Abstracts : Policy Research working paper series - numbers 2754 - 2802

This paper contains abstracts of Policy Research working paper series, numbers 2754 - 2802.Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Economics&Finance,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Poverty Assessment,Economic Theory&Research

IMF Bank-Restructuring Efficiency Outcomes: Evidence from East Asia

We report new findings on bank efficiency in East Asian countries for the preand post-IMF restructuring periods. We find that bank efficiency has improved, but only to the pre-IMF intervention level, and that restructured banks are not more efficient than their unrestructured counterparts. Different restructuring measures have different effects. Bank closures are economically justified, but mergers show short-term efficiency losses. Recapitalization and reprivatization of badly performing banks lead to efficiency improvement, but also increase government ownership. Ease of entry that has allowed for more foreign bank participation results in slightly improved performance of badly performing banks.

IMF BANK-RESTRUCTURING EFFICIENCY OUTCOMES:EVIDENCE FROM EAST ASIA

This paper reports new findings for the first time on bank efficiency over the pre- and post-IMF-restructuring periods for East Asia using the DEA and regression models. Bank closures that followed the IMF interventions are economically justified; but mergers and acquisitions experience short-term efficiency losses. Recapitalization and then re-privatization of bad banks have led to efficiency improvements, but still increased government ownership. Ease of entry has resulted in more foreign bank participation with improved performance; further spurts in improvements, however, may take longer time. These findings advocate bank restructuring during the crisis; but well-designed measures are vital to ensure its success. Bank mergers and acquisitions need to be scrutinized. Privatization, particularly with strategic foreign ownership, of domestic banks which should be further encouraged. To reap the potential benefits of such foreign participation, stronger economic reforms of the host countries should be further pursued.

Efficiency of Large Scale Manufacturing in Pakistan : A Production Frontier Approach

This paper examines the efficiency of the large scale manufacturing sector of Pakistan using the stochastic production frontier approach. A stochastic production frontier is estimated for two periods1995-96 and 2000-01for 101 industries at the 5-digit PSIC. The results show that there has been some improvement in the efficiency of the large scale manufacturing sector, though the magnitude of improvement remains small. The results are mixed at the disaggregated level : whereas a majority of industrial groups have gained in terms of technical efficiency, some industries have shown deterioration in their efficiency levels.Manufacturing Industries, technical efficiency, stochastic frontier analysis, Data Envelopment Analysis

How Ownership Structure Affects Capital Structure and Firm Performance? Recent Evidence from East Asia

Despite the seminal work of Claessens et al. (2002), who highlighted the role of ownership structure on firm performance in East Asia, the relationship between capital structure and ownership remains much unexplored. This is important, given recent empirical and theoretical work linking capital structure and performance. The novelty of the present paper is that in examining the effects of ownership concentration on capital structure and firm performance, it not only allows for simultaneity between capital structure and firm performance, but also controls for one possible source of moral hazard related to the higher voting rights relative to cash flow rights. The paper clearly establishes that results are rather country-specific and the effects of ownership structure on firm performance cannot be delineated from its effects on leverage. More interestingly, these results highlight that higher voting rights could pose some moral hazard problem if there is a controlling manager shareholder called Cronyman in our analysis. Evidently family ownership could mitigate some of these moral hazard problems, though it could exacerbate the problem of over-lending. As such, the results presented here confirm and extend the essential findings of Claessens et al. (2002), though illustrate the importance of allowing for simultaneity between capital structure and firm performance.

How Ownership Structure Affects Capital Structure and Firm Performance? Recent Evidence from East Asia

Despite the seminal work of Claessens et al. (2002), who highlighted the role of ownership structure on firm performance in East Asia, the relationship between capital structure and ownership remains much unexplored. This is important, given recent empirical and theoretical work linking capital structure and performance. The novelty of the present paper is that in examining the effects of ownership concentration on capital structure and firm performance, it not only allows for simultaneity between capital structure and firm performance, but also controls for one possible source of moral hazard related to the higher voting rights relative to cash flow rights. The paper clearly establishes that results are rather country-specific and the effects of ownership structure on firm performance cannot be delineated from its effects on leverage. More interestingly, these results highlight that higher voting rights could pose some moral hazard problem if there is a controlling manager shareholder called Cronyman in our analysis. Evidently family ownership could mitigate some of these moral hazard problems, though it could exacerbate the problem of over-lending. As such, the results presented here confirm and extend the essential findings of Claessens et al. (2002).Asian Crisis, Corporate Governance, Capital structure, Firm performance, Expropriation of minority shareholders, Moral hazard, 3SLS estimates, Simultaneity bias, Non-linearity.

How Ownership Structure Affects Capital Structure and Firm Performance? Recent Evidence from East Asia

Despite the seminal work of Claessens et al. (2002), role of ownership structure on capital structure and firm performance in East Asian corporattions remains much unexplored. Within the framework of Bajaj et al. (1998), the present paper empirically examines the effects of a controlling manager and degree of monitoring (a measure of moral hazard) on capital structure and firm performance among a sample of Korean and Indonesian firms. In doing so, we not only allow for simultaneity between capital structure and firm performance (a la Berger and di Patti, 2003), but also the non-linearity in these relationships. Our empirical results in essence depend on whether a firm is run by a family and also whether there is a manager who is also a controlling owner. There is evidence that family ownership could mitigate the problem of moral hazard though it could exacerbate the problem of over-lending in our samples. Also the effects of ownership structure on firm performance cannot be delineated from its effects on leverage. As such, the results presented here confirm and extend the essential findings of Claessens et al. (2002) and Bajaj et al. (1998).Asian Crisis, Corporate Governance, Capital structure, Firm performance, Expropriation of minority shareholders, 3SLS estimates, Simultaneity bias, Non-linearity.