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The present study assesses the commercial bank profit efficiency and its relationship to banking sector competition in a rapidly growing emerging economy, India from 2009 to 2019 using stochastic frontier analysis (SFA).

Lerner indices, conventional and efficiency-adjusted, quantify competition. Two SFA models are employed to calculate alternative profit efficiency (inefficiency) scores: the two-step time-decay approach proposed by Battese and Coelli (1992) and the recently developed single-step pairwise difference estimator (PDE) by Belotti and Ilardi (2018). In the first step of the BC92 framework, profit inefficiency is calculated, and in the second step, Tobit and Fractional Regression Model (FRM) are utilized to evaluate profit inefficiency correlates. PDE concurrently solves the frontier and inefficiency equations using the maximum likelihood process.

The results suggest that foreign banks are less profit efficient than domestic equivalents, supporting the “home-field advantage” hypothesis in India. Further, increasing competition drives bank managers to make riskier lending and investment choices, decreasing bank profit efficiency. However, this effect varies depending on bank ownership and size.

Literature on the competition bank efficiency link is conspicuously scant, with a focus on technical and cost efficiency. Less is known regarding the influence of competition on bank profit efficiency. The article is one of the first to examine commercial bank profit efficiency and its relationship to banking sector competition. Additionally, the study work represents one of the first applications of the FRM presented by Papke and Wooldridge (1996) and the PDE provided by Belotti and Ilardi (2018).

This study aims to determine how Basel III capital requirements affect the stability of Islamic banks globally during the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The secondary data for all Islamic banks worldwide from 2004 to 2021 is obtained from the FitchConnect database. The main technique was a two-step generalized method of moment (GMM) system, and the data were tested using pooled ordinary least squares, fixed effects and difference GMM models for robustness checks.

Regression results support the moral hazard hypothesis based on evidence that both the total capital ratio and the Tier 1 capital ratio have a statistically significant positive impact on the stability of Islamic banks globally. Furthermore, neither the global financial crisis of 2008–2009 nor COVID-19 (2020–2021) significantly impacted the stability of Islamic banks worldwide. The results are robust across alternative measures of stability, capital buffers, dummy variables and estimation techniques. According to the descriptive statistics, the number of Islamic banks that disclose their regulatory capital ratios to the public has increased over the study period, and the mean of total capital and Tier 1 ratios are considerably greater than what is required by Basel II and Basel III.

Bankers, regulators and policymakers should benefit from the evidence on capital and risk management in Islamic banking according to Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) and Islamic financial services board (IFSB) international standards in various jurisdictions.

This research builds on earlier studies that were both beneficial and instructive by exploring the relationship between BCBS and IFSB capital guidelines and the trustworthiness of Islamic banks in greater depth. This study uses numerous capital ratios, buffers and stability measures to provide an international context for research on Islamic banking. In addition, the database is up-to-date to include information about the COVID-19 pandemic aftereffects in the year 2021. This study also introduces the Basel membership of Islamic banks to provide context for countries still at the Basel II stage or are yet to begin implementing the Basel III international standard.

Academic research has intensively analyzed the relationship between market concentration or market power and banking stability but provides ambiguous results, which are summarized under the concentration-stability/fragility view. We provide empirical evidence that the mixed results are due to the difficulty of identifying reliable variables to measure concentration and market power.

Using data from 3,943 banks operating in the European Union (EU)-15 between 2013 and 2020, we employ linear regression models on panel data. Banking market concentration is measured by the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI), and market power is estimated by the product-specific Lerner Indices for the loan and deposit market, respectively.

Our analysis reveals a significantly stability-decreasing impact of market concentration (HHI) and a significantly stability-increasing effect of market power (Lerner Indices). In addition, we provide evidence for a weak (or even absent) empirical relationship between the (non)structural measures, challenging the validity of the structure-conduct-performance (SCP) paradigm. Our baseline findings remain robust, especially when controlling for a likely reverse causality.

