interfaces within a strategy that comprehensively supports and extends a customer-controlled customization process.