Divisional Informativeness Gap and Value Creation from Asset Sales

Nanda and Narayanan (1999) show that the information asymmetry between the managers and market participants regarding divisional cash flows helps explain the value creation on asset sales. Based on their theoretical framework, the divisional informativeness gap hypothesis predicts that the announcement‐period return increases with the difference in cash‐flow informativeness of retained and divested divisions prior to the divestiture. Our results, using industry‐average earnings response coefficient as a proxy for cash‐flow informativeness of a division, support this prediction. The effect is stronger when a conglomerate retains the division with relatively greater growth opportunities.     

转型期城市竞争力提升与城市空间重构

城市空间重构是目前我国城市发展处于快速转型期中所出现的普遍现象,它既表现为自发的空间重组,更表现为应对竞争日益激烈的发展环境而采取的种种主动策略.在中国转型时期,城市竞争力与城市空间重构已经构成一对内在关系密切的理论与实践命题,城市空间重构已经成为提升竞争力的有效手段之一.本文在此命题基础上提出了基于空间重构提升城市竞争力的策略.     

Implementing Electricity Restructuring

Electricity is one of the last U.S.industries in which competition is replacingregulation. We briefly review the technologyfor producing and delivering power, the historyof electricity policy, and recent state andinternational experience. We then outline themajor questions facing policymakers as theydecide whether, when, and how to implementrestructuring. We conclude with some thoughtson the California electricity crisis and otherpolitical controversies. Although theCalifornia experience has come to define whatit means for electricity markets to fail, mostof the problems it raised are among those weknow how to solve or prevent. The stillunresolved make-or-break issue remains whetherthe cooperation necessary to maintainreliability is compatible with the degree ofcompetition necessary to bring about greaterefficiency and lower prices.     

Restructuring outcomes and the evolution of ownership patterns in Central and Eastern Europe

This paper begins from the proposition that ‘deep restructuring’ requires both finance and managerial expertise. It addresses the question of how this second stage of enterprise restructuring will come about in the majority of state-owned or former state-owned firms that are not owned by foreigners. In particular, it seeks to identify how the initial post-privatization ownership and control structure impinges on the likelihood that deep restructuring takes place. Conclusions for the design of privatization policy are drawn. The initial post-privatization ownership structures in the Visegrad countries and Russia are surveyed along with evidence of the transfer of ownership from insiders to outsiders.     

Corporate Restructuring and Bondholder Wealth

This paper provides an overview of existing research on how corporate restructuring affects bondholder wealth. Restructuring is defined as any transaction which affects the firm's riskiness by changing its underlying capital structure. Thus, it reaches well beyond asset restructuring and includes transactions such as leveraged buyouts, security issues and exchanges, and the issuance of stock options. We identify significant gaps in the literature, emphasize the potential differences in bond performance between market‐ and stakeholder‐oriented corporate governance systems, and provide valuable insights into methodological advances. We find that many issues remain as the empirical evidence is often inconclusive and focuses almost exclusively on the US. Research on other countries remains constrained by the lesser development of their bond markets, but is equally imperative because the position and bargaining power of creditors vis‐à‐vis the firm differ substantially across countries and governance regimes.     

An assessment of the 2008 telecommunications restructuring in China

The restructuring in the Chinese telecom sector in 2008 has prompted heated discussion among telecom analysts and experts. Past research tends to take an optimistic view that China has embarked on a liberalizing route, resulting in utopian projections that domestic competition and foreign liberalizing forces would lead to the emergence of a telecom market operated primarily under the principles of free market economics in the near term. This paper, instead, argues that current telecom restructuring was largely driven by domestic agendas. Drawing from the bargaining perspective, this paper finds that, while it is true that market mechanisms play a significant role in the telecom industry, the impact of competition and privatization on the telecom market ultimately depends on the political endowments of Chinese society.     

农家书屋建设现状和可持续发展研究——以北京市昌平区农家书屋为例

本文以中央和北京市委宣传部出台的农家书屋实施意见等为背景,分析了农家书屋在北京新农村精神文明建设中的作用,介绍了昌平区农家书屋建设的现状,提出了在全国推广建立农家书屋可持续发展模式。     

Restructuring in China＇s State-owned Enterprises： Evidence from the Coal Industry

Usingfirm-level data for China ＂s state-owned coal mines, this paper examines the impact of privatization, corporatization and debt restructuring of state-owned enterprises on technical efficiency. A stochastic frontier production method is applied to a panel dataset from 2000 to 2007. The simultaneous study of these three measures makes it possible to study individual effects more precisely than otherwise. The study shows that the three reform initiatives are all able to improve technical efficiency in state-owned coal mines. The finding of a significant efficiency improvement from relinquishing state ownership provides an alternative to privatization. The study of debt restructuring and technical efficiency has not been documented in the published literature.     

当前农地流转的形式及效应

分析了分散流转、集中流转和中介流转发生的人群及原由,指出不同类型土地流转促成了农村经济资源(土地、劳动力,资金和技术)的不同重组,都是对初始承包制的完善与发展。"外溢"式重组为大多数土地转入和转出者积累了资金和技术能力,"虹吸"式重组未必都能获得良好的效果,"引流"式重组普遍为转入和转出者积累了资金、技术能力和规避市场经营风险的能力。建议当前的流转行为应防止和避免发生在政府与村民之间的土地征收或征用类似矛盾,在村民与村民之间、村民和公司之间发生。     

Asset sales and firm strategy: an analysis of divestitures by UK companies

This paper examines the financial causes and consequences of the decision to sell-off non-financial assets as part of a new or ongoing restructuring programme by UK non-financial companies between 1993 and 2000. We report that asset sales follow a period of declining operating returns and tend to occur in diversified companies with high levels of financial leverage. Stock prices respond positively to asset sale announcements. This arises due to improvements in operating returns and a decline in financial leverage and corporate diversification subsequent to the disposal. Our findings suggest that asset sales represent an effective operational response to a firm's poor financial condition. However, we also find that a manager's decision to sell assets is strongly influenced by the explicit threats to their control from lenders and competition from product, labour and takeover markets.