Collateral Value and Forbearance Lending

We investigate the foreclosure policy of collateral-based loans in which the endogenous collateral value plays a crucial role. If creditors are able to commit, then the equilibrium arrangement is more likely to feature forebearance lending by specifying a lower level of liquidation (or roll over all of the loans) relative to the expost efficiency criterion for each realization of the interim signal. The key is that collateral value may drop too low when banks call in loans by auctioning off borrowers¿ collateral and this makes clearing up non-performing loans less attractive. We attribute the banks¿ leniency as we have observed in Japan during the 1990s to an equilibrium arrangement where banks can commit due to either relationship banking or an implicit lenderborrower contract, such as the arrangement under Japan¿s main-bank system.Collateral value, forbearance lending, government guarantee.

CleanNet: Transfer Learning for Scalable Image Classifier Training with Label Noise

In this paper, we study the problem of learning image classification models with label noise. Existing approaches depending on human supervision are generally not scalable as manually identifying correct or incorrect labels is time-consuming, whereas approaches not relying on human supervision are scalable but less effective. To reduce the amount of human supervision for label noise cleaning, we introduce CleanNet, a joint neural embedding network, which only requires a fraction of the classes being manually verified to provide the knowledge of label noise that can be transferred to other classes. We further integrate CleanNet and conventional convolutional neural network classifier into one framework for image classification learning. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm on both of the label noise detection task and the image classification on noisy data task on several large-scale datasets. Experimental results show that CleanNet can reduce label noise detection error rate on held-out classes where no human supervision available by 41.5% compared to current weakly supervised methods. It also achieves 47% of the performance gain of verifying all images with only 3.2% images verified on an image classification task. Source code and dataset will be available at kuanghuei.github.io/CleanNetProject.Comment: Accepted to CVPR 201

Competition policy and state-owned enterprises in contemporary China

This thesis explores, first, the evolvement and implementation of competition policy in China, where a competition culture was largely missing for decades; and second, the extent to which the government has resolved the inherent contradiction between preserving state control and promoting competition. The main aim is to evaluate how a competition law, which is essentially a product of capitalist free market economy, is being applied in China, a socialist country where predominant state-owned enterprises (SOEs) together with their owner – the Chinese government – generate the most distortions to market competition. To achieve this aim, the thesis studies, first, the ongoing economic transition and the historical development of Chinese competition policy; second, the prolonged drafting process of the Anti- Monopoly Law (AML); third, the substantive and institutional aspects of the enforcement of the AML, and the outstanding problems of the current competition system; and fourth, the role of the government in the interplay between competition policy and SOEs. The thesis also studies the European Union (EU) competition regime, which had substantial influence on the adoption of the AML and the design of China’s competition system. This discussion intends to use the experiences of the EU in modernising its competition system and in handling competition-related issues involving public enterprises to provide some meaningful answers to certain problems concerning the application of the AML and to possible reform of competition system in China

Unveiling the Noncanonical Activation Mechanism of Cdks: Insights From Recent Structural Studies

The Cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) play crucial roles in a range of essential cellular processes. While the classical two-step activation mechanism is generally applicable to cell cycle-related CDKs, both CDK7 and CDK8, involved in transcriptional regulation, adopt distinct mechanisms for kinase activation. In both cases, binding to their respective cyclin partners results in only partial activity, while their full activation requires the presence of an additional subunit. Recent structural studies of these two noncanonical kinases have provided unprecedented insights into their activation mechanisms, enabling us to understand how the third subunit coordinates the T-loop stabilization and enhances kinase activity. In this review, we summarize the structure and function of CDK7 and CDK8 within their respective functional complexes, while also describing their noncanonical activation mechanisms. These insights open new avenues for targeted drug discovery and potential therapeutic interventions in various diseases related to CDK7 and CDK8