商业银行建立防范操作风险长效机制的思考

操作风险是商业银行需要着力防范的重要风险,也是最难化解和规避的风险,本文作者结合多年的业务工作实践,对商业银行具体的业务领域进行了深入的研究,从操作风险的类型、产生的原因入手,对操作风险进行了分析,提出了防范和控制操作风险的应对措施,具有很强的指导意义和应用价值。     

On the relationship between cost and service models for general inventory systems

In this paper, we present a systematic overview of possible relations between cost and service models for fairly general single- and multi-stage inventory systems. In particular, we relate various types of penalty costs in pure cost models to equivalent types of service measures in service models. We show how an optimal policy for a service model may be obtained from cost-optimal policies in a related pure cost model. Pure cost models have been studied extensively in the literature. By our results it seems possible to transform many of the known optimal solutions for pure cost models to service models, which are more appropriate from a practical point of view. A number of examples are discussed to show the generality and the possibly far reaching consequences of the results.     

Overtime pay regulation and weekly hours of work in Canada

The idea that overtime pay regulation can be used to create employment continues to receive attention in a variety of countries. Standard hours, beyond which a statutory overtime premium must be paid, varies across Canadian provinces, as do coverage rules. Exploiting this variation produces a smaller estimated response of weekly hours to standard hours than previous researchers have found in other countries. Combined with evidence of substantially more moonlighting and higher wages in jurisdictions with lower standard hours, these results support a somewhat pessimistic view of the idea that reducing standard hours can be used promote work-sharing in Canada.     

Two-machine flow shop scheduling with deteriorating jobs and chain precedence constraints

In this paper we investigate two-machine flow shop scheduling problems with deteriorating jobs and chain precedence constraints. We consider two types of precedence constraints. Under the first type constraints, a successor cannot start on any machine before its predecessor has been completed on the same machine. Under the second one, a successor cannot start on any machine before its predecessor has been completed on all machines. We show that the problem with the first type precedence constraints is polynomially solvable, and the problem with the second type precedence constraints is NP-hard in the strong sense.     

Firms’ demand for work hours: Evidence from matched firm-worker data in Japan

Using information on Japanese males’ work hours and the matched firms’ characteristics, this paper investigates whether the number of hours worked is determined by demand-side factors and tries to offer a possible explanation of why Japanese males tend to work longer on average, than their counterparts in other countries. Based on an empirical framework in which each firm sets a minimum boundary of work hours and where workers hired by the firm are required to put in at least the minimum hours, we found that the minimum requirement depends on each firm’s fixed costs of labor. Specifically, firms that tend to hoard labor during recessions, presumably because of higher fixed costs, require incumbent workers to work longer hours during normal times. Since Japanese firms have long been considered as incurring high fixed costs to train workers, we interpret the long work hour requirement as a rational strategy for Japanese firms in protecting high-skill-accumulated workers from dismissal. In other words, the long work hours of Japanese males reflect firms’ long-term employment practices, a typical feature of the Japanese labor market.     

银行业支持实体经济发展的制约因素及路径分析

面对信贷规模持续紧缩的经营形势,商业银行如何支持实体经济发展,就成为2012年工作的重中之重。本文分析了银行业支持实体经济发展的制约因素,针对性地提出了银行业支持实体经济发展的建议。     

International tourism demand and the business cycle

The focus of this study is on presenting causes and hypotheses for the existence of asymmetric income and price effects on tourism demand across business cycles. The theoretical assumptions were tested by analyzing tourism import demand in different source markets, drawing on econometric models that provide for the magnitudes of price and income effects either to vary depending on the phase of the business cycle or to remain stable across the business cycles. The major outcome of this study is that the general assumption in most of the tourism demand studies—i.e. that the income effects are symmetric—should not be expected to be automatically true for every source market.     

Do hotel REIT companies face investment constraints? A comparison with C-corporation hotel companies

This study investigates whether corporate investment by REIT hotel companies (hotel REITs hereafter) is more constrained than investment by C-corporation hotel companies (hotel C-corps hereafter). The investments of hotel REITs and hotel C-corps are examined by comparing the sensitivities of investment to cash flow and investment opportunities between the two groups. Results show that the sensitivity of investment to cash flow is positive and significantly higher for hotel REITs than for hotel C-corps, suggesting that hotel REITs are likely to experience more constraints on their corporate investment. This finding suggests that hotel firms and owners should be more cautious about electing to be a REIT if they are planning large investments in the future. In addition, this finding has policy implications; even a small reduction in the rate of mandatory dividend payouts could significantly increase hotel REITs’ corporate investments.