Disappearing investment-cash flow sensitivities: Earnings have not become a worse proxy for cash flow

According to a recent conjecture in the literature, earnings have become a poorer proxy for cash flow from operations over time. We find that since 1988, when cash flow statements started to be consistently reported in Compustat, the cash effectiveness of earnings has actually increased for a large sample of US manufacturing firms. This occurs despite the introduction of fair value accounting and increasing accounting accruals during the last three decades. Also contrary to the conjecture, using more comprehensive measures of cash flow does not restore the investment-cash flow sensitivity, which continues to be around 0.05 in more recent periods.     

政府质量、市场化程度与现金—现金流敏感性——来自后金融危机时期的经验证据

在中国式经济增长进程中,政府作为"幕后推手"日益引发各界关注。政府的质量取决于政府所提出的制度安排,而企业行为是对政府所制定的制度的反应。本文以2009—2011年我国上市公司经验数据为样本,检验政府质量、市场化程度与现金—现金流敏感性间的关系。实证结果发现,随着政府质量的提升,企业运用内部现金流积累现金的倾向减弱,表现为现金—现金流敏感性降低。同时发现,这种变化在不同市场化程度地区的企业中会呈现不同的特征。具体而言,伴随政府质量的提升,市场化程度较低地区的企业受惠于制度环境的优化,其现金—现金流敏感性显著降低,而市场化程度较高地区的企业这一变化并不明显。本文为解释地方政府推出制度优化经济环境的微观机制提供了经验证据。     

An extended peer communities’ knowledge sharing approach for environmental governance

This paper is devoted to propose an approach to implement the idea of extended peer knowledge to environmental governance by means of engaging the «extended peer communities». Socially robust knowledge relies on transparency and citizen participation. These two underlying elements take the form of both assessment and post-assessment decision support systems. Initially, during the assessment process citizens and stakeholders are engaged in the framing, proposal of alternatives, and evaluation criteria. Then the analysts assessed the alternatives proposed by means of DSS. Then, in a second stage, the analysts inspired in the idea of transparency, gave back the assessment result to the «extended peer community» who were able to give their opinion regarding the results and suggest potential parametric changes that were used for sensitivity analyses. The authors explore the proposed extended peer communities’ knowledge sharing for environmental governance assessment using a case study applied to a sustainable mobility planning process carried out in Tenerife (Canary Islands). The results gathered highlight that this approach is of use for guaranteeing the robustness of complex environmental decisions under high levels of uncertainty.     

What Drives Executive Stock Option Backdating?

We study motives for executive stock option backdating, the practice of changing the grant dates of current options to dates in the past using hindsight. We find that smaller, younger and less profitable firms tend to be more heavily involved in backdating. These results are consistent with the retention hypothesis. In line with the incentive hypothesis, we find that backdating occurs more for options that are out‐of‐the‐money. We derive some evidence for the agency hypothesis, in the sense that backdating companies have a larger percentage of inside directors. However, contrary to this hypothesis, we conclude that backdating firms have better protection for minority shareholders compared to firms that do not backdate.     

Non-compensation-related consultant service and CEO compensation

This study examines how consultants’ non-compensation-related consulting service (NCS) affects the contractual usefulness of accounting and stock information in executive compensation, as reflected in pay-performance sensitivity. The hypothesis is based on anecdotal evidence suggesting that consultants’ provision of NCS is likely to adversely affect the quality of CEO compensation plans. We investigate whether the consultants providing NCS are involved in potential conflicts of interest. The results show that CEO pay is higher in companies where consultants provide NCS and have a higher NCS fee ratio. The pay-performance sensitivity in CEO compensation decreases when consultants engage in NCS. The overall results are consistent with NCS representing a conflict of interest and compromising the quality of compensation committees.     

为企之道 重在执行

文章围绕如何提高执行力，如何建立良好的执行力保障体系，如何把企业战略、规划转化成为成果、效益等问题，根据人力资源管理的相关理论和日常的工作实践，对执行力深意进行解析和探讨。     

引入金融背景高管人员与企业资本结构调整——基于民营上市公司的证据

基于2011-2017年沪深A股民营上市公司引进金融背景高管人员事件,运用倾向得分匹配和双重差分模型（PSM-DID）对该类事件与资本结构间的关系进行研究。结果显示：与未发生引进事件的控制组样本相比,处理组样本的资本结构出现了显著的向上调整,说明提高债务融资能力并改善资本结构是民营上市公司引进金融背景高管人员的重要动因之一。     

高管连锁、同业监督与公司违规

本文选取2011—2018年度A股上市公司为研究样本,以具有竞争关系的同业公司间的高管连锁作为同业监督的渠道,检验了同业监督对目标公司违规的影响。研究发现:(1)同业监督能有效抑制目标公司违规倾向,且这一影响当且仅当连锁公司是同业公司时存在;(2)同业竞争是同业监督的基础,在行业集中度低和行业增长率低的行业中,同业监督对目标公司违规的抑制作用更强;(3)目标公司的政治关联会瓦解同业监督对公司违规的抑制作用;(4)区分违规行为类型后发现,同业监督对经营违规的抑制作用最强,对信息披露违规次之,对领导人违规几乎没有效果。本研究丰富了公司违规监督机制的内容,也提供了辩证看待高管同业兼任的新视角。     

高管连锁网络与股价同步性

本文以2009—2018年中国A股上市公司为研究样本,考察了高管连锁网络对公司股价同步性的影响。研究发现：高管连锁网络会提高公司的股价同步性,处于高管连锁网络越中心位置的上市公司,其股价同步性越高;从趋同性和信息透明度两个方面进一步分析高管连锁网络对股价同步性的作用机制,发现高管连锁网络并非通过降低公司透明度这一途径对股价同步性产生影响,而是因为连锁高管加强了上市公司间的行为学习、信息和资源的共享,促使公司间基础特征趋同,进而提高了公司的股价同步性;根据联结类型的不同将高管连锁网络划分为董事网络、监事网络和高管网络,实证结果表明高管网络对股价同步性的提升效应最大,董事网络次之,监事网络对股价同步性无显著影响;区分产权性质和法治环境后发现,在国有企业和所处法治环境较差的企业中,高管连锁网络提高股价同步性的效应更显著。研究结论为提升资本市场信息效率提供了理论支撑。     

应用轨迹灵敏度计算临界切除时间的新方法研究

文章提出了一种可以描述故障后系统稳定程度的灵敏度指标,根据系统稳定性逐渐恶化指标趋于零的特点,计算了系统部分参数的临界值;根据稳定指标与故障切除时间在一定范围内的良好线性关系,估算了系统故障临界切除时间;并在单机无穷大系统与10机典型新英格兰系统下进行验证,证明了该方法的正确性。