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Copyright of Al Bashaer Economic Journal is the property of Al Bashaer Economic Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper examines the redistributive effects of financial liberalization, including domestic and external finance reforms, implemented in 64 emerging and low-income countries over the past four decades. To identify these effects, we employ a "doubly robust" estimation approach and generate impulse responses using the local projections method. Our findings reveal that financial reforms significantly reduce income inequality. These results are robust and hold across various specifications and alternative methods. We find that reducing income inequalities through financial reforms depends on several factors, including improved access to financial services, level of public expenditures, and institutional quality. Furthermore, we demonstrate that governments adopting a reform approach that considers sequencing and potential complementarity of measures can significantly reduce income inequality. Taking the business cycle into account, we observe that implementing financial reforms during periods of relatively slower economic growth would be more beneficial for developing countries. Financial reforms have an impact on reducing income inequality by increasing the income of individuals located at the bottom of the distribution while decreasing the income of individuals located at the top of the distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the conditions of the coming to power of the English Queen Mary Tudor and the peculiarities of her reign, including from the point of view of gender aspects. It is shown that, while condemning Mary I Tudor for her adherence to Catholicism, many historians do not mention the positive aspects of her short reign of England. Mary Tudor came to power at a difficult time for the Kingdom. Having no experience of governing the country, Maria brought the statesmen who had recently opposed her closer to her. Catholicism in England has once again become the state religion. The Queen carried out a number of successful financial reforms, largely laying the foundations for the rule of her successor, Elizabeth I. The policy of rapprochement with the Habsburgs, which culminated in the creation of the Anglo-Spanish Union, was also of no small importance for the country. Maria Tudor made many decisions under the influence of her Spanish spouse, which corresponded to the gender perceptions of that time.

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG-7) stipulates the need for clean energy, reduced carbon dioxide emissions, prevention of environmental degradation, promotion of biodiversity, and ecosystem preservation. Toward achieving these goals, this study provides new evidence on the causal link between renewable energy demand, financial reforms, economic growth, foreign direct investment, and environmental quality among emerging West African economies. The study adopted the fully modified ordinary least squares, dynamic ordinary least squares, pooled mean group estimation, and Granger causality test for its analysis. It was found that renewable energy demand has been favorable to the environmental health of West African economies. Also, financial reforms made within the region contributed to increasing the ecological footprints of the region. Direct investments from foreigners showed encouraging results as they improved the quality of the environment. We also found a unidirectional causality from ecological footprints to renewable energy demand and financial reforms but a bidirectional relationship with economic growth and foreign direct investment. Moreover, it was evident that ecological footprints Granger cause financial reforms and economic growth but not vice versa. Policy recommendations outlined encourage governments and policymakers to embark on intensive clean energy technologies and effective green financial reforms to help achieve Sustainable Development Goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brazil's accession to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) indicates that an important step has been taken to strengthen the OECD's principles and the practices of regional cooperation in Latin America. In order to provide some insights about the accession process, this article aims to share the Colombian experience in joining the organization. To this end, we will present a chronological overview of the process encompassing the shifts in the foreign policy guidelines of Juan Manuel Santos' government, the main reforms that have been carried out, and other sensitive aspects. The article concludes that is still too recent to measure the impact on issues such as international openness, domestic and foreign investments, market access, and economic growth since Colombia's accession to the OECD. However, it highlights that the decision to join the organization represents the will to move forward in adopting public policies regarding the organization's principles and to make them more transparent and submitted to international scrutiny.

The role of accounting (public-financial) with special emphasis on financial reforms and budgetary responsibility for the preparation of financial statements is increasingly becoming necessary and important to increase the economic development and financial stability of the country during governance. In order to have financial reforms, there must be responsibility in public accounting as well as in the analysis and financial reporting by the responsible staff at both levels. It is therefore important to have this cooperation in all areas of policy making, defining the responsibilities of the two levels. The purpose of this article is to show about accounting, reforms and budget responsibilities in the financial statements at both levels of financial-budgetary governance. The research was conducted through a questionnaire according to the practices of the OECD, the IMF and the World Bank. The questionnaire was compiled according to Likert scales and was distributed at the governing levels to the state of Kosovo, its completion was done accurately by attaching audited financial reports for each variable taken for study. The data for all variables were processed via the SPSS and R program, which allowed to draw conclusions and recommendations for all variables at both levels. To achieve the results, econometric tests and analyzes were used, such as: descriptive analysis, testing of two samples, analysis of testing of a dependent variable, etc. Based on the results, it is emphasized that there should be reforms for the safeguarding of public money, fair allocation of expenditures, securing of funds and that the responsibilities at both levels differ from the expectations that should occur in the accounting of financial statements.

