The primary schools (<Emphasis Type="Italic">sibyans</Emphasis>) in Ottoman Cyprus during the Tanzimat <Emphasis Type="Italic">reform</Emphasis> era (1839–1878)

The nineteenth century is a century of reform for the Ottoman state. The Tanzimat reforms hold a unique place in the Ottoman history of modernization. During the Tanzimat period (1839–1878), the state underwent a restructuring process in almost all of its institutions to establish a centralized modern state and many new institutions were established. The Ottomans paid special attention to education to train the new generation required for the continuity of modernization and the centralized bureaucratic structure. While they opened modern high schools and higher education institutions, they attempted to reform the existing s?byan schools, which were the primary education institutions. This process of restructuring education was also carried out in Cyprus, which had been an Ottoman island since 1571. These attempts remained restricted to efforts to increase the number of s?byan schools in Cyprus. There was a failure to replace the religious education given at schools with a secular program, curriculum or modern education system based on education management. This situation also adversely affected the quality of education at the Rü?tiye School in Nicosia, the first and only modern secondary school of the period and which was opened in Nicosia in 1864.     

Can Benefits in Recreational Parks in Malaysia Be Transferred? A Choice Experiment (CE) Technique

This paper analyses benefit transfer in the case of recreational parks using the choice experiment (CE) technique. The CE was employed because it allows different changes in recreational park attributes to be taken into account. The analyses were performed in terms of transferability of valuation function and willingness to pay (WTP) values. The results for the valuation function suggest that the estimated coefficients between the two sites are not transferable. However, the estimated WTP values can be transferred. The results suggest the suitability of using the CE approach in analysing benefit transfer if the objective is to transfer the WTP values rather than the valuation function. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Can hedging tell the full story? Reconciling differences in United States aggregate- and industry-level exchange rate risk premium

While the importance of currency movements to industry competitiveness is theoretically well established, there is little evidence that currency risk impacts US industries. Applying a conditional asset pricing model to 36 US industries, we find that all industries have a significant currency premium that adds about 2.47 percentage points to the cost of equity and accounts for approximately 11.7% of total risk premium in absolute value. Cross-industry variation in the currency premium is explained by foreign income, industry competitiveness, leverage, liquidity, and other industry characteristics, while its time variation is explained by US aggregate foreign trade, monetary policy, growth opportunities, and other macro variables. The results indicate that methodological weakness, not hedging, explains the insignificant industry currency risk premium found in previous work, thus resolving the puzzle that currency risk premium is important at the aggregate stock market level, but not at the industry level.     

Saving, Investment, and Capital Mobility in LDCs

The Coakley, Kulasi, and Smith current-account solvency model ( Economic Journal , 1996, pp. 620–7) is used to investigate saving and investment in LDCs. This model implies that saving and investment cointegrate with a unit coefficient irrespective of the degree of capital mobility. Panel and conventional unit-root tests indicate that LDC current accounts are stationary. The Feldstein–Horioka cross-section regression coefficient for LDCs is lower than the corresponding OECD coefficient, indicating different policy responses in these countries rather than higher capital mobility. Finally, adjustment toward solvency is slower in LDCs, reflecting their vulnerability to external shocks and the impact of financial repression.     

Bank efficiency in South‐Eastern Europe

This study examines the cost and profit efficiency of banking sectors in six transition countries of South‐Eastern Europe over the period 1998–2008. Using a stochastic frontier approach, our analysis reveals that the average cost efficiency of South‐Eastern European banks is 68.59 percent, and the average profit efficiency is 53.87 percent. Regressions on the determinants of bank efficiency show that foreign banks are characterized by higher profit efficiency but lower cost efficiency, and government‐owned banks are associated with lower profit efficiency than domestic private banks. However, the efficiency gap between foreign‐, domestic private‐ and government‐owned banks narrows over time. We also find that the market power of a bank has a positive association with both cost and profit efficiency. Institutional development, proxied by progress in banking regulatory reforms, privatization and enterprise corporate governance restructuring, also has a positive impact on bank efficiency.     

Do Asian Countries Upgrade in Global Value Chains? A Novel Approach and Empirical Evidence

This paper examines the move into upstream and downstream global value chain (GVC) activities by 11 Asian countries. We use international input–output tables in combination with employment data and measure the number of workers in each country involved in manufactures GVC. Jobs are classified by business function based on occupational information, such as R&D, fabrication, logistics, sales and marketing. In most Asian countries, we find a faster employment increase in R&D and other support services relative to fabrication activities between 2000 and 2011. However, the participation in GVC and the pace of upgrading appears to differ substantially across Asian countries. We use a structural decomposition method to explore the role of trade, consumption and technological change in accounting for changes in countries' involvement in GVC.     

