Niger Delta University and the socio-economic life of Amassoma
September 2011
The paper seeks to evaluate the impact of the establishment of Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, Bayelsa State on the socio-economic life of Amassoma City, with emphasis on the growth in population of the area in relationship to the availability of basic social amenities. To achieve this objective, descriptive statistics was employed in analysing the primary data collected. Our findings reveals that...
Community–level institutions in sustainable exploitation of palm forest resources in South-east Nigeria
September 2011
In order to protect palm grooves and strengthen community participation in the exploitation and management of palm forest resources, we investigate the roles of community-level institutions in the moderation of exploitation of palm forest resources studied in three states within the palm forest belt of southeast Nigeria. We confirmed that community-level institutions like community development associations...
Infrastructure deficiencies and investment in manufacturing firms in Nigeria
September 2011
The lack of private investment in productive capital is a serious problem in many developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa in general and Nigeria in particular. In the last three decades, the Nigerian Government has spent a huge amount of money on infrastructure, but this has had little impact on efficiency. This study uses microeconomic evidence to show the effects of poor infrastructure...
An equilibrium approach for tactical asset allocation: Assessing Black-Litterman model to Indian stock market
September 2011
In practice, mean-variance optimization results in non-intuitive and extreme portfolio allocations, which are highly sensitive to variations in the inputs. Generally, efficient frontiers based on historical data lead to highly concentrated portfolios. The Black-Litterman approach overcomes, or at least mitigates, these problems to a large extent. The highlight of this approach is that it enables us to...
Determining optimum farm credit need of small scale farmers in Benue State
September 2011
This study determined an optimum farm credit for small scale farmers in Benue State. A set of structured questionnaires were administered on 180 respondents randomly selected from eighteen communities in the state. Linear programming was used to obtain an optimum farm credit for farmers engaged in four farm enterprises in the study area, namely, yam and cassava mix, maize and sorghum mix, yam and sorghum mix...
Trends in perception of corruption in a developing democracy
September 2011
This paper aims to study individual observational data (education, media consumption, gender, age, region, urban or rural dwellers, personal well-being, social trust, political trust, and interest in politics) and their influences on perceptions of trends in corruption in Nigeria. Perceptions of trends in corruption or corruption worse under previous military regimes or under present democratic dispensation...
Does fiscal deficit determine the size of external debt in Nigeria?
September 2011
This paper investigates the direction of causality as well as the impact of fiscal deficit on external debt in Nigeria. It goes further to determine whether structural shift actually exists in the pattern and direction of fiscal deficit and debt in the period under review. Econometric analysis such as unit root test, Granger causality test, ordinary least square (OLS) and the Chow break point test were performed on time...
Fiscal federalism in changeable world
August 2011
The conversations about fiscal federalism, decentralization and devolution have been evolving in the literature since the second half of the 20th century. In the United States and all around the world, the matter of governance and decentralization are on the agenda. This paper aims to find the routes of fiscal federalism by first understanding what is meant by federalism, as it does not simply refer to a form...
Corporate governance and firm performance in Pakistan: The case of Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE)-30
August 2011
This paper examine the relationship between four important corporate governance mechanisms (board size, board composition, CEO/chairman duality and audit committee) and two firm performance measures (return on equity, ROE, and profit margin, PM), for a sample of 30 Pakistani listed firms between 2008 and 2009. The results provide evidence of a positive significant relationship between ROE and PM and...
Impact of VAT on economic development of emerging nations
August 2011
This paper on the impact of value added tax (VAT) on economic and human developments of emerging Nations from 2001 to 2009 as VAT is becoming important source of revenue. Our scope of study centers on Adamawa State of Nigeria. Data were collected from both primary and secondary sources. Regression, discriminant analysis and ANOVA were used in testing the hypotheses. We found out that VAT allocations...
Technical efficiency of sole cowpea production in Adamawa State, Nigeria: A Cobb-Douglas stochastic frontier function
August 2011
The stochastic frontier production model represents an improvement over the traditional average function and the deterministic functions, which use mathematical programming to construct production frontiers. The study was conducted to analyze the technical efficiency of sole cowpea production in the Northern part of Adamawa State using a stochastic frontier model. The result revealed that the variance of...
Modelling stock price behaviour: The Kernel approach
July 2011
The efficient market hypothesis asserts that financial markets are always efficient and therefore cannot be predicted in order to make abnormal returns. This paper investigates the predictability of stock prices in more efficient and developed markets (U.S and U.K) using two econometric methods namely, the random walk and the non-parametric methods. Based on the out-of-sample predicted mean square error, and...
Lead - lag relationship between the futures and spot prices
July 2011
This paper examined the relationship between the futures market and spot market for the lean hogs and pork bellies markets during the sample period January 2001 through May 2010 and quantifies the price discovery function of commodity futures prices in relation to spot prices of the sample markets. The econometric tools like Unit root tests and Pairwise Granger Causality tests were employed in the study. The...
