Does Competition Foster Efficiency? Empirical Evidence From Malaysian Commercial Banks

This study focuses on technical efficiency measures and its decompositions as well as the relationship between efficiency and banking competition of Malaysian commercial banks. This study employs Data Envelopment Analysis to assess efficiency performance of Malaysian commercial banks during 1996–2011 while to estimate banking competition; Lerner index approach is utilised. Next, Granger causality tests between competition indexes and various measures of efficiency are undertaken to investigate "Does competition foster efficiency?" The evidence suggests that Malaysian commercial banks experienced increased concentration coupled with lower competition. The results of causality tests support a positive effect of competition on technical efficiency in Malaysian bankin

Efficiency and Competition in the Malaysian Banking Market: Foreign versus Domestic Banks

The aim of this paper is to investigate efficiency performance of Malaysian banking market using data envelopment analysis approach in the context of the increasing presence of foreign banks. Specifically, two measures of efficiency are constructed, cost and profit efficiency by utilizing bank-level data of Malaysian commercial banks, over the period 2003 to 2014. The results obtained show the domestic banks are more efficient than the foreign banks counterparts for both measures of efficiency. Next, the Lerner Index approach is employed to measure competition and finally, Granger causality tests are undertaken to answer the question, does competition foster efficiency? The results of causality tests support a positive effect of competition on cost and profit efficiency of Malaysian banks. With regard to the financial liberalization, the findings imply that higher competitive pressure may be offset the market power of individual banks; however, eventually it will results in efficiency gains of Malaysian banks.

Ranking of malaysian commercial banks: super-efficiency data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach

Banking efficiency studies have tended to focus on quantifying the efficiency of financial institutions. Few attempts have been undertaken to compare the efficiency performance of domestic and foreign banks, and even fewer have compared the super-efficiency performance of both types of banks. Addressing this gap, the present study contributes to the existing literature by utilising Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to compute superefficiency scores for individual banks. The objectives of this study are to estimate technical efficiency and to estimate the super-efficiency index of Malaysian commercial banks over the period from 2000 until 2010. The results indicate that, in general, domestic banks perform better than foreign banks. However, the super-efficiency results reveal that individual foreign banks are more efficient than individual domestic banks

The impact of the rural environment and environmental conservation on poverty alleviation: the moderating effect of tourism resources

The rural environment adds value to the countryside that provides socio-economic development while environmental conservation draws attention to the locals protecting the environment from deforestation. In line with the Stakeholder Theory, this study examines the impact of the rural environment and environmental conservation on poverty alleviation; tourism resources are used as a moderator to measure the strength of endogenous and exogenous variables. Data was collected from 520 respondents in Kuching and Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia. Partial Least SquareStructural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyse the hypotheses. The results of the study indicate that tourism contributes to an increase in the household income of locals; however, there is a negative relationship between rural environment, tourism resources and poverty alleviation due to the high cost of private transportation to the rural areas. The results imply that the improvement inaccessibility of public transportation to the rural areas would increase the use of tourism resources and tourist arrivals, and enhance the well-being of local communities. This study also contributes to the literature on rural environment, environmental conservation, tourism resources, poverty alleviation and Stakeholder Theory

THE IMPACT OF TRADE ON CHILD LABOR: EVIDENCE FROM SELECTED SAARC AND ASEAN COUNTRIES

Past studies have tended to investigate the relationship between trade and child labor under the traditional trade theories, while assuming that the trade in homogenous goods and the results show inconclusive evidence of a relationship. Hence, it would be interesting to investigate the trade effects of differentiated goods on child labor in the setting of the new trade theory. This study attempts to investigate the trade-induced child labor effects (selection, scale and technique effects) in selected Asian countries over the period from 1999 to 2013. The countries consist of the major South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries, namely: Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka and selected ASEAN countries, namely: Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand, where child labor is most common. The results of this study confirm that the total impact of trade on child labor also needs to account for the selection effect, in addition to the scale and technique effects. The findings imply trade liberalization hampers the child labor market in the context of the trade in differentiated goods

Ranking of malaysian commercial banks: super-efficiency data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach

