The formation and early development of German audit firms

This paper examines the emergence of audit firms in Germany through an analysis of contemporary sources. Special attention is paid to the range of services offered, their legal forms and ownership structure. In Germany, the demand for external audits developed because the corporate supervisory boards had been unable to fulfil their monitoring task satisfactorily. As a consequence of the major economic crisis of 1929-1931 and the collapse of large corporations caused by the fraudulent actions of managing directors, statutory audits for stock corporations were introduced in 1931. The first German audit and trust company, the Deutsche Treuhand-Gesellschaft, was established much earlier in 1890. Like other trust companies which emerged from 1905 onwards, it was owned by large banks. After the First World War, large commercial groups on the one hand, and the state on the other hand, started to form their own audit firms. Most of the audit and trust companies used the legal form of a corporation. Originally, the main activities of the trust companies were trustee activities and audits. Subsequently, they also offered tax and business advisory services. These features (a broad range of services offered, the corporation as the dominant legal form, and clients who are also owners) help us to understand key characteristics of modern German audit firms such as their limited liability to third parties.     

民本经济的发展问题研究

本文首先对民本经济的概念进行综合回顾,然后阐述我国发展民本经济的现实意义和可行性,最后指出民本经济发展中存在的问题并提出相应的发展思路.希望本文能够使读者对我国民本经济的发展问题有更深入的认识.     

Why Capital Income Taxes Survive in Open Economies: The Role of Multinational Firms

This paper discusses the role of multinational firms and double taxation treaties for corporate income taxation in open economies. We show that it is optimal for a small open economy to levy positive corporate income taxes if multinational firms are taxed according to the full taxation after deduction system or the foreign tax credit system. Positive corporate taxes also occur in the asymmetric case where some countries apply the exemption system and others apply the tax credit system. If all countries apply the exemption system, the optimal corporate income tax is zero. We also show that, under tax competition, corporate income taxes are not necessarily too low from the perspective of the economy as a whole. While the undertaxation result is confirmed for the case of the exemption system, tax rates may also be inefficiently high if the deduction or the credit systems are applied.     

The Performance of Internet Firms Following Their Initial Public Offering

We find that initial returns were more favorable for Internet initial public offerings (IPOs) than non–Internet firm IPOs. Since the demise of the Internet sector, the underpricing of Internet–firm IPOs is not significantly different from other IPOs.
Initial returns of Internet firms are positively and significantly related to underwriter prestige and to pre–IPO market conditions. However, initial returns after the demise of the Internet sector are not significantly related to these characteristics.
The aftermarket performance of Internet firms is initially favorable but weakens over time. Firms that experienced higher initial returns during the strong Internet cycle experience weaker aftermarket performance.     

Models of Capital Investments with Private Information and Incentives: a Selective Review

The purpose of this paper is to selectively review research that addresses capital budgeting decisions in settings characterized by dispersed information and incentive problems. The papers are theoretical; they formulate and analyze models that vary in the number of periods considered, the number of economic actors involved, and the number of alternative projects available. The aims of the review are to describe some of the formulations that have been studied, to highlight their key economic and mathematical properties, to reveal their common economic forces, and to collect and organize their basic results.     

基于FDI的产业集群发展模式与动力机制--以浙江嘉善木业集群为例

集群战略日益广泛地被运用于招商引资 ,旨在增强地区对外资的吸引力与粘合力 ,从而促进地方持续发展。浙江嘉善木业集群的经验表明 ,外资能否持续推动地方集群的发展 ,除了受地方制度成本及集群外部效应的影响之外 ,还更取决于外资企业与民营企业之间的融合方式与程度。在学习能力和企业家精神较强的地区 ,民营企业在外资企业的示范带动和竞争压力下 ,能够通过持续的知识积累和自主创新 ,增强并突出自身优势。届时 ,外资企业不但能够获得纯经济外部性 ,还能够获得知识与信息的外部性 ,并受此驱动与地方资本有效融合。     

基于"综合谈判力"的企业所有权安排

现代企业理论打开了“企业”这一“黑箱”,为理解和创建现代企业制度提供了有力的理论支撑。本文通过对企业各要素所有者谈判力三个方面,即:签约人自身实力、签约人相互关系地位、签约外部环境的具体分析,阐释了各要素所有者对企业剩余的分享,并以此初步构建一个以企业要素所有者“综合谈判力”为基础的企业所有权安排分析框架。     

How Do Institutional Investors Affect Corporate Performance? Evidence from Private Placements in China

Using data on private placements in China from 2007 to 2014, we show that abnormal returns of issuing companies’ stocks are significantly positive on the announcement day, but they become significantly negative during the event window [?20, +20]. Participation by institutional investors has a significant and negative impact on the short-term stock returns. This negative effect is also present in issuing companies’ long-term stock returns and profitability. Furthermore, we find that participation by institutional investors reduces dividend payments after private placements. Overall, our findings do not support the monitoring hypothesis of institutional investors’ role in corporate finance but are consistent with the management entrenchment hypothesis and shareholder pessimism hypothesis.     

Examining the relationship between strategic HRM and hospital employees’ work attitudes: an analysis across occupational groups in public and private hospitals

Abstract

As human resource challenges have increased, strategic human resource management (SHRM) in hospitals has evolved into an important management task. Accompanying its growing relevance, there is an evolving research stream on the impact of SHRM on organizational and individual-level outcomes in the hospital context. We aim to address two remaining research gaps by investigating variations in the use of SHRM across organizations (public vs. private ownership types) and differences in the relationship between SHRM and employee attitudes within organizations (for the occupational groups of nurses and physicians). This study is based on a sample of 179 German acute care hospitals. We employ ANOVA and logistic regression analyses, and our results corroborate previous research findings showing that SHRM has positive effects on employee attitudes. However, the effects vary in significance and magnitude, depending on whether nurses or physicians are targets. Further, we reveal significant SHRM differences in public- vs. private-sector organizations.