Navigating the Impact of Globalization on Bank Efficiency in China

The paper provides for the first time empirical evidence on the impact of economic globalization on bank efficiency in a developing economy. Using the data envelopment analysis method, we compute the efficiency of the Chinese banking sector during 2000–2007. The empirical findings suggest that the inefficiency of the Chinese banking sector stems largely from scale rather than pure technical inefficiencies. Examining different components of economic globalization, we find that greater economic integration through higher trade flows, cultural proximity and political globalization have significant and positive influence on bank efficiency levels. The empirical findings suggest that liberalization (restrictions) of the capital account exerts a negative (positive) influence on bank efficiency levels in China.     

Do men and women really shop differently? An exploration of gender differences in mall shopping in India

‘Men Buy and Women Shop’ proclaims a new Wharton Research on shopping habits of the American consumer (2007). There is found to be considerable difference in the way men and women shop in the West. Is this true across cultures? Indian retailing is generating considerable interest within the country and abroad. India has been rated as the fifth most attractive emerging retail market and was ranked first in a Global Retail Development Index of 30 developing countries drawn up by A T Kearney. Organized retail, best represented by the mushrooming malls, has come to play a defining role in building and supporting this veritable base of retail consumers. Therefore, it is of utmost interest to retailers and academia alike to understand the consumer dynamics behind the newly evolving consumption culture. This study explores mall‐shopping habits in India and attempts to identify and contrast possible differences between genders using a sample of 2721 mall consumers across seven cities. While the findings suggest that in India there are significant differences in shopping behaviour that can be ascribed to gender, there are fundamental questions about stereotyping of shopping as a feminine activity. To do this, discriminant analysis has been used to study whether shopping orientation and mall‐shopping attitudes can discriminate between male and female shoppers.     

Demand-side factors in optimal land conservation choice

The dominant paradigm of conservation-reserve planning in economics is to optimize the provision of physical conservation benefits given a budget constraint, implicitly assuming the value of biodiversity and ecosystem function is not affected by human proximity to that natural capital. There is evidence, however, that human willingness to pay (WTP) for conservation declines with distance—a phenomenon we call “spatial value decay”. This paper begins a new strand of the conservation planning literature that takes demand-side factors – location of people in the landscape, the degree to which WTP for conservation depends on proximity – into account. We use theoretical models of linear abstract landscapes to explore the impact of demand-side factors on two facets of conservation choices: siting of a single reserve when conservation potential is greatest near a critical site, and siting of multiple reserves when fragmentation reduces physical conservation services produced. Our results show how planners should sometimes employ increased fragmentation to capture value when people's preferences are not very highly localized, and how optimal policy balances proximity to the ecologically critical site with proximity to people. In some scenarios, the payoff to using a reserve design approach that considers demand-side factors is large, but we find that spatial value decay reduces the benefits that can be gained from any conservation-planning approach.     

A comment on Mendeş and Yiğit (2013), ‘Type I error and test power of different tests for testing interaction effects in factorial experiments’, Statistica Neerlandica, 67:1–26

In their advocacy of the rank‐transformation (RT) technique for analysis of data from factorial designs, Mende? and Yi?it (Statistica Neerlandica, 67, 2013, 1–26) missed important analytical studies identifying the statistical shortcomings of the RT technique, the recommendation that the RT technique not be used, and important advances that have been made for properly analyzing data in a non‐parametric setting. Applied data analysts are at risk of being misled by Mende? and Yi?it, when statistically sound techniques are available for the proper non‐parametric analysis of data from factorial designs. The appropriate methods express hypotheses in terms of normalized distribution functions, and the test statistics account for variance heterogeneity.     

Fiscal decentralization and macroeconomic management

The purpose of this paper is to address a central question in fiscal federalism - whether or not fiscal decentralization implies serious risks for fiscal discipline and macroeconomic management for the nation as a whole. This paper addresses this important issue by drawing upon the existing evidence regarding macro management and fiscal institutions in federal and unitary countries. This is supplemented by cross country regression analysis plus the analysis of two case studies: the Brazilian federation and the unitary regime in China. The main conclusion of the paper is that decentralized fiscal systems offer a greater potential for improved macroeconomic governance than centralized fiscal regimes. This is because the challenges posed by fiscal decentralization are recognized and they shape the design of countervailing institutions in federal countries to overcome adverse incentives associated with incomplete contracts or the “common property” resource management problems or with rent seeking behaviors. JEL Code E6 · H7 · H1     

E-optimal minimally connected block designs under mixed effects model

Summary Considering a mixed effects model in a minimally connected block design set-up, we obtain designs which areE-optimal, uniformly in the ratio of the variance components, for inference on varietal contrasts which constitute the fixed effects in the model. Work supported by the Centre for Management and Development Studies, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. Work supported by the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada under grant number 7272 and partially done while visiting Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta, India.     

Supply chain risk management in India – practical insights

This paper reviews the supply chain risk management (SCRM) literature to identify as well as to discuss and elaborate on the impact and origin of major supply chain risk factors in an Indian context. Through a combination of existing literature and a survey instrument, we identify major SCRM issues including underlying supply chain risks and thereafter identify gaps, issues and opportunities for further research. SCRM has become a popular research topic, in part owing to increased globalisation of business. Moreover competitive factors such as shorter product life cycles, technological innovations and changing government policies have brought this topic more sharply into focus. We carried out a survey among Indian supply chain professionals, based on supply chain risk constructs developed from a literature review. Statistical analysis utilised exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to determine the major risk factors in the Indian supply chain sector. We found a range of supply chain risks prevalent in Indian supply chains, classified here as cultural, operational, infrastructure, economic, forecasting and supplier-related risks. However, for a variety of reasons and as discussed in the paper, the implications can vary considerably. Based on the findings we provide a future SCRM research agenda from an Indian perspective. As international supply chains increasingly have Indian partners and domestic firms within India seek to be globally competitive, the risks need to be better understood. This is the first detailed study on SCRM practices in an Indian context.     

Tax Incidence Analysis of Developing Countries: An Alternative View

Misleading conclusions can be drawn from studies of tax incidencethat ignore the special features of developing countries. Incorporatingthese features can sometimes reverse the incidence pattern oftaxes relative to what is often taken to be conventional wisdom.Even where patterns are not reversed, quantitative differencescan be substantial. The "newer" views of incidence have implicationsfor tax restructuring options being considered in several developingcountries. The proposed restructuring may appear to lead onlyto a more regressive tax system because of improper incidenceanalysis.     

银行盈利的宏微观因素——对中国银行业的实证研究

This paper seeks to examine the determinants of the profitability of the Chinese banking sector during the post-reform period of 2000–2005. The empirical findings from this study suggest that all the determinants variables have statistically significant impact on China banks profitability. However, the impacts are not uniform across bank types. We find that liquidity, credit risk, and capitalization have positive impacts on the state owned commercial banks (SOCBs) profitability, while the impact of cost is negative. Similar to their SOCB counterparts, we find that joint stock commercial banks (JSCB) with higher credit risk tend to be more profitable, while higher cost results in a lower JSCB profitability levels. During the period under study, the empirical findings suggest that size and cost results in a lower city commercial banks (CITY) profitability, while the more diversified and relatively better capitalized CITY tend to exhibit higher profitability levels. The impact of economic growth is positive, while growth in money supply is negatively related to the SOCB and CITY profitability levels.