1,354 research outputs found
Impact of Reforms on Plant-Level Productivity and Technical Efficiency: Evidence from the Indian Manufacturing Sector
It is generally believed that the structural reforms that usher in competition and force companies to become more efficient were introduced later in India following the macroeconomic crisis in 1991. However, whether the post-1991 growth is an outcome of more efficient use of resources or greater use of factor inputs, especially capital, remains an open empirical question. In this paper, we use plant-level data from 1989-90 and 2000-01 to address this question. Our results indicate that while there was an increase in the productivity of factor inputs during the 1990s, most of the growth in value added is explained by growth in the use of factor inputs. We also find that median technical efficiency declined in all but one of the industries between the two years, and change in technical efficiency explains a very small proportion in the change in gross value added.efficiency, growth decomposition, productivity, manufacturing
Firm Investment & Credit Constraints in India, 1997 – 2006: A stochastic frontier approach
We use the stochastic frontier approach to estimate the impact of firm characteristics on investment decisions of Indian firms during the 1997-2006 period. The use of the stochastic frontier approach allows us to define the (unobserved) optimum investment that is consistent with a firm‟s characteristics such as the Tobin‟s q during each firm-year, and then estimate the deviation from this unobserved optimum in the form of an (investment) efficiency score that varies between zero and one. This deviation is interpreted as the degree of credit constraint, and we are also able to estimate the impact of firm characteristics such as leverage and business group affiliation on the degree of credit constraint via their marginal effects. Our results suggest that the degree of credit constraint of an average firm increased over time during the sample period, despite significant reforms of the Indian banking sector by the turn of the century. We also find that the degree of credit constraint decreases with cash flow and assets, which is consistent with the available literature. Further, there is a threshold effect of leverage, and the degree of credit constraint is greater for highly leveraged firms. Finally, we find that the beneficial impact of business group affiliation on the degree of credit constraint decreases over time, and is eliminated by the end of the sample period.Investment, Credit rationing, Imperfect information, Stochastic frontier analysis
Does Institutional Quality Affect Firm Performance? Insights from a Semiparametric Approach
Using a novel modeling approach, and cross-country firm level data for the textiles industry, we examine the impact of institutional quality on firm performance. Our methodology allows us to estimate the marginal impact of institutional quality on productivity of each firm. Our results bring into question conventional wisdom about the desirable characteristics of market institutions, which is based on empirical evidence about the impact of institutional quality on the average firm. We demonstrate, for example, that once both the direct impact of a change in institutional quality on total factor productivity and the indirect impact through changes in efficiency of use of factor inputs are taken into account, an increase in labor market rigidity may have a positive impact on firm output, at least for some firms. We also demonstrate that there are significant intra-country variations in the marginal impact of institutional quality, such that the characteristics of "winners" and "losers" will have to be taken into account before policy is introduced to change institutional quality in any direction.institutional quality, firm performance, marginal effect, textiles industry
A study of long range order in certain two-dimensional frustrated lattices
We have studied the Heisenberg antiferromagnets on two-dimensional frustrated
lattices, triangular and kagome lattices using linear spin-wave theory. A
collinear ground state ordering is possible if one of the three bonds in each
triangular plaquette of the lattice becomes weaker or frustrated. We study
spiral order in the Heisenberg model along with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM)
interaction and in the presence of a magnetic field. The quantum corrections to
the ground state energy and sublattice magnetization are calculated
analytically in the case of triangular lattice with nearesr-neighbour
interaction. The corrections depend on the DM interaction strength and the
magnetic field. We find that the DM interaction stabilizes the long-range
order, reducing the effect of quantum fluctuations. Similar conclusions are
reached for the kagome lattice. We work out the linear spin-wave theory at
first with only nearest-neighbour (nn) terms for the kagome lattice. We find
that the nn interaction is not sufficient to remove the effects of low energy
fluctuations. The flat branch in the excitation spectrum becomes dispersive on
addition of furthet neighbour interactions. The ground state energy and the
excitation spectrum have been obtained for various cases.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figure
Coherent Production of Pairs of Parabosons of Order 2
A parameter-free statistical model is used to study multiplicity signatures
for coherent production of charged-pairs of parabosons of order p=2 in
comparison with those arising in the case of ordinary bosons, p=1. Two
non-negative real parameters arise because "ab" and "ba" are fundamentally
distinct pair operators of charge "+1", A-quanta and charge "-1", B-quanta
parabosons. In 3D plots of P(q)_m = "The probability of m paraboson
