Motivations and performance of public to private transactions： An international study

This article deals with the motivations and the different sources of value from public to private transactions in Europe, USA and Asia from 2000 to 2007. We determine eight main motivations （tax savings, incentive realignment, control, free cash flow, growth of prospects, transaction costs, takeover defence and undervaluation）. Then, we evaluate the shareholder wealth by measuring the offered premiums and the CAAR （cumulative average abnormal return）. Finally, we analyse the impact of public to private to the wealth shareholder. The main sources for firms from going private are incentive realignment, free cash flow （mostly for Asia）, the economy of cost transaction and undervaluation. Furthermore, taxation benefit is a source of wealth effects for Asia and family blockholder （for the control hypothesis） is significant for Europe. Premiums and CAAR are the most important for the USA and Asia. The main observation that we have made is that Asia gets the same behavior as the USA.     

New tips from TIPS: Identifying inflation expectations and the risk premia of break-even inflation

This paper decomposes the break-even inflation rates derived from inflation-indexed bonds into inflation risk premia, liquidity risk premia, and inflation expectations. I estimate a common factor model with autoregressive conditionally heteroscedastic (ARCH) errors that extracts co-movements from twenty-two monthly and quarterly indicators to identify these three components. The results indicate that the sharp declines in the 10-year and 5-year break-even inflation rates in 2009 reflect a substantial increase in liquidity risk rather than a decrease in inflation expectations. Break-even inflation rates underestimate inflation expectations over nearly the entire sample due to the liquidity risk premia carried by the inflation indexed bond yields. Also, the model-implied inflation expectations show better forecast performance for the average annual inflation rates than raw break-even inflation rates, the Survey of Professional Forecasters, and the Surveys of Consumers inflation forecasts.     

Futures prices and inflation information

This study examines the timing and speed with which inflation futures prices absorb inflation information. Results of the study show that inflation futures prices already reflect the expected inflation. Moreover, 71% of unexpected inflation has been reflected in futures prices about 25 business days prior to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) announcement, which usually coincides with the end of the CPI measurement period. Reaction to the remaining 29% occurs on and shortly after the CPI announcement date, especially on day 0 and day 2. The inflation risk premium that investors are willing to pay to avoid uncertain inflation is estimated to be 1.41% per annum.     

Free trade, factor returns, and factor accumulation

A model of development is studied in which physical capital and unskilled labor are good substitutes, and skilled labor is complementary to the resulting aggregate. Growth in a closed economy is compared with two open regimes. Inflows of physical capital only reduce the interest rate and raise both wage rates. The skilled wage rises more sharply, however, increasing the skill premium and accelerating human capital accumulation. Full integration with a larger and more developed neighbor also reduces the interest rate and raises both wage rates, but in this case the skill premium falls and human capital accumulation changes very little.     

Estimating the Equity Risk Premium Using Accounting Fundamentals

This study uses recent developments in the theoretical modelling of the links between unrecorded accounting goodwill, accounting profitability and the cost of equity, together with Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) betas, to estimate the ex-ante equity risk premium in the UK. The results suggest that, over our sample period from 1968 to 1995, the premium has been in the region of 5%. Our estimate lends support to the view that the ex-ante equity risk premium is substantially less than the historical average of the excess of equity returns over the risk-free rate, and is similar to the rates applied recently by UK competition regulators.     

On the utility premium of Friedman and Savage

We re-examine the utility premium of Friedman–Savage [Friedman, Milton and Savage, Leonard J., “The Utility Analysis of Choices Involving Risk.” Journal of Political Economy 56, 1948, pp. 279–304.]. This measure is useful in understanding risky choices. For instance its reaction to an increased wealth equates to a precautionary demand for saving. We also analyze its two components.     

Cross‐sectional Tests of Conditional Asset Pricing Models: Evidence from the German Stock Market

We study the performance of conditional asset pricing models and multifactor models in explaining the German cross‐section of stock returns. We focus on several variables, which (according to previous research) are associated with market expectations on future market excess returns or business cycle conditions. Our results suggest that the empirical performance of the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) can be improved when allowing for time‐varying parameters of the stochastic discount factor. A conditional CAPM using the term spread explains the returns on our size and book‐to‐market sorted portfolios about as well as the Fama‐French three‐factor model and performs best in terms of the Hansen‐Jagannathan distance. Structural break tests do not necessarily indicate parameter instability of conditional model specifications. Another major finding of the paper is that the Fama‐French model – despite its generally good cross‐sectional performance – is subject to model instability. Unconditional models, however, do a better job than conditional ones at capturing time‐series predictability of the test portfolio returns.     

美国NAIC关于长期责任准备金的提取方法及其借鉴

2004年12月,中国保监会发布了《保险公司非寿险业务准备金管理办法(试行)》,规定了各种责任准备金的提取方法。该试行办法中,有关对长期责任准备金的提取方法的规定侧重于原则性,缺乏可操作性,有待进一步完善。美国保险官协会(NAIC)于1997年修订、并于1998年开始实施的关于长期责任准备金的提取方法,对我国非寿险公司以及保险监管部门有借鉴意义。特别是按照美国保险官协会(NAIC)的新规定,长期责任准备金的提取涉及到精算人员的经验与判断,故对精算人员提出了更高的要求。     

从高管眼中透视上市公司的亏损

文章从高管的角度透视上市公司的亏损,按亏损对上市公司价值的影响将其分为折价型亏损和溢价型亏损,在分析各类亏损产生的原因基础上,指出对于溢价型亏损,高管人员不必惊慌,需要耐心期待;时于折价型亏损.则需要高管人员采取恰当措施进行拯救.