Book categories

Transfer Pricing

A Diagrammatic and Case Study Introduction, with Special Reference to China

by Alan Paisey & Jian Li

2012

This book offers an introduction to transfer pricing with particular reference to China, for those who are looking for an overview that can be rapidly comprehended and who value diagrammatic images as a vehicle for learning. The subject is of importance both for Chinese and foreign personnel engaged in foreign company activity in China and for those who are similarly engaged in Chinese-owned companies already operating abroad, or which are to be extended to foreign locations.

Policing Financial Crime

Intelligence Strategy Implementation

by Petter Gottschalk

2009

Policing Financial Crime presents theories of financial crime, stages of financial crime, and criminal entrepreneurship. Response, regulation, and prevention of financial crime are described in terms of police intelligence strategy, intelligence information sources, and information systems. By combining insights into the broad variety of financial crime types and behaviors and alternative law enforcement approaches, this book provides a unique insight into the growing local and global phenomena of financial crime. By the same author: White-Collar Crime: Detection, Prevention and Strategy in Business Enterprises Knowledge Management in Police Oversight: Law Enforcement Integrity and Accountability Essential Knowledge and Management Issues in Law Firms

Theory and Practice of Modern Islamic Finance

The Case Analysis from Australia

by Abu Umar Faruq Ahmad

2009

Theory and Practice of Modern Islamic Finance seeks to contribute to the existing body of work in the area of Islamic finance through examining the extent of divergence in practice of Islamic financing from the traditional Shari`ah in the Australian context. The author makes a discursive analysis of the regulation of Islamic finance in Australia in terms of (a) the financing instruments used, (b) certainty of transactions between participants in the system, and (c) institutional risk management of Islamic financial institutions. The work's objectives are two-fold: (a) to analytically study the extent to which Islamic Financial Services Providers (IFSPs) of Australia differ from the traditional Shari`ah in their current practices of Islamic legal financial system by their use of different f...

Development in Asia

Interdisciplinary, Post-neoliberal, and Transnational Perspectives

by Derrick M. Nault

2008

"Development" is one of the most ubiquitous yet least understood concepts of our age. It is something all governments claim to be engaged in and is considered desirable by scholars, activists, policymakers, and laypeople alike. Yet it is also a highly contested term. For some, development is simply a matter of economic growth. Others maintain that it must entail improving life expectancy, literacy, education levels, and access to resources. Others yet, disillusioned by the results of development initiatives, have rejected development altogether, equating it with a self-serving aid industry that entraps the poor in a vicious cycle of dependency. Still, critics argue these "post-development" theorists merely replicate earlier doctrines of development and have themselves become part of the pr...

Money: Virtual Energy

Economy through the Prism of Thermodynamics

by Octavian Ksenzhek

2007

Economic activity of humankind is considered in the book through the prism of fundamental physical concepts of Irreversible Thermodynamics. In the frame of such an approach the Economy appears as an immense global system, which performs work, necessary for functioning human societies, at the expense of dissipation of energy, both biological, provided with food, and technological, used for industrial and everyday needs. Money plays a fundamental role of virtual energy specific for economic processes, that makes possible mutual coupling of energy flows distinct in their nature. The author applies the concept of entropy of money and shows that it depends upon the degree of concentration of money. In turn entropy of money is shown to define attainable level of capability of money to perform wo...

Endogenous Origins of Economic Reforms in India and China

The Role of Attitudinal Changes: India (1980-1984) and China (1978-1982)

by Rajiv G. Maluste

2011

'Attitudinal change' in the context of economic reforms has been referred to in Rodrik and Subramanian (2005), DeLong (2003), Kohli (1989), and Panagariya (2004, 2008). This dissertation provides empirical support for this literature, establishing an earlier start for India's economic policy liberalisation than presented in stylized accounts. It demonstrates the endogenous nature of the origins of these policy shifts. 'Attitudinal change' literature had directed attention to the need for further research into India's policy changes of the early 1980s and for studying broader comparability issues in other developing countries. This research makes a contribution towards filling these gaps. This dissertation shows that India started its economic liberalisation under the Indira Gandhi admin...

The Legitimacy of Economic Inequality

An Empirical Approach to the Case of Chile

by Juan Carlos Castillo

2011

This research is an empirical study of the legitimacy of economic inequality with a focus on the case of Chile. Chile is an appealing case study in this regard because it has been one of the countries with the highest indexes of economic inequality over the past several decades. Theoretical perspectives based on the rational interest of the median voter have pointed out a negative association between high levels of inequality and legitimacy. Nevertheless, empirical evidence indicates that an unequal distribution of income is not necessarily challenged by the majority of a society, a phenomenon associated with the concept of legitimacy of economic inequality. Most empirical studies of this topic to date have considered social contexts that are not characterized by (comparatively) high level...

