Effect of agglomeration on technical efficiency of small and medium‐sized garment firms in Egypt

This study investigates the effect of agglomeration on technical efficiency of small and medium‐sized garment firms in Egypt. Using a sample of 502 firms, we estimated a translog stochastic frontier production function with inefficiency components. We also applied a switching regression model to address self‐selection in choice of agglomeration. Results confirm that agglomeration enhances technical efficiency of sampled firms through development of industrial linkages and accumulation of human capital. Given the increasing importance of cluster‐based development policies, we underscore the need to promote agglomeration of garment firms, and thereby foster forward and backward linkages to improve their efficiency and to develop global value chains.     

Branch expansion and banking efficiency in Sri Lanka’s post‐conflict era

This study assesses changes in the technical efficiency of commercial banks in Sri Lanka following the end of armed conflict in 2009. The weighted aggregate-efficiency technique, based on a group-wise heterogeneous subsampling bootstrap approach, is employed to compare efficiency levels during the periods 2007–2009 and 2010–2013. This technique allows for heterogeneity in environmental and regulatory conditions between the two periods while assuming homogeneity within each period. Our results reveal that the banking sector experienced a significant efficiency improvement post-conflict even with unprecedented branch expansion. The findings, therefore, controvert the mainstream view that bank efficiency declined with rapid industry expansion. Further, we conclude that geographical expansion of the banking sector is a viable and effective policy tool to achieve broad-based and inclusive growth for emerging economies like Sri Lanka, particularly in a period of post-conflict recovery.     

外商直接投资与东道国产业发展——基于后向关联效应的研究

外商直接投资对东道国产业发展存在催化作用,FDI通过产业关联促进东道国产业升级,经验研究表明其后向关联效应较前向关联效应有更大显著性。本文在跨国公司、东道国上游企业和下游企业三者之间建立理论模型,分析跨国公司直接投资后向关联效应的影响因素,得出影响外商直接投资后向关联效应的一个重要因素是跨国公司与东道国下游企业之间的技术差异。     

服装企业知识管理系统的构建和实施策略

中国的服装行业面临着国内外的激烈竞争。如何增强企业的竞争优势,形成企业的核心能力,使企业持续发展,实施知识管理意义重大。本文分析了知识管理的背景和我国服装行业面临的困惑,提出了服装企业知识管理系统的构建和实施策略。     

EXPORT‐LED GROWTH HYPOTHESIS: FURTHER ECONOMETRIC EVIDENCE FROM SOUTH ASIA

This paper examines the export‐led growth (ELG) hypothesis for five South Asian countries through cointegration and multivariate Granger causality tests. Strong support for a long‐run relationship among exports, imports, and real output for all the countries except Sri Lanka were found. Feedback effects between exports and GDP for Bangladesh and Nepal and unidirectional causality from exports to output in the case of Pakistan were found. No causality between these variables was found for Sri Lanka and India, although for India GDP and exports did induce imports. A feedback effect between imports and GDP was also documented for Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal, as well as unidirectional causality from imports to output growth for Sri Lanka. These and other findings are discussed from the standpoint of the export‐led growth hypothesis.     

Role of Transnational Corporations in the Evolution of a High-Tech Industry: The Case of India's Software Industry

India's software industry presents the case of an internationally competitive high-tech industry from a developing economy. This paper takes the evolution of the industry in terms of human capital accumulation. The initial stock of human capital leads to entry of transnational corporations (TNC), which triggers a cumulative process of further human capital accumulation through a process of externalities (spillovers) governed by firm-level and market structure dynamics. Spillovers from TNC operations are more effective when TNCs operate at higher end of technology and build backward linkages with local firms and institutions in a developing economy. The empirical exercises, based on the analysis of qualitative information collected through field interviews and econometric analysis of firm-level panel data, provide evidence of the positive contribution of TNCs for the evolution of the industry.     

High interest rates: a new conventional wisdom for development policy? some conclusions from Sri Lankan experience

The paper is concerned with the general proposition that ‘high’ interest rates paid to savers can contribute significantly to the long run development of LDCs, as well as to stabilization of their economies in the short run. By relating this general proposition to some simple theory about the behaviour of imperfect financial markets, as well as to specific institutional circumstances in Sri Lanka, it is demonstrated that there are important qualifications that have to be borne in mind. In particular, in the current institutional circumstances of Sri Lanka (which are closely replicated in other LDCs), the instinctive argument of the neoclassical economist that interest rates should reflect the scarcity price of capital is not a great deal of help to policy-makers.     