Banking efficiency studies have tended to focus on quantifying the efficiency of financial institutions. Few attempts have been undertaken to compare the efficiency performance of domestic and foreign banks, and even fewer have compared the super-efficiency performance of both types of banks. Addressing this gap, the present study contributes to the existing literature by utilising Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to compute superefficiency scores for individual banks. The objectives of this study are to estimate technical efficiency and to estimate the super-efficiency index of Malaysian commercial banks over the period from 2000 until 2010. The results indicate that, in general, domestic banks perform better than foreign banks. However, the super-efficiency results reveal that individual foreign banks are more efficient than individual domestic banks

Does Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Development Foster Economic Growth of ASEAN5 +3 Countries?

Globally, digital technologies affect lifestyles, norms and business restructuring models. Correspondingly, it plays a significant role in fostering the economic growth of Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) as well as Asian countries at large. This study aims to investigate the impact of ICT development on the economic growth of the ASEAN5 +3 nations over the period of 2011 to 2018. ASEAN5+3 comprises of eight nations namely Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, China, South Korea and Japan. Themethodologies applied in this study include panel data regression analysis and several diagnostic tests such as the Hausman test and the Breusch-Pagan Lagrange multiplier (BPLM) test. The empirical results suggest there is a positive significant relationship between ICT development and economic growth among the ASEAN5 +3 countries. This relationship can be further strengthened through various policy implementations such as governmental investments. The results of this study imply that these Asian countriesare growing in consistence with information technology (IT)-led development

The Environmental Effects Of Intra-Industry Trade In The SAARC Region

In the setting of globalization, the rising importance of international financial institutions and international relations as well as the emergence of environmental issues has inspired a new sense of political and economic interaction. Owing to these interactions, mode of trade has changed and it has resulted in the world trade reforms. Therefore, trade of differentiating goods is being appreciated and encouraged in developing economies. In the context of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), the intra-industry trade is increasingly replacing inter-industry trade. The environmental effects of the aftermath of expansion in intra-industry trade i.e. scale effect, selection effect and technique effects in the SAARC region are to be assessed in this study. The overall results of this study indicate that if intra-industry trade is expanded, it yields positive impacts on the environment. At the one hand, the disintegration of trade induced environmental effects, implies that the scale effect is hazardous for the environment. On the other hand, the trade induced selection and technique effects are beneficial for the environment in the case of SAARC region

Pro-poor tourism and poverty alleviation in Sarawak

This paper aims to investigate the pro-poor tourism impact of the capacity building, stakeholders’ support and infrastructure development on poverty alleviation. This study focused on Malay, Iban, Bidayuh, Chinese, Kelabit, Penan, Berawan and others local communities; draws upon a sample of 520 from the Kuching and Miri division of Sarawak, Malaysia. Quantitative primary data method is used, and the data analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) software. The findings showed the positive effect for capacity building on poverty alleviation (H1), stakeholders’ support on poverty alleviation (H2) and infrastructure development on poverty alleviation (H3). This study makes a significant theoretical contribution to human development theory by investigating how pro-poor tourism impact rise wage, food, education, healthcare, voice and securities in humans’ daily life. Furthermore, this study discussed several practical solutions for the local communities to benefit from pro-poor tourism. Especially on the formal and informal way of regular communication among the local government, private tourism organizations and semi-government tourism departments with local communities to increase the livelihood benefits

A Study On Competitiveness of Sarawak Manufacturing Industries

This paper estimates the level of technical efficiency obtained from the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach using time series data of nineteen main industries in Sarawak’s manufacturing sector. DEA provides a mean of calculating apparent efficiency levels within a group of industries. The efficiency of an industry is calculated relative to the group’s observed best practice. The objective of this research is to examine the efficiency of manufacturing sector by determining the technical efficiency and the scale efficiency of the industries and to compare the composition as well as overall efficiency level among the industries. The paper is divided into three parts. First, it examined the overall efficiency level of nineteen main industries. Second, it compared the level of efficiency among the industries and lastly, it recommended some policy considerations that should be taken by the authorities concerned