Relationship Between Banking Performance and Financial Distress: A Study on Banks of Bangladesh

Banking is said to be one of the most successful industries in the economy of Bangladesh. The aim of this study is to check the existence of a relationship between the financial strength (or distress), measured through Altman Z-score, and banking performance, measured using Return of Equity (ROE), of the banks of Bangladesh listed in the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE). The paper thoroughly analyzes and describes the data associated with these two variables, and a linear regression has been conducted between these two variables to ascertain the level and direction of their relationship. The trends of Z-score over the five years from 2015 to 2019 (inclusive) have been tested. The analysis discloses that the z-score is a statistically significant predictor of the ROE in the banking industry. Although, the industry shows a low level of Z-score indicating a high level of financial distress among the banks studied, this study implies that an increase in Z-score will result in an increase of ROE.

Getting Published in Top Journals: Is the Deck Stacked Against You?

We examine the challenges of publishing in top academic journals. We introduce a new data set summarizing 30 years of articles at the three top finance journals. We quantify the issue by first examining the number of articles and authors per year at each journal then comment on the impact of repeat authors and institutional affiliation. Our results show that a small number of academics and institutions dominate the available publishing space in these journals. We then shift the focus to the potential impact of choice of research area on publication success by investigating trends in the coverage of behavioral finance in these journals. Our results suggest an editorial bias against this arguably important field of study.

Does Openness, and Productivity Matters for FDI: A Global Interactive Analysis Based on the Complementary Role of Institutions

Conventional wisdom suggested that investment flows in where you have abnormal returns that resulted in a high productivity area. However, FDI behaves peculiarly, as most are targeted towards developed countries where excess competition drives down returns and ultimately productivity. On the contrary, it shy in developing countries where one has more productive investment opportunities. This study tries to tackle the problem and explores the factors that influenced FDI flows. In particular, we focused on productivity, trade openness, financial liberalization, and institutions. Macro-level data was collected from 27 economies from 2004 to 2015. The analysis was done using GMM methodology. The results showed productivity remained insignificant in explaining FDI throughout the models. Trade seems to have a significant positive impact on the model without the interaction effect. Interestingly, financial liberalization seems to affect FDI negatively in all cases. GDP growth had a positive and significant effect. All Institutional variables that include control of corruption, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, seems to have a significant positive impact on FDI individually, as well as in the combined form. We also witnessed significant and positive complementarities with each of the institutional factors and productivity, in explaining FDI. This indicated that higher productivity is not the deciding factor of FDI, however, the same productivity in a better institutional environment would produce positive complementarity that would significantly determine FDI. The findings imply that investors' prime concern is not productivity but the institutional environment. Moreover, only with quality institutions, the conventional wisdom persists.

The Effect of Polarization on Economic Growth, Social Capital, and Democracy: A Cross-Country Study

In the last decade, one of the biggest global issues that have been debated upon is whether increased rates of migration, diversity, and political polarization stemming from these factors have any impact on the economic growth of countries. Accordingly, this paper explores the effect of polarization on democracy, social capital, education, and economic growth in a cross-country analysis involving developed countries, developing countries, and the least developed countries. A bilateral time series analysis was conducted by treating each country-set in isolation, as well as a group and focusing on the period 2009 to 2018. According to our results, polarization appears to have a negative effect on the economic growth of developing countries. The same results were observed when we analyzed all the countries collectively. An inverse relationship was also established between polarization and social capital in developed countries. Meanwhile, polarization does not have any significant impact on democracy and education for any of the countries under study. It was also determined that when treated independently, democracy, social capital, education, and GDP per capita all appear to have a varying yet negative effect on polarization.

The Role of Macroeconomic Variables in Sovereign Risk

The sovereign debt market has gathered a lot of attention post the global financial recession therefore it is very important to study how the countries of the eurozone countries can be shielded from all internal and external risks. This can be achieved by examining the macroeconomic determinants of the sovereign risk. Based on the results of the panel regression, it becomes evident which financial indicators are contributing to the sovereign risk. In terms of the stochastic properties, when homogeneity is assumed among the cross-sectional units, all the variables appeared to be level stationary except for the total government bond yield. However, when heterogeneity is assumed among the countries, variables such total government bond yield, GDS as a percentage of GDP, total credit to private sector, employment as a ratio to total GDP, and bank credit are level none stationary. Consequently, these findings will help identify the variables that can be used to approximate the movement of the government bond yield.

