Business and Economics Journal

Despite the importance of private benefits of control in France and the persistence of concentration of ownership, the link between private benefits of control and ownership structure is still a frequently mentioned and addressed issue in the literature. Our study contributes to the literature by providing an empirical analysis of the harmonies between shareholders and their effect on private benefits of control. In this paper, we concentrate on this relationship by developing a model where the coalition or the contestability of control influences the size of private benefits of control. On a sample of 44 French listed companies for the period 2001- 2011, the empirical analysis produces some interesting results. It demonstrates that the concentrated ownership is a factor that promotes divergence of interests between shareholders. Controlling shareholders hold the most important part of property rights compared to the minority who will further expropriate corporate resources. We conclude that shareholders' agreement is not a good Corporate Governance mechanism because it could be destructive of the firm’s value. In other words, if there were no agreement between the two largest shareholders, control and mutual monitoring of each other help to protect minority interests and can positively influence the firm’s value.

The objective of this paper is to determine the effect of information technological investment on employee’s output performance. Subject for the study consisted of seventy employees of sachet and table water manufacturing industries, Lagos, Nigeria. Data for the study were collected through a well-structured questionnaire delivered to the workers of the sachet and table water companies. We used F test, T test, regression and correlation to test our hypotheses whether information technology usage in production processes, work environment and management style boost up the output performance of an employees. The findings of the study showed that there exist strong positive relationship and significant effect between aggregate output, technology usage, work environment, and management style and that the technological usage in production processes has the highest contribution to boost aggregate output performance of employees in sachet and table water manufacturing companies.

The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of the definition and the emergence of the Moroccan middle classes and shows their economic specificities. Two methods are used to identify the middle classes: the first of one is “the self-identification” where the person classifies himself into a given social order, and the second one known as “the quantitative method”. The paper also treats the Moroccan middle classes evolving which was influenced by historical contexts such as the independence, and internal factors like the education, the socio-professional profile of the householder, and the growth of the service sector.

This paper analyses the continuous efforts made by African Heads of States and Governments of the African Union (AU) in promoting the AU Agenda 2063 in seeking to harness the continent’s comparative advantages on its youthful population, emerging middle-class consumers, rich natural resources and young labor force capable of transforming Africa in the next 50 years. The undeniable benefits of inter and intra-African trade, trade facilitation, the gradual dismantling of tariff barriers across African borders and their sensitive impacts on national sovereignty and a multiple of geopolitical regional trade arrangements shall be reviewed in this paper in an effort to address current challenges hindering Africa’s regional integration and sustainable development. With key objectives of facilitating trade finance for young African youths and female entrepreneurs, the harmonization of trade policies between AU Member states and existing Regional Economic Communities (RECs) is necessary in accessing Africa’s full potential market estimated at 2.8 billion people by 2063. The paper in its final section reveals astonishing trade benefits of regional markets with attributed roles of various stakeholders involved in mobilizing efforts towards a comprehensive approach for Africa’s emergence by 2063. An augmented multi-linear gravity model regression analysis is used to portray the positive and unexploited trade potentials of African regional markets in promoting trade integration on the “acquis” of existing regional initiatives. Special attention also is given to the Association of South East Asian Nation (ASEAN) Free Trade Area (FTA) alongside existing regional FTA initiatives in Africa (such as the South-Eastern African Tripartite FTA) as benchmarks on the basis of their socio-economic and political similarities, languages, infrastructures, colonial heritages and variable geometry resemblance to the CFTA. An exclusive out-ofsample benchmark approach is used on the gravity model to empirically test for autocorrelation between the selected dependent and independent variables (Trade flow, Gross Domestic Product, Population, and geographical distance between countries). Result of the study show projectable gains that can be generated