How do financial crises affect commercial bank liquidity? Evidence from Latin America and the Caribbean

The 1990s were a turbulent time for Latin American and Caribbean countries. During this period, the region suffered from no less than sixteen banking crises. One of the most important determinants of the severity of banking crises is commercial bank liquidity. Banking systems, which are relatively liquid, are better able to deal with the large deposit withdrawals that tend to accompany bank runs. This study provides an assessment of the main determinants of bank liquidity as well as an evaluation of the impact of banking crises on liquidity. The results show that on average, bank liquidity is about 8% less than what is consistent with economic fundamentals during financial crises.Liquidity, Financial Crisis, Banks

The Responsiveness of Taxable Income to Changes in Marginal Tax Rates in Barbados

Since 2003 policymakers in Barbados have implemented a series of tax reforms that have lowered both basic as well as marginal income tax rates. These changes have more than likely induced taxpayers to alter their behaviour in order to affect their reported taxable income. This paper employs an annual sample of 3,000 individual taxpayers between 2003 and 2006 to investigate the sensitivity of taxable income to changes in marginal tax rates. The empirical approach adopted also allows the researcher to provided evidence on the variation in taxable income by gender and income group. The paper finds that for every 1 percent rise in the marginal tax rate, taxable income decreases by 0.2 percent. Further disaggregation of the database also revealed that a strong negative labour supply effect causes the elasticity for low-income taxpayers to rise to 0.9, while females tend to be more responsive to changes in marginal taxes relative to males.Taxable income; Marginal tax rates; Tax avoidance

Financing Constraints and Corporate Growth

This paper analyses the dynamic investment and growth prospects of a financially constrained firm. Three types of financing constraints are examined: internal finance, debt ceiling and exponential interest costs. To study the growth dynamics of firms subject to the above constraints, numerical solutions, for assigned parameter values, are provided using the reverse shooting Runge-Kutta algorithm. The simulation results suggest that the firm"s real and financial variables are highly correlated for constrained firms, as the optimal policy of these businesses is to over-invest in capital in the initial years, and then deplete this excess capacity in future periods. This, however, results in slower rates of growth for the constrained firm, and for entities facing a debt ceiling, greater rates of fluctuation in their rates of expansionFinancing Constraints, Corporate Growth

A Note on Cross-Border Mergers and Investment

The theoretical literature suggests that there should be a bi-directional relationship between investment and mergers. This essay uses homogenous and heterogeneous panel Granger causality tests to examine this hypothesis. The paper finds that in high-income countries, cross-border mergers tend to Granger cause investment, while in low- to middle-income countries, investment Granger causes mergers.Mergers, Investment, Causality, Panel Data

A Meta-Analysis of the Relationship between Debt and Growth

Can debt be used to finance growth? This question has stimulated a number of research papers, seminars and conferences. To date, however, no clear answer to the question is available. This paper attempts to answer the question using meta-analysis. Meta-analysis allows researchers to combine the results from both published and un-published research to gain insights regarding the directional and statistical significance of the relationship between the two variables. The results from the study should be of interest to policymakers and academics.Debt; Economic Growth; Meta-Analysis

A Simple Approach for Identifying Underperforming Schools

This paper outlines a purely statistical approach for evaluating school performance within a district. Three performance criteria are detailed: absolute performance, relative performance and conditional performance. The criteria are applied to the Barbadian secondary school system. The study finds that when the three criteria are used in conjunction they can identify schools that are consistently good or poor performers. In the case of Barbados, there was a general improvement in secondary school performance over the period, with no single school appearing consistently on the list of underperformers.Performance; Secondary Schools; Statistical Approach

Nonlinearities in Stock Returns for Some Recent Entrants to the EU

In this paper we use nonlinear tests to investigate the mean reverting properties of stock returns in a group of CEE markets. We also test whether returns in our target group of countries demonstrate characteristics of persistence and cross sectional dependence. Our results indicate that all series’ are stationary, but we find some ambiguity in the results of our tests for cross sectional dependence.nonlinearities, stock markets, Central and Eastern European Countries

Foreign direct investment and tourism in SIDS: evidence from panel causality tests

This study applies panel causality methods to investigate the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and tourism in Small Island Developing States (SIDS). The results of the homogenous and instantaneous causality tests suggest that there is a bi-directional causal relationship between the variables. However, this causality is not homogenous for the group of countries. Indeed, heterogeneous causality procedures indicate that there exists a bi-directional causal relationship for only a small set of countries. For the most part, the causal relationship runs from FDI to tourism, implying that FDI provides much needed capacity for SIDS and therefore allows these countries to expand their tourism product.Tourism, FDI, Panel causality tests

Does Consumer Price Rigidity Exist in Barbados?

This paper uses a unique micro data set of price records underlying the Barbados retail price index between 1994 and 2008 to provide a detailed assessment of consumer price rigidity. The major aim is to calculate price durations and the patterns of price-setting across sectors. We also check whether price cuts are as frequent as increases, and whether there is specific downward nominal rigidity. We find that prices in Barbados tend to change relatively frequently, with between 50 and 80 percent of items in every category reporting a price change every month. While there are regular monthly price reductions as well as increases, the reductions are always smaller and fewer than the increases. The paper also reports no measurable impact of changes in the money supply or national inflation on the frequency of price changes

Credit Booms and Busts in the Caribbean

Since 1970, private sector credit has grown quite rapidly in the Caribbean. More recently, between 2004 and 2006, total real credit in the Caribbean has risen by a cumulative 55.7 percent, or approximately 19 percent per annum. In some countries, the rate of expansion has even been stronger, which is of concern given the likely negative macroeconomic consequences of credit booms. This paper attempts to identify the factors that have led to credit booms and conversely busts in the Caribbean, employing annual data for 13 Caribbean countries covering the period 1970 to 2006 in the analysis. This study employs a panel count data regression approach. Three key groups of variables are considered: (1) macroeconomic developments; (2) macroeconomic policy, and (3) external shocks. The reported results suggest that macroeconomic developments were the main determinants of credit booms in the Caribbean, with low inflation, high growth in GDP per capita, investment booms as well as less developed financial systems leading to the emergence of credit booms and conversely for busts.Credit Booms, Credit Busts, Caribbean, Count Data Model