The Substitutability of Real Estate Assets

This paper investigates the degree of substitutability between securitized real estate assets and real estate assets whose prices are appraisal-based. Given the insensitivity of unsecuritized asset's returns to the returns on stock market indices, equilibrium asset pricing models cannot be used to compare these two avenues of investment. Two assets are deemed substitutable if the information sets underlying unbiased, minimum error variance estimates of their pricing parameters are identical. The empirical evidence shows that the prices of the transactions-based assets—real estate investment trusts and the stock price index of the home building industry—follow a random walk while the prices of the appraisal-based assets—FRC/NCREIF indices—do not. The variance decompositions of the vector autoregressions also show that the level of economic activity helps predict the price indices of appraisal-based assets while the stock market index and the term structure of interest rates are better predictors of the prices of transactions-based assets     

Heterogeneity in entrepreneurship in developing countries: Risk,credit, and migration and the entrepreneurial propensity of youth and women

Promoting youth and female entrepreneurship is crucial to inclusive growth and the future economic and social prospects of developing countries. Evidence tends to suggest that young and female entrepreneurs are in a minority, and the extent and generating mechanisms of this outcome tend to be country‐specific. This collection of papers brings together recent empirical contributions exploring key drivers of this heterogeneity entrepreneurial propensity of youth and female in the context of a group of countries in Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East, paying special attention to the role of and issues relating to access to credit, attitudes to risk, and migratory status. A common thread in all the papers is the effective role of risk, uncertainty, and asymmetric information in the determination of entrepreneurship and in the demand for and allocation of credit when potential entrepreneurs are from specific groups, that is, women, indigenous women, women and youth in conflict and post‐conflict situations, and migrant youth. Based on these results, the papers explore various challenges in the implementation of public policies designed to promote entrepreneurship within these specific segments of the population.     

Rotterdam model versus almost ideal demand system: will the best specification please stand up?

The Rotterdam model and the Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) are often applied in consumer demand systems modeling. Using Monte Carlo techniques, we determine which model performs best in recovering the true elasticities of demand. The AIDS model is usually used in linearized form. Since the Rotterdam model is also linear in a very similar form, comparison of the Rotterdam model and the AIDS model has been the subject of much speculation in the literature. We not only compare the linearized AIDS model with the Rotterdam model, but also with the full nonlinear AIDS. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adoption and use of mobile banking by low‐income individuals in Senegal

The wide use of mobile phones increases low‐income individuals’ access to a large range of services. One of these services is mobile banking (m‐banking). Today, m‐banking represents a key vector of financial inclusion in many countries in sub‐Saharan Africa, especially Senegal. Based on technology adoption theories applied to households in developing countries, this paper studies the determinants of the adoption and use of m‐banking. We distinguish between possession or adoption and actual use of m‐banking and examine the interdependence between these two decisions by using the Heckman sample selection model, through a sample of 1,052 individuals in the suburbs of Dakar. Our main results are that the two decisions (adoption and use) are not independent of each other. Individual characteristics, such as education, possession of a bank account, and family network effects, are determinants of the adoption, and age, gender, and being a member of a tontine are determinants of the use. A major result of this study concerns women’s low propensity to adopt m‐banking because of their low levels of education. However, compared with men, when women adopt m‐banking, they have a stronger propensity to use it.     

Treasury revenue and foreign trade taxation

Zusammenfassung Staatseinnahmen und die Besteuerung des Au\enhandels. — In diesem Aufsatz wird eine vergleichende L?nderstudie durchgeführt, um die fiskalische Bedeutung von Au\enhandelssteuern und deren Beziehung zum Pro-Kopf-Einkommen und zu der Au\enhandelsabh?ngigkeit des Landes zu zeigen. Der Test basiert auf Durchschnittsangaben der Jahre 1972–1978 für 93 L?nder und wird sowohl für die Exporte und Importe zusammen als auch für die Exporte und Importe getrennt durchgeführt. Es zeigt sich, da\ die Einfuhrbesteuerung eine erheblich gr?\ere fiskalische Bedeutung hat als die Ausfuhrbesteuerung. Das gilt sowohl für die Entwicklungsl?nder als auch für die Industriel?nder als Gruppe, obwohl die Exportsteuer für die einzelnen Entwicklungsl?nder ein sehr unterschiedliches Gewicht haben kann. Die fiskalische Bedeutung der Au\enhandelsbesteuerung nimmt ab, wenn das Pro-Kopf-Einkommen ansteigt, jedenfalls dann, wenn eine bestimmte Einkommensschwelle überschritten wird. Diese Hypothese konnte auch aufrechterhalten werden, als im Vergleich zu anderen Studien neuere Daten und eine andere Gruppe von L?ndern benutzt wurden. Die Ergebnisse best?tigen nicht die Behauptung, da\ die Au\enhandelssteuern st?rker als andere Steuern ansteigen, wenn der Au\enhandel an Bedeutung zunimmt.