Capitalist-style reforms were an important factor in the economic and social evolution of the Late Ottoman Empire. This research investigates how foreign governments and financiers, and especially Britain, influenced these various financial reforms implemented in the Ottoman Empire during the 19th century. The chief purpose of such reforms was to integrate the Empire into the capitalist world-economy by imposing, both directly and indirectly, the adoption of rules, institutions, attitudes and procedures amenable to exploitation on the part of foreign and also local capitalists. Drawing on primary sources, mainly from the United Kingdom's National Archives, the article argues that foreign pressure for financial reforms was instrumental in the Empire's economic subjection to the rules and norms that regulated the capitalist world-economy, most notably in the field of public finance, banking and the monetary sector. It takes a long-term view and largely adheres to the scholarly evolution of Antonio Gramsci's theory of hegemony and world-systems theory and methodology developed by Fernand Braudel, Immanuel Wallerstein and Giovanni Arrighi, adopting a multidisciplinary and macro-scale perspective. Special attention is paid to the correlation between secondary and primary sources in support of empirical evidence. More broadly, this research contributes to the literature on the capitalist world-economy and brings a set of theoretical frameworks to bear on defining the role of financial reforms induced mainly by Britain in peripheral and semi-peripheral countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective:This study aims to determine the effect of good governance indicators (voice and accountability, political stability without violent, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law and control of corruption) and financial reforms (financial liberalization and financial development) on the total factor productivity in Iran's industry and mining sector from 1996 through 2018. Methods: In this study, the econometric technique of Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) is used to estimate the effects of variables. Results: The results of estimates indicate that the effect of all indicators of financial reform on total factor productivity is positive in short term and long term. In terms of good governance indicators, we see a positive relationship with variables of government effectiveness and regulatory quality, and a negative relationship with corruption control variables. Also, the effect of variables of voice and accountability and the rule of law are negative in short term and are positive in long term. Political stability without violent also has no effect on total factor productivity. Conclusion: Since financial indicators and good governance have not reached ideal levels in Iran, and we are still witnessing significant fluctuations in this area, the trend of productivity components in industry and mining has not been very significant. Therefore, failure to improve and expand these indicators can have irreparable consequences for the trend of productivity of industry and mining sector and it seems necessary to provide the grounds for further strengthening and expanding the indicators of financial reform and good governance to improve the productivity of the industry and mining sector.

The aim of this study is to analyse the factors that influence the adoption of financial sector reforms in Cameroon. The Abiad et al. (2008) technique is used to construct a financial reform index for Cameroon and the ordered logit model employed to identify its drivers for the period 1973-2017. The results show that financial reforms in Cameroon follow a progressive and constant pace and stands at the level of 88% in relative terms in 2017. The process of financial reforms is driven by the level of financial development, institutional quality, trade openness and economic crisis.

