资产专用性与交易成本节约——论企业是信用的载体

企业的功能不仅在于节约要素(中间品)交易成本,是要素的"间接定价装置",还在于节约最终产品交易成本.信息不对称的产品市场上,企业在交易中"制造"了一个重复博弈机制,这使其更关心长远利益.它用自身专用性资产--从价值和数量两个维度--来作为其产品是合格品的担保.专用性资产单位价值越大,数量越多,企业越有谋求长远利益、放弃短期机会主义行为的激励.市场上理性的买方考虑到这一点,总是认为效益越好、规模越大的企业越有可能提供合格品.企业是信用的载体,它一定程度上避免了产品市场由于信息不对称所引致的逆向选择,从而节约最终产品交易成本.我们的分析补充和完善了企业的交易成本理论.     

Labour unions and leverage: evidence from firm-level union data

ABSTRACT

Using firm-level labour union data from Japan, this paper investigates the effect of labour unions on firm leverage. We find that as union coverage increases, both the level of and extent of change in leverage decreases. These relations remain robust when a firm falls into deficit. We also find that firms with higher union coverage have a higher interest coverage ratio. In addition, we find that firms with higher union coverage are less likely to choose issuing debt compared to issuing equity when they face financial distress. Our results imply that significant employee influence enhanced by labour unions increases fixed costs, crowds out the firm’s debt capacity and consequently reduces the firm’s leverage.     

国外并购绩效评价方法研究综述

20世纪全球经历了5次企业并购浪潮,并购已经成为现代企业尤其是大型企业和高成长企业快速扩张和整合的重要手段之一.企业并购的之后的效果如何,如何来评价并购的绩效,国外学者从不同角度做了大量的研究,但数十年的研究至今没有一个统一的结论.本文总结了30多年以来国外学者有关企业并购绩效研究的重要文献,在此基础上将国外并购绩效的评价方法分为财务评价、股票评价和其他评价三类,并指出了并购绩效评价方法中存在的问题.     

Low information nash equilibria for oligopolistic markets

This paper deals with an infinite horizon n firm oligopoly in which firms are assumed to have incomplete information about one another's actions and profit functions. An equilibrium concept is defined that is similar to the Nash non-cooperative equilibrium, but is suitable for the information assumptions of the model. The equilibrium uses a type of bounded rationality which makes firms' computations relatively easy. This is due to an implicit assumption that computation is costly and a Bayesian approach is prohibitively costly. This low information Nash equilibrium is proved to exist, and, in addition, an adaptive expectations decision process is described which, if followed by all firms, leads to the low information Nash equilibrium.     

Ideology, markets and money

Contemporary economic theory is considered in terms of the science/ideologydistinction. Marx's critique of Hegel is then used to derivea demarcation criterion that sharply separates scientific knowledgefrom ideology. This critique interprets Hegelian methodologyas fundamentally ideological because it understands realityin terms of abstract thought and then hypostatises that thoughtas reality. This process is more generally treated in termsof Marx's theory of value and money, in which money really doesdo what Hegelian logic purports to do. The consequences of consideringMarxian theory in this way provide some purchase on the logicand limitations of contemporary economic theory.     

Why England? Demographic factors, structural change and physical capital accumulation during the Industrial Revolution

Why did England industrialize first? And why was Europe ahead of the rest of the world? Unified growth theory in the tradition of Galor and Weil (2000, American Economic Review, 89, 806–828) and Galor and Moav (2002, Quartely Journal of Economics, 177(4), 1133–1191) captures the key features of the transition from stagnation to growth over time. Yet we know remarkably little about why industrialization occurred much earlier in some parts of the world than in others. To answer this question, we present a probabilistic two-sector model where the initial escape from Malthusian constraints depends on the demographic regime, capital deepening and the use of more differentiated capital equipment. Weather-induced shocks to agricultural productivity cause changes in prices and quantities, and affect wages. In a standard model with capital externalities, these fluctuations interact with the demographic regime and affect the speed of growth. Our model is calibrated to match the main characteristics of the English economy in 1700 and the observed transition until 1850. We capture one of the key features of the British Industrial Revolution emphasized by economic historians — slow growth of output and productivity. Fertility limitation is responsible for higher per capita incomes, and these in turn increase industrialization probabilities. The paper also explores the availability of nutrition for poorer segments of society. We examine the influence of redistributive institutions such as the Old Poor Law, and find they were not decisive in fostering industrialization. Simulations using parameter values for other countries show that Britain’s early escape was only partly due to chance. France could have moved out of agriculture and into manufacturing faster than Britain, but the probability was less than 25%. Contrary to recent claims in the literature, 18th century China had only a minimal chance to escape from Malthusian constraints.     

A theory of reciprocity

People are reciprocal if they reward kind actions and punish unkind ones. In this paper we present a formal theory of reciprocity. It takes into account that people evaluate the kindness of an action not only by its consequences but also by its underlying intention. The theory is in line with the relevant stylized facts of a wide range of experimental games, such as the ultimatum game, the gift-exchange game, a reduced best-shot game, the dictator game, the prisoner's dilemma, and public goods games. Furthermore, it predicts that identical consequences trigger different reciprocal responses in different environments. Finally, the theory explains why outcomes tend to be fair in bilateral interactions whereas extremely unfair distributions may arise in competitive markets.     

基于灰色系统理论的旅游客源预测模型--以中国入境旅游客源为例

本文基于灰色系统理论,以中国1978年以来入境客源为例,建构了旅游客源预测的灰色模型,并与常用的线性模型的预测精度进行了定量对比。所得基本结论为:①旅游系统是灰色系统,灰色系统理论是研究旅游现象的有力工具;②中国入境客源灰色GM(1,1)模型的预测精度高于线性模型;③就灰色预测而言,如果原始数据列较长(例如21年),对原始数据进行平滑处理所得预测模型精度较高,而对原始数据进行取自然对数的处理所得模型预测精度较低;如果原始数据列较短(例如5年),对原始数据进行取自然对数的预处理所得模型预测精度较高。本文所得结论对其他旅游序列预测应该具有一定的借鉴与参考价值。     

马克思就业理论与西方就业理论比较研究

对中国失业的研究已是无法回避的一个问题,而寻求理论支持则是进行研究的一个重要方向。检索就业理论的资料,可以发现最有代表性的就业理论是马克思就业理论和西方就业理论。因此,对这两种就业理论加以比较,理解它们形成的不同背景和分析路径,对比它们不同的内容体系,可以发现它们其实发掘的只是失业的一个方面,遵循的是失业发生、发展的一条路径。因此,在比较中更全面地理解失业,并且可以为研究我国的失业提供某些启示。     

财务分析师盈宗预测精确度决定因素的实证分析

文章以2004-2005年的上市公司数据为样本，分析了我国财务分析师在预测上市公司未来盈余时影响其预测精确度的主要因素。研究发现，预测机构数量的增加、盈余可预测性以及信息披露质量的提高，将伴随着高的盈余预测精确度，而盈余波动程度越大、公司规模越大，预测的精确度则越低。同时，可预测性、盈余管理、盈余波动以及公司扩张速度对分析师的悲观预测有显著的影响，而可预测性、盈余管理以及公司规模则显著影响分析师对盈余的乐观估计。