Taking the quantum leap: nonprofits are now in business. an Australian perspective

The fact that they need to deliver more essential social services is accepted by most professionals working in nonprofit organisations. Yet, needing to become more competitive, increasingly ‘businesslike’ and to start creating partnerships with profit‐driven businesses may require a quantum leap to take place. This hard reality imposed by recent changes in government policy is challenging for many social service workers still coming to terms with a decade of turbulent and changing times. From origins of ‘she'll be right mate’ and a community‐held belief that it is the government's responsibility to finance all essential social services, today's nonprofits are increasingly fighting over smaller funding budgets and feeling the pinch as they have to implement business practices that will ultimately make them more accountable, profitable and attractive to prospective business partnerships. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to present an option to larger Australian nonprofit organisations keen to move away from a dependency model of service delivery and open to exploring the possibility of implementing a marketing communications charter which includes the appointment of a business development manager. Copyright © 2003 Henry Stewart Publications     

A LITERATURE SURVEY ON PROPOSED AFRICAN MONETARY UNIONS

This study provides a survey of recent advances in the literature on proposed African monetary unions. The survey comprises about 70 empirical papers published during the past 15 years. Four main strands are discussed individually and collectively. They comprise the proposed: (i) West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ), (ii) East African Monetary Union (EAMU), (iii) Southern African Monetary Union (SAMU) and (iv) African Monetary Union (AMU). We observe a number of issues with establishing the feasibility and/or desirability of potential monetary unions, inter alia, they are variations in: choice of variables, empirical strategies, sampled countries and considered periodicities. We address this ambiguity by reviewing studies with scenarios that are consistent with Hegelian dialectics and establish selective expansion as the predominant mode of monetary integration. Some proponents make cases for strong pegs and institutions as viable alternatives to currency unions. Using cluster analysis, disaggregating panels into sub-samples and distinguishing shocks from responses in the examination of business cycle synchronisation provide more subtle policy implications. We caution that for inquiries using the same theoretical underpinnings, variables and methods just by modifying the scope/context and periodicity may only contribute to increasing the number of conflicting findings. Authors should place more emphasis on new perspectives and approaches based on caveats of, and lessons from the European Monetary Union (EMU) and CFA zones.     

Do economic statistics contain information to predict stock indexes futures prices and returns? Evidence from Asian equity futures markets

This research examines the impact of local and international market factors on the pricing of stock indexes futures in East Asian countries. The purpose of this paper is to present a study of the significant factors that determine the major stock indexes futures’ prices of Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. This study first investigates the relationships between Hang Seng Index Futures, KLCI Futures, SiMSCI Futures, KOSPI Futures, Taiwan Exchange Index Futures and local interest rates, dividend yields, local exchange rates, overnight S&P500 index and a newly constructed index, Asian Tigers Malaysia Index (ATMI). 11 years historical data of stock indexes futures and the economic statistics are studied; 10 years in-sample data are used for testing and developing the pricing models, and 1 year out-of-sample data is used for the purpose of verifying the predicted values of the stock indexes futures. Using simple linear regressions, local interest rates, dividend yields, exchange rates, overnight S&P500 and ATMI are found to have significant impact on these futures contracts. In this research, the next period close is predicted using simple linear regression and non-linear artificial neural network (ANN). An examination of the prediction results using nonlinear autoregressive ANN with exogenous inputs (NARX) shows significant abnormal returns above the passive threshold buy and hold market returns and also above the profits of simple linear regression (SLR). The empirical evidence of this research suggests that economic statistics contain information which can be extracted using a hybrid SLR and NARX trading model to predict futures prices with some degree of confidence for a year forward. This justifies further research and development of pricing models using fundamentally significant economic determinants to predict futures prices.

     

Fighting Capital Flight in Africa: Evidence from Bundling and Unbundling Governance

This study investigates the effect of governance on capital flight by bundling and unbundling governance. The empirical evidence is based on 37 African countries for the period 1996–2010 and the Generalised Method of Moments. Governance is bundled by principal component analysis, namely: (i) political governance from political stability and ‘voice and accountability’; (ii) economic governance from government effectiveness and regulation quality and (iii) institutional governance from corruption-control and the rule of law. The following findings are established. (i) Political stability and ‘voice and accountability’ reduce capital flight while the collective effect of political governance is not significant. (ii) Economic governance increases capital flight whereas the individual effects of regulation quality and government effectiveness are not significant. (iii) Corruption-control and institutional governance negatively affect capital flight whereas the impact of the rule of law is not significant. (iv) Taken together, Corruption-control is the most effective governance weapon in the fight against capital flight. (v) Priority in the Washington Consensus is more effective at fighting capital flight compared to the Beijing Model. Policy implications are discussed.     

