Financial performance of commercial banks in the emerging markets

In the economic growth of a country, the banking sector plays a significant role (Alam, Rabbani, Tausif, & Abey, 2021). The overall objective of the study is to investigate the financial performance of commercial banks in emerging markets. The study tried to see the impact of governance, exchange rate volatility, trade openness, and internet access on the financial performance of commercial banks in Ethiopia during the years from 2014 to 2019. The study employed a random-effects model using balanced panel data. The result indicated that composite governance index, trade openness, and internet access have a positive and statistically significant effect on the financial performance of commercial banks as measured by their return on assets. However, the exchange rate volatility has a negative and statistically significant effect on the financial performance of commercial banks. On the other hand, the result of bank-specific variables considered in the study such as profit margin, asset utilization, net interest margin, overhead efficiency, and numbers of branches have a positive and statistically significant effect on the financial performance of commercial banks. Contrarily, the equity multiplier ratio has a negative and significant effect on the financial performance of commercial banks

External Sector and The Nigerian Manufacturing Sector Performance, 1981-2019

No country is an island. The globalization phenomenon is making all countries to be interdependent. The external sector environment has become critical for the success of every country and internal balance. Thus, it has become important to examine how much the externa sector environment impact on the performance of the domestic economy. The present study, therefore, examined the influence of Nigerian external sector environment on the performance of the Nigerian manufacturing sector between 1981 and 2019. The study adopted exp-post research design approach and the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model estimation techniques. The empirical model consists of the Nigerian manufacturing sector output index as the dependent variable and exchange rate, trade openness, and foreign direct investment as independent variables and external sector environment variables. Test of unit root results indicated that the variables have mix order of integration, while the co integration analysis results indicated that the variables in the model have stable long run relationship. Estimate of the ARDL model reveals that in the short run exchange rate variations have negative, but significant effect on manufacturing sector performance, while trade openness, and FDI have positive but insignificant influence on the manufacturing sector performance in the short run. In the long run, exchange rate level and FDI inflows have positive and significant effect on the manufacturing sector performance, while trade openness has negative and significant effect on the Nigerian manufacturing sector performance. The study therefore conclude that the Nigerian external sector Environment has significant influence on the performance of the Nigerian manufacturing sector.

Trade Liberalization: Reaping Its Effects on the Agricultural Performance of the Philippines

Over the years, economists had been taught that "Trade can make everyone better off", thus the rationale of the dynamic shift in the Philippine agricultural trade system from protectionism to trade liberalization. It was known that the Philippines was one of the champions in the agriculture sector as it had massively produced agricultural goods and exports during the late 20th century. However, various studies and reports have shown and concluded that agriculture in the Philippine setting is now dubbed as the “poor man’s sector”. In this study, it has reaped the reality of the country’s stance in trade agreements as it has examined the correlation of trade openness, imports of goods, and employment to the Value of Production in Agriculture—wherein, it has resulted in distinct conclusions such as (1) trade openness has a negative impact to VPA, (2) imports of goods increase VPA by 0.094373, and (3) employment’s positive impact is estimated to be at 4570.708. The researchers suggest that such results and analysis are vital for the government sector and thus revisit the pros and cons of trade policies and weigh their net effects on the agricultural sector to which people owe their daily nutrition.

Natural resources and economic growth: evidence from Brunei Darussalam

PurposeThis paper explores the relationship between natural resources and economic growth of Brunei Darussalam, an underresearched area in the available literature.Design/methodology/approachAnnual data are sourced from reliable sources for the period 1989–2020. Appropriate cointegration techniques for time series data are employed to estimate the specified models and extract results.FindingsThe results provide evidence about the positive and significant role that natural resources have played in the economic growth of Brunei Darussalam. Similarly, trade openness and domestic investment have also positively and significantly impacted the long-run economic growth. On the other hand, the impacts of government expenditure and the growth of human capital on economic growth are although positive but insignificant statistically in the long run. The short-run results show that natural resources, government expenditures and domestic investment have influenced economic growth both positively and significantly. Moreover, the positive and significant impact of trade openness on economic growth, which was observed in the long run, turned negative and insignificant in the short run. Finally, the insignificant positive relationship between the growth of human capital and economic growth observed in the long run remained the same in the short run.Originality/valueThis paper studies the resource curse hypothesis for Brunei Darussalam for the first time, and therefore, the findings will be of significant interest for policymakers and researchers.