The Islamic Moral Economy

A Study of Islamic Money and Financial Instruments

by Shafiel A. Karim

2010

The Islamic Moral Economy is an academic book that analyzes the religious permissibility or lack thereof of the existing repertoire of financial instruments used in Islamic banking and finance. The work is both timely and sound, especially considering the growth of the international Islamic banking and insurance industries, and the Great Recession of 2007-2010. The Islamic Moral Economy is an excellent introductory book for academics and finance professionals wishing to gain a better understanding of Islamic moral constraints on economic transactions and how most current Islamic banking transactions are structured. More specifically, the author examines the utopian nature of the Islamic moral economy with a special emphasis on riba (i.e., financial interest and illogical increase), ...

Economics in Antitrust Policy

Freedom to Compete vs. Freedom to Contract

by Mark Steiner

2007

In the field of antitrust, the freedoms to contract and compete can and do contradict. Profit-maximizing companies desire perfectly competitive input markets to minimize their costs, but want monopolistic markets for their outputs to maximize their profits. Consequently, they have strong incentives to undermine competition in their output markets. In a world without antitrust laws, many companies would thus eliminate competition by using their freedom to contract, either by entering into legally enforceable agreements which fix prices or divide up markets, or by merging and acquiring rivals to gain market control. Therefore, guaranteeing and safeguarding companies' abilities to compete comes at the cost of restricting their freedoms to contract. The states role in this task is a delicate o...

Analysis of U.S.-Mexico Sugar Trade

Impacts of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and Projections for the Future

by Daisuke Sano

2010

This study examines U.S.-Mexico sugar trade with special attention given to the impact of changes in trade and market environments caused by implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the introduction of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). These two factors contributed to shaping sugar markets in the United States and Mexico as well as sugar trade between the two countries. The study includes two sections: (1) a description of the sugar markets from an historic point of view and (2) an empirical study forecasting the market and trade outlook. In section one, characteristics of the sugar industry and transition of the sugar markets brought by the two factors (NAFTA and HFCS) are presented. Adoption of HFCS shaped the U.S. sweetener market in the 1980s and a similar ...

Essays on Genetic Evolution and Economics

by Terence C. Burnham

1997

Ever since Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species in 1859, genetic evolutionary theory has increasingly served as the foundation for fields that deal with organisms that arose by natural selection. This thesis argues that economic theory should integrate with Darwinian theory through the creation of a "genetic evolutionary economics". The promise of genetic evolutionary economics is a better understanding of human nature and, consequently, a more accurate and comprehensive economic science. Economic theory rests on a set of assumptions about human nature. These economic axioms concern human genes, but there is no explicit connection between genetic evolution and economic theory. As a result, human behavior and economic predictions of that behavior diverge in a va...

Developments in Islamic Banking Practice

The Experience of Bangladesh

by Abu Umar Faruq Ahmad

2010

Developments in Islamic Banking Practice: The Experience of Bangladesh examines global developments in the Islamic banking practice, and provides an in-depth analysis of the theory and practice of Islamic banking in Bangladesh, the third-largest Muslim country in the world, with over 150 million Muslims. This book is the first of its kind to examine Islamic banking principles and practices in Bangladesh on such a broad scale. Learners, teachers, researchers, and those practically involved in the burgeoning financial industry will derive value from this book. Readers from all disciplines will become familiarized with the key differences between the principles and practices of two distinct banking systems: the interest-free Islamic banking and the interest-based conventional banking. Wi...

Pricing, Demand Analysis and Simulation

An Application to a Water Utility

by Nadira Barkatullah

1999

Recent changes in the New South Wales water utilities show a trend towards usage-related pricing, with the aim of providing efficient signals for consumption. This thesis evaluates alternative pricing strategies for water against the criteria of efficiency and equity while maintaining the financial viability of the public utility. First, the water utility cost structure is examined by developing cost functions to estimate short and long-run marginal costs, using a quarterly time-series data from 1970/71 to 1995/96. Second, a residential water demand model is developed using a panel data set (constructed for the analysis), comprising 822 cross-sectional units and 23 quarterly time periods from 1990/91 to 1995/96. The purposes of developing the demand model are to test the sensitivity of...

