Non-rating revenue and conflicts of interest

Rating agencies produce ratings used by investors, but obtain most of their revenue from issuers, leading to a conflict of interest. We employ a unique data set on the use of non-rating services, and the associated payments, in India, to test if this conflict affects ratings quality. Agencies rate issuers that pay them for non-rating services higher (than agencies not hired for such services). Such issuers also have higher default rates. Both effects are increasing in the amount paid. These results suggest that issuers which hire agencies for non-rating services receive higher ratings despite having higher default risk.     

Relief aid stocking decisions under bilateral agency cooperation

We aim to quantify the benefits of cooperation between humanitarian relief agencies in terms of stocking decisions. We consider two agencies that stock the same type of relief item at different locations prone to individual disaster risks and agree to transship the shortage amount from available stocks in case of a disaster. We incorporate the disaster risk to the Newsvendor model by conditioning the stock quantity decisions on the event that a major disaster occurs within the lifetime of the stocked relief item. We optimize the stock quantity for each agency in response to the other's quantity and compute a Nash Equilibrium solution numerically. We apply this game theoretic approach to the case of earthquake preparedness in Istanbul to optimize the stocking decisions of an agency for shelter units in cooperation with another agency. We investigate the characteristics of the solutions under various parameter settings and identify cases in which cooperation may be beneficial to one or both of the agencies.     

Predicting the equity market with option-implied variables

We comprehensively analyze the predictive power of several option-implied variables for monthly S&P 500 excess returns and realized variance. The correlation risk premium (CRP) and the variance risk premium (VRP) emerge as strong predictors of both excess returns and realized variance. This is true both in- and out-of-sample. Our results also reveal that statistical evidence of predictability does not necessarily lead to economic gains. However, a timing strategy based on the CRP leads to utility gains of more than 5.03% per annum. Forecast combinations provide stable forecasts for both excess returns and realized variance, and add economic value.     

Altruism, equity, and reciprocity in a gift-exchange experiment: an encompassing approach

Considerable experimental evidence suggests that non-pecuniary motives must be addressed when modeling behavior in economic contexts. Recent theories of non-pecuniary motives can be classified as altruism-, equity-, or reciprocity-based. We outline the qualitative differences in prediction these alternative explanations yield in a gift-exchange game. We estimate and compare leading approaches in these categories, using experimental data. We then offer a flexible approach that nests the above three approaches, thereby allowing for nested hypothesis testing and for determining the relative strength of each of the competing theories. In addition, the encompassing approach provides a functional form for utility in different settings without the restrictive nature of the approaches nested within it. Using this flexible form for nested tests, we find that intentional reciprocity, distributive concerns, and altruistic considerations all play a significant role in players' decisions.     

为什么国有企业越来越垄断?

近年来,我国的国有企业在产业政策的保护下表现出越来越垄断的趋势。本文运用共同代理模型解释了这种政策倾向的形成原因。代表各个产业部门的利益集团围绕政府的政策展开博弈,政策的形成是政府对各个产业利益集团进行平衡的结果。但是,政府对国有部门的重视程度超过非国有部门。随着国有企业逐渐从许多产业退出,余下的国有部门越来越缺乏其他利益集团的制约,政府因而就倾向于保护这些国有部门的垄断利益。     

Myopic loss aversion and the equity premium puzzle reconsidered

Benartzi and Thaler [The Quarterly Journal of Economics 110 (1995) 73–92] offer a quasi-rational explanation for the equity premium puzzle. We reconsider their methodology and, making a simple modification to it, find that their analysis is not robust.     

产权观下我国企业会计目标构建问题研究

会计目标一直是西方会计界重点关注和研究的问题,近年来,我国会计理论界和实务界也对其投以越来越多的关注。本文试图从企业产权理论和制度变迁的角度,以利益相关者权益保护为主线研究会计目标,理清从受托责任观到决策有用观演进的必然性和合理性,并在分析英美、法德模式会计目标的差异后,结合当前我国会计准则国际趋同的背景,提出我国应确立以利益相关者权益保护为中心、以企业特征为导向、针对不同环境分别选择受托责任或决策有用为核心内容的会计目标构建思想。     

2005年国际金融市场回顾与2006年展望

2005年的国际金融市场走势跌宕起伏,股票市场表现不一,债券市场基本上是区间波动走势,外汇市场美元一枝独秀,石油价格冲高回落而黄金的表现也引人注目。决定市场走势的因素是美国经济表现稳健,欧、日经济相形见绌,同时美国利率持续上升。2006年受房地产市场降温的影响,美国经济可能温和放缓,利率很快见顶,将对金融市场产生重大影响,总体而言风险加大。     

融资优序与行业管制——兼析中国上市公司“异常融资优序”现象

企业融资先通过内部资金进行,然后再通过银行借款或发行低风险的债券,最后才采用股票,这种融资的“先后顺序”是企业出于降低融资成本和防止剩余利润被分享所做出的理性选择,这就是融资优序理论。本文认为,寡头竞争所形成的行业进入壁垒为优序融资的实现提供了必须的市场环境,其资金使用方式能够优化资源配置,提高资金的使用效率。融资优序理论在发达市场经济国家得到了实践的验证,但在我国上市公司中却存在“异常融资优序”(Abnormal pccking Order)现象,即外部资金优于内部资金,外部资金中股权融资优于债权融资。其原因在于,中国市场经济不太完善,缺乏通过寡头竞争自发形成的行业进入壁垒。本文认为只有采取行业管制手段,设置一定的行业进入壁垒,才能实现优序融资,从而达到优化资源配置的目的。     

计件工资博弈中管理者的守诺与公平权衡——对计件工资制不流行的再解释

本文首先回顾总结了计件工资制度的发展过程和存在的问题,指出计件工资博弈陷入低效僵局的原因在于管理者的不履行事先的承诺。传统的解释是管理者事后抵挡不住自利的诱惑,本文认为管理者守诺还是不守诺是在权衡计件工资员工和计时工资员工激励效果后作出的理性的选择。管理者守诺只在一定的情形下发生所以计件工资制不流行。