Death spiral PIPEs: a reconsideration of the evidence

We challenge the view that PIPEs lead to unfavourable outcomes for issuing firms. We show that structured PIPEs do not have significant negative CARs when a matched firm benchmark is used for computing CARs and when sample selection bias is taken into account. Indeed, structured PIPEs have significantly higher positive skewness, indicating superior optionality, consistent with the real option argument. We also show that the 2002 intervention by the Securities and Exchange Corporation (SEC) has led to unintended consequences, with the substitution of ‘mom and pop’ investors for hedge fund investors in the structured PIPE market.     

Positioning strategies and congruence in the positioning of high‐end indigenous and foreign retailers in sub‐Saharan Africa: An illustration from Ghana

This article examines the employment of positioning strategies through the lens of international retailing for assessing congruence in the positioning of both indigenous and foreign retailers in Ghana. Six retailers—three indigenous and three foreign—are examined in a triangulated method, each through an in‐depth case study. The results show that the dominant positioning strategies consistently pursued by both indigenous and foreign retailers in Ghana are “service,” “reliability,” and “attractiveness.” Although indigenous retailers (relative to their foreign counterparts) employ more strategies, the majority of foreign retailers exhibit close‐to‐ideal congruence among managers' intentions, actual practice, and customers' perceptions. The findings show that foreign and indigenous retailers pursue varying positioning strategies in the marketplace, further complementing the utility of Western‐developed typologies of positioning strategies in a sub‐Saharan African marketplace. Moreover, the results reveal how indigenous retailers have embraced branding, further attesting to the changing and competitive nature of the Ghanaian marketplace.     

The dynamics of financial development,globalisation, economic growth and life expectancy in sub‐Saharan Africa

The importance of life expectancy is recognised in the development economics literature because of its increasing effects on labour productivity and economic growth in long‐run. However, no published study to date empirically examines the nonlinear relationships between globalisation, financial development, economic growth and life expectancy in sub‐Saharan African (SSA) countries. Therefore, our study intends to fill this gap by using non‐parametric cointegration test and multivariate Granger causality test towards a non‐linear empirical understanding of the factors affecting the life expectancy. We consider the case of 16 sub‐Saharan African economies using annual data over the period 1970–2012. The empirical analysis indicates that financial development, globalisation and economic growth appear to have a positive impact upon life expectancy in sub‐Saharan African economies, except for Gabon and Togo. Our empirical findings may provide insightful policy implications towards improving population health conditions which are vital for promoting the productivity of labour force and long‐run economic growth in sub‐Saharan African countries. In light of these policy implications, governments should incorporate globalisation, financial development and economic growth as key economic instruments in formulating sustainable developmental policy to promote life expectancy for the people in sub‐Saharan African countries.     

Estimating the Enduring Effects of Fertiliser Subsidies on Commercial Fertiliser Demand and Maize Production: Panel Data Evidence from Malawi

Most studies of input subsidy programmes confine their analyses to measuring programme effects over a one‐year period. This article estimates the potential longer‐run or enduring effects of fertiliser subsidy programmes on smallholder farm households' demand for commercial fertiliser and maize production over time. We use four waves of panel data on 462 farm households in Malawi for whom fertiliser use can be tracked for eight consecutive seasons between 2003/2004 and 2010/2011. Panel estimation methods are used to control for potential endogeneity of subsidised fertiliser acquisition. Results indicate that farmers acquiring subsidised fertiliser in three consecutive prior years are found to purchase slightly more commercial fertiliser in the next year. This suggests a small amount of crowding in of commercial fertiliser from the receipt of subsidised fertiliser in prior years. In addition, acquiring subsidised fertiliser in a given year has a modest positive impact on increasing maize output in that same year. However, acquiring subsidised fertiliser in multiple prior years generates no statistically significant effect on maize output in the current year. These findings indicate that potential enduring effects of the Malawi fertiliser subsidy programme on maize production are limited. Additional interventions that increase soil fertility can make using inorganic fertiliser more profitable and sustainable for smallholders in sub‐Saharan Africa and thereby increase the cost‐effectiveness of input subsidy programmes.     