Official intervention in the foreign exchange market in Malawi: Evidence from GARCH and equilibrium exchange rate methods
July 2011
This paper analyses the effectiveness of foreign exchange market interventions by the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM). The study uses a GARCH (1,1) model to simultaneously estimate the effect of intervention on the mean and volatility of the Malawi Kwacha. The study also run an equilibrium exchange rate model and uses the equilibrium exchange rate criterion to compare results with those from GARCH model. Results from...
The impact of insurance contributions on economic growth in Nigeria
July 2011
In the last decade, most studies on the interaction between the financial sector and economic growth has focused mainly on the banks and the stock market. Recently, growing attention has shifted to the interaction between the non-bank financial intermediaries (NBFIs) such as the insurance companies and economic growth. In this study, we examined the impact of insurance contributions on economic growth in...
Information technology and customer relationship management (CRM) in some selected insurance firms in Nigeria
July 2011
In this study, we explore the question of how IT could enhance firm performance in the areas of customer’s service and organization’s profitability in the Nigerian insurance industry. To draw our sample size of 90, 30 insurance companies were randomly selected from the 49-member insurance umbrella body, the Nigerian Insurers Association. Each company received 3 copies of the questionnaire meant...
Political crises and risk of financial contagion in developing countries: Evidence from Africa
July 2011
The recent waves of political crises in Africa and the Middle East have inspired the debate over how political instability could pose a risk of financial contagion to emerging countries. With retrospect to the Kenyan political crisis, our findings suggest stock markets in Lebanon, Mauritius were contaminated while Nigeria experienced a positive spillover. Our results have two major implications. Firstly, we have...
Transmission of returns between the U.S. stock market and four other major international stock market indexes
July 2011
This paper explored the transmission of returns between the U.S. stock market and four international (Canada, Japan, France, U.K.) stock market indexes from January 1996 to December 2006, using a nonlinear model which focused on threshold effects. The nonlinear, MARS (multivariate adaptive regression spline) model was applied to study this relationship at the general as well as industry specific levels. The...
Reforms and terms of trade volatility in an agriculture dependent economy
June 2011
The issue of food crisis and agricultural price volatility were of critical importance in times of globalization. The present paper examined the potential benefits of trade in agricultural products and analyses the macroeconomic implications of commodity price volatility in the context of agricultural trade liberalization. The reference frame was an emerging market economy with a strong presence of...
Declining use of univariate analysis in managerial decisions (causes, resorts and effects on corporate governance)
June 2011
This paper examines the diminishing use of univariate analysis in investment and other managerial decisions in Nigeria. It aims at determining the extent new generation managers use financial ratios for corporate decisions, reasons for declining use of ratios, understand the current resorts and effects of these diminishing use on corporate well-being over the last five years. Twenty corporate bodies were...
Financial development and economic growth in Cameroon, 1970-2005
June 2011
In this work we investigated the relationship between financial development and economic growth in Cameroon using time series data for the period 1970-2005. Using the Johansen method of cointegration analysis and various measures of financial development, we find that financial development has a positive effect on economic growth in the long run through efficient collection and allocation of financial...
Hypothetical impacts of Mercoeuro on the Brazilian sugar exports
June 2011
This study suggests a hypothetical formation of a free trade area between Mercosur and the European Union (EU) with the intention of studying the trade between Brazil and European Union in relation to sugar. Sugar is an important product for the human consumption and Brazil has a great potential for the production and export of the product, due to the abundance of natural and human resources. The question of...
A model for a sustainable energy supply strategy for the social-economic development of Togo
June 2011
Sustainable energy supply is necessary for the economic development of a country. Over 80% of the populations of African countries lack an access to sufficient and sustainable energy. Moreover, 3.5 billion people are without electricity, hence a significant number depends on biomass fuels such as charcoal, wood, dung and crop residues for lighting and cooking. This high dependency on fuelwood and lack of...
Training, manpower development and job performance: Perception and relevance among civil servants in Ebonyi State, Nigeria
June 2011
The paper examined perception and relevance of influence of training and manpower development on employee performance, using civil servants in Ebonyi State, Nigeria as reference. A pre-coded questionnaire was administered on 300 civil servants stratified into three categories: GL 04-06; GL 07-12 and GL 13+. The purpose was to ensure equitable representation of civil servants in the study area and to elicit...
Fiscal policy: Its impact on economic growth in Nigeria 1970 to 2006
June 2011
This study involves comparative analysis of the impact of fiscal policy on economic growth in Nigeria during regulation and deregulation periods. Econometric analysis of time series data from Central Bank of Nigeria was conducted. Results obtained showed that there is a difference in the effectiveness of fiscal policy in stimulating economic growth during and after regulation periods. The impact was...