Our results suggest that the HHI may reflect other factors beyond market power that influence banking stability. Thus, banking supervisors and competition authorities should investigate market concentration and market power simultaneously while considering their joint impact on banking stability.

This study investigates the role of market concentration and efficiency in banking system stability during the COVID-19 pandemic. We empirically test the hypothesis that market concentration and efficiency are significant determinants of bank performance and stability during the time of crises, using a sample of 575 banks in 20 countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

The main sources of bank data are the BankScope and BankFocus (Bureau van Dijk) databases, World Bank development indicators, and official websites of banks in MENA countries. This study combined descriptive and analytical approaches. We utilize a panel dataset and adopt panel data econometric techniques such as fixed/random effects and the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimator.

The results reveal that market concentration negatively affects bank profitability, whereas improved efficiency further enhances bank performance and contributes to the banking sector’s overall stability. Furthermore, our analysis indicates that during the COVID-19 pandemic, bank stability strongly depended on the level of market concentration, but not on bank efficiency. However, more efficient banks are more profitable and stable if the banking institutions are Islamic. Similarly, Islamic banks with the same level of efficiency demonstrated better overall financial performance during the pandemic than their conventional peers did.

The main limitation is related to the period of COVID-19 pandemic that was covered in this paper (2020–2021). Therefore, further investigation of the COVID-19 effects on bank profitability and risk will require an extended period of the pandemic crisis, including 2022.

This study provides information that will enable bank managers and policymakers in MENA countries to assess the growing impact of market concentration and efficiency on the banking sector stability. It also helps them in formulating suitable strategies to mitigate the adverse consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our recommendations are useful guides for policymakers and regulators in countries where Islamic and conventional banking systems co-exist and compete, based on different business models and risk management practices.

The authors contribute to the banking stability literature by investigating the role of market concentration and efficiency as the main determinants of bank performance and stability during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study is the first to analyze banking sector stability in the MENA region, using both individual and risk-adjusted aggregated performance measures.

This study aims to examine whether diversified economies enhance the growth benefits from foreign direct investment (FDI). Diversified economies benefit from stable export earnings, stable investment composition and greater factor endowments through forward and backward linkages that can leverage superior foreign technology embedded in FDI. This is crucial as many African economies suffer from dependency while FDI is concentrated in the primary sector.

The authors use a dataset of 15 Economic Community of West African States from 1995 to 2020 and compile variables from various sources, including an export diversification index measured using the Herfindahl–Hirschman index of product concentration. The authors use a growth regression model estimated using dynamic panel estimators to control for endogeneity and simultaneity issues.

The results show that the effects of direct FDI are insignificant to growth considering diversification and controlling for other confounding factors. Meanwhile, diversification is associated with growth, which highlights the importance of industrial policy. More importantly, the authors find that the marginal effects of FDI are positively and significantly associated with growth when diversification levels are low, implying that production structure matters for the FDI–growth nexus in developing economies.

Previous studies have overlooked the role of export production structure on the FDI–growth nexus. Many developing economies are dependent on primary exports and suffer from dependency, which implies lower levels of factor endowments. As such, this reduces the growth gains from FDI. The authors provide new empirical evidence on the importance of export production structure on the FDI–growth nexus.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the changes of the scale of urban tourists in mainland China under the impact of COVID-19 and, specifically, the following questions: how did the scale of domestic tourists change nationwide and in the seven geographic regions? What are the differences in the changes among the seven geographic regions? What are the changes in the hot spot areas and spatial clustering of domestic tourists across the country?

Using the data of domestic tourist arrivals in 337 cities in mainland China from 2018 to 2021, this research analyzes the absolute differences and relative differences in the scale of domestic tourists nationwide and in seven geographic divisions with the help of indicators such as range analysis, standard deviation, coefficient of variation and Herfindahl–Hirschman Index and explores the changes in the hot spot areas and spatial concentration degree of the spatial scale of domestic tourists nationwide under the influence of the epidemic using kernel density analysis and spatial auto-correlation analysis.

