The Cross‐Section of Expected Stock Returns: What Have We Learnt from the Past Twenty‐Five Years of Research?

I review the recent literature on cross-sectional predictors of stock returns. Predictive variables used emanate from informal arguments, alternative tests of risk-return models, behavioural biases, and frictions. More than fifty variables have been used to predict returns. The overall picture, however, remains murky, because more needs to be done to consider the correlational structure amongst the variables, use a comprehensive set of controls, and discern whether the results survive simple variations in methodology .     

Measuring Production and Irrigation Efficiencies of Rice Farms: Evidence from the Punjab Province,Pakistan

We employ a non‐parametric approach, data envelopment analysis, to estimate the technical and irrigation efficiency of rice farms in the Punjab Province of Pakistan. We use a cross‐sectional dataset of 80 rice growers, including 45 tube‐well owners and 35 water buyers. Mean technical efficiency scores show that tube‐well owners and water buyers are operating at fairly high efficiency levels, indicating that access to technology is not a major constraint. However, irrigation inefficiency is pronounced, with water buyers being more inefficient than tube‐well owners. A bootstrap truncated regression is used to investigate the determinants of technical and irrigation efficiency. We suggest that groundwater management policies should be designed to address efficiency enhancing factors such as knowledge of crop water consumption requirement, better credit opportunities, outreach extension services and training programs.     

A true simulation study of three estimators at equal protection of respondents in randomized response sampling

In this study, three different estimators for estimating the proportion of a sensitive attribute in survey sampling are compared at equal protection of the respondents. The three estimators considered are due to Odumade and Singh (2009, Comm. Statist. Theory Methods) , Singh and Sedory (2011, Sociological Methods and Research) and a new estimator obtained by minimizing a chi‐squared distance. A SAS Macro is developed to compare these three estimators using a simulation study at equal protection of the respondents. A set of data from a real face‐to‐face interview was collected using two decks of cards and has been analyzed. The results are discussed.     

含有中间变量的农村信用社可持续经营效率评价

本文借助含有中间变量的两阶段DEA评价方法对陕西省涉农地区不同信用社的可持续经营效率进行了评价。得出了大部分涉农地区基层信用社存在存款严重不足、发放贷款效率比吸收存款效率高、非利息支出过多、非利息收入不足等结论。     

复杂视域中的适应性效率与后危机时代的经济发展

全球金融危机凸显出经济的复杂性本质,人们终于认识到"适应性效率"而非"资源配置效率"才是长期经济增长的关键。基于复杂性思想,本文系统梳理了诺思适应性效率理论并弥补了其不足,并据此对后危机时代的经济发展提出了对策。     

钢材期货推出对于钢铁产业链的影响研究

本文从钢铁期货推出后对钢铁企业及其上下游的影响作了系统深入的分析,提出了钢材期货推出后应注意的问题,并得出结论:整体而言,钢材期货的推出利大于弊,是适应目前经济发展的合理举措。     

政府补助、社会责任与流通企业效率

文章从流通视角出发,理论层面分析政府补助对流通企业效率的影响,探讨企业履行社会责任在政府补助与流通企业效率间可能存在的中介机制,并考察国有企业的调节效应。进一步利用我国沪深两市A股241家上市流通企业2010-2020年的非平衡面板数据进行经验检验,研究发现：(1)政府补助会促进流通企业效率的提升;(2)社会责任在政府补助与流通企业效率的关系中存在中介效应,即政府补助能够使流通企业履行更多的社会责任,并由此推动流通企业效率的提升;(3)国有企业存在直接调节效应和间接调节效应。相较于非国有流通企业,国有流通企业所获政府补助以及履行社会责任对企业效率的提升作用更低。研究为深化流通体制改革,提升流通效率提供了新的经验证据。     

Anti-corruption,government subsidies,and investment efficiency

The problem of corruption in socio-economic development has long been a focus of academics and practitioners. To address this concern in China, the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China instituted a new anti-corruption policy. In this paper, we examine the impact of this recently enacted anti-corruption policy on the investment efficiency of subsidized enterprises from the perspective of government subsidies. We conclude that government subsidies have a significant positive impact on the overinvestment behavior of enterprises and that the anti-corruption work done by the government has effectively restrained the excessive investment behavior of government-subsidized enterprises. Further, we find that the anti-corruption policy is more effective in restricting overinvestment in subsidized state-owned enterprises than in non-state-owned enterprises. We examine the impact of the anti-corruption policy on excessive investment caused by government subsidies and enrich the body of research related to investment efficiency. We also provide empirical support for further research on the anti-corruption policy at the macro-market and micro-enterprise levels. The findings highlight the need to establish new cooperation between government and enterprises, to rationalize the distribution of administrative resources, and to promote the sustained and healthy development of the national economy.