Copyright of Dirasat Tarbawiya is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study investigates the relationship between financial deregulation and current account imbalances in a panel of 14 Sub‐Saharan African countries over the period 1990–2015. While there are plethora of studies linking financial (de)regulation and economic crisis, the relationship between financial deregulation and current account imbalances has received little attention to date in the growth literature. Relying on the Classical‐Keynesian theoretic perspective, the study adopted the fixed‐effects panel least square estimation technique to determine the effects of financial reforms on current account balance. Our results are robust, suggesting a significant but negative relationship between financial reforms and current account balance. The results further suggest that factors that positively affect current account balance include terms of trade, inflation rate, gross domestic savings, per capita income, and net foreign assets. A policy shift towards improving terms of trade, and gross domestic savings, through expansion in aggregate output and devaluation of the domestic currency will increase internal market competitiveness within the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyse the effectiveness of financial reforms in the transition economy of Vietnam, from the early years until the present day. Our focus is on the changes and the determinants of banks cost efficiency, which was widely criticised and was the focus of the reforms package. We find that regulatory changes impact favourably the development of the sector. Technological and efficiency improvements characterise the period of analysis, helped by better capitalisation and increased diversification. Any technological spillovers from foreign banks are quickly transferred to the domestic market, and larger domestic banks rapidly become the best performing institutions, in support of the more recent liberalisation and privatisation policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

he objective of this study is to analyze the effectiveness of financial reform policies. We examine six Latin American emerging financial markets (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru), and four Asian countries (South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia) that introduced substantial financial reforms after the Asian financial crisis and compared them to assess the effectiveness of the reforms and make some policy suggestions for emerging Latin American financial markets. We perform an ordinary least squares analysis and compare the market performance of financial institutions in the four Asian countries with that of other emerging markets. A set of panel data was constructed for the period from 2011 to 2018. Our primary findings include: (i) the financial reform measures suggested by the IMF resulted in significantly better financial management efficiency in the four Asian countries targeted in this study than in other countries with emerging markets; (ii) the effects of the financial reform measures are continuous, and even today, the financial management efficiency of these four Asian countries remains comparatively sound. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of accounting (public-financial) with special emphasis on financial reforms and budgetary responsibility for the preparation of financial statements is increasingly becoming necessary and important to increase the economic development and financial stability of the country during governance. In order to have financial reforms, there must be responsibility in public accounting as well as in the analysis and financial reporting by the responsible staff at both levels. It is therefore important to have this cooperation in all areas of policy making, defining the responsibilities of the two levels. The purpose of this article is to show about accounting, reforms and budget responsibilities in the financial statements at both levels of financial-budgetary governance. The research was conducted through a questionnaire according to the practices of the OECD, the IMF and the World Bank. The questionnaire was compiled according to Likert scales and was distributed at the governing levels to the state of Kosovo, its completion was done accurately by attaching audited financial reports for each variable taken for study. The data for all variables were processed via the SPSS and R program, which allowed to draw conclusions and recommendations for all variables at both levels. To achieve the results, econometric tests and analyzes were used, such as: descriptive analysis, testing of two samples, analysis of testing of a dependent variable, etc. Based on the results, it is emphasized that there should be reforms for the safeguarding of public money, fair allocation of expenditures, securing of funds and that the responsibilities at both levels differ from the expectations that should occur in the accounting of financial statements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public financial management reforms are needed in Colombia to integrate the accrual-based accounting system with budgets. This would remove the need to make accounting variations through deficit measurement and would supply better information about the impact of public policies on the country's financial situation. This article briefly explains why Colombia needs to integrate its accounting and budgeting systems. This article argues that policy-makers need to push for a move towards an accrual-based accounting system that is integrated with the budget. The result, compared with traditional cash-based budgeting, would be greater analytical benefits for government deficit measurement and public finance sustainability analysis. In addition, it would provide the macroeconomic statistics needed to improve public financial management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use a VEC model to analyse China's "new normal" and how they affect aggregate components of China's balance of payment account, which represents China and the rest of the world. We assessed whether the tightening financial conditions impact China's long‐run growth. We also assessed the reduction in savings and its effect on growth. We further assess the claim of increasing net capital flows through a stable currency. We also compute China's currency gains and losses in CFET countries using the approach in and analysed how reducing national savings will impact on currency gains in the FX market. Analysing the fluctuations in capital flows, and its determinants, are significant for the restructuring since the government has undertaken to reduce his participation in direct financing. The research found that the gradual tightening of monetary policy if core inflation continues to pick up will not affect the long run current account growth, whereas reduced savings will have a short‐run adverse effect on growth. These conclusions support the assertion