Finance constraints or free cash flow?

It has long been argued that firms prefer internal to external finance for funding investment. Modern literatures in industrial organization, macroeconomics, and finance argue this preference is caused by information asymmetries. There are, however, important disagreements about the effect of the asymmetries. Asymmetries may lead to binding financing constraints, or they may allow managers to use free cash flow for unprofitable projects. Each model predicts a different relationship between investment and changes in debt finance and this paper estimates this relationship using firm-level data. The principal findings are that both financing constraints and the agency costs of free cash flow affect investment in a manner consistent with a life cycle model of the firm.     

Does Endogenously Determined Ownership Matter on Performance? Dynamic Evidence from the Emerging Taiwan Market

This paper reexamines the relationship between ownership and firm performance. Using an unbalanced panel data in the emerging Taiwan market, we adopt a simultaneous equations framework to explore the persistence of the relationship across the life cycle of firms over time. Empirical results suggest that firm performance is a function of institutional ownership, especially in the mature stage. Through dynamic specification, evidence appears to account for lack of persistence of the impacts of ownership on performance over time. To alleviate a potential simultaneity issue, we construct a lagged specification to examine the sensitivity of our results. Consequently, the main results are found to be robust.     

对建设工程跟踪审计的分析

传统审计是静态模式，不可避免地存在着缺陷。跟踪审计指对建设工程全寿命过程实施动态审核，它将事前、事中和事后3个介入环节有机地结合，同时也可以拓展出新的审计领域。与传统审计模式相比，更具科学性和合理性。     

The impact of technological and organizational implementation of CRM on customer acquisition, maintenance, and retention

In recent years, customer relationship management (CRM) has been a topic of the utmost importance for scholars and managers. Despite the evidence provided by numerous empirical studies, many companies that have implemented CRM systems report unsatisfactory levels of improvement. This study analyzes what influence companies can expect CRM implementation to have on performance and how they can leverage its impact. The authors propose a conceptual model that investigates the link between technological and organizational implementations, as well as the implementations' interactions with management and employee support and CRM process-related performance. By measuring CRM performance in terms of the initiation, maintenance, and retention of customer relationships, the study provides a detailed picture of what CRM implementations are capable of achieving. The results of the empirical study, conducted across four industries and ten European countries, indicate that CRM implementation does not impact performance equally for different aspects of the CRM process, and that it has an impact only if adequately supported by the appropriate company stakeholders.     

Demographics and Behaviour

Using a unique experimental subject pool, I analyse the behaviour of subjects in a life-cycle consumption experimental task. As in previous experiments, it is clear that different subjects solve the task differently – some having strategies close to the fully optimal and others using simple heuristics. The nature of my subject pool enables me to see if there is any link between the strategies employed by the subjects and their demographic characteristics. I also explore whether the parameters in the task influence the chosen strategy. I find little systematic demographic influence. The results of the paper have an important message concerning the representativeness of typical subject pools used in economics experiments.JEL Classification: C91, D91     

Early life-cycle behaviour of micro-firms in Scotland

The paper reports on the behaviour of young (less than three years old) micro-firms (less than ten employees) in Scotland, with an emphasis on life-cycle effects. Two main tests were carried out. The first took Gibrat's Law (that growth is independent of size) as the null hypothesis, and a life-cycle effects model as the alternative. The Gibrat's Law model was rejected in favour of the life-cycle model. Smaller micro-firms grow faster than larger micro-firms. Robust nonlinear variants of the life-cycle model were discussed and shown to display stable equilibrium characteristics which were consistent with the sample evidence. The second took a Classical simultaneous equations model as the null hypothesis, for which growth and profitability were mutually reinforcing. A Managerial model was set up as the alternative for which growth and profitability were in a trade-off relationship. The Classical model was rejected in favour of the Managerial. In the short-run, young micro-firms experience a trade-off between profitability and growth. The Managerial model was shown to imply a stable equilibrium, with characteristics consistent with sample evidence.Professor in Economics, and Director of the Centre for Research into Industry, Enterprise, Finance and the Firm (CRIEFF), University of St Andrews. An earlier version of this paper was read to the ESRC Urban and Regional Economics Study Group conference at Craigie College, University of Paisley, Ayr on 6 January 1994. Thanks are due to the participants for comments made, without in any way implicating them in errors of omission or commission that this article may yet contain.     

基于全寿命周期的绿色建筑经济评价研究

在我国当前的建筑行业中,普遍存在着高能耗、高资源消耗、污染较为严重的现象,因而研究和引进这一建筑理念和建筑模式,具有时代性和针对性。文章从绿色建筑的概念出发,针对绿色建筑的特点和优势,参考经济评价常用的参数与指标,旨在建立一套基于全寿命周期的绿色建筑经济评价方法,为绿色建筑的推广作铺垫。     

Dynamic preferences for popular investment strategies in pension funds

In this paper, we characterize dynamic investment strategies that are consistent with the expected utility setting and more generally with the forward utility setting. Two popular dynamic strategies in the pension funds industry are used to illustrate our results: a constant proportion portfolio insurance (CPPI) strategy and a life-cycle strategy. For the CPPI strategy, we are able to infer preferences of the pension fund’s manager from her investment strategy, and to exhibit the specific expected utility maximization that makes this strategy optimal at any given time horizon. In the Black–Scholes market with deterministic parameters, we are able to show that traditional life-cycle funds are not optimal to any expected utility maximizers. We also prove that a CPPI strategy is optimal for a fund manager with HARA utility function, while an investor with a SAHARA utility function will choose a time-decreasing allocation to risky assets in the same spirit as the life-cycle funds strategy. Finally, we suggest how to modify these strategies if the financial market follows a more general diffusion process than in the Black–Scholes market.     

RFID在电力物资仓储配送的应用探索

供电企业作为典型的资产密集型企业,提高设备运营水平,延长资产生命周期,已经成为降低企业成本,提高企业核心竞争力的重要手段。作者根据电力物资全生命周期管理的特点,研究分析了RFID在电力系统物资全生命周期中的设计,有重点的对RFID在其仓储、配送环节的应用进行了一些探索。     

Welfare effects of automatic-IRAs

Several states require employers who do not offer retirement benefits to automatically enroll their employees in individual retirement accounts (IRAs). We quantify the welfare effects of this program for individuals who follow a rule-of-thumb to make savings decisions. We find workers who save more than 3% would be willing to give up 0%–1.4% of lifetime consumption to avoid an IRA. We also consider a fully rational model with credit frictions, stochastic income and pre-retirement withdrawals, and costly IRA opt-outs. We find that being enrolled in an IRA is most likely to benefit workers who do not borrow during the life-cycle.