The absolute differences in all seven geographical divisions continue to increase during 2018–2021. The domestic tourism in southwest China is extremely uneven. Absolute differences in the northwest and northeast regions are relatively small, and the development in attracting domestic tourists is more balanced. Relative differences in southwest China are comparatively large, with the trend of uneven development being obvious. The northeast, northwest and eastern regions of China are small, and the development is more balanced. The popularity of domestic tourism in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region, as well as the Yangtze River Delta region, continues to decline and then pick up in 2021. The inland southwest region became a new domestic tourism hot spot in 2021. The size of domestic tourists from 2018 to 2021 in mainland China cities shows a significant positive spatial correlation, and there is a spatial agglomeration phenomenon, but some regional agglomeration types change from 2018 to 2021.

The impact of the epidemic on the number and spatial scale of domestic tourism in China has been clarified, which makes up for the comparison of domestic tourism changes before and after the epidemic. A clear understanding of the changes in the number and spatial scale of domestic tourists in different regions after the epidemic is conducive to the development of domestic tourism revitalization strategies in accordance with the actual situation of each province and promotes the internal circulation of Chinese tourism.

This paper tries to clarify the quantitative scale of domestic tourism in different regions after the epidemic, which is conducive to the development of domestic tourism revitalization strategies in cities in different regions according to regional characteristics and the actual situation of each province and to promote the healthy operation of the internal circulation of tourism in China. This paper also tries to show the changes of domestic tourism market hot spots, agglomeration conditions changes before and after the outbreak and the clarity of tourists’ preference space changes.

Scale of domestic tourists; Absolute difference; Relative difference; Spatial hot spot distribution; Spatial agglomeration change

本文旨在探寻疫情影响下中国大陆城市游客规模演化规律, 具体而言, 疫情影响下, 全国及七大地理分区的国内游客量规模变化如何？七大地理地区的变化有何差异？以及疫情影响下, 全国国内游客空间规模的热点区域和空间集聚程度有何变化？

利用2018-2021年中国大陆337各城市的国内游客量数据, 借助极差、标准差、变异系数、赫芬达尔指等指标分析全国及七大地理分区国内游客规模的绝对差异和相对差异; 借助核密度分析、空间自相关分析等ArcGIS分析工具, 探寻疫情影响下全国国内游客空间规模的热点区域和空间集聚程度的变化情况。

①绝对差异方面, 七大地理分区的绝对差异均持续增大。西南地区的游客量的绝对差异巨大, 国内游发展极不均衡。西北地区、东北地区绝对差异相对较小, 在吸引国内游客方面发展较为均衡。②相对差异方面, 西南地区的国内游发展相对差异较大, 发展不均衡趋势明显; 东北地区、西北地区、华东地区的国内游发展相对差异较小, 发展较为均衡。③热点区域变化方面, 京津冀地区、长三角地区的国内旅游热度持续下降, 在2021年有所回升; 内陆西南地区在2021年成为新的国内游热点区域。④2018年至2021年城市国内游客量规模均呈现出显著的空间正相关的关系, 存在着空间集聚现象, 但部分区域集聚类型在2018到2021年间发生变化。

①理论意义：明晰了疫情对中国国内旅游人次的数量规模和空间规模的影响, 弥补了当前疫情前后国内旅游业变化对比的研究; 阐明了疫情前后中国城市国内游客空间格局的变化, 拓展了研究情景, 丰富了中国旅游业时空变化的相关研究。②实践意义：明晰了疫后不同地区国内旅游人次的数量规模和空间规模变化情况, 以及国内旅游市场热点变化和游客空间偏好变化, 有利于各地区城市对症下药, 制定符合各省份实际情况的国内旅游业振兴策略, 促进中国旅游业内循环。

This study aims to investigate the impact of market competitiveness on investment efficiency, and the moderating role of ownership and regulatory structures.

