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Article
Publication date: 7 November 2023

Cristian Barra and Pasquale Marcello Falcone

The paper aims at addressing the following research questions: does institutional quality improve countries' environmental efficiency? And which pillars of institutional quality…

1427

Abstract

Purpose

The paper aims at addressing the following research questions: does institutional quality improve countries' environmental efficiency? And which pillars of institutional quality improve countries' environmental efficiency?

Design/methodology/approach

By specifying a directional distance function in the context of stochastic frontier method where GHG emissions are considered as the bad output and the GDP is referred as the desirable one, the work computes the environmental efficiency into the appraisal of a production function for the European countries over three decades.

Findings

According to the countries' performance, the findings confirm that high and upper middle-income countries have higher environmental efficiency compared to low middle-income countries. In this environmental context, the role of institutional quality turns out to be really important in improving the environmental efficiency for high income countries.

Originality/value

This article attempts to analyze the role of different dimensions of institutional quality in different European countries' performance – in terms of mitigating GHGs (undesirable output) – while trying to raise their economic performance through their GDP (desirable output).

Highlights

  1. The paper aims at addressing the following research question: does institutional quality improve countries' environmental efficiency?

  2. We adopt a directional distance function in the context of stochastic frontier method, considering 40 European economies over a 30-year time interval.

  3. The findings confirm that high and upper middle-income countries have higher environmental efficiency compared to low middle-income countries.

  4. The role of institutional quality turns out to be really important in improving the environmental efficiency for high income countries, while the performance decreases for the low middle-income countries.

The paper aims at addressing the following research question: does institutional quality improve countries' environmental efficiency?

We adopt a directional distance function in the context of stochastic frontier method, considering 40 European economies over a 30-year time interval.

The findings confirm that high and upper middle-income countries have higher environmental efficiency compared to low middle-income countries.

The role of institutional quality turns out to be really important in improving the environmental efficiency for high income countries, while the performance decreases for the low middle-income countries.

Details

Journal of Economic Studies, vol. 51 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3585

Keywords

Available. Open Access. Open Access
Article
Publication date: 20 December 2022

Cristian Barra and Nazzareno Ruggiero

Using data for a set of 32 Sub-Saharan countries over the years 2000, 2005 and 2010, the paper investigates the effects of domestic governmental stability upon emigration and…

880

Abstract

Purpose

Using data for a set of 32 Sub-Saharan countries over the years 2000, 2005 and 2010, the paper investigates the effects of domestic governmental stability upon emigration and assesses whether education and gender shape the relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper adopts instrumental variable (IV) Poisson regressions and two-stage least squares (2SLS) as robustness tests.

Findings

The paper suggests that increased governmental stability has a larger impact on the emigration of high-skilled individuals. Nevertheless, once emigrants are partitioned according to both education and gender, the authors find evidence of a larger impact of stability on the emigration of highly educated females.

Research limitations/implications

The empirical findings may lack generalizability because of the chosen research approach. Then, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further.

Practical implications

The paper includes implications that can be drawn for both the growth and the development of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Originality/value

This paper fulfills an identified need to study how both education and gender shape the relationship between domestic governmental stability and emigration.

Details

Journal of Economic Studies, vol. 50 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3585

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 19 December 2024

Cristian Barra and Christian D’Aniello

The function of banking development in reducing income inequality is critical because financial institutions can grant loans, stimulating prospective productive investments. Based…

19

Abstract

Purpose

The function of banking development in reducing income inequality is critical because financial institutions can grant loans, stimulating prospective productive investments. Based on this promise, the aim of this study is to fill the vacuum by particularly evaluating the influence of banking development, as proxied by bank cost efficiency estimated using a parametric approach, on income inequality.

Design/methodology/approach

To evaluate the impact of banking development on income inequality, the authors use data from 20 Italian regions from 2004 to 2017. Particular attention will be made to the consequences that the varied composition of the Italian banking structure, namely, the presence of cooperative and non-cooperative banks, may have on income inequality. To do this, the authors use a generalized method of moments (GMM) regression on panel data to address the endogeneity problem that exists between banking development and income inequality.

