Capital Stock and Economic Development in Hungary

This paper introduces a method of calculating physical capital stock figures in transition countries and derives data for Hungary. On the basis of international experience, we set investment and saving paths for future income levels. Confrontation of savings prospects of different sectors with investments needs leads to an economic policy analysis of the fiscal policy needed to catch up to 70 per cent of Austrian per capita income by 2030.     

Relationship marketing in the financial services industry: The importance of customer education,participation and problem management for customer loyalty

The effectiveness of relationship marketing efforts in services selling is to a large extent dependent on customers' commitment to increase the depth and breadth of their relationship with the organisation. In this study, we seek to extend current thinking by presenting a model that examines the relative importance of customer education, participation and problem management in driving customer loyalty. To test the relationships between these variables, we use data collected from 1,268 clients of a global financial services firm. Overall, the results support the hypothesised model and show customer education to be the strongest determinant of client loyalty. Current findings provide implications for multi-product financial institutions that are of theoretical and practical interest alike.     

华风茂谈交银国际首只直投基金

<正>2010年2月10日,交银国际资产管理有限公司首只直投基金——交银国际中国基金在香港成立。问:这只新基金的特点是?答:这是我们第一只私募股权直接投资基金,主要关注离岸成长资本机遇,主要是那些具结构性下行保护的权益投资。这是一只离岸基金,目标将锁定中国机遇。退出     

Changes in the way marketing is managed — a personal view

The Marketing Department, like others in a manufacturing company, has changed considerably in the last 40 years. Its survival, and even the concept of marketing, have been under threat recently. The reasons for these changes, as the author has seen them, are described. Marketing has tried to be seen as accountable in the same way as other departments but has usually failed. It often now operates as part of a multi‐disciplinary team, which means that more people have to understand the Marketing concept, so this needs restating to a wider audience. After this, there are serious marketing tasks facing most firms today.     

Short-term debt maturity,monitoring and accruals-based earnings management

Most prior studies assume a positive relation between debt and earnings management, consistent with the financial distress theory. However, the empirical evidence for financial distress theory is mixed. Another stream of studies argues that lenders of short-term debt play a monitoring role over management, especially when the firm’s creditworthiness is not in doubt. To explore the implications of these arguments on managers’ earnings management incentives, we examine a sample of US firms over the period 2003–2006 and find that short-term debt is positively associated with accruals-based earnings management (measured by discretionary accruals), consistent with the financial distress theory. We also find that this relation is significantly weaker for firms that are of higher creditworthiness (i.e. investment grade firms), consistent with monitoring benefits outweighing financial distress reasons for managing earnings.     

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL TEST SCORES AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

Hanushek and Kimko's analysis of the relationship between growth and schooling quality, as measured by scores in international tests, suffers from potential endogeneity as schooling quality is not always measured at a date strictly prior to the observed growth. To address this problem we treat the data as a panel, relating growth only to test scores at earlier dates. The estimates of the effect of schooling quality on growth are similar to those obtained from cross‐section regressions.     

Can emerging market central banks bail out banks? A cautionary tale from Latin America

This paper investigates whether emerging market countries can implement monetary policies to cope with financial crises as advanced countries did during the recent global crisis—injecting significant amounts of money into the financial system without facing major short-run adverse macroeconomic repercussions. Using panel data techniques, the paper analyzes episodes of financial turmoil in 16 Latin American countries during 1995–2007. The results show that developing and emerging market countries should be cautious because injecting money on a large scale into the financial system may fuel further macroeconomic instability, increasing the chances of simultaneous currency crises.