Explore publications.

<p><em>Many U.S. banks failed or performed poorly during the recent financial crisis.  Although the costliest failures were large institutions, the majority of failures were community banks (less than $1 billion in total assets).  Community banks, which are considered instrumental in small business lending and employment growth, face different risks and challenges than their larger counterparts, including a lack of economies of scale and scope and exclusion from “too-big-to-fail” status.  These challenges, coupled with the recent failures, motivate research into potential strategies managers can use to improve performance.  This study examined the relationship between three potential diversification strategies and community bank risk-adjusted performance from 2007 to 2011.  Understanding these relationships could improve management’s decision-making, allowing them to choose risk-mitigating strategies during a severe economic downturn.  Herfindahl-Hirschman Indexes (HHIs) were calculated as proxies for geographic, activity, and asset diversification.  Multiple regression models for each of the five years were used to calculate the impact of diversification variables on risk-adjusted ROA.  The results show that diversification in all areas is directly related to performance; however, only the asset diversification relationship is significant.  To the extent possible for community banks, diversification may improve risk-adjusted performance.</em></p>

<p><em>The link between </em><em>stock market development and economic activity has always been the subject of considerable debate in the field of economics and it raises empirical question whether stock market development influences economic activity or whether it is a consequence of increased economic activity. This study attempts to investigate the direction of causality between stock market development and economic growth in the Indian context. Using the cointegration and causality tests for the period June 1991 to June 2013, the study confirms a well defined long-run equilibrium relationship between the stock market development indicators and economic growth in India. The empirical results show bidirectional causality between market capitalisation and economic growth and unidirectional causality from turnover ratio to economic growth in the long-run and short-run. By and large, it can be inferred that the stock market development indicators viz. market capitalisation and turnover ratio have a positive influence on economic growth in India.</em><em></em></p>

<p><em>This paper employs a quarterly time series to determine the timing of structural breaks for interest rates in USA over the last 60 years. <strong>The Chow test</strong> is used for investigating the non-stationary, where the date of the potential break is assumed to be known. Moreover, we empirically examined the deviation from an assumed interest rate as given in a standard Taylor rule and consequences on financial sectors. The empirical analysis is strengthened by analysing the rule from a historical perspective and look at the effect of setting the interest rate by the central bank on financial imbalances. The empirical evidence indicates that deviation in monetary policy has a potential causal factor in the build up of financial imbalances and the subsequent crisis where macro prudential intervention could have beneficial effect. Thus, our findings tend to support the view, which states that the probable existence of central banks has been one source of global financial crisis since the past decade.</em></p>

<p><em>The study examines the perceptions of the services of the micro finance Institutions by the women service users, and how the services of micro Institutions affect businesses of the beneficiaries of the micro credit loans. The research design for the study was the survey method. The instruments of data collection were structured questionnaires and in-depth interview. A total of 450 questionnaires were administered to the female participants, and senior management personnel of the micro credit institutions were interviewed. The cluster and simple random sampling were used to select the participants for the study. The leaders of registered unions were the informants.  The result reveals that the poor services and attitude of officials of micro finance institutions and other problems like the regressive tax regimes, harsh economic climate and patriarchy are negatively affecting the business ventures of the loan beneficiaries and by implication the goals of poverty reduction via micro credit scheme . The women beneficiaries are groaning under the burden of loan repayment and meeting other obligations as mothers and wives. This study is applicable in the context of social policy development at this time when social services delivery is not only poor but at dismal level. The need for gender sensitive and social development becomes imperative. It is critical to social work practice in the context of advocacy, empowerment programs, facilitating and initiating service delivery and Community organizing by social workers that will enhance the war against Poverty and other social impediments against women empowerment in Nigeria.</em></p>

<p>The paper concentrates on value and size effects in country portfolios. It contributes to academic literature threefold. First, I provide fresh evidence that the value and size effects may be useful in explaining the cross-sectional variation in country returns. The computations are based on a broad sample of 66 countries in years 2000-2013. Second, I document that the country-level value and size effects are indifferent to currency conversions. Finally, I introduce an alternative macro-level Fama-French model, which, contrary to its prototype, employs country-based factors. I show that applying this modification makes the model more successful in evaluation of funds with global investment mandate than the standard CAPM and FF models.</p>

