从经济学视角看强制性信息披露

高质量的信息披露是资本市场有效运行的基础,而信息公共物品的性质、信息不对称现象、信息供给的自然垄断性造成的市场失灵及信息披露方和使用方之间的博弈,使得上市公司信息披露监管成为必需.因此,构建以强制性信息披露为主,自愿性信息披露作为补充的信息披露机制才是提升我国上市公司信息披露质量的根本之策.     

Professionalization in Action: Accountants' Attempt at Building a Network of Support for the WebTrust Seal of Assurance*

This paper examines the attempts by the North American accounting institutes to develop a new market in e‐commerce assurance based on their claims to professional expertise through the WebTrust project. Employing actor‐network theory in an in‐depth longitudinal field study, we investigate how WebTrust was originally developed and promoted as a seal of business‐to‐consumer assurance, which largely failed to generate support in the marketplace. Proponents were subsequently able to generate more interest in the eyes of managers of online organizations by reshaping WebTrust as a flexible set of principles and criteria for systems advice and business‐to‐business assurance. Our analysis suggests that attempts to expand the accounting profession's domain of expertise reflect a trial‐and‐error process where the outcome achieved may be far from the vision that motivated the institutes into undertaking the project in the first place. We further show that the initial network of support for such projects can be quite fragile and dynamic as various actors reposition themselves around the shifting meanings attributed to the project.     

A Parimutuel Market Microstructure for Contingent Claims

Parimutuel principles are widely used as an alternative to fixed odds gambling in which a bookmaker acts as a dealer by quoting fixed rates of return on specified wagers. A parimutuel game is conducted as a call auction in which odds are allowed to fluctuate during the betting period until the betting period is closed or the auction ‘called’. The prices or odds of wagers are set based upon the relative amounts wagered on each risky outcome. In financial microstructure terms, trading under parimutuel principles is characterised by (1) call auction, non‐continuous trading; (2) riskless funding of claim payouts using the amounts paid for all of the claims during the auction; (3) special equilibrium pricing conditions requiring the relative prices of contingent claims equal the relative aggregate amounts wagered on such claims; (4) endogenous determination of unique state prices; and (5) higher efficiency. Recently, a number of large investment banks have adopted a parimutuel mechanism for offering contingent claims on various economic indices, such as the US Nonfarm payroll report and Eurozone Harmonised inflation. Our paper shows how the market microstructure incorporating parimutuel principles for contingent claims which allows for notional transactions, limit orders, and bundling of claims across states is constructed. We prove the existence of a unique price equilibrium for such a market and suggest an algorithm for computing the equilibrium. We also suggest that for a broad class of contingent claims, that the parimutuel microstructure recently deployed offers many advantages over the dominant dealer and exchange continuous time mechanisms.     

Estimating the economic value of big game habitat production from prescribed fire using a time series approach

This paper demonstrates a time-series production technique to quantify the deer harvest and deer hunting benefits of controlled burns or prescribed fire. The time series regression model showed a statistically significant and positive effect of prescribed fire on deer harvest. The net economic value of the resulting additional deer hunting benefit was estimated using the Contingent Valuation Method at $ 98 per additional deer harvested. The initial deer hunting benefits of an additional 1,000 acres of prescribed burning are between $ 2,674 and $ 3,128 or $ 2-3 per acre. The costs of prescribed burning greatly exceed these benefits, suggesting that deer hunting benefits represent only a small part of the multiple use benefits of prescribed fire.     

THE TERM STRUCTURE OF INTEREST RATES AS A GAUSSIAN RANDOM FIELD

A simple model of the term structure of interest rates is introduced in which the family of instantaneous forward rates evolves as a continuous Gaussian random field. A necessary and sufficient condition for the associated family of discounted zero-coupon bond prices to be martingales is given, permitting the consistent pricing of interest rate contingent claims. Examples of the pricing of interest-rate caps and the situation when the Gaussian random field may be viewed as a deterministic time change of the standard Brownian sheet are discussed.     

A Theoretic Analysis of Extent of Lender Participation in a Participating Mortgage

A participating mortgage is a loan in which a lender accepts a below-market coupon rate in return for a share (participation) in the cash flows generated by income-producing real property. The cash flows provided by participation are classified as contingent interest and are intended to compensate the lender for additional risk exposure as well as the reduction in coupon rate. In this paper, we present a partial equilibrium wealth-maximizing model to estimate the extent of lender participation and an analysis of the factors affecting it. The results of formal comparative statics analysis show that the lender's percentage participation is, in general, positively related to changes in the loan-to-value ratio and threshold cash flows above which participation is payable. Among yet other results, a change in the contracted loan life has an ambiguous effect on the lender's percentage participation. Then, in an effort to resolve ambiguities in the comparative statics results, we employ a numerical procedure in conducting sensitivity analyses. This allows us to estimate percentage participation levels, and their elasticities, under various assumptions regarding the underlying factors. JEL Classification: G21, C65     

政府或有债务控制:国外经验与启示

国内外实践已经揭示了政府或有债务正日益成为影响一国财政可持续性的重要因素。由于国外发达市场经济国家特别是OECD成员国在或有债务管理制度和技术方面的先进性,其处理债务和应对风险的能力也比较强。总结其做法,主要经验如下:一是加强立法机关对政府或有债务的制约;二是加大外部审计机构对其的控制;三是对政府的或有补助成本进行预算;四是设立或有债务基金;五是强化对或有债务相关信息的披露等。     

Game-Theoretic Coordination Mechanisms in Distribution Channels: Integration and Extensions for Models Without Competition

A significant game-theoretic literature on the coordination of distribution channels has developed over the past three decades. We provide an extensive analysis of an important subset of this literature, channels without competition. We review four major models that build on the initial work of Jeuland and Shugan (1983) – who developed a quantity-discount schedule that induces channel members to set price and non-price, marketing-mix variables (MM-variables) at channel-coordinating levels. Moorthy (1987) criticized their schedule's complexity, arguing for a simpler wholesale contract that induces coordination by avoiding double marginalization.     

涉农信贷与保险耦合模式下地方政府和保险机构行为的博弈分析

运用基于有限理性假设的演化博弈理论,对涉农信贷与保险耦合模式下地方政府和保险机构行为进行分析,得到了地方政府和保险机构同时分别支持和积极参与涉农信贷与保险耦合模式的参数条件,进而得到了涉农信贷与保险耦合模式可持续发展的现实条件,并给出对应的建议。     

Insecure Advantage? Markets for Technology and the Value of Resources for Entrepreneurial Ventures

We study how the impact of capabilities for performance is contingent upon the environment. Using a novel dataset of information security start‐ups, we study how markets for technology change the relative impact of technology and marketing capabilities on performance. Since internal technical effort enables firms to generate technology inputs instead of acquiring them from the market (substitute), a greater supply of technology diminishes the importance of technical ability as a source of competitive advantage. Moreover, since marketing capability complements technology inputs, a greater supply of technology enhances the impact of marketing capability on performance. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.