Market power in CEE banking sectors and the impact of the global financial crisis

The aim of this study is to undertake an up-to-date assessment of market power in Central and Eastern European banking markets and explore how the global financial crisis has affected market power and what has been the impact of foreign ownership. Three main results emerge. First, while there is some convergence in country-level market power during the pre-crisis period, the onset of the global crisis has put an end to this process. Second, bank-level market power appears to vary significantly with respect to ownership characteristics. Third, asset quality and capitalization affect differently the margins in the pre-crisis and the crisis periods. While in the pre-crisis period the impacts are similar for all banks regardless of ownership status, in the crisis period non-performing loans have a negative effect and capitalization a positive effect only for domestically-owned banks.     

我国P2P网络借贷发展现状及其监管思考

P2P网络借贷,是指帮助投资者与借款人实现直接借贷行为的中介服务行业。发展P2P网络借贷对缓解我国小微企业及个人融资难问题具有非常重要的意义。自2007年“拍拍贷”网贷平台成立以来,我国网络借贷平台数量日益增长,对小额贷款领域贡献明显,但同时由于监管的缺位,一些P2P网络借贷平台不规范操作引发的风险给整个行业发展带来一定的隐患。通过对我国现阶段P2P网贷平台运行模式、发展规模等现状进行梳理总结,发现网贷平台发展良莠不齐,存在借款利率过高和监管不力等问题,为此提出了加快制定相应规章制度、加强监管、完善平台信息公布和加强平台内外部合作等规范P2P网络借贷的政策建议。     

Voluntary disclosure practices amongst listed companies in Nigeria

This study examines voluntary disclosure practices amongst listed companies in Nigeria. Results from univariate and multivariate analyses of 52 listed companies suggest an average voluntary disclosure of 44% based on modified Meek, Roberts and Gray (1995) disclosure index comprising 24 disclosure items. The study found significant positive relationship between voluntary disclosure and firm size, measured as the natural logarithm of total asset. The study documents significant positive relationship between market-based definition of firm performance and voluntary disclosure. The study also found significant negative relationship between percentage of block share ownership and percentage of managerial share with firm disclosures. The study has important implication for both individual and institutional investors globally, regulators and policy makers in developing economies.     

Saving the Euro: Mitigating Financial or Trade Spillovers?

This paper analyzes through what channels the euro crisis affected firms and the efficacy of policies to mitigate the crisis. It analyzes stock price responses for 3,045 nonfinancial firms in 16 countries to four key policy events during 2010–11. Using precrisis benchmarks, it separates financial effects from trade effects and examines how bank and trade linkages propagated shocks. It finds that policy measures affected financially dependent firms more, particularly in creditor countries with greater bank exposure to peripheral euro countries, in statistically and economically significant ways. Trade linkages with peripheral countries played little role, although euro movements meant some differential effects.     

Modelling international tourism and country risk spillovers for Cyprus and Malta

Small Island Tourism Economies (SITEs) are developing sovereign countries that rely on tourism as a source of exports, and need a consistent inflow of foreign investment in order to facilitate economic growth. Access to international capital markets helps SITEs smooth out their consumption over time, while absorbing adverse domestic production shocks. This paper provides a comparison of tourism growth, country risk returns and their associated volatilities (or uncertainty) for 2 SITEs, namely Cyprus and Malta. Monthly data are available for both international tourist arrivals and composite country risk ratings compiled by the International Country Risk Guide (ICRG) for the period May 1986 to May 2002. The time-varying conditional variances of tourism growth and country risk returns for the 2 SITEs are analysed using multivariate models of conditional volatility. Empirical results show that Cyprus and Malta are complementary destinations for international tourists. Changes to tourism patterns in Cyprus lead to changes to tourism patterns in Malta. Hence, tour operators and national tourism promotion authorities in Cyprus and Malta should collaborate closely in marketing and promoting joint tourism products. Moreover, foreign entities interested in investing in the tourism sectors of Cyprus and Malta should consider investment projects that span a long period of time. The performance of the tourism sector and the associated composite risk are independent of each other for the two countries. However, there is a direct relationship between the tourism sectors of Cyprus and Malta and their respective country risk settings.     

Chinese and British consumers’ evaluation of Chinese and international brands and factors affecting their choice

This paper examines Chinese and British consumers’ evaluations of Chinese, and international brands, and factors affecting their brand choice. The results support recent findings of a decline in Western brands’ preference in China. But, these are attributed to several factors. The findings show country of origin does not affect Chinese brand choice, has a great effect on British choice between Chinese and other brands; brand value, and brand familiarity influence Chinese choice whereas brand reputation, and brand trust determine British choice. Implications for Chinese domestic and international expansion strategies, demographics’ influence, and cultural differences are discussed.     

西方国家文化产业的就业特点

自"世界文化政策大会"召开20余年来,文化产业发展大潮已席卷大多数西方国家.根据西方学者的相关研究,西方国家文化产业就业主要呈现以下七个特点:巨大的就业量、较快的就业增速、主要分布在都市区、分布倾向于发达大城市、各地域具有不同的优势部门、产业结构中"生产"功能增长显著、生产活动中中小型企业处支配地位.结合我国的实际状况,西方国家文化产业就业可以给我国如下启示:就业应成为文化产业发展的指示器;文化产业不是绝对的支柱产业;要扶持优势产业以促进城市竞争力;农村地区可以适当发展文化产业;文化产业不等同于高新技术产业;注重对小企业的扶持.     

如何保持公司竞争优势的思考与对策

目前大型零售业的竞争日趋激烈,竞争手段层出不穷,文章通过对大型零售百货业问题进行分析,指出了公司要保持竞争优势,必须从制定具体的发展战略和策略、提高核心竞争能力、提升造市集客能力、抓管理以提升便利能力等几个方面入手。     

Underpayment of Small Producers of Coffee and Cocoa in Sierra Leone

Fieldwork shows that many Sierra Leonean producers do not receive the official producer price for their coffee and cocoa, due to the concentration of buying stations, credit relations, the small quantities offered for sale, and the lack of marketing knowledge of the numerous and unorganized farmers. To the traders underpayment may seem economically justifiable to a certain extent, but to the farmers it means poverty and debt. A new village marketing centre project aims at remedying this situation and has already led to higher prices. Although no longer allowed to take their "just" share from the producers, traders are still willing to deal with the new centres.     

Drivers of the real effective exchange rates in high and upper‐middle income countries

This paper revisits the nexus between real effective exchange rate (REER) and total factor productivity (TFP) by controlling for trade openness, financial development and natural resources rents. We use a sample of 60 high‐income and upper‐middle income countries over the period 1995–2015 and employ the GMM estimation framework. Our results advance the empirical knowledge on the drivers of REER by providing robust evidence that the impact of TFP is not uniform across different country clusters. We find that in high‐income countries, increasing productivity causes the REER to depreciate hence becoming more trade competitive while the opposite is true for upper‐middle income countries. Furthermore, financial development and natural resources rents have no meaningful impact in the case of upper‐middle income countries but retain a significant effect in high‐income countries. Trade openness plays a key role in explaining the variation in REER in both country clusters.