charged-pairs and q positive parabosons" versus and , the p=1
curve is found to lie on the relatively narrow 2D p=2 surface.Comment: 25 pages, 16 figures, no macro
Characterisations of Classical and Non-classical states of Quantised Radiation
A new operator based condition for distinguishing classical from
non-classical states of quantised radiation is developed. It exploits the fact
that the normal ordering rule of correspondence to go from classical to quantum
dynamical variables does not in general maintain positivity. It is shown that
the approach naturally leads to distinguishing several layers of increasing
nonclassicality, with more layers as the number of modes increases. A
generalisation of the notion of subpoissonian statistics for two-mode radiation
fields is achieved by analysing completely all correlations and fluctuations in
quadratic combinations of mode annihilation and creation operators conserving
the total photon number. This generalisation is nontrivial and intrinsically
two-mode as it goes beyond all possible single mode projections of the two-mode
field. The nonclassicality of pair coherent states, squeezed vacuum and
squeezed thermal states is analysed and contrasted with one another, comparing
the generalised subpoissonian statistics with extant signatures of nonclassical
behaviour.Comment: 16 pages, Revtex, One postscript Figure compressed and uuencoded
Replaced, minor changes in eq 4.30 and 4.32. no effect on the result
Spin systems with dimerized ground states
In view of the numerous examples in the literature it is attempted to outline
a theory of Heisenberg spin systems possessing dimerized ground states (``DGS
systems") which comprises all known examples. Whereas classical DGS systems can
be completely characterized, it was only possible to provide necessary or
sufficient conditions for the quantum case. First, for all DGS systems the
interaction between the dimers must be balanced in a certain sense. Moreover,
one can identify four special classes of DGS systems: (i) Uniform pyramids,
(ii) systems close to isolated dimer systems, (iii) classical DGS systems, and
(iv), in the case of , systems of two dimers satisfying four
inequalities. Geometrically, the set of all DGS systems may be visualized as a
convex cone in the linear space of all exchange constants. Hence one can
generate new examples of DGS systems by positive linear combinations of
examples from the above four classes.Comment: With corrections of proposition 4 and other minor change
The prosegment catalyzes native folding of Plasmodium falciparum plasmepsin II
Plasmepsin II is a malarial pepsin-like aspartic protease produced as a zymogen containing an N-terminal prosegment domain that is removed during activation. Despite structural similarities between active plasmepsin II and pepsin, their prosegments adopt different conformations in the respective zymogens. In contrast to pepsinogen, the proplasmepsin II prosegment is 80 residues longer, contains a transmembrane region and is non-essential for recombinant expression in an active form, thus calling into question the prosegment's precise function. The present study examines the role of the prosegment in the folding mechanism of plasmepsin II. Both a shorter (residues 77–124) and a longer (residues 65–124) prosegment catalyze plasmepsin II folding at rates more than four orders of magnitude faster compared to folding without prosegment. Native plasmepsin II is kinetically trapped and requires the prosegment both to catalyze folding and to shift the folding equilibrium towards the native conformation. Thus, despite low sequence identity and distinct zymogen conformations, the folding landscapes of plasmepsin II and pepsin, both with and without prosegment, are qualitatively identical. These results imply a conserved and unusual feature of the pepsin-like protease topology that necessitates prosegment-assisted folding
Coherent states for the hydrogen atom
We construct wave packets for the hydrogen atom labelled by the classical
action-angle variables with the following properties. i) The time evolution is
exactly given by classical evolution of the angle variables. (The angle
variable corresponding to the position on the orbit is now non-compact and we
do not get exactly the same state after one period. However the gross features
do not change. In particular the wave packet remains peaked around the labels.)
ii) Resolution of identity using this overcomplete set involves exactly the
classical phase space measure. iii) Semi-classical limit is related to
Bohr-Sommerfield quantization. iv) They are almost minimum uncertainty wave
packets in position and momentum.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, minor change in language and journal reference
adde
A stochastic frontier approach to modelling financial constraints in firms:an application to India
We propose the use of stochastic frontier approach to modelling financial constraints of firms. The main advantage of the stochastic frontier approach over the stylised approaches that use pooled OLS or fixed effects panel regression models is that we can not only decide whether or not the average firm is financially constrained, but also estimate a measure of the degree of the constraint for each firm and for each time period, and also the marginal impact of firm characteristics on this measure. We then apply the stochastic frontier approach to a panel of Indian manufacturing firms, for the 1997–2006 period. In our application, we highlight and discuss the aforementioned advantages, while also demonstrating that the stochastic frontier approach generates regression estimates that are consistent with the stylised intuition found in the literature on financial constraint and the wider literature on the Indian credit/capital market
- …