Structural change,the push-pull hypothesis and the Spanish labour market

This paper proposes a small-scale general equilibrium model of structural transformation with a non-agricultural labour market characterized by search frictions. The model is used to investigate the role of sectoral TFPs as main drivers of structural change and a new growth accounting exercise allows a quantitative reassessment of the importance of the labour reallocation bonus in structural transformation in the presence of labour market frictions. The model is calibrated to data for post-war Spain and its transition from dictatorship to democracy. Counterfactual simulations point towards productivity improvements in agriculture as the main driver, while modifications in labour market institutions affect mainly the labour market itself, with only a modest effect on structural change.     

私法自治原则下职务发明奖酬制度研究

职务发明法律制度旨在协调职务发明人与单位间的利益关系，鼓励相关主体创新，进而促进科技成果转化、加快创新型国家建设。然而《职务发明条例（草案）》中的职务发明奖酬制度约定优先原则极不稳定及政府对市场过度干预的现实，与职务发明制度立法目的背道而驰。因此，要实现对立法本质的回归，应坚持以私法自治为基础，建立以企业为主体、市场为导向的科技创新激励机制，充分发挥科技成果转化相关立法的激励作用。     

Dissecting the idiosyncratic volatility anomaly

The idiosyncratic volatility (IVOL) anomaly, documented in Ang, et al. (2006), has garnered a great deal of attention in the literature. Yet questions remain regarding the robustness and pervasiveness of the IVOL anomaly, with a particular concern that the IVOL anomaly might simply be the manifestation of market microstructure effect. In this paper, we show that the IVOL anomaly is strong and pervasive after we exclude stocks most susceptible to market microstructure noise — such as microcap stocks, penny stocks, and stocks with strong short-term return reversal. These results are robust to equal-weighting or value-weighting stocks in the IVOL portfolios. Our findings suggest that rather than being the cause of the anomaly, market microstructure noise actually weakens the IVOL anomaly.     

Market liberalization and tax avoidance: Evidence from the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect Program in China

This study employs two market liberalization programs in China, the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect (SHSC) program and the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect (SZHSC) program, as an exogenous shock to stock market liberalization to explore the impact of market liberalization on tax avoidance. By employing the staggered difference-in-difference regression on Chinese listed firms, we found that market liberalization reduces tax avoidance by approximately 13.1%. This result is robust under parallel trend examination, falsification test, alternative regression methodology, and different measurements for tax avoidance. Additionally, this effect is greater for non-state-owned firms and for firms that have less external monitoring, higher information asymmetry, and stronger financial constraints.     

Do insiders time management buyouts and freezeouts to buy undervalued targets?

We provide evidence that managers and controlling shareholders time management buyouts (MBOs) and freezeout transactions to take advantage of industry-wide undervaluation. Portfolios of industry peers of MBO and freezeout targets show significant alphas of around 1% per month over the 12-month period following the transaction. These returns are not explained by a battery of risk factors or empirical methodologies, but exhibit significant heterogeneity across deals. Additional tests show that, on average, abnormal returns to industry peers are a reliable proxy for those to the target firm. Further, MBOs and freezeouts are announced during troughs of industry profitability.     

企业创新投入对行业成长性的影响

在“万众创新”背景下，已有文献关注到企业创新投入在微观层面的经济后果，但对中观视角行业表现的作用机制研究较少。以我国沪、深两市A股上市公司为研究对象，探究企业创新投入对行业成长性的影响机理以及行业研发环境和企业市场势力的调节效应。结果发现，企业研发资金投入强度和技术人员投入强度与行业成长性间存在显著正相关关系，行业技术环境和行业政策环境起正向调节效应，但企业市场势力会削弱上述正向关系。研究结论不受内生性问题的影响，且稳健性检验结果并未发生改变。建议构建包含政府、行业和企业的协同创新体系，通过创新政策支持、优势资源整合及良好环境的营造，促进企业创新投入和行业可持续发展。     

Inconsistent Signals,Earnings Announcements,and Market Uncertainty

We test the proposition in Johnstone (2016) that new information may lead to higher, rather than lower, uncertainty about firms’ future payoffs. Based on the Bayesian rule, we hypothesize earnings news that is inconsistent with investors’ prior belief will lead to higher market uncertainty. Using earnings signals in the past few quarters to proxy for investors’ prior belief, we find supporting evidence that, relative to consistent earnings news, inconsistent news results in an increase in market uncertainty measured by implied volatility. Inconsistent earnings news has a larger effect on market uncertainty when prior beliefs are stronger and when the news is negative. Overall, our evidence highlights the importance of prior belief and inconsistent signals in understanding the effect of earnings news on market uncertainty.     

Market or limit orders?

In this paper we investigate the problem of optimal order placement of an asset listed on an exchange using both market and limit orders in a simple model of market dynamics. We seek to understand under which settings it is optimal to place limit or market orders. Limit orders typically lower transaction costs but increase the risk of incomplete order execution, whereas market orders typically have higher transaction costs but are guaranteed to be executed. Rather than considering order book dynamics to determine if a limit order is executed we rely on price dynamics for this. We look at implementation shortfall in this setup with market impact of trading and propose a dynamic program to find the optimal placement of both market and limit orders for risk-neutral and risk-averse traders. With this we find a bound on the expected cost of trading and show that a trader who behaves optimally should always expect to pay less to trade less. We then solve the dynamic program numerically and examine optimal order placement strategies. We find that the decision between market and limit orders is sensitive to price volatility, risk aversion, and trading costs.     

Corporate governance and family firm performance during the Global Financial Crisis

We investigate the impact of corporate governance on accounting and market performance relationships of family firms during the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). We expect the monitoring aspects of corporate governance to complement the long-term orientation of family firms, improving the value relevance of accounting and market performance during times of exogenous financial shocks such as the GFC. We find that the family-firm value is more sensitive to book value than earnings changes. We also find better corporate governance, irrespective of whether it is a family firm or non-family firm, is associated with better accounting and market performance during the GFC.     

Effect of concentration in airline market on Spanish airport technical efficiency

This paper tries to measure the effect of airline market concentration on airport technical efficiency. With this aim, a Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) is applied, estimating with a one-step procedure technical efficiency and the effect of airlines' market power on that efficiency. Results suggest that when airports are lowly concentrated increasing concentration reduces such inefficiencies. However, this effect practically disappears when airports are highly concentrated. Additionally, the government's policies to improve airports' performance seems to have a positive effect in the short run.