The Dilemma of International Financial Reporting Standards and the Optimization of Financial Reporting—From the Perspective of Marx’s Theory of Fictitious Capital*

Following the outbreak of the subprime financial crisis, international accounting standards came under heavy fire for being strongly pro-cyclical. Under those standards, financial reporting mixes financial statement data with financial analysis data, seriously weakening the public interest function of financial reporting. An analysis using Marx’s fictitious capital theory shows that fair value accounting and asset impairment accounting are both defective. In line with the principle of “accounting based on legal fact,” we use the methodology of “historical cost accounting plus fair value disclosure” to distinguish between legal fact and financial expectations in financial reporting. This is a viable means of appropriately resolving the contradiction between ensuring that enterprise financial reporting observes domestic law and ensuring that it accords with international trends.     

Social capital and the impact of the recent economic crisis: Comparing the effects of economic and fiscal policy developments

In this contribution, we offer an analysis that evaluates the impact of the recent financial and economic crisis on social capital. An economic crisis offers a unique chance to study people's associational lives, volunteering, network-making, and trust-building under duress. Theoretical perspectives on the relationship between social capital and economic development emphasize a reciprocal relationship between the two. Therefore, we hypothesize that if economic performance is compromised, this might lead to an erosion of social capital. More importantly, however, we also argue that states can actively intervene by means of fiscal policy measures. We will illustrate our approach by comparing 29 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries before and after the crisis. Using qualitative comparative analysis, we demonstrate that imperatives related to fiscal policy stimuli provide leverage on social capital development.     

基于碳资本存量的碳排放权分配方案（英文）

为应对气候变化,全球学者提出了基于现期排放量及历史排放量的不同减排方案,但由于其难以调和发达国家和发展中国家的利益,所以不能得到普遍认可。本文提出了碳资本存量的概念,认为碳资本存量对各国当代人生活质量有很大的影响,因而它可以度量包括发达国家在内的各国应承担的历史排放责任。本文根据前人研究成果及相关数据,计算了目前中美日三国水泥、钢、铜、铝的社会蓄积量,研究设定了上述物质的碳排放系数,并在此基础上计算出中美日三国当前物质存量所内涵的碳资本量。结果表明,虽然目前中国碳资本总量已经超过美国和日本,但美日两国人均碳资本是中国的3倍。因此,发达国家承担本国历史温室气体排放责任有其坚实的物质基础,发达国家民众承担本国历史温室气体排放也有其清晰的责任链条。本文提出全球碳减排方案的设计应包括两类账户,一是基于各国人均碳资本差异的考虑历史责任的公正账户,二是基于目前各国人口数量的考虑当期公平的平等账户。本方案的优点在于有清晰的理论依据,可平衡发达国家及发展中国家的利益,并促进全球技术合作与转移,共同应对气候变化。     

Financial frictions and indebtedness of Balkan firms: A comparison with Mediterranean and Central European countries

Using a large database of financial data for non-financial corporations, we study the process of debt accumulation and its influence on liquidity through the boom-bust-recovery regimes (2006–2010) in the Balkan countries and benchmark this against the Mediterranean and Central European countries. The domestic amplification effects (through the financial accelerator and collateral pricing) of both the capital surge from developed EU countries at the onset of the crisis and the capital reversal afterwards are the focus of the analysis. We show that domestic generators and amplificators of the crisis have much larger effects in the Balkan countries than in the Mediterranean countries, not to mention the countries of Central Europe. In the boom period, the financial accelerator was several times stronger in the Balkan countries than in the Mediterranean and Central European countries. In the bust and recovery periods, however, the direct effects of the financial accelerator declined, but the indirect effects increased considerably due to liquidity squeezes and contagion, especially strong were corresponding intercompany debt effects. In the Balkan countries, these effects in the bust and recovery periods were at least 50% larger than in the Mediterranean and Central European countries. Higher crisis costs in the Balkan countries, relative to the benchmark regions, could be attributed to the late integration of these economies into international financial and trade flows, weak institutions of financial intermediation, and inexperienced regulators; however, the importance of the contribution of misguided EU convergence doctrine cannot be ignored. Lessons for improving macromanagement in EU periphery countries are suggested.     

Fruit safety regulations in the transatlantic region: How are Africa’s exports faring with the regulations?

The regulations of fruit trade for safe consumption are taken seriously in the EU and US markets to protect the health of the consumers, animals, plants and environmental safety, and thereby reduce health expenditures. The fruit safety regulations as trade policy measures could be either trade-promoting or -impeding. The extensiveness and intensiveness of fruit safety regulations in these markets often have consequences for exporters from Africa and their desire to attain sustainable economic development. The effects of fruit safety regulations are heterogeneous across economic agents. To this end, many stakeholders in Africa’s food system have perceived compliance with these food regulatory measures as necessary conditions to access the developed countries’ markets, particularly in the EU and US. Besides, the competitiveness of Africa’s fruit exports has been impacted by the preponderance of the measures despite its comparative advantages in the fruits sub-sector. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the impact of the EU and US sanitary and phytosanitary measures on Africa’s fruit exports. The empirical strategy involves the use of an augmented gravity model which explore the disentangling of these impact at the extensive and intensive margins of exports. Given the nature of trade data and specifically for this study, the zero trade flows are considered at both margins of exports for 45 African countries from 1995 to 2017. This study finds that the US market is more trade-impeding to Africa’s fruit exports than the EU market. Thus, Africa needs policies tweaking in the fruit value chain quality infrastructure, fruits’ quality and standards enforcement, capacity development, continuous update and modernisation of the fruits’ safety laws, directives and/or regulations. This will enhance the fruits’ quality to propel their access to the transatlantic markets.     