Findings

Evidence reveals that increasing bank development plays an important impact in reducing income inequality, with cooperative banks faring best. A set of robustness tests generally validates our empirical findings and brings relevant policy implications.

Originality/value

A “qualitative” measure, such as cost efficiency, which is computed using a parametric technique, has been used as a proxy for banking development to analyse the relationship between banking development and income inequality. The contribution, in particular, focuses on how bank diversity influences the nexus between banking development and income inequality in a homogenous context.

Details

Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1358-1988

Keywords

Available. Open Access. Open Access
Article
Publication date: 12 September 2024

Cristian Barra, Sergio Destefanis, Vania Sena and Roberto Zotti

This paper provides novel evidence on the role of gender in the performance of university students, which is particularly relevant to the debate on the performance of female…

130

Abstract

Purpose

This paper provides novel evidence on the role of gender in the performance of university students, which is particularly relevant to the debate on the performance of female students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects.

Design/methodology/approach

Our approach relies on the metafrontier approach proposed by Huang et al. (2014), which measures students' efficiency within a given faculty and the impact of the faculty’s technology on students’ efficiency. We use a sample of 53,159 first-year students in 8 faculties from a large university in southern Italy from 2002–2003 to 2010–2011.

Findings

Students’ efficiency is relatively low, reflecting an essential role of unobserved heterogeneity. The different technologies of somewhat similar faculties have minimal impact on efficiency. There is a performance gap against women in five faculties, which on average is strongest for the faculties in the pure and applied science area. This gap increases with the proportion of female students and decreases with female lecturers.

Practical implications

The metafrontier has the benefit of providing relevant policy information on the drivers of student success by relying on data that universities routinely generate and preserve.

Originality/value

The stochastic metafrontier approach allows us to separate the group-specific frontiers from the metafrontier, yielding a decomposition of the efficiency scores of various faculties into technical efficiency scores and technological gaps.

Details

Journal of Economic Studies, vol. 51 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3585

Keywords

Available. Open Access. Open Access
Article
Publication date: 13 October 2022

Cristian Barra and Nazzareno Ruggiero

Using bank-level data over the 1994–2015 period, the authors aim to investigate the role of bank-specific factors on credit risk in Italy by considering two different groups of…

4337

Abstract

Purpose

Using bank-level data over the 1994–2015 period, the authors aim to investigate the role of bank-specific factors on credit risk in Italy by considering two different groups of banks, namely, cooperative and non-cooperative (commercial and popular), in different local markets.

Design/methodology/approach

Relying on highly territorially disaggregated data at labour market areas’ level, the authors estimate the impact of the role of bank-specific factors on credit risk in Italy from the estimation of a fixed-effect estimator. Non-performing loans to total loans has been used as a proxy of credit risk; the bank-specific factors are as follows: growth of loans, reflecting credit policy; log of total assets, controlling for banks’ size; loans to total assets, reflecting the volume of credit market; equity to total assets, capturing the solvency of banks and reflecting their capital strength; return on assets, reflecting the profitability of banks; deposits to loans, reflecting the intermediation cost; cost of total assets, reflecting the banks’ efficiency or volume of intermediation cost.

Findings

The empirical findings suggest that regulatory credit policy, capitalisation, volume of credit and volume of intermediation costs are the main bank-specific factors affecting non-performing loans. Nevertheless, the present analysis suggests that the behaviour of cooperative banks’ behaviour seems to be in line with that of commercial rather than popular banks, casting doubts about the feasibility of their credit policies. It turns out that recent reforms involving popular and cooperative banks represent the first step toward the enhancement of the stability and efficiency of the Italian banking system. While the present study’s benchmark results are not particularly affected by the degree of competition in the banking sector and by banks’ size, it shows that both cooperative and non-cooperative banks have undertaken more prudent credit policies after the advent of the financial crisis and the introduction of the Basel regulation.

