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The paper provides, for the first time, empirical evidence on the impact of economic globalisation on bank total factor productivity in a developing economy. By employing the Malmquist Productivity Index method, we compute the total factor productivity of the Malaysian banking sector during 1998–2007. Examining different dimensions of economic globalisation, we find evidence supporting for greater trade and capital account restrictions and cultural proximity. On the other hand, personal contacts, information flows, and political globalisation seem to exert significant (negative) influence on banks’ total factor productivity levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the efficiency of Malaysian commercial banks between 1996 and 2002 and finds that while the East Asian financial crisis caused a short-term increase in efficiency in 1998 primarily due to cost-cutting, increases in non-performing loans after the crisis caused a more sustained decline in bank efficiency. It is also found that mergers, fully Islamic banks, and conventional banks operating Islamic banking windows are all associated with lower efficiency. The paper estimates suggest mild decreasing returns to scale, and an average productivity change of 2.37% that is primarily attributable to technical change, which has nonetheless declined over time. Finally, while Islamic banks have been moderately successful in developing new products and technologies, the results suggest that the potential for Islamic banks to overcome their relative inefficiency is limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the annual report of the Japan Powder Metallurgy Association (JPMA) on production activity in 2011. It says that the overall productivity in powder metallurgy has decreased by 5% after a strong recovery in 2009 and 2010 due to damage from earthquake and tsunami in northeast area in March 2011. Meanwhile, all countries in Asia except Japan and Malaysia have experienced growth in volumes of iron based production while copper based production has shown slow growth of 1.3%.