Efficiency and risk in commercial banking: empirical evidence from East Asian countries

This paper analyses the effects of off-balance sheet (OBS) activities and various types of risks on the cost and profit efficiencies of banks in seven East Asian countries between 2001 and 2008. Cost and profit efficiency scores are estimated using the data envelopment analysis approach. The results of this analysis are then used to identify the impact of OBS activities and risk exposures on cost and profit efficiencies using a Tobit regression. Bank insolvency risk (as measured by z-scores) is positively related to profit efficiency, while interest sensitivity, size, equity to total assets and OBS exposures all impact on cost efficiency. The analysis of the impact of input and output slacks illustrates that in around 1 in 5 cases banks’ cost efficiency can be improved by adjusting the former variables, whereas in only around 1 in 100 cases a similar outcome is possible for profit efficiency.     

A possible adverse effect of needing to issue new equity in the future

This research develops a model of how a need to issue new equity in the future can have an adverse affect on a stock's current price, value, and beta. In particular, if the market error in pricing a stock is positively correlated with the return on the market portfolio of all assets, losses from having to issue equity in the future at a distressed price will result in the stock having a higher beta and a lower current market value. To avoid this situation, corporations are motivated to hold greater financial slack.     

The property rights game: Discovering the meaning of private property

In this paper we discuss the results of an educational game we have developed. This game deals with the acquisition, use, and transfer of private property rights in land and shows participants the importance of property rights in market economies. While our findings are not scientific, they do show that production in a society with solely communal property collapses while production in a society with private property flourishes. We hope that these results encourage others to use this exercise as an educational experience for students.     

Nutrition policies and programmes: a decade of redirection

This article assesses the effectiveness of nutrition programs and policies since the World Food Conference, 10 years ago. The authors perceive several distinct approaches. Just before the World Food Conference, nutrition programs had passed through an era of enchantment with technological solutions (single-cell protein, oilseed protein isolates). Supply was regarded as the problem; protein inadequacy as the crisis. None of the technological fixes had much of an impact on the malnutrition problem. This contributed to a willingness to entertain a much broader approach to nutrition. The new paradigm manifested itself 1st as a movement toward integrated nutrition planning. The national planning process was assumed to be the appropriate vehicle for applying this methodology. However, integrated nutrition planning threatened, conflicted with or at least brought pressure for change in the administrative and political reality of governmental organizations. Moreover, the nutrition community's capacity to respond to the demands flowing from the new paradigm was limited. The difficulties encountered in trying to achieve full integration led to a reexamination of working within traditional sectors but addressing the problem in several key sectors simultaneously, such as health and agriculture. The past decade also saw a move toward analyzing and improving the design and implementation of various kinds of nutrition interventions. The emphasis was on understanding and dealing with the administrative, economic and political realities of such efforts. Incorporation of consumption and nutrition considerations in the analysis and formulation of food policies in some countries is 1 of the important achievements of the past decade. This overwhelmingly economic approach focuses on pricing policies and market effects, recognizing that poverty and purchasing power are central to the malnutrition problem. Analysis of macrofood policy has filled an important void, giving a more concrete and inclusive view of food security. Nutrition progress during the next decade will require the development community to confront a changed environment and several key challenges, namely the surge of conservative politics in the early 1980s, and the severe economic problems most countries face. There is a need to be realistic about the tenacity of the problem and the multiple barriers to implementation of nutrition policies. The challenges face both national governments and development agencies. There is agreement that, during the decade since the World Food Conference, the field of nutrition has gone through a metamorphosis and that there has been progress. However, the development community still faces an unfinished nutrition agenda.     

ACCOUNTING FOR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT EXPENDITURE: AN ANALYSIS OF THE ROLLS ROYCE RB.211 PROJECT

There is evidence that standard setting bodies see the promotion of uniformity of accounting practice as a major objective in setting accounting standards. However, recently issued standards in respect of the accounting treatment of research and development costs allow corporate managers considerable choice in accounting for these costs. An examination of the circumstances surrounding the development of the RB.211 engine by Rolls Royce Limited during the years 1967-70 is undertaken to determine the extent to which different practices may be employed in accounting for research and development costs under the U.K. and International accounting standards. Evidence adduced from this examination suggests that the management of Rolls Royce Limited could have complied with the requirements of these accounting standards and still have been free to expense or capitalise the costs incurred on the RB.211 project.     

Nursing presence,patient satisfaction,and the bottom line

Hospital planners rely on a number of motivational models to increase patient satisfaction. Missing is the user friendly model oriented to nursing presence. Absent is the approach which taps into that contribution particular nurses might make to increase patient satisfaction and enhance the bottom line. This paper remedies this circumstance by the introduction of the Nursing Presence Grid model. The model is based upon a review of the literature conducted in the manner of Polit and Hungler (1995) and appearing since 1983. Nursing presence is defined. The Nursing Presence Grid matches the various dimensions of nursing presence with various courses of action thought to attain nursing presence. An explanation of how the model might be applied is presented.     

Over the Line: Managers' experience of a labour strike

The experiences of managers who continue to work through a labour stoppage is a largely overlooked question in industrial relations research and practice. Qualitative long interviews were conducted with managers who worked through a strike. A shared narrative for managers' strike experiences emerged. Managers perceived that their prestrike workplace was cooperative and characterized by positive labour‐management relationships. The strike was experienced as contentious and personalized with managers reporting that they and their families were targets of aggression from strikers. The managers envisioned a more formal poststrike workplace characterized by less collegial labour‐management interactions. We discuss the implications of these findings and call for further research on managers' experiences of industrial relations events. Copyright © 2014 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.