Wavelet Analysis of the Bombay Stock Exchange Index

The fluctuations in the rate of returns of the Bombay stock exchange are analyzed through wavelet transform. The fluctuations, in various time scales, naturally separated by the wavelets, are subjected to statistical analysis. The localization and multiresolution properties of the wavelets enable one to identify collective behaviour in the stock market and the extent of their influence at various time scales. The Gaussian nature of the rate of returns at certain scales and the periodic nature of the same, at other scales, are clearly brought out by this analysis. The utility of this approach for modeling purpose is also elucidated.

     

Researches in Corporate Social Responsibility: A Review of Shifting Focus,Paradigms, and Methodologies

Owing to the growing academic and practitioner’s interest in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility, there is a need to do a comprehensive assessment and synthesis of research activities. This article addresses this need and examines the academic literature on Corporate Social Responsibility and Performance using a paradigmatic and methodological lens. The objective of this article is fourfold. First, it examines the status of CSR research from its beginning especially after 1970 to year 2008 in leading academic journals and reports to assess the focus areas of research on CSR so far. Second, it analyzes the research paradigms adopted in these research articles using the Operations Research Paradigm framework. Third, it compares and contrasts various kinds of research articles, methodologies, and research designs used in various researches in literature. Finally, it uncovers the implications of this study and directions for future research.     

Order Flows,Investor Sentiments and Feedback Trade in Index Futures Market

This paper examines the presence of feedback trading, and investor sentiment drove feedback trading by traders in the Nifty 50 index futures contract in India. The results of the study using high-frequency data sampled at 10 min interval using VAR and contemporaneous VAR model as applied to market microstructure settings reveals negative evidence of feedback trade and investor sentiment-driven feedback trade in Nifty 50 futures contract. Further, consistency with noise trading hypothesis, order flows in Nifty 50 futures contract is less informative when traders are overly optimistic.

     

Predicting Internet banking adoption in India: a perceived risk perspective

The emergence of Internet banking has transformed the banking systems across the globe. As a channel to market, Internet banking allows geographical constraints to be overcome by offering various products and services at lower customer costs. An understanding of the factors influencing customer adoption of Internet banking is both relevant and timely. This study integrates technology acceptance model and perceived risk theory in understanding Internet banking acceptance among Indian bank account holders. Specifically, this study categorizes perceived risk as external risk and internal risk, and examines its influence on customer beliefs and adoption of Internet banking. Using two-step predictive analytics of structural equation modeling and artificial neural network analysis, the 270 responses reveal that both external risk and internal risk inhibit customer acceptance of Internet banking. More importantly, neural network analysis reveals that perceived ease of use and external risk are two important factors determining how well Internet banking is accepted by customers. The implications of the study findings and future research directions are presented.     

Nonlinear mapping: An alternative to multidimensional scaling for product positioning

This study tests and contrasts the ability of multidimensional scaling (MDS) and nonlinear mapping (NLM) in recovering complex data structures in attribute space, and aiding researchers and practitioners in making neighborhood interpretations. The relative merits of both MDS and NLM for product positioning are explored and discussed. A formal comparison of the performance of NLM versus MDS is presented using both simulated and actual data. The results of this study provide direction as to the conditions under which a nonlinear mapping algorithm is preferable over MDS.     

Changing Contours of Income Stratification and Decomposition of Income Inequality: Evidence from Recent Longitudinal Survey in India

The paper, based on India Human Development Survey (IHDS) data, tries to address the question- how unequal is India in terms of income distribution? Accordingly, the paper examines the trends, levels, sources and factors of income inequality in India between 2005 and 2012. Three important results stemmed from our analysis. First, in this paper we use Gini as a measure of inequality and find that income inequality in rural India has increased from 0.50 to 0.54 between 2005 and 2012, whereas, in urban India income inequality has increased from 0.48 to 0.49 during the same period. Next and most importantly, we decompose income inequality by income sources and find that amongst different sources of income inequality; the contribution of farm income in total inequality has decreased from 35 percent in 2005 to 21 percent in 2012 in rural India. On the other hand, the contribution of salaried income in total inequality has plummeted drastically from 65 percent in 2005 to 16 percent in 2012 in urban India. Finally, we use Theil’s T index from the class of Generalized Entropy (GE) inequality measures, while decomposing income by four most important factors; namely, place of residence, social, educational and occupational groups. It is irrespective of these factors; the relative share of within-group inequality is not only much higher than that of between-group inequality, also its share has increased between these two periods. Thus, our paper suggests that these mutually reinforcing inequalities, in the long run, if not addressed effectively, will create a hard-hitting division between the privileged and the rest in Indian society.

     

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.     

Real wages,inflation and labour productivity in Australia

This article presents an analysis of real wages, inflation and labour productivity interrelationships using cointegration, Granger causality and, most importantly, structural change tests. Applications of tests to Australian data over the 1965 to 2007 period corroborate the presence of a structural break in 1985 and show that a 1% increase in manufacturing sector real wages led to an increase in manufacturing sector productivity of between 0.5% and 0.8%. Comparable estimates for the effect of inflation on manufacturing sector productivity have limited statistical significance. Granger causality test results suggest that real wages and inflation both Granger cause productivity in the long run.