Macroeconomic consequences of state fragility in sub‐Saharan Africa

Are poor macroeconomic outcomes primarily the result of economic policies, or of deeper underlying state fragility problems in sub‐Saharan Africa? We attempt to answer this question by using carefully specified dynamic panel regression techniques to show how state fragility conditions help to explain the differences in the macroeconomic performance of sub‐Saharan African economies, and to identify the most plausible mechanisms of transmission. We find that countries with greater fragility suffer higher macroeconomic volatility and crisis; they also experience weaker growth. When we disaggregate state fragility into its various components, we find that it is the security and social components that have the strongest causal impact on macroeconomic outcomes, while the political component is, at best, weak. Therefore, we conclude that it is state fragility conditions, and not necessarily macroeconomic policies, that are of first‐order importance in explaining the differences in macroeconomic performance for African countries. The knock‐on effects are mostly mediated through the fiscal channel, the aid channel, and the finance channel. Accordingly, we recommend that interventions in fragile states should best focus on exploiting the potential for using fiscal policy, aid, and finance as instruments to improve macroeconomic outcomes in sub‐Saharan Africa.     

Rural Economies and Transitions to Capitalism: Germany and England Compared (c.1200–c.1800)

Based on a synthesis of the empirical scholarship on England and Germany, this paper demonstrates that in both regions, rural socio‐economic developments from c.1200 to c.1800 are similar: this period witnesses the rise to numerical predominance and growing economic significance of the ‘sub‐peasant classes’, which had a growing impact on the market as a result of their increasing market dependence, and from which – towards the end of the period – a rural proletariat emerged. Against the influential theory of Robert Brenner, it is argued that the period c.1200–c.1400 cannot really be categorized as ‘feudal’ according to Brenner's definition; and ‘agrarian capitalism’ does not adequately describe the socio‐economic system that obtained by the end of the sixteenth century. A genuine transition to capitalism is only evident from after c.1750, and can be found in Germany as well as in England; it is predicated both on ideological shifts and on the evolution of the rural proletariat, which is only found in large numbers by or after c.1800.     

中国商业银行整体效率研究* ——基于具有中间投入和中间产出的综合网络DEA模型

本文基于对银行业务结构和特征的分析，将银行看做具有中间投入和中间产出的串联两阶段网络生产结构。第一阶段为负债业务和中间业务，第二阶段为资产业务。基于这一网络结构，本文首先建立具有中间投入和中间产出的综合网络DEA模型，并证明在此模型下整体网络DEA有效等价于每个子阶段DEA有效，即此模型是打开黑箱的网络DEA模型，并定义网络决策单元的投影。本文以中国16家上市商业银行为样本，测算了2006-2010年各商业银行的整体效率、子阶段效率、关联指数和每家银行的投影。分析结果显示，大型国有商业银行在负债业务和中间业务阶段具有明显的竞争优势，股份制商业银行在资产业务阶段具有效率优势，城市商业银行的两阶段业务关联性最差。本文计算的投影，给出了银行提高整体效率的改进方向。     

Measuring Production and Irrigation Efficiencies of Rice Farms: Evidence from the Punjab Province,Pakistan

We employ a non‐parametric approach, data envelopment analysis, to estimate the technical and irrigation efficiency of rice farms in the Punjab Province of Pakistan. We use a cross‐sectional dataset of 80 rice growers, including 45 tube‐well owners and 35 water buyers. Mean technical efficiency scores show that tube‐well owners and water buyers are operating at fairly high efficiency levels, indicating that access to technology is not a major constraint. However, irrigation inefficiency is pronounced, with water buyers being more inefficient than tube‐well owners. A bootstrap truncated regression is used to investigate the determinants of technical and irrigation efficiency. We suggest that groundwater management policies should be designed to address efficiency enhancing factors such as knowledge of crop water consumption requirement, better credit opportunities, outreach extension services and training programs.     

Social-economic Development of Small West European Peripheral Countries

In the framework of different countries＇ international comparison, the objective of this paper reflects research topic of investigation--the identification of small countries, revealing features of economic development and business growth in economic history context of small economies classification. The object of investigation focuses on West European and Nordic countries＇ small economies. The hypothesis of the article is that small states under consideration are developing as the business competitive peripheries areas due to the special Scandinavian capitalist model development characterized by high level of social capital. The statistical data base includes Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development indicators, World Bank parameters and Nordic transnational corporation＇s annual reports. The paper considers the following research questions： （1） the critical overview of the mainstream academicians opinions concerning different-scaled economies, （2） classification of small states and clarification of different groups of the small-scaled countries role in the world and regional economy through historical context, （3） estimates and variants of small countries＇ social-economic development in accordance with different parameters, （4） consideration of Nordic European countries coming to the business model of the competitive peripheral social-economic development. The main summing up conclusion is that small economies of Nordic Europe are converting nowadays into the experimental laboratory of the European and world economy due to the specific model of their social-oriented economic and business growth, their geopolitical location between developed European integration complex embracing presumably small-scaled states from one side and large-scaled emerging market economy of Asian continent from the other side.