The impact of direct environmental,social, and governance reporting: Empirical evidence in European-listed companies in the agri-food sector

Companies are continuously pressured for the dissemination of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information, because of the constant debate on the issue of corporate sustainability, considered a critical and very important topic for society; despite this pressure, ESG's disclosure practices vary considerably from company to company, both in quantity and quality. The study aims to address the issue and verify the effectiveness of ESG reporting through the influence that the ESG disclosure has on profitability and value of listed European agri-food companies. The results obtained, studying a sample of 57 European-listed companies (EU28) in the agri-food sector observed in the period 2010–2018, show that the ESG disclosure practices of the companies impact corporate profitability; specifically, evidence is provided for the existence of a positive relationship between profitability and disclosure practices of strictly environmental and social information and a negative effect between company market value and disclosure practices relating to governance. These results suggest that greater transparency and accountability help to improve business profitability.     

“一带一路”倡议能否提升对外直接投资企业盈利能力？

基于2011-2015年A股上市公司与商务部《境外投资企业（机构）名录》数据，利用倾向得分匹配方法（PSM）和双重差分法（DID）考察“一带一路”倡议对中国对外直接投资企业盈利能力的影响及作用机制。研究发现：“一带一路”倡议显著提升了中国对沿线国家投资企业的盈利能力。机制检验表明，“一带一路”倡议能够通过推进中国与沿线国家间的经济融合和文化包容来提升对外投资企业的盈利能力，而政治互信在样本期内不显著。进一步研究发现，“一带一路”倡议对企业盈利能力的提升作用主要体现在国有企业、新兴优势产业以及投资目的为非邻近中国的“一带一路”国家上。     

The virtuous circle of human resource investments: A precrisis and postcrisis analysis

We propose a dynamic model of positive feedback between human resource (HR) investments and companies' economic performance. The model assumes that HR investment increases profitability through labor productivity and, in turn, profitability improves HR investment through organizational slack. Based on data from a sample of 2,497 industrial companies over a 7‐year period (2005–2011), longitudinal analysis corroborates the existence of a two‐way relationship between HR investment and profitability over time. However, the emergence of an economic crisis weakens this feedback, identifying the effect of organizational slack on HR investment as the weakest causal chain link. In a postcrisis period, HR investment is not such a high priority for managers.     

Evaluation of the profitability of quality labels in rural tourism accommodation: a hedonic approach using propensity score matching

In recent years, quality labels for the Spanish tourism sector have been developed as part of a competitive strategy focused on the differentiation of the product. Given this development, it is interesting to analyse the profitability of quality labels for the accommodation owners and managers. In particular, this article calculates the profitability of a rural tourism quality label. Through the use of the hedonic price approach, the market valuation of the quality label for rural self-catering cottages is obtained. This valuation is subsequently compared with the expenses incurred by establishments in achieving the quality label. In order to address the usual methodological problems associated with the endogeneity, prior to application of the hedonic approach, the propensity score matching is used. The results indicate that possessing a quality label has a positive impact on the profitability of rural tourism.     

人民币升值影响我国企业竞争力实证研究

2005年7月汇率改革以来,人民币持续升值,对我国外向型企业的进出口有较大影响。尤其是对作为国民经济支柱产业的汽车行业影响深远,而汽车零部件的进出口额远远多于汽车整车,因此本文选择41家汽车零部件上市公司作为研究对象,通过对相关的面板数据进行检验和回归分析,从而研究人民币升值对于企业竞争力的影响。研究结论表明,人民币升值对企业盈利能力以及营运能力有显著正影响,而对企业成长能力没有显著影响。     

中国银行业盈利影响因素分析

考察了2001年至2007年14家商业银行的盈利状况,并选择银行资产利润率为银行盈利水平的测度变量,分析银行机构的个体特征变量、宏观经济变量和金融结构变量对中资银行利润率的影响。结果发现,商业银行的盈利能力主要由个体特征变量决定,其中,银行信贷率与银行利润率呈显著正相关关系,而银行规模、所有权性质与银行利润率之间呈显著负相关关系;宏观经济变量和金融结构变量与银行利润率的关系在总体上不显著,其中,只有通胀率与银行利润率呈显著负相关关系,存款和公债投资与银行利润率之间也呈负相关关系,但是没有显著性。     

The analysis of determinants of going concern audit report

Going concern is one of essential things for user to make a financial decision. This research aims to explore factors that caused the issuance of going concern audit report by auditor. This research adds two new variables, audit size and audit committee, besides the other factors that cause auditor issue a going concern audit report. This research uses a regression logistic analysis to determine the relationship of each variable （liquidity, solvability, profitability, cash flow, audit firm size and audit committee） to going concern audit report. Different from previous researches, the results of this research show that liquidity, profitability, cash flow, and audit committee are not significant to influence the issuance of audit opinion. Audit size has a more significant relationship to audit opinion, while solvability is the most significant factor.     

我国零售业上市公司成长性评价

对我国48家零售业上市公司进行统计性分析,进而从盈利能力、负债能力、运营能力、发展能力四个方面,运用因子分析法对零售业上市公司成长性进行评价,结果表明：我国零售业上市公司的盈利水平差异很大,资产负债率总体偏高,连锁经营是零售业经营发展的趋势;获利因子对零售业上市公司成长性的解释度最大,其次是成长因子。应主要从获利能力、长期偿债能力、运营能力三方面入手,提高我国零售业上市公司的成长性。     

Uncertainty and the slowdown of capital accumulation in Europe

The slowdown in the process of capital formation in continental Europe in the 1990s is analysed. Sector-level data from the OECD's International Sectoral Data Base (ISDB) are used. Econometric estimates of an investment function indicate structural instability in the early 1990s and, specifically, a break in the coefficient linking the growth of capital stock to demand. This result neither seems to be related to non-linearities in the relationship between capital formation and expected demand, nor to the sectoral composition of European economies. Evidence is found that the drop in the accelerator is at least partly attributable to greater demand uncertainty in the 1990s as compared with the earlier period.