A note on estimating the divisional cost of capital for diversified companies: an empirical evaluation of heuristic-based approaches

This note provides an empirical analysis of the potential for heuristic-based approaches to derive a divisional cost of equity from a firm's total cost of capital. Since an empirical relationship between fundamental information and systematic risk has previously been shown in other studies, idiosyncratic information on risk and performance ought to serve as a good proxy to calculate divisional adjustments. Two practically used, heuristic-based approaches are tested and a significant relationship is found between one of the measures and CAPM beta. This method may offer a plausible and comparatively uncomplicated method for adjusting a firm's total cost of capital for divisional use.     

Why Any Seatbelt Mandate is an Infinitely Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma: A Health Economics Perspective

Abstract

Among the most controversial of public health measures are those that restrict people’s freedom of choice presumably for the purpose of protecting their own health and safety. Mandatory use of automobile seatbelts can inspire allusions to the “tyranny of health” and the ‘health police.” This study revisits state seatbelt legislation, which is in force in all but one state of the USA. In modeling seatbelt mandates as indefinitely repeated Prisoner’s Dilemma (PD) games, the study qualifies and overcomes the limitations of conventional interest group and expressive voting theories. It indicates why and how utility-maximizing players, particularly carmakers, insurance companies, consumer advocates and regulators, may choose to cooperate, even in instances where mutual defection would bring each of them higher payoffs. The study suggests why state seatbelt mandates endure, despite ongoing concerns that they undermine individual autonomy or that their social costs outweigh the benefits of law-enforcement. The evolution and mediating effects of reputation and reciprocity in otherwise highly contestable healthcare decisions are consequently explored. Finally, the study identifies the implications of indefinitely repeated games on the continuing nature of strategic relationships and for mitigating conflict over traffic safety regulation, regardless of time and place.     

新建本科高校财务风险的成因及对策

新建本科高校财务风险的成因主要有高校债务责任人缺位、财政投入不足、预算软约束、生源不稳定、财务信息不对称、财务管理水平不够高等因素，故应建立现代大学制度、加大财政投入、拓宽资金筹措渠道、强化预算的刚性执行力度、提高会计信息质量以及建立风险预警机制。     

The single family home in the investment portfolio

This article uses recent measures of the risk and return to investment in housing to estimate the effects of including a single family home in the investor portolio. We estimate the expected return and standard deviation of that return, as well as its correlation with other major investment classes.     

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.     

企业风险管理探析

企业风险管理是一个涉及到企业内外各个方面的人的利益的问题。我国企业亟需加强风险管理,防止因人的因素导致的企业风险管理的失灵。实现最佳企业风险管理的效果,应结合企业战略的制定、企业内部控制和平衡计分卡的运用。     

压力测试及其在金融机构风险管理中的运用

本文研究和评价了目前被国际大型金融机构积极采用的风险管理工具:压力测试。作者通过将压力测试与VaR作比较等方法详细阐述了压力测试的特征、使用方法和缺陷,并且进一步分析指出压力测试在金融机构风险管理中的作用及其最新发展状况和趋势,最后着重分析了压力测试在我国运用和发展的前景并提出建议。     

试论注册会计师法律风险的规避问题

随着注册会计师在我国市场经济生活中发挥着越来越重要的作用,为了保护其合法权益,强化其责任意识,我国有关法律规定了注册会计师所要承担的法律责任,这也必然会带来一些相应的法律风险问题。因而,本文试图从目前注册会计师法律责任的相关规定和主要矛盾以及如何规避法律风险的基本途径等方面的问题作一些初步的探讨     

Diffidence Theorem, State-Dependent Preferences, and DARA

C. Gollier (The Economics of Risk and Time. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2001) has developed a standard technique based on the diffidence theorem. This theorem provides a very simple instrument to solve relatively sophisticated problems when preferences are state-independent. The object of this article is to show that the theorem is also very useful to derive significant results with state-dependent preferences. Using the reference set notion and an extension of the diffidence theorem, we establish formally necessary and sufficient conditions on the reference set, in order to obtain prudence and decreasing absolute risk aversion. Examples of DARA utility functions compatible with non-linear reference sets are presented in the Appendix.     

A Value at Risk Approach to Background Risk

This paper studies the effects of an uninsurable background risk (BR) on the demand for insurance (proportional and with deductible). We study both the case of BR uncorrelated with the insurable one and the perfectly correlated one, in a Gaussian world. In order to perform our study, we exploit the new risk measure known as Value at Risk (VaR) and consider insurance contracts which are Mean-VaR efficient. We obtain results which depend on the parameters (moments) of both risks and on the magnitude of loadings charged by the insurance company, instead of depending on the risk attitudes of the insured, such as risk aversion and prudence.We demonstrate that, if loadings are not too high, the demand for insurance increases with positively correlated BR; it decreases with BR negatively correlated if the latter is less risky than the insurable one (in this case it can even go to zero, if loadings are too high); it goes to zero with BR which is negatively correlated and more risky than the insurable one.