Normative Self-Interest or Moral Hypocrisy?: The Importance of Context

We re-examine the construct of Moral Hypocrisy from the perspective of normative self-interest. Arguing that some degree of self-interest is culturally acceptable and indeed expected, we postulate that a pattern of behavior is more indicative of moral hypocrisy than a single action. Contrary to previous findings, our results indicate that a significant majority of subjects (N = 136) exhibited fair behavior, and that ideals of caring and fairness, when measured in context of the scenario, were predictive of those behaviors. Moreover, measures of Individualism/Collectivism appear more predictive of self-interested behavior than out-of-context responses to moral ideals. Implications for research and practice are discussed. George W. Watson received his Ph.D. from Virginia Tech, his M.B.A. from California State at Fullerton, an M.S. in Systems Management from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, an a B.A. in Business Administration from the University of Washington, Seattle. His teaching focus is on corporate social responsibility and ethics. Dr.Watson’s current research interests include moral psychology,ethical decision making, and ideology. He has published in Business Ethics Quarterly, Business and Society, and the Journal of Business Ethics. Farooq Sheikh received his BS in Physics from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and his Ph.D. from Smeal College of Business, Penn State University. He is currently Assistant Professor of Operations Management, School of Business at the State University of New York at Geneseo. Dr. Sheik’s research interests include rational and behavioral models in business operations, bounded-rational behavioral models in population games, social norms, game theory and cross-disciplinary research involving behavioral models.     

基于VAR模型的江苏省投资、消费与经济增长实证分析

本文利用江苏省1980年到2007年经济数据,在VAR模型的基础上,运用协整检验、格兰杰因果检验、脉冲响应分析和方差分解的方法对江苏省的投资、消费与经济增长之间的关系进行实证分析。结果发现,投资、消费和经济增长之间具有长期均衡关系,江苏省地区生产总值的增长与投资和消费都具有双向因果关系,消费对经济增长的贡献度比投资更大。因此,通过提高居民收入水平,才能刺激消费,促进江苏经济健康发展。     

MCMC ESTIMATION OF LÉVY JUMP MODELS USING STOCK AND OPTION PRICES

We examine the performances of several popular Lévy jump models and some of the most sophisticated affine jump‐diffusion models in capturing the joint dynamics of stock and option prices. We develop efficient Markov chain Monte Carlo methods for estimating parameters and latent volatility/jump variables of the Lévy jump models using stock and option prices. We show that models with infinite‐activity Lévy jumps in returns significantly outperform affine jump‐diffusion models with compound Poisson jumps in returns and volatility in capturing both the physical and risk‐neutral dynamics of the S&P 500 index. We also find that the variance gamma model of Madan, Carr, and Chang with stochastic volatility has the best performance among all the models we consider.     

上市公司成长性的实证研究

上市公司的成长性与广大投资者、公司债权人、证券监管机构等都有着十分密切的关系。从某种意义上来说,公司的利润增长率比其利润本身更为重要。投资于某公司的股票,实际上是投资于公司的未来。因而,上市公司的成长性问题成为证券投资分析理论与实践中的一项十分重要的内容。运用相关分析、回归分析和方差分析等方法对上市公司的成长性与上期多项财务指标的关联性进行了探讨。     

Reflections on discriminant validity: Reexamining the Bove et al. (2009) findings

Bove, Pervan, Beatty and Shiu (2009) develop and test a latent variable model of the role of service workers in encouraging helpful behaviors by customers towards the service business (OCBs). Farrell (2010) questions these findings due to an incorrect application of the Fornell and Larcker (1981) discriminant validity test. The authors respond to Farrell's criticism by discussing the options available for assessing discriminant validity, the current use of these options in top journals, the underlying assumptions of these assessments, and the appropriateness of the alternative assessments under different types of situations. Finally, the authors address the specific concerns raised in Farrell (2010) in regard to Bove et al. (2009).     

吉林省农业生态旅游功能分区研究  谢 璐

随着我国城镇化进程的不断加快,生活在喧嚣都市的人们越来越向往恬静的田园风光,农业生态旅游业作为一种新型农业生产经营形式与旅游活动项目应运而生,并且越来越受到相关学者与政府的重视.文章以吉林省农业生态旅游为研究对象,分析了农业生态旅游的发展现状,指出其发展存在生态环境破坏、 基础设施落后、 管理水平较低、 产业链条较短等问题;综合考虑吉林省地形地貌特征、 气候特征、民俗风情等因素,考虑不同区域农业经济、 社会、 生态及文化的相似性与差异性,对其进行地理空间分区,大致分为东部长白山农业生态旅游功能区、 中部松辽平原农业生态旅游功能区、 西部松嫩平原农业生态旅游功能区,同时探究了各功能区的差异性特征;针对各功能区不同特征提出"政府调控-市场调节"相互配合、"农业-旅游业"相互耦合、"经济-社会-生态"相互协调、"以点带面"互联互动、"省内-省外"互学互助等发展建议,以期为当地农业生态旅游的发展提供借鉴,为促进吉林省农业生态旅游业的可持续发展提供参考.     

