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The purpose of this paper is to warn policymakers, by examining certain aspects of policy, possibly overlooked, against overestimating the power of corporate social responsibility (CSR) idea to inhibit tax avoidance by the multinationals.

By examining, with narrative and qualitative means, existing insights such as ones with regard to the inefficiency of the public sector.

Implication that the following three factors could not co-exist: promoting CSR activities, which include moral tax payment by the multinational corporations; requiring the multinationals to refrain from immorally reducing effective tax rates and keeping the current level of public utilities.

To sound an alarm to tax policymakers who are particularly addicted to the base erosion and profit shifting by multinational enterprises recently by this new implication mixing up with existing findings with regard to the CSR idea and cost-inefficiency character of the public sector activities.

The aim of this paper is to use stochastic frontier regression to measure the effect of the introduction and expansion of prevailing wage requirements on the cost efficiency of public school construction in British Columbia. The results provide evidence from a specific sector and location that contributes to the accumulated evidence on the topic.

Stochastic frontier regression is used to measure the effect of the introduction and expansion of prevailing wage requirements on the cost efficiency of public school construction in British Columbia. The results of a likelihood ratio test indicate that stochastic frontier regression is preferred to OLS cost estimation because of the presence of statistically different cost inefficiencies across a sample of covered and uncovered projects.

Specifically, projects covered by the introductory stage of the wage requirements are significantly less cost efficient compared to other public school projects. However, by the time of the expansion of the wage policy 17 months later, covered projects were no more cost inefficient than other projects. The results indicate that if prevailing wage laws are associated with changes in the cost efficiency of construction, stochastic frontier regression is the preferred estimation technique.

This is the first study of its kind with results specific to school construction in British Columbia. Further research based on data from other projects may/may not confirm the existence of differences in construction cost inefficiencies for projects covered by construction wage policies.

By implication, the results suggest that if the cost inefficiency of prevailing wage laws is short‐lived, the impact on the total cost of construction may similarly be ephemeral. The results imply that prevailing wage regulations do not contribute to long‐run construction cost inefficiency.

This is the first study to use stochastic frontier regression to examine the cost inefficiencies associated with prevailing wage laws. Previous studies that examine the effect of the wage policy on construction costs are based on OLS estimation.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze and evaluate cost efficiency (CE) scores of Indian Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) in India over a period of 22 years, i.e. 1991–1992 to 2012–2013.

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) – a non-parametric approach is used to calculate efficiency scores of banks. Further the efficiency scores are decomposed into technical and allocative efficiency. The differences in the efficiency scores across ownership as well as across reformatory and post-reformatory era are examined by applying Panel Tobit Regression.

The paper also identifies the reason for cost inefficiency among Indian banks. In addition, the nature of their return to scale of all SCBs has also been evaluated. The results of the paper depict that Indian SCBs have never achieved full CE score of 1 in any of the years of study. The dominant reason identified behind cost inefficiency is allocative inefficiency. Surprisingly, the results also highlight that SCBs exhibit higher CE scores in reformatory era as compared to the post-reformatory era.

With specific reference to India, even lesser literature is found on CE. Indian banking sector has witnessed many changes on account of liberalization, privatization and globalization (LPG). Before banks adapted to the new environment, the global financial crisis acted as a fuel to fire affecting the performance of banks. Thus, a reassessment over a longer period would help to know a wholistic view of the issue of cost inefficiency, which has always been a troubling factor for Indian banks.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the trends of cost efficiency (CE) of Indian banks in response to financial deregulation programme launched in early 1990s. More specifically, the findings of this paper offer empirical testing of the basic underlined hypothesis that the CE of banks will rise in the more liberal and competitive environment.

The study employs input-oriented data envelopment analysis (DEA) models that incorporate the quasi-fixed inputs to compute the cost, technical, and allocative efficiency scores for individual banks. The unbalanced panel data spanning from the financial year 1992-1993 to 2007-2008 are used for obtaining efficiency measures. In addition, the panel data Tobit model has been applied to investigate the bank-specific factors explaining variations in the CE.

The empirical findings pertaining to the trends of efficiency measures suggest that: first, deregulation programme has had a positive impact on the CE of Indian banks, and the observed increase in CE is entirely due to improvements in technical efficiency (TE); second, the ranking of ownership groups provides that public sector banks are more cost efficient along with the foreign than private banks; and third, there is a strong presence of global advantage hypothesis in the Indian banking industry. The results of post-DEA analysis reveal that size and exposure to off-balance sheet activities are the key determinants of CE. The results also support the existence of bad luck or bad management hypothesis in Indian banking industry.

The practical implication of the research findings is that the financial deregulation programme seems to be successful in achieving the CE gains in the Indian banking industry. This explicitly signals that the cautious approach of banking reforms adopted by Indian policy makers has started bearing fruit in terms of the creation of an efficient banking system, which is immune to any sort of financial crisis, and resilient to both internal and external shocks.

The present study offers new evidence on the time-series properties of cost, allocative, and TEs of Indian banks. The DEA models used in this study explicitly incorporate the equity as a quasi-fixed input, which accounts for “risk” in the bank efficiency measurement.

Against the backdrop of an Indian banking sector that finds itself entangled in the triple deadlock of increasing competition, technological changes and strict regulatory compliance, the study aims to examine the need for reinforcing stringent corporate and risk governance mechanisms as an instrument for improving efficiency and productivity levels.

The authors construct three separate indices, namely, supervisory board index, audit index and risk governance index to measure the governance practices of commercial banks. A slacks-based data envelopment analysis technical efficiency (TE) measure, a variable returns to scale cost efficiency model and Malmquist productivity index are employed to determine TE, cost efficiency and productivity change, respectively. A two-step system-generalized method of moments estimation accounts for the dynamic relationship between governance and efficiency.