The Role Of Multinational Companies In The Middle East

The Case Of Saudi Arabia

by Mamarinta P. Mababaya

2002

This study investigated whether known economic and international business theories available in the literature are meaningful enough to explain the nature, existence and role of multinational companies (MNCs) in the Middle East, particularly Saudi Arabia. Two sets of questionnaires were distributed in major cities of Saudi Arabia -- one set for 100 multinational managers and another for 280 multinational customers. 234 questionnaires were collected -- 45 from multinational managers and 189 from customers. This represents a total response rate of 62 percent, which is adequate for this study.The empirical results, supported with comprehensive secondary data, confirmed virtually all of the research hypotheses. The study found that joint ventures are the dominant form of multinational business...

Implications of the EU Banana Trade Regime for Selected Import Markets

Economic Analysis and Political Dimension

by Patrick Verissimo

2001

On July 1st 1993, the EU implemented the Common Organization for the Market of Bananas (COMB) to replace the different national banana policies that previously existed in its member countries. As it turned out, the adopted regime became one of the most bitterly internally disputed outcomes of the completion of the EU single common market, and is an on-going source of dispute at the WTO level between the EU on the one side, and the US and Latin American countries on the other side. The most controversial aspects of the COMB relate to the management of banana trade with non-EU countries, and in particular, to the tariff-rate quota (TRQ) imposed on non-traditional ACP and dollar bananas. These issues are at the center of this work which focuses on the German and French banana markets, the tw...

Power and Control in Chinese Private Enterprises

Organizational Design in the Taiwanese Media Industry

by Kai Schlevogt

1998

An empirical study was undertaken to (a) examine various determinants influencing (de-)centralisation in Trans-World, the largest producer of television programs in Taiwan, and (b) make normative recommendations as to how insights from organisational dynamics models can be used in practice. The research was based on a sample of 63 standardised personal interviews with all Trans-World employees. Scales were particularly developed for the purpose of this study. In-depth interviews, participant observer and archival data were combined with the survey data to test a model predicting uncertainty and interdependence as primary drivers of decentralisation. Results showed that despite high uncertainty and interdependence, Trans-World was highly centralised. This apparent paradox was explained by t...

Development of a Forecasting Model to Predict the Downturn and Upturn of a Real Estate Market in the Inland Empire

by Thomas F. Flynn

2011

Amidst the dramatic real estate fluctuations in the first decade of the twenty-first century, this study recognized that there is a necessity to create a real estate prediction model for future real estate ventures and prevention of losses such as the mortgage meltdown and housing bust. This real estate prediction model study sought to reinstall the integrity into the American building and development industry, which was tarnished by the sudden emergence of various publications offering get-rich-quick schemes. In the fast-paced and competitive world of lending and real estate development, it is becoming more complex to combine current and evolving factors into a profitable business model. This prediction model correlated past real estate cycle pinpoints to economical driving forces in o...

Nigeria - U.S. Trade Relations in the Non-Oil Sector

by Gbadebo Olusegun Odularu

2008

In as much as trade fosters economic development, it also exacerbates poverty, especially in the sub Saharan African (SSA) countries. Against this backdrop, this study will increase our understanding of the estimation of non-oil commodity trade flows between Nigeria and the U.S. More specifically, the study aims to analysing the impact of African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) on the U.S. imports of non-oil products from Nigeria. The research objectives are woven around the following questions: - What is the nature of Nigeria's and the U.S.'s foreign trade policies with particular reference to non-oil trade? - What are the patterns, magnitude, composition and trends in Nigeria-US non-oil trade? - Which economic sectors possess greatest potential for fostering trade in the non-oil sector ...

Role of the Auditor General in Public Accountability - Some Issues

by Bronwynn Adamson Nosworthy

1999

This research seeks to examine the issue of lack of staff resources within the office of the Auditor-General of NSW, with reference to the Australian Audit Office (AAO). In particular, the lack of staff resources and the implications given the changes which have occurred sine the 1970Ís, when efficiency audit responsibilities were introduced into the public accounting sector auditing, are examined. The present responsibilities to conduct not only regularity/compliance audits but also efficiency audits, coupled with the increasing complexities within the public sector, have placed significant pressure upon the staff resources within the offices of the Auditor's-General. The intention of the research is to provide empirical evidence of these changes on the utilization of staff resources. ...

