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Important connectivity between countries is achieved through such networks as transportation and communications. Developing countries may participate in these networks depending on natural resources, financial resources, intellectual resources and geographical location. The effectiveness of the network will be determined in part by the level of participation by all parties to the network. Developing countries rolesmay as well be determined by geography as by financial strength

As your Secretary-treasurer, I would like to update you on the financial status of your Society and what this year's Executive Committee has worked on in an effort to continue to improve the financial strength and stewardship of SEG. It is no surprise that the current Executive Committee has spent a great deal of time and energy on finances as the budget forecast for the 2009/2010 fiscal year was projected to have a deficit of US $1 million. This number does not include any unrealized gains or losses from our investments. While we historically have enjoyed a significant gain from our investments, the last two years made it acutely clear that this is not a reliable source of income. Gains from investments, when available, can be used for growth opportunities but are not assumed to cover our normal operating costs.

Phillips Petroleum Co. and Chevron Corp. are joining the long list of chemical producers looking to fatten their bottom lines through massive mergers. The two U.S. oil companies have agreed to combine their chemical businesses in a stand-alone, 50-50 joint venture with assets valued at about $6.1 billion. Phillips has long been eyeing a petrochemicals joint venture. "We recognized that in our chemicals business, our assets were commodity related," says J. L. Qim) Gallogly, Phillips senior vice president of chemicals and plastics who has been named president and chief executive officer of the as-yetunnamed, Houston-based partnership. In uniting their chemical businesses, Phillips and Chevron are aiming for financial strength and a complementary fit. Based on 1999 figures, the revenues of the combined chemical businesses add up to $5.7 billion, with pretax earnings of $700 million. Phillips and Chevron will each take cash distributions of $800 million upon formation of the joint venture, which, as a ...

The accounts of a general insurance company are not drawn up in such a way as to bring out the uncertainties involved in making an assessment of a company’s financial strength or of its future profit-earning capacity. Financial analysts attempt to infer the position from a careful examination of successive years’ accounts and the more detailed information available in returns to the supervisory authorities. A number of companies have developed a corporate planning process in which assumptions are made about future premium levels, volumes of business and profitability, and an attempt is made to follow this through to examine the impact on the balance sheet and future profits. However, in neither case is there an integrated model of the operations of the insurance company which takes uncertainty seriously into consideration.

The relative financial strength of Islamic banks is assessed empirically based on evidence covering individual Islamic and commercial banks in 18 banking systems with a substantial presence of Islamic banking. We find that (i) small Islamic banks tend to be financially stronger than small commercial banks; (ii) large commercial banks tend to be financially stronger than large Islamic banks; and (iii) small Islamic banks tend to be financially stronger than large Islamic banks, which may reflect challenges of credit risk management in large Islamic banks. We also find that the market share of Islamic banks does not have a significant impact on the financial strength of other banks.

The development of the construction industry has led to an increase in the number of criteria imposed by project clients for selecting contractors. For example, clients often request tenderers to satisfy various conditions such as a tight programme, financial strength, management ability, relevant work experiences, technical strength, high workmanship standards, safety requirements and more. This trend has attracted research interest in devising various methods for helping project clients to assess contractors' bids. It appears, however, that there is little existing research on helping contractors to formulate their competition strategy when these multiple criteria are imposed. This paper examines the attributes affecting contractors' competition strategy in competing for public works in Hong Kong. The understanding of the key factors of a competition strategy will contribute to identifying an effective competition strategy. The data used for the analysis were collected from the Hong Kong construction industry. The research findings provide valuable references for investigating effective competition strategies in other construction industries outside the region.

One of the more fruitful applications of computer simulation modelling is in the evaluation of the financial strength (or security) of insurance companies. The difficulty with conventional measures of solvency such as the solvency margin (as discussed in Section 18.5) is that they bear little relationship to the riskiness of the insurer’s activities. The model presented in this chapter therefore looks at the effect of possible variations on each of the main elements of an insurance company’s cash-flow (or emerging costs). An important feature of this technique is its stochastic nature: the effects of risk and uncertainty are built into the simulation, so that each time the model is ‘run’, slightly different answers are produced. By running the model a large number of times (normally many hundreds), the overall effect of the variation in each of the many components can be established. It is then possible to evaluate the strength and riskiness of the individual insurer or reinsurer which is being modelled. The model enables the user to quantify the probability that the assets will prove inadequate to meet the liabilities.

