Investor behaviour and reaching for yield: Evidence from the sterling corporate bond market

We provide evidence on how corporate bond investors react to a change in yields, and how this behaviour differs in times of market‐wide stress. We also investigate ‘reaching for yield’ across investor types, as well as providing insights into the structure of the corporate bond market. Using proprietary sterling corporate bond transaction data, we show that insurance companies, hedge funds and asset managers are typically net buyers when corporate bond yields rise. Dealer banks clear the market by being net sellers. However, we find evidence for this behaviour reversing in times of stress for some investors. During the 2013 ‘taper tantrum’, asset managers were net sellers of corporate bonds in response to a sharp rise in yields, potentially amplifying price changes. At the same time, dealer banks were net buyers. Finally, we provide evidence that insurers, hedge funds and asset managers tilt their portfolios towards higher risk bonds, consistent with ‘reaching for yield’ behaviour.     

Estimating yield curves of the U.S. Treasury securities: An interpolation approach

Following the approach of interpolation, this paper proposes the multiple exponential decay model to fit yield curves for both the U.S. TIPS market and the conventional Treasury security market. Several estimation methods, including the unconstrained/constrained nonlinear minimization, quadratic programming, and the iterative linear least squares, are applied to estimate the unknown parameters according to different curve‐fitting purposes. Comparisons between the proposed model and the alternatives show that the multiple exponential decay successfully (1) adapts to a variety of shapes associated with yield curves, (2) (partially) keeps in line with the economic interpretations of Nelson–Siegel summarized by Diebold and Li ( 2006 ), and (3) dominates the competing models in curve‐fitting performance measured by mean fitted‐price errors over the sample period. In addition, the exact specification of a nonparametric interpolation model is pinned down by applying three statistical tools, which enable us to jointly take into account validity, optimality, and parsimoniousness of the proposed model.     

Debt Issue Costs and Issue Characteristics in the Market for U.S. Dollar Denominated International Bonds

This paper analyzes the issue costs and initial pricing of bonds in the international market. In particular, we investigate the determinants of three components of issue costs: underwriter fee, underwriter spread (the difference between the offering price and the guaranteed price to the issuer), and underpricing (the difference between the market price and the offering price). Total underwriter compensation increases with the bonds' credit risk and maturity, but it is insignificantly related to issue size. Interestingly, underwriters appear to price some issue characteristics directly (by adjusting the fee) and other characteristics indirectly (by setting the guaranteed price). The two compensation components (fee and spread) are negatively related to each other. We provide evidence that this trade-off is consistent with income tax considerations, as well as with two-tier pricing by underwriters. We find no evidence of underpricing.     

香港发行人民币债券的效应与对策分析

在香港发行人民币债券，既是香港特区政府多年来的愿望，也是人民币国际化的重要一步，因此具有极其重要的意义。本文通过在香港发行人民币债券对内地和香港的积极作用和消极作用的分析，提出了在港发行人民币债券应注意的问题以及相关对策建议。     

浅议我国股票发行制度改革及对券商的影响

本文论述了我国股票发行制度从额度审批制到核准制,又到保荐人制的演变过程及其影响。同时阐述了券商投行在新的保荐制度下的应对策略。     

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.     

建立和完善国库集中收付制度的构想

建立和完善国库集中收付制度,是社会主义市场经济体制下公共财政的发展要求。借鉴国际通行做法和成功经验,结合我国具体国情,建立和完善以国库单一账户体系为基础、资金缴拨以国库集中收付为主要形式的财政国库管理制度。有利于进一步加强财政监督,提高资金使用效益,更好地发挥财政在宏观调控中的作用。本文首先分析了建立国库集中收付制度面临的新问题,在充分调查研究基础上,提出了建立和完善国库集中收付制度构想。     

对我国企业债券市场失衡发展问题研究

在融资工具中,企业债券在微观和宏观方面都有着独特的作用,本文将我国企业债券市场的发展相对失衡的实际情况与国际发达资本市场进行了比较,对我国企业债券市场发展的制约因素进行了分析,并在分析的基础上从发行制度、流通市场、信用评级等方面提出了改革建议。     

国库集中支付角度下行政事业单位内部控制研究

国库集中支付与内部控制具有内在的联系性,国库集中支付的目的就是加强对行政事业单位资金的监管,提高财政资金的使用效益。但是在实际运行的过程中,行政事业单位的内部控制并未实现国库集中支付的预期目标。论文立足于国库集中支付视角提出行政事业单位加强内部控制的重要性,剖析行政事业单位内部控制体系建设的原则,最后提出构建基于国库集中支付的内部控制体系的具体对策。     

国债转贷资金的宏观定位与微观管理

表面上看,中央对国债资金实行转贷似乎仅仅是国债投资资金运作方式的创新和改变,但是,只要对这一创新和改变作经济学理论和实践上的深入分析和思考,我们就会知道,国债资金实行转贷,不仅引起了政府信用主体的宏观定位和政府信用预算定位的改变,而且,还引起了政府信用资金的特质和效益概念的重大改变.