期刊-NBER美国国民经济研究局-spring2000_64页_5mb

报告摘要

MBER Reporter Summary - Spring 2000

Core Content

The NBER Reporter Spring 2000 issue highlights research and developments in Corporate Finance and related topics such as Environmental Policies, Banking, and Ownership Structures. It also includes information about the NBER's structure, Research Summaries, and Working Papers.

Main Topics and Key Findings

Corporate Finance Program

The Corporate Finance Program was established in 1991 and has grown significantly in scope, integrating with other areas of economics.
Andrei Shleifer and his colleagues have explored the relationship between legal systems and financial development, showing that common law systems tend to offer better investor protection and support external capital markets.
Diversified firms create internal capital markets that can finance projects ignored by the market, but they often trade at a discount, suggesting inefficient investment or capital misallocation.

Banking and Financial Crises

Bengt Holmstrom and Jean Tirole developed a theory of financial intermediation and liquidity based on the collateral value of assets.
Douglas Diamond and Raghuram Rajan argue that financial fragility is essential to liquidity creation and credit formation, and that banks are not merely intermediaries but central to the financial system.
Jun-Koo Kang and Rene Stulz found that Japanese firms with bank links suffer more during banking crises, indicating the critical role of banks in corporate stability.
Takeo Hoshi and Anil Kashyap analyze the origins and consequences of the Japanese banking crisis.
Edward Kane views recent banking crises as information-producing events that reveal inefficient regulatory strategies.

Ownership and Firm Boundaries

Corporate ownership has evolved, with managerial stock ownership increasing from 13% to 21% since the 1930s.
Ownership structures such as stock pyramids, cross-ownership, and dual class equity can lead to large agency costs.
Lucian Bebchuk, Reinier Kraakman, and George Triantis examine the agency problems and dividend policies in business groups, highlighting the separation of control and cash flow rights.
Tarun Khanna and Krishna Palepu study Indian business groups, noting their difficulty in monitoring and reduced foreign investment.

Managerial Incentives

Bengt Holmstrom discusses managerial incentive problems from a dynamic perspective.
George Baker and Brian Hall explore the confusion in measuring CEO incentives and how pay sensitivities vary with firm size.
Rajesh Aggarwal and Andrew Samwick suggest that executives with broader responsibilities have higher pay-performance incentives.

Debt and Equity

Stewart Myers investigates the conditions for outside equity financing when insiders are self-interested and cash flows are not verifiable.
Roger Gordon and Young Lee find that taxes significantly influence corporate debt policy, with larger firms being more likely to use debt financing due to differential tax rates.

Environmental Policies

Lawrence Goulder discusses the economic impacts of environmental policies, emphasizing the use of general equilibrium analysis.
Green tax reform involves replacing distortionary taxes (e.g., income and sales taxes) with environmentally motivated taxes (e.g., carbon taxes).
The "double dividend" concept suggests that green tax reform can improve the environment and reduce tax system costs simultaneously, but theoretical models show that the revenue-recycling effect is not sufficient to offset the primary cost and tax-interaction effect.
However, under certain conditions, such as improving the relative taxation of capital and labor, or correcting distortions in consumer goods taxation, the double dividend could be achieved.

Key Information

The NBER is a private, nonprofit research organization established in 1920.
The Corporate Finance Program is a key area of research, with Raghuram Rajan as its Program Director.
The NBER website offers searchable databases of Working Papers, books, and research associates.
Contributions to the NBER are tax-deductible.
Research Papers are cited with NBER Working Paper numbers, indicating their availability and importance in the field.

Structure of the NBER

Board of Directors includes prominent economists and business leaders.
Directors by University Appointment and by Other Organizations represent a wide range of academic and professional backgrounds.
Research Associates and Faculty Research Fellows are key contributors to the NBER's work.

Conclusion

The Spring 2000 issue of the NBER Reporter underscores the interdisciplinary nature of corporate finance and its broader implications for economic policy and financial systems. It also highlights the complexity of environmental tax reform and the importance of legal frameworks in shaping financial development and corporate governance.