Abstract:The paper models the effect of the energy-saving subsidy for a firm and consumers with a three-stage game． The aim is to design the optimal subsidy contract for improving the energy-saving attribute per product and total energy-saving attribute respectively． Moreover，this paper studies the optimal energy subsidy contract’s effect on the firm’s profit and consumer surplus． Here are two main results: When the government invests rarely，the optimal energy-saving subsidy contracts under the two objectives are the same，and the consumers and thefirm obtain no improvement from them; When the government aims to improve the total energysaving attribute and its investment is sufficiently large，the firm’s profit and the consumer surplus increases under the optimal contract the government adopts．

Abstract:Platform enterprises have made considerable revolutions in network environments in recent years．Studing its operation strategy from a proper perspective is an important scientific issue． Selecting the practical scale and expected scale of platform ecosystem and time as three parameters，the paper constructs the curve of life cycle of platform ecosystems． The curve is segmented into several stages through some nodes，and the scale，network effects and development patterns of platform ecosystem embody different characteristics in every stage． These characteristics offer the references to formulate operation strategies for platform enterprises． Generally speaking，when platform enterprises could not take full advantage of network effects，potential participants should be attracted to enter into platform ecosystems through“non-network effects inducements”; conversely，platform enterprises should make use of the network effects and develop at a full speed，and should also deal with the problems emerged in the development． This study sets up a theory framework of operation strategy for platform enterprises and develops life cycle theories of platform ecosystems． The conclusions also have guiding significance in making self-diagnostic and operation strategy for platform enterprises．

Abstract:The“Corporate Governance Guidelines for Listed Companies”，issued in 2002，requires that the companies with controlling shareholder stake of more than 30% should adopt a cumulative voting system in the election of directors，and that this system should be written into the articles of association． Is this mandatory requirement effective in reducing tunneling? Based on a sample of 966 listed companies that were listed before 2001 and the cumulative voting system was written into their articles of association，and using the panel data between 2002 and 2010，the differences between before and after the cumulative voting system was written into the articles of association are tested． The empirical results show that after the cumulative voting system has been written into the articles of association，tunneling decreased significantly． However，this governance effect is strongest in companies with controlling shareholder stake of less than 30%，and is significantly weakened in companies with controlling shareholder stake of more than 50%． The governance effect of the cumulative voting system in non-state-owned listed companies is stronger than in state-owned listed companies． After the government provided direct governance reform measures to reduce tunneling，the governance effect of the cumulative voting system weakened． The results show that the mandatory requirement for a stake of 30% as the cutoff point in the“Corporate Governance Guidelines for Listed Companies”did not achieve the desired results．With the introduction of direct governance reform measures to reduce tunneling，the mandatory provision of the cumulative voting system does not work anymore under the current background．

Abstract:Our paper is the first study that explores the determinants of cost stickiness from the perspective of real-option theory，which can integrate the other extant theoretical explanations． Based on the real option theory，the management fails to execute the abandonment options effectively when sales decline，and the extant resource allocation will mismatch with the changes in operating volume，therefore leading to cost stickiness． Using A-share data in China from 1999 to 2012，our empirical results show that industry competition can improve the execution efficiency of abandonment options． That is，fierce industry competition can prompt the management to adjust resource allocation effectively in response to changes in operating volume，thereby reducing the cost stickiness． Further analyses find that the impact of industry competition on the cost stickiness is stronger for firms with higher growthes，in industries with better prosperities，and in periods of macroeconomic expansion． Our paper not only provides the evidence about economic consequences of industry competition on the execution of real options，but also helps to understand the black box of cost management behaviors．

Abstract:By computing the residual cross-correlation function (CCF) ， this paper attempts to explore the nonlinear causality and spillover effect of volatility of the series of the official exchange rates of China，Europe and Japan，respectively，against the USA dollar by employing daily data from Jul． 21，2005 to Dec． 23，2011．Test statistics of nonlinear causality of conditional variance developed by Yin-Wong Cheung，Lilian K． Ng and Hong Y． are used to examine the nonlinear causal relationship between the variances of standardization residual of the three kinds of exchange rates． There upon，a BEKK-MGAＲCH model is built． Finally，the nonlinear causality and spillover effect of volatility on these exchange rates in post financial crisis era are analyzed and interpreted，and the robustness of the nonlinear causal relationship between the variances of time series is verified． he embedding of the truncated kernel function in Hong test causes the low order lag terms a given greater weight，thereby accurately portrays the characteristics that recent fluctuations have a larger impact on current fluctuations． Prior to the establishment of the Vector GAＲCH model，few literatures tested the nonlinear causal relationship first，even though some conducted a simple test，they mistakenly treated Q2(p) as the test statistic of the nonlinear causal relationship between the variances of variable sequences．

Abstract:This paper proposes a nonparametric-regression-based test for omitted variables，which is applicable in both cross-sectional and time series contexts． Our test not only avoids the model misspecification problem，but also are locally more powerful than the existing tests． Moreover，unlike many other nonparametric-based tests，we use a single bandwidth rather than two different bandwidths in estimating both the conditional joint and marginal expectations，which significantly improves the size performance of our test in finite samples．Monte Carlo studies demonstrate the well behavior of our test in finite samples，which could not only capture the omitted variables feature in linear and nonlinear regressions，but also is more powerful than Ait-Sahalia et al． ’s (2001) test． In an application to testing the nonlinear Granger causality in mean，we document the existence of nonlinear relationships between theoutput gap and inflation， that is，the nonlinear“output-inflation”type of Phillips curve maybe is more suitable for China’s inflation forecast．

Abstract:The optimal pricing strategy for information goods and complementary services has been a primary issue for providers of information goods in competitive markets． Most existing researches study pricing of only information goods without considering the subsequent services，or address the problem based on the assumption that the consumers have the same network effects． This paper studies the optimal pricing strategy with heterogeneous consumers and duopoly companies who provide information goods and complementary services． By analyzing four different equilibria，a game model with two types of strategies—the bundle pricing strategy and separate pricing strategy—is proposed to obtain optimal strategies for firms to maximize their profits． Meanwhile，a coefficient representing the strength of heterogeneous network effects is introduced into the Hotelling model to derive the demand function and the profit function of companies，and a two-stage Bertrand game is utilized to analyze the pricing competition． The analytic solutions for the duopoly’s optimal pricing together with their profits are computed by solving the proposed model． The numerical simulation illustrates how the market size and the market structure affect the prices of goods and services，market shares and total profits of the two companies，and how duopoly companies choose their different pricing strategies at different combinations of costs and market sizes．

Abstract:The return of hedge funds often has different statistical characteristics and risk return relations from those of regular investments due to the fact it adopts some flexible investment skills in practice． Therefore，it is difficult to evaluate the performance of hedge funds by using some traditional methods． Based on LASSO quantile regression，the paper identifies some important risk factors，which are helpful to explain hedge fund investment style，and provides a new method by considering the relationship between return and risk across quantiles to evaluate the performance of hedge funds． For illustration，a style portfolio of hedge funds is constructed through LASSO quantile regression． Then，the style portfolio is compared with some classical methods for portfolio choice，such as mean regression portfolio，equal-weighted portfolio，and Markowitz portfolio． Empirical results show that our evaluation method based on LASSO quantile regression is relatively effective and its portfolio investment scheme may obtain higher risk adjusted returns．