The sources of bank productivity growth in China during 2002–2009: A disaggregation view

This study investigates the sources of bank productivity growth in China over the period 2002–2009. In order to perform this research, we propose an advanced index – input slack-based productivity index (ISP) – a model that disaggregates total factor productivity growth into each input productivity change. Funds, capital, and employees are chosen as the inputs, whereas loans and other earning assets are outputs in this study. Our results show that technological gains transcend the efficiency regressions and result in total factor productivity growth. More specifically, technical progress in capital productivity reveals the dominant force behind the total factor technical change and productivity improvement. In addition, this paper uses these disaggregation terms to find out the competitive advantages and disadvantages of input usages for each Chinese bank. These findings indicate that the ISP index provides more insights than traditional total factor productivity indices.     

Introduction to development theory

This article introduces the symposium on economic development theory.     

Inflation and its impact on investment decisions in the hospitality industry

The impact of inflation is more severe in the hospitality industry than in some others because of its high level of capital investment. Proper evaluation of investment returns can only be made if inflation is considered in the evaluation process. This article presents an approach based on the net present value method of investment evaluation which incorporates the anticipated level of inflation and provides for the uncertainties of future cash flows.     

OPTIMALLY UNIFORM COMMODITY TAXES IN A NON LINEAR DEMOGRAPHIC DEMAND MODEL

This paper derives a sufficient condition for optimally uniform commodity taxes within the demographically generalized RNLF'S demand functional form framework. This paper, besides admitting child subsidies, allows for non linear equivalence scales and demographically varying utility and demand functions. The derived condition is shown to yield some recent uniformity results as special cases.     

Reviews

“REDUNDANCY AND RECESSION” Danson, M. (editor) 1986: Redundancy and Recession: Restructuring the Regions? Norwich: Geobooks £25.00.

“BUSINESS FINANCE” International Management Centre, Buckingham for the Local Government Training Board 1986: Business Finance for Economic Development Officers. LGTB/Coventry Open Tech Unit. £48.50.

“NEW FIRMS” Johnson, P. 1987: New Firms, An Economic Perspective, London: Allen and Unwin £20.00.     

Correction to: using accounting earnings and aggregate economic indicators to estimate firm-level systematic risk

Review of Accounting Studies - A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11142-021-09637-1     

International Poverty Comparisons on Unit Record Data of Developing and Developed Countries

Cross country poverty comparisons on unit records have, rarely, involved both developing and developed countries. The present study attempts to fill this gap by comparing poverty across fourteen nations with diverse economic and demographic characteristics and at vastly different stages of economic development. The study contains evidence on (a) cross country variation in the equivalence scales estimated in the presence of both household size economies and adult/child relativities, (b) impact of demographic adjustment of the poverty line, that incorporate household size and composition changes, on the poverty rates, and (c) sensitivity of the poverty estimates and their rankings to the ‘equivalence elasticity’. The study finds that country rankings based on per capita GNP bear very little resemblance with that based on the aggregate poverty rates. The latter hide substantial variation in the poverty estimates across different household types.     

German Monetary Union: An historical counterfactual analysis

This paper views German Monetary Union as a sequence of large asymmetric shocks to the European economies. As such it can be analysed with a large, new-Keynesian macro-econometric model of the relevant economies such as NiGEM. The ‘news’ in the sequence of shocks is assessed by analysing contemporary, NiGEM based, forecasts, and important events are then ‘peeled-off’ in reverse order. The resulting counterfactual history analyses the effects of the collapse of the Soviet economy on the EC and Scandinavian economies, and it is argued that the recession in countries such as Finland was not primarily caused by trade effects. The costs of support programmes for East Germany are then removed, creating a negative fiscal shock. Finally the paper analyses the overall effects of the set of shocks. In each part of the counterfactual history, individuals from forward looking expectations and the authorities operate fiscal solvency rules and target monetary aggregates.     

Estimating Purchasing Power Parities from Household Expenditure Data Using Complete Demand Systems with Application to Living Standards Comparison: India and Vietnam

This study departs from the previous literature on purchasing power parity (PPP) by proposing a demand system based methodology for calculating the PPP that takes account of consumer preferences and allows for the substitution effect of price changes. The methodology is used to calculate the PPP between the Indian Rupee and the Vietnamese Dong. The study allows for regional variation in preferences and price changes both inside the country and between countries. It proposes and applies a methodology for constructing prices from unit values after adjusting them for quality and demographic effects. The adjusted unit values are used as prices in the demand estimations, and the demand parameter estimates are used to calculate both spatial prices within each country and the PPP between the two countries within a consistent framework. The study illustrates the usefulness of preference consistent methods to calculate the PPP by applying the PPPs to compare living standards between India and Vietnam. The significance of the results follows from the fact that the levels of living comparisons are quite sensitive to the PPP used in converting the Rupee expenditure into Vietnamese Dong. The present results on food PPPs question the relevance of the PPPs from the ICP project in cross‐country welfare comparisons especially in a period of high food inflation.