Forecasting Stock Index Futures Price Volatility: Linear vs. Nonlinear Models

The study examines the relative ability of various models to forecast daily stock index futures volatility. The forecasting models that are employed range from naïve models to the relatively complex ARCH-class models. It is found that among linear models of stock index futures volatility, the autoregressive model ranks first using the RMSE and MAPE criteria. We also examine three nonlinear models. These models are GARCH-M, EGARCH, and ESTAR. We find that nonlinear GARCH models dominate linear models utilizing the RMSE and the MAPE error statistics and EGARCH appears to be the best model for forecasting stock index futures price volatility.     

我国职业经理人存在的问题及改进措施

职业经理人是企业所有者的代表 ,行使着企业经营管理的职能 ,对企业所有者负责。我国职业经理人作为一个阶层还有待形成。建立科学、合理的经营者激励薪酬制度 ,培育职业经理人市场 ,是造就我国职业经理人队伍的关键。     

Are Housing Price Cycles Driven by Irrational Expectations?

This paper investigates the extent to which condominium apartment prices are set in an efficient asset market. Unlike previous work that focuses on the time-series properties of measures of excess returns, the analysis is framed in terms of the changes in observable house prices over time. More precisely, the paper develops and applies a test of the joint null hypothesis of rational expectations, perfect markets, and no risk premium in the Vancouver condominium apartment market. The empirical results provide significant evidence against the joint null hypothesis. On average, ex post house price changes move in a direction opposite to their rational expectation. This approach offers a methodological advantage over the standard efficiency literature and is shown to provide a more powerful test of market efficiency than conventional return regressions. Another contribution of the paper is to characterize the time-series properties of deviations of condominium prices from those predicted by the risk-neutral rational expectations model, using cointegration and random coefficients techniques. Deviations in house price changes from their (risk-neutral) rational expectations are time varying, stationary, and related to the stage of the real estate price cycle.     

From T-Bills to Stocks: Seasonal Anomalies Revisited

This paper employed eleven data series which consist of stocks, bonds, bills, equity premiums, term premiums, and various default premiums to investigate whether January seasonality reported in existing literature is robust across different states of the economy as this has important trading implications. For the periods 1926–1990, small stocks, small stock premiums, low grade bonds, and default premiums (spread between high grade, low grade and government bonds) reveal January seasonality and that the seasonality is robust across different states of the economy except for low grade bond returns and default premiums. January seasonality for low grade bond returns and low grade bond default premiums are primarily driven by results found during periods of economic expansion. Overall, January seasonality is more evident during the economic expansion periods although the magnitude of default premiums is larger during periods of economic contraction. Furthermore, prior findings of strong summer equity returns are primarily driven by the results found during the periods of economic contraction. It is also found that equity returns are generally higher during periods of economic expansion.     

Quality Competition and Social Welfare in Markets with Partial Coverage: New Results*

We use a vertical product differentiation model under partial market coverage to study the social welfare optimum and duopoly equilibrium when convex costs of quality provision are either fixed or variable in terms of production. We show the following new results. First, under fixed costs, the social planner charges a uniform price for the single variant that just covers costs of quality provision. Like the duopoly equilibrium, this socially optimal pricing entails a partially uncovered market, but a smaller share of the market is served compared with the duopoly equilibrium. Second, for the variable cost case, it is socially optimal to provide both high‐ and low‐quality variants, but market shares need not be equal. This differs from the result in fully covered markets. Third, in the duopoly equilibrium, the quality spread is too wide under variable costs relative to the social optimum. Under fixed costs, the duopoly produces two variants, but quality is too low relative to the social optimum, which has only one variant.     

Futures and forward price differential and the effect of marking‐to‐market: Australian evidence

The objective of this paper is to examine the effects of marking‐to‐market of futures contracts on the price differential between futures and forward contracts based on the predictions of the Cox, Ingersoll and Ross (1981) (CIR) model. Cox et al ., (1981) derive a series of propositions with respect to the relationship between futures and forward prices and a set of testable implications. These are tested empirically in this paper using Australian data from November 1991 to June 1997. The results provide evidence of the presence of significant futures and forward price differences, where the futures price is consistently below the forward price. Only partial support is found for the Cox et al ., (1981) propositions, implying that the effect of marking‐to‐market is not able to fully account for the price differential. Therefore, it is not possible to rule out the influence of other institutional factors on the futures‐forward price difference.     

企业家报酬决定中市场标准的权变作用

企业家报酬的决定有着不同的标准 ,按照劳动经济学的观点 ,企业家市场薪酬决定了企业家报酬。在报酬实践中 ,市场工资率的概念也是牢固确立的。基于这种理论 ,应当实行企业家报酬的市场化 ,其实质就是企业家的工资完全由市场决定 ,而不是由政府或者某些部门统一规定     

The Foundation and Pattern Choice for the Sustainable Development of Chinese Financial Trust Industry

Since it was resumed in 1979, China＇s financial trust industry has experienced five major improvement and rectification. With the implementation and promulgation of ＂one law and two regulations＂ and the establishment of China＇s Trust Industry Association, financial trust industry is developing into a relatively good stage. In view of practice and regular patterns of its development, we have to set up ideas of sustainable development so as to prevent the financial trust industry from involving in a circle of ＂development-- reorganization---development again--reorganization again＂. At present, the premise to realize financial trust industry＇s sustainable development is to fully understand the unique comparative advantage of financial trust industry and establish scientific market function.     

大力发展电子商务环境下的回收物流

电子商务的出现使物流产业的内涵与外延发生了重大变化,在电子商务中开展回收物流活动成了企业关注的一个重要问题.本文从回收物流的定义出发,描述了传统环境下和电子商务环境下的回收物流活动以及电子商务对回收物流的重要影响.     

企业长期激励机制创新

长期激励机制匮乏问题一直是我国理论界和实业界最为关注的核心问题。指出目前在我国实行的长期激励措施的不足,提出了以“股息期权”,代替“股票期权”的激励方案,从而有效解决了我国目前的资本市场和法律法规对于“长期激励形式”的约束,可以为现阶段企业管理者进行薪酬激励机制设计时提供重要的参考和借鉴。