---

Résumé Les recettes publiques et la taxation du commerce extérieur. — Cet article analyse pour beaucoup de pays l’importance fiscale des taxes sur le commerce et sa relation au revenu per capita et à la dépendance d’un pays du commerce extérieur. Le test, basé sur les données moyennes des années 1972–1978 et des 93 pays, est fait pour les exportations et importations ensemble aussi bien que pour les exportations et importations séparément. Le résultat est que la taxation des importations a une considérablement plus importante fonction fiscale que la taxation des exportations. Ce résultat est valable pour les pays développants aussi bien que pour les pays développés, considérés comme groupe, bien que l’importance de la taxation des exportations puisse considérablement varier parmi des PVD individuels. L’importance fiscale des taxes sur le commerce extérieur se reduit si le revenu per capita accro?t, du moins après le revenu excède un certain seuil. Cette hypothèse est aussi approuvée en utilisant des données et des échantillons de pays beaucoup plus récentes que celles des autres études. Les résultats ne confirment pas l’assertion que les taxes sur le commerce extérieur dépassent des autres sortes de taxe si le commerce extérieur accroêt en importance.

---

Resumen Ingresos del tresoro y tributación al comercio exterior. — Este es un análisis comparativo a traves de países de la importancia de los impuestos al comercio exterior y su relatión con los ingresos per cápita y la dependencia del país del comercio. El test, basado en promedios para los a?os 1972–1978 y cubriendo 93 países, se conduce tanto para el comercio global de importatión y exportatión como para las exportaciones e importaciones separadamente. El resultado es que la tributación a las importaciones tiene una función fiscal considerablemente más importante que la tributación a las exportaciones. Esto es válido tanto para los países en desarrollo como para los países desarrollados considerados como grupo, a pesar de que la importancia de la tributación a las exportaciones puede variar considerablemente entre países en desarrollo particulares. La importancia fiscal de los impuestos al comercio declina en la medida que el ingreso per cápita aumenta, al menos desde el momento en que éste último sobrepasa un cierto umbral. Esta hipótesis ha sido continuada, utilizando datos y muestras de países mucho más recientes que en otros estudios. Los resultados de este test no confirman la exigencia que los impuestos al comercio exterior aumentan por sobre otros tipos de impuestos en la medida que el comercio exterior crese en importancia.

     

Fertiliser subsidy and agricultural productivity in Senegal

This paper tackles one of the most complex and multifaceted agricultural policy decisions faced by African governments; that is, whether it makes sense to subsidise fertilisers. It combines a data envelopment analysis to compute efficiency scores and regression analyses that deal with self‐selectivity and endogeneity issues to examine the productive efficiency of farmers who benefited from the subsidy programme in the very atypical irrigated system of the Senegal River Valley. The results based on farm‐level data indicate that the subsidy programme seems to be working, as it appears to be associated with increased efficiency; hence, providing empirical support to the political will to revamp subsidy programmes. The results also suggest various ways to improve the effectiveness of the subsidy programme in conjunction with additional policy options to further unlock the agricultural potentials of the region.     

Service encounter in multi-channel distribution context: virtual and face-to-face interactions and consumer satisfaction

This article studies service quality and customer satisfaction in a context of multi-channel service distribution. The objective is to identify quality factors influencing the overall satisfaction of a multi-channel customer. A quantitative study was conducted among 445 customers mainly targeted on users of the traditional physical channel and online channel of a French retail bank. Using structural equation models with AMOS, the results show that perceived service quality in the virtual channel, perceived service quality in the traditional channel, and multi-channel integration quality have a positive influence on the overall satisfaction of the multi-channel customer.