This paper studies whether compliance with the Basel Core Principles for Effective Banking Supervision (BCPs) improves bank soundness. The authors find a significant and positive relationship between bank soundness (measured with Moody's financial strength ratings) and compliance with principles related to information provision2. Specifically, countries that require banks to regularly and accurately report their financial data to regulators and market participants have sounder banks. This relationship is robust to controlling for broad indexes of institutional quality, macroeconomic variables, sovereign ratings, and reverse causality. Measuring soundness through Z-scores yields similar results. These findings emphasize the importance of transparency in making supervisory processes effective and strengthening market discipline. Countries aiming to upgrade banking regulation and supervision should consider giving priority to information provision over other elements of the core principles.

Regulators, investors, consumers, and insurance brokers use insurer financial strength ratings to evaluate the insolvency risk of insurers. This article investigates the factors influencing the decision to obtain a rating or multiple ratings, the determinants of ratings for the three major insurer rating agencies, and reasons for differences in ratings across agencies. This study indicates that insurers obtain ratings to reduce ex ante uncertainty about insolvency risk. It also provides evidence that specific rating determinants and their weights differ across agencies. Evidence of sample selection bias is found only in relation to Best's ratings.

This study extends previous research on life insurer insolvency by providing empirical evidence on a large (nonmatched-pair) sample of insurers based on three alternative types of statistical models. The study utilizes 1986 through 1990 data for a sample of insurers that did or did not become financially impaired during 1989 through 1991. Empirical evidence suggests that surplus measures and leverage measures are strong indicators of insurer financial strength; however, no evidence is found for a strong relationship between state minimum capital requirements and insolvency. Classification rates for this study's large sample are generally lower than those found in previous studies examining earlier time periods and using smaller, matched-pair samples.

Banks, by their very nature, specialize in evaluating risky lending situations, and their decisions to grant loans are signals to other providers of capital about the borrowers' financial strength. These other providers can evaluate these signals and can lower their own information generation costs about the borrowers by performing less costly evaluations. They can then provide their services at lower costs. Corporate and other borrowers, by signaling their credit-worthiness through bank borrowing, can lower their credit costs. Surprisingly, there is little evidence to indicate the effects of bank lending agreements on the market values of U.S. bank-holding companies (USBHCs).

This paper reports the results of research aimed at exploring why some takeover bids give rise to merger while other do not and, using as a basis of comparison matched samples of actual and abandoned mergers, the performance effects of mergers. In this work, 50 cases of abandoned mergers occurring between 1965 and 1975 were analysed against a matched sample of 50 actual mergers. In addition, 33 cases of contested bids were also analysed. Variables used reflected managerial, shareholder and financial strength considerations. Analysis covered a period three years before to three years after each bid. Techniques of analysis were differences of means and discriminant analysis. The results show that there are important differences between target companies that are acquired and those that successfully resist takeover bids. They also show the influence of managerial and financial variables as the key to a successful takeover bid rather than variables reflecting shareholder interests. Analysis of the effects of the outcome of the bids suggests that companies involved in abandoned mergers recorded a stronger performance over the subsequent 1–3 years than those that made acquisitions, especially where shareholder and financial considerations are concerned. Target companies that resisted takeover bids showed a significant performance improvement.

Differences in performance among established firms diversifying into young industries were investigated, with hypotheses concerning 11 ‘corporate level’ strategic and organizational variables being examined. Performance was found to be associated with firm size and financial strength, time of entry, and the maturity of the firm's markets. The importance of several variables examined also appears to change as an industry evolves.

an interesting article J. P. Agarwal has determined the optimal amount of reserves "which will enable a developing country to finance, at a given fixed rate of exchange, its temporary and unanticipated balance-of-payment deficits"1. For a developing country this use of international reserves however important is not the only one. Developing countries also use reserves to signal financial strength in order to build up foreign investor's confidence in the country and to attract long-term capital inflows. The purpose of this note is to incorporate this element in a model of optimal international reserves determination.