The Impact of Japanese Investment on the New Town of Milton Keynes

by Alexander Roy

1998

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is pivotal to the UK economy, with the UK being both the second largest investor abroad and the second largest host to foreign companies. Although since the Second World War FDI has been dominated by the USA, the more recent rise of Japan as both an international force in global markets and as an investor, has seen increasing amounts of Japanese FDI being directed towards the UK. Further, the perceived innovativeness of Japanese work organisation is held by many to have an even greater qualitative impact than the quantitative significance of Japanese FDI would indicate, providing both a 'demonstration' effect and a competitive spur to indigenous companies that it is believed has the power to transform the UK's competitiveness. However, many aspects of t...

Socio-economic impact of rock bund construction for small farmers of Bam Province/Burkina Faso

by Dagmar Kunze

1998

Soil degradation has made erosion control and water harvesting an important measure in most of sub-Sahelian Western Africa. The construction of stone lines, dikes and dams has been proven a sustainable measure which is widely accepted by the rural population of northern Burkina Faso. The objective of a field study which was conducted in Bam Province from 1992 to 1994 was to investigate economic profitability of erosion control measures under farmers' conditions on household level and for different household sub-groups. Main aspects concerned yield changes in small farmers' staple food grain production of sorghum and millet as well as the competition of rock bund construction with other dry season activities. Based on farm surveys, assessment of impact on farmers' fields, investmen...

Two Essays in Finance

Market Response to Catastrophic Losses on the Insurance Industry and Return on Investment of the University of Illinois to the State of Illinois Treasury

by Ward R. Kangas

1997

Based on data on publicly traded insurance firms, the first essay examines questions about the effect of large catastrophic events on insurance firms. Rather than looking at a single event, thirty catastrophic events were aggregated into quintiles and the cumulative abnormal returns around these events were found to be significantly positive over a 25 day trading window. There is no significant evidence that post-catastrophic stock returns are correlated to the magnitude of the catastrophe. The second essay analyzes the effect of a large land grant university, the University of Illinois, on the State Treasury of Illinois. If the State Treasury were acting as its own agent trying to maximize revenues, would it choose higher education as an investment versus other alternative investm...

Growth, employment and productivity in the services sector

theoretical controversies and the Swiss case

by Mara C. Harvey

2000

This thesis analyses the origins and the implications of the services sector's development, including a case study on Switzerland. In the first part, we study the definitions and classifications of service activities, as well as the post- and neo-industrial theses on the origins of the strong expansion of services in developed countries over the last decades. The second part analyses the implications for economic growth, employment and productivity growth of the services sector's development. Starting from a discussion of Baumol's unbalanced growth model, we discuss the variety of productivity measurements and the multiple causalities behind what is known as the 'productivity paradox'. Finally, the third part is a case study of the services sector's expansion in Switzerland from 1960 until...

A Primer on Modern Themes in Free Market Economics and Policy

Second Edition

by John M. Cobin

2010

Free market economics has made many advances during the past thirty years. These advances are due to the maturing of public choice theory and empirical studies, along with a resurgence of interest in Austrian economic themes like free banking, market process entrepreneurship, and the critique of socialism and interventionism. In addition, new avenues have opened in law and economics and regulatory studies which favor free market ideas. The purpose of this book is to introduce and summarize some of the important advances in contemporary free market economics and policy by introducing the key concepts of public choice, public policy, Austrian economics, and law and economics. This volume is a non-technical compendium of thought which incorporates long quotations from important scholars in e...

Privatization and Foreign Investments in Nigeria

by Lawrence Okechukwu Azubuike

2009

Nigeria's political economy has straddled the ideological divide between socialism and capitalism. The country produces oil, and at some point in its existence, it embarked on robust state involvement in the economy. This was marked by the acquisition, or establishment, of numerous state enterprises. Over the years, the performance of these enterprises was found to be dismal, and as part of the overall reform of the economy, Nigeria has joined the global trend toward reduction in direct state ownership of enterprises. Indeed, it has embarked on massive divestment of state interests in once publicly owned firms. Besides the universal rationale of efficiency, one of the objectives of the privatization exercise in Nigeria is the attraction and retention of foreign investments. This work exami...

NGO Influence on Forest Legislation

Experiences from Federal Forest Management in the United States

by Ramon Bravo Gonzalez

2010

In the last two decades, a concern on how federal forests in the United States are managed has provoked concerns among different stakeholders, including NGOs. The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the understanding of NGO influence on forest management legislation. Eight aspects were selected and compared in different study cases referring to legislative proposals dealing with forest management in order to define success criteria for a legislative initiative. The study indicates that the following criteria are particularly important to fulfill in order to influence forest management legislation: - The issue to address should be on the political agenda and have high public interest. - Environmental and social aspects should not be at the expense of economic aspects. - The legisl...

