Effect of incentive policy on performance and international competitiveness of greenhouse tomatoes, Clementine mandarins, Maroc-late oranges, and olive-oil in Morocco

To study the effects of the incentive policy of Morocco on performance and international competitiveness of greenhouse tomatoes, “Clementine” mandarins, “Maroc-late” oranges (the three main export products) and olive oil, data from farm surveys in the products' major producing areas were used to derive the nominal (NPC) and the effective protection coefficients (EPC), and the domestic resource costs (DRC). All the NPC, averaging 0.94, and EPC, averaging 0.93, were similar and slightly less than one, indicating that the products were not given adequate protection and were affected negatively by the policy. All DRC were less than one indicating that Morocco has a competitive advantage in the production of the products. Greenhouse tomatoes had the lowest DRC, 0.36, indicating that it has a more competitive advantage than for Clementine, 0.41, and Maroc-late, 0.50 citrus fruits. The highest DRC, 0.93, indicated that olive oil had the lowest competitive advantage.     

Estimation of the characteristic roots of the scale matrix

The simultaneous estimation of the characteristic roots of the scale matrix of the multivariatet-model is considered. The improved estimation strategies are developed in the light of a quadratic loss function. It is demonstrated analytically and numerically that the class of proposed estimators outperforms the class of usual estimators in the sense of having smaller risk.     

Bank Behaviour and the Channel of Monetary Policy in Japan, 1965–1999

Using monthly data, this paper investigates whether there are differential effects of monetary policy across bank size and business size in Japan, to test the presence of the "bank lending channel" of monetary policy. It also considers that channel for the aggregate of banks. Prior to the end of 1984, support is found for the bank lending channel and also partly for the money channel. The study of the period from 1985 onwards suggests that no channel of monetary policy has been substantially effective in Japan.     

Is There any Threshold in the Relationship Between Mother's Education and Child Health? Evidence from Nigeria

The literature on mother's education and child health casually observes some nonlinearities and also a threshold in the relationship. Even though this nonlinearity or threshold has significant bearing on policy matters such as quality of education, any rigorous attempt to address this issue is missing in the literature. With height for age z‐score as a proxy for long‐run child health capital, regression results reveal that there are significant effects of mother's education on child health if mothers do not continue past primary school. Rather, poor quality of education at the primary level, especially literacy, is argued to have given rise to this threshold. It indicates that greater public investment in improving quality of education at the primary level is essential for maximizing the nonmarket outcomes of girls’ education in developing countries.     

US cross-listing and corporate disclosure policy

We investigate whether cross-listing in the US contributes to impound more earnings information into stock prices. Our results indicate that US exchange cross-listings are not associated with more future earnings news reflected in current prices, in accord with the view that such mechanism does not improve the information environment of non-US firms. This main finding is robust to many aspects of our methodology.     

Standard Setting for the Financial Reporting of Religious Business Organisations: the Case of Islamic Banks

Islamic banks have to abide by Islamic principles in all their business transactions. Accounting practices also have to be in conformity with this cardinal rule. Currently almost every Islamic bank sets its own accounting policy through a process which involves in-house religious advisers and the financial auditor of the bank. However, Islamic banks have recently agreed to establish a standard setting body to regulate their financial accounting and reporting. This paper argues that one of the predominant factors which seems to have influenced this decision and the institutional arrangements through which accounting standards will be promulgated is Islamic banks' fear of possible future intervention by their regulatory agencies.     

The Impact of the UK Price Codes on Accounting Functions in Organisations: A Power Perspective

The literature on pricing has hardly used the concepts of organisation theory to emphasise the internal factors that seem to influence the mechanics of pricing decisions. It is this missing theme to which this article attempts to draw attention by arguing that pricing decisions are influenced by organisational subunits ‘power which is not necessarily constant over time. This was made possible by examining the impact of the Price Commission, which operated in the UK between 1973 and 1979, on companies’ pricing decision making processes.     

Productivity, Profitability, and Firm Value

This study examines the role of productivity in the prediction of future profitability and firm valuation. The results indicate that productivity does not provide much information about future profitability incremental to that provided by current profit rate, but explains cross-sectional differences in market value incremental to that explained by book value and current profit rate.