Internal and external determinants of export performance: Insights from Algeria

The internationalization of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) has been the focus of numerous studies. However, while the attention has thus far been on SMEs operating in developed countries, firms evolving in a developing context, including Africa, have been largely neglected. To address this, and drawing on a dual resources‐based and network‐based view, this study simultaneously investigates the importance of internal and external resources for firms’ export performance and regularity in the context of North African SMEs. Using a sample of Algerian exporters, the study reveals the superiority of discrete resources for boosting export performance and export regularity. These findings provide directions to Algerian SME managers and policymakers as to important factors driving the internationalization process in the developing Algerian context.     

Temporal changes in income distribution among the states of America during the 1980s

Abstract: The purpose of this paper was to examine the effect of variations in selected factors on the change in interstate distribution of household income during the 1980s. The results indicate that the percentage change in the female labour force's participation as well as the state unemployment rate had statistically significant effects on the percentage increase change in the Gini measure of income inequality.     

The Effectiveness of Regulatory Capital Requirements Prior to the Onset of the Financial Crisis

We extend the literature on the role of capital requirements as a regulatory tool by developing a continuous measure of the degree of regulatory pressure and by examining data on US commercial banks during the economic upturn that preceded the 2007–2009 financial crisis. Our findings indicate the inability of regulatory pressure to force banks to build capital buffers during the economic upturn that preceded the crisis. These findings are consistent with the view that banks entered the crisis with inadequate levels of capital. Our findings support the endeavors of regulators in explicitly demanding capital buffers in their new regulatory framework.     

The Internationalization Process of Online SMEs in the U.K., U.S. and Australia

ABSTRACT

Starting from a modified version of the Cavusgil and Zou (1994) Cavusgil, S.T. and Zou, S. 1994. Marketing strategy-performance relationship: An investigation of the empirical link in export market ventures. Journal of Marketing, 58(1): 1–21. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] theoretical framework, in which the level of internationalization of online Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) is considered as an aggregated indicator of the export marketing strategy and a measurement of export performance, this paper investigates the influence of a series of internal and external factors on the internationalization of online SMEs. It expands the empirical framework used by Luo et al. (2005) Luo, Y., Zhao, J.H. and Du, J. 2005. The internationalization speed of e-commerce companies: An empirical analysis. International Marketing Review, 22(6): 693–709. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] in an attempt to explain the internationalization of online SMEs by integrating both organizational and market factors, thus improving the explanatory power of internationalization models, and enhancing their applicability for professionals.     

Liberalisation,privatisation and the productivity of Egyptian banks: a non-parametric approach

This paper evaluates the performance of Egyptian banks during a period characterised by changes in economic policies. The Egyptian government's liberalisation policies in the early 1990s have had a positive or negative impact on the performance of the Egyptian banks. In addition, whether the liberalisation impact has influenced different forms of banks' ownership and sizes with consistent magnitude is examined. Another objective of this paper is to examine the impact of the privatisation process at the end of 1995 on the efficiency and productivity performance of the overall banking sector and on joint-venture banks in particular. The data envelopment analysis Malmquist methodology is employed to estimate the productivity of Egyptian banks.     

How Can Globalization Affect Income Distribution? Evidence from Developing Countries

ABSTRACT

The standard Hecksher-Ohlin-Samuelson framework claimed that foreign trade benefits developing countries, but many empirical studies suggest otherwise. After analyzing data on income deciles from the World Income Distribution Database for 66 developing countries, we found that trade openness benefits underprivileged people in affluent countries but not in developing countries. Also, external financial flows and democracy in conjunction do not exert significant effects, suggesting that these variables might affect income distribution through different channels. Finally, we reinforce the Kuznets inverted-U hypothesis; namely, the presence of an economic development threshold beyond which low-income deciles would increase.     

Demand Analysis of Meat in Malaysia

One distinct change in Malaysians' food consumption behavior has been the preference toward meat products. Thus it is meaningful to gain insight of meat consumption patterns. As the market becomes increasingly market-led, information on current meat consumption patterns is required to assess how they are likely to change as prices and incomes change. This study attempts to provide a better understanding of demand for meat products in Malaysia. By utilizing data from Household Expenditure Survey 2004/2005, Engel curve analysis was conducted to derive income elasticities of meat products from QUAIDS model. The estimated income elasticities show that current food consumption patterns are showing signs of convergence toward a Western diet, exhibiting tendency for preference toward red meats (mutton and beef) over white meats (poultry and pork). The estimated elastic own-price elasticities indicate that Malaysian consumers are sensitive to the change in prices of the meat products, with other things remain constant.     

Monetary Policy in a Small Open Economy with Imperfect Pass-Through

Atlantic Economic Journal - This paper studies the stabilization and welfare properties of various monetary policy regimes in a tractable framework suitable for the analysis of monetary policy in a...     

Ownership–efficiency relationship and the measurement selection bias

This study analyses the bias in the selection of performance measures for ownership comparisons, which depends on the specific objectives of the firms being compared. Our sample includes 13 Canadian state‐owned enterprises (SOEs), commercialized and/or privatized between 1976 and 2001. To replace profitability measures and reduce biases, we propose the use of technical efficiency, which provides for SOEs’ specificities. Overall, the results clearly support the view that privatization has no impact on a firm's technical efficiency, the only positive impact being related to a change in the objectives of the firm while using profitability measures. The results of this study raise the question of the validity of comparisons between SOEs and private firms when using profitability indicators. The potential bias in favour of the private firms contributes to a misleading image of the public sector being presented as inferior and inefficient. The use of more sophisticated measures, such as data envelopment analysis, suggests conflicting conclusions. This study also casts doubt on the legitimacy of the privatization program initiated around the world and more specifically in Canada in which the main justification for such a reform has been to increase the performance of SOEs.