in. Furthermore, the liberalization of the financial systems reduces growth in the short run, whereas the fluctuations in renminbi have no impact on the capital account. We, therefore, do not find evidence of currency stability, aiding and facilitating net capital flows. Also, the decision to tighten policy rates and the effects on the capital account depends on the margin of the change. Lastly, the liberalization reforms will increase currency gains and also trigger currency appreciations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The debate on the state’s role was relaunched with the generalization of the market system, which covers the whole economy. In this context, a gradual transition from a system of indirect finance to a system favouring direct finance was noted in many developing countries, hoping to enhance their growth. The delay in the development of these countries was explained by their lack of openness and the weak of the autonomy of their institutions, mainly financial ones. In Algeria, after almost three decades of control over the financial system, the need to empower the sector by reinstating the state in the role of regulator was felt after the oil shock of 1986. In this paper, we want to assess the place of the State in the activity of financing the economy, in the light of the changes imposed by the general environment, which tends towards globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether Nigeria witnessed considerable savings mobilization amidst financial sector reforms from 2007 to 2015 using the estimation method of Autoregressive Distributed Lag. Unlike previous papers in this area that mostly focused on interest rates liberalization thesis, this paper goes deeper by looking at financial reforms across money, capital and foreign exchange markets. The estimation results show that there are still structural rigidities in the money, foreign exchange and equity markets nexus. In that, the following variables that proxy financial sector reforms namely treasury bill yield, interest rate spread, market capitalization ratio and currency in circulation ratio (which proxy technological modernization of payment systems) all went against a priori expectation. However, financial reforms had one success story in credit/loans advances to private/public sectors (financial deepening) which posted its correct economic sign. In sum, except for the financial deepening variable it can be safely concluded that financial reforms in Nigeria is yet to positively impact savings mobilization. The regulatory and reform authorities must show effectiveness in reforms implementation.

A key research question that remains largely unanswered especially in the African context is whether the macroeconomic environment and the level of financial development of a country determine the effectiveness of financial reforms. This has important policy implications. We choose Ghana as a case study and carry out an in-depth analysis of its comprehensive set of financial reforms, implemented in the 2000s, which we look at individually. We estimate a stochastic cost frontier to look at efficiency. This is then followed by two different models of competition on the loans market, the main target of the reforms. We find that only the removal of entry restrictions is significant at improving banks efficiency and that private and global foreign, but not regional banks, benefit from it. The results show, however, no improvements in competition, and reveal instead that macroeconomic and institutional weaknesses continue to exert a negative counterbalancing effect. Reforms need to be anchored on stronger macroeconomic fundamentals, institutional initiatives and generally stronger credit environments for their full potential to be revealed in the context of developing financial markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contribution of this work consists firstly in decomposing the effect of financial liberalization into a global direct positive effect on growth and an indirect negative effect via financial fragility and crisis. We show that the aggregate positive effect of financial liberalization outweighs the negative partial or temporary effect. Secondly, contrary to previous works, we distinguish many types of financial reforms. We found that equity market liberalization is the most important component in reducing economical costs associated with financial crisis. Thus, equity market liberalization is the most important favoring growth. Interest rate liberalization enhances significantly the probability of crisis leading to a short-run indirect effect more important than other financial reforms. Thirdly, we improved our work by addressing model uncertainty using Bayesian Model Averaging techniques to choose appropriate indicators for model crisis specification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the diversity of China's financial system and the reforms that have already occurred, the system is heavily bank-dominated, and the Big Four extend almost half of all loans in China. These banks often extend loans to state-owned enterprises and in recent years have had the largest proportion of nonperforming loans (NPLs). These large, state-owned banks have been shown to be less efficient than other types of banks (such as joint-stock or city-owned banks) in China. Although interest rate liberalization has marked a major step toward financial marketization, implicit government guarantees, inaccurate credit ratings, and segmented markets have prevented the free movement of interest rates in unleashing market forces. It is argued that deteriorating economic indicators forces the government to focus on ensuring sufficient liquidity in the economy. Hitting China's ever-present growth target appears to be a priority that supersedes reform objectives in the financial sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study employs the Granger causality test in a multivariate cointegration and error correction environment to examine the relationship between financial development and economic growth in Zimbabwe. Using annual data from 1980 to 2012, and after controlling for financial and monetary reforms, the study demonstrates a unidirectional causal relationship that runs from financial development to economic growth. The evidence shows that financial development; banking sector development in particular, is not a passive response to economic growth. Instead, it is a critical tool for accelerating economic growth. Policy implications of this evidence are that the banking sector in Zimbabwe must be supported with policies that encourage credit expansion and innovation to support economic growth. The equities market, on the other hand, requires more investor-friendly innovations and policies, especially with regard to trading efficiency and foreign investor participation in the primary market. In combination, these policy interventions should be able to magnify the positive effect of financial development on economic growth.

