Time-Varying Currency Betas: Evidence from Developed and Emerging Markets

This paper examines the conditional time-varying currency betas from five developed markets and four emerging markets. A trivariate BEKK-GARCH-in-mean model is used to estimate the timevarying conditional variance and covariance of returns of stock index, the world market portfolio and changes in bilateral exchange rate between the US dollar and the local currency of each country. It is found that currency betas are more volatile than those of the world market betas. Currency betas in emerging markets are more volatile than those in developed markets. Moreover, we find evidence of long-memory in currency betas. The usefulness of time-varying currency betas are illustrated by two applications.time-varying currency betas; multivariate GARCH-M models; international CAPM; fractionally integrated processes; stochastic dominance

Exchange Rate Exposure of Sectoral Returns and Volatilities: Evidence from Japanese Industrial Sectors

Most studies of exchange rate exposure of stock returns do not address three relevant aspects simultaneously. They are, namely: sensitivity of stock returns to exchange rate changes; sensitivity of volatility of stock returns to volatility of changes in foreign exchange market; and the correlation between volatilities of stock returns and exchange rate changes. In this paper, we employ a bivariate GJR-GARCH model to examine all such aspects of exchange rate exposure of sectoral indexes in Japanese industries. Based on a sample data of fourteen sectors, we find significant evidence of exposed returns and its asymmetric conditional volatility of exchange rate exposure. In addition, returns in many sectors are correlated with those of exchange rate changes. We also find support for the “averaged-out exposure and asymmetries” argument. Our findings have direct implications for practitioners in formulating investment decisions and currency hedging strategies.exchange rate exposure; asymmetric volatility spillovers; GARCH-type models; conditional correlation

QUANTIFYING THE IMPACT OF ECONOMIC INCENTIVES ON FIRMS' FOOD SAFETY RESPONSIVENESS: THE CASE OF RED MEAT AND POULTRY PROCESSING SECTOR IN CANADA

This study assesses quantitatively the economic incentives for firms to adopt food safety controls and the potential impact of a number of firm and market-specific characteristics on this behavior, focusing on the red meat and poultry-processing sector in Canada.food safety controls, economic incentives, adoption, food processing sectors in Canada, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Assessing Consumer Attitudes and Perceptions Towards Food Quality: The Case of Consumption of Tetra-Packed Fresh Milk in Sri Lanka

The objectives of this study are (i) to assess consumer perceptions on fresh milk that are stored in tetra-packs, and (ii) to determine the relationship between the perceptions and the socio-economic characteristics of the consumers. Using Caswell's four subsets of food quality (i.e. food safety, nutrition, value, and packaging) two indices, namely Mean Attribute Score (MAS) and a Food Quality Responsive Index (FQRI) were developed, which describe how important each of these four subsets and various attributes included in each subset for a consumer to be "loyal" with fresh milk in a tetra-pack instead of spending that part of money on close substitutes. A sample of 664 consumers were randomly selected and interviewed using a structured questionnaire at 10 different marketplaces in the Gampaha district in Sri Lanka from April to May in 2005. A subset of 100 consumers who consumes the product more frequently was considered for further analysis. Ordered Logistic Regression technique was used to estimate the coefficients of the model, to which five levels for the dependent variable was derived using the range of values of the FQRI. The results based on the MAS indicate that consumers tend to purchase tetra-pack considering the attributes included in value and package subsets mainly, including purity, appearance, size, convenience, and informational labeling etc. However, consumers did not believe that it enhances those attributes included in "food safety" and "nutritional" subsets. The statistical outcome shows that age, gender, level of education and income have a significant impact on this behavior. It suggests that the "market" can promote the consumption of fresh milk provided that a product complies with the safety and nutritional standards set by the "government".Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

VOLUNTARY ACTION OF A FIRM ON ENVIROMENT MANAGEMENT: AN EMPIRICAL ASSESSMENT ON SRI LANKAN FOOD PROCESSING FIRMS’ RESPONSE TO THE PRIVATE AND REGULATORY INCENTIVES