Global Business and Management Research

An International Journal, Vol.1, Nos.3 & 4

by Mehran Nejati & Mostafa Nejati (editors)

2010

The Journal of Global Business and Management Research (GBMR) strives to comply with highest research standards and scientific/research/practice journals' qualities. Being international and inter-disciplinary in scope, GBMR seeks to provide a platform for debate among diverse academic and practitioner communities who address a broad area of business and management issues across the globe. This peer-reviewed journal is currently indexed in EBSCO and Gale.

The Development of Domestic Bond Markets

Interpreting the Mexican Experience

by Milan Patel

2010

This paper deploys a risk-based approach to analyse the development of the government bond market in Mexico. This paper determines that the development of a market for local-currency government bonds has allowed the Mexican government to significantly enhance its debt profile by reducing and rebalancing the risk factors that contributed to previous crises, containing the possibility of future crises and slashing its debt costs. While this process of bond market development requires the government to develop the institutions that support the market, other factors such as the size of the economy and global market conditions also shape the process.

Foreign Direct Investment in Bahrain

by Lobna Ali Al-Khalifa

2010

A significant volume of literature has been developed that seeks to provide an explanation for the growth of FDI and its impact on less developed countries. The literature is characterized by diversity and controversy. Based on it, a range of reasons for encouraging investment have been proposed including its favorable effects on employment levels, the balance of payments and balance of trade of the host country and also the potential for acquisition of technology and skills (Cave: 1982 and Dunning: 1993). Equally, the potentially negative effects of growing levels of foreign investment on domestic market structures and national sovereignty have long been the focus of attention (Vernon: 1971 and Jenkins: 1987). More recent studies focused on the positive effect FDI can create through the i...

The Socio-Economic Benefit of Home Ownership in Low and Moderate Income Communities

by Thomas P. FitzGibbon III

2010

The United States government spends billions of dollars on home ownership programs in low and moderate income communities. However, there is paucity of academic research to assess the socioeconomic impacts of these programs. The purpose of this empirical research was to assess their possible impacts. The key research question explored the relationship between low and moderate income home ownership, the independent variable, and the dependent variables of the rates of crime, unemployment, high school graduation, and standardized test scores in the communities concerned. The research design was quantitative-causal. Welfare economic theory formed the theoretical foundation for the study. Using public records, data were collected from four low and moderate income communities ...

An Empirical and Theoretical Analysis of Capital Asset Pricing Model

by Mohammad Sharifzadeh

2010

The problem addressed in this dissertation research was the inability of the single-factor capital asset pricing model (CAPM) to identify relevant risk factors that investors consider in forming their return expectations for investing in individual stocks. Identifying the appropriate risk factors is important for investment decision making and is pertinent to the formation of stocks' prices in the stock market. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine theoretical and empirical validity of the CAPM and to develop and test a multifactor model to address and resolve the empirical shortcomings of the single-factor CAPM. To verify the empirical validity of the standard CAPM and of the multifactor model, five hypotheses were developed and tested against historical monthly data for U....

China in Latin America

Political and Economic Implications of Beijing's Involvement in the Region

by Niccolo Locatelli

2011

Relations with Latin America have never been and will probably never be a priority for the People's Republic of China (PRC), as they will be a dependent variable of domestic economic needs and other more important foreign policy goals – among all, the ties with the United States. During the first forty years of existence, geopolitical and economic considerations (Latin America was considered to be Washington's backyard and the economies of the region were not complementary with that of China) were keeping the PRC away from the area; nevertheless, things have changed ever since the end of the Cold War, and more so since the new millenium. The PRC finds in Latin America a market of 500 million people and an almost infinite source of commodities: it currently gets from here around 17% of i...

The Impact of Agricultural Trade Liberalization on National Food Security in Nigeria, 1970-2000

by Gbadebo Olusegun Odularu

2010

This study attempts to examine the impact of a trade decontrol policy on food output within the Nigerian macroeconomic context. In other words, the study relates trade liberalization to the national food security situation between 1970 and 2000, by employing descriptive statistics and error correction model (ECM) as the research methodologies. Regional and multilateral trade agreements seem to reduce barriers to the flow of commodities across borders, thus fostering a more efficient allocation of scarce resources as well as raising gross output with positive implications for food security at various levels. Though the trend analyses revealed considerable fluctuations, there existed greater improvements during the trade decontrol era than during the period of trade restriction. The produc...

