Financial Reform

Given the concern about the low growth rates in African countries, this paper deals with the issue of how to increase the said growth rates by using South Africa as a case study. This paper attempts to answer this question by examining the determinants of total factor productivity (TFP)and productivity growth. We utilise the theoretical insights from the Solow (1956) growth model and its extension by Mankiw, Romer and Weil (1992). Our empirical methodology is based on the London School of Economics Hendry’s General to Specific Instrumental Variable method and Gregory and Hansen’s (1996a; 1996b) structural break technique. Our findings imply that variables like human capital, trade openness, foreign direct investment, financial efficiency, democracy and financial reforms improves TFP and productivity growth in South Africa. Importantly, the key determinants appear to be democracy and financial liberalisation.

Much attention has recently been given to whether market reforms reduce or increase inequality. Inequality often reflects unequal access to productive opportunities and recent evidence has highlighted the presence of onerous barriers to entry, especially in developing countries. This paper focuses on the relationships between inequality and finance. In principle, a better financial system can help overcome barriers, and thereby

Using an explanatory case study, this paper presents an in-depth analysis of a Malaysian public utility which was required to transform itself into a self-financing, efficient and profitable organisation through a process of corporatisation. Despite attempts to enhance profitability by imposing new rules of budgeting, and by recruiting new accounting graduates, the case reveals that although accounting changes were enacted, over time they became separated from, and only loosely coupled to, other organisational activities. Concepts from institutional theory were used as sensitising devices to inform the research, but alone they were unable to fully explain the case. Consequently, an extended framework, which treats loose coupling as both a process and an outcome, and which recognises the intertwining of trust, resistance and power was developed. This theoretical framework provides a possible explanation for the mixed findings about the effectiveness of public sector financial reform which have been revealed in a wide array of research studies.

The aim of this paper is to report the results of a study on the linkages between credit risk management practices and management accounting system (MAS) towards organizational performance through testing the match and joint effects of MAS and CRM on organizational performance. The research method involved administering a questionnaire to 11 commercial banks listed on the Palestinian Monetary Authority website and the respondents were those in the risk management department on banks such as chief executive officers (CEOs), chief risk officers (CROs), chief financial controllers, general managers, risk managers, and bank employees at departments related to risk management in Palestinian commercial banks. Based on the IFAC's (1998) framework and the Bank of International Settlement report (2013), it was found that most of the Palestinian commercial banks have a complete implementation for ERM framework. In light if the relationship between CRM practices and MAS some management accounting practices works to assist in managing credit risks in two main dimensions costing system and budgeting. The finding also confirms the important role of interaction between CRM and the use of costing system MAS towards organizational performance.

The Government of Pakistan believes that “high and growing” indebtedness of the government is reflected in falling investment and growth rates of the economy, leading to growing poverty of the people. This paper examines how this came to be, and whether the connections implicit in this assessment do in fact exist? On this basis, the paper also comments on the

The papers in the present SUERF Study is a selection of the papers presented at a SUERF Workshop and Special OeNB East Jour Fixe held at Oesterreichische Nationalbank in Vienna on 23 January 2009. In his opening remarks (chapter 2), Ewald Nowotny, Governor of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank referred to Austrian banks engagement with neighbouring Central and Eastern European Countries. The

The papers in the present SUERF Study is a selection of the papers presented at a SUERF Workshop and Special OeNB East Jour Fixe held at Oesterreichische Nationalbank in Vienna on 23 January 2009. In his opening remarks (chapter 2), Ewald Nowotny, Governor of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank referred to Austrian banks engagement with neighbouring Central and Eastern European Countries. The current crisis should not make people forget the fact that Austrian banks deep engagement with the neighbouring countries is one of the success stories in Austrian economic history. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, Austrian banks have become one of the driving forces of the process of structural adjustment, modernization of business practices, and deepening of financial intermediation in the region. At end 2007, in Central Europe, the share of Austrian banks surpassed a fifth of aggregate sector assets, in Southeastern Europe even a third of the respective total. A considerable share of the ear...

The papers in the present SUERF Study is a selection of the papers presented at a SUERF Workshop and Special OeNB East Jour Fixe held at Oesterreichische Nationalbank in Vienna on 23 January 2009. In his opening remarks (chapter 2), Ewald Nowotny, Governor of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank referred to Austrian banks engagement with neighbouring Central and Eastern European Countries. The

Epstein and Carrick-Hagenbarth analyze the conflict of interest that exists when academic financial economists, acting in their roles as presumed objective experts in the media and academia on topics, such as financial regulation, fail to report their private financial affiliations. The authors analyze the linkages between academia, private financial institutions and public institutions of nineteen academic financial economists who are

L’objectif de cette étude est d’une part de mesurer les effets des réformes financières sur l’efficacité et la productivité des banques de la zone UEMOA sur la période de 1996 à 2006 et, d’autre part, de faire ressortir les principaux déterminants managériaux de l’efficacité de ces banques. L’estimation des scores de productivité et d’efficacité est effectuée au moyen de l’analyse de l’enveloppement des données (DEA). Les résultats montrent premièrement que les inefficiences techniques pures dominent les inefficiences d’échelle au niveau de tous les pays la zone excepté le Sénégal. Ainsi, l’inefficience relève plus d’une sous-utilisation des inputs que de rendements d’échelle inappropriés. Deuxièmement, la productivité globale des facteurs a connu une amélioration due essentiellement à la variation positive des progrès technologiques au détriment de l’efficacité technique sur toute la période de l’étude. Ceci laisse penser que les réformes financières n’ont pas permis aux banques de...

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the etymology of the word 'capital' says that in Medieval Latin this word came to mean the head of cattle or other livestock. De Soto in his book 'The Mystery of Capital' suggests that the cattle and the livestock are low maintenance ...

The global food crisis of 2007–08 triggered an important US-led initiative to tighten regulations over agricultural derivatives markets. The lead role of the US reflected its structural power in global finance and the influence of societal interests within the US concerned about the rapid growth of financial investment in agricultural derivatives markets over the past decade. Encouraged by market developments

This paper examines the causal relationship between financial development and economic growth in Egypt during the period 1960-2001 within a trivariate VAR setting. We employ four different measures of financial development and apply Granger causality tests using the cointegration and vector error correction methodology. Our results significantly support the view that financial development Granger-causes economic growth either through increasing investment efficiency or through increasing resources for investment. This finding suggests that the financial reforms launched in 1990 can explain the rebound in economic performance since then and that further deepening of the financial sector is an important instrument to stimulate saving/investment and therefore long-term economic growth.

To Chinese officials who are in charge of financial reform, the summer of 2015 has been disturbingly eventful. China’s stock market has plunged since mid-June after months of sharp rise. In less than three months, the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) Composite Index dropped from 5,166 point on 12 June to 2,927 point on 26 August, representing a 43% drop in stock value. The RMB devaluation in August took global investors and international trading partners by surprise, causing an unintended disturbance to the global financial markets in the shadow of China’s lower than-expected economic growth. All this has put China under the spotlight across the globe. While China is already the world’s second largest economy, its financial system is relatively less developed and is prone to market volatility. The long quest to internationalise the Chinese currency, the yuan or Renminbi (RMB), remains in progress amidst the financial turmoil in China. The question of the extent to which the Chinese government will allow a greater role for the market in currency reform continues to be the crux of the issue.