The authors show that strict audit and risk governance mechanisms are associated with better efficiency and productivity levels. However, consistent with the free-rider hypothesis, large, independent and diverse boards lead to cost inefficiencies. Strict risk governance structures circumvent the negative effects of high regulatory capital and improve efficiency and total factor productivity. However, friendly boards do not perform efficiently in the presence of regulatory capital, implying that incentives arising from maintaining high levels of equity capital make them more susceptible to risk-taking, and board composition is unable to sidestep this behaviour.

The paper contributes to the literature that explores the linkages between governance, efficiency and productivity. The inferences hold relevance in the post-COVID world, as regulators try to circumvent the additional stress on the banking system by adopting sound corporate and risk governance mechanisms.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the performance of the Indian non-life (general) insurance sector in terms of efficiency, productivity and returns-to-scale economies. In addition to this, it identifies the determinants of efficiency.

This study employs a two-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) bootstrap approach to estimate the level and determinants of efficiency. In the first stage, the DEA bootstrap approach is employed to estimate bias-corrected efficiency scores. In the second stage, the truncated bootstrapped regression is used to identify the effect of firm-level characteristics on the efficiency of insurers. Moreover, the bootstrapped Malmquist index is used to examine the productivity growth over the observation period 2005–2016.

The bootstrapped DEA results show that the Indian non-life insurance sector is moderately technical, scale, cost and allocative efficient, and there is a large opportunity for improvement. Moreover, the results reveal that the public insurers are more cost efficient than the private insurers. It is also evident that all the insurers irrespective of size and ownership type are operating under increasing returns to scale. Malmquist index results divulge an improvement in productivity of insurers, which is attributable to the employment of the best available technology. Bootstrapped DEA and bootstrapped Malmquist index results also show that the global financial crisis of 2008 has not severely affected the efficiency and productivity of the Indian non-life insurance sector. The truncated regression results spell that size and reinsurance have a statistically significant negative relationship with efficiency. It also shows a statistically significant positive age–efficiency relationship.

The results hold practical implications for the regulators, policy makers, practitioners and decision makers of the Indian non-life insurance companies.

This study is the first of its kind that comprehensively investigates different types of robust efficiency measures, determinants of efficiency, productivity growth and returns-to-scale economies in the Indian non-life insurance market for an extended time period.

This paper aims to examine whether high levels of financial inclusion is associated with greater financial risk.

The study uses regression methodology to estimate the effect of financial inclusion on financial risk.

The findings reveal that higher account ownership is associated with greater financial risk through high non-performing loans and high-cost inefficiency in the financial sector of developed countries, advanced countries and transition economies. Increased use of debit cards, credit cards and digital finance products reduced risk in the financial sector of advanced countries and developed countries but not for transition economies and developing countries. The findings also show that the combined use of digital finance products with increased formal account ownership improves financial sector efficiency in developing countries while the combined use of credit cards with increased formal account ownership reduces insolvency risk and improves financial sector efficiency in developing countries.

The paper offers several implications for policy and financial regulation. It suggests policies that would reduce the financial risk that financial inclusion poses to the financial sector.

The recent interest in financial inclusion and the unintended consequences of policy-driven financial inclusion in some parts of the world is raising concern about the risks that financial inclusion may introduce to the formal financial sector. Little is known about the risks that financial inclusion may pose to the financial sector.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the quality of property rights institutions (PRIs) and bank financial performance in an empirical study of 136 countries over the period 1999-2006.

The quality of PRIs and financial accounting-based measures of bank performance are obtained from the Economic Freedom of the World Project (Gwartney et al., 2006), the Polity IV Project, the World Bank data indicators database, and the International Monetary Fund. Several multiple regression analyses are conducted to test the study hypotheses.

The results reveal that the quality of legal structure and security of PRIs positively (negatively) affects both bank cost efficiency (inefficiency) and profitability. The presence of a quality political structure negatively (positively) affects bank cost efficiency (inefficiency). The quality of political structure has no direct impact on bank profitability. The impact of PRIs on bank cost efficiency is more evident in the upper middle and high income group of countries than in the low and lower middle income group of countries. An appropriate level of PRI quality is essential to achieve both competition and development.

The paper highlights policy implications for international policy makers, regulators, and the management of banks who are interested in banking sector development across countries.

The study investigates the fundamental importance of PRI quality in its effect on the banking sector and extends the largely US-focused literature to a broader international setting.

The purpose of this paper is to examine cost efficiency and its determinants in Nigerian sawmill industries.

A stochastic frontier model is employed on a total of 160 mills randomly selected across five states in south‐western Nigeria in 2006.

The results show an estimated average cost efficiency of 1.262. This suggests that an average mill incurs about 26 per cent costs above the frontier cost when processing planks from logs. Further analysis indicates that a significant level of cost ineffisciency is present in Nigeria's sawmilling industry. Analysis of determinants of cost efficiency reveals that more years of education, experience, age, and level of capital investment reduce cost inefficiencies between 7 and 16 per cent. Sawmill operation is found to be associated with economies of scale in the study area.

The paper contributes to existing studies on the efficiency of sawmill industries in Nigeria by taking a holistic assessment of the industry from a cost perspective.

There were 4,919 registered, short-term, community hospitals in the 2004 American Hospital Association (AHA) Annual Survey of Hospitals; 60 percent of those hospitals were non-profit (NP), 23 percent of them were public (non-federal government owned and operated), and 17 percent were for-profit (FP). In general, while the absolute number of hospitals in the United States has decreased in recent years, the share of hospitals that are FP has increased. For example, in 1997, the AHA reported 5,057 registered, short-term, community hospitals, of which 59 percent were NP, 25 percent were public, and 16 percent were FP.