Optimal speculative trade among large traders

A collection of large traders holds heterogeneous prior beliefs regarding market fundamentals. This gives them a motive to engage in speculative trade with respect to market prices. Rather than assuming a particular institution or market for speculative trade, we take a mechanism-design approach by attempting to characterize the mechanism that maximizes the traders’ gains from speculative trade, subject to the incentive constraints that result from the traders’ ability to manipulate market prices. Within a stylized market model, we show that this mechanism affects price volatility without destroying ex-post efficient allocations. We also characterize the implementability of optimal speculative trade when the traders’ prior beliefs are private information. Financial support from the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation, Grant No. 2002298 is gratefully acknowledged.     

The Effects of Temporary Exchange-Rate-Based Stabilizations when Money Serves a Productive Role

This paper investigates the effects on production, consumption, and welfare that result from a temporary exchange-rate-based (ERB) stabilization plan. The analysis is based on a dynamic optimizing model of a small open economy where real money is assumed to be a factor that is used in the production of goods. The assumption of money serving a productive role makes the model capable of generating a boom-bust cycle in output, as is often experienced during ERB stabilization plans. It is shown that if the stabilization plan is expected not to be too short and/or the costs associated with the breakdown of the plan are not too high, a temporary decrease in the rate of exchange rate devaluation will increase economic welfare. It is also found that if some of the increase in output in the initial phase of the stabilization plan is saved for periods after the plan has broken down, there is a greater chance that the ERB plan will increase economic welfare. On the other hand, if the plan is not sufficiently credible at the outset, or there is not enough intertemporal transference of output, the stabilization plan is likely to be harmful to economic welfare.

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Reflections on the perspectives of the global economy from the point of view of emerging economies

 Recently a number of emerging economies, with high inflation and various kinds of imbalances have experienced what has come to be referred to as dollarization– the phenomenon of currency substitution where the dollar gradually replaces the national currency in the performance of its fundamental functions. The phenomenon is most commonly encountered as a component of the exchange-rate-based stabilization programs implemented in a number of emerging economies in Latin America, Asia and the Middle East. The fundamental issue we want to explore is whether this process forces the monetary authorities of emerging economies to act with their hands tied, as if caught in a trap. It is argued that when the expansion of liquidity and domestic credit is determined by the quantity of foreign-exchange reserves, an independent monetary policy vanishes and national sovereignty itself is shackled. Since this scenario typically occurs in a world of increasing globalization of finance, this paper also discusses (with reference to emerging economies) the risks and implications of capital inflows for macroeconomic policy autonomy, economic instability, and vulnerability to external shocks.     

A robust support vector regression model for electric load forecasting

Electric load forecasting is a crucial part of business operations in the energy industry. Various load forecasting methods and techniques have been proposed and tested. With growing concerns about cybersecurity and malicious data manipulations, an emerging topic is to develop robust load forecasting models. In this paper, we propose a robust support vector regression (SVR) model to forecast the electricity demand under data integrity attacks. We first introduce a weight function to calculate the relative importance of each observation in the load history. We then construct a weighted quadratic surface SVR model. Some theoretical properties of the proposed model are derived. Extensive computational experiments are based on the publicly available data from Global Energy Forecasting Competition 2012 and ISO New England. To imitate data integrity attacks, we have deliberately increased or decreased the historical load data. Finally, the computational results demonstrate better accuracy of the proposed robust model over other recently proposed robust models in the load forecasting literature.     

国际投机资本冲击风险预警指标体系的构建

在全球金融危机的背景下,国际投机资本的频繁流动严重影响了我国经济的稳定性.通过选取1996～2007年能够反映我国经济面临风险的12个指标,确定各自的权重,用KLR信号分析法实证论述近年来我国的风险变化情况,找出影响风险变化的重要指标.研究发现,国际投机资本这一潜在的危险正在加重,因此,可以在利用风险预警机制的同时加强对跨境资本流动的监管,以保证国民经济的均衡发展.     

中国式卖空机制与高管减持——基于融资融券分步扩容的准自然实验

本文以我国的融资融券制度为背景,结合双重差分模型,研究卖空机制对上市公司高管减持行为的影响。研究发现,相对于非融券标的,可融券标的公司高管的月减持比例在允许卖空后下降22%,这种抑制作用在小规模、高盈余平滑度以及非国有公司中体现得更为明显。其次,成为可融券标的后,股价定价效率提高,高管减持收益显著下降。进一步地,本文将高管的减持行为分为定期性与投机性两类,发现卖空机制显著抑制了高管基于信息优势和股价偏差的投机性减持行为。     

Local speculative culture and stock price crash risk

Using unique city gambling conviction data in China as a proxy for a local speculative culture, we examine the impact of such a culture on stock price crash risk. We find that firms in regions with a stronger speculative culture are more likely to experience future stock price crash risk. The results are consistent after using 2SLS regression analysis (IV) and staggered difference-in-difference (DID) analysis to mitigate endogeneity concerns. Further analysis shows that overinvestment, excessive debt, accounting conservatism and charitable donations are the main channels through which local speculative culture affects stock price crash risk. We also find that the positive relationship between local speculative culture and stock price crash risk is more salient for small firms and firms with managers with a cultural backgrounds similar to the local culture. Our study implies that the local culture plays an important role in the practice of corporate governance.