Banking Efficiency and the Economic Transition Process

This paper investigates the role of the banking system in the economic transition process. This is considered in the context of an overlapping generation model with endogenous growth. There are two production technologies, one for the production of a final good and the other for the production of an investment good. The return of caital invested in the investment good technology is stochastic. Banks collect the saving of households and finance the production of the investment good while respecting some prudential rules. We show that the capital accumulation is constituted of several phases and that the economic transition process depends on the fragility of the financial system defined as the degree of the credit market perfection and the bank’s inefficiency. Hence, efficient banks enables the economy to resist to bad performances of the investment good sector. However, in case of inefficient banks, the situation can degenerate in a confidence crisis in the banking system delaying the economic transition process by several years. We show that this negative impact is more severe when the economy is less developed.Banking Efficiency, Confidence Crisis, Transition Process

Banking, Credit Market Imperfection and Growth

We develop a new model that links capital market imperfection to banking emergence and economic growth. It is shown that the banking system emerges endogenously after a first stage of slow economic growth. Interestingly, economic growth increases after the emergence of banking but remains under its potential level. This is due to a credit rationing brake which decreases progressively as the economy develops. Another finding is that a reduction of credit market imperfection reduces the credit rationing stage.endogenous growth, banking emergence, credit rationing, credit market imperfection

The Effect of Financial Liberalization on the Economic Development Process in case of Inefficient Banking

In this essay we develop a stylized model to investigate the role of external financial liberalization in the development process of a small economy. Firstly, we show that there exists an economic development threshold under which the capital account liberalization can not occur. Secondly, we show that in the presence of banking inefficiency, the financial liberalization presents a major risk for the economic development process. Indeed, if the economy is situated in a vulnerability region every bad performance of the investment sector could degenerate in a banking crisis delaying the development process by several periods relatively to the situation of closed economy. Finally, it is also shown that reducing the credit market imperfection decreases the likelihood of a banking crisis.Banking efficiency, capital account liberalization, confidence crisis, economic development

Working Paper 96 - Impact of the Global Economic and Financial Crisis on Africa

Prior to July 2008 and despite the subprimecrisis, Africa recorded excellent economicgrowth. The drivers of strong economicgrowth included macroeconomicreforms, a world economic situation thatwas characterized by high demand forcommodities, rising capital inflows andChina’s strong growth. Analysts were optimisticabout the capacity of the continentand the world economy to generate thenecessary resources for development andpoverty reduction.Despite early signs of a pending downturnsince 2007, few could have anticipated acrisis of the magnitude observed since thesecond half of 2008. Today, the world economyis officially in stagnation, industrializedcountries are in recession and Africafaces serious uncertainties over its growthand development prospects. The currentfinancial and economic crisis has affectedAfrica’s growth drivers. Demand for andprices of commodities are falling, capitalinflows are declining and promises ofincreased aid have not materialized yet.China’s growth has slowed. The only goodnews is the easing in inflationary pressures.Although the immediate impact of the crisiswere contained, the medium-term effectsare likely to be greater.This paper presents a preliminary assessmentof the impact of the financial crisis onAfrican economies thus far. The paper firstexplains the impact on the banking sectorand why Africa has not been directly affectedby the banking crisis (Section 2). Itgoes on to discuss the direct impact of thecrisis on financial markets, foreign exchangemarkets and commodity markets(Section 3). Section 4 shows that the negativeeffects will mainly be felt through tradeand capital flows, including foreign directinvestment and migrant remittances.Section 5 discusses the prospects forpublic finance, inflation and growth. A sectoralanalysis is also carried out, highlightingthe impact on tourism and mining.Section 6 concludes by a discussion onsome policies that could mitigate the impactof the crisis.

AUDITOR CHOICE AND INTITUTIONNEL INVESTOR CHARACTERISTICS AFTER THE ENRON SCANDAL IN THE FRENCH CONTEXT

This study examines the association between the quality of audit and the characteristics of institutional investors, using French data. After the Enron scandal, the perception of the Big 4 by French institutional investors changed. Our first hypothesis focuses on the perception French institutional investors to appointment of the Big 4. Our second hypothesis deals with the perception of the foreign institutional investors to choose one of the Big 4 auditors due to the lack of investor protection in France and the failure of Enron. We tested our hypotheses on a sample of 144 companies listed on SBF 250, using Worldscope data over the period 2000-2007. Empirical results show a negative and statistically significant link between the choices of one of Big 4 auditor by French institutional investors after the Enron scandal, whereas there is a positive and statistically insignificant link between the foreign institutional investor and the Big 4 appointment after 2002.Qualité d'audit, choix de l'auditeur, investisseurs institutionnels, scandale d'Enron.

