The impactof water sales price on the performance of water service providers is typically something of a mystery. High prices mean more revenue and profit;but it may lead to less bills collection and encourage the ill...The impactof water sales price on the performance of water service providers is typically something of a mystery. High prices mean more revenue and profit;but it may lead to less bills collection and encourage the illegal connections. Yet, this argument has not been fully addressed in the Palestinian water sector;this research evaluates the effect of average water prices on the financial sustainability key indicators as collection efficiency, profit or loss percentage, non-revenue water, staff productivity, daily consumption, operating, and maintenance cost. The average price of cubic meter sold is segmented into low, medium, and high categories. Multivariate analysis shows that there are significant differences in profit or working ratio, daily consumption, and operating cost based on the different price categories. Further significant differences have been found in non-revenue water, collection efficiency, and water production based on low and high price categories. On the other hand, no significant difference has been found in staff productivity. The results show high price set by Palestinian water providers, leads to an increase in the bill collection rate and profit margin. However, negative relationship has been found between the price on one hand, and non-revenue water, average daily consumption, and water production on the other hand. The implication of these findings reveal that the Palestinian water providers should increase water prices gradually to cover operating and maintenance cost for better financial performance and sustainability.展开更多
In this study, housing prices data for residential quarters from the period 2001-2012 were used and Global Differentiation Index （GDI） was established to measure the overall differentiation trend in housing prices i...In this study, housing prices data for residential quarters from the period 2001-2012 were used and Global Differentiation Index （GDI） was established to measure the overall differentiation trend in housing prices in Yangzhou City, eastern China. Then the influence of the natural landscape and environment on prices of global housing market and housing submarkets was evaluated by the hedonic price model. The results are shown as follows. （1） There have been increasing gaps among housing prices since 2001. In this period, the differentiation trend has shown an upward fluctuation, which has been coupled with the annual growth rate of housing prices. （2） The spatial distribution of residential quarters of homogenous prices has changed from clustered in 2001 into dispersed in 2012. （3） Natural landscape and environmental externalities clearly influence spatial differentiation of housing prices. （4） In different housing submarkets, the influence of natural landscape and environmental eternalities are varied. Natural landscape characteristics have significant impact on housing prices of ordinary commercial houses and indemnificatory houses, while the impact of environmental characteristics have obvious influence on housing prices of cottages and villas.展开更多
Recently, IPO (Initial Public Offering)has seen great change in China. This shift resulted in significant reformation in the way of operation for domestic investment bank. In the future competition for IPO market amon...Recently, IPO (Initial Public Offering)has seen great change in China. This shift resulted in significant reformation in the way of operation for domestic investment bank. In the future competition for IPO market among investment banks, the refined pricing ability will stand for the winner as prerequisite. As a kind of discussion on IPO pricing, this paper begins with how the reasonable IPO price is being worked out from three layers: the evaluation of stocks, the equilibrium of price and the formation of the final price. On this basis, we summarize and analyze the process of the reform of domestic IPO. Finally, we give some suggestions on this problem for further reform. Key words IPO pricing - reform - market environment展开更多
Stock price crashes damage China’s macro-financial stability,restrict economic growth,and can lead to huge losses in wealth for investors.Therefore,how to reduce the risk for stock price crashes is an important theor...Stock price crashes damage China’s macro-financial stability,restrict economic growth,and can lead to huge losses in wealth for investors.Therefore,how to reduce the risk for stock price crashes is an important theoretical and practical issue.This paper mainly studies the effects of the institutional environment that creates risks for stock price crashes.Using China’s non-financial A-share listed companies from 1997 to 2012 as an example,this paper finds that the lower the level of government intervention is,the better the legal environment is,the faster the market process in business area is,then the lower the risks for stock price crashes will be.To solve the endogenous problem between the institutional environment and the risk of a stock price crash,this paper uses the number of seaports and whether the commercial ports or leased territories are opened after the first Opium War in Qing Dynasty as instrumental variables of the institutional environment.We find that the above conclusion is still valid with the method of 2SLS regression.Furthermore,this paper also finds that the government intervention index,the legal environment index,and the market index are negatively related to stock price synchronicity to a significant degree.These conclusions illustrate that the institutional environment is an important factor in the healthy and stable development of the capital market,which has important implications for policy markers or regulators to develop policies to promote the stable development of the stock market,to control market risk of listed companies,and to make investment decisions.展开更多
This paper investigates whether religious traditions influence firm-specific crash risk in China.Using a sample of A-share listed firms from 2003 to 2013,we provide evidence that the more intense the religious environ...This paper investigates whether religious traditions influence firm-specific crash risk in China.Using a sample of A-share listed firms from 2003 to 2013,we provide evidence that the more intense the religious environment,the lower the stock price crash risk,implying that religion plays an important role in Chinese corporate governance.Further,we find that(1) religion affects stock price crash risk by reducing earnings management and the management perk problem;(2) different religions have different effects,and Taoism,in particular,is unrelated to crash risk; and(3) the effects of religion are more pronounced with higher quality corporate governance and a stronger legal environment.Religion constrains the management agency problem,thus reducing stock price crash risk in China.Our paper enriches the literature on stock price crash risk and religion,and on new economic geography.展开更多
Serious price discrimination emerges with the development of big data and mobile networks,which harms the interests of consumers.To solve this problem,we propose a blockchain-based price consensus protocol to solve th...Serious price discrimination emerges with the development of big data and mobile networks,which harms the interests of consumers.To solve this problem,we propose a blockchain-based price consensus protocol to solve the malicious price discrimination faced by consumers.We give a mathematical definition of price discrimination,which requires the system to satisfy consistency and timeliness.The distributed blockchain can make the different pricing of merchants transparent to consumers,thus satisfying the consistency.The aging window mechanism of our protocol ensures that there is no disagreement between any node on the consensus on price or price discrimination within a fixed period,which meets the timeliness.Moreover,we evaluate its performance through a prototype implementation and experiments with up to 100 user nodes.Experimental results show that our protocol achieves all the expected goals like price transparency,consistency,and timeliness,and it additionally guarantees the consensus of the optimal price with a high probability.展开更多
文摘The impactof water sales price on the performance of water service providers is typically something of a mystery. High prices mean more revenue and profit;but it may lead to less bills collection and encourage the illegal connections. Yet, this argument has not been fully addressed in the Palestinian water sector;this research evaluates the effect of average water prices on the financial sustainability key indicators as collection efficiency, profit or loss percentage, non-revenue water, staff productivity, daily consumption, operating, and maintenance cost. The average price of cubic meter sold is segmented into low, medium, and high categories. Multivariate analysis shows that there are significant differences in profit or working ratio, daily consumption, and operating cost based on the different price categories. Further significant differences have been found in non-revenue water, collection efficiency, and water production based on low and high price categories. On the other hand, no significant difference has been found in staff productivity. The results show high price set by Palestinian water providers, leads to an increase in the bill collection rate and profit margin. However, negative relationship has been found between the price on one hand, and non-revenue water, average daily consumption, and water production on the other hand. The implication of these findings reveal that the Palestinian water providers should increase water prices gradually to cover operating and maintenance cost for better financial performance and sustainability.
