Managing Earnings with Intercorporate Investments

Abstract:  We explore to what extent firms deliberately manage their financial reports by exploiting the flexibility of generally accepted accounting principles. Using a sample of Oslo Stock Exchange-listed firms with 20–50% equity holdings in other firms, we find that firms with high financial leverage tend to maximize reported earnings from these investments through their choice between the cost method and the equity method, possibly in an attempt to reduce debt renegotiation costs or to avoid regulatory attention. In contrast, managers do not systematically bias reported earnings to extract private benefits or to signal revised expectations about future cash flows. Firms use different earnings management tools in a consistent way, as the earnings effect of the cost/equity choice is not offset by discretionary accruals.     

Information–driven trading at the Prague Stock Exchange: Evidence from Intra–Day Data

Many observers argue that informed and insider trading is widespread in the emerging financial markets of transition countries, yet rigorous treatment of this issue has been virtually non–existent. The current paper estimates the extent of informed trading on the Prague Stock Exchange (PSE) using intra–day transaction data. Our estimates confirm that the average share of informed trading is equal to 0.32, which is high relative to developed markets and varies considerably among stocks. Using the Easley et al. (1996) approach on the very best segment of the PSE we obtained a high average probability of informed trading. Since data used in this study cover the period after the major attempts to improve market regulations, our results indicate that the PSE needs further strengthening to recover credibility and to become a real source of corporate financing. JEL classification: G14, G15.     

Pharmaceutical cost‐sharing systems and savings for healthcare systems from parallel trade

This paper studies the consequences of parallel trade in a two‐country model. It compares a coinsurance scheme (consumers pay a percentage of the drug price) and an indemnity insurance scheme (reimbursement is independent of the drug price) with respect to changes in copayments and public health expenditure. In the destination country, copayments for patients decrease to a larger extent under indemnity insurance, whereas reductions in public health expenditure occur only under coinsurance. In the source country, copayments increase less under coinsurance, whereas health expenditure is reduced more under indemnity insurance. In both countries, total expenditure under parallel trade is lower.     

股改降低了上市公司代理成本吗?——来自中国A股市场的经验证据

以我国A股上市公司为研究样本,以代理成本为研究对象,对股改之于代理成本的影响进行实证分析发现：股改的完成并没有显著地影响代理成本,控股类型仍然是影响代理成本的主要因素,股权分置改革对于企业代理成本的积极影响不能一蹴而就,股改完成后我国还需要在法规、制度、市场以及公司治理结构等方面进行全方位的配套改革。     

Estimating Recreation Preferences Using Hedonic Travel Cost and Random Utility Models

Over the last decade, several authors have questioned thevalidity of the hedonic travel cost model, arguing instead that the random utility model is a superior method forvaluing recreational site attributes. This paper demonstrates that the two methods emanate from a similar utilitytheoretic framework; yet in practice these methods differ in the assumptions made in their application.Constraining the underlying utility functions to be consistent, both models are applied to the valuation ofrecreational site attributes in the Southeastern United States. The way in which each method estimates preferencesfor site attributes is shown to depend critically on the method and the functional form of theunderlying utility function.     

数字偏好与股票收益异常——来自上海证券交易所的经验证据

本文研究股票代码对股票收益的影响。研究发现,由于数字偏好效应的存在,投资者刻意回避代码以“4”结尾的股票。在较长时间内,尾数是“4”的股票收益低于给定风险水平下的市场必要收益。但这一现象受到股市行情的影响,牛市行情时,投资者回避“4”的行为表现明显,而熊市行情时则会趋向消失。具体表现为：牛市行情下,“4”组合的资产收益小于给定风险水平下的市场必要收益,熊市行情则无此现象。本文从行为金融莹晶当磨时杖一仑蜃由市扬耳夔讲符T觎崧     

内部控制缺陷披露对资本成本的影响研究——基于沪深两市A股的经验数据

文章选取我国A股上市公司2011--2012年披露的年报及相关信息为样本数据,建立多元回归分析模型分别对沪深两市178家样本上市公司2012年的权益资本成本和债务资本成本进行检验。研究结果显示：披露内部控制缺陷的样本公司存在较高的资本成本,缺陷的披露与权益资本成本和债务资本成本呈现显著正相关,权益资本成本对缺陷信息的披露敏感度更高。对控制变量回归分析,发现股权投资者更有动力积极获取公司经营管理信息,而债权投资者更关注财务指标信息。总体来看,我国资本市场对内部控制缺陷信息的披露作出了较为稳定的资本成本定价,内部控制缺陷的披露对资本市场来说具有重要价值。     

政府补助与公司投资行为——基于中国上市公司的数据

基于公司投资视角,以2007—2012年我国资本市场上A股上市公司为样本,研究政府补助对公司投资行为的影响,结果显示：政府补助越多,公司投资支出水平越高;政府补助对非国有公司的投资激励作用比国有公司更有效;公司产权性质差异会影响政府补助的投资激励效应;市场化程度越低、经济增长越缓慢的地区,政府补助对公司投资支出的影响越敏感;上市公司的非效率投资问题比较突出,政府补助加剧了上市公司的过度投资行为。因此,政府应根据微观企业主体的差异性来制定和实施相应的补助政策,以实现预期效果。     

连锁零售企业人力资源管理困境探析——以浙江为例

近年来在我国沿海地区,连锁零售企业在快速发展的同时正遭遇越来越多的问题,其中最突出的问题存在于人力资源管理方面,如人力资源短缺与流失严重,人力成本增长过快等等。只有认真分析人力资源管理面临的问题并予以破解,连锁零售企业才可能克服发展的瓶颈,重新获得快速的增长。