THE MENTAL IMAGE OF AMERICAN SERIES AND FILMS AMONG ARAB YOUTH: A FIELD STUDY ON THE JORDANIAN AND KUWAITI YOUTH

This study aimed at identifying the mental image of American series and films among Jordanian and Kuwaiti youth and the extent of their impact on the sample. The study was conducted on a sample of 1827 individuals. The study showed that the category of watching for 2-3 hours ranked first at a rate of 46.6%, and individual viewing ranked first by 42.3%, and thus the series and films features were high. The films which are bearing the quality of excitement are ranked first at a mean of 4.26, and the courage quality of some heroes came in the first place at a mean of 3.99 .The American series and films which achieved revenues in millions came in the first place at a mean of 4.24. The study showed that there are significant statistical relationships among the variables: age, place of residence, citizenship, and the features of American series and films

The role of transmission pricing in electricity industry restructuring : the case of Saudi Arabia.

Available from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DXN048790 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

The effects of brands and country of origin on consumers' buying intention in Saudi Arabia

The Country of Origin (COO) and branded product are concepts that have been studied widely in social science. This is manifested in the movement and progress of studies related to these concepts from simple to sophisticated and in-depth ones. However, previous studies still have many limitations and have recommended further research in this field. Among these limitations is the restricted geographical spread of study areas, as most of the previous COO studies have been conducted in the United States, Canada, and other developed countries. Another gap in the extant COO literature is the scarcity of food product studies, as most of the COO studies have concerned durable goods such as cars, T.V. sets, appliances, etc. The food product studies found are rarely related to the effect of COO on buying intention or consumer perception; hence, a study of the effect of COO and branded product on food products is an addition to the literature. Moreover, previous COO research suffers from an inadequate assessment of the reliability and validity of the widely used measurement scales. Adapted scales for COO, branded product and brand parity that fit the culture and the research product have been developed specifically for this research. These scales are reasonably valid and reliable. A process for scale adaptation has been developed using a qualitative approach; this process can be followed in any similar studies in future. An attempt is made to address these limitations in this study, which examines how Saudis, as Muslim consumers, use the Country of Origin (COO) and branded product cues in their buying intention decisions and how their socioeconomic characteristics, ethnocentrism and perceptions about brand parity affect their perception of COO and branded product. Based on a thorough literature review, an analytical model that depicts the different relationships between the research constructs and the research hypotheses has been developed. A complementary qualitative and quantitive approach has been used in this research, and the outcome of combining the two methods has strengthened the reliability of the research findings. The process of combining the two methods has been proven to be a prudent decision, as the use of only one of these methods may have resulted in misleading findings. A qualitative approach, including an exploratory study and focus groups, has been used to gain an in-depth understanding of the different dimensions of the theoretical concepts of the research and to discover which of the variables can conceptualize each of them in the Saudi setting. This process has assisted in adapting the construct scales that were developed in a different setting, as using the scales in the Saudi culture without adaptation was inappropriate. Therefore, the qualitative approach was a prerequisite for this research. A quantitative approach (survey) has been used as the research approach after developing appropriate scales for each construct and putting them together in a well-designed questionnaire. The instrument was pre-tested and found to be appropriate. The data was collected in Saudi Arabia from two purposive quota sub-samples of 400 women in each sub-sample; the respondents were women who regularly buy the research product (chicken). A wide range of statistical analysis techniques was used. These techniques include descriptive statistics, correlation, regression and ANOVA. Regarding the overall objective of this study to explore the effects of Saudi consumers’ perception about country of origin and branded product on their buying intention, the study results reveal that the political, cultural, and religious dimensions have a significant effect on consumers’ buying intention for chicken from most of the countries under consideration, whereas the economic and technological dimensions play a very minor role in influencing consumers’ chicken buying intention. This is exactly opposite to the situation with durable goods, such as automobiles, where the technological and economical dimensions play an important role in influencing consumers’ buying intention. These findings prove the importance of the effect of the product category, as different product categories will have different effects on how consumers perceive the COO. This study mainly focues on consumers’ perceptions towards whole chicken , as it is normal form of purchase in the Saudi market. Furthermore, the study results show that the respondents’ perception about all the dimensions of the branded product have no effect on their buying intention of those brands in the case of seven out of the eight countries under consideration. The weak effect of the different dimensions of the branded product concept on the consumers’ buying intention of chicken branded product might be attributed to the minor emphasis on and limited use of the branded product as information cue in the consumers’ buying decision in the case of the chicken as a fast-moving food product. The product category again proves its importance in this research; the weak effect of brands on the buying intention of chicken as the research product shows that the brand effect may be high or low depending on the product category. It has been found that brand parity does not exist in the case of branded chicken and is not significally correlated with branded product construct, which may explain the scarcity of such studies in the literature. Ethnocentrism was proven to have an effect on the Saudi female consumers' buying intention, which means that Saudi women may buy a local product even if they perceive that an imported product is of better quality. In addition, it has been proven that various demographic factors may explain the differences in consumer perception of COO. Thus, the conclusion is reached that the importance of each of the COO dimensions and the branded product as an information cue in influencing buying decision depends on the type of product. The research has conceptualisation and methodological contributions that reflect the importance of this study. The conceptualisation contributions are, firstly, the COO conceptualisation, which has been adapted to include the cultural and religious dimensions in order to be appropriate to the study area (Saudi Arabia) and the research product and, secondly, the branded product, which has been conceptualised to include the brand as a person and the brand as a product. The third contribution is that the research has studied the joint effect of COO and brand simultaneously. The final contribution is the conceptualisation of brand parity, which has been dealt with in this study in a different manner than in previous studies. The methodological contributions are: a) the use of the focus group data collection technique in a conservative society, in this case Saudi Arabia, and b) the process of adapting the scales for this study, which represents a significant contribution that may be useful to other researchers. The study’s main policy and empirical implication is the recognition of the differing effects of COO of different countries for Saudi consumers, and the differing effects of COO dimensions. This proves the importance of studying different countries and different products in order to find the real effect of the COO and its implication for policy makers' decisions. Nevertheless, the study has certain limitations. Among these is the fact that the scales used for COO have relatively low reliability and the conceptualisation of COO requires improvement. The scarcity of food product studies in Saudi Arabia restricted the arguments that could be used to compare and support the study findings. The limited study of the religious effect is another limitation. The difficulty the researcher experienced in gaining access to the executives during the preliminary exploratory study also placed certain limitations on the results. The final limitation was related to the difficulty of conducting the focus group in such a conservative country, particularly when the participants were women, as was the case in this research. Suggestions are made for further studies that could enrich the literature in this area. These are, firstly, that the differential relevance and importance of the different dimensions of the COO and branded product constructs for different products and different consumers’ require further examination. Secondly, methodologically, more comprehensive analytical models could be used and, lastly, a full re-modelling of the research model utilised in this study is suggested

