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No. 345 |
OCTOBER 2006 |
Vol LXXXVI |
ISSN 0019-5170 |
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Contents
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Estimating Efficiency in Commercial
Banking
in Nigeria : A Translog Cost
Function Analysis
M. A.Y. Rahji*
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The study analyzed the
scale and scope efficiency in commercial
banks operations in Nigeria- It adopted
the production function approach in
modeling a cost function for the banks to
provide an assessment of their efficiency.
The system of equation was estimated using
the pooled time series data for four major
commercial banks in Nigeria. Empirical
evidence indicates that the banks enjoy
both product specific and over all
economies of scale. The implication of
this finding is that there exists scope
for the banks to expand their operations
at declining marginal cost. The banks'
production technology is characterized by
cost complementary. This gives rise to
cost savings through the joint production
of the outputs. The elasticity of
substitution between capital and labour is
low but positive. This indicates that
these inputs are substitutes. The price
elasticities are inelastic in all cases.
Based on the results obtained, the
following recommendations are made;
commercial banks should handle more loans,
find means of attaining optimal
utilization of their resources, in terms
of products-specific economies of scale,
and introduction of other output such as
consultancy services.
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Returns to Scale in Agricultural
Production :
Evidence from Cocoa and Maize
Production in Ghana
I. K. Acheampong*
and
J. Anoff**
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This paper examines returns to scale and
productivity in Ghanaian agriculture with
particular reference to cocoa and maize
production in the Assin Fosu district in
the Central region of Ghana after the
implementation of the agricultural reform
that was implemented between 1991-2000.
The paper utilises cross-sectional survey
data and ordinary least square estimation
technique to estimate the parameters of
the double-log Cobb-Douglas production
function for the analysis.
The results show that cocoa production
exhibits increasing returns to scale while
maize production exhibits constant returns
to scale. The results also reveal that the
marginal productivities of the inputs for
both cocoa and maize are all positive and
statistically significant except that for
labour that are negative but these are not
statistically significant. Maize
production exhibits managerial efficiency
and this is statistically significant
while cocoa production exhibits managerial
inefficiency but this is not statistically
significant. The estimated elasticities
for both cocoa and maize show that output
is less responsive to the inputs and used
in production.
The policy implications are that there is
scope for increasing cocoa production but
government could consider establishing
larger plantations in cocoa production to
make production cost efficient. Government
could consider replicating maize
production since maize production exhibits
constant return and is cost efficient. In
addition, producers could be given
appropriate training to offset the
seemingly negative productivity of labour
for both cocoa and maize production and
managerial inefficiency associated with
cocoa production.
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World Trade Organization vis-a-vis
Indian Seed Industry
M. S. Sidhu*
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The
GATT accord on TRIPS has raised
apprehensions in the country, especially
for the future of patenting of seeds and
genes. It was feared that the farmers
would have to buy their seeds every year
from the MNCs and they could not exchange
seeds with fellow farmers and so on.
Nonetheless, a careful perusal of the GATT
(1994) agreement would reveal that some of
these apprehension are unfounded. The
TRIPS agreement covered eight types of
intellectual property of which. it is only
in the area of patents that most furious
controversy gripped the Indian mind. It is
in this section (TRIPS) of GATT that the
advanced countries have a distinct
advantage and a decisive lead over the
developing countries. In India, a pre-ponderant
majority of farmers use self-retained
seeds for most of the crops. The other
important source is exchanges with fellow
farmers. Even under the TRIPS regime, the
Indian farmers can continue to avail of
this facility. In India, there is a
well-organized government seed research
and distribution system, and a new entrant
has to offer reasonably priced seeds of
proven quality to break into the Indian
seed market. We have excellent plant
breeding capacities in the country. The
ICAR is the apex organization for
sponsoring, coordinating and promoting
plant-breeding research in India. Our crop
improvement programmes have been
acknowledged not only in India but in many
of the developed and developing countries,
as evidenced by the utilization of some of
our high yielding varieties and hybrids at
the global level. The TRIPS regime will
provide an opportunity to the Indian
farmers to get first rate seed technology,
although at a little higher price. This
will give a boost to agricultural
production in the country, which has
somehow shown a showdown in recent years.
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Foreign Direct Investment and Foreign
Trade
in India : What Causes What ?
K. Sham Bhat*
and
K. Durai Raj**
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Hsiao's sequential approach based on the
concept of Granger causality and
Akaike's Final Prediction Error
criterion was employed to examine the
short-run causal nexus between foreign
direct investment and foreign trade
(imports and exports) in India. The data
bases were on monthly basis and it
covered from July 1992 to October 2003.
By and large, the analysis reveals:
(i) an independent relationship between
foreign direct investments and imports
due to the fact that time period after
.liberalization of foreign direct
investment is not sufficient enough and
the size of tile foreign direct
investment is also very meager in India
compared to other developing countries,
(ii) there is a unidirectional causality
from export to foreign direct investment
and it may be due to the outward
oriented export led development policy
which will attract foreign direct
investment inflow in India in the
short-run, and
(iii) Aggregate imports and exports are
bi-directional in 'India in tile
short-run during the period of our
study.
