Revisiting calendar effects in Malaysian finance stocks market: Evidence from threshold GARCH (TGARCH) model

Recent research reveals that calendar effects have largely disappeared from stock markets. However, majority of the past studies focus on stock markets at the aggregate level but do not provide firm-level evidence. Therefore, this study investigates day-of-the-week and month-of-the-year effects in Malaysian finance stocks market for the period 1/1/1997–31/12/2014. The empirical results from threshold GARCH (TGARCH) model suggest that certain daily and monthly seasonality effects are prevalent along with asymmetric news effect. The findings of study indicate inefficiency in the weak-form sense, implying that it is possible for investors to obtain the observed abnormal returns by using timing strategies.     

The field of graduate recruitment: leading financial and consultancy firms and elite class formation

The symbolic value of being recruited by a high status multinational company likely represents an important marker of distinction. For the first time, a unique Destinations of Leavers in Higher Education (DLHE) data‐set is used here to model entry to elite multinational company in finance, accountancy and consultancy sectors among graduates of different social origins, universities, degree subjects and with different degree classifications. From a sample of 11,755 graduates working across these three sectors, we examine what predicts entry to 31 leading firms and then examine pay hierarchies among the 3,260 graduates working for these companies using random‐effects models. At first glance, significantly, we find that elite recruits come from a much broader range of universities than might be imagined. However, a closer look at the highest paid graduates within these firms reveals more familiar patterns of social and institutional stratification. We argue that these patterns likely reflect the nature of work undertaken by graduates in these elite firms, with institutional and social origins of graduates differing according to the particular track taken in what are likely to be highly differentiated graduate recruitment schemes.     

Financing urban growth in China: A case study of Guangzhou

Rapid urban growth has become a global phenomenon. As these city populations expand, urban governance is even more of a daunting challenge in many countries. China is not an exception. It is at once a transitional state still undergoing urbanization and economic development; it is also currently experiencing a slowing economy. China's cities must simultaneously continue to improve the quality of urban life while maintaining social stability. Using the city of Guangzhou as an example of China's mega-cities, this study explores the financing strategies used by Chinese cities to manage urban growth. While economic growth has always been the main priority, Guangzhou's strategy has not followed China's traditional approach of growth for growth's sake; instead, it is relying on investment in innovation and transportation to promote the local economy. Education is also being stressed as a means of fostering human resources. However, undisciplined infrastructure financing and ineffective intergovernmental fiscal relations are jeopardizing the city's fiscal sustainability. To correct this will require further reforms of China's fiscal system and a careful sequencing of reforms to maintain a sustainable growth in the urban area.     

Making financial uncertainty count: Unit-linked insurance,investment and the individualisation of financial risk in British life insurance

While most scholarship in the sociology of insurance has focused on the making of insurance risk by investigating mechanisms of pooling and spreading, this article examines insurers’ management of financial uncertainty. Based on a large corpus of written sources and 44 semi-structured oral history interviews, this article seeks to describe and explain a shift in how financial uncertainty is dealt with in British life insurance, away from traditional multipolar arrangements revolving around actuarial prudence and discretion, towards bipolar arrangements that rely on explicit risk quantification and the logic of risk-based capital to “individualise” financial risk. The article identifies two factors that were key in bringing about this shift: first, the competitive dynamics that unfolded with the emergence of challenger “unit-linked” insurers in the 1960s, and, second, changes in the professional ecology, as manifested by the changing relations between the actuarial profession and insurance supervisors.     

Gender differences in financial risk tolerance

The purpose of this research is to explore gender differences in financial risk tolerance using a large, nationally representative dataset, the Survey of Consumer Finances. The impact of the explanatory variables in the model is allowed to differ between men and women to decompose gender differences in financial risk tolerance. The results indicate that gender differences in financial risk tolerance are explained by gender differences in the individual determinants of financial risk tolerance, and that the disparity does not result from gender in and of itself. The individual variables that moderate the relationship between gender and high risk tolerance are income uncertainty and net worth, with income uncertainty moderating the relationship between gender and some risk tolerance. Financial fiduciaries should understand the differences in income uncertainty and net worth between men and women and how those differences relate to risk tolerance.     

