Development of a computerised library system in the construction industry

This thesis examines the ways that libraries have employed computers to assist with housekeeping operations. It considers the relevance of such applications to company libraries in the construction industry, and describes more specifically the development of an integrated cataloguing and loan system. A review of the main features in the development of computerised ordering, cataloguing and circulation control systems shows that fully integrated packages are beginning to be completed, and that some libraries are introducing second generation programs. Cataloguing is the most common activity to be computerised, both at national and company level. Results from a sample of libraries in the construction industry suggest that the only computerised housekeeping system is at Taylor Woodrow. Most of the firms have access to an in-house computer, and some of the libraries, particularly those in firms of consulting engineers, might benefit from computerisation, but there are differing attitudes amongst the librarians towards the computer. A detailed study of the library at Taylor Woodrow resulted in a feasibility report covering all the areas of its activities. One of the main suggestions was the possible use of a computerised loans and cataloguing system. An integrated system to cover these two areas was programmed in Fortran and implemented. This new system provides certain benefits and saves staff time, but at the cost of time on the computer. Some improvements could be made by reprogramming, but it provides a general system for small technical libraries. A general equation comparing costs for manual and computerised operations is progressively simplified to a form where the annual saving from the computerised system is expressed in terms of staff and computer costs and the size of the library. This equation gives any library an indication of the savings or extra cost which would result from using the computerised system.

Firm size, source of finance, and growth:evidence from China

Using a comprehensive firm-level data set from China spanning the period 1998–2005, this study investigates the relationship between firm size, financing sources, and total factor productivity growth. Controlling for the endogeneity of financing sources, we find that firm size plays an important role in the way financial structure affects the growth process. Domestic bank loans are more effective for bigger firms, while self-raised finance is more beneficial to smaller firms’ growth. We also uncover evidence that ownership mediates the relationship between firm size, finance, and growth.

Does the Chinese banking system promote the growth of firms?

Using a large panel dataset of Chinese manufacturing enterprises during 1999-2005, which accounts for over 90% of China’s industrial output, and robust econometric procedures we show that the Chinese banking system has helped to support the growth of both firm value added and TFP. We find that access to bank loans is positively correlated with future value added and TFP growth. We also find that firms with access to bank loans tend to grow faster in regions with greater banking sector development. While the effects of bank loans on firm growth are more pronounced in the case of purely private-owned and foreign firms, they are positive and statistically significant even in the case of state-owned and collectively-owned firms. We show that excluding loss-making firms from the sample does not change the qualitative nature of our results.

Does the World Bank have any impact on human development in the poorest countries? Some preliminary evidence from Africa

In an attempt to better understand the impact of the World Bank on human development in poor countries, we use cross-country data on African countries for the 1990–2002 period to examine this relationship. The coefficient estimates of our parsimonious fixed-effects models indicate that while loans and grants of the Bank have had a positive impact on some relatively short-term indicators of health and education in an average African country, there is little evidence to suggest that such loans and grants have helped these countries to consolidate on the short-term gains.

Efficiency and total factor productivity changes of Malaysian commercial banks

This paper analyses the efficiency of Malaysian commercial banks between 1996 and 2002 and finds that while the East Asian financial crisis caused a short-term increase in efficiency in 1998 primarily due to cost-cutting, increases in non-performing loans after the crisis caused a more sustained decline in bank efficiency. It is also found that mergers, fully Islamic banks, and conventional banks operating Islamic banking windows are all associated with lower efficiency. The paper estimates suggest mild decreasing returns to scale, and an average productivity change of 2.37% that is primarily attributable to technical change, which has nonetheless declined over time. Finally, while Islamic banks have been moderately successful in developing new products and technologies, the results suggest that the potential for Islamic banks to overcome their relative inefficiency is limited.

The impact of Islamic banking on the cost efficiency and productivity change of Malaysian commercial banks

This study employs Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) to analyse Malaysian commercial banks during 1996–2002, and particularly focuses on determining the impact of Islamic banking on performance. We derive both net and gross efficiency estimates, thereby demonstrating that differences in operating characteristics explain much of the difference in costs between Malaysian banks. We also decompose productivity change into efficiency, technical, and scale change using a generalized Malmquist productivity index. On average, Malaysian banks experience moderate scale economies and annual productivity change of 2.68%, with the latter driven primarily by Technical Change (TC), which has declined over time. Our gross efficiency estimates suggest that Islamic banking is associated with higher input requirements. However, our productivity estimates indicate that full-fledged Islamic banks have overcome some of these cost disadvantages with rapid TC, although this is not the case for conventional banks operating Islamic windows. Merged banks are found to have higher input usage and lower productivity change, suggesting that bank mergers have not contributed positively to bank performance. Finally, our results suggest that while the East Asian financial crisis had a short-term costreducing effect in 1998, the crisis triggered a long-lasting negative impact by increasing the volume of nonperforming loans.