基金National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.41401164, No.41201128
文摘In this study, housing prices data for residential quarters from the period 2001-2012 were used and Global Differentiation Index （GDI） was established to measure the overall differentiation trend in housing prices in Yangzhou City, eastern China. Then the influence of the natural landscape and environment on prices of global housing market and housing submarkets was evaluated by the hedonic price model. The results are shown as follows. （1） There have been increasing gaps among housing prices since 2001. In this period, the differentiation trend has shown an upward fluctuation, which has been coupled with the annual growth rate of housing prices. （2） The spatial distribution of residential quarters of homogenous prices has changed from clustered in 2001 into dispersed in 2012. （3） Natural landscape and environmental externalities clearly influence spatial differentiation of housing prices. （4） In different housing submarkets, the influence of natural landscape and environmental eternalities are varied. Natural landscape characteristics have significant impact on housing prices of ordinary commercial houses and indemnificatory houses, while the impact of environmental characteristics have obvious influence on housing prices of cottages and villas.
文摘Recently, IPO (Initial Public Offering)has seen great change in China. This shift resulted in significant reformation in the way of operation for domestic investment bank. In the future competition for IPO market among investment banks, the refined pricing ability will stand for the winner as prerequisite. As a kind of discussion on IPO pricing, this paper begins with how the reasonable IPO price is being worked out from three layers: the evaluation of stocks, the equilibrium of price and the formation of the final price. On this basis, we summarize and analyze the process of the reform of domestic IPO. Finally, we give some suggestions on this problem for further reform. Key words IPO pricing - reform - market environment
文摘Stock price crashes damage China’s macro-financial stability,restrict economic growth,and can lead to huge losses in wealth for investors.Therefore,how to reduce the risk for stock price crashes is an important theoretical and practical issue.This paper mainly studies the effects of the institutional environment that creates risks for stock price crashes.Using China’s non-financial A-share listed companies from 1997 to 2012 as an example,this paper finds that the lower the level of government intervention is,the better the legal environment is,the faster the market process in business area is,then the lower the risks for stock price crashes will be.To solve the endogenous problem between the institutional environment and the risk of a stock price crash,this paper uses the number of seaports and whether the commercial ports or leased territories are opened after the first Opium War in Qing Dynasty as instrumental variables of the institutional environment.We find that the above conclusion is still valid with the method of 2SLS regression.Furthermore,this paper also finds that the government intervention index,the legal environment index,and the market index are negatively related to stock price synchronicity to a significant degree.These conclusions illustrate that the institutional environment is an important factor in the healthy and stable development of the capital market,which has important implications for policy markers or regulators to develop policies to promote the stable development of the stock market,to control market risk of listed companies,and to make investment decisions.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Project Nos.7137215171502040+1 种基金715702041971332004)
文摘This paper investigates whether religious traditions influence firm-specific crash risk in China.Using a sample of A-share listed firms from 2003 to 2013,we provide evidence that the more intense the religious environment,the lower the stock price crash risk,implying that religion plays an important role in Chinese corporate governance.Further,we find that(1) religion affects stock price crash risk by reducing earnings management and the management perk problem;(2) different religions have different effects,and Taoism,in particular,is unrelated to crash risk; and(3) the effects of religion are more pronounced with higher quality corporate governance and a stronger legal environment.Religion constrains the management agency problem,thus reducing stock price crash risk in China.Our paper enriches the literature on stock price crash risk and religion,and on new economic geography.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No.62172385the Anhui Initiative in Quantum Information Technologies under Grant No.AHY150300.
文摘Serious price discrimination emerges with the development of big data and mobile networks,which harms the interests of consumers.To solve this problem,we propose a blockchain-based price consensus protocol to solve the malicious price discrimination faced by consumers.We give a mathematical definition of price discrimination,which requires the system to satisfy consistency and timeliness.The distributed blockchain can make the different pricing of merchants transparent to consumers,thus satisfying the consistency.The aging window mechanism of our protocol ensures that there is no disagreement between any node on the consensus on price or price discrimination within a fixed period,which meets the timeliness.Moreover,we evaluate its performance through a prototype implementation and experiments with up to 100 user nodes.Experimental results show that our protocol achieves all the expected goals like price transparency,consistency,and timeliness,and it additionally guarantees the consensus of the optimal price with a high probability.