<p>The proactively evolved banking regulations in the Indian Banking sector under the authorative directive of the Reserve bank of India (RBI) has often brought about a change in the business strategy, capital structure and operations of the banks in the Indian banking sector. During these events of continuous change and adoption of Basel norms, we analyse the efficiency of the Indian banking sector with using Data Envelopment Analysis across three economic eras andacross the different ownership structures. The determinants of efficiency are selected on the basis of intermediation approach. We also attempt to identify whether the inefficiency arises from managerial incompetence or improper size and resource allocation. From our analysis, we identify the main cause of inefficiency in the Indian Banking sector to be arising out of improper size allocation.</p>

<p>This paper aims to test the validity of the causality between financial development and economic growth on energy consumption in three of North African countries. The study employs error coreection model and Granger causaility test to analyza a dataset for three North African countries covering a period from 1980 to 2010. The applied model is based on demand function for energy to assess the existing of causal relationship of energy with financial development, and economic growth, in Algeria, Egypt, and Tunisia. Empirical results provide a positive significant relating financial development and energy consumption in Algeria, and Tunisia. On the other hand, Egypt’s results show a negative significant relationship relating energy consumption and financial development. The paper is valuable to policy makers in North African countries in their pursuit for achieving economic growth as it clarifies the urge for the financial development reforms to stimulate investment and growth.</p>

<p>This study investigates the impact of bank recapitalization on real sector performance in Nigeria. Specifically, the study examines the direct effect (bank investment) and indirect effect (loans and advances to real sector) on real<br />sector output growth between the period 1986 and 2012.This study departs from previous studies because we aggregate the three leading sectors (agriculture, manufacturing and building and construction) of the Nigerian<br />economy to arrive at our real sector index. Also, having carefully subjected our data to necessary econometric tests we employed chow test for structural break to test for the existence of policy shift between bank capital base and loan<br />to the real sector of the Nigerian economy as a result of bank recapitalisation policy .Similarly, OLS estimates was used to determine the direct and indirect effect of bank capital base and real sector output growth. The results from<br />structure break tests reveal that bank recapitalization policy causes policy shift in bank capital base and loan to real sector thus the policy is of significant impact to real sector performance .In corollary, the result from the OLS strongly<br />indicates that bank capital base has significant effect on real sector output growth directly and indirectly. We then conclude that Nigerian banks should be adequately capitalised as to play active intermediateting roles expected of<br />them in this modern and competitive global economy</p>

<div><p>The reform agenda in the financial as well as banking sector in the Indian economy was not only in the target of achieving profitable banking business but also to reduce the magnitude of banking funds locked in the bad debt account so that, among others, the real delivery of credit (the credit-deposit ratio) rises in overall fronts. The Narasimham Committee Report in respect of reducing magnitude of non- performing assets has been framed in line with the Basel Norm regarding the asset quality of the banks where capital adequacy ratio has been fixed for different banks to achieve within different time periods. The present study, under such a back ground, has been structured to examine the profile of all Scheduled Commercial Banks in all ranges of CRAR over time in aggregate and bank group specific and to measure degree of correlation of NPA-Deposit ratio with CRAR trends and Credit-Deposit Ratio in all ranges of CRAR and their significance levels for the time period 1995-96 to 2009-2010. It has been observed that there has been variation across banks in following the guidelines of the reform committee. SBI group and foreign banks have been performing well in this respect. There has been rising trend of the proportions of banks in the above 10 per cent range of CRAR. The NPA/D ratio and C-D ratio have been observed to be positively and negatively correlated respectively for the first three ranges of CRAR and reverse in the above 10 per cent range. The correlation between the NPA/D ratio and C-D ratio is negative and significant.</p></div>

<div><p>Data mining technology is one of the new technologies that have become increasingly popular. Data mining enables to form forecasts and models regarding future by making use of past data. It can be costly, risky and time consuming for enterprises to gain knowledge. Firms gain important competitive advantage by data mining methods. This study analyzes on the readiness to implement and the extent of utilization of data mining technologies in the Financial Information Systems (FIS) in Borsa Istanbul and also researches the level of understanding of, perceptions of and readiness to implement data mining technologies within the Borsa Istanbul.  Analysis was undertaken using SPSS. Manufacturing and financial enterprises are the universal of this study. Primary data were obtained by using survey method and questionnaire technique and findings of the study were evaulated. Technological, organisational and human resources issues had a significant role in the decision to, or not to utilize data mining technology. The ability to use data mining technology was found to be increased the performance of the Financial Information System.<strong></strong></p></div>