Validation Panzar-Rosse Model in determining the structural characteristics of Tunisian banking industry
May 2011
This paper investigates the market structure of banking industry in Tunisia and evaluates the degree of competition. The current analysis employs a widely used non-structural methodology put forward by Panzar and Rosse (1987), the so-called H-statistic, and draws upon a comprehensive panel dataset of Tunisian banks covering the period 1999 to 2008. The estimated H statistics for the whole sample periods are...
The long run effects of monetization on the Nigerian economy
May 2011
This article uses a dynamic, dual-economy general equilibrium model that is adapted and modified to suit Nigeria’s situation to analyze the long-run effect of monetization policy on the Nigerian economy. The model provides a complete analysis of how output equation using Generalized Moments Method (GMM) variations affect aggregate consumption expenditure, investment, capital stock, labor, job cuts...
Training and utilization of staff and job performance in post primary education board, in North Senatorial District of Delta State, Nigeria
May 2011
This is an empirical study which examined the relevance of training and utilization of staff for job performance in Post Primary Education Board, in North Senatorial District of Delta State, Nigeria. To guide this study, three null hypotheses were formulated. The design of the study was survey. The sample of the study was 20 (13.24%) schools / offices and 200 (3.5%) staff, drawn from 5,734 staff of Post...
The nature of inflation in Malawi up to the early 2000s
May 2011
This paper examines the possible sources of inflation in Malawi’s economy since 1970s. Using vector autoregressive models of order two in changes of the variables, impulse response functions as well as error variance decomposition analysis, this study has established that changes in money supply, exchange rates, past values of inflation, recessions and booms were the main determinants of inflation....
Modelling daily value-at-risk using realized volatility, non-linear support vector machine and ARCH type models
May 2011
The aim of this paper is to compare the performance of the daily nonlinear support vector machines, the new semi-parametric tool for regression estimation, heterogeneous autoregressive (SVM-HAR)-ARCH type models based on the daily realized volatility (which uses intraday returns) with the performance of the classical HAR-ARCH type models by using different innovation distribution when the one-day ahead...
External debt and economic growth in Iran
May 2011
In this paper, balance relation and the long term of five variables (gross domestic product, private investment, public investment, external debt and imports) and also their influences on each other in Iran for the period of 1974 to 2007, were analyzed. As such, the vector autoregressive model (var) was used. First, stability of variables by the use of dickey-fuller test was examined, after which analysis of...
ARIMA (autoregressive integrated moving average) approach to predicting inflation in Ghana
May 2011
Inflation is defined as an increase in the general price level of goods and services within a period of time. For any economic agent to formulate a policy, it must take into consideration inflation and the aim of this study is to use autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model to predict inflation in Ghana. In order to fulfil this objective, monthly inflation figures were collected from Ghana...
Dynamics of short selling: An empirical investigation
April 2011
We examine short selling activities on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) from July to October 2007, a period during which the uptick rule was permanently removed by theSecurities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Short sellers have a tendency to increase their trading following negative market returns and positive individual stock returns. Short sellers target stocks with positive returns and...
Recognition of good prediction of gold price between MLFF and GMDH neural network
April 2011
Studies show neural networks have better results in predicting of financial time series in comparison to any linear or non-linear functional form to model the price movement. Neural networks have the advantage of simulating the non-linear models when little a priori knowledge of the structure of problem domains exist or the number of immeasurable input variables are great and system has a chaotic...
Technical efficiency of maize production in Oyo state
April 2011
Using a cross sectional data obtained through a multistage sampling technique this study estimates the technical efficiency of maize producing-farmers in Oyo State, Nigeria and further examined the factors that determines the differential in efficiency index. A multistage sampling technique was used to select 120 maize farmers in the study area. Data were collected and subjected to inferential statistics;...
Macroeconomic factors and stock returns: Evidence from Taiwan
April 2011
Increasing attention is being paid to the relationship between share prices and the macroeconomic variables by both economists and finance specialists. In the present-day scenario, where there is an increasing integration of the financial markets and implementation of various stock market reforms, the activities in the stock markets and their relationships with the macro economy have assumed significant...
Causality analysis among electricity consumption, consumer expenditure, gross domestic product (GDP) and foreign direct investment (FDI): Case study of Malaysia
April 2011
The current paper attempts to examine the causal relationship between electricity consumption (EC), consumer price index (CPI), gross domestic product (GDP) and foreign direct investment (FDI). Time series data were used for these variables for 1971 to 2009 period. The vector error correction model (VECM) was employed to estimate the causal relationship between electricity consumption with respective...
Analysis of fiscal deficits and interest rates in Nigeria
April 2011
This study investigates the effect of fiscal deficits on nominal interest rate in Nigeria. Cointegration techniques and structural analysis were adopted for the study. Empirical evidence emerges that the coefficient of fiscal deficit variable is positive and statistically significant. This indicates that the elasticity of fiscal deficit with respect to income is 0.114, an indication that large deficit causes...
