Estimating the effect of minimum wage on firm profitability in China

Using the firm-level panel datasets and hand-collected data on county level minimum wage,this paper estimates the effect of minimum wage on firm profitability.As firms may take time to adjust in response to changes in minimum wage,this paper estimates a dynamic panel model with lagged minimum wage.To capture the heterogeneous effect of minimum wage on profitability,this paper further estimates quantile regression dynamic panel model.The estimation results suggest that the effect on firm profitability of minimum wage in the current year is negative across the whole conditional distribution of profitability and it exhibits an inverted-U shape across conditional quantiles.The effect on profitability of lagged minimum wage is positive at the 5th,10th,15th quantiles,negative at the 90th and 95th quantiles,and not significant at other quantiles.Turning to the overall effect on profitability of minimum wage,we find that minimum wage exerts significantly negative effect on profitability at the 5th quantile and quantiles higher than 40th and the absolute value of the effect of minimum wage increases with these quantiles.For other quantiles,the overall effect of minimum wage on profitability is negligible.

Environmental Accounting Audit Decision and Firm Performance： An Empirical Investigation

The objective of the study is to examine the relationship between environmental accounting audit decision and firm＇s profitability in Nigeria. Specifically, the authors hypothesize that profitability is a determinant of company＇s decision to disclose quantitative environmental information for external audits. The population of this research is made up of both quoted and non-quoted companies. The sample size for this study was selected using the simple random sampling technique. The selected companies included companies from the following sectors： agriculture, automobile and tyre, breweries, building materials, chemical and paints, conglomerates companies, food/beverages and tobacco, construction, healthcare, industrial/domestic products, packaging, printing and publishing, textiles, petroleum marketing companies, banking, insurance, and others. A sample of 160 companies with audited final accounts for 2009 financial year was eventually selected. The binary logit regression technique was utilized as the data analysis method. The finding reveals that profitability is a positive and significant determinant in evaluating the probability that a firm includes environmental information for external audits. The study concludes that finn-specific factors may provide incentives for corporate environmentalism in Nigeria.

An Empirical Test of Relation Between Executive Stock Options and Firm Performance

Numerous firms adopted executive stock options plan for their executives. This study examines empirically the hypothesis that stock options help to improve the firml＇s operating performance. The empirical tests reveal a positive relation between the stock options and performance; also indicate that there is a positive relation between quantity of manager＇s stock options and firm＇s size.

Is China's agricultural enterprise growing steadily?Evidence from listed agricultural companies

Agricultural enterprises are integral for agricultural modernization,serving as a bridge between scattered small-scale farmers and modern markets.However,agricultural competitiveness is still weak in China.This paper uses the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution(TOPSIS)method to measure the growth performance of China's listed agricultural companies and analyze its influencing factors based on Panel-Corrected Standard Errors(PCSE)to verify whether they are capable of achieving sustainable development.The findings confirm that first,listed Chinese agricultural companies have significantly increased profitability and scale in recent years but are still weak compared to other industries.The growth performance of such enterprises is generally stable,the difference between them is decreasing,and their growth ranking fluctuates greatly,with significant regional and industrial characteristics.Second,technological efficiency,scale,and age are positively related to the growth of listed agricultural companies.The diversification and expansion of business harm the profitability and development of enterprises.Currently,financial support can satisfy the short-term profit-seeking demands of enterprises but is inadequate to improve the ability of enterprises to grow.Third,China's listed agricultural companies need to devise policies through a forward-looking perspective and use them more effectively.Additionally,the transformation opportunities introduced by non agricultural capital into agriculture deserve attention.When agricultural enterprises realize technological progress via modern capital,they understand the importance of utilizing and integrating technological innovation and increase the efficiency of transforming new technology into productivity.Policy orientation should be attentive to the public welfare of these listed companies and take into account the demands of corporate profits to realize the long-term sustainable development of enterprises and regions.

FIGURES

15%Prof its of China’s major indust r ial f irms saw a steady growth of 15%over the January-April period,and the growth was larger than the 11.6-percent increase registered for the first quarter according to the National Bureau of Statistics.