<p>This paper investigates whether false confidence, as characterized by a high level of personal mastery and a low level of intelligence (IQ), results in frequent investor trading and subsequent investor wealth erosion across time. Using the National Longitudinal Survey (NLSY79), change in wealth and asset allocation across time is modeled as a function of various behavioral, socio-economic and demographic variables drawn from prior literature. Findings of this research reveal that false confidence is indeed a predictor of trading activity in individual investment assets, and it also has a negative impact on individual wealth creation across time.</p>

<p>Tax policy is one of the most important policy in consideration of investment development in certain industry. Research by Newlon (1987), Swenson (1994) and Hines (1996) concluded that tax rate is one of the most important thing considered by investors in a foreign direct investment. One of tax policy could be used to attract foreign direct investment is income tax incentives. The attractiveness of income tax incentives to a foreign direct investment is as much as the attractiveness to a domestic investment (Anwar and Mulyadi, 2012). In this paper, we have conducted a study of income tax incentives in food and agriculture industry; where we conduct a thorough study of income tax incentives and corporate performance in Indonesian and Australian food and agriculture industry. Our research show that there is a significant influence of income tax incentives to corporate performance. Based on our study, we conclude that the significant influence of income tax incentives to Indonesian corporate performance somewhat in a higher degree than the Australian peers. We have also concluded that Indonesian government provide a relatively more interesting income tax incentives compare to Australian government. However, an average method of net income –a method applied in Australia– could be considered by Indonesian government to avoid a market price fluctuation in this industry.</p>

<div><p><em>The aim of this paper is to study the relationship between earnings management, governance and investors </em><em>behavior</em><em>, since this latter can inform about the nature of earnings management and can be considered as a governance mechanism to reduce accounts manipulations. On the basis of a sample of 700 American firms for the period of 1996-2006, our empirical results show that </em><em>investors who take short positions, are able to interpret the information detected from the earnings management. The activity of these investors may be considered as an indicator of the quality of the governance structure and the presence and nature of earnings management. The under-reaction of investors to information leads to short-term sale of the shares of poorly governed firms and characterized by an opportunistic earnings management and to invest in firms well-governed and characterized by an informational earnings management therefore an abnormal profit can be realized.</em></p></div>

<p><em>The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether there is an optimal capital structure at which point firm is able to maximize its value. The author employ an advanced panel threshold regression estimation developed in 1999 by Hansen that will indicate whether there are positive and negative impacts of capital structure on firm value. The author has used data of among 90 unlisted Seafood Processing Enterprises in the South Central region of Vietnam (SEASCRs) during 2005–2011 period. The author has used book value of equity plus long- term debt (BVE) and return on equity (ROE) as surrogate for firm value and book value of total debt to total assets (TD/TA) as surrogate for capital structure and as the threshold variable. The empirical results strongly indicate that triple threshold effect exists between debt ratio and firm value when BVE is selected to proxy firm value. However, when ROE is selected to proxy firm value, the result shows that there exists double thresholds effect between debt ratio and firm value. From these results, the author  may conclude that the relationship between capital structure and firm value has a nonlinear relationship represents an convex Parapol shape. In addition, the findings suggest implications for SEASCRs on flexible usage of financial leverage. Specifically, SEASCRs should not use loans over 57.39%. To ensure and enhance the firm value, the scope of the optimal debt ratio should be less than 57.39%. </em></p>

<p><em>Banks had a large part in the developments taking place in the years after the outbreak of the crisis in 2007, as many banks had an excessively low capital base, involving too much risk in its businesses. In this study, the largest four banks in Sweden have been investigated. The financial crisis affected the banks differently, depending on the markets of expansion. Excessive risk-taking has been found, where one bank expanded aggressively into new markets and did not appreciate the risks on these new markets. CEO compensation and risk seeking boards are factors that might have caused such behaviour. All of the banks have made noticeable changes to their capital structure, increasing it annually, accompanied by a risk-reduction movement in their assets to improve the stability in most of the banks. The new regulation’s focus on both quality and quantity is in accordance with the views that are expressed in the framework. The banks have altered their goals to levels several per cent above the regulations, in contrast to before the crisis when they were often as close as possible. The impact of the new liquidity regulations has been limited, as the banks continue to work with their internal measures. The banks have all changed their view of capital ratio and liquidity, where many of the banks have doubled the amount of these posts and now find these measures to be both beneficial and a way to gain trust and stability.</em><em></em></p>

