Do Islamic and conventional banks have the same technology?

Is there a technology gap between Islamic and conventional banks? Do Islamic and conventional banks have different cost efficiency levels? We show that conventional and Islamic banks have similar mean (aggregate) cost efficiency levels in the MENA area and there is no technology gap between the two types of banks. At the country level, Islamic banks are more cost efficient than conventional banks in Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey and United Arab Emirates, and less efficient in Bangladesh, Kuwait, Malaysia and Tunisia. We analyse a very large sample of banks in twelve MENA and South East Asian countries between 2000 and 2006 and we use the meta-frontier approach to account for the sample heterogeneity

To tweet or not to tweet? the determinants of tweeting activity in initial coin offerings

Our research explores the causes of Twitter activity in highly technological start-ups that finance their activities via initial coin offerings (ICOs). By relying on weekly data of 297 ICOs for the period 2015–2020 (35,459 observations), we examine how major exogenous events affect the number of tweets issued by the start-up. Then, we explore how the community of followers reacts to the tweets. We discover that events external to firms reduce ICOs’ tweeting activity. Moreover, our evidence indicates that the followers’ reaction is positively related to the tweets issued by the firm and negatively related to major events unrelated to the firm. Interestingly, followers’ reaction has an inverted U-shaped relation with the firm’s Twitter volume, suggesting that excessive Twitter activity can harm the further dissemination of tweets. Our results, robust to alternative estimation techniques, emphasize the important role of Twitter as an information disseminator, legitimizer, and endorser for highly opaque firms

When the rainy day is the worst hurricane ever: the effects of governmental policies on SMEs during COVID-19

We investigate the impact of COVID-19 on 42,401 UK SMEs and how government intervention affects their capability to survive the pandemic. The results show that, without governmental mitigation schemes, 59% of UK SMEs report negative earnings and that their residual life is reduced from 164 to 139 days. The analysis shows that government support scheme reduces the number of SMEs with negative earnings to 49% and allows extending the residual life for SMEs with negative earnings to 194 days. In addition, the support scheme reduces the number of jobs at risk in our sample by around 20%. However, our results suggest that weaker firms benefit more than strong ones. Besides, industries that are worst hit by COVID-19 are not those that benefit most from the government support scheme. We ascribe this result to the fact that the schemes do not discriminate between those firms that deserve support and those that do not deserve it

Detecting zombie banks

Capital adequacy has become the main regulatory tool to achieve financial stability in the last twenty years. While most papers analysed the effect of capital adequacy on risk taking, there is a lack of evidence on the relationship between deleveraging and the return on equity capital. In this paper, we examine the evolution of the banking system in Japan over the period 2000–16, where the re-capitalization issue has already played a major role in policy making. Specifically, we estimate the shadow return on equity capital for both listed and unlisted banks by measuring the loans-funding-equity technology through the dual cost function, controlling for risk exposure and bad loans, and accounting for both the standard asset-based model of bank outputs, and income-based model. Such an approach is likely to be important if the central bank permits banks with unsustainable balance sheets to continue in existence, and we refer to this as zombie banking. Overall, our results show that deleveraging did reduce the shadow return on equity for the City banks. We also find that that the presence of ‘zombie’ banks was concentrated and large among the smaller less diversified Regional Banks

Competition and risk-taking in investment banking

How does competition affect the investment banking business and the risks individual institutions are exposed to? Using a large sample of investment banks operating in seven developed economies over 1997-2014, we apply a panel VAR model to examine the relationships between competition and risk without assuming any a priori restrictions. Our main finding is that investment banks’ higher risk exposure, measured as a long-term capital-at-risk and return volatility, was facilitated by greater competitive pressures especially for full service investment banks but also for boutique investment banks. Overall, we find some evidence that more competition leads to more fragility before and during the recent financial crisis

Interdependence of the oil content in pure seed and other tested traits of inbred sunflower lines

