The Interrelationship between Military Expenditure and External Debt: Patterns of Causation in Northern Africa Countries

It is supported by academics and scholars that defense expenditure can significantly affect a country’s economic growth and in some cases it influences external debt having implications in various macroeconomic indicators. However, relevant empirical studies have produced contradictory evidence while the literature in this field remains relatively poor. In this spirit, this survey investigates the causal links between military expenditure and external debt for four emerging Northern Africa countries (i.e. Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco) during the period 1988-2009. Empirical findings on the long-term relationship between the tested variables are based on cointegration test. The Granger Causality test results using Vector Auto Regression (VAR) estimates and the Error Correction Model imply that there is no dynamic causal link between military expenditure and external debt for Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. On the other hand regarding Egypt, results imply that a strong unidirectional causality exists running from defense expenditure to external debt. Collectively, empirical calculations show that military burden do not have any significant impact on most Northern Africa countries. The only exception is the case of Egypt; empirical results show that military expenditure robustly affect the country’s external debt. These are the only findings provided from this study that validate the hypothesis that military burden may be important in determining the evolution of debt in developing countries

Recent Developments and Trends in Accounting Information Systems

This study examines the relationship between management accounting and integrated information systems by investigating the existing literature on the subject. The current research has been uncovered, classified and interpreted in order to provide an understandable illustration of the findings of previous studies and to show in what aspects more research is required. This paper also provides a new theoretical framework which enables a structured classification of the reviewed literature

Board Structure and Bank Performance: Evidence for the Greek Banking Industry during Crisis Period

The recent financial crisis has heightened the research interest worldwide in the relationship between various corporate governance mechanisms and firm performance. Nevertheless, few published papers focus on investigating this nexus for the case of the banking industry. This study is the first that empirically assesses the impact of board structure on bank performance for the case of Greek banks using a variety of econometric methodologies. Exhaustive empirical findings are presented based on a sample of thirteen Greek banks and for a period of severe sovereign debt crisis (2008-2014). Empirical findings support an inverted U-shaped relation between board size and bank performance and between the proportion of independent board members and performance of Greek banks. All empirical findings are generated after we control for M&A activity, bank size and capital adequacy of each bank. Overall, our results document the positive contribution of the implemented corporate governance regulatory framework on the Greek bank value. Keywords: Corporate Governance, Bank Performance, Board Structure. JEL Classifications: C52, G34, G2

Corporate governance mechanisms and bank performance: evidence from the Greek banks during crisis period

This paper is the first research attempt that investigates the impact of a large number of corporate governance mechanisms on the performance of Greek banks,employing widely accepted in the literature of corporate governance econometric models. Results indicate that system GMM models are more suitable methodological tools than pooledOLS and fixed effects models to address well-known econometric problems, such as endogeneity, simultaneity and unobserved heterogeneity of individual banks. The findings, as derived from the application of GMM models, imply that increasing the board size and the number of independent directors can both have positive impact on the performance of Greek banks, but only up to a certain point. Thus, bank efficiency will increase as board size and the proportion of independent directors grow up to a point where these relationships hit a maximum from which bank performance decreases. Our multi-model estimations failed to trace any significant contribution of the number of female and foreign directors on the performance of Greek banks. Finally, the dual appointment of a CEO as Chairman appears to affect negatively two out of four proxies of bank performance. Overall, the results provide support for the positive impact of corporate governance mechanisms on the performance of Greek banks. The significance of these findings increases, considering that the period under study (2008-2014) is marked by high market volatility and uncertainty due to the well-known debt crisis that plagues Greece since the beginning of 2008

Asian Economic and Financial Review, 2013, 3(4):464-482 TOURISM EXPANSION AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: VAR/VECM ANALYSIS AND FORECASTS FOR THE CASE OF INDIA

ABSTRAC

The Hot and Energetic Universe: A White Paper presenting the science theme motivating the Athena+ mission

This White Paper, submitted to the recent ESA call for science themes to define its future large missions, advocates the need for a transformational leap in our understanding of two key questions in astrophysics: 1) How does ordinary matter assemble into the large scale structures that we see today? 2) How do black holes grow and shape the Universe? Hot gas in clusters, groups and the intergalactic medium dominates the baryonic content of the local Universe. To understand the astrophysical processes responsible for the formation and assembly of these large structures, it is necessary to measure their physical properties and evolution. This requires spatially resolved X-ray spectroscopy with a factor 10 increase in both telescope throughput and spatial resolving power compared to currently planned facilities. Feedback from supermassive black holes is an essential ingredient in this process and in most galaxy evolution models, but it is not well understood. X-ray observations can uniquely reveal the mechanisms launching winds close to black holes and determine the coupling of the energy and matter flows on larger scales. Due to the effects of feedback, a complete understanding of galaxy evolution requires knowledge of the obscured growth of supermassive black holes through cosmic time, out to the redshifts where the first galaxies form. X-ray emission is the most reliable way to reveal accreting black holes, but deep survey speed must improve by a factor ~100 over current facilities to perform a full census into the early Universe. The Advanced Telescope for High Energy Astrophysics (Athena+) mission provides the necessary performance (e.g. angular resolution, spectral resolution, survey grasp) to address these questions and revolutionize our understanding of the Hot and Energetic Universe. These capabilities will also provide a powerful observatory to be used in all areas of astrophysics

The Hot and Energetic Universe: A White Paper presenting the science theme motivating the Athena+ mission

This White Paper, submitted to the recent ESA call for science themes to define its future large missions, advocates the need for a transformational leap in our understanding of two key questions in astrophysics: 1) How does ordinary matter assemble into the large scale structures that we see today? 2) How do black holes grow and shape the Universe? Hot gas in clusters, groups and the intergalactic medium dominates the baryonic content of the local Universe. To understand the astrophysical processes responsible for the formation and assembly of these large structures, it is necessary to measure their physical properties and evolution. This requires spatially resolved X-ray spectroscopy with a factor 10 increase in both telescope throughput and spatial resolving power compared to currently planned facilities. Feedback from supermassive black holes is an essential ingredient in this process and in most galaxy evolution models, but it is not well understood. X-ray observations can uniquely reveal the mechanisms launching winds close to black holes and determine the coupling of the energy and matter flows on larger scales. Due to the effects of feedback, a complete understanding of galaxy evolution requires knowledge of the obscured growth of supermassive black holes through cosmic time, out to the redshifts where the first galaxies form. X-ray emission is the most reliable way to reveal accreting black holes, but deep survey speed must improve by a factor ~100 over current facilities to perform a full census into the early Universe. The Advanced Telescope for High Energy Astrophysics (Athena+) mission provides the necessary performance (e.g. angular resolution, spectral resolution, survey grasp) to address these questions and revolutionize our understanding of the Hot and Energetic Universe. These capabilities will also provide a powerful observatory to be used in all areas of astrophysics