Regulatory Changes and Productivity of the Banking Sector in the Indian Sub-Continent

This study seeks to measure changes in technical efficiency levels within the banking sectors of the Indian sub-continent: specifically India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, over the period 1993–2002. This study is done in the context of a number of sweeping deregulations across the sub-continent in the early 1990s, and the possible effect these may have had upon efficiency levels. A Malmquist Index of TFP change over the time-period in question is employed, along with a Tobit regression, in order to determine whether these significant measures of deregulation and financial modernisation have had the desired effect upon the Indian sub-continent in terms of technical efficiency levels. It is found that technical efficiency both increases and converges across the Indian sub-continent in response to deregulation. India and Bangladesh experienced immediate and sustained growth in technical efficiency, whereas Pakistan endured a reduction in efficiency during the middle years of the study, before rebounding to levels comparable to the rest of the sub-continent in the latter years of the study. These results indicate that the measures employed to modernise the financial sectors of these respective countries have had the desired effects upon levels of technical efficiency.

Marketing Open Access Services & Tools to Faculty

Practical examples of how to market an open access institutional repository are presented to help subject liaisons with faculty outreach

Social Mobility: The Necessary Focus of St. Louis Investment in Black Males

The tragic killing of Michael Brown at the hand of Darren Wilson, a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer, further highlighted the long-standing disparities in health, education, employment, and overall well-being disproportionately burdening Black boys and young men in the St. Louis region. Since that event and the associated developments, actions have centered on attending to structural determinants, racism, and equity. However, less attention has been devoted to the overall well-being of Black boys and young men ages 18 to 29 in the St. Louis region and to the paucity of available economic opportunities. This brief report seeks to shift the focus by documenting regional trends in three economic social mobility indicators and crime rates. The analysis substantiates an urgent need for regional interventions to remedy the stagnant social mobility levels of Black males

Determining the Composition

This chapter explores the interpretation of a musical work in the context of changes to songwriters’ creative behaviors, driven by changes in composing technologies. It argues that in the 21st century, a musical work (MW) is fully embodied in a phonorecording, and that single, artificially isolated elements (such as melodic fragments) should be considered de minimis for the purposes of copyright infringement litigation. This view is evidenced by the self-reported creative activities of more than 200 songwriting teams, taken from the popular podcast Song Exploder. Three detailed case studies are provided from this collection, all based on songwriting teams using digital technologies; Dua Lipa, Mobb Deep, and Billie Eilish. The chapter argues that interpreting the MW more broadly (to include audio as well as melody/lyrics), combined with a more generous interpretation of the de minimis threshold, could empower creators, and avoid spurious music copyright infringement litigation in the future. The authors draw on their respective experiences as: i) a consultant forensic musicologist, with ethnographic research into collaborative songwriters’ creativity; and ii) as a music and technology professor and practiting lawyer, with songwriting, performance, and recording background

Recommender systems and the amplification of extremist content

Policymakers have recently expressed concerns over the role of recommendation algorithms and their role in forming “filter bubbles.” This is a particularly prescient concern in the context of extremist content online; these algorithms may promote extremist content at the expense of more moderate voices. In this article, we make two contributions to this debate. Firstly, we provide a novel empirical analysis of three platforms’ recommendation systems when interacting with far-right content. We find that one platform – YouTube – does amplify extreme and fringe content, while two – Reddit and Gab – do not. Secondly, we contextualise these findings into the regulatory debate. There are currently few policy instruments for dealing with algorithmic amplification, and those that do exist largely focus on transparency. We argue that policymakers have yet to fully understand the problems inherent in “de-amplifying” legal, borderline content and argue that a co-regulatory approach may offer a route towards tackling many of these challenges

Determinants of Water Connection Type and Ownership of Water-Using Appliances in Ireland. ESRI WP216. October 2007

Domestic water demand is influenced both by the number of households and their characteristics, in particular the extent to which they employ water-using appliances. This paper focuses on domestic ownership of water-using appliances in Ireland, a country where rapid economic and demographic change are putting pressure on water and sewerage infrastructure. Using a large household micro-dataset, we use discrete response logistic models to examine the determinants of the water and sewage mains connection status of Irish homes, identify the characteristics of households that are associated with having larger or smaller numbers of appliances, and investigate what types of households own particular combinations of appliances

Firearm Suicide as a Human Rights Priority for Prevention

In addition to being a public health crisis, firearm suicide in the United States poses an ongoing threat to human rights of U.S. residents. This article argues that the U.S. is bound to act to honor its human rights obligations in this area. The article first reviews current statistics on firearm suicide in the U.S. It then outlines how the U.S. violates internationally established human rights by adhering to its current policies regarding firearms. Finally, the article suggests priorities for policy, public health intervention, and interdisciplinary education regarding access to firearms in the U.S

HomeGrown StL 5th Annual Regional Summit on the State of Opportunity for Black Boys and Young Men: Organizing for Solutions That Unleash the Elite Potential of Young Black Males

Convened annually, HomeGrown StL’s annual regional summit brings together service providers, government officials, private-sector partners, and residents to strengthen, align, and accelerate local collective-impact strategies that support the health, development, and economic mobility of Black boys and young men in St. Louis City and in St. Louis County. This report summarizes developments from the 5th Regional Summit on the State of Opportunity for Black Boys and Young Men: Organizing for Solutions That Unleash the Elite Potential of Young Black Males, which convened June 9, 2022. In addition to describing Priority Objectives and Key Results developed during the summit, the report details the progress of HomeGrown StL and the project’s vision for the year 2023

Regulatory Changes and Productivity of the Banking Sector in the Indian Sub-continent

Efficiency plays an important role in the operation of firms. If firms are pursing a policy of shareholder wealth maximisation, this implies that maximum efficiency is extracted from a firm’s resources during the production process, or that the minimum quantity of inputs is used to achieve a desired level of output. Studies on efficiency in firms have been relatively forthcoming and include work on technical efficiency in the Japanese manufacturing sector [Hitomi (2004)], the UKCS Petroleum Industry [Kashani (2005)] and labour efficiency of the Indian farming industry [Kumbhakar (1996)]. However, there is little in the way of research conducted on efficiency within the banking sector, and even less on the banking sectors of developing economies [Berger and Humphry (1997)]. This is unfortunate, as banks and financial institutions are the most important organisations in overall financial intermediation and economic acceleration of a country. Banks play a significant role in converting deposits into productive investment [Podder and Mamun (2004)]. For this reason, the study of banking in developing economies entails a greater significance