Sustainability reporting in Norway – an assessment of performance in the context of legal demands and socio‐political drivers

This article explores the influence of societal, political and regulatory characteristics and developments on the quality of corporate sustainability disclosures in Norway. The paper presents an assessment both of mandatory reporting under the Norwegian Accounting Act, and of voluntary reporting in annual and separate non‐financial reports, by the 100 largest firms in Norway. Our results reveal that only 10% of the companies comply with the legal requirements on environmental reporting, while only half of the firms comply with the legal reporting provisions on working environment and gender equality. The vast majority of firms also report unsatisfactorily on non‐financial issues in the voluntary disclosures assessed. Analysing the causes of these results, we contend that the situation is characterized by (1) an apparent lack of political and social drivers for sustainability reporting in Norway and (2) an absence of sufficient monitoring and enforcement of the environmental reporting legislation on the part of Norwegian authorities. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Fiscal Transparency,Fiscal Performance and Credit Ratings

Fiscal transparency can provide policymakers with incentives to adopt better policies by enhancing the public debate on the design and sustainability of fiscal policy and establishing accountability for their implementation. Fiscal transparency can also reduce uncertainty about fiscal policy and fiscal outturns by providing more information on the underlying fiscal position and fiscal risks. Both effects suggest that countries should benefit from adopting transparency enhancing policies through better market assessments of their sovereign risk. In this paper, we investigate whether fiscal transparency has an effect on market perceptions of sovereign risk, as measured by sovereign credit ratings, and if so, through which channels. We find that fiscal transparency has a positive and significant effect on ratings – one standard deviation increase in fiscal transparency increases credit ratings by 0.7 and 1 notches (or steps in the credit rating scale) in advanced and developing economies, respectively – but its effect works through different channels in advanced and developing economies. In advanced economies, fiscal transparency is associated with better fiscal outcomes, leading indirectly to higher credit ratings. In developing economies, the direct uncertainty‐reducing effect of fiscal transparency seems to be more important. Indeed, the effect of fiscal transparency on fiscal performance is found to increase with the level of institutional development.     

WTO争端解决机制下药品专利保护案对我国的启示

美诉印度药品和农业化学产品专利保护等案涉及的问题：未公布的行政做法与透明度原则的关系、DSH推理中司法经济原则之运用、不同成员基于同一事由再次申诉、专家组报告作为先例的约束力等，这些对我国有一定启示。结合我国目前药品专利实施情况，应运用公共利益原则，适当延长药品专利保护期；专利保护期将尽时对仿制药品予以保护。     

Does Good Governance Matter to Institutional Investors? Evidence from the Enactment of Corporate Governance Guidelines

Corporate governance guidelines are a mechanism that a firm can enact which should reduce agency costs and better align the interests of boards and the suppliers of capital. This study examines stock price reactions primarily attributable to institutional investors occurring when corporations announce the enactment of corporate governance guidelines. A final sample of 77 firms was derived from the first announcement of corporate governance guidelines exclusive to the SEC-EDGAR database. The results indicate that good governance does matter. Firms that announced the enactment of corporate governance guidelines experienced increased stock prices following the announcements. There was an immediate (days 1–4) reaction for firms that provided all or part of the guidelines’ substance; a delayed (days 8–10) reaction occurred for those firms that only referenced the guidelines’ enactment. Additionally, firms with either a potentially greater following or that had a previous history of acrimonious relations with stakeholders were rewarded by the announcement of the enactment of guidelines.     

基于市场预期行为的货币政策透明度检验

通过考察金融市场参与者的行为变化或分析市场利率在政策公告后的变化趋势,可以间接对货币政策透明度进行度量;利用相应的货币政策透明度检验模型和我国金融市场的利率数据进行检验,可知我国中央银行在基准利率调整和准备金率改变等重大的政策决策上,货币当局更倾向于采用模糊的政策操作方式,由此会导致市场预期的混乱,并最终对政策实施效果产生负面影响,因此,我国有必要借鉴西方国家的政策操作经验,进一步增加政策操作方面的透明度,并借以最终建立一个简单透明、效率更高的政策调控框架。     

How price complexity takes its toll: The neglected role of a simplicity bias and fairness in price evaluations

Marketing managers commonly employ complex price plans. Surprisingly, limited and conflicting evidence reports how customers perceive and react to complex prices. This study examines perceptions about price complexity and shows that customers tend to prefer simple prices. Two experimental studies show that perceived price complexity negatively affects customer perceptions of price fairness and influences product choice because customers negatively evaluate the transparency of the firm's pricing practices and infer higher total prices. Customers comparing alternate offerings may therefore prefer simple over complex prices, even when the latter are less expensive. Study results suggest limiting price plan variations positively affects customer inferences about transparency and fairness, and thus customer choice.     

企业数字化转型提高了审计质量吗？——基于多时点双重差分模型的实证检验

企业数字化转型作为促进数字经济与实体经济相互融合的重要方式,对构建新发展格局、促进经济高质量发展有着至关重要的作用。综合考虑企业数字化转型的三个阶段及其特点,利用文本挖掘和人工阅读相结合的方法,从二维角度衡量企业数字化转型,以2009—2019年沪深A股上市公司为样本数据,采用多时点DID模型,考察了企业数字化转型对审计质量的影响及作用渠道。研究发现,企业数字化转型可以通过提高信息透明度和降低企业风险承担来提高审计质量;在进一步研究中发现,企业数字化技术应用有利于审计质量的提高,而商业模式创新作用并不明显;企业数字化转型对审计质量的提高主要出现在盈利、机构持股较高及非国有企业里,并且在2015年国家实施实体经济数字化转型产业政策方案后,企业数字化转型提高审计质量的作用表现得更为明显。研究结果拓展了企业数字化转型的审计后果,为注册会计师应对企业数字化转型中的错报风险提供了丰富的经验证据。     

央行前瞻性指引与提升政策透明度

金融危机中,许多发达国家央行致力于提升政策透明度,在货币政策目标分析和政策对外沟通方面取得了进步。文章介绍了前瞻性指引的概念,分析了美国、日本、英国和欧洲央行实施新一轮前瞻性指引的内容及其引发的讨论,并简析了未来前瞻性指引的运用空间。     

美联储宏观分析模型与提高货币政策透明度

新任美联储主席耶伦上任以来,注重信息沟通在货币政策实施过程中的重要性。2014年4月3日,美联储首次对外公布了其政策分析所采用的宏观模型（FRB—US Model）,进一步推动货币政策信息透明化。文章从家庭、企业、金融部门、货币政策、供应方等部门角度梳理了美联储宏观分析模型的基本架构,分析介绍了该模型相比动态随机一般均衡模型的优点及部分市场评价,在回顾我国央行不断增强货币政策透明度举措的基础上,就进一步提高货币政策透明度提出相关建议。     

Monetary policy for emerging market economies: beyond inflation targeting

Monetary policymakers normally seek to achieve multiple objectives: for prices as well as real economic activity, sometimes for the composition of real activity as well as the aggregate, and often for aspects of the economy's international balance. The fact that monetary policy has only one basic instrument to use therefore creates both complexity and tensions among these objectives. Although inflation targeting represents a way of imposing a logical consistency on monetary policy, in the presence of multiple policy objectives inflation targeting undermines policy transparency and therefore makes accountability more difficult too. Because of the limitation of monetary policy's having only one instrument, but multiple objectives, fiscal policy and prudential supervision and regulation of financial institutions are also important for enabling emerging market economies to achieve their macroeconomic aims.