Female leadership,internet use,and performance of agricultural cooperatives in Vietnam

Supporting agricultural cooperatives might contribute to the livelihood improvement of many small-scale farmers in developing countries. This research examines the factors affecting the internet use of agricultural cooperatives with a focus on female leadership, its effects on cooperatives’ economic, social, and innovative performance, and the distributional effects of internet use on economic performance. Our analysis relied on the data of 3,512 agricultural cooperatives collected in 2021 from Vietnam. We addressed the endogeneity issue of internet use in impact assessment by employing an instrumental variable approach. Our results show that female leadership was positively and significantly associated with internet use and that internet use had a positive and significant effect on returns on assets, returns on equity, labor productivity, payment per laborer, contribution to labor union and insurance per laborer, and innovation in products of agricultural cooperatives. In addition, unconditional quantile regressions show that internet use in agricultural cooperatives exacerbated income inequality. Enhancing female leadership and promoting rural education were recommended to improve agricultural cooperatives’ performance.     

由实证研究趋向理论提升的精致尝试——任放《明清长江中游市镇经济研究》述评

《明清长江中游市镇经济研究》(以下简称《研究》)是任放先生在其博士论文的基础上修改、丰富而成的经济史力作,亦为陈锋先生主编之《15至20世纪长江流域经济、社会与文化变迁书系》中的一部。任放先生对400余部方志及大量的档案资料进行细致的整理、爬梳,对明清长江中游的市镇做了多角度的考察,不仅充实了前人的研究,更提出了一些对市镇经济研究大有益助的见解,是一部不可多得的佳作。     

Assessing bank equity risk under Legacy Loan Program

We study the effects of purchasing distressed loan on bank equity risk under the Legacy Loan Program (LLP), in which the government is in partnership with private investors. The bank may refuse LLP when its knock-out value is too low. When the bank decides to participate in the LLP, the participation of a private investor generates a decrease in bank interest margin and an increase in equity risk, but the knock-out value with the LLP assistance generates an increase in bank interest margin and a decrease in equity risk. Our results suggest that the success of LLP depends critically on the willingness of a weak bank to participate in it. However, the participation of a private investor in LLP does not decrease the weak bank’s equity risk but poses instability to the banking system.     

Understanding Travel Constraints Among the Elderly in Hong Kong: A Comparative Study of the Elderly Living in Private and in Public Housing

This study aims to test the influence of constraints on travel of the elderly in Hong Kong and to compare perceived travel constraints of Hong Kong seniors in public and in private housing based on the hierarchical leisure constraints model. Face-to-face questionnaire interviews were conducted from December 2013 to April 2014. A total of 415 participants completed the interview successfully. Despite sharing the similar factor structure of the leisure constraints model, the two groups varied significantly in travel behavior, six constraint items, and seven regression paths.     

Cross-national standardisation of advertisements: a study of the effectiveness of TV advertisements targeted at Chinese Canadians in Canada

Within the UK, party election broadcasts (PEBs) and party political broadcasts (PPBs) continue to be the only means through which parties can communicate directly with the electorate through TV and radio – as such, they are an important part of the political communication process. In 2003 the Electoral Commission made strong recommendations for the continuation of PEBs rather than opt for paid-for ad spots. The Commission called on all interested parties to ensure future PEBs fulfilled their potential as a mechanism to engage the electorate. It is in this context that this paper presents the results of a content analysis of all 14 British PEBs aired during the 2001 British General Election by the three main political parties: Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat. We also compare our findings with previous research on the PEBs used in the 1992 and 1997 British General Elections. While similarities emerge in terms of demonstrating a dominance of issues over image, the tone of the PEBs indicates that advertising in the 2001 General Election was far less negative than in those of 1992 and 1997. In conclusion we offer some pertinent thoughts on why British political parties currently use their allotted PEB airtime in ways that do not necessarily exploit their electoral engagement potential, and how both audience viewing and engagement of the electorate might be enhanced with judicious use of PEBs in the future.     

Resource Commitment,Organizational Diversity,and Research Performance: A Case of the National Telecommunication Program in Taiwan

Traditionally, a project team's resource commitment and organizational diversity are thought to be helpful to project performance; however, this relationship may falter when the project performance is considered in light of both cost and benefit. This paper integrates data envelopment analysis (DEA) and analytical hierarchy process (AHP) to evaluate project performance and explores the relationship between project performance and resource commitment and organizational diversity. The empirical study of research teams in the Taiwan National Telecommunication Program shows mixed results of this relationship. Implications for project management and governmental subsidy policy in dealing with resource commitment and organizational diversity are discussed.     

Option pricing under Markov‐switching GARCH processes

This study proposes an N ‐state Markov‐switching general autoregressive conditionally heteroskedastic (MS‐GARCH) option model and develops a new lattice algorithm to price derivatives under this framework. The MS‐GARCH option model allows volatility dynamics switching between different GARCH processes with a hidden Markov chain, thus exhibiting high flexibility in capturing the dynamics of financial variables. To measure the pricing performance of the MS‐GARCH lattice algorithm, we investigate the convergence of European option prices produced on the new lattice to their true values as conducted by the simulation. These results are very satisfactory. The empirical evidence also suggests that the MS‐GARCH model performs well in fitting the data in‐sample and one‐week‐ahead out‐of‐sample prediction. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 30:444–464, 2010     

R&D Productivity and the Spillover Effects of High‐tech Industry on the Traditional Manufacturing Sector: The Case of Taiwan

This study sets out to estimate the impact of R&D on productivity within the private sector, with further analysis of the different impacts of R&D within high‐tech and traditional manufacturing firms. We also attempt to examine the spillover effects from R&D investment in the high‐tech sector on productivity growth within the traditional industries. Using a sample of 136 large manufacturing firms during the period 1994–2000, we develop an extended version of the Cobb‐Douglas production function model, and our findings suggest that Taiwan's R&D investment had a significant impact on firm productivity growth, with output elasticity standing at around 0.18. When the sample is divided into high‐tech and traditional firms, the R&D output elasticity in high‐tech firms is significantly greater than that found in traditional firms. In addition, the average rate of return in high‐tech firms is much greater than that estimated for other industries. Besides, our empirical results show that, although significant, the impact of R&D investment from the high‐tech sector, on the productivity growth of traditional firms, is rather limited.