Policy induced increases in private healthcare financing provide short-term relief of total healthcare expenditure growth: Evidence from OECD countries

Healthcare reforms have long been advocated as a cure to the increasing healthcare expenditures in advanced economies. Nevertheless, it has not been established whether a market solution via private financing, rather than public financing, curb aggregate healthcare expenditures. To our knowledge, this paper is the first that quantifies the impact of reforms that significantly increases (decreases) the private (public) share of healthcare financing on total healthcare expenditures relative to income in 20 OECD countries. Our reform measure is based on structural break testing of the private share of total expenditures, and verification using evidence of policy reforms. To quantify the effect of these reforms we apply Propensity Score Matching and Inverse Probability Weighted regression analysis. Over a 5-year evaluation period the reforms lead to an accumulated cost saving 0.45 percentage points of GDP. The yearly effects of the reforms are largest in the first years in the post-reform period and decreases in size as a function of time since the reform. Our findings suggest that the investigated healthcare reforms have a relatively short-lived effect on aggregate health spending relative to GDP. The findings are robust to various sensitivity tests.     

A Bayesian analysis of a variance decomposition for stock returns

We apply Bayesian methods to study a common vector autoregression (VAR)-based approach for decomposing the variance of excess stock returns into components reflecting news about future excess stock returns, future real interest rates, and future dividends. We develop a new prior elicitation strategy, which involves expressing beliefs about the components of the variance decomposition. Previous Bayesian work elicited priors from the difficult-to-interpret parameters of the VAR. With a commonly used data set, we find that the posterior standard deviations for the variance decomposition based on these previously used priors, including “non-informative” limiting cases, are much larger than classical standard errors based on asymptotic approximations. Therefore, the non-informative researcher remains relatively uninformed about the variance decomposition after observing the data. We show the large posterior standard deviations arise because the “non-informative” prior is implicitly very informative in a highly undesirable way. However, reasonably informative priors using our elicitation method allow for much more precise inference about components of the variance decomposition.     

The financing decisions of REITs: The case of warrant extensions

In this paper, we examine the warrant price and stock price reactions to the announcement of warrant life extensions by REITs. As predicted by option pricing theory, warrant prices increase in response to these extensions. The stocks of REITs making the extension announcements experience average abnormal returns that are not significantly different from zero. Thus, total firm value appears to increase, with the gains accruing primarily to the warrantholders.     

Debtor-in-possession financing

Several recent papers have documented the benefits of debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing in the restructuring of firms in Chapter 11. However, the view on benefits is not unanimous and some legal scholars have raised doubts about DIP financing's effects on debt-holders and the possibility of expropriative wealth transfers. In this paper we address this issue by analyzing both stock and bond price data for a comprehensive sample of DIP loans and find significant positive abnormal stock and bond returns at the announcement of DIP loans. Also, we do not find evidence of wealth transfers from junior to senior debt-holders. Further, we examine the DIP loan process in detail and we document important institutional features of DIP loans such as maturity, covenants, fees and interest charges. We find evidence of intense monitoring using covenants. We also find higher fees and charges associated with DIP loans. We argue that overall the results are consistent with the information processing role of financial intermediaries.     

票据:从支付工具到融资工具——兼论票据立法的禁锢和解放

本文从票据市场运作的现实情况揭示和对票据立法的价值取向分析两方面，来论证票据自身融资工具功能开拓的必要性和重要性。     

休闲经济与自由本质

随着人们自己支配的时间和收入的增加,休闲将成为生活中的一个重要组成部分.而休闲经济作为日益火爆的经济现象也越来越受到人们的关注.分析和研究与此有关的种种问题,特别是与人的本质及生存条件的种种联系是本文的主旨.     

论制度支持下的我国港口投融资模式转变

文章着重从制度方面分析了我国港口投融资的法律及相关政策，通过回顾《中华人民共和国港口法》颁布前后我国港口投融资相关法律的发展历程和具体实践，梳理了现阶段我国港口投融资的宏观法律环境。文章通过分析，对建立政府在投融资制度中的角色转换以及促进投融资模式的转变提出了建议。     

我国企业融资制度的现状及问题

细致分析了我国企业融资制度的现状,在此基础上指出我国企业融资制度存在的问题与缺陷,并提出了一些改善现有企业融资制度缺陷的建议和办法。     

国有企业融资次序的政治经济学分析

与经典资本结构理论的结论不同，我国国有企业的融资次序恰好是倒序的。这一现象有着深刻的政治经济学内涵，本质上它是由国家追求义理性的最大化，缓解财政压力的行为所内生决定的。因此，单纯从西方主流理论出发，不考虑我国转轨经济的背景对国有企业融资行为和由此而引致的治理结构所进行的分析，是不得要领的。     

论我国人力资本的现状及投资对策

本文从阐述知识经济时代人力资本对经济增长的重要性入手，结合我国人力资本的现状，分析其存在的问题与不足，进而提出相应的建设性投资建议，以充分发挥人力资本对经济增长的直接动力作用。