One of the most durable theories explaining the remarkable rise of German industry in the generation before World War I was that of the critical role of the Kreditbanken, the great commercial and investment banks of which the Deutsche Bank was the most prominent. Recently, however, historians have begun to question the power of the banks, and even to suggest that they were a drag on German economic development. In this brief study of how Georg Siemens, of the Deutsche Bank, kept the peace between the two leading German electrical equipment manufacturers, Professor Neuburger shows that the crucial factors were not merely the financial strength or weakness of the Bank, but also the diplomatic skill with which its leaders navigated the rapidly shifting currents of the era.

Analyses the failure of the National Rural Development Project in Bunduni. When the small-scale pilot scheme was extended to cover a far wider area, its original emphasis on the development of human resources was lost to the emphasis on construction of physical infrastructure. Since this did not demand any commitment from the beneficiaries, they were not involved in its planning and development and would not thereafter accept responsibility for its maintenance. The other elements that contributed to the project's failure were the lack of political commitment, the perception of the beneficiaries needs, and the unsuccessful use of foreign consultants as a means to transfer technology. The traditional role of the aid agencies in this kind of project is examined, and suggestions put forward as to how the financial strength of the multi-lateral agencies might be combined with the flexibility of non-government agencies to achieve development objectives.

The concept of self-insurance has had a strong appeal to most businessmen at one time or another; the idea becomes particularly attractive as a business firm increases in financial strength. I This article will explore the advantages and disadvantages of self-insurance programs and propose an alternative plan that combines the best characteristics of insurance and self-insurance. Much has been written on why one should or should not self-insure. Mark R. Greene suggests firms should consider a self-insurance plan if there is dissatisfaction with services of a commercial insurer, difficulty in securing outside insurance or favorable rate classifica

Processes of regional concentration and development of capital suggest a geographical interpretation. Firstly towns and regions can be studied in terms of their financial strength. Financial strenght is a decisive attractive power in all countries with a market economy. Lastly the world-wide movement of capital is important to our understanding of all spatial exchange processes relating to the migration of workers and the exchange of goods. The movement of capital is controlled at a few important financial centres whose outward appearance and structure manifest this function.

Over the last forty years numerous reseachers from the fields of economics, finance, and human resources management have proposed and empirically evaluated a number of models in efforts to identify determinants of executive compensation. Recently, similar research efforts have been undertaken to identify compensation determinants for union officers, both at the local and national levels. As an extension of these works, this study found measures of union financial strength, job complexity, performance and tenure in office to be directly related to national union presidents’ compensation. Although union income and relative union member earnings were the strongest determinants of officer compensation for the sample of unions as a whole, analyses of three subgroups of unions based on size revealed very different findings for large as opposed to small and medium-sized unions.

Financial setbacks do not necessarily impair educational quality at first because of the flexibility and ingeniousness of the administrators and faculty–but the institutions are now at a tipping point.

(1983). Predicting Bankruptcy: The Value Line Relative Financial Strength System vs. the Zeta® Bankruptcy Classification Approach. Financial Analysts Journal: Vol. 39, No. 6, pp. 60-67.

During the 1860s, three papers, one in Sacramento and two in San Francisco, used bold leadership and financial strength to dominate the California press. They allied themselves, following the practice of the Eastern regional news associations, to the New York Associated Press and various telegraph companies to secure a monopolistic control over the Eastern news. Similar in outlook, they restricted opposing viewpoints as they crushed competing papers.2 Daniel H. Craig, the aggressive General Agent of the New York Associated Press, sold its news to regional news associations and set up restrictive arrangements with certain telegraph companies. The Associated Press agreed to transmit all of its news over the lines of the favored telegraph companies in return for special rates. Both parties agreed "that neither should do anything to the prejudice of the other's interests." As long as the California papers received their news from Eastern correspondence and the New York journals via the semi-monthly mail steamer, they avoided a bitter news war. Once the compelling urge to link California with the East brought weekly and semiweekly reports by Overland Mail and Pony Express in 1858 and 1860, and then daily dispatches by Overland Telegraph in 1861, struggle became continuous. One paper which received the news explained: "The paper that has the latest news will have the largest circle of intelligent readers, and, per consequence, secure the best advertising patronage the life-blood of our business."3 By fall 1859 independent action ended and association began. In January 1860 the California Associated Press, an alliance be