<p><em>This article focuses on the empirical relationship between the United States’ and Japan’s yield spread of interest rates and economic growth in Japan. The yield spread is defined in this article as the difference between the Japanese government bond yield minus the US government bond yield. Some studies have tackled this issue and found a negative relationship between the yield spread and economic growth; however, recent studies have shown no or a weak relationship. This problem has not yet reached consensus in spite of its importance. As the Japanese interest rate has been quite low since the adoption of the zero interest rate policy at the end of 1990s, the situation may change the results. The empirical results show that reliability of yield spread as a leading indicator of output growth exists in Japan; however, term structure of interest rate is not related to output growth.</em><em></em></p>

<p>In this paper, the author investigated the influence of management decisions like capital structure, dividend policies, remunerations, credit policy decisions and investment decisions on shareholder wealth maximization. The main objective of this paper is to increase awareness and relationship between management and shareholders of the companies. To achieve the objective, portfolio theory, capital asset pricing model and modern financial theory providing evidence on the linkage between management decisions to shareholder’s value. Shareholders are only concerned about the value of shares of the company and the amount of return in the form of dividend paid. Thus in order to meet the demands of the shareholders of the company, managers needs to increase their abilities and skills to overcome the organizational goals. Thus the main goal of this paper is to discuss on the role of management decisions towards increasing shareholder’s wealth and meet organizational goals.</p>

<p>This paper can be described as a significant exploratory study that will provide a significant contribution to knowledge to consider crucial issues which need to be barriers to understanding or a temptation/ requirement to judge some practices as ‘better’ than others for stock market development effective approach and implement successful stock market performance and economic growth. Recent analysis of the link between financial development and growth, gained from insights acquired as a result of using the technique of endogenous growth models, has illustrated that growth without exogenous technical progress and that growth rates could be related to technology, income distribution and institutional arrangements. This provides the theoretical background that empirical studies have lacked; illustrating that financial intermediation affects the level of economic growth. Resulting models have provided new impetus to empirical research of the effects of financial development. The birth of the new endogenous growth theory has facilitated the development of improved growth models where the long-term rate could be affected by a number of elements. These included technology, education and health policies in the process of economic development, capital accumulation, government policies and institutional activities in the role of financial development in economic growth.</p>

<p>The purpose of this study is to present a case for the need for audit committee in Constituency Development Fund to promote corporate governance and accountability in constituency development fund management in Nairobi Province, Kenya. The study provides an analysis and critique of the extent of engagement research in the field of corporate governance and accountability in constituency Development Fund management and present case for further research that may be directed to outside Nairobi province. The study found that the extent of literature in the field of corporate governance and accountability and reporting in contrast to the field to management CDF in Nairobi had largely ignored the practice within CDF organizations.  The study argues that CDF can benefit from the methodological and theoretical insights of audit committee and other disciplines. The study suggests where further contributions might be made by future research endeavors engaging with audit committees with organizations. Engaging audit committee in CDF governance and accountability has the potential to improve theorizing practice and the sustainability performance with organizations. Drawing on the methods and theories of other disciplines and the papers in the special issues (of audit committee) the study presents away forward for researchers engaging with audit committees in organizational practicing corporate governance and accountability.</p>

<p>The paper employs various measures of law enforcement to provide new evidence on the importance of legal institutions for different dimensions of financial development in transition economies. It offers a critical assessment of law enforcement measures employed in recent studies by showing that some proxies for law enforcement in the credit market may not be appropriate. Hence, care should be taken in how the quality of institutions is measured and the context which it represents. An original approach to measuring law enforcement in the credit market is developed by embodying the legal theory of dispute resolution and assessing this approach by collecting primary data for Kosovo. The findings suggest that Kosovo compares well with countries in the region and other transition economies in terms of the enforcement of creditor rights.</p>