Does Foreign Direct Investment Promote Human Capital Accumulation? The Role of Gradual Financial Liberalization

We argue that the effect of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) on domestic human capital (HC) accumulation depends on the degree of financial deregulation. Using 383 observations from provincial yearly panel data of the reform period in China, we find the following: FDI has a positive and significant interaction effect with financial deregulation on HC in both least squares dummy variable and system generalized method of moments estimations that address the endogeneity of all important explanatory variables including FDI, financial deregulation, and their interaction term. That is, a higher level of financial deregulation increases the marginal effect of inward FDI on domestic HC.     

利率市场化对我国商业银行的影响和对策

随着我国利率市场化改革的不断深化，对国内商业银行资产负债管理、风险管理、内部控制制度等各方面均产生深远的影响。本文通过对我国利率市场化改革进程的回顾，重点分析了利率市场化给国内商业银行带来新的经营压力和风险挑战，以及面临的变革和发展机遇，进而探讨了在此新形势，商业银行需要采取的应对措施。     

Deregulation,governance structures,and efficiency: the U.S. electric utility sector

The business strategy literature offers apparently opposite views of the ability of vertical integration to cope with the uncertainty related to changing regulatory environments. In this paper, we analyze how the process of retail deregulation affects the comparative efficiency of governance structures, which range on a continuum from fully vertically integrated structures to market transactions. Based on the analysis of 177 U.S. electric utilities from 1998 to 2001, our results show that the process of retail deregulation has a negative impact on firms' productive efficiency, as measured using Data Envelopment Analysis. Furthermore, firms that are vertically integrated into electricity generation, or that rely on the market for the supply of their electricity, are more efficient than firms that adopt hybrid structures combining vertical integration and contracting. This research has important implications because it shows the coexistence of different types of governance structures that cope efficiently with regulatory uncertainty through different mechanisms. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Who Benefits from Deregulating the Separation of Banking Activities? Differential Effects on Commercial Bank,Investment Bank,and Thrift Stock Returns

We analyze the deregulation impact on commercial banks, investment banks, and thrifts associated with four major events progressively integrating commercial and investment banking activities in the United States during the 1990s. We find that commercial banks are the only group to react favorably to Federal Reserve announcements relaxing firewalls and easing restrictions on commercial bank revenues from investment banking activities. These regulations primarily benefit large banks. The Bankers Trust acquisition announcement of investment bank Alex Brown is associated with increased wealth for each of the three types of financial service institutions. At the eventual deregulation of the financial services industry, with the passage of the Financial Services Modernization Act in 1999, the values of commercial banks and investment banks increase significantly although thrifts are not affected.     

Input usage,output mix and industry deregulation: an analysis of the Australian dairy manufacturing industry*

In this paper we estimate a Translog output distance function for a balanced panel of state level data for the Australian dairy processing sector. We estimate a fixed effects specification employing Bayesian methods, with and without the imposition of monotonicity and curvature restrictions. Our results indicate that Tasmania and Victoria are the most technically efficient states with New South Wales being the least efficient. The imposition of theoretical restrictions marginally affects the results especially with respect to estimates of technical change and industry deregulation. Importantly, our bias estimates show changes in both input use and output mix that result from deregulation. Specifically, we find that deregulation has positively biased the production of butter, cheese and powders.     

How does institutional change affect heterogeneity among firms?

This paper examines the variation in performance of incumbents and entrants following the deregulation of prices and entry in the airline industry. Our approach is similar to earlier studies of interfirm performance heterogeneity across industries. Drawing on theories of industry evolution, we hypothesize that the performance of entrants will have higher variance than incumbents. Further, given the opportunities offered by price deregulation, we propose that incumbents will have higher variance in performance under deregulation than in the earlier regime. The findings indicate that entrant performance heterogeneity is significantly greater than incumbent performance heterogeneity following deregulation, but that the variation in performance among incumbents does not significantly change when deregulation occurs. The second result is surprising given the range of service and process innovations that incumbents initiated. These results suggest that the distinction between entrants and incumbents is critical to future studies of performance variation within and across industries. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Equity valuation in a changing institutional climate: evidence from multinational utilities

The transformation of U.S. utilities from purely domestic to multinational enterprises commenced in 1992 with the passage of The Energy Policy Act (EPAct). In response to the liberalized regulatory climate, 29 U.S. utilities have diversified their holdings through the acquisition of foreign utilities, many of which are located in emerging market countries. This study analyzes the impact of international diversification on the profitability and valuation of U.S.-based multinational utilities during the years 1996-2000. In order to control for the effects of aggregate economic and regulatory changes, purely domestic utilities are also included in the sample. The empirical tests are conducted utilizing an earnings-and-book value model. Compared to purely domestic utilities, multinational utilities report lower absolute and relative rates of profitability, exhibit higher levels of systematic risk and trade at higher market-to-book ratios. Taken together, these results suggest investors may be systematically overpricing the equities of U.S.-based multinational utilities. A further finding of this paper is that accounting information explains a lower percentage of the variation in equity prices for multinational utilities relative to their domestic counterparts.     

The emergence of sustainable industries: building on natural capital

This paper focuses on the emergence and growth of sustainable industries, specifically analyzing the rise of the wind energy industry in California. Based on a favorable institutional environment and the presence of abundant natural capital, the wind energy industry took root and flourished in California during the last two decades. This paper analyzes this phenomenon by exploring the determinants of where and when wind energy projects would be established. Findings suggest that in locations where natural, social, and economic influences converged, greater wind energy activity followed. The paper advances a simple framework that uses natural capital, site specificity, and institutional environments to predict which sustainable industries will enjoy growth in coming decades. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

新自由主义化时期的发达国家住房政策演变

20世纪后30年代为资本主义发达国家住房政策新自由主义化的关键时期,文章分析了该时期发达国家的住房政策演变,内容着重于盎格鲁—撒克逊国家。首先讨论了住房政策新自由主义化的背景,然后从放松住房金融管制、重构住房补贴方式、促进住房自有和分散责任与风险四个方面分析了推动住房领域新自由主义化的具体政策,最后指出住房政策的新自由主义化导致了资本主义国家社会性住房剩余化、贫富差距拉大与风险增加。     

Dimensions and Determinants of Financialisation: Comparing OECD Countries since 1997

ABSTRACT

The financialisation literature has grown over the past decades. Despite a generally accepted definition, financialisation has been used to describe different phenomena. We distinguish between financialisation of non-financial companies, households and the financial sector and use activity and vulnerability measures. We identify seven financialisation hypotheses in the literature and empirically investigate them in a cross-country analysis for 17 OECD countries and two time periods, 1997–2007 as well as 2008–17. We find different financialisation measures are only weakly correlated, suggesting the existence of distinct financialisation processes. There is strong evidence that financialisation is linked to asset price inflation and correlated with a debt-driven demand regime. Financial deregulation encourages financialisation. There is limited evidence that market-based financial systems are more financialised. Foreign financial inflows do not seem a main driver. We do not find indication that an investment slowdown precedes financialisation. Our findings suggest financialisation should be understood as a variegated process, playing out differently across economic sectors and countries.