Total factor productivity enablers in the ICT industry: A cross-country firm-level analysis

Advancements in productivity in the digital economy constitute an important engine for economic growth. What drives productivity dynamics in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector? This study examines the productivity dynamics of ICT firms across countries from the perspective of corporate balance sheets. We study the effects of intangible assets and leverage on productivity growth using firm-level panel data from five industrialized countries. We find that intangible assets positively affect the total factor productivity in the ICT sector. The positive effect of intangible assets on total factor productivity growth is larger for ICT manufacturing firms than for ICT service firms. We also find that leverage has a positive relationship with total factor productivity development in the ICT sector. In addition, our empirical results substantiated that productivity is catching up to the technological frontier. Furthermore, larger firms and/or younger firms generally show higher total factor productivity growth than their peers. Economies of scale are more prominent in the ICT service sector than in the ICT manufacturing sector. Our findings contribute to the understanding of cross-country productivity dynamics in the ICT sector at the firm level in the digital economy.     

Accounting for heritage assets: Thomas Holloway's picture collection, 1881–2019

In recent years, there has been a debate about whether the owners of “heritage assets” should include them on their balance sheets. We present a longitudinal study of the collection of 77 pictures donated by Thomas Holloway to Royal Holloway College between 1881 and 1883. We draw on archival material to analyse accounting practices for Holloway's picture collection, finding that the collection remained effectively invisible as an accounting object until 1999, when accounting requirements for heritage assets were first applied. We use Jean Baudrillard's “orders of simulacra” to study the relationship between accounting signs and their referents, and we draw on Bruno Latour's notion of “matters of concern” to investigate how changes in the accounting sign render the referent a complicating, agitating and provoking “matter” in different ways. The Royal Holloway financial statements currently present the picture collection by an accounting sign that we suggest is a “counterfeit” (signifying the money that could, counterfactually, be made from selling the paintings) but not a “simulation” (creating a hyperreality detached from the referent). This relationship between the sign and the referent makes up the ontological status of “assets” in accounting reports, rendering assets capable of triggering actual (rather than hyperreal) material effects.     

Valuing variable annuity guarantees on multiple assets

Guarantees embedded variable annuity contracts exhibit option-like payoff features and the pricing of such instruments naturally leads to risk neutral valuation techniques. This paper considers the pricing of two types of guarantees; namely, the Guaranteed Minimum Maturity Benefit and the Guaranteed Minimum Death Benefit riders written on several underlying assets whose dynamics are given by affine stochastic processes. Within the standard affine framework for the underlying mortality risk, stochastic volatility and correlation risk, we develop the key ingredients to perform the pricing of such guarantees. The model implies that the corresponding characteristic function for the state variables admits a closed form expression. We illustrate the methodology for two possible payoffs for the guarantees leading to prices that can be obtained through numerical integration. Using typical values for the parameters, an implementation of the model is provided and underlines the significant impact of the assets’ correlation structure on the guarantee prices.     

知识资产与企业绩效：激励和监督机制的不对称性

本文对知识资产与企业的经济绩效之间的关系及知识资产在不同的治理机制下对企业的经济绩效的影响机制进行理论探讨，利用2007－2013年中国信息技术业上市公司的数据进行实证研究，发现知识资产的增加有利于企业的经济绩效的提高，公司治理中的激励和监督机制具有不对称的调节作用，激励机制强化知识资产与企业的经济绩效之间的正向关系，而过强的监督机制将弱化二者之间的关系。     

基于Interbrand模型的汽车品牌资产评估实证研究——以上汽、长安汽车品牌为例

本文以Interbrand品牌资产评估模型为基础，参考World Brand Lab法和大卫·艾克提出的品牌资产十要素模型，结合中国市场特点和汽车行业属性，构建一种改进的品牌资产评估模型。对上汽和长安汽车两个汽车品牌进行评估，并对结果进行分析，从而得出结论，提出相应的建议。     

The relation between sunspot effects and multiplicity in incomplete markets models with numeraire assets

This paper considers the necessity and sufficiency of multiple certainty equilibria for sunspot effects, and shows that neither implication is valid. This claim is made for models with incomplete markets and numeraire assets. First, I prove that a multiplicity of certainty equilibria is neither necessary nor sufficient for sunspot effects by way of two counter-examples. Second, I verify over an entire subset of economies that equilibrium with sunspot effects can never be characterized as a randomization over multiple certainty equilibria.     

Cross-border acquisitions by Indian multinationals: Asset exploitation or asset augmentation?

This paper examines cross-border acquisitions by Indian multinationals and places them in the context of Emerging Country Multinationals. It tests hypotheses based on internalisation theory and the resource based view to ask if these firms are asset exploiting or asset augmenting in their takeover behaviour. Internal financial and technological resources are found to be important explanatory variables, as is asset seeking; of brands, technology and market access. The home environment in India allows firms to amass profits, to manage in a culturally diverse setting and to develop asset bundling skills. All these factors are significant in determining cross-border acquisitions.     

Family Hardship and the Growth of Micro and Small Firms in Indonesia

I examine what happens to the total assets of micro and small firms in Indonesia when their owners experience hardship such as the death or sickness of family members, crop losses, or natural disasters. Using a representative sample of firm owners, I find that deaths of family members reduce the assets of such firms, that the adverse effects of these are long-lasting and economically large, and that the smaller the firms the greater the magnitude of these effects. There is no evidence, however, that the sickness of family members, crop losses, or natural disasters reduce firms’ assets. These results suggest that only severe family hardship impedes the growth of micro and small firms.     

在抽象与具体中回归实践的理论——与王南湜教授商榷

对于理论与实践的关系问题,长期以来哲学家们从理论哲学的角度出发,最终把理论引向一种神秘主义,造成理论与实践之间的割裂,因此从实践哲学的角度探讨这一问题是十分必要的。理论本身属于实践的依据在于其＂同根性＂＂目的性＂和＂广延性＂,理论活动的抽象性造成了理论与实践之间的距离。哲学这种理论只有回归实践,才能找到自己的＂阿基米德点＂,才是真正意义上的哲学。     

Valuing catastrophe derivatives under limited diversification: A stochastic dominance approach

We present a new approach to the pricing of catastrophe event (CAT) derivatives that does not assume a fully diversifiable event risk. Instead, we assume that the event occurrence and intensity affect the return of the market portfolio of an agent that trades in the event derivatives. Based on this approach, we derive values for a CAT option and a reinsurance contract on an insurer’s assets using recent results from the option pricing literature. We show that the assumption of unsystematic event risk seriously underprices the CAT option. Last, we present numerical results for our derivatives using real data from hurricane landings in Florida.