A water system radiating from a central area can stretch only so far. Adding more capacity requires proper planning, financial strength, and the art of meeting the system requirements while conforming to various agencies' myriad of rules, controls, and procedures. The Eugene Water & Electric Board has just completed the installation of 15.5 miles of water transmission lines for 30 in. to 60 in. in diameter requiring multiple crossings of rivers, railroad tracts, gas pipelines, interstate highway, state, county, and city roadways and private properties. Filtration plant capacity was increasing to 105 mgd and a new 20,000,000-gal reservoir completed the program. An examination of design and construction considerations is presented. While now learning how to operate the new facility, planning is underway far beyond the program period.

The renowned research laboratories of the great American electrical companies have made major advances in science and technology and contributed to the commercial success of those companies. The financial strength of the parent companies and the demands of the US military have been key factors underlying this record.

1) The sharp rise in disposable personal income, out of which comes toy spending, should continue for the foreseeable future. 2) The major toy companies have shown the ability to capture a growing share of the disposable consumer dollar by means of heavy promotional programs. 3) Because of their managerial and financial strength, the majors have (a) made it increasingly hard for the smaller firms to compete, and (b) gained the upper hand vis-a-vis wholesalers and retailers.

THE chemical industry has been one of the most important fields of investment for many years. Chemical stocks have sold at premiums in relation to most other securities and have been high in the ranking of the major groups of common stocks owned by individuals as well as institutions. This is revealed by the fact that chemical stocks over a period of years have consistently sold at higher prices than those of the average industrial stocks in relation to earnings and on a lower yield basis. No doubt you are familiar with the reasons for this pre-eminent position. The chemical industry combines most of the elements considered desirable in the mind of an investment manager. The industry is well managed, has a favorable longterm-growth trend of sales and earnings, has a diversification of markets unequalled by any industry in the country, and has a high degree of financial strength. It is more ...

This study attempts to extend knowledge of Financial Leverage (FL), firm growth (FG) and Financial Strength (FS) in the listed Sri Lankan companies. Most of the scholars have studied of FL and its related attributes in developed and emerging capital market. The pioneering work of [17] and many scholars [4,10,11,18,21–26] revealed that the FL is one of the most influencing factors in determining the FG. The common approach in empirical capital structure (CS) studies has been to examine the relationship between observed FL and value of the firm and share prices. In this study test the problem towards Sri Lankan context. The main problem of this study is to investigate whether the FL influences negatively or positively on signaling the firms’ growth. Sample size of this study is 30% of thirteen sectors. The required data were collected from published annual reports, Handbook of listed companies in CSE and annual reports of Central Bank of Sri Lanka from 2000 to 2009. The FL variables calculated based on the Bowman [4] findings and, growth of the companies is represented by total assets, profit, and sales these are calculate. [1] Multiple discriminant function was constructed to ascertain study FS variable. Multiple regression model employ. The overall results of the study find FL in the Sri Lankan context to be positively related to the growth and FS. Conversely, this situation supports this view that there is a positive rather than a negative relationship between FL and other growth variables as implied by the negative signals about the future growth of the company. It is explained, therefore, that the study of FL is incomplete without a detailed examination of all aspect of FL.

his note to my paper on "Optimal Monetary Reserves for Developing Countries"1, Sergio Pereira-Leite maintains that developing countries use their monetary reserves to attract long-term capital inflows, and then attempts to incorporate this function in my model. Both of these aspects deserve separate attention. Whether developing countries do or do not keep monetary reserves to attract long-term foreign capital is a question which cannot be a priori answered. A fruitful way of investigating this problem would be to examine whether there is a causal relationship between monetary reserves and long-term capital inflows. The available information, however, fails to suggest such a relationship. One may find countries with a high level of reserves but without any corresponding long-term capital inflows, or countries with a low level of reserves attracting large amounts of longterm foreign capital. Similarly, there are countries which had large long-term capital inflows when their monetary reserves were comparatively low and almost no long-term capital inflows when reserves were high. Pereira-Leite refers to the monetary reserves of a developing country as an indicator of its financial strength. But since monetary reserves are of a short-term character, the financial strength demonstrated through them can be relevant for investors of only short-term capital2. Long-term capital, on the other hand, is guided by various factors, which together