CLOSED FORM PRICING FORMULAS FOR DISCRETELY SAMPLED GENERALIZED VARIANCE SWAPS

Most of the existing pricing models of variance derivative products assume continuous sampling of the realized variance processes, though actual contractual specifications compute the realized variance based on sampling at discrete times. We present a general analytic approach for pricing discretely sampled generalized variance swaps under the stochastic volatility models with simultaneous jumps in the asset price and variance processes. The resulting pricing formula of the gamma swap is in closed form while those of the corridor variance swaps and conditional variance swaps take the form of one‐dimensional Fourier integrals. We also verify through analytic calculations the convergence of the asymptotic limit of the pricing formulas of the discretely sampled generalized variance swaps under vanishing sampling interval to the analytic pricing formulas of the continuously sampled counterparts. The proposed methodology can be applied to any affine model and other higher moments swaps as well. We examine the exposure to convexity (volatility of variance) and skew (correlation between the equity returns and variance process) of these discretely sampled generalized variance swaps. We explore the impact on the fair strike prices of these exotic variance swaps with respect to different sets of parameter values, like varying sampling frequencies, jump intensity, and width of the monitoring corridor.     

ARBITRAGE BOUNDS FOR PRICES OF WEIGHTED VARIANCE SWAPS

We develop a theory of robust pricing and hedging of a weighted variance swap given market prices for a finite number of co‐maturing put options. We assume the put option prices do not admit arbitrage and deduce no‐arbitrage bounds on the weighted variance swap along with super‐ and sub‐replicating strategies that enforce them. We find that market quotes for variance swaps are surprisingly close to the model‐free lower bounds we determine. We solve the problem by transforming it into an analogous question for a European option with a convex payoff. The lower bound becomes a problem in semi‐infinite linear programming which we solve in detail. The upper bound is explicit. We work in a model‐independent and probability‐free setup. In particular, we use and extend Föllmer's pathwise stochastic calculus. Appropriate notions of arbitrage and admissibility are introduced. This allows us to establish the usual hedging relation between the variance swap and the “log contract” and similar connections for weighted variance swaps. Our results take the form of a FTAP: we show that the absence of (weak) arbitrage is equivalent to the existence of a classical model which reproduces the observed prices via risk‐neutral expectations of discounted payoffs.     

Auditor quality effects on the relationship between accruals,cash flows and equity returns: a variance decomposition analysis

In this paper, we examine the relative importance of the cash flow and accruals components of earnings in explaining the variation in UK company equity returns, together with the extent to which these relationships vary by auditor quality. We use a multivariate time-series approach that can be reconciled to a log-linear theoretical valuation model and, unlike the standard linear regression of returns on earnings components, accommodates time-varying discount rates. Based on a decomposition of the variance of equity returns, cash flows and accruals, our results indicate that both cash flow news and accruals news are important drivers of UK equity returns, although cash flows are more influential than accruals. We also find that variation in both earnings components has a more significant effect on returns for clients of large auditors. Finally, our results provide mixed evidence on the question of whether the impact of auditor quality is highest for the accruals component of earnings.     

内蒙古人口结构、收入增长与城镇居民储蓄率的实证研究

从历年反映人口结构的相关数据中,发现内蒙古的人口结构在逐渐变化,劳动人口对未成年人口的抚养比率逐渐降低,对老年人口的抚养比率却逐渐提高。内蒙古人口年龄结构类型逐步进入老年型,而人口老龄化势必会对居民储蓄率产生一定的影响。本文选取了1985-2012年的相关变量数据,通过建立向量自回归模型及协整检验、脉冲响应函数和方差分析等一系列针对非平稳时间序列建模的分析方法,在一定的经济理论基础之上,分析了人口结构、收入增长对内蒙古居民储蓄率的影响。本文在人口结构、收入增长与居民储蓄率的实证分析中,首先验证了凯恩斯的绝对收入理论,不考虑人口结构的改变,得出影响储蓄率的主要因素并不是收入,也说明凯恩斯的绝对收入理论并不能很好的解释内蒙古当期的储蓄现象。然后又以莫迪利安尼的生命周期假说为理论基础建模,得出的结论与生命周期假说一致。人口老龄化会导致储蓄率的下降,而且人口结构的变化对储蓄率的影响远大于收入。长期来看,由储蓄率、收入增长率、负担少儿系数和负担老年系数这四个变量构成的经济系统是稳定的。