A Study of Business Decisions under Uncertainty: The Probability of the Improbable

- With Examples from the Oil and Gas Exploration Industry

by Andreas Stark

2010

This dissertation will discuss the uncertainty encountered in the daily operations of businesses. The concepts will be developed by first giving an overview of probability and statistics as used in our everyday activities, such as the basic principles of probability, univariate and multivariate statistics, data clustering and mapping, as well as time sequence and spectral analysis. The examples used will be from the oil and gas exploration industry because the risks taken in this industry are normally quite large and are ideal for showing the application of the various techniques for minimizing risk. Subsequently, the discussion will deal with basic risk analysis, spatial and time variations of risk, geotechnical risk analysis, risk aversion and how it is affected by personal biases, an...

Banking Sector Reforms in India and Performance Evaluation of Commercial Banks

by Debaprosanna Nandy

2010

The Committee on Financial System (CFS), popularly known as Narasimham Committee, was set up in 1991 to make recommendations for bringing about the necessary reforms in the financial sector. Narasimham Committee appraised and acknowledged the success and progress of Indian banks since the major banks were nationalized on 19 July 1969. Unfortunately, the developments were witnessed only in the field of expansion and spread of bank branches, generation of huge employment and mobilization of savings rather than also in improvement in efficiency. Besides, corruption, fraud, misutilization in public money, outdated technology, and politicization in policy making were found to be major drawbacks in the real progress of the banks. As the banking sector plays an important and crucial role in the e...

The Girls' Guide to Wealth

by Rachel Cunningham-Day

2004

It may not be polite to talk about money, but no-one said we shouldn't write about it. This accessible, humorous book is written to appeal to a broad spectrum of women irrespective of their age, lifestyle or level of financial awareness. This book is relevant to every woman who earns, or simply spends, money. This book aims to change the way women think about money - forever. Money provides protection. If you fall upon hard times, the money you have saved will support you. Money also provides freedom - freedom to travel, to educate yourself, to treat your family and friends. Making the most of your money, like everything else in life, is a matter of habit and discipline. This book aims to get you into the habit and give you that discipline. No matter how much money you have, this book...

The Boys' Guide to Wealth

by Rachel Cunningham-Day

2004

It may not be polite to talk about money, but no-one said we shouldn't write about it.This accessible, humorous book is written to appeal to a broad spectrum of men irrespective of their age, lifestyle or level of financial awareness. This book is relevant to every man who earns, or simply spends, money. This book aims to change the way men think about money - forever. Money provides protection. If you fall upon hard times, the money you have saved will support you. Money also provides freedom - freedom to travel, to educate yourself, to look after your family and friends. Making the most of your money, like everything else in life, is a matter of habit and discipline. This book aims to get you into the habit and give you that discipline. No matter how much money you have, this book will ...

Experiments in Achieving Water and Food Self-Sufficiency in the Middle East

The Consequences of Contrasting Endowments, Ideologies, and Investment Policies in Saudi Arabia and Syria

by Elie Elhadj

2005

The book aims to quantify and analyze how two water scarce but ideologically different Middle Eastern political economies, Saudi Arabia and Syria, addressed water sector investment between 1980 and 2000. The study examines how narrow-coalitions of decision-makers obsessed by impossible-to-achieve food self-sufficiency goals, lacking environmental consideration and safe political processes contributed to massively waste scarce resources and unsustainable water policies. The book shows that of Saudi Arabia’s US$1,034 billion in oil revenues (1974-2001), 48% was spent on security, plus 10% on the ruling family. Nominal Per capita income dropped by 42% (1981-2000). Syria’s per capita income dropped (1985-2000) by 17%, to US$1,200. Armaments’ consumed (1970-1990) 13% of GDP. Agricultural inve...

The G-20

Aims and Perspectives of a New Trade Alliance

by Marcio Botelho

2005

Coalitions of developing countries at the WTO typically have a short life and do not produce results. Nonetheless, a specific coalition of developing countries named the G-20 seems to have a different destiny. Even though it focuses on agriculture, which is certainly the most difficult sector in which one can obtain concessions from developed countries, the G-20 has been able not only to survive but also to solidify its influence. This paper examines the consequences of G-20 actions. Moreover, it considers three separate questions. First, how has the G-20 been able to maintain its unity despite huge internal differences and external pressures? Second, which strategies has the coalition been using to strengthen its influence? Third, whither the G-20? The paper answers these questions and en...