With the arrival of baby a drastic change frequently occurs in the life of the mother. She gives up outside employment and takes on the arduous round of domestic duties. Her labour now is less supervised and regulated, but far more isolated and continuous. Whereas previously she contributed directly to the financial strength of the household she now becomes financially dependent. These changes and the repercussions which follow from them clearly mark off this chapter of her life from her life preceding motherhood, and from the life her male partner continues to lead.

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the myths about the loans to less developed countries (LDC). Many critics of international lending have seen the widespread failure of real estate investment trusts in the early 1970s as the forerunner to similar cross-the-board default by LDCs. In contrast to real-estate investment trusts, each LDC is a separate entity, and the similarities between countries are relatively limited. Upon analysis, each of the 86 LDCs can be seen as highly divergent. Geography alone results in vast differences between countries in terms of natural resources, export markets, import requirements, industrial development, and all the other economic factors that contribute to the financial strength or weakness of a given country. A very high portion of United States bank loans to LDCs are concentrated in approximately one dozen higher income countries, whereas the credits to the impoverished countries of the Asian subcontinent, and tropical Africa are very modest in volume.

In their invitation to this conference, Professor de Jong and Professor Shepherd have emphasized, that ‘the field of industrial organization has undergone large changes in recent years, with new concepts and research methods and with major changes in policies toward business occurring in many countries’. Indeed, if we look to the United States we notice fundamental changes in the theory of industrial economics as well as in the practical antitrust policy. Chicago microeconomists have caused a revolution, which is comparable with that one of their macroeconomic colleagues and it seems to be worth while to see, what influences this revolution had on the theory and policy in Europe and Japan.

At long last the United States Government decided in December 1971 to devalue the dollar. This decision was long overdue, having regard to the fact that the dollar had been grossly overvalued and that its overvaluation had been largely responsible for the gigantic balance of payments deficit. By December 1971 it became obvious that the drastic measures announced by Mr Nixon on 15 August, which included the official suspension of the dollar’s convertibility into gold, were unable to solve the crisis. In spite of the import surcharge of 10 per cent and other protectionist measures, and notwithstanding the revaluation or appreciation of most other important currencies, the import surplus continued to be abnormally large and the dollar continued to be subject to selling pressure.

The impact of computers upon our society is increasing almost daily. This impact, while having reached most segments of our society, is greater in some areas than in others. In the field of higher education the impact is so extensive that the larger institutions could not operate without them.While computer usage by colleges and universities for the most part started in the larger schools, the pressures for such facilities are rapidly moving down into the smaller ones. They too have computing needs in administrative data processing, in instruction about and with computers, and for some research. In fact, the possession of computing facilities is sometimes used as an element in faculty and student recruiting.Terms such as “small” and “large” are relative. When referring to colleges in such terms, the description most often refers to student enrollment; however, it can also include variables such as number of levels of degree offerings, facilities, and financial strength. Here, a small college is one whose enrollment is less than 2500 and the highest level of offering is the bachelor's degree.

Philadelphia, Jan. 22, 1901.To the Editor: —The issue of The Journal for January 5 contained statements which might convey a wrong impression concerning the changes recently made in the Philadelphia Medical Journal, its financial strength, the chances of its continued success and the nature of its aims as an exponent of high professional ethics. The insertion of this letter in your columns would therefore be greatly appreciated.The changes recently made in the editorial department were based upon the action of a board of trustees, which contained at the time, as it does now, a proportion of five physicians to every lay member. That the Journal has, and will continue to be inspired by men who are familiar with "high ideals in medicine" and the needs of the general profession is therefore evident. True, the shareholders have not as yet received dividends. This is due to the fact that

My remarks will trace: Boise Cascade's rapid, but constructive growth in building materials and paper from its founding in 1957 through the mid-1960's; the company's efforts to diversify in the late 1960's; the serious problems encountered in 1971 and 1972 as a result of diversification; management's successful effort to correct the problems and restore the company's profitability and financial strength; and, finally, management's plan to improve and expand the company's existing businesses via a 1974-78 capital program totaling $1.1 billion.