Media populism in post-handover Hong Kong: an investigation of media framing of public finance

Given that the political institution of Hong Kong is not fully democratic and is incompetent in channeling public opinion to the executive branch, the Hong Kong media perform the “surrogate democracy function,” wherein they act as the representative of the Hong Kong people in monitoring the government. This simultaneously provides a breeding ground for media populism. Focusing on newspaper editorials and reports on issues of public finance in Hong Kong, this paper analyzes the rhetoric of media populism, which has become part of the journalism culture of the city since the transfer of sovereignty. The paper reveals that media populism is formed by the construction of a populist diagnostic frame, which implies antagonism between the rich government and the deprived people. The populist diagnostic frame is exercised by (1) lexical creations that imply the government–people relation in public finance, (2) omitting inter-class redistribution by in-grouping both the middle class and the lower class as “the people,” and (3) validating the people’s will by interpreting poll results.     

民间金融与中国宏观经济——理论机制与实证分析

作为中小企业的主要融资渠道,民间金融对中国经济发展具有重要作用。本文理论探究了民间金融对中国主要宏观经济变量的作用机制,并以此为基础选取全国地区性民间借贷综合利率指数作为民间金融的代理指标,建立VAR模型分析了民间金融对这些宏观经济变量的影响。研究发现：民间金融在理论上能直接以及通过货币政策间接影响经济增长和通货膨胀;而民间金融与货币政策的互动依赖于宏观经济变量之间的联系或正规金融的传导。从实证分析来看,民间金融的发展对经济增长有显著影响,作用方式是先促进后抑制;同时民间金融也能显著影响通货膨胀,其利率升高会加剧通货膨胀;但是民间金融和货币政策无显著关系,这是由于经济增长和通货膨胀没有起到传递作用以及民间金融和正规金融无明显的互动,由此表明民间金融并不能通过货币政策间接影响经济增长和通货膨胀。本文的研究有助于深入理解民间金融与宏观经济的关系,对制定相应的经济政策和管控民间金融风险具有重要的借鉴意义。     

考虑社交网络和互联网金融的金融市场超网络均衡研究

社交网络和互联网金融的广泛应用给金融市场发展带来机遇和挑战,金融市场呈现复杂多变、交叉融合的特征,传统的金融市场和监管理论难以适应金融市场发展和风险管理需要。本文从金融网络视角,针对互联网金融发展带来的区别于传统金融的信用风险和操作风险,引入信用惩罚函数和操作风险函数,考虑到加强社交网络关系可提高信息透明度、降低交易成本和交易风险,建立了由资金供给者、互联网金融中介、传统金融中介、资金需求者四种类型金融参与组成的、集成资金流动网络和社交关系网络的金融市场超网络模型,进行金融市场各参与主体的行为分析,建立包括净收益最大化、社交网络关系最大化和风险最小化为目标的多目标决策模型;运用变分不等式将约束条件放松为单边约束,研究包括上述金融市场的均衡条件;最后通过算例的MATLAB仿真验证模型有效性。研究结果表明,考虑与否社交网络关系水平,金融市场的均衡状态不同;社交网络关系水平对互联网金融中介和传统金融中介具有影响作用;为提高市场稳定性和有效性,降低金融风险,互联网金融和传统金融中介需要合作和协同发展。     

新疆地区农村正规金融与非正规金融供需影响因素研究

基于新疆农户家庭微观调研数据,构建四元Probit联立方程模型,并运用GHK模拟估计法对农村正规金融和非正规金融供需影响因素进行了有效识别,估计出影响因素对两类农村金融供给和需求的影响效应,发现农村正规金融机构和非正规金融组织存在显著的互补关系,并对估计结果进行了稳健性检验,结果表明模型估计结果稳健。研究发现:(1)对农村正规金融需求而言,户主受教育水平、家庭生产性固定资产总值等的影响为负,户主是否汉族、是否拥有技能等的影响为正;(2)对农村正规金融供给而言,居住地距农村正规金融机构距离的影响为负,非农收入比重、家庭纯收入等的影响为正;(3)对农村非正规金融需求而言,家中劳动力人数和生产经营投资的影响为负,户主是否汉族、家庭生活消费支出等的影响为正;(4)对农村非正规金融供给而言,是否处于南疆的影响为负,家庭纯收入、家庭获取礼金和获赠所得总额等的影响为正。