Ending poverty in Mongolia: From socialism to social development

While recent literature on social welfare has included Asian countries, less is known about low‐income and former socialist countries in Central Asia. This article combines a documentary‐historical method with a value‐critical approach to analyze Mongolia's social policy response to poverty. Mongolia is unique in Asia because it transformed from nomadic pastoralism to socialism without a phase of capitalist industrial development. The case study found that Mongolia lost social welfare when it transitioned from socialism, a statist model, to market liberalism and multiparty democracy. In the 21st century, Mongolia has been aspiring to promote social development by redirecting mining revenues to a human development fund. Mongolia is potentially an exemplar of social development strategies affirmed at the United Nations Conference for Social Development (Rio+20) regarding a green economy for inclusive growth and poverty elimination. Future social welfare research should consider the importance of sustainability. Key Practitioner Message: ● Global standards for tracking poverty alleviation will be integrated with sustainability measures beginning in 2015; ● Mongolia hopes to foster social development and sustainable livelihoods by reinvesting revenues from mining into human capital and health care; ● To sustain future generations, social policy needs to consider the relationship between natural capital, social capital, and financial capital.     

Internal Drivers and the Specialization Status of Under-developed Countries： Evidence from China＇s High-tech Industry

将增加值率和生产率作为跨国可比的国际分工地位度量指标,引入产品内分工分析框架中,刻画发展中国家产业的国际分工地位受国内技术创新、劳动力投入、资本投入,以及FDI溢出效应等因素的影响机理,并以中国高技术产业和企业的数据进行实证检验,结果表明：国内的技术创新以及物质资本和人力资本等要素的协同性提升,是提高中国高技术产业国际分工地位的关键性内部动力,而FDI溢出效应的作用相对有限。因而中国产业升级的关键,是要挖掘和培育内部动力,而非依赖于FDI的溢出效应。     

促进广西创业风险投资基金市场发展的配套政策研究

目前,广西创业风险投资基金市场发展面临诸多困境,有必要通过加快出台有关法规政策文件;推动开发性金融支持广西创业风险投资基金工作联席会议制度的建立;积极落实国家对创业风险投资的财税支持政策;培育和完善区域风险资本的退出机制;注重创业风险投资中介服务平台建设;加强创业风险投资专业人才引进、培养和激励制度建设等措施促进广西创业风险投资基金市场发展,推动区域自主创新能力的提高与北部湾经济区开发建设目标的实现。     

FDI,democracy and corruption in Sub-Saharan Africa

This paper investigates the relationship between FDI, democracy and corruption among 30 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) over the period of 1985–2014 to determine whether the ‘helping hand’ or ‘grabbing hand’ hypothesis is most applicable. The results of GMM analysis show that corruption is used by FDI investors to overcome the region’s weak democratic regulatory and institutional status and thus the ‘helping hand’ is more prevalent. However, the results further show that as democratic capital accumulates, this association may outlive its usefulness and thus corruption as a ‘helping hand’ in time becomes a ‘grabbing hand’ instead. These results imply that SSA countries should focus on integrating into the international economy so as to take advantage of existing financial enforcement legislation while reconstructing and strengthening domestic constitutional anti-corruption legislation and institutions.     

Intellectual property rights,informal economy,and FDI into developing countries

We explore the relationship between intellectual property rights (IPR), the informal economy, and foreign direct investment (FDI) into developing countries. Intuitively, stronger IPR protection attracts more FDI in countries with small informal economies but not in countries with large informal economies. The intuition is that the informal economy is a proxy for the quality of institutions. In institutionally strong countries, IPR protection promotes FDI by reducing illegal imitation and freeing up more resources for MNCs. Our empirical analysis, based on a threshold effect model, provides some evidence supportive of our model.     

Assessing the World Bank Report Keeping the Promise

A new report of the World Bank released in 2004 evaluates the performance of structural pension reforms in several Latin American countries, ratifying some fundamental issues of the Bank's previous report of 1994 but contesting others, acknowledging serious problems and recommending new policies. In the light of available data from ten countries with structural reforms in the region, as well as the author's own research, this article discusses nine key elements of the new report: coverage, compliance, competition among administrators, managerial costs, capital accumulation, effects on capital and financial markets, fiscal costs, general and gender equity, and isolation from politics.     