An Investigation of Micro and Nanoscale Molding for Biomedical Applications

In the last decade, there has been rapid advancement of micro and nano manufacturing. Microinjection molding is a cost-effective fabrication technique that can fulfill the requirements of many medical applications. Despite the many advancements of microi

Examining the Relationships between Capital Ratio, Credit Risk, Capital Buffer and Prudential Regulation in Tunisian Banking

We try to examine the simultaneous effect between the variations of capital ratio and the level of credit risk-taking to a sample of Tunisian universal banks under regulation. To do this, we have estimated a structural model in double simultaneous equations with a panel data over a period from 1990 till 2012, then under both period between 1990/2000 and 2001/2012 by using 3SLS estimation. The standards regulatory terms aim to limiting the risk-taking of credit, liquidity, market and operational and supervise the banking activity by limiting their involvement in riskier activities. The results show first, that regulatory constraints on the requirement of bank capital in Tunisia exhibit no incidents on the behavior of credit risk incentive. This institutional pressure is negatively associated with the capital ratio level essentially over the period 2001-2012. In addition, we found that Capital Buffer is negatively related, in a significant degree, to the level of capital ratio of these banks. These findings were similar to those in the contributions of Dahl and Shrieves (1992) Godlewski (2005), Lindquist (2004), Dionne (2006), and Wedow Stolz (2009) and those more recently such as Jokipii and Milne (2010), Maurin and Toivinen (2012). However, the simultaneous effect between the change in the level of capital and incentives to the credit risk is negative and statistically significant over the entire period of analysis. The change in the level of capital has significant and rapid impact on the level of credit risk incentive. These banks modulate their capital ratio, primarily, based on the magnitude of the risk of insolvency of their credit portfolio. Keywords: Bank regulation, Credit risk, Capital ratio, capital buffer, Basel II and III