The indirect effects of foreign direct investment on trade: A network perspective

The relationship between international trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) is one of the main features of globalisation. In this paper, we investigate the effects of FDI on trade from a network perspective, since FDI takes not only direct but also indirect channels from origin to destination countries because of firms’ incentive to reduce tax burden, to minimise coordination costs and to break barriers to market entry. We use a unique data set of international corporate control as a measure of stock FDI to construct a corporate control network (CCN), where the nodes are the countries and the edges are the corporate control relationships. Network measures, as the shortest path length and the communicability, are then computed on the CCN to capture the indirect channel of FDI. Empirically, we find that corporate control has a positive effect on trade both directly and indirectly. The result is robust with different specifications and estimation strategies. Hence, our paper provides strong empirical evidence of the indirect effects of FDI on trade. Moreover, we identify a number of interplaying factors such as regional trade agreements and the region of Asia. We also find that the indirect effects are more pronounced for the manufacturing sector than for primary sectors such as oil extraction and agriculture.     

政府治理与国有企业绩效评价体系完善

我国国有企业的改革与发展是政府、企业及学术界近年研究探讨的热点问题,国有企业绩效评价指标体系在设计思路和指标选取上亟待改进。研究政府治理对国有企业绩效评价的影响,结合EVA及BSC,降低财务指标权重、增加非财务指标权重,提出量化社会绩效指标、增加环境绩效指标以完善国有企业绩效评价体系,重新构建政府治理下的国有企业绩效评价指标体系。     

管理者过度自信,融资偏好与公司投资

通过公司投资与现金流之间的敏感度具体考察管理者的过度自信行为对我国上市公司内部或者外部融资偏好行为的影响,结果表明:总经理的年龄越大,任职时间越长,学历越高,以及当总经理拥有理工类教育背景时,总经理的过度自信行为越弱,因此,总经理更多地利用外部融资而不是内部融资,从而公司投资与现金流之间的敏感度越弱;而当总经理拥有经管类教育背景时,总经理的过度自信行为越强,因此,总经理更少地利用外部融资,从而公司投资与现金流之间的敏感度越强。     

股票流动性、公司治理与企业经营绩效——基于退出威胁与锁定效应的理论与实证研究

文章采用博弈论的分析框架探讨了股票流动性的两大效应,即"退出威胁"与"锁定效应".研究表明,当股票流动性较低时,机构投资者的退出策略不可行,被迫参与上市公司的监督行为,即表现为"锁定效应",且股票流动性越低,这一效应越明显.然而,随着股票流动性的进一步增强,机构投资者的退出策略开始变得可信,从而可以通过一定的触发策略迫使管理者选择尽职,因而表现为"退出威胁",且股票流动性越高,这一效应越明显.因此,总的说来,股票流动性与经营绩效之间会呈现一个先减后增的U型关系.文章采用高频交易数据构造相对有效价差与相对报价价差衡量股票流动性对上述假说进行了检验,其实证结论支持了文中的假说.     

Managerial labor-market discipline and the characteristics of merger and acquisition transactions

This study evaluates how state regulation of noncompetition agreements affects merger and acquisition activity. Noncompetition agreements put restrictions on postemployment activities, thereby reducing management mobility and forcing top managers to bear the long-term consequences of their corporate decisions. In this sense, state regulation of noncompetition agreements functions as a mechanism to align management's interests with those of the shareholders when management makes major corporate decisions. To examine this hypothesis empirically, this study tests whether the legal enforcement of noncompetition agreements across states affects the choice of payment methods, the premium paid for targets, and the acquirers' abnormal returns on their merger or acquisition activity. The results suggest that stricter enforcement of noncompetition agreements significantly reduces the likelihood of using stock in takeovers and the premiums paid for targets. In addition, the study documents that stronger enforcement of noncompetition agreements is related with more favorable market reactions for large acquirers.     

从公民参与到公民治理——公众崛起时代西方政府治理理论创新及启示

公众崛起时代对政府治理提出了新的挑战,使公民参与出现了治理困境。从公民参与向公民治理转变是破解这一困境的基本途径。公民治理是公民崛起时代背景下形成的一种以公民为中心的新型政府治理模式,它具有独特的概念框架与理论模式。公民治理与公民参与及流行的治理理论相比具有诸多的理论创新之处,为我国政府治理模式的创新提供了有益的借鉴。     

论就业机会产品失灵问题的政府治理

中国劳动力市场的典型特征是就业机会与劳动力资源之间的信息分布不对称,而就业机会实质上是一种公共产品。根据市场失灵理论,解决公共品市场失灵问题时政府与市场两条思路均可采用。文章沿袭自古典经济学家庇古以来的传统,认为应该引入政府的干预来解决就业机会的市场失灵问题,并在此基础上提出相应的建议。     