Business Strategy and Labor Investment Efficiency*

This paper examines the relation between business strategy and labor investment efficiency. Since business strategy affects both the agency problem and firm‐level uncertainty, as well as the overall shape of corporate behavior, we would expect the efficiency of labor investment to vary with the particular business strategy a firm pursues. Using a large sample of US data, we find that firms having a prospector‐type business strategy are associated with inefficient labor investment, while those having a defender‐type business strategy are associated with efficient labor investment. We provide evidence that uncertainty, rather than the agency problem, causes prospector‐type firms to exhibit inefficient labor investment. Finally, we document that inefficient labor investment by prospectors leads to relatively low profitability in subsequent periods. These findings are robust when subjected to a series of sensitivity tests.     

Corporate social responsibility performance,financial distress and firm life cycle: evidence from Australia

This study examines the association between corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance and financial distress and additionally the moderating impact of firm life cycle stages on that association. Based on a sample of 651 publicly listed Australian firm‐years’ data covering the 2007–2013 period, our regression results show that positive CSR activity significantly reduces financial distress of the firm. In addition, the negative association between positive CSR performance and financial distress is more pronounced for firms in mature life cycle stages. Our results are robust to alternative proxy measures of financial distress, CSR performance and life cycle stages.     

Business strategies and annual report readability

This study investigates the association between firm-level business strategy and the readability of narrative disclosures in annual reports. As business strategy affects the information environment and financial performance of firms, we expect the readability of narrative disclosures to vary with the particular business strategy that a firm pursues. In accord with this expectation, we find that firms with prospector-type business strategies produce less readable narratives, while those with defender-type business strategies produce more readable narratives. We also document that the association between strategy and readability is partially mediated by organisational performance, although the mediation effect is rather modest. These findings are robust when subjected to a series of sensitivity tests.     

An analysis of the black market exchange rate in a developing economy — The case of Turkey

Zusammenfassung Eine Analyse des Schwarzmarkt-Wechselkurses in Entwicklungsl?ndern — Das Beispiel der Türkei. — Die Schwarzmarkt-Wechselkurse in Entwicklungsl?ndern sind nicht unabh?ngig davon, welche Politik betrieben wird und wie sich die anderen ?konomischen Variablen (wie Einkommen, Preisniveau und Inflationserwartungen) entwickeln. In diesem Aufsatz wird mit Hilfe türkischer Daten ein einfaches Modell entwickelt und gesch?tzt, das gleichzeitig Schwarzmarkt-Wechselkurse, Preisniveau, Realeinkommen und reale Geldmenge bestimmt. Die Ergebnisse dynamischer Simulationen zeigen, daΒ sich dann, wenn Rückwirkungen aus den übrigen Teilen der Wirtschaft zugelassen werden, die Wirkungen wirtschaftspolitischer MaΒnahmen auf die Schwarzmarkt-Wechselkurse erheblich von denen unterscheiden, die man in einem Ein-Gleichungs-Modell beobachten würde, in dem alle erkl?renden Variablen als exogen angesehen werden.

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Résumé Une analyse du taux de change sur le marché noir dans une économie développante. — Les taux de change sur le marché noir dans les pays en voie de développement ne sont pas indépendants des politiques appliquées ou des autres variables économiques comme par exemple le revenu, le niveau des prix ou les expectatives d’inflation. Cet article a construit, estimé et simulé, en utilisant des données de la Turquie, un modèle simple qui simultanément détermine le taux de change sur le marché noir, le niveau des prix, le revenue réel et l’encaisse réelle. Les résultats des simulations dynamiques démontrent que, si l’on permet des rétro-actions du reste de l’économie, les effets d’un changement de politique sur le taux de change sur le marché noir sont substantiellement différents á ceux qu’on observerait avec un modèle á une seule équation dans laquelle toutes les variables explicatives sont supposément exogènes.

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Resumen Un análisis del tipo de cambio negro en una economfa en desarrollo. — Tipos de cambio de mercado negro en pai’ses en desarrollo no son independientes de las polfticas aplicadas o de otras variables econ?micas tales como el ingreso, nivel de precios o expectativas de inflation. En este articulo se ha construido, estimado y simulado, sobre la base de datos de Turquia, un modelo simple que détermina simultáneamente el tipo de cambio de mercado negro, nivel de precios, ingreso real y balances monetarios reaies. Los resultados de simulaciones dinámicas muestran que, cuando se permiten realimentaciones del resto de la economia, los efectos de un cambio de pol?tica dado sobre el tipo de cambio de mercado negro son sustancialmente diferentes de aquéllos que habrian sido observados con un modelo de ecuación única que asume que todas las variables explicativas son exógenas y no permite ninguna realimentación.