Global Business and Management Research

An International Journal Vol.1, No.2

by Mehran Nejati & Mostafa Nejati (editors)

2009

The Journal of Global Business and Management Research (GBMR) strives to comply with highest research standards and scientific/research/practice journals' qualities. Being international and inter-disciplinary in scope, GBMR seeks to provide a platform for debate among diverse academic and practitioner communities who address a broad area of business and management issues across the globe.

This issue also contains a 27-page supplementary issue on energy management.

Neural Substrates of Decision-Making in Economic Games

by Angela A. Stanton

2008

In economic experiments decisions often differ from game-theoretic predictions. Why are people generous in one-shot ultimatum games with strangers? Is there a benefit to generosity toward strangers? Research on the neural substrates of decisions suggests that some choices are hormone-dependent. By artificially stimulating subjects with neuroactive hormones, we can identify which hormones and brain regions participate in decision-making, to what degree and in what direction. Can a hormone make a person generous while another stingy? In this paper, two laboratory experiments are described using the hormones oxytocin (OT) and arginine vasopressin (AVP). Concentrations of these hormones in the brain continuously change in response to external stimuli. OT enhances trust (Michael Kosfeld et al. ...

International Journal of Finance and Policy Analysis

Volume 3, Number 1

by Siddhartha Sarkar (series editor)

2011

CONTENTS: 1. Measuring Changes in Liquidity Using the Bid-offer Price Proxy: Determinants of Liquidity in the United Kingdom Gilt Market by Moorad Choudhry 2. Impact of Electronic Tax Registers on VAT Compliance: A Study of Kenyan Private Business Firms by I. K. Naibei and E. M. Siringi 3. Foreign Direct Investment Inflows, Merchandize Trade and Economic Growth in India: An Analytical Study by Mousumi Bhattacharya 4. Extension of Technology Adoption Model (TAM) Intention to Use Internet Banking: Evidence from India by V.V.Ravi Kumar, S.K. Bose and P.V.Raghavan 5. Assessment of the Impact of Financial Risk and Market Variables on Expert Investment Preferences in Colombo Stock Exchange by M. M. Fonseka, A.M.T.P. Athauda and G. L. Tian 6. Assessing the Impact of Microfinance ...

International Journal of Economics and Business Studies

Volume 1, Number 1

by Siddhartha Sarkar (series editor)

2011

CONTENTS: 1.Determinants of Commercial Bank Interest Rate Margins in Swaziland by Sibusiso M. Khumaloand, Yinusa D. Olalekan & Francis Nathan Okurut 2. New Banking Technology and Service Quality in Indian Public Sector Banks: A Micro Level Study by A. Abdul Raheem & M. Krishnamoorthy 3. Supply Response of Perennial Crops: A Case of Balochistan Apricots by Mohammad Pervez Wasim 4. Government Debt and Long-Term Interest Rate: Application of an Extended Open-Economy Loanable Funds Model to South Africa by Yu Hsing Click here to download full PDF edition of this issue (free limited time open access) About the Journal: ISSN 0974-3456 International Journal of Economics and Business Studies (IJEBS) is a peer-reviewed journal, which is intended not only to promote the discussion on ...

International Journal of Management and Transformation

Volume 5, Number 1

by Siddhartha Sarkar (Series Editor)

2011

CONTENTS: 1.User Perception of Automatic Ticket Vending Machine: A Study of Indian Southern Railway by T.K.Murugesan and A.Ramachandran 2. Methods of Voting System and Manipulation of Voting by J. N. Islam, H. K. Mohajan and P. Moolio 3. Assessment of Impact of Effectiveness of Advertising in Telecom Service Sector In India by P.K. Agarwal, Pradeep Kumar and Swati Gupta 4. Demystifying NPAs on Education Loan: An Empirical Analysis by B. C. M. Patnaik, Ipseeta Satpathy and Aroop Kumar Mohapatra 5.The Gendered Nature of Small Business Environment in Ghana: A Research Agenda by Rosemond Boohene 6.A Study on Job Stress of the Employees with Reference to Banking Sector by Kanagaluru Sai Kumar 7. Competitiveness and Its Impact on Research and Development in Indian Automobile Industry by ...

International Journal of Strategic Organization and Behavioural Science

Volume 1, Number 1

by Siddhartha Sarkar

2011

CONTENTS: 1.Causes of Attrition Rate in Information Technology and its Enabled Service Sector by B. Adhinarayanan and K.Balanaga Gurunathan 2.Institutional Building for Business Organization by Bharti Venkatesh 3. Re-branding and its Axiological Context: Nietzsche’s ‘Transvaluation’ Approach by O. G. Idjakpo and Sunday Layi Oladipupo 4.Comprehensive Study on Strategies of Share Brokers by K.C.John Sasi Kumar and P. Vikkraman Click here to download full PDF edition of this issue (free limited time open access) About the Journal: ISSN 0974-3464 Organization development activities intervene in the interactions of human resource systems such as formal and informal groups, work culture and climate, and organization design to increase their effectiveness using a variety of appli...