In this study, the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI), Lerner Index (LI) and industry-adjusted Lerner Index (LIIA) were used to measure market competitiveness. The research population consisted of companies listed on Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE). Using a systematic elimination, 199 companies were selected within eight years during 2014–2021.

The results showed that market competitiveness (based on the LI, LIIA and HHI) positively affected investment efficiency. Moreover, institutional ownership and managerial ownership affected the relationship between market competitiveness (based on all proxies of market competitiveness) and investment efficiency. Blockholders’ ownership also moderated the relationship between market competitiveness (based on LIIA and HHI) and investment efficiency. The hypothesis testing had robustness based on additional analyses.

In recent years, competitive environment and the ownership structure of companies have changed to a certain degree, paving the way for the private sector to enter many areas of activity especially in emerging Asian markets. Moreover, investment drivers and investment efficiency in developed markets may not be generalized to emerging Asian markets. Therefore, the present findings can show the significance of this research to fill the existing gap in the literature and provide insights into ownership and regulatory structures as a governance mechanism in market competitiveness and investment efficiency.

This paper aims to explore the nexus between corporate governance, competition and earnings management (EM) in Asian emerging economies.

The authors used a sample of 116 banks from 10 Asian emerging economies from 2010 to 2021. To measure corporate governance, the board size, chief executive officer duality and ownership concentration are used. Competition is captured with Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) and Lerner index (LI). Although earning management is measured through discretionary accruals. The authors use fixed effect regression for hypothesis testing. However, dynamic panel system generalised method of moments estimation is used to confirm the robustness of the results.

The authors find that corporate governance and competition are significantly related to earning management practices of banks in emerging Asian economies. The authors report similar outcomes with both estimation methods verifying the reliability of results.

The findings of the study have implications for corporate regulatory authorities, management and investors in the Asian emerging economies. Banks in the Asian emerging economies need to pay more attention to factors such as governance and competition to avoid EM.

The study investigates the impact of competition and concentration on bank risk-taking behavior and stability in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) region.

Data from 100 banks from 2013 to 2021 was analyzed using dynamic and static measures by using dynamic system GMM.

Results showed that higher competition reduces stability, while concentration in the banking sector produces stability and reduces risk-taking behavior. The findings suggest that regulatory agencies should take different actions based on the degree of banking market concentration to enhance banking sector stability in the SAARC area.

The research helps regulators and decision-makers establish capital requirements at levels that would prevent banks from increasing their risk-taking in order to boost profits and, therefore, reduces hazardous practices that might increase the risk.

The research helps establish capital requirements to prevent banks from increasing risk-taking to boost profits and avoid hazardous practices that could increase nonperforming loans and bank failure risks.

Executive decisions regarding capital financing are an important management aspect, especially during financing constraints and growth opportunities. The current study examines the impact of managerial skills of a company on capital financing decisions. Furthermore, it analyzed this nexus in financing constraints and growth opportunity situations.

The authors use the GMM (generalized method of moments) estimation approach on a dataset of 20,651 firm-year observations of Chinese A-share companies from 2010 to 2019.

The authors’ findings are compatible with management signaling and reputation enhancement theories, since they show that managerial skill is connected with more substantial debt financing. Managers with high management skills are likely to have more debt financing as they can foresee the economic future of their companies and tactfully convey private information, lowering information inequality and enhancing their reputation. Furthermore, the authors also show that firms with restricted financial resources and growth opportunities make this relationship stronger. Capital structure and managerial skill findings are unaffected by alternative specifications, omitted factors, industry group bias and endogeneity.

This study sheds fresh light on the essential manager personality trait of managing ability and how it influences complicated corporate decision-making, particularly in the tough environment due to financing constraints and competitive growth. The authors argue that high-ability managers are compelled to use debt financing not only to lessen information asymmetry but also to guarantee that the market finds their superior ability. This work contributes significantly to the managerial ability literature and the capital structure literature supporting signaling theory.