Foreign aid and governance in Africa

This paper investigates the effect of foreign aid on governance in order to extend the debate on foreign aid and to verify common positions from Moyo’s ‘Dead Aid’, Collier’s ‘Bottom Billion’ and Eubank’s ‘Somaliland’. The empirical evidence is based on updated data from 52 African countries for the period 1996–2010. An endogeneity robust instrumental variable Two-Stage-Least Squares empirical strategy is employed. The findings reveal that development assistance deteriorates economic (regulation quality and government effectiveness) and institutional (corruption-control and rule of law) governance, but has an insignificant effect on political (political stability, voice and accountability) governance. While, these findings are broadly in accordance with Moyo and Collier on weak governance, they neither confirm the Eubank position on political governance nor the Asongu stance on the aid-corruption nexus in a debate with Okada and Samreth. The use of foreign aid as an instrument to influence the election and replacement of political leaders in Africa may have insignificant results. It is time to solve the second tragedy of foreign aid and that economists and policy makers start rethinking the models and theories on which foreign aid is used to influence economic, institutional and political governance in recipient countries.     

Is the Threat of Foreign Aid Withdrawal an Effective Deterrent to Political Oppression? Evidence from 53 African Countries

This article complements existing literature on the aid-institutions nexus by focusing on political rights, aid volatilities, and the post-Berlin Wall period. Our findings show that, while foreign aid does not have a significant effect on political rights, foreign aid volatilities do mitigate democracy in recipient countries. Such volatilities could be used by populist parties to promote a neocolonial agenda, instill nationalistic sentiments, and consolidate their grip on power. This is especially true when donors are asking for standards that the majority of the population in control does not want and political leaders are unwilling to implement them. Our empirical evidence is based on 53 African countries for the period from 1996 to 2010. As a main policy implication, creating uncertainties in foreign aid for political rights enhancement in African countries may achieve the opposite results. We also discuss other implications, including the need for an “After-Washington” Consensus.     

Interest Rates,Target Markets and Sustainability in Microfinance

This paper presents evidence on the reliability of claims in the literature on microfinance institutions (MFIs) regarding the role of interest rates and institutional design in helping MFIs to realize financial self-sufficiency. It pools data from 426 institutions in 41 developing countries from 2004 to 2008. Contrary to expectations, the results of an ordered-logistic regression strongly support an inverted U-shaped function for the relationship between interest rates and sustainability, irrespective of customer orientation. Additionally, a shift away from the poorest borrowers in the low-end market does not significantly improve the likelihood of being more profitable after controlling for other relevant covariates. MFIs may not, therefore, be forced to drift away from their original goal of serving the underprivileged in pursuit of financial viability.     

Fighting Terrorism: Empirics on Policy Harmonisation

This paper models the feasibility of common policy initiatives against global terrorism, as well as timelines for their enforcement. The empirical evidence is based on 78 developing countries for the period 1984–2008. Domestic, transnational, unclear and total terrorism variables are used. Absolute (or unconditional) and conditional catch‐ups are estimated using Generalised Method of Moments. We establish consistently that, the rate of catch‐up is higher in domestic terrorism relative to transnational terrorism. The time to full catch‐up required for the implementation of common policies without distinction of nationality is found to be in a horizon of 13–20 years for domestic terrorism and 24–28 years for transnational terrorism. Hence, from a projection date of 2009, in spite of decreasing cross‐country differences in terrorists’ attacks, there is still a long way to go before feasible common policy initiatives can be fully implemented without distinction of nationality. The paper is original by its contribution to the empirics of conflict resolution through decreasing cross‐country differences in terrorism tendencies. Policy implications are discussed.     

Comparing the technical efficiency of farms benefiting from different agricultural interventions in Kenya's drylands

Farmers in Kenya's drylands have difficulty accessing farm production resources and in consequence farm productivity is low. It is therefore important to find strategies for improving access to these scarce resources to help farmers use them efficiently. This paper analyses and compares the technical efficiency of five groups of small farms affected by five different agricultural interventions. The aim of the study was to identify intervention strategies that significantly improve farm efficiency. Data envelopment analysis was used to compute farm-level average technical efficiencies for each of the intervention groups. The results showed that average technical efficiency was highest for the farms that had participated in an irrigation intervention. The findings suggest that the strategies promoted by this intervention, such as access to irrigation, inputs and markets, have the most significant effect on farm efficiency.