Cilj ove studije je bio da se ispita stepen varijabilnosti osobina četiri inbred linije suncokreta i njihova međuzavisnost primenom korelacione analize. Tokom 2018. i 2019. godine, na lokalitetu Bijeljina, Bosna i Hercegovina, umnožene su 4 inbred linije suncokreta: L-1 (SU), L-2 (SU), L-3 (IMI), L-4 (IMI) vlasništvo Instituta za ratarsto i povrtarstvo iz Novog Sada. Ponavljanja su napravljena na taj način što je jedna kaseta parcele (odnos redova A-sterilnog analoga i B-fertilnog analoga u jednoj kaseti je 6:2) predstavljala jedno ponavljanje, a broj ponavljanja iznosio je četiri. Rezul tati dvogodišnjih istraživanja u poljskim uslovima pokazali su statistički visoko značajne razlike, ispitivane inbred linije suncokreta razlikovale su se u prosečnim vrednostima klijavosti semena, mase 1000 semena, sadržaja ulja u čistom semenu i prinosa semena. Najveći koeficijent varijacije ostvaren je kod prinosa semena (CV=46,4 %), a najmanji kod sadržaja ulja u čistom semenu (CV=6,37 %). Klijavost semena u 2018. godini kod ispitivanih inbred linija u proseku je bila veća za 8 % u odnosu na 2019. godinu. Iste godine inbred linije su ostvarile veći prinos semena u proseku za 196 kg ha-1. Veća masa 1000 semena i sadržaj ulja u čistom semenu u proseku ostvaren je u 2019. godini, masa 1000 semena u proseku bila je veća za 7,67 g, dok je sadržaj ulja u čistom semenu bio veći za 0,75%, što statistički nije bilo značajno (p=0,063). Povećanje sadržaja ulja u čistom semenu prati statistički značajno povećanje masa 1000 semena (r=0,401), ali sa povećanjem prinosa semena, visoko statistički značajno se smanjio sadržaj ulja u čistom semenu, što je predstavljalo najjaču negativnu korelaciju (r=-0,434).The aim of this study was to examine the degree of variability of traits of four inbred sunflower lines and their interdependence using correlation analysis. During 2018 and 2019, at the location of Bijeljina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 4 inbred sunflower lines were multiplied: L-1 (SU), L-2 (SU), L-3 (IMI), L-4 (IMI) owned by the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops in Novi Sad. Repetitions were made in such a way that one plot cassette (ratio of rows of A-sterile analogue and B-fertile analogue in one cassette was 6:2) represented one repetition, and the number of repetitions was four. The results of a two-year study of field conditions showed statistically highly significant differences, the examined inbred sunflower lines differed in the average seed germination, 1000 seeds weight, oil content in the pure seed and seed yield. The highest coefficient of variation was achieved in seed yield (CV= 46.4 %), and the lowest with the oil content in pure seed (CV = 6.37 %). Seed germination in 2018 in the examined inbred lines was on average 8 % higher than in 2019. In the same year, inbred lines achieved a higher seed yield by an average of 196 kg ha-1. Higher weight of 1000 seeds and oil content in the pure seed on average was achieved in 2019, weight of 1000 seeds on average was higher by 7.67 g, while oil content in the pure seed was higher by 0.75 %, which was not statistically significant (p=0.063). The increase in oil content in the pure seed is accompanied by a statistically significant increase in the weight of 1000 seeds (r=0.401), but with increasing seed yield, the statistically significant decrease in oil content in the pure seed, which was the strongest negative correlation (r=-0.434)

Shareholder value creation in Japanese banking

This paper advances the study of Fiordelisi and Molyneux (2010) by examining the shareholder value efficiency and its determinants for a large sample of Japanese banks between 1999 and 2011. A new, specifically tailored measure of the Economic Value Added approach, based on the shadow price of equity, is developed in order to account for specific characteristics of the Japanese banking system. This new “shareholder value measure” is then used in a dynamic panel data model as a linear function of various bank-risk, bank-specific, and macroeconomic variables. This study finds that cost efficiency gains, credit risk and bank size are the most important factors in explaining the shareholder value creation in Japanese banking. Cost efficiency changes are also found to significantly influence cost of equity capital

Uticaj herbicida halauksifen-metila na prinos i kvalitet semena inbred linija suncokreta

U semenskoj proizvodnji suncokreta hemijske mere suzbijanja širokolisnih korova kao što su Ambrosia artemisiifolia L., Abutilon theophrasti Medik., Xanthium strumarium L., Chenopodium album L. i drugi često nemaju zadovoljavajući efekat, dok efekat zemljišnih herbicida najčešće izostaje zbog čestog deficita padavina. Imajući u vidu da jaka zakorovljenost semenskih useva suncokreta dovodi do smanjenja prinosa i kvaliteta semena, primena herbicida za suzbijanje širokolisnih korova posle nicanja postaje izuzetno značajna i neophodna mera. Pri izboru herbicida u semenskoj proizvodnji suncokreta mora se voditi računa o njihovoj selektivnosti, a u praksi je potrebno dobro poznavanje reakcija inbred linija na preporučene herbicide, dok su testiranja ovog tipa postala obavezna za institucije koje se bave ovom proizvodnjom. Cilj istraživanja je bio da se ispita uticaj novog herbicida halauksifen-metila (preparat Viballa, halauksifen-metil 3 g/l) na prinos i kvalitet semena (masa 1.000 zrna, energija i klijavost semena) 4 inbred linije suncokreta (L1, L2, L3, L4) selekcionisanih u Institutu za ratarstvo i povrtarstvo iz Novog Sada

Cooperative banks: What do we know about competition and risk preferences?

In the wake of the Global Financial Crisis the discussion on preventive regulatory policies has generally overlooked the role of different business models and goals. Credit institutions with mutual objectives are a case in point that is the object of this study, which focuses on the relationship between competition and financial stability in European cooperative banking between 2006 and 2014. Our results show that there exists a hump-shaped relationship between market power and stability, particularly in the loan market. Interestingly, we also find that, diversification in assets and liabilities significantly increases cooperative banks’ solvency

Assessment of stability of seed oil and protein content in confectionery hybrids using the apple AMMI analysis

High seed protein content and low oil content are the most important criteria when introducing high protein confectionary hybrids into the production. Testing new hybrids and detection of hybrids that maintain stability of the tested traits under different agro-ecological conditions is an important part of breeding programs. In order to evaluate the stability of seed oil and protein content in NS confectionery sunflower hybrids under different environmental conditions, fifteen confectionery sunflower hybrids developed at IFVCNS were examined during 2015, 2016 and 2017, in a trial set up as a randomized block design with three repetitions at the location of Rimski Šančevi. The REML random model was used for evaluation of the effects of hybrids, years and their interaction, while the AMMI multivariational analysis was applied to determine genotype (hybrid) x environment (year) interaction. The effect of genotypes (G), environments (E), and their interaction (GE) was compared considering their contribution to the total variance. In terms of seed oil content, the effect of G (70.63 %) played a more important role than the effects of E (19.36%) and GE (10%)