The effect of a set of private/market (i.e. financial implications, internal efficiency, market response) and public/non-market (i.e. government regulation, judiciary/legal system) incentives for a firm to act voluntarily on environmental quality is examined. It uses the levels of adoption of five solid waste management practices [SWMPs], namely: (1) 3R system; (2) Composting; (3) Good manufacturing practices; (4) Biogas unit, and (5) ISO 14000 by food processing sector in Sri Lanka in response to the prevalence of each incentive at the firm as the case. The data collected from 325 firms through in-depth interviews and site inspections and supported by a validated structured questionnaire were analyzed using the principles of Structural Equation Modeling. The “Analysis of Moment Structures” (AMOS) software was used to establish the relationships between the levels of adoption of SWMPs and the strength of each incentive. The results show that firms‟ response to environment is relatively low, i.e. 49.2% did not adopt a single practice, while only 28%, 12%, 7.4%, 3.1% and 0.3%, respectively, have adopted 1, 2, 3, 4 or all practices. Firms tend to adopt a higher number of SWMPs as the relative strength of an each incentive perceived by the decision maker of firm gets increases. Firms put a higher weight on the impact on regulation and legal system than the private incentives and the firm size has a substantial impact on its response to the environment. The results highlight the importance of bringing the current public regulatory regimes in developing countries like Sri Lanka towards co-regulation, which is practiced by developed countries like Australia and Canada to facilitate businesses to come up with own solutions for environmental and food quality, as the outcome of this analysis points out that firms‟ compliance to the recommended SWMP was not triggered satisfactorily by the private/voluntary action.Environment management, Food processing sector in Sri Lanka, Incentives, Regulation, Solid waste management, Voluntary adoption, Farm Management,

Cultural Politics of Enterprise Lending and Controls in Closely-held Banks: A Case Study from Sri Lanka

Purpose ? The paper focusses on the enterprise lending and control process in the closely-held banks, with special reference to Sri Lanka. It explores how those processes are being influenced by the distinctive cultural and political processes at organsational and society level. Design/methodology/approach ? The study relies on three cases built upon the life experiences of several employees in a closely-held bank, articulating multiple sources of evidence: interviews, observations, documents, archival records, open-ended questionnaires, internet conversations and exchange of e-mails. For the data analysis, it adopts the cultural political economy theory. Findings ? The study?s findings reveal how the cultural and political factors, such as egoistic motives and politics, gifts/rewards and manipulative culture, and exploitative and discriminatory politics at organizational and society levels articulate into the enterprise lending and control process (?five? Cs) in closely held banks. The ?rational? enterprise lending and control process in this context, merely become a ?ceremonial? practice, serving the petty interest of powerful capitalist business owners. Originality/Value ? The paper is the first "qualitative inquiry" on the inter-linkages between enterprise lending and control processes and organizational and society level cultural politics in closely-held banks in Less Developed Countries (LDCs). The previous studies on bank lending and control either used large-scale surveys or otherwise, devoted their interest towards the role and impact of accounting in World Bank and IMF led lending schemes and policies, particularly in LDCs

Creating and reinforcing discrimination: The controversial role of accounting in bank lending

This paper examines the controversial role played by accounting within the discriminatory bank-lending practices of a privately owned bank in Sri Lanka. It reports on an analytical auto-ethnography (during the period 1994?2004) coupled with follow-up interviews and reiterated analyses. Data were analysed using Pierre Bourdieu?s concepts of field, capital, habitus and symbolic violence. The empirical findings of the paper illustrate how key capitals at macro levels (social, cultural and symbolic) are mobilised in the dominance structures within the banking lending field and how individuals with given habitus behave and follow given strategies to deploy rational accounting systems at a micro level to translate discriminatory bank lending policies into practice and, as a result, create and reinforce discrimination

Indigenous Food Practices of the Dambana Vedda Community in Sri Lanka: Past and Present Scenario

Veddas are considered to be the indigenous community of Sri Lanka. A century ago, the Veddas had scattered across the Eastern Province, North-Central and Uva Provinces. Presently, their main settlement is confined to Dambana in the Badulla district. They inherit unique indigenous knowledge from their ancestors to hunt animals, gather forest goods, collect honey and dig yams to fulfill their food needs as ‘Forest dwellers’. Therefore, they had simple and efficient indigenous techniques for gathering and processing food. The main objective of the present study was to identify and document the past indigenous food practices and current food practices of the Dambana Vedda community. Focus group discussions were carried out with the different age categories of the Vedda community at Dambana to collect information. The indigenous lifestyle of the Vedda community was affected by modernization and civilization. Wild Veddas who lived in the forest have transmitted to village Veddas in colonies with modified food culture. Their indigenous food culture is mixed with the neighboring Sinhalese and Tamil communities. However, with forest reserves restricted, the Veddas are still engaging in a questionable struggle to protect their indigenous tradition and culture. Consequently, they have consumed indigenous foods rarely and novel food varieties become the daily diets of Veddas. Therefore, Veddas have been facing many challenges to protect their unique indigenous food practices for future generations.     DOI: http://doi.org/10.31357/fhss/vjhss.v08i02.0