International Journal of Economic and Political Integration

Vol 1, No 1

by Siddhartha Sarkar (Series Editor)

2011

CONTENTS: 1.Determinants of Kenyan Exports: A Gravity Model Approach by M. N. Orindi 2. Quality of Customer Service in Public Sector Banks in India by G. Rama Krishna,M. Madhu Lincoln and K. Venu Gopal Rao 3.Access to Credit and Technical Efficiency of Vegetable Growers in Mfantsiman District of Ghana by James Atta Peprah 4.Consumer Perception, Attitudes and Awareness of Green Products: A Study of Consumer Goods by H. C. Purohit Click here to download full PDF edition of this issue (free limited time open access) About the Journal: ISSN 0974-3510 A biannual peer-reviewed journal, the International Journal of Economic and Political Integration (IJEPI) is the forum where there is an exchange of ideas across thesocial science disciplines - political scientists debate with eco...

A Decomposition Analysis of Immigrants-Natives Wages in the UK

Evidence from the Quarterly Labour Force Survey, 2009

by Muhammad Anees

2012

Immigrants are characterized on the average with higher human capital and are rewarded potentially less as compared to their native counterparts. This question has motivated me to analyze the immigrants-natives wage gap in detail and find the extent of this potential discrimination against the immigrants. I analyze the data from the first two quarters of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey, 2009 using the Oaxaca Decomposition technique. Applying both the threefold and twofold decomposition approaches, I computed the wage gap first using simple decomposition based on threefold and then the twofold approaches using both coefficients of the native model and coefficients of the pooled model as weights separately. My findings from these computations are that immigrants have on the average higher ...

A Shangri-la Economy

Exploring Buddhist Bhutan

by Mahmood Ansari

2012

Analysing the status of agrarian justice and its relation with the national slogan of "gross national happiness"(GNH) in Bhutan, this monograph deals with food insecurity, resource asymmetry and growth in the political economy perspective. In this tiny Himalayan nation under absolute democratic monarchy, there are huge inequities in the ethos of general income and consumption poverty and a fundamental transformation in the political economy of this south Asian nation is in urgent need. Readers of this monograph would be mainly from Nepal, Bhutan and India, though those who have interest in the economy and society of the Himalayas would also be the beneficiaries. It attempts to highlight understanding about the specificities of south Asia and some novel features of poverty in this region.

International Journal of Economics and Business Studies

Vol.1, No.2

by Siddhartha Sarkar

2012

CONTENTS: 1. A GGE Analysis of the Potential Consequences of Higher Food Prices for the Botswana Economyby Jonah Tlhalefang & Maduo Sebikiri 2. Towards improved Government Budgeting, Costing and Accountability in the Healthcare Sector: The Case of Hospital and Clinic Services in Botswanaby Percy Phatshwane & Pritika Singh Baliyan 3. Impact of Depository Receipts Norms on Indian IT Companies: A Case Study by Rachna Jain 4. Financial Development, Savings and Economic Growth in Lesotho: Evidence From Trivariate Causality Testby Ogbonnaya Ijeoma et al. Click here to download full PDF edition of this issue (free limited time open access) About the Journal: ISSN 0974-3456 International Journal of Economics and Business Studies (IJEBS) is a peer-reviewed journal, which is intended not o...

International Journal of Economic and Political Integration

Vol.1, No.2

by Siddhartha Sarkar

2012

CONTENTS: 1. Validity of Retrospective Amendments to Indian Taxation Statutesby Tabrez Ahmad and Satya Ranjan Swain 2. Fighting Chronic Poverty, Inequality and Rural Development in Ghana: Issues for Considerationby Francis Enu-Kwesi 3. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Increase Global Warmingby H.K. Mohajan 4. Informal Microfinance and Primary Health Care in Ekiti Lga, Kwara Stateby M.A. Ijaiya et al. Click here to download full PDF edition of this issue (free limited time open access) About the Journal: ISSN 0974-3510 A biannual peer-reviewed journal, the International Journal of Economic and Political Integration (IJEPI) is the forum where there is an exchange of ideas across thesocial science disciplines - political scientists debate with economists, sociologists read what political ...