The evolution of institutions in India and its relationship with economic growth

This paper examines the evolution in a few public institutionsover time in India. It presents three types of evidence: oninstitutional outcomes (such as losses in power generation,backlogs in disposal of court cases); on perceptions-based measuresof governance, some going back to the 1960s; and, finally, oncustoms administration and whether it has been more effectiveat detecting evasion over time. All the evidence suggests thatinstitutional quality has not improved over time. It then addressesthe two-way relationship between growth and institutions interms of two apparent paradoxes. The first is why growth hasturned around so dramatically in India despite the relativelylimited nature of reforms, especially compared with other countries.The second paradox is why, despite nearly 30 years of rapidgrowth, institutions have not improved. The paper offers someexplanations that might help explain these paradoxes.     

STRONG FORM EFFICIENCY OF THE FOREIGN EXCHANGE MARKET AND BANK POSITIONS

This paper explores the strong form efficiency of the pound sterling-U.S. dollar market by analyzing the ability of U.S. commercial banks to formulate superior expectations vis-a-vis the market in two ways. First, Stein's theory is employed to distinguish between shifts and disturbances in the exchange market equilibrium. Second, the swap transaction framework extracts U.S. commercial banks' expectations from their observed behavior. Results obtained from both approaches suggest that the observed group has better than random forecasting accuracy.     

Personal Income Taxes in Developing Countries

Comparative work on income taxes in developing countries hascommonly looked at average tax rates. These rates are oftenconstructed by dividing revenue collections by some measureof private or personal income. Recent controversies have, however,focused on the incentive effects of marginal tax rates. Thisarticle develops and applies a simple methodology to comparemarginal official tax rates across a sample of fifty developingcountries. As would be expected given differences in fiscalcapacity, the poorest and the lower-middle-income countriesimpose relatively low marginal rates, and the rates for theupper-middle-income and developed countries are higher. Conversely,several low-and lower-middle-income countries' tax thresholdsstart at income levels which are low relative to their meanincome when compared with those of developed countries. Theresults warn against trying to derive information on the disincentiveeffect of a country's tax schedule from the highest marginalrate; our data show that this is not an accurate indicator ofoverall disincentive effects.     

Exploring the link between research and economic growth: an empirical study of China and USA

In this paper, we explore the link between scientific and technical research and economic growth in China and USA over the sample period 1981–2012 using the extended Cobb–Douglas model with capital per worker and the quantity of scientific and technical journal articles (research publications) per worker. We examine the cointegration relationship and present the short-run and long-run results using the autoregressive distributed lag bounds procedure. Further, we examine the direction of causality between research publications per worker results and economic growth variables using the Toda and Yamamoto (J Econom 66(1–2):225–250, 1995) procedure. Our results indicate for both countries research publications per worker positively influence the output per worker both in the short-run and the long-run. The causality results for China indicate a bi-directional causality between research publications per worker and output per worker, duly emphasizing the mutually reinforcing effect. In case of USA, we note a unidirectional causation output per worker to research publications per worker indicating that output Granger cause research publications.     

Fairness and microcredit interest rates: from Rawlsian principles of justice to the distribution of the bargaining range

This paper addresses the fairness of microcredit interest rates. Since microfinance institutions provide credit for the poor at relatively high prices, the fairness of their interest rates has been repeatedly debated. We first apply Rawls' principles of justice to the case of microcredit interest rates and suggest some limitations related to the hypothesis of rationality of the borrowers and the level of inequality. We then suggest another framework based on the analysis of the distribution of the benefits generated by the transaction to assess the fairness of interest rates. We conceptualize this as the distribution of the bargaining range between the borrowers' and the institutions' reservation price and discuss what these reservation prices could be in the context of microfinance.     

Trade effects of alternative carbon border-tax schemes

In industrial countries contemplating emissions reductions, there have been calls for additional border taxes on imports from countries with lower carbon prices. A key factor affecting the impact of any border taxes is whether they are based on the carbon content of imports or the carbon content of domestic production. Our quantitative estimates suggest that the former action when applied to all merchandise imports would address competitiveness and environmental concerns in high-income countries but with serious consequences for trading partners. For example, China’s manufacturing exports would decline by one-fifth and those of all low- and middle-income countries by 15 %; the corresponding declines in real income would be 3.7 and 2.4 %. Border tax adjustment based on the carbon content in domestic production would broadly address the competitiveness concerns of producers in high-income countries and less adversely affect developing country trade.     

Implementing property tax reforms in Bangalore: an actor-network perspective

Many municipal governments in developing countries are experiencing serious difficulties in dealing with the rapid growth of population in cities. Catalysed through processes of globalisation, the growth of cities, especially the so-called ‘mega-cities’, has not been matched by investments in infrastructure like roads and power due to the inability of local government organizations to collect adequate revenues from sources like property tax. Recognizing these difficulties, agencies such as the Asian Development Bank have initiated systems for property tax reforms in a number of Asian cities, including Bangalore. In this paper, we discuss the story of this reform process drawing upon the actor-network perspective on translations. We argue that such a perspective helps to go beyond studying innovation processes through the lens of ‘technology diffusion’, and provides a more interesting and insightful perspective of ‘technology translation’.     

Service quality delivery through web sites: A critical review of extant knowledge

Evidence exists that service quality delivery through Web sites is an essential strategy to success, possibly more important than low price and Web presence. To deliver superior service quality, managers of companies with Web presences must first understand how customers perceive and evaluate online customer service. Information on this topic is beginning to emerge from both academic and practitioner sources, but this information has not yet been examined as a whole. The goals of this article are to review and synthesize the literature about service quality delivery through Web sites, describe what is known about the topic, and develop an agenda for needed research. In the offline worl...30% of a company’s resources are spent providing a good customer experience and 70% goes to marketing. But online...70% should be devoted to creating a great customer experience and 30% should be spent on “shouting” about it. Valarie A. Zeithaml is the Roy and Alice Richards Bicentennial Professor and Area Chair at the Kenan-Flagler Business School of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She obtained an M.B.A. and doctorate from the University of Maryland and has devoted the past 20 years to researching and teaching the topics of service quality and services management. She is the author of three service books:Delivery Quality Service: Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations, Driving Customer Equity, andServices Marketing, a textbook now in its second edition. She has won numerous teaching and research awards, including the Ferber Award from theJournal of Consumer Research, the Maynard Award from theJournal of Marketing, the Jagdish Sheth Award from theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and the O’Dell Award from theJournal of Marketing Research. She has consulted with more than 40 service and product companies. A. Parasuraman (D.B.A., Indiana University) is a professor and holder of the James W.McLamore Chair in Marketing at the University of Miami. He has received many distinguished teaching and research awards. In 1988, he was selected as one of the “Ten Most Influential Figures in Quality” by the editorial board ofThe Quality Review. In 1998, he received the American Marketing Association’s “Career Contributions to the Services Discipline Award.” In 2001, he received the Academy of Marketing Science’s “Outstanding Marketing Educator Award.” Dr. Parasuraman has published numerous articles in leading scholarly and managerial journals. He has served as editor of theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science for a 3-year term (1997–2000). He has authored or coauthored several books, the most recent of which isTechno-Ready Marketing: How and Why Your Customers Adopt Technology (2001). Arvind Malhotra is an assistant professor at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has conducted award-winning research on how companies exploit information technology to reinvent themselves for e-business. He teaches e-commerce strategies to executive M.B.A.s and strategic use of information technology to M.B.A. students.