Managing Earnings with Intercorporate Investments

Abstract:  We explore to what extent firms deliberately manage their financial reports by exploiting the flexibility of generally accepted accounting principles. Using a sample of Oslo Stock Exchange-listed firms with 20–50% equity holdings in other firms, we find that firms with high financial leverage tend to maximize reported earnings from these investments through their choice between the cost method and the equity method, possibly in an attempt to reduce debt renegotiation costs or to avoid regulatory attention. In contrast, managers do not systematically bias reported earnings to extract private benefits or to signal revised expectations about future cash flows. Firms use different earnings management tools in a consistent way, as the earnings effect of the cost/equity choice is not offset by discretionary accruals.     

Orange County Bankruptcy: Financial Contagion in the Municipal Bond and Bank Equity Markets

We examine the spillover wealth effects of the Orange County, California bankruptcy announcement in December 1994 on municipal bonds, municipal bond funds, and bank stocks. This bankruptcy is prominent because of unprecedented losses and because it was caused by a highly leveraged derivatives strategy rather than a shortage of tax revenues and excess spending. We find contagion in the bond market with significantly negative abnormal returns for municipal bond funds without direct exposure to Orange County and for non‐Orange County municipal bonds. In addition, our findings suggest the contagion spills over to the common stocks of investment and commercial banks that deal in or use derivatives; however, the equities of banks unexposed to derivatives are not affected.     

论债转股

我国银行与企业之间的不良债务越来越多。如果这种情况继续下去,将导致企业破产,也会将银行拖垮,最终导致金融危机。债转股作为一种延缓矛盾和风险爆发时间应急性措施的债务重组手段,成功的关键在于是否能以此为契机,彻底转变企业经营管理机制和治理结构,使企业的产权明晰,将企业推向市场,在市场中生存和发展。     

加快私募股权投资发展的政策建议

根据我国私募股权投资发展过程中存在的问题,为了加快我国私募股权投资发展,应在建立和完善发展政策方面加以规范,例如,完善私募股权投资发展政策、建立与完善私募股权投资发展的法律法规、完善资本市场、规范私募股权投资中介机构、培养私募股权投资人才以及加强对私募股权投资监管等。     

公共政策公共性视角下公平与效率问题综述

关于如何解决公平与效率的关系,有学者把优先权交给平等,有学者把优先权交给效率,有学者为了平衡公平和效率的关系做了一个妥协,还有些学者认为政府管公平、市场管效率。无论怎样,实现公平和效率的动态平衡,是一个社会系统工程,需要建立完善的公共政策体系。     

论股权分置改革后的投资者利益保护

股权分置改革对于完善公司治理结构、规范市场运行、提升上市公司质量、实现资源和风险的优化配置等都具有重大的现实意义。现实股权结构的非均衡特征与转轨时期投资者的浮燥情结可能导致全流通后的一系列问题,其中初始状况所形成的自然垄断,大股东在经济利益驱动下通过其控制权地位制造相关信息诱骗中小投资者,将使投资者的市场地位出现极度的不平衡,我国证券市场因此可能重新进入一个新的庄股时代。为了保证市场交易的公平性,维护中小股东的利益,尽可能避免市场地位不对称可能对市场规范运行的破坏,强化行政监督与加强制度建设就显得尤为迫切。本文对这些问题进行了专门的探讨。     

Reconciling sustainability and discounting in Cost–Benefit Analysis: A methodological proposal

The incorporation of the intergenerational equity objective has rendered the traditional Cost–Benefit Analysis (CBA) approach obsolete for the evaluation of projects presenting an important number of environmental externalities and for those whose impacts extend throughout a long period of time.Based on the assumption that applying a discount rate rewards current consumption and, therefore, that it is only possible to introduce a certain intergenerational equity in a Cost–Benefit Analysis, in this work we propose an approach to discounting based on a different rationale for tangible and intangible effects. We designed two indicators of environmental profitability: a) the Intergenerational Transfer Amount (ITA), which quantifies in monetary units what the current generation is willing to pass on future generations when an environmental restoration project is carried out, and b) the Critical Environmental Rate (CER), measures the implicit environmental profitability.These concepts were tested through an empirical case study pertaining to the assessment of an Erosion Control Project in the southeast of Spain. The results yield traditional profitability indicators that are higher — and probably closer — to the real values set by the contemporary society. The information provided by the environmental profitability indicators proposed renders more transparency to the quantification of the levels of intergenerational equity applied, thereby facilitating the difficult reconciliation of the CBA technique with the objective of sustainability.     

混合股权制衡度与真实盈余管理行为

混合所有制改革形成了非国有股与国有股相互制衡的股权结构。通过研究国有企业中非国有股权和国有股权相互制衡的程度与真实盈余管理行为的关系发现:混合股权制衡度显著抑制了国有企业的真实盈余管理行为,但当国有性质股权占比小于非国有性质股权占比时上述抑制作用减弱。另外,参与混合所有制改革的金融类、外资类股权相比民营类股权制衡度,对真实盈余管理行为发挥了更显著的治理作用。机制检验发现,混合股权制衡一方面通过提升业绩,提高对真实盈余管理动机的抑制作用,从而缓解了真实盈余管理行为;另一方面通过提升内部控制对真实盈余管理的抑制作用,降低了真实盈余管理行为。以上结论有助于深化国有企业混合所有制改革,为提升混改中的审计监管质量提供参考。     

上市公司独立董事制度设计的合理性分析——基于二元制公司治理模式

文章通过对监事会和独立董事职能冲突以及现有各国公司治理结构的分析,推导出在二元制公司治理模式下实行独立董事制度的环境要求和独立董事职能不能充分发挥的原因,从而得出我国目前并不适宜引入独立董事制度的结论。同时,在现有立法仍然保留有独立董事制度的前提下,又提出了对独立董事和监事会制度的改革策略,以期实现两者相对协调地发挥其监管职能。