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1 – 10 of 115The purpose of this paper is to identify the indicators of currency crises in Egypt. Using the annual data over the period 1977–2017, the paper attempts to establish which…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify the indicators of currency crises in Egypt. Using the annual data over the period 1977–2017, the paper attempts to establish which economic variable(s) are more useful in predicting currency crises and to improve the predictability of such crises.
Design/methodology/approach
Probit analysis is employed to identify the indicators that are most effective in predicting the probability that a currency crisis episode will occur. This is enabled through the estimation of a market turbulence index (MTI) which measures currency crises in terms of eight “threshold” points at which a crisis is detected or not detected.
Findings
The estimates of the probit model suggest that five variables: the domestic interest rate spread; domestic current account; USA interest rate; real exchange rate; and the real interest rate have the strongest predictive power among the 16 indicators identified in the empirical literature.
Research limitations/implications
There are a number of limitations associated with this paper. First the data are annual and not monthly which limits the ability of the estimated model to accurately predict the crisis episodes. There is limited open access to monthly data on the Central Bank of Egypt website especially for the period before the 2000s. Were such data available this would allow for much more robust in-sample and out of sample forecasts.
Practical implications
The analysis and results in the paper suggest that the modelling strategy employed represents a potentially useful tool for Central Banks and policy makers in forecasting currency crises.
Social implications
There are several such implications but mainly in relation to the possibility of avoiding high social costs resulting from a currency crisis that may have been avoided if forecast correctly.
Originality/value
The paper builds on previous theoretical and empirical work in this field while adding to the literature in terms of the problems in previous literature and modelling approaches. It also strongly advocates the use of the MTI instead of other indices to identify such crises.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine to what extent evidence can be found for the presence of the Marshall–Lerner (ML) condition regarding the trade balances of Egypt. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine to what extent evidence can be found for the presence of the Marshall–Lerner (ML) condition regarding the trade balances of Egypt. The theoretical basis of the ML is presented and then tested using Egyptian trade data from 1965 to 2017.
Design/methodology/approach
The data are analysed via standard ordinary least squares models subject to the constraints imposed by economic theory, specifically ML theory, in which the coefficients represent elasticities. A range of tests are undertaken to establish the validity of the models and the model results including multicollinearity, unit root and co-integration in order to avoid spurious regressions.
Findings
The export model strongly suggests that real exports of Egyptian goods and services are elastic with respect to changes in the real effective exchange rate (REER), with a coefficient weight of −1.64 and is significant at 1%. However, for the import model the coefficient weight of the REER −1.17 and is significant at 1%. This result contradicts ML theory, where an increase in the REER makes imports cheaper and thus causes them to increase.
Research limitations/implications
The limitations of the study are two in particular, the first is that the frequency of the data employed is annual, not monthly or even quarterly, which means that the sample size would have been larger, and the estimated parameters could have been more accurate in forecasting the future behaviour of exports and imports. There could be several other indicators that might have clear impacts on exports and imports. In other words, it is possible that a model with consumer spending and government spending as well as terms of trade, inflation, interest rate spread and taxes is going to capture more of the variation that occurs in Egypt's trade balance components.
Practical implications
The results suggest that the Egypt-International Monetary Fund plan (depreciation) is likely to have a positive effect on the economy. However, this does not mean that the deficit of the trade balance is going to change into a surplus once the policies of the plan are fully applied, but it does mean the deficit will reduce. Only in the long run is the trade balance likely to record a sustainable surplus. But the latter will heavily depend on the structure of exports and imports and maintaining price stability, both of which are key government policy areas.
Originality/value
The paper builds on previous theoretical and empirical work in this field and in particular is focussed on Egypt. There are extremely few analyses of the ML condition regarding Egypt. This paper provides new information on this and can also be utilized by researchers to further develop the analysis and method through identification of other potentially relevant variables within a single country ML study.
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Abdelmoneim Bahyeldin Mohamed Metwally and Ahmed Diab
This study aims to investigate the institutional changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic on the Bahraini insurance sector. This study also examines how those changes…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the institutional changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic on the Bahraini insurance sector. This study also examines how those changes affected the risk management practices.