An integrated analytic hierarchy process- linear programming (AHP-LP) model for capital budgeting
April 2011
Capital budgeting is the planning process used to determine the best long-term investment options for an organization. Usually, projects compete for limited available capital and hence the problem is to find the best way of prioritizing the projects in accordance with the organization objectives and then allocating available capital in an optimal manner that will maximize profit. The commonly used methods are...
The transportation and marketing implications of sand and gravel and its environmental impact in Lome-Togo
March 2011
Proper infrastructure is a crucial factor for the socio-economic development of a country. Suburbs of Agouényivé, Adidogomé, and Banguida in Lome once sparsely populated, are now experiencing large influx of people causing environmental problems. Throughout Togo, sand and gravel is widely exploited as aggregate for construction. If river mining of sand is not carefully controlled it can...
An analysis of real estate consumers’ perception of service quality in estate agency practice in Lagos metropolis, Nigeria
March 2011
The role of real estate consumers in estate agency practice cannot be over-emphasized. They are involved in service production and affect the overall service delivery. This study provides an analysis of the real estate consumers’ perception of service quality in Lagos metropolis, Nigeria for the purpose of creating better consumers’ satisfaction and improving service quality in the real estate...
Trade openness, foreign aid and economic growth in post-liberalisation Ghana: An application of ARDL bounds test
March 2011
The extent to which trade openness and foreign aid impacts on economic growth, has for years been an issue of global debate. Being one of the forerunners to adopt liberalisation policies in sub-Saharan Africa, Ghana’s post-liberalisation economic growth performance has received commendations from international institutions. This has increased government commitment in recent years to open the economy to...
Integrative funding and effective implementation of Universal basic education programme in Central Senatorial District of Delta State, Nigeria
March 2011
This paper was an empirical study on the integrative funding of universal basic education (UBE) and effective implementation in Central Senatorial District of Delta State, Nigeria. The researcher adopted a descriptive survey design. Three research questions were posed. The study involved a population of 733 Principals and 1103 Head teachers in the public primary schools and junior secondary schools in the...
The industrial challenges for African countries in the era of globalization and information and communication technology
March 2011
The African economic development forums of the year 2009 marked opportunities for African leaders to unite in meeting the challenges of globalization and the emerging information economy. This advent coupled with the exponentially rapid spread of information and communication technology (ICT) is deeply affecting the social, political, economic and cultural spheres in most African countries. Furthermore,...
An empirical analysis of remittances-growth nexus in Pakistan using bounds testing approach
March 2011
This paper empirically examines the impact of remittances, exports, money supply (a broad measure for financial development) on economic growth in the context of Pakistan using bounds testing approach. Data set from 1976-2009 have been used for time series analysis. The result shows that remittances inflow and the lag effect of real output () are significant in short run and long run. Remittances have a...
Analysis of risk among agribusiness enterprises investment in Abia State, Nigeria
March 2011
The study analysed risk among agribusiness enterprises investment in Abia State of Nigeria. Specifically, it examined types of risk and the degree of influence on the agribusiness enterprises. The study also examined common risk reducing strategies among the agribusiness enterprises in the area. Primary data collected from 40 formal agribusiness firms were used in the study. The data were analysed with...
A survey on the requirements of applying the framework of inflation targeting in Iran's economy
February 2011
Harmful impacts of high chronic inflation on economy have always required the governors and monetary officials of countries to eliminate the problem and its negative economic consequences. Different methods and monetary systems have been applied to serve the purpose, namely various kinds of exchange rate targeting and monetary variables improvement rate targeting. Studies have shown that in order for...
An evaluation of exchange rate models by carry trade
February 2011
We evaluate the effectiveness of economic fundamentals in enhancing profit of carry trades. We simulate carry trades in Japanese yen and Swiss franc against six target currencies based on forecasts of exchange rate models of economic fundamentals. The performance results are compared against those of the benchmark random walk and AR (1) models. We find that carry trades perform better in risk-adjusted returns and...
Doing business with China: Is China keeping its legal WTO obligations?
February 2011
Is China keeping its legal world trade organization (WTO) obligations? On December 11, 2001, China became the 143rd member of the WTO after 15 years of negotiations. The accession package approved in Qatar for the People's Republic of China includes commitments on transparency and predictability, tariffs, trading rights and distributions, service agreements, TRIPS, import licensing importation and...
Nature and association of public and private investment: Public policy implications for South Africa
February 2011
South Africa has a low investment-to-GDP ratio compared to other developing countries. The share of government investment in the total investment has also been declining. In this context, the paper uses quarterly data from 1960 to 2005 to analyse the nature and relationship between public and private investment in South Africa. The findings of the study have strong policy implications and indicate that...
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