The loss ratio, measuring loss payments in comparison to premium income, is most extensively used in evaluating insurance underwriting results and in insurance decision making. It is especially instrumental in setting insurance rates, in testing the adequacy of rates, and in evaluating insurers' financial strength. Sometimes the loss ratio is used for the determination of the loss reserve (Breslin et al. (1978), p. 14). The loss ratio is also used in assessing the efficiency of preventive measures taken to reduce loss frequency or severity, and in assessing the performance of underwriting specific insurance lines, especially of new insurance programs. There is no uniformity in the definition of the loss ratio and many versions are used in practice. Moreover, the common measures are often severely biased. It is not impossible to find a company where one line has a traditional loss ratio of, say, 80%, whereas another has a loss ratio of 120% , although a more careful analysis, using the concepts which are discussed in this article, may show that the second line is more profitable than the first. The purpose of this note is to examine the bias that may result from the use of approximated and sometimes theoretically inadequate measures of the loss ratio, and to emphasize the bias which may arise from ignoring the timing of premium and loss payments. The authors suggest the use of a corrected loss ratio which is the ratio between the present value of losses and the present value of the premiums. This ratio may be especially instrumental in inflationary periods, since it can be easily adjusted to deal with "real" figures. The problems of choosing an appropriate discount factor and the relationships with current accounting and actuarial techniques are also subsequently discussed.

Acquisitions and joint ventures can be seen as alternative ways to implement a change in a firm's strategic position. In this article we combine the perspectives of economics and organization theory in a simple propositional framework to study acquisition and joint venture behavior of Swedish firms. The hypotheses are confronted with empirical data from 24 sectors of the manufacturing industry. It is concluded that industry concentration and financial strength are important determinants of both acquisition and joint venture behavior while differences in corporate goals and the characteristics of the other party in the relationship

Visitors to the 1876 Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia might have had cause to ponder the leveling influences in American society as they stopped to inspect the two displays of women's paper dress patterns, one among the varied products of Madame Demorest's Emporium of Fashion and the other in the more specialized case provided by Ebenezer Butterick. Here indeed was evidence of a decorative aspect of higher living brought within the grasp of all. 1 At midcentury fashion, both as an indicator of financial strength and social rank and as an expression of femininity, had been the prerogative of the rich. Only the wealthy could afford to change their styles of dress frequently.2 But now, thanks to the mass production of paper patterns, American women and their European counterparts were able to participate in a new social experience of making stylish clothes at will. The rapid growth of the dress pattern industry reflected the ability of perceptive entrepreneurs to tap a dormant market by combining existing technologies and sales methods with imaginative publicity.3 Fashion was to be

This article deals with a few aspects of the management of the Southern Pacific Company under E. H. Harriman from his assumption of control of the road in 1901 until his death in 1909. This was a short period in the railroad's history and yet it was long enough to supply ample illustration of the methods which Harriman, a former Wall Street broker, employed to attain great success in the administration of this huge railroad system. It exemplifies the truth that a big job must be done by the coA¶perative work of many men, albeit with a strong man at the top. It shows the successful operation of a big business unit under a strong top-level organization which allowed for individual freedom and initiative at lower levels. It was the Harriman system, even more than Harriman, alone, that did so much for the Southern Pacific. And, then, we must not forget that some of the ideas which Harriman put into effect were nurtured by the former president, C. P. Huntington, who never found the opportunity to carry them out. But if Harriman did not largely conceive the policies and techniques and train the men, he merged them into a great concept of policy, organization, and management which he supported with his financial strength and his capacity as an administrator. The story of his administration of the Southern Pacific illustrates an important stage in the history of American railroad administration and, indeed, of this country's large-scale business administration in general.