We examine the impact on returns, risk and liquidity of stocks in the Asia Pacific markets when included into and deleted from the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index over the period 2002–2010. Using an event study methodology, we test five existing hypotheses and two new ones, called the...

This article investigates (i) the extent to which the differences in the standard of living among districts in Indonesia are due to differences in the marginal welfare gains (returns) associated with household mobile endowments or differences in household endowments themselves; and (ii) whether...

There has been much confusion, rather than debate, on the use of free trade agreements (FTAs). Unfortunately, a large part of the confusion is caused by the absence of consensus on the meaning of key terms such as the “utilization rate” and “usage rate” of FTAs, and the lack of knowledge...

Launched in 2001, the Thailand Village and Urban Community Fund (VF) provided almost US$2billion – a million baht for each of Thailand's 78,000 villages and wards – to provide working capital for locally-run rotating credit associations. Using data from the Thailand Socioeconomic Surveys of...

We provide new empirical evidence on the relationship among direct tax revenue and banking and non-banking activities in Malaysia's financial system, utilising monthly data for the period 1997–2008. The existence of the long run equilibrium relationship between tax revenue and the financial...

This paper proposes a new unit root test that is general enough to accommodate a potentially non-linear deterministic trend function, making it one of the most general tests around. However, the main advantage lies with its simple implementation. In particular, the asymptotic critical values are...

After controlling for firm-level factor intensities and scale, and industry-level concentration, total factor productivity differentials between MNC (multinational corporation) joint ventures or SOEs (state-owned enterprises) and private firms were usually positive and statistically significant...

Despite its evident importance relatively little is known about links between Body Mass Index (BMI) and participation in workfare programs, particularly in India. Using a unique data set for the Indian state of Rajasthan for 2009–10, this paper attempts to fill this void and examines the...

The aim of this study, through the estimation of a cost function, is to estimate the scale economies and scale and X-inefficiencies of commercial banks operating in Indonesia with a view to identifying hypothetical mergers that could deliver significant cost savings. Economies of scale are...

We examine the effects of the threats to property rights on the economic performance of the manufacturing sector in Indian states. We constructed indices of the threats using data on crime against property rights. In our analysis, we correct for the problem of underreporting of crimes in...