We study how credit market deregulation and financial openness have changed corporate debt maturity. The evidence comes from a large panel of publicly traded firms in 38 countries in the post 1994 period. Reforms are measured with a comprehensive index that tracks six separate dimensions. We find that these transformations have lengthened debt maturity in advanced economies as expected, suggesting that in these countries corporate credit markets have become deeper. In emerging economies, the picture is more mixed: more international openness has led to shorter debt maturity. The effects of financial sector reforms on debt maturity differ depending on the type of reform.

This research paper aims to know the municipality's finances, to diagnose its financial system, and how the local tax collection contributes to the financing of the municipality's budget. We found that the municipalities face considerable difficulties due to the unbalance between their level of resources and their role in the framework of local growth, which has negatively affected the quality and level of services expected from these municipalities. In light of these difficulties, the state has made many attempts of reform in this area through the measures taken in the financial laws. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether Nigeria witnessed considerable savings mobilization amidst financial sector reforms from 2007 to 2015 using the estimation method of Autoregressive Distributed Lag. Unlike previous papers in this area that mostly focused on interest rates liberalization thesis, this paper goes deeper by looking at financial reforms across money, capital and foreign exchange markets. The estimation results show that there are still structural rigidities in the money, foreign exchange and equity markets nexus. In that, the following variables that proxy financial sector reforms namely treasury bill yield, interest rate spread, market capitalization ratio and currency in circulation ratio (which proxy technological modernization of payment systems) all went against a priori expectation. However, financial reforms had one success story in credit/loans advances to private/public sectors (financial deepening) which posted its correct economic sign. In sum, except for the financial deepening variable it can be safely concluded that financial reforms in Nigeria is yet to positively impact savings mobilization. The regulatory and reform authorities must show effectiveness in reforms implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper offers a critical assessment of the financial reforms adopted or proposed at the European level. The reshaping of the EU institutional architecture and the adoption of the new Basel 3 rules should reduce the national margins of discretion that have up to now characterised supervisory practices, often leading to light touch supervision, and restrain the growth of bankarisation, hence excessive systemic leveraging. However, the limitations of a purely prudential approach to regulation may not be overcome by setting up new institutions and make prudential requirements more stringent. In addition, given unavoidable national banking specificities, more severe rulebooks homogenously applied across the EU countries could further worsen the inconsistencies of a one-size-fits-all rule. The criticisms directed at the new regulatory framework assume particular relevance in the EU, whose peculiar construction requires that the financial sector should not be permitted to jeopardise its critical fiscal equilibrium. This opens the way to the adoption of structural measures, as the one presented by the Vickers Commission on ring-fencing. Looking at the financial system as a whole, we argue that even these measures do not offer effective protection for the economy and tax-payers, and that much more radical interventions are needed.

The financial reform is one of the most important reforms prescribed by the Washington Consensus. With its internal and external components, it occurs in the final stages of the process of economic liberalization. In this work, and after listing, briefly, the causes of financial liberalization, we are going to study in a second section financial development and bank performance in four countries of the MENA region: Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Egypt. In this context, we will explore some criteria for determining if the banking sector is performing as the level of intermediation margins, the state of the banking service, and so on. The third section will be subject to an assessment of financial liberalization since the start of reforms to the present day, while focusing on the impact of liberalization on the investment, savings, capital entry, and so on. Our conclusion will be in the form of recommendations aimed at showing that overall reforms, significant progress have been made in recent years but much remains to be done.