The utilisation of acid sulphate soils for shrimp (Penaeus monodon) culture on the west coast of Sri Lanka

Continued pressure on land resources for shrimp culture has resulted in many shrimp culture developments on acid sulphate soils in South East Asia which are marginal or difficult to manage. The present study included a survey to identify and classify different acid sulphate and potential acid sulphate soils in the areas earmarked for shrimp culture on the West Coast of Sri Lanka. This was supported by on farm investigations into the behavior and kinetics of metals in culture ponds, time series studies on water and soil quality over a culture cycle, plus morphological and histopathological changes in cultured shrimps and monitoring of calcium and magnesium contents in selected tissues. Although the general environment and water quality criteria in the study areas provided promising conditions for culture of Penaeus monodon, survival (35.1%) and production (1240 kg/ha/ crop) wore found to be significantly lower on acid sulphate soils than that on neutral soils. The stability of metals, particularly that of Iron, which is governed by the redox potential-pH relationships of the pond environment, appears to play a significant role in the processes that increase the potential stress to the shrimps cultured in an acid sulphate environment. Under acid sulphate conditions, shrimps showed elevated levels of iron (119.9 pg/g dry wt) and manganese (38.4 pg/g dry wt) in their muscles and unusually high levels of these heavy metals were recorded in gills (1588 and 93.2 pg/g dry wt of iron and manganese respectively) and carapace (778 and 34 pg/g dry wt of iron and manganese respectively) during the latter part of the culture period. Calcium levels in the carapace were relatively low (136 to 260 mg/ g dry wt) throughout the culture period and showed a negative correlation with culture time (r - -0.950; p - .001). Accumulation of hydrated oxides of iron in gills as a result of oxidation of pyrites was confirmed by the Eh-pH relationships monitored in the pond environment and by histochemical, SEM and TEM studies. These insoluble oxides appear to be primarily responsible for gill colour changes and concomitant histological changes in giil, heart and hepatopancreatic tissues. They are clearly detrimental to the normal gill functions of cultured shrimps. Statistically significant correlations were observed between iron in shrimp gills and muscles with iron in the surface sediments (p -.004 and .010 respectively) and the culture period (p >.013 and .010 respectively). Manganese in gills and carapace of cultured shrimps was correlated to the Iron concentration in those tissues (p >.016 and .002 respectively). Traditional management strategies (drying the pond bottom, liming and artificial aeration) although creating promising conditions for shrimp culture under favourable soil conditions, create adverse conditions by favouring the formation of iron (III) oxides in F>onds on acid sulphate soils. Detailed studies on mapping, classification and identification of profile forms in coastal soils provided vital information necessary for land use planning and development of these sediments in shrimp culture. Development of soil classes; sulphidic sand, unripe sulphidic peat, unripe sulphidic muck, acid sulphate muck, raw acid sulphate muck and raw acid sulphate clay have the most serious implications on cultured shrimps and the environment. Ripe clay with sulphidic subsoil, ripe clay with raw acid sulphate sub-soil, half ripe clay with acid sulphate subsoil and sand with acid sulphate sub- soil appear to be the least harmful soil classes for shrimp culture among the sediment types investigated

Accounting in new public management (NPM) and shifting organizational boundaries: Evidence from the Greek Show Caves

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how accounting is implicated in the creation and maintenance of organizational boundaries. The analysis focuses on organizations subjected to conflicting objectives as a result of new public management (NPM) reforms. Design/methodology/approach – The analysis is based on case studies of four cultural organizations (Show Caves) in Greece. Data are collected from semi-structured interviews, informal discussions and document analysis. The paper draws on Bourdieu’s concepts of “field”, “capital” and “habitus” and Llewellyn’s analysis of organizational boundary maintenance. Findings – The study observes that NPM reforms contributed to shifting organizational boundaries – from cultural/archaeological to economic/financial and this resulted in conflicting organizational objectives. This subsequently created conflicts between key actors (municipal politicians, professional managers and anthropologists). These actors, depending on the positions (and habitus) they occupy, and the capital (political, cultural and symbolic) they hold, are able to bargain for resources (economic capital). The conflicting objectives (archaeological/cultural/historical, political and commercial) that emerged and the tensions that arose between the key players shaped the identities and boundaries of the Show Caves. Originality/value – The study makes an original contribution by revealing the complexity and struggle between actors and the role of accounting in managing the boundaries. For example, the study explains how financial threshold and accountability structures function within these cultural organizations that are subjected to conflicting objectives in the context of NPM reforms