The efficiency and productivity of Malaysian banks:an output distance function approach

This study employs stochastic frontier analysis to analyze Malaysian commercial banks during 1996-2002, and particularly focuses on determining the impact of Islamic banking on performance. We derive both net and gross efficiency estimates, thereby demonstrating that differences in operating characteristics explain much of the difference in outputs between Malaysian banks. We also decompose productivity change into efficiency, technical, and scale change using a generalised Malmquist productivity index. On average, Malaysian banks experience mild decreasing return to scale and annual productivity change of 2.37 percent, with the latter driven primarily by technical change, which has declined over time. Our gross efficiency estimates suggest that Islamic banking is associated with higher input requirements. In addition, our productivity estimates indicate that the potential for full-fledged Islamic banks and conventional banks with Islamic banking operations to overcome the output disadvantages associated with Islamic banking are relatively limited. Merged banks are found to have higher input usage and lower productivity change, suggesting that bank mergers have not contributed positively to bank performance. Finally, our results suggest that while the East Asian financial crisis had an interim output-increasing effect in 1998, the crisis prompted a continuing negative impact on the output performance by increasing the volume of non-performing loans.

Start-up financing in the age of globalization

The authors investigate the determinants of start-up financing in fifty-four countries, using the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) surveys for the years 2001-6. They find that financial liberalization increases the total financial size of the individual start-up entrepreneurial project both via the increased use of external and of own funds. In addition, the volume of start-up finance responds positively to international capital inflows, as represented by loans from nonresident banks and remittances, and negatively to the volume of offshore deposits. The positive impact of remittances on total volume of start-up financing is via financing by the entrepreneur.

Corporate governance and finance in Poland and Russia

This book provides a comparative analysis of the emerging corporate control structures in the transition economies. It details characteristics of corporate governance in the two largest transition economies: Russia and Poland. It explores what kind of ownership structures are emerging in these two countries and to what degree they are they path-dependent and conditional on the initial choice of privatisation methods - fast ownership transfer through the mass privatisation programme and loans-for-equity scheme in Russia, and a more 'organic' growth of the new private sector in Poland. It examines the directions of the subsequent, post-privatisation, secondary ownership flows in both countries and the impact of the government on corporations, implied both by the residual shareholding of the state and by its regulatory and administrative actions.

Corporate governance and accounting conservatism:evidence from the banking industry

Research Question/Issue: In this paper, we empirically investigate whether US listed commercial banks with effective corporate governance structures engage in higher levels of conservative financial accounting and reporting. Research Findings/Insights: Using both market- and accrual-based measures of conservatism and both composite and disaggregated governance indices, we document convincing evidence that well-governed banks engage in significantly higher levels of conditional conservatism in their financial reporting practices. For example, we find that banks with effective governance structures, particularly those with effective board and audit governance structures, recognize loan loss provisions that are larger relative to changes in nonperforming loans compared to their counterparts with ineffective governance structures. Theoretical/Academic Implications: We contribute to the extant literature on the relationship between corporate governance and quality of accounting information by providing evidence that banks with effective governance structures practice higher levels of accounting conservatism. Practitioner/Policy Implications: The findings of this study would be useful to US bank regulators/supervisors in improving the existing regulatory framework by focusing on accounting conservatism as a complement to corporate governance in mitigating the opaqueness and intense information asymmetry that plague banks.

Graphical Approach to Teaching Compound Interest in High School Math Classes

Report published in the Proceedings of the National Conference on "Education and Research in the Information Society", Plovdiv, May, 2015

A költségvetési korlát megkeményítése a posztszocialista országokban = Hardening of the budget constraint in the post-socialist countries

A költségvetési korlát megkeményítése nem egyforma mértékben ment végbe minden posztszocialista gazdaságban. Egyes országokban messzire jutottak ebben a tekintetben, másokban viszont alig változott az indulóállapot. A tanulmány áttekinti a költségvetési korlát puhaságának különböző megnyilvánulásait: az állami támogatásokat, a puha adózást, a nem teljesítő bankkölcsönöket, a vállalatközi tartozások felgyülemlését és a kifizetetlen béreket. A jelenséget sokféle tényező okozza, amelyek többnyire együttesen jelentkeznek. Az állami tulajdon fenntartása kedvez a puha költségvetési szindróma megrögződésének, a privatizálás elősegíti a keményítést, de nem elégséges feltétele a kemény korlát érvényesítésének. Ehhez megfelelő politikai, jogi és gazdasági környezetet kell céltudatosan kialakítani. A posztszocialista átmenet kezdetén sokan azt hitték, hogy a hatékony piacgazdaság létrehozásához elegendő lesz megvalósítani a liberalizáció, privatizáció és stabilizáció "szentháromságát". Mára már kiderült, hogy a költségvetési korlát megkeményítése az említett három feladattal egyenrangúan fontos. Ahol ez nem valósul meg (például Oroszország), ott a privatizáció nem hozza meg a várt eredményt. ___________________ The budget constraint has not hardened to equal degrees in the various post-socialist countries. In some of them, a great deal has been done in this respect, while in others there has been hardly any change from the initial state. This study surveys the typical manifestations of softness of the budget constraint, such as state subsidies, soft taxation, non-performing loans, the accumulation of trade arrears between firms, and the build-up of wage arrears. Softness of the budget constraint is caused by several factors that tend to act in combination. Thus retention of state ownership helps to preserve the soft budget-constraint syndrome, while privatization encourages the budget constraint to harden, although it does not form a sufficient condition for it to happen. Purposeful development of the requisite political, legal and economic conditions is also required. It was widely maintained at the outset of the post-socialist transition that the 'Holy Trinity' of liberalization, privatization and stabilization would suffice to produce an efficient market economy. Since then, it has become clear that hardening the budget constraint needs to be given equal priority with these. Otherwise, the effects of privatization will fall short of expectations, as they have in Russia, for example.

