Financial integration and the price of world covariance risk: Large- vs. small-cap stocks

We investigate whether recent country-level evidence of global pricing is particular to large-cap stocks. Specifically, we examine cross-country return correlations and conduct asset pricing tests on three size-based stock portfolios for nine developed countries over the period from 1980 to 2004. We find that large-cap stocks realize significant comovements across countries, whereas small-cap stocks realize smaller average correlations (relative to both large-cap stocks and small-cap stocks across countries). More important, asset pricing tests suggest that while large-cap stocks are priced globally, global pricing is rejected for most small-cap stocks. Finally, the evidence indicates that financial integration deepened in recent years primarily for large-cap stocks. Overall, the results suggest that the global pricing pertains chiefly to large-cap stocks.     

世界经济一体化与商业银行发展

随着各个国家经济联系范围不断扩大及各国对外经济准入政策的放宽 ,加之信息技术、网络技术的发展 ,使各国经济融入世界范围的经济一体化格局。国际资本流动速度加快、范围扩大和国际贸易的飞速发展 ,既是世界经济一体化的必然结果 ,也是促进世界经济一体化的重要因素。而这些相互关联的各个方面又同时对各国的银行业产生巨大的影响。本文通过分析当前世界经济一体化的格局、国际贸易的发展状况及国际资本流动趋势 ,研究在此基础上我国商业银行发展面临的机遇和挑战以及应对措施     

经济全球化新论

经济全球化是以各国对外经济关系发展为基础的生产力和生产关系的全球性发展,它既是当前国际经济和国际经济关系的综合体现,又是经济国际化和经济一体化的新特点、新阶段。经济全球化作为世界经济发展的大趋势,既能促进世界经济的更大发展,又能实现各国经济的共同发展。参入经济全球化并不是我国的目的,而是实现我国经济全球化的手段。我国只有实现了经济全球化,才能最大限度地促进经济发展,并为世界经济全球化做出应有的贡献。     

我国上市公司资本结构的评价模型

加入世贸组织 ,将对我国国有商业银行的银行业务、优质客户、人力资源和资产质量造成严重的冲击 ,为此 ,国有商业银行必须采取五个方面的对策 :增强银行实力、开展业务创新、提高服务质量、完善人力资源管理制度和加强资产质量管理。     

Robustness issues in multilevel regression analysis

A multilevel problem concerns a population with a hierarchical structure. A sample from such a population can be described as a multistage sample. First, a sample of higher level units is drawn (e.g. schools or organizations), and next a sample of the sub‐units from the available units (e.g. pupils in schools or employees in organizations). In such samples, the individual observations are in general not completely independent. Multilevel analysis software accounts for this dependence and in recent years these programs have been widely accepted. Two problems that occur in the practice of multilevel modeling will be discussed. The first problem is the choice of the sample sizes at the different levels. What are sufficient sample sizes for accurate estimation? The second problem is the normality assumption of the level‐2 error distribution. When one wants to conduct tests of significance, the errors need to be normally distributed. What happens when this is not the case? In this paper, simulation studies are used to answer both questions. With respect to the first question, the results show that a small sample size at level two (meaning a sample of 50 or less) leads to biased estimates of the second‐level standard errors. The answer to the second question is that only the standard errors for the random effects at the second level are highly inaccurate if the distributional assumptions concerning the level‐2 errors are not fulfilled. Robust standard errors turn out to be more reliable than the asymptotic standard errors based on maximum likelihood.     

世界遗产与保护地管理模式比较研究

对保护地和世界遗产进行描述,对中国和国外的管理模式进行了分析,对科学维护和管理保护地和世界遗产提出了建议.     

Pseudo empirical likelihood method in the presence of missing data

In this paper, we propose an estimator for the population mean when some observations on the study and auxiliary variables are missing from the sample. The proposed estimator is valid for any unequal probability sampling design, and is based upon the pseudo empirical likelihood method. The proposed estimator is compared with other estimators in a simulation study.     

The Effect of Protest Votes on the Estimates of WTP for Use Values of Recreational Sites

Contingent valuation studies are often characterized by a considerable number of protest responses, which may cause selectivity bias on the final estimates for WTP. Sample selection models can detect and – if necessary – correct selectivity bias. In economic applications where the relevant dependent variable is continuous, sample selection models are generally estimated using Heckman's 2-step method rather than the FIML estimator. Either method has its own drawback: computational complexity for the FIML method, susceptibility to collinearity problems for the 2-step method. Using data on valuation of forest resources for recreational use, we analyse the performance of the two estimators. In this application, given the presence of some collinearity, the FIML is preferred to the 2-step method. A procedure is outlined to deal with selectivity problems in similar settings.     

Does the World Bank have any impact on human development of the poorest countries? Some preliminary evidence from Africa

In an attempt to better understand the impact of the World Bank on human development in poor countries, we use cross-country data on African countries for the 1990–2002 period to examine this relationship. The coefficient estimates of our parsimonious fixed-effects models indicate that while loans and grants of the Bank have had a positive impact on some relatively short-term indicators of health and education in an average African country, there is little evidence to suggest that such loans and grants have helped these countries to consolidate on the short-term gains.     

Monotonicity of Rank Statistics in some Non–parametric: Testing Problems

For some non–parametric testing problems (one–sided two–sample problem, k –sample trend problem, testing independence against positive dependence) a partial ordering, denoted by ≥, over the alternatives is defined. This partial ordering expresses the strength of the deviation from the null–hypothesis. All familiar rank tests turn out to become more powerful under "increasing" alternatives; that is, all familiar rank statistics preserve the ordering stochastically in samples whenever it is present between underlying distributions. As a tool, the sample equivalence of ≥ is introduced as a partial ordering over pairs of permutations. Functions, defined on pairs of permutations, which preserve this ordering are studied.