Design/methodology/approach
This study deploys a qualitative methodology with a case study design. The data are collected from multiple sources such as semi-structured interviews, documents and website analyses.
Findings
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an institutional change in the Bahraini insurance sector. Pre-COVID-19, the professional logic was the dominant institutional logic. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic and its related uncertainties made the economic logic the most dominant logic. Accordingly, risk officers are currently responding to the crisis by being more risk-averse than risk managers. This study presents an inclusive institutional understanding of risk management as informed by the professional logic and socio-political and economic logics.
Practical implications
This study has implications for regulators and insurance customers by giving a snapshot of how insurers’ risk officers respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, which can help envisage their plans and actions.
Originality/value
This study contributes to risk management and institutional logics literature by illustrating how changes in risk management practices in emerging markets are an operational manifestation of sustaining profits and maintaining the positions of risk officers. This extends the risk management literature by bringing early evidence from an emerging market regarding risk officers’ behaviours and control plans during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, this study extends the institutional logics literature by exploring the micro-level impacts of logics in an emerging insurance market.
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Roger Y.W. Tang and Ali M. Metwalli
This paper provides a profile of the 1,454 business chair professorships in the United States in 1997. The five disciplines covered are accounting, economics, finance, management…
Abstract
This paper provides a profile of the 1,454 business chair professorships in the United States in 1997. The five disciplines covered are accounting, economics, finance, management, and marketing. The University of Pennsylvania had the largest number of chairholders in business in 1997. Three other schools that had more than 40 chairholders each were Harvard, Northwestern and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Harvard produced the highest number of graduates serving as chairholders followed by Chicago, MIT, Texas at Austin, Illinois, and Stanford. Most of the schools that produced large numbers of chairholders are listed among the best business schools in the United States.
Ali M. Metwalli and Roger Y.W. Tang
This paper provides an overview of the merger and acquisition (M&A) activity of Middle‐Eastern (M.E.) countries from 1990 to 2000. The following information is presented: M&A…
Abstract
This paper provides an overview of the merger and acquisition (M&A) activity of Middle‐Eastern (M.E.) countries from 1990 to 2000. The following information is presented: M&A transactions by the nationality and industries of the target firms; home countries and industries of the acquiring firms and the acquisition methods. The largest twenty mergers and acquisitions in the Middle East during the 1990–2000 period are identified. The paper also compares the M&A activity in four important countries (Egypt, Israel, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia). Learning the M&A activity in the Middle East is essential in identifying target or acquirers, and conducting future M&A transactions.
Roger Y.W. Tang and Ali M. Metwalli
– The purpose of this paper is to provide the latest information on mergers and acquisition (M&A) activities in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh from 2000 to 2009.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide the latest information on mergers and acquisition (M&A) activities in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh from 2000 to 2009.
Design/methodology/approach
Using data available from Thomson Financial Service's Worldwide Mergers and Acquisitions database, the paper analyzed M&A transactions listed in the database that were announced between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2009, in which the target firm or acquirer was located in India, Pakistan or Bangladesh.
Findings
M&A in India is a lot more active than that in Pakistan or Bangladesh. One unique feature of Pakistani M&A market is that it has a high ratio (more than 80 percent) for Pakistani firms buying non-Pakistani companies. In Bangladesh, non-Bangladeshi firms acquiring Bangladeshi companies accounted for more than 90 percent of all large M&A value.
Originality/value
The paper provides the latest information on M&A activities in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh from 2000 to 2009. Some similarities and differences among the three countries were compared and discussed.
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Abdelmoneim Bahyeldin Mohamed Metwally and Ahmed Diab
In developing countries, how risk management technologies influence management accounting and control (MAC) practices is under-researched. By drawing on insights from…
Abstract
Purpose
In developing countries, how risk management technologies influence management accounting and control (MAC) practices is under-researched. By drawing on insights from institutional studies, this study aims to examine the multiple institutional pressures surrounding an entity and influencing its risk-based management control (RBC) system – that is, how RBC appears in an emerging market attributed to institutional multiplicity.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used qualitative case study research methods to collect empirical evidence from a privately owned Egyptian insurance company.
Findings
The authors observed that in the transformation to risk-based controls, especially in socio-political settings such as Egypt, changes in MAC systems were consistent with the shifts in the institutional context. Along with changes in the institutional environment, the case company sought to configure its MAC system to be more risk-based to achieve its strategic goals effectively and maintain its sustainability.
Originality/value
This research provides a fuller view of risk-based management controls based on the social, professional and political perspectives central to the examined institutional environment. Moreover, unlike early studies that reported resistance to RBC, this case reveals the institutional dynamics contributing to the successful implementation of RBC in an emerging market.
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Abdelmoneim Bahyeldin Mohamed Metwally and Ahmed Diab
The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of competing logics on the implementation of risk-based management controls (RBMC) by providing evidence of resistance due to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of competing logics on the implementation of risk-based management controls (RBMC) by providing evidence of resistance due to competing logics. Moreover, the study proposes solutions to logic contestation. These solutions may help the company override logic complexity.
Design/methodology/approach
This study draws upon the theory of institutional logics. It adopts an interpretative qualitative research approach and uses the case study method. Data were collected from one of the biggest private sector insurance companies in Egypt through a triangulation of interviews, observations and documents.
Findings
We found that internalised and institutionalised roles and structures – represented by the incumbent corporate and community-related sets of logics – compete and disrupt the emerging enterprise risk management and RBMCs. The newly imposed RBMCs produced heterogenic practices that changed the means of controls at the case company. However, this change was faced by resistance from local employees, as it represented a challenge to the prevailing cultural symbols and norms in their traditional work environment.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature by offering new evidence on resistance to Western risk-based management control projects applied in emerging markets. Moreover, it extends the cultural political economy of management accounting and control by illustrating that management accounting in emerging markets is also an operational manifestation of culture, community and location.
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This study assesses the availability of the fundamental factors required for the application of the Activity‐Based Costing (ABC) systems in the Palestinian governmental hospitals…
Abstract
This study assesses the availability of the fundamental factors required for the application of the Activity‐Based Costing (ABC) systems in the Palestinian governmental hospitals in Gaza Strip. The study results showed that such main factors as higher management directives, the diversity and complication of therapeutic services, the availability of accounting systems, sharp competition and the diversity of supporting activities are actually present in practical reality and represent an infrastructure for the application of (ABC) systems in those hospitals. The study concluded by making several important recommendations. Namely, the establishment of independent departments of cost accounting in the Palestinian governmental hospital supported by qualified human resources. The adoption of ABC systema because they offer more accurate cost data, provide help in planning and control and facilitate good decision‐making. Finally, the turn towards ABC systems should be gradual, step by step, so that it begins at the department level and ends with the whole hospital.
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The purpose of this paper is to critique the philosophical underpinnings of the growing field of Islamic economics.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to critique the philosophical underpinnings of the growing field of Islamic economics.
Design/methodology/approach
A critical and comparative review of Islamic economics texts written by key proponents during the last eight decades is undertaken. The origins of this nascent science are traced and factors that gave impetus to its development examined. The different characterisations of the discipline as it has developed within the broader socio‐political context are contrasted.
Findings
The proponents of Islamic economics have had little success in shaping a distinctive paradigm for their discipline, beyond arguing that it is underpinned by a strong moral ethic. By and large, its epistemological roots have remained firmly within the framework of rationalism/empiricism and methodological individualism. Consequently, Islamic economics has not been able to shed its neoclassical moorings, the very paradigm it originally set out to replace. Several of the contradictions apparent in the discipline are discussed. Islamic economists, recognising that their mission has remained unfulfilled, have variously suggested different approaches to regenerate the process and chart the way forward. These propositions are examined and evaluated.
Research limitations/implications
If Islamic economics is to fulfil its raison d'être, that is, articulate a coherent theoretical paradigm and demonstrate its relevance to the real economy, its proponents must resolve its theoretical and practical difficulties by clarifying its Weltanschauung and developing an appropriate content and form.
Originality/value
This study evaluates how the discipline has developed and exposes its inherent contradictions. These inconsistencies are identified and explained at the foundational level, highlighting where and why they have occurred.
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