A macro‐financial analysis of pension system reforms in emerging Europe: The performance of IRAs and policy lessons for Serbia

The article explores the initial macro‐financial performance of partial pension system “privatizations”— involving privately‐managed individual retirement savings accounts (IRAs) — undertaken in many emerging European countries. Using empirical data for a period of close to a decade, the evidence shows that returns on privately‐managed IRAs have been below the implicit rate of return of public pay‐as‐you‐go (PAYG) systems. High operating costs and undeveloped capital markets are identified as major contributing factors to the failure of privately‐managed IRAs to meet reform expectations. In light of empirical evidence, Serbia is advised to focus on parametric PAYG reforms and to avoid reforms that involve the partial “privatization” of the pension system.     

The influence of extreme events such as Brexit and Covid-19 on equity markets

In this article first, we show that the result that the PIIGS group had the largest negative unadjusted and abnormal returns on the day following the Brexit Referendum is robust to taking into account jointly other extreme events such as the Covid-19. Second, we provide evidence that the impact of the declaration of Covid-19 to be a global pandemic by the WHO – when global markets fell by nearly 15% – had a total different reaction in the financial markets to the one following the Brexit Referendum, impacting more negatively in countries where quarantine lockdowns were announced that day (i.e. Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Italy and Spain), independently on their debt-to GDP ratio. We also show that the day after Covid-19 was declared as a global pandemic, China and Japan (countries that already implemented lockdowns in the previous months) were the only analyzed countries that did not experience any evidence of abnormal returns in their financial markets. Moreover, during the three following days, the US was the only analyzed country showing no evidence of negative abnormal returns due to the declaration of the national emergency. These results suggest that government policies must take into account and monitor specially health-related news at global level, since they can have enormous impacts on portfolio allocations on stock markets, in order to take more informed decisions.     

金融危机下中国创业投资“囚徒困境”演化研究

创业投资家和创业企业家的＂囚徒困境＂是制约中国创业投资进一步发展的主要障碍之一。对短期利益的追求和缺乏信任是造成中国创业投资＂囚徒困境＂的两个重要原因。在金融危机背景下,＂囚徒困境＂的演化将朝着有利于创业投资家的方向发展。金融危机虽然能改变博弈的结果,却未能改变＂囚徒困境＂的成因。     

资产证券化趋势与我们的选择

资产证券化是近 30年来金融领域的重大创新之一。由于其具有创新的融资结构和高效的载体 ,满足了各类融资者和投资者不断变化的需求 ,从而成为当今世界各国资本市场发展最快、最具活力的金融产品。资产证券化产生的动因是活化抵押贷款二级市场 ,随创新的深化 ,人们将其发展成为沟通传统的直接融资和间接融资的一个有效通道。资产证券化起源于美国 ,现在已形成一种资本市场创新趋势。改革开放以来 ,持续快速发展的中国经济对资本一直有着旺盛的需求 ,因此 ,目前在我国推行证券化融资工具正当其时。     

Threats,chances and opportunities: social capital in Europe in times of social and economic hardship

The 2008 financial and economic crisis, characterized by an economic breakdown unparalleled since the Great Depression, provides a unique opportunity to study the relationships between economic developments and social capital by asking: How does social capital change in times of social and economic hardship? In order to explore the trends of social capital development, data from the European Social Survey 2002–2016 are used. The results suggest that economic decline – particularly increasing unemployment – is associated with a decline in social capital, especially in southern European countries. Furthermore, increasing long-term interest rates as an indicator of government future debt sustainability appear to be detrimental for social capital development. The impact of economic decline, however, appears to be contingent upon the functioning of state institutions: especially in countries characterized by well-functioning governments social capital is significantly less affected by economic decline than other countries.     

Do greater amounts of FDI cause higher pollution levels? Evidence from OECD countries

Using an ARDL model for a panel of 15 OECD countries, this work analyses the impact that FDI, both jointly and by sector, has on CO₂ emissions. The findings reveal that these countries are yielding to the pressure on the trade sector. Unexpectedly, gross fixed capital formation shrink pollution, excluding in the mining sector. With findings supporting the Pollution Haven Hypothesis, policymakers must pay attention to FDI inflows, ensuring that FDI place high importance on the transfer of green technologies to improve the efficiency. These goals could be achieved through an increase in the stringency of environmental laws within the host countries, especially the ones related to FDI.     

新时期北京发展中小科技企业创业风险投资分析

创业风险资本是联接高新技术成果和生产力之间的桥梁,发展创业风险投资是促进高新技术产业发展的关键。针对北京创业风险投资业发展现状,根据发达国家的创业风险投资业的经验及创业风险投资理论,本文提出建立以国有资本为主导与民间资本为主体的融投资模式,构建多层复合资本市场体系,疏通退出瓶颈,改善投资主体内部治理结构,增强创业风险投资机构活力,加强北京创业风险投资运营管理。     

论风险投资的风险控制机制

中国风险投资失败率高最根本的原因 ,是由于我国风险投资机构的组织和运作不规范 ,未能建立有效的风险控制机制。结合国外成熟风险投资的风险控制机制 ,具体分析企业治理结构中的风险控制和风险投资运作过程中的风险控制 ,其结论是我国风险投资机构更大的问题是在企业治理结构上 ,最重要的因素是人的因素