This is due to the fact that India has
to export and earn sufficient foreign
exchange resources in order to finance
to import from trading partners.
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Factors Affecting Cotton Productivity
in Punjab : An Application of
Discriminant Analysis
Nirmal Singh, Sukhpal Singh
and *.
Satwinder Singh**
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Cotton is an important cash crop of India
which provides livelihood to about sixty
million people of the country. Punjab has
been leading the country both in cotton
productivity and its share in national
production. But the state witnessed many
ups and downs during the last one decade
in area as well as its productivity.
Although recent trends in area and
productivity are (encouraging but there
existed significant variation in the yield
of cotton from, farm to farm. In this
context it is not only important to
identify the factors that are associated
with inter-farm variability in
productivity but also to understand the
contribution of these factors. The present
study is, therefore,
designed to examine the contribution of
some factors in discriminating the
productivity levels of the two
cotton-growing populations i.e. population
with higher productivity and the
population with lower productivity. In
order to find out the relative importance
of various characteristics of the cotton
producers, which could help in
discriminating between the two categories
of farms the data collected from 100
cotton growers for tile year 2004-05, were
put to discriminatory analysis i.e.
Mahalanobis Distance (D2). The
comparison of the products (Iidi)
establishes tllat lion's share in (D2)
is due to the adoption of new cotton
production technologies. Next in
importance is the education level of the
decision maker in the family, the non-farm
income and expenditure on plant
protection. Adoption of hybrid technology
and fertilizer use although are important
variables which affect the productivity
but their contribution was less than one
per cent because both groups under study
have adopted them to large extent. The
study concludes that to increase the
cotton productivity on sustainable basis
in the state, the farmers need to be
educated regarding new cotton production
technologies like Integrated Pest
Management, Insecticide Resistance
Management and Integrated Nutrient
Management. |
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Evaluating the Efficiency of Taiwanese
Hospital using Analytic Hierarchy Process
and Data Envelopment Analysis
Pi-Fang Hsu*
and
Hui-Chen Hu**
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The extremely competitive medical market
sector in Taiwan and National Health
Insurance scheme have led to the
implementation of a Global Budget System.
The Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model
is used to determine the operational
efficiency of each hospital and identify
an improved direction for allocating
resources. The weight of DEA mode! is
replaced with that of the Analytic
Hierarchy Process (AHP). Additionally, the
performances of different hospital types
are compared using the Kruskal-Wallis
test. The operational efficiency ranking
by ownership refers to corporation
hospitals, private hospitals, municipal
hospitals, and department of health
hospitals, veteran's hospitals and armed
forces hospitals. |
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An Empirical Note on Testing the
Safe-Haven Hypothesis for Selected African
Currencies
Hsu-Ling Chang*,
Hsiao-Ping Chu**
and
Chi-Wei Su**
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In
this empirical note, we test whether the
U. S. dollar increases in value during
times of uncertainty. Our test of this
"safe-haven" hypothesis is based on an
ARMA-GJR-GARCH-M model for the currencies
of twenty-two selected Africa countries.
We examine the period from January 1980 to
May 2004. Our empirical results support
the safe-haven hypothesis for Botswana,
Central African Republic, South Africa,
Zimbabwe, Burundi and Burkina Faso six
countries only.
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The Primary Sectors of the Economy
and the Dutch Disease in Nigeria
J. O. Olusi*
and
M. A. Olagunju**
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This study examined whether the Dutch
Disease -a resource boom leading to the
decline of the erstwhile tradable sector
-is present in Nigeria in the light of the
rejection of the Dutch Disease thesis in
other studies on Nigeria, Quarterly data
for our variables of interest were
predomi!1antly sourced from the
International Financial Statistics of the
IMF. The data were analyzed through the
use of vector autoregressive modeling
consisting of impulse response functions
and variance decomposition analyses. Our
result showed that the Dutch Disease was
diagnosed, albeit, delayed. This Suggests
that the government should lay more
emphasis on the agricultural sector
hitherto not given deserved attention.
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Extent of Absolute Poverty Among the
Different Socio-Economic Groups in the
Rural Areas of Himachal Pradesh:
A Nutrition and Nutrition
Plus Approach
Dalip S. Thakur*
and
Sarbjeet Singh
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In this paper an
attempt has been made to work out the
extent of absolute poverty with the help
of 'Nutrition' as well as 'Nutrition Plus'
approach among the different
socio-economic groups i.e. general caste,
scheduled caste and scheduled tribe
households in the rural areas of Himachal
Pradesh. The present empirical
investigation reveals that the percentage
expenditure on food items shows a
decreasing tendency whereas contrary to
it, the percentage expenditure on non-food
items indicates an increasing tendency
with an increase in the size of holdings.
This study further reveals that the
percentage of poor is highest on the
marginal size of holdings followed by the
small size of holdings mainly due to the
reason of higher illiteracy and dependency
ratio, inferior and infertile land
holdings, meagre household income, low
paid occupations. lack of gainful
employment, higher burden of debt payments
etc. whereas the percentage of poor is
lowest on the medium size of holdings on
account of higher literacy, well paid occupations as well as availability of
gainful employment on their farms etc. |
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