Should there exist secondary markets for executive stock options?

This paper investigates the potential disadvantages of the secondary markets for executive stock options (ESOs). The benefits of such markets are evident, but they might also have negative effects for shareholders. Executives might, for example, use inside information to time their ESO selling. We investigate two personal motives of managers that can be assumed to affect their optimal selling decision, that is, managers' personal portfolio management issues and the use of inside information. We explore these motives by analyzing unique data from Finland, where there are secondary markets for ESOs. The results of the study support the traditional portfolio diversification hypothesis according to which managers tend to sell their ESOs when holding an ESO is equivalent to holding the underlying stock; that is, in such a case a manager's wealth is closely tied to the stock price of the firm. With respect to the use of inside information the results indicate that ESO selling activity is not related to future stock price behaviour, suggesting that managers do not use inside information to determine the selling time of their ESOs. These results imply that the existence of secondary markets for ESOs does not weaken the usefulness of ESOs as the management compensation, although the benefits of such markets are evident.     

Accounting for Option–based Compensation: The Economic Cost Approach

The intrinsic value approach amortizes over the life of the option, the difference between the stock price on the date of the grant and the exercise price of the option. The fair market value approach amortizes over the life of the option, the market value of stock options on the date of the grant. These approaches do not reflect the changes in the option–based compensation cost after the grant date. This paper proposes an economic cost approach that not only adjusts for the changes in the value of the options during its life but also records the issuance of the stock at fair market value on the exercise date.     

Investment Opportunities and the Relation Between Equity Value and Employees' Bonus

A sample of firms where employee stock options and other long‐term incentives are absent but an annual bonus is required is examined. A positive relation is found between firm equity value and stock bonus but not cash bonus. The positive relation is stronger when the firm has greater investment opportunities. Additionally, the relation is shown to be nonlinear in the sense that the marginal effect of stock bonus on equity value is positive but decreasing (negative) when the stock bonus is below (above) the breakpoint. Overall, the annual stock bonus is valued positively by investors even though it is linked to the firm's contemporaneous but not future performance.     

A MULTINOMIAL APPROXIMATION FOR AMERICAN OPTION PRICES IN LÉVY PROCESS MODELS

This paper gives a tree-based method for pricing American options in models where the stock price follows a general exponential Lévy process. A multinomial model for approximating the stock price process, which can be viewed as generalizing the binomial model of Cox, Ross, and Rubinstein (1979) for geometric Brownian motion, is developed. Under mild conditions, it is proved that the stock price process and the prices of American-type options on the stock, calculated from the multinomial model, converge to the corresponding prices under the continuous time Lévy process model. Explicit illustrations are given for the variance gamma model and the normal inverse Gaussian process when the option is an American put, but the procedure is applicable to a much wider class of derivatives including some path-dependent options. Our approach overcomes some practical difficulties that have previously been encountered when the Lévy process has infinite activity.     

Political Measures for Strategic Environmental Policy with External Effects

This paper investigates an environmental policy designed to reduce the emission of pollutants under uncertainty, with the agent problem as an optimal stopping problem. We first analyze the two cases in which there are one agent and two competing agents by following Ohyama and Tsujimura (2005). When we consider a model of strategic agents, we need to analyze the external economic effect that is peculiar to an agent’s environmental policy implementation. Then, to improve and resolve these external effects, we examine three alternative political measures, comprising an environmental subsidy, an environmental tax and an emission trading system. The results of the analysis indicate that the environmental subsidy and environmental tax promote environmental policy. However, they do not create an incentive to be the leader. On the other hand, an emissions trading system not only promotes environmental policy but also creates an incentive for leadership.This paper was previously circulated under the title “Political Measures for Strategic Environmental Policy with Induced Effects”. The authors would like to thank Masaaki Kijima for helpful comments. The authors would also like to thank Alistair Munro and two anonymous referees providing detailed comments and suggestions. This research was partially supported by Daiwa Securities Group Inc. The second-named author was partially supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) (2), 16310118.     

湖南省耕地变化的趋势及其政策选择

经济社会发展加快了土地利用,造成耕地资源的进一步减少,要实现经济、社会协调发展,就必须了解耕地的变化和利用状况。文章应用相关分析方法对湖南省总人口、房地产投资、城市化水平、国民生产总值指数进行分析,结果表明它们与湖南省年末实有耕地面积变化具有很大的相关性;同时又应用多元线性回归方法定量分析了湖南经济社会发展对耕地利用数量的变化状况,并根据模型预测了2010—2030年湖南省年末实有耕地面积的变化。在此基础上,提出了保护耕地的政策选择是控制人口增长、适时加快城市化进程、调整土地利用结构、提高土地效应、提高农业用地效益等。     

产品定制过程中默认选项对顾客决策行为的影响

从企业如何有效设计产品定制界面的角度出发,重点研究产品定制过程中企业设置的默认选项如何影响顾客的决策行为。采用模拟情境实验的方法,对三种不同的默认选项设置模式进行分析,考察顾客在这三种不同情境下的选择结果。同时还进一步分析了产品属性类型和顾客知识水平两者与默认选项设置模式的交互作用。实验发现：（1）产品定制过程中,与无默认选项的情境相比,默认最高配置时定制的产品总价更高;而默认最低配置时定制的产品总价则较低;（2）默认选项设置模式与产品属性类型之间具有显著的交互作用。在默认高配的情境下,必备属性的默认选项会比附加属性更有可能被选择;而在默认低配的情境下,附加属性的默认选项会比必备属性更有可能被选择;（3）与专家顾客相比,普通顾客更容易受到默认选项的影响,无论在何种选项设置模式下,都倾向于选择更多的默认选项。     

开展政策咨询，提高科技社团服务社会经济发展能力——美国物理学会的经验与启示

明确科技社团服务社会经济发展的内容和要求,以美国物理学会作为分析对象,重点对其参与政策咨询相关的活动进行分析,总结其先进经验及对我国科技社团的启示,希望为我国科技社团提高为社会经济发展服务的能力提供政策建议。     

发电企业上市公司引用股票期权激励机制探讨

分析了股票期权激励制度给上市公司带来的效益以及在中国的应用模式,并按九个方面阐述了股票期权激励制度设计。