Copyright of De Computis is the property of Asociacion Espanola de Contabilidad y Administracion de Empresas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Accounting & Management is the property of Croatian Accountant and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the wake of the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), the disappearance of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (comecon), and the flourishing of neoliberalism in a globalized and economically and financially deregulated world, Cuba, with a State-directed economy, has undertaken a series of reforms to begin its slow and complicated transition toward a new paradigm of capitalist development, which will permit it to sort out its domestic problems and deal with the global crisis. These transformations took off with the arrival of Raúl Castro to power and the reopening of political and diplomatic relations with the United States of America. To depict the current scenario, this paper introduces some general aspects of Cuba and analyzes them in the short-, medium-, and long-term scope of the economic reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the evolution of monetary transmission mechanism in Malawi between 1981 and 2010 using a time varying parameter vector autoregressive (TVP-VAR) model with stochastic volatility. We evaluate how the responses of real output and general price level to bank rate, exchange rate and credit shocks have changed over time since Malawi adopted financial reforms in 1980s. It is becoming clear from literature that financial reforms can change the monetary transmission by changing the overall impact of the policy or by altering the transmission channels overtime. Therefore, the impact of monetary policy on price stability and output growth can vary and portray delayed effects overtime. The paper finds that inflation and real output responses to monetary policy shocks changed over the period under the review. Importantly, beginning mid-2000s, the monetary transmission performed consistently with predictions of economic theory partly due to stable macroeconomic conditions and positive structural changes in the economy. However, the statistical significance of the private credit supply remains weak and this calls for more financial reforms targeting the credit market which can contribute to monetary transmission and promote further economic growth in Malawi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use a rare events logistic regression model as well as traditional probit and logit models to investigate the impact of fiscal consolidation on the likelihood of financial reforms for a panel of 17 countries over the period 1980–2005. We show that large austerity plans, mainly implemented through spending cuts rather than tax hikes, promote financial reforms. By considering reforms affecting specific areas of the financial sector, we find that the banking sector reforms and domestic finance reforms are more likely to occur when fiscal adjustments are put in place. Interestingly, while banking sector reforms are mainly prompted during periods of tax-driven consolidations, spending cuts driven consolidation packages seem to propel the implementation of domestic finance reforms. Finally, we show that higher inflation, lower degree of trade openness, a deterioration of financial conditions and, to some extent, a fall in the degree of competitiveness enhance the probability of financial reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a panel of developed and developing countries and data for the period 1980 to 2005, we find that debt crises trigger financial reforms. We also show that (i) when general economic conditions deteriorate, financial reforms become more likely to take place; (ii) IMF-stabilization programmes and sovereign debt restructurings favour the implementation of financial reforms; and (iii) the quality of economic institutions strongly boosts financial reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the post-crisis agenda of reform of financial regulation, macroprudential policy has been assigned a central role. Some of the measures of this agenda involve restrictions on cross-border financial flows and discriminatory restrictions targeting particular financial institutions and activities. Others target corporate form and the relations between the constituent parts of banking groups. Many of the measures implemented or proposed as part of the reform agenda may be inconsistent with the World Trade Organization (WTO) General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and with other bilateral and regional agreements on trade and investment in banking services. As a result both sets of rules may eventually require revision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We provide evidence that financial reforms (over 1976-2005) significantly affected exports, in particular, of industries with higher external capital dependence and low asset tangibility. The coverage of reforms is comprehensive, encompassing the banking sector, interest rates, equity and international capital markets. Our methodology improves upon existing studies by controlling for time-varying unobserved exporter characteristics and unobserved countryspecific industry characteristics. We find significant effects of various reforms with diverse impacts by intensity. Further, event studies that incorporate possible anticipated and lagged effects of commencement of reform policies confirm the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the impact of financial reforms of 1990's on dividend policy along with exploring its determinants for three hundreds and seventy four publically listed firms on Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) from 1988 to 2008. To assess the impact of financial reforms on dividend policy and pointing out its determinants, the Generalized Methods of Moments (GMM) econometric technique is used. Empirical results based on the data suggest a positive impact of profitability on current year's dividend payout. Last years' dividend per share was found to be the strongest positive predictor of dividend payments. Liquidity, historical reserves and size are the other strongest and most influential positive predictors of dividend behaviour. Furthermore, firms with higher debt to equity ratio and larger reserves in the current year together with more growth opportunities pay lesser dividends. Tax payments