We provide firm-level evidence that a private firm may lower its financing costs by introducing a small (kitty) share of state ownership. However, if the state acquires the lion's share of the private firm, the firm may become inefficient. Therefore, the results show a non-linear relationship...

We examine the issue of the widening wealth inequality in the People's Republic of China (PRC) from the perspective of housing. Using China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) data from 2011, we find that the PRC's wealth inequality including housing is much larger than income inequality. Housing...

Apart from exchange rate objectives which have resulted in reserve accumulation as a side effect, Asian countries have chosen explicitly to build up reserves at least in part for precautionary motives. This paper explores the issue of optimal precautionary demand for reserves by a central bank...

In this paper, we study the sensitivity of insurance companies’ stock returns with respect to expected and unexpected changes in the Federal funds target rate over the period 1988-2007. We confirm Bernanke and Kuttner (2005) that, as stocks in general, insurance stock returns are only...