Analysis of Social Performance in the Spanish Financial Industry Through Public Data. A Proposal

Banking firms are becoming increasingly aware that their clients’ management of environmental and social risks may in term threaten their own business as lenders and investors. In addition, stakeholders are requiring banks to improve their social performance. As a result, some banks are developing corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies and management systems to reduce potential risks and improve their performance. In the Spanish financial system, half of the banking firms are savings banks, most of which have always used some Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) criteria in their management. Private Banks have only recently started to integrate social aspects in their performance. However, no formal analysis has been carried out on the impact of CSR strategies. Various initiatives have been launched nationally and internationally to include the social dimension in management systems. The purpose of this research is to analyse the social performance of the main Spanish financial companies through public data such as social or sustainability reports and media sources. In order to do this, we need to determine which CSR criteria most greatly affect banking firms and to choose the most accurate quantitative and qualitative indicators to measure social performance.     

The Financial Performance of a Socially Responsible Investment Over Time and a Possible Link with Corporate Social Responsibility

This paper empirically examines the financial performance of a UK unit trust that was initially “conventional” and later adopted socially responsible investment (SRI) principles (ethical investment principles). Comparison is made with three similar conventional funds whose investment objectives remained unchanged. Analysis techniques employed in previous studies find similar results: mean risk-adjusted performance is unchanged by the switch to SRI, with no evidence of over-or under-performance relative to the benchmark market index by any of the four funds. More interestingly, changes in variability of returns over time are also modelled using generalised autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity models, not previously applied to SRI funds so far as is known. Results show a temporary increase in variability of returns, followed by a return to previous levels after around 4 years. Evidence shows the increased variability to be associated with the adoption of SRI rather than with a change in fund management. Possible explanations for the subsequent reduction in variability include the spread of corporate social responsibility activities by firms and learning by fund managers. In addition to reporting on a previously unobserved phenomenon, this paper raises questions for further research.     

An Examination of the Structure of Executive Compensation and Corporate Social Responsibility: A Canadian Investigation

We explore the extent to which Boards use executive compensation to incite firms to act in accordance with social and environmental objectives (e.g., Johnson, R. and D. Greening: 1999, Academy of Management Journal 42(5), 564–578 ; Kane, E. J.: 2002, Journal of Banking and Finance 26, 1919–1933.). We examine the association between executive compensation and corporate social responsibility (CSR) for 77 Canadian firms using three key components of executives’ compensation structure: salary, bonus, and stock options. Similar to prior research (McGuire, J., S. Dow and K. Argheyd: 2003, Journal of Business Ethics 45(4), 341–359), we measure three different aspects of CSR, which include Total CSR as well as CSR Strengths and CSR Weaknesses. CSR Strengths and CSR Weaknesses capture the positive and negative aspects of CSR, respectively. We find significant positive relationships between: (1) Salary and CSR Weaknesses, (2) Bonus and CSR Strengths, (3) Stock Options and Total CSR; and (4) Stock Options and CSR Strengths. Our findings suggest the importance of the structure of executive compensation in encouraging socially responsible actions, particularly for larger Canadian firms. This in turn suggests that executive compensation can be an effective tool in aligning executives’ welfare with that of the “common good”, which results in more socially responsible firms (Bebchuk, L., J. Fried and D. Walker: 2002, The University of Chicago Law Review 69, 751–846; Zalewski, D.: 2003, Journal of Economic Issues 37(2), 503–509). In addition, our findings suggest the importance of institutional context in influencing the association between executive compensation and CSR. Further implications for practice and research are discussed.Lois. Mahoney is an Assistant Professor at Eastern Michigan University. Her research is focused in the areas of ethics and accounting information systems. She has published in ethics and accounting journals including Journal of Business Ethics, Business Ethics Quarterly, Research on Professional Responsibility and Ethics in Accounting, Information and Organization. Dr. Mahoney has received several research awards, including Best Paper award at the Seventh Symposium on Ethics Research in Accounting. Dr. Mahoney is also actively involved in the American Accounting Association.Linda Thorn is an Associate Professor at York University in Toronto Ontario. Her research focuses on ethical decision making, the ethics of accountants and accounting students and ethical aspects of accounting information. She has published in ethics and accounting journal including among others, Business Ethics Quarterly, Journal of Business Ethics, Contemporary Accounting Research, Behavioral Research in Accounting and Audit: A Journal of Practice in Theory.