were found to have a negative relationship with dividend payout. Based on an index for financial reforms, the results reveal a strong positive impact of the reform process on dividend payments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is not only an agreement covering tradable commodities; it includes important chapters on services, especially financial services. In addition, NAFTA is also a foundational agreement for investment protection. The free movement of capital and the safeguarding of ownership rights are essential features. This article argues that Mexico’s financial reform in 1989–92 was a precondition for trade and financial liberalization under NAFTA. Thus, the content of this reform is analyzed and compared with the one carried out during the 1970s, which also opened up the financial market. Subsequently, the establishment of financial subsidiaries, and the global financial business model and its consequences on financing, are examined. Although it is not a monetary union, NAFTA does set up a form of financial junction. For Mexico, this junction signifies a global/national funding determination. It is argued that the regionalization of credit is fanciful, since credit regionalization pretends to set a constraint on the credit capacity of the central bank vis-à-vis the government and to transfer this capacity to the market. The idea of replacing the central bank’s role as a lender of last resort, in the context of the current financial climate of “too-bigto-fail,” through legislated changes cannot rely upon the support of a globalized financial system dealing in national or regional currencies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper offers a critical assessment of the financial reforms adopted or proposed at the European level. The reshaping of the EU institutional architecture and the adoption of the new Basel 3 rules should reduce the national margins of discretion that have up to now characterised supervisory practices, often leading to light touch supervision, and restrain the growth of bankarisation, hence excessive systemic leveraging. However, the limitations of a purely prudential approach to regulation may not be overcome by setting up new institutions and make prudential requirements more stringent. In addition, given unavoidable national banking specificities, more severe rulebooks homogenously applied across the EU countries could further worsen the inconsistencies of a one-size-fits-all rule. The criticisms directed at the new regulatory framework assume particular relevance in the EU, whose peculiar construction requires that the financial sector should not be permitted to jeopardise its critical fiscal equilibrium. This opens the way to the adoption of structural measures, as the one presented by the Vickers Commission on ring-fencing. Looking at the financial system as a whole, we argue that even these measures do not offer effective protection for the economy and tax-payers, and that much more radical interventions are needed. JEL Codes: G21, G28, E6

Since the 1970s, there have been substantial financial reforms across the world, however little research has been devoted to studying the convergence path of these reforms. While Abiad and Mody (Am Econ Rev 95:66-88, ) find that there is movement towards a global 'norm' of financial reform, their findings are based upon a cross-sectional approach that has been widely criticized in the literature. In this paper we offer new time-series evidence on the convergence of financial reforms both across and within regions, which can also act as a metric to measure the degree of globalization among countries' financial systems. We find that some regions of the world have fully converged, but the advanced economies and Sub-Saharan Africa are not converging. In addition, while most countries have fully converged within their own region, notable exceptions are also identified. These results suggest that while financial reforms have largely become homogenized, important distinctions still remain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Literature in economics has identified many channels through which the financial liberalization may affect demand for money. There are evidences of stability as well as instability of demand for money due to financial development for developing economies. The objective of the current study is to examine the effect of financial liberalization on demand for money in Pakistan, i.e. whether financial liberalization has affected the demand for money or not. The issue is important as stable demand for money function is a prerequisite for formulating and operating monetary policy. To achieve the objective JJ cointegration and auto regressive distributed lag (ARDL) to the cointegration is employed to estimate the long-run equilibrium relationship between broad money M2 and composite financial liberalization index along with other determinants of demand for money like gross domestic product, real deposit rate and exchange rate. In order to assess the stability of the model, the parameter constancy tests, i.e. recursive residuals, CUSUM and CUSUMSQ tests have been applied. The empirical results indicated that for broad money, there exists long-run money demand function. The financial liberalization, gross domestic product and real deposit rate positively affect the demand for money in the long as well as short-run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is an attempt to investigate the implications of changes in ownership structure and control transfer in the Japanese corporate market—a trend attributed mainly to the government's increasing liberalization policies during the 1990s. Our results show that firms characterized by more concentrated ownership are likely to prefer less debt as ownership concentration reduces the extent of agency costs between managers and shareholders and facilitates equity issues. The main bank system enables corporations to obtain funds easily through the debt market. Additionally, unwinding cross-shareholding between banks and corporations provides impetus for investment in relatively risky projects. The ownership pattern of private and foreign individuals is consistently associated with a shift from bank debt to equity financing. Moreover, managerial ownership reduces the risk of wasting free cash flows. Managers make fewer decisions that may have a negative effect on the firm's value because the part of costs