Sustainability of the fiscal imbalance and public debt under fiscal policy asymmetries in Sri Lanka

This paper investigates the sustainability of Sri Lanka’s fiscal imbalance and public debt. To test for sustainability of the fiscal imbalance, the study applies a symmetric ARDL (autoregressive distributive lag) technique to estimate a government intertemporal budget constraint. And to test for sustainability of public debt, it applies an asymmetric ARDL technique to estimate a fiscal reaction function, which allows for differential responses in the primary budget balance depending on whether shocks to regressors are positive or negative. Annual data for the period 1961–2018 are used in the estimations. The results indicate that Sri Lanka’s fiscal management is inconsistent with strong form sustainability, which requires that expenditures not grow faster than revenues. However, estimation of the fiscal reaction function finds robust evidence for fiscal policy asymmetries. Evidence emerges that Sri Lanka’s fiscal policy stance is procyclical with strong stabilization tendencies in economic expansions that are not sustained in contractions. Against upsurges in the debt-to-GDP ratio, authorities are found to pursue fiscal consolidation, thus suggesting weak form sustainability.     

Anatomy of financial retardation in a less developed country: The case of Sri Lanka, 1951–1976

An attempt is made in this paper to analyse the experience of Sri Lanka during 1951–1976, particularly in relation to its financial sector development. It is shown that the interventionist regime held the key to the pace and pattern of the economy's development. Whether it was the skimpy growth of the financial system, the faltering progression of GNP, the precarious foreign exchange position, or the persistence of inflationary pressure, they were all traceable to the impact on the financial system of a particular set of policies pursued. The year 1977, however, marked a watershed in Sri Lanka's long quest for economic development. The Government began to unwind the entire paraphernalia of administered controls on consumption, investment and foreign exchange. Most of the price controls were removed, subsidies phased out and public corporations were allowed greater autonomy in their pricing and distribution policies. It is necessary to contrast this situation with what existed prior to 1977 in order to assess its impact on the real economy of Sri Lanka. Only then can the cost of financial retardation be measured.     

The plantation sector in Sri Lanka: Recent changes in the welfare of children and women

Although Sri Lanka has achieved high standards of mass well-being, physical quality of life indicators for the historically deprived plantation population fall well below the impressive national averages. This paper analyses the position of women and children on the plantations within the context of the global recession and national economic strategies. It highlights some of the programmes which, along with a legacy of concern for social welfare in Sri Lanka, have attempted to maintain and even improve the living conditions of plantation women and children.     

On ‘the political economy of stabilization’

Joan Nelson (1984) includes Sri Lanka in the period 1977–1982 in a series of case studies of the factors affecting the political acceptability of stabilization and adjustment programs. This is misleading because, unlike the other countries dealt with, Sri Lanka was not faced with an economic crisis when it accepted large multilateral loans under policy conditionality. In fact, the economic policies pursued in Sri Lanka after 1977 reflect the interests and political program of the domestic capitalist class. The existence of such a class introduces dimensions to the analysis of the politics of adjustment not dealt with in Nelson's framework.     

The political economy of controlling transnationals: The pharmaceutical industry in Sri Lanka (1972–1976)

This paper analyses the experience of Sri Lanka in reforming the structure of production, importation and distribution of pharmaceuticals, a sector dominated by transnational companies. It traces the complex interplay of economic, political and ideological factors that affected the process of regulating transnationals and of establishing a State Pharmaceuticals Corporation, stressing the role of the medical profession in resisting reform and of political leadership in initiating and, later, retarding it. Sri Lanka's experience offers valuable lessons for understanding the transnational phenomenon in general, and the difficulties of reforming the pharmaceutical industry in particular: it also illustrates clearly the advantages that developing countries may gain from such reform.     

