The making of a petrol station and the “on-the-move consumer”: Classification devices and the shaping of markets

This paper addresses the issue of classification devices and their role in shaping markets. We depart from the notion that markets are shaped by multiple calculative agencies and examine how particular forms of calculation are made viable. Classification devices are the infrastructure that makes calculation possible and sustains particular economic orders. We illustrate these notions with an empirical, longitudinal study of a fuel retail company and its initiative to re-classify its network of petrol stations across Europe. Our study focuses on the extensive and protracted negotiations over what constituted relevant categories and the multiple perspectives involved in defining petrol station types. We illustrate how a store typology plays an important role in making assemblages of ideas (e.g. consumer-on-the-go), objects (e.g. store planograms), and managerial roles (e.g. category managers) coalesce around particular constellations of practices which impact upon the outline of markets.     

大力培育项目管理公司促进代建制的发展

政府投资项目实行代建制是对原有项目管理模式的一大改革,其目的在于转变政府职能,实现项目的专业化管理。然而现阶段国内的项目管理公司较少,管理水平较低,尚不能满足市场需求。因此,要使代建制得以顺利推行,必须大力培育项目管理公司,建立完善的项目管理市场。本文从代建制的含义及其主要方式入手,分析项目管理公司应具备的条件,提出了四种有效的培育途径,并对培育项目管理公司提出了几点建议。     

Analysis on financing, investing and operating activities of Target Corporation

The paper analyzes the financing activity, investing activity and operating activity of Target Corporation by comparing with other companies in the same industry. The analysis shows that Target overall is better at meeting it in short-term obligations as well as earning money for its investors. Target is a safe and consistent investment. The company should pay attention to interest rate changes because the company＇s majority of financing charges are based on floating-rate debt obligations.     

应用动态规划优选投资项目方案

该文结合实例，主要讨论了层混型方案的决策问题，试图在分析传统解法的基础上，指出其存在的不足，并提出应用动态规划的方法来进行投资项目的优选。     

实际货币供给、企业风险承担与营运资本目标结构的动态调整选择

基于权衡理论,分析了风险承担水平对企业营运资本目标结构回调速度的影响,实证研究结果表明：风险承担水平提高会加快企业营运资本目标结构回调速度,实际货币供给水平的增加能够显著放缓企业营运资本目标结构回调速度;同时,实际货币供给水平的提高可以降低企业风险承担水平所带来的风险敞口,从而降低企业风险承担对营运资本目标结构回调速度的影响。进一步检验不同风险偏好倾向下,企业风险承担以及不同风险承担下实际货币供给对企业营运资本目标结构回调速度的影响,结果显示：具有风险偏好倾向的企业,风险承担水平与营运资本目标结构回调速度呈正相关关系;随着企业风险承担水平提高,具有风险规避倾向的企业,其营运资本目标结构的偏离度会进一步加大。另外,在风险偏好型企业中,实际货币供给水平的提高会放大营运资本目标结构偏离度,并且对低风险承担企业的影响更甚;在风险规避型企业中,企业营运资本目标结构回调速度并未对实际货币供给水平表现出显著的敏感性反应,并在高或低风险承担企业中表现出类似效应。     

Trades of the living dead: Style differences, style persistence and performance of currency fund managers

We make use of a new database on daily currency fund manager returns over a three-year period, 2005–2008. This higher frequency data allows us to estimate both alpha measures of performance and beta style factors on a yearly basis, which in turn allows us to test for persistence. We find no evidence to support alpha persistence; a manager’s alpha in one year is not significantly related to his alpha in the prior year. On the other hand, there is substantial evidence for style persistence; funds that rely on carry, trend or value trading or with a long/short bias toward currency volatility are likely to maintain that style in the following year. In addition, we are able to examine the performance of managers that survive through the entire sample period, versus those that drop out. We find significant differences in both the investment styles of living versus deceased funds, as well as their realized alpha performance measures. We conjecture that both style differences and ineffective market timing, rather than market conditions, have impacted performance outcomes and induced some managers to close their funds.     

Pension Fund Manager Tournaments and Attitudes Towards Corporate Characteristics

Abstract:  This paper explores the relationship between the tournament incentives of pension fund managers and the characteristics of equities they choose to hold. Using a comprehensive data set on pension fund portfolio holdings, we determine the intensity of fund manager tournaments by sorting pension funds into portfolios based on the number of concurrent managers each pension fund employs. We then investigate which corporate characteristics are preferred by each of these portfolios by estimating share selection models that include a range of corporate characteristics that are expected to shape the returns to investment in stocks over the short and long run. We find that the intensity of the tournament faced by fund managers plays a significant role in shaping preferences over corporate characteristics. Managers facing more intense tournaments exhibit significantly weaker preferences for attributes associated with long run payoffs, such as social performance and growth potential, and significantly stronger preferences for short term attributes, such as operational efficiency, when compared to managers that face weak or no tournament incentives.     

关于中国证券市场实施QFII制度的冷思考

QFII制度如果能顺利实施 ,对中国资本市场的逐步开放和发展是有利的。但目前中国资本市场的制度性缺陷却对QFII制度的顺利实施构成了障碍。必须从改善资本市场制度和促进法制建设入手营造一个良好的投资环境 ,才能为QFII制度的顺利实施奠定一个坚实的基础。     

Investor attention, overconfidence and category learning

Motivated by psychological evidence that attention is a scarce cognitive resource, we model investors’ attention allocation in learning and study the effects of this on asset-price dynamics. We show that limited investor attention leads to category-learning behavior, i.e., investors tend to process more market and sector-wide information than firm-specific information. This endogenous structure of information, when combined with investor overconfidence, generates important features observed in return comovement that are otherwise difficult to explain with standard rational expectations models. Our model also demonstrates new cross-sectional implications for return predictability.     

Rejuvenating Northeastern Area and Reforming the System of Investing and Financing

The system of investing and financing in northeastern area has the character of planned economy. Project conducting is our main strategy in any large-scale area rejuvenating plan, which has been proved lack of sustainable development. This paper proposes some suggestion to reform the system of investing and financing.