that they will absorb as shareholders increases as their share of capital rises. The results suggest that government ownership is associated with more pressure on management and enforces the efficient use of cash flows. Changes in ultimate ownership will likely lead to major asset and capital restructuring in the coming years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this study we estimate technical efficiency of Indian commercial banks from 1989 to 2009, using a multiple-output generalized stochastic production frontier and analyze the effects of financial reforms on estimated efficiency. The generalized method estimates technical efficiency in the presence of multiple outputs, filling a gap in the existing literature. Our results show that Indian commercial banks were operating with 64% efficiency on average during the sample period. The initial phase of reform had a positive impact on while the later phase adversely affected technical efficiency of banks. Public sector banks show higher efficiency levels compared to private and foreign banks. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Several strategies have been designed and implemented in African countries to promote development. Even though they may have contributed to increased gross domestic product growth over the years, they have largely failed because of a number of factors, namely: ineffective leadership; poor policy implementation; policy discontinuity; slow industrialisation; and an environment not conducive for private sector growth. The failure of these strategies or paradigms has led to the continued search for an appropriate strategy to address Africa’s development predicament. This search has also been exacerbated by the rise of China, East Asia and some Latin American countries as newly industrialising countries, the 2008 global economic crisis stemming from market failure and the renewed interest in the role and nature of the state in the development process, especially its role in reviving the economies of many Western countries with bail-out packages by the state. These developments no doubt point not only to the role of the state in development but also to the kind of state that will promote and facilitate socio-economic development. The kind of state to shoulder the burden of socio-economic development is the developmental state, which according to (Evans, 2008, p. 13), ‘If … it was important to 20th century economic success … will be much more important to 21st century success’. Using Ghana (considered as a non-developmental state) and South Africa (considered to be an emerging developmental state) as case studies, the paper examines the extent or the degree to which the two countries have met or achieved the key seven features of the developmental state. Some recommendations are also made with the aim of consolidating progress thus far and deepening or accelerating the process. In doing so, it is hoped that the lecture will make a contribution to the literature on the concept of the developmental state. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We study how financial transactions may respond to exogenous variation in trade opportunities not only directly, but also through policy channels. In more open economies, governments may find it more difficult to fund and enforce public policies that substitute private financial transactions, and more appealing to deregulate financial markets. We propose a simple theoretical model of such policy-mediated relationships between trade and financial development. Empirically, we document in a country panel dataset that, before the 2007-2008 crisis, financial market volumes were robustly and negatively related to the share of government consumption in GDP in regressions that also include indicators of financial regulation and trade openness, and we seek support for a causal interpretation of this result in instrumental variable specifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time series panel data estimation methods are used to estimate the cointegrating equations for the demand for money (M 1) for a panel of 11 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries for which consistent quarterly data are available. The effects of financial reforms are analysed with structural break tests and estimates for alternative sub-samples. Our results for the post-reform sub-samples show that the income elasticity of the demand for money has decreased and response to interest rate changes has increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After more than a decade of indecision, the European Union (EU) is finally now set to implement a consistent regulatory architecture for clearing and settlement. Following the agreement on a European market infrastructure regulation (EMIR), the European Commission has proposed harmonised rules for centralised settlement depositaries (CSDs), while the European Central Bank (ECB) is moving forward with its plans for a central eurozone settlement engine. After the regrettable circumvention of the 2006 Code of Conduct, the EU now will have a consistent framework allowing cross-border provision of services by and competition among clearing and settlement entities in the EU, with rules ensuring open access and interoperability. This situation will bring about a sea change in the sector, leading to further consolidation at the European level, as has also been witnessed in the area of trading platforms since the adoption of the investment services directive in 1993 and the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) in 2007. But important challenges remain in striking a balance between market efficiency and financial stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The weak-form efficient market hypothesis for the Nigerian Stock Market (NSM) is explored using different statistical tests. The analyses use overall stock market returns collected over the period 2000–2010. It is shown that the NSM is not weak-form efficient which questions the benefits of the 2004 financial reforms. It is also shown that the degree of market inefficiency varies across the periods corresponding to the financial reforms and 2007 global financial crisis, for daily and monthly returns. The results are important to security analysts, investors, and security exchange regulatory agencies in their investment, stock market development, and policy-making decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]