Vertical linkages and multinational enterprises in developing countries

Many studies have concluded that multinational firms do not create significant technical and other vertical linkages in developing host countries. This case study of three multinational firms in the export-oriented electronics industry in Singapore shows that under certain conditions multinational firms can lead in creating local vertical linkages. It suggests that restrictive government policies to increase local purchases may not be necessary, effective or desirable in promoting local linkages by export-oriented multinational firms that respond primarily to international market conditions. The Singapore experience poinst to the importance of a healthy investment climate and rapid economic growth in encouraging multinational firms to forge local linkages.     

纺织服装业的产业关联与产业波及分析——以浙江省为例

作为传统优势产业和支柱产业,纺织服装业在浙江省未来的定位与发展值得深入研究。采用投入产出法计算相关指标,分析了浙江省纺织服装产业关联效应与产业波及效应。研究结果表明,浙江省纺织服装业的"高带动能力"范围仅局限于包括自身在内的几个产业,其影响力和感应度正在逐步减弱,同时对全社会就业的促进作用并没有想象中大。因此,从产业关联角度可以认为浙江省不应将纺织服装业作为未来的主导产业,并应对其进行改造升级,促进新一轮的增长。     

Equity Risk Premium Puzzle: Evidence from Indonesia and Sri Lanka

This paper investigates the equity risk premium puzzle in the Indonesian and Sri Lankan stock markets in order to identify the relationship between the volatility of excess returns and the equity risk premium. The asymmetric impact of negative shocks on the equity risk premium is also examined using threshold and exponential GARCH-M models. We analyse data on the excess returns of the Indonesian and Sri Lankan stock markets from 2004 to 2013, and we find that the impact of the conditional volatility of excess returns on the equity risk premium is not significant in either country. Instead, we find an impact from negative return shocks on the equity risk premium only in Sri Lanka. Therefore, we conclude that investors are not compensated for the conditional volatility of the excess returns in these two markets, while Sri Lankan investors are compensated for the risk of negative shocks.     

Development and income distribution: A case study of Sri Lanka and Malaysia

This paper compares the pattern of change in the size-distribution of incomes in Sri Lanka and Malaysia and attempts to explain these changes. It also uses these case studies to illustrate some weaknesses in the ‘orthodox’ view, derived from cross-section analysis, of the relationship between economic development and income distribution in developing economies.     

跨国公司垂直技术转移、后向关联与东道国产业的发展

跨国公司进入东道国通过两种重要途径影响东道国产业发展:一是技术转移;二是产生后向关联效应。而现有文献很少将二者放在一起研究,本文则试图通过建立东道国上下游产业的古诺竞争均衡模型,分析垂直技术转移与后向关联效应之间的关系、并讨论跨国公司垂直技术转移方式的决定条件及其对东道国上下游产业发展的不同影响。     

The government revenue and government expenditure nexus: empirical evidence from nine Asian countries

The nexus between government revenue and government expenditure has been an important topic in public economics. In this paper, we investigate evidence for cointegration and causality between government revenue and government expenditure for nine Asian countries. We use the recently developed bounds testing approach to cointegration and the conventional F-test to examine Granger causality. Our empirical results suggest that for three out of the nine countries government revenue and government expenditure are cointegrated. Our results on the direction of causation are mixed: (a) for Indonesia, Singapore, Sri Lanka in the short-run and for Nepal in both the short- and long-run we find support for the tax-and-spend hypothesis; (b) Indonesia and Sri Lanka are in conformity with the spend-and-tax hypothesis in the long-run; and (c) for other countries there is evidence of neutrality.     

The Economic Cost of the War in Sri Lanka

This paper discusses some of the conceptual and methodological problems associated with assessing the economic costs of civil wars and other violent social conflicts, and presents an evaluation of the costs of the (still ongoing) conflict in Sri Lanka. Our estimates suggest that the costs of conflict since 1983 may be at least equivalent to twice Sri Lanka's 1996 GDP.     

Changing Sources of Household Income,Poverty, and Sectoral Inequality in Sri Lanka, 1990–2006

Comparing dynamic changes in household income and poverty among urban, rural, and estate sectors in Sri Lanka from 1990 to 2006, this study finds that a shift of household income away from farm to nonfarm sources is accompanied by a significant improvement in household income and reduction in poverty, particularly in the rural sector. Major contributing factors are the rise in returns to labor, in general, and educated labor, in particular, due to the development of the nonfarm labor market. Persistently low income among estate households can be explained primarily by the limited availability of nonfarm employment opportunities and the low education levels of working members.