Schumpeter, Neo-Schumpeterianism, and Stra.Tech.Man Evolution of the Firm

The Schumpeterian way of thinking for the analysis of innovation, as an evolutionary socioeconomic phenomenon, seems to be still of particular usefulness while the fundamental contribution by Nelson and Winter with the “evolutionary theory of economic change” is nowadays one of the most widely cited references in the contexts of “neo-Schumpeterianism.” In a similar evolutionary concern, Vlados (2004) also examines the “dynamics of the triangle of strategy, technology, and management” (Stra.Tech.Man synthesis). The aim of this article is, in particular, to find out to what extent the Stra.Tech.Man approach utilizes and enriches some of the fundamental neo-Schumpeterian contributions by focusing mostly on the evolutionary theory of the firm, the use of evolutionary biology on analyzing socioeconomic phenomena, and the interpretation of structural change into the context of global dynamics. To achieve this goal, we first distinguish some of the criteria/filters that allow for evaluating whether a research contribution can be of neo-Schumpeterian direction. These criteria also help to identify generic concepts of recent neo-Schumpeterian trends in order to formulate a new analytical background based on the Stra.Tech.Man approach.

Corrupt Environment, Marketization Level and Growth of Five-star Hotel Industry

Under the situation of frequent corruption behaviors of government officials and strict requests on cracking down on corruption, using the panel data of provincial five-star hotels, this paper investigates the existence and continuity of development model of “Corruption Economy” in five-star hotel industry, and detects the way for sustainable development of five-star hotel industry on the background of anti-corruption from the perspective of marketization. The results show that degree of state corruption represented by Control of Corruption has a positive effect on the growth of five-star hotel industry. Anti-corruption policies in litigation system, the efforts of implementing these policies to combat corruption, and public’s perceived corruption and anti-corruption all verify a negative impact on five-star hotel industry. Practice shows that anti-corruption breaks the false prosperity of “corruption economy” model. Only with a perfect market system as well as fair market competition order, the five-star hotel industry can realize a sustainable growth.

Interest Rate Pass-Through in Three EU Candidate Countries: The Case of Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia

The objective of the paper is to assess the interest rate pass-through in three EU candidate countries that is Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia. We rely on an error-correction model using monthly data over the period 2005-2019. Results suggest a complete interest rate pass-through in Albania, albeit it has been weakened during the economic and financial crisis. The relatively fast speed of adjustment indicates an effective interest rate transmission channel. In the Macedonian case, the changes of the monetary policy rate are transmitted completely to the bank lending rate, but not to the bank borrowing rate. The transmission via the money market rate has improved after the global economic and financial turmoil. In the case of Serbia, the results also suggest complete interest rate pass-through indicating that the monetary policy rate changes are transmitted into retail rates offered by the banks to savers and borrowers in the long run. Nevertheless, the speed of adjustment is relatively slow. In general, the estimated speed and extent of the response of money market interest rate and bank retail interest rates to changes in the monetary policy rate gives an indication of effective interest rate transmission channel in the case of Albania and Serbia. On the other hand, it is moderately effective in the case of North Macedonia given that the central bank rate changes affect mainly bank lending rate but not borrowing rate.

The Role of Effective Accounting System on Import-Export Trade in Ethiopia: The Case of Anbessa Shoe Share Company

The main purpose of this study is to examine the role of effective accounting system on import-export trade in Anbessa Shoe Share Company. This study is focused on Ethiopian import-export companies specifically, Anbessa Shoe Share Company and there are 208 target populations considered in the study who are accountants and some higher management personnel’s employing in Company. Randomly selected 51 accountants and some higher management personnel of the company are the source of the necessary data to the researcher through the administered questionnaires and interviews. Besides, the objective of this study is to assess the role of proper and effective accounting system employment on import-export trade in Anbessa Shoe Share Company. According to the study findings, an effective accounting system have an important role on import-export trades of the company. In addition, based on the non-parametric test made using Chi-Square distribution the accountant’s competency measured in terms of their profession, educational level and work experience was statistically not significance. The company should understand that the contributions of effective accounting system on its import-export trade is very vital for those activities performed in its trade and for the overall performances.

Influence of High-Performance Work System on Employee Service Performance and OCB: The Mediating Role of PsyCap

High-performance work system (HPWS) has been viewed as black-box over the last decade and there is a need for better understanding of the mechanism through which employee performance can be enhanced significantly. Based on the 371 samples collected from banking, insurance, airline, telecommunication, and hospitality, this study provides empirical evidence that HPWS positively influence the service performance of employees and PsyCap mediates the relationship of high-performance work system and employee service performance, OCB among service sector employees of Pakistan. The implications of this study conclude the findings in detail.