Az államcsőd költségei régen és ma (Costs of sovereign defaults now and long ago)

Az államoknak nyújtott hitelekre gyakran gondolunk biztonságos befektetésként, lehetetlen vagy legalábbis valószerűtlen kimenetelként kezelve az államcsőd lehetőségét. Pedig államcsődök azóta vannak, amióta szuverén államok hitelt vesznek fel, és még csak nem is ritka eseményekről van szó. Amikor egy-egy válság vagy csődesemény felhívja erre a figyelmünket, a leggyakrabban elhangzó kérdés az, hogy miért következett be a csőd. Ebben a tanulmányban a szerző ennél furcsább kérdésre hívja fel a figyelmet: mi késztet egy hitelt felvevő államot arra, hogy visszafizesse hiteleit, vagyis miért nem megy csődbe? Ez rögtön felvet egy további, talán még meglepőbb problémát: miért kap egyáltalán egy szuverén állam hitelt? Ezekre a kérdésekre már régóta tudni véljük a választ: azért, mert az államcsődnek költségei vannak. A lehetséges költségek és a hozzájuk kapcsolódó empirikus kutatások értelmezésével és rendszerezésével, az ellentmondások feltárásával azonban a szerző felhívja a figyelmet arra, hogy bár elképzeléseink vannak és lehetnek, valójában nem ismerjük a törlesztést kikényszerítő és így az államadósságok létezését biztosító mechanizmusokat. Talán éppen azért nem, mert az államcsőd lehetséges politikai, gazdasági következményei - azaz költségei - idővel legalább annyira változnak, mint öltözködési, étkezési és közlekedési szokásaink. ____ Loans to sovereign states are often referred to as safe investments, treating default as an impossible or at least improbable event. Yet sovereign defaults have been arising ever since countries borrowed money. They are not rare at all. When a debt crisis or default event draws attention to the problem, the commonest question put is why defaults occur. This paper stresses the need to ask a less common question as well: why sovereign states repay loans, why they do not default. Consequent on that is why rational lenders give money to countries. The answer to these questions seems to be because defaults are costly. The paper reviews and systematizes possible cost types and explores inconsistencies in the related literature, to show that the mechanisms supporting the existence of sovereign debts are not precisely known. One reason why costs of defaults are challenging to study may be that the possible political and economic consequences of defaults change over time.

Can Europe recover without credit?

Data from 135 countries covering five decades suggests that creditless recoveries, in which the stock of real credit does not return to the pre-crisis level for three years after the GDP trough, are not rare and are characterised by remarkable real GDP growth rates: 4.7 percent per year in middle-income countries and 3.2 percent per year in high-income countries. However, the implications of these historical episodes for the current European situation are limited, for two main reasons. First, creditless recoveries are much less common in high-income countries, than in low-income countries which are financially undeveloped. European economies heavily depend on bank loans and research suggests that loan supply played a major role in the recent weak credit performance of Europe. There are reasons to believe that, despite various efforts, normal lending has not yet been restored. Limited loan supply could be disruptive for the European economic recovery and there has been only a minor substitution of bank loans with debt securities. Second, creditless recoveries were associated with significant real exchange rate depreciation, which has hardly occurred so far in most of Europe. This stylised fact suggests that it might be difficult to re-establish economic growth in the absence of sizeable real exchange rate depreciation, if credit growth does not return.

Can Europe recover without credit?

Data from 135 countries covering five decades suggests that creditless recoveries, in which the stock of real credit does not return to the pre-crisis level for three years after the GDP trough, are not rare and are characterised by remarkable real GDP growth rates: 4.7 percent per year in middle-income countries and 3.2 percent per year in high-income countries. However, the implications of these historical episodes for the current European situation are limited, for two main reasons. First, creditless recoveries are much less common in high-income countries, than in low-income countries which are financially undeveloped. European economies heavily depend on bank loans and research suggests that loan supply played a major role in the recent weak credit performance of Europe. There are reasons to believe that, despite various efforts, normal lending has not yet been restored. Limited loan supply could be disruptive for the European economic recovery and there has been only a minor substitution of bank loans with debt securities. Second, creditless recoveries were associated with significant real exchange rate depreciation, which has hardly occurred so far in most of Europe. This stylised fact suggests that it might be difficult to re-establish economic growth in the absence of sizeable real exchange rate depreciation, if credit growth does not return.