Intellectual Capital and Firm Performance across Pakistani Industries

This study sheds light on the differences in intellectual capital (IC) efficiencies across non-financial sectors in Pakistan and determines the relationship between IC and firm performance. The study used sample of 155 non-financial firms from the manufacturing and service industries of Pakistan for the period 2009-2018. This study contributes to IC research by applying modified value-added intellectual capital (MVAIC) model with relationship to firm performance (return on assets and Tobin’s Q) of Pakistani non-financial firms which was overlooked by the previous researchers. In addition, to deal with endogeneity, the dynamic panel generalized methods of moments regression is applied to test the relationship between IC and performance. Findings provide evidence that different sectors in non-financial industries manage IC components differently. IC increases both market-based performance and accounting-based performance of Pakistani firms. Among all IC components, human capital efficiency is an important determinant of firm performance. The implication can provide help managers and investors to understand the IC to increase the firm performance.

Nexus Unclassified Loans, Classified Loans, and Profitability

This study investigates the impact of some variables such as total revenue, total assets, total liabilities, total deposits, total unclassified loans, total classified loans, standard loans, special mention account loans, sub-standard loans, doubtful loans, and bad and loss loans on profit before tax. Unbalanced Panel Data were collected from the website of 45Commercial Bank of Bangladesh from the year 2010 to 2018. Ordinary Least Square (OLS), Pooled Ordinary Least Square (POLS), Driscoll-Kraay (DK), Second Stage Least square (2SLS), Generalized Methods of Moments (GMM) methods are used in this study. This research found that total revenue had a significant positive relationship with profit before tax in all the models except DK and GMM models. Total unclassified loans had a significant positive relationship and total liabilities had a significant negative relationship with profit before tax in all the models. Special mention account loans had a significant positive relationship with profit before tax in OLS and DK models and total classified loans had a significant positive relationship with profit before tax in GMM model.

Do the diversification of income and assets spur bank profitability in Bangladesh? A dynamic panel data analysis

Purpose This paper aims to explore the effects of bank diversification (i.e. diversification of income and diversification of assets) on Bangladeshi banks’ profitability. Design/methodology/approach Using a dynamic panel data model with system generalized methods of moments, the authors examine an unbalanced panel data from 32 banks spanning 318 bank-year observations from 2007 to 2016. Findings The findings indicate a significant positive association of income diversification and asset diversification on bank profitability. Therefore, the results show that banks can generate profit from diversification of income and diversification of assets. Originality/value One of the rare attempts to investigate the relationship between diversification and profitability in Bangladesh’s banking sector is this report. The authors anticipate the results to have major consequences for Bangladeshi bank regulators and other related economies.

Bank Regulation in the Economies in Transition

Given that banking in economies of transition fluctuate heavily, we explore the effect of regulatory norms on performance of banking industry. In particular, we examine the effect of Reserve Requirements, Activity Restrictions, and Capital Stringencies on the overall industry profitability and stability of the financial institutions. We utilize the Generalized Methods of Moments methodology to the panel data regressions over 17 different transitional economies during, and after the crisis period of 2008 through to 2019. Our results show that the Reserve Requirements regulatory norm is the only significant factor that improves the profitability and diminishes the risk of financial instability. The findings are confirmed with our tests over the regional sub-samples. This research sheds the light on the necessities of political and economic reforms in banking for these markets in transition.

Does Poverty Matter for Tax Revenue Performance in Developing Countries?

This article explores the effect of poverty on tax revenue performance (tax revenue share), using an unbalanced panel data set of 102 developing countries over the period from 1996 to 2015. Based on the two-step system generalized methods of moments (GMM) approach, the empirical analysis shows that higher poverty rates significantly reduce tax revenue performance in developing countries. However, the magnitude of this negative effect is lower in least developed countries (LDCs) than in other countries of the sample. The analysis has also revealed that the tax revenue performance effect of poverty depends on the level of household consumption as well as the prevailing unemployment rate in the economy. Finally, development aid inflows help to mitigate the negative effect of poverty on tax revenue performance in developing countries. These findings not only highlight the importance of poverty for tax revenue performance in developing countries, but they additionally show that the provision of higher amounts of development aid to these countries could help them mitigate the adverse tax revenue effect of poverty, and even allow them to enjoy higher tax revenue performance, which is key for attaining their development objectives. JEL Classification: I30, I32, H20

Effect of the Utilization of Non-Reciprocal Trade Preferences offered by the QUAD on Economic Complexity in Beneficiary Countries

This article aims to contribute to the nascent literature on the effect of non-reciprocal trade preferences (NRTPs) on industrialization in beneficiary countries. In so doing, it complements the few existing works on the effect of NRTPs on export product diversification by investigating the effect of NRTPs (both the Generalized System of Preferences- GSP programs- and other non-reciprocal trade preferences) offered by the QUAD countries on the level of economic complexity in beneficiary countries. The analysis has relied on 110 beneficiary countries of these NRTPs over the period 2002–2018, and made primarily use of the two-step system Generalized Methods of Moments estimator. The findings are quite interesting. First, beneficiary countries tend to use GSP programs (rather than other trade preferences) to achieve greater economic complexity, and the positive effect of the utilization of GSP programs on economic complexity is higher for high income beneficiary countries than relatively less advanced beneficiary countries. Second, both GSP programs and other non-reciprocal trade preferences are strongly complementary in promoting economic complexity in beneficiary countries, in particular if their usage reach high levels. Third, the utilization of NRTPs enhances economic complexity in countries that receive high foreign direct investment flows. Finally, development aid flows are strongly complementary with the utilization of NRTPs in fostering economic complexity in beneficiary countries, especially for high amounts of development aid. This suggests the need for preference-granting countries (that are also suppliers of development aid) to offer both generous NRTPs and higher development aid flows if those NRTPs are to be effective in expanding the manufacturing base in the beneficiary countries.Jel Classification: F13; F14; O14.

Effect of Aid for Trade on Financial Development: Exploring the Channel of Manufactured Exports

Many studies have considered the macroeconomic effects of Aid for Trade (AfT) flows, that is, the part of official development assistance allocated for the development of the trade sector. The present paper aims to expand this literature by investigating the effect AfT flows on financial development notably through channel of manufactured exports. The analysis has covered a set of 120 countries over the period 2002–2017, and relied primarily on the two-step system Generalized Methods of Moments (GMM). Results show that total AfT flows, notably its components AfT for economic infrastructure and AfT for productive capacity promote financial development, and the magnitude of these positive effects rises as countries' share of manufactured exports increases. Additionally, total AfT flows influence positively financial development in countries that diversify their export product basket towards manufactured exports. These findings highlight the key role of AfT flows in promoting financial development in recipient-countries, and therefore call on donor-countries to scale up AfT flows in favour of developing countries, given the importance of financial development for economic development.

The Effect of Liquidity Risk and Credit Risk on the Bank Performance: Empirical Evidence from Iraq

The main objective of this paper is to study the effect of liquidity risk and credit risk on the profitability of commercial banks in Iraq. The sample is 18 private commercial banks listed in Iraqi Stock Exchange for six years for the period 2010 to 2020. This paper especially focuses on Iraqi commercial private Banks. The dependent variable is bank performance is measured by return on asset (ROA) and independent variables are, liquidity risks, credit risks. This paper employs a dynamic panel model, using Generalized Methods of Moments (GMM) panel data regression of Fixed-effects models. Furthermore, the findings illustrate that liquidity risk has a positive significant association with bank profitability. Meanwhile, credit risk has an adverse significant association with bank profitability. This paper contributes to the debate of risk management as well as determinants of bank performance from several dimensions. First, this study is the first to investigate the impacts of liquidity risks on bank performance in Iraq. Secondly, this is the first study that investigates the impacts of credit risks on bank performance in Iraq. It is hoped that the result of this paper can fill the gap of the literature on the association between liquidity risks, credit risks, and bank performance.

The Impact of Integrated UN Missions on Humanitarian NGO Security

Since the end of the Cold War, the UN has extended many of its missions in conflict zones to include political, military, and humanitarian activities. Many humanitarian nongovernmental organizations have been critical of these “integrated” UN missions, claiming that they can blur the distinction between political, military, and humanitarian action, thus placing humanitarian aid workers at risk of retaliation from warring factions opposed to the UN’s political objectives. This proposition is empirically tested using generalized methods of moments statistical analysis of sixty-seven countries that experienced intrastate conflict between 1997 and 2018. When assessing attacks in general—to include the sum of aid workers killed, wounded, and kidnapped—the results indicate that humanitarian aid workers are more likely to come under attack in countries that have an integrated UN mission. However, when the attacks are assessed separately, results show that this relationship holds only with aid workers who are killed in the field.

Corruption and its diverse effect on credit risk: global evidence

Corruption has a complex relationship with economic growth. We have explored the impact of corruption on credit risk from a global perspective. The sample consists of 178 countries and covers 18 years that range from 2000 to 2017. Non-performing loan (NPL) is used as a proxy for credit risk and data regarding NPL is collected from the World Bank Database. Corruption scores are collected from the Transparency International reports. Panel regression results provide a positive association between corruption and credit risk for the global sample. Generalized Methods of Moments regression and robustness tests validate the findings. However, sub-sample analysis provides support for “grease the wheel” hypothesis for high corruption countries and indicates that corruption is beneficial in a weak form of governance and excessive regulatory pressure. This study advocate for the importance of strong governance mechanisms in high corruption countries that can minimize the impact of corruption on banking sector profitability and ensure economic development. Unlike past literature, we provide global evidence on the association between corruption and credit risk for the banking sector which allows generalizability.