Originality/value

The relationship between bank-specific factors and credit risk has been analysed using a rich sample of cooperative, commercial and popular banks in Italy over the 1994–2015 period. The authors rely on labour market areas being sub-regional geographical areas where the bulk of the labour force lives and works. The contribution is motivated by the financial distress experienced after the 2008 financial crisis, which has significantly hit the Italian banking system and cooperative banks in particular.

Details

Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance, vol. 31 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1358-1988

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 16 December 2019

Cristian Barra and Roberto Zotti

This paper aims to explore the relationship between bank market power and stability of financial institutions in Italy between 2001 and 2012. The authors first test the existence…

465

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the relationship between bank market power and stability of financial institutions in Italy between 2001 and 2012. The authors first test the existence of a U-shaped relationship between market power and financial stability. Second, they regress the market share indicator on bank risk-taking to underline whether financial stability is affected by increasing or decreasing the market power of banks. Third, they explore whether this relationship is affected by the size, level of capitalization and credit insolvency of banks.

Design/methodology/approach

Relying on highly territorially disaggregated data at labor market areas level, the authors estimate the impact of bank market power and other explanatory variables on a proxy of risk taking behavior such as the banking “stability inefficiency” derived simultaneously from the estimation of a stability stochastic frontier. Bank market power is taken into account through an individual measure based on loans. Financial stability is calculated through the Z-score. The authors use, as risk-taking measure, the stability inefficiency whose estimation approach is the stochastic frontier analysis.

Findings

The empirical evidence shows that the inefficiency of financial stability is found to be U-shaped related with respect to the measure of market power. Bank size is an essential factor in explaining the relationship between bank market power and risk-taking. Cooperative banks have fewer incentives to gain market power to better perform in term of risks. The reform of the cooperative banks that took recently place in Italy is not supported by the data.

Originality/value

The relationship between bank market power and financial stability has been analyzed using a rich sample of cooperative, commercial and popular banks in Italy over the 2001-2012 period. The authors rely on labor market areas being sub-regional geographical areas where the bulk of the labor force lives and works. The paper investigates the market power-stability link considering both cooperative and non-cooperative banks. Indeed, specific attention has been paid on cooperative banks because of their mission in favor of the local community as only few studies, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, examine cooperative banking.

Details

Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance, vol. 28 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1358-1988

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 10 October 2016

Roberto Zotti, Nino Speziale and Cristian Barra

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of religious involvement on subjective well-being (SWB), specifically taking into account the implication of selection…

485

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of religious involvement on subjective well-being (SWB), specifically taking into account the implication of selection effects explaining religious influence using the British Household Panel Survey data set.

Design/methodology/approach

In order to measure the level of religious involvement, the authors construct different indices on the base of individual religious belonging, participation and beliefs applying a propensity score matching estimator.

Findings

The results show that religious active participation plays a relevant role among the different aspects of religiosity; moreover, having a strong religious identity such as, at the same time, belonging to any religion, attending religious services once a week or more and believing that religion makes a great difference in life, has a high causal impact on SWB. The authors’ findings are robust to different aspects of life satisfaction.

Originality/value

The authors offer an econometric account of the causal impact of different aspects of religiosity finding evidence that the causal effect of religious involvement on SWB is better captured than through typical regression methodologies focussing on the mean effects of the explanatory variables.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 43 no. 10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 1 April 2004

Georgios I. Zekos

Investigates the differences in protocols between arbitral tribunals and courts, with particular emphasis on US, Greek and English law. Gives examples of each country and its way…

11816

Abstract

Investigates the differences in protocols between arbitral tribunals and courts, with particular emphasis on US, Greek and English law. Gives examples of each country and its way of using the law in specific circumstances, and shows the variations therein. Sums up that arbitration is much the better way to gok as it avoids delays and expenses, plus the vexation/frustration of normal litigation. Concludes that the US and Greek constitutions and common law tradition in England appear to allow involved parties to choose their own judge, who can thus be an arbitrator. Discusses e‐commerce and speculates on this for the future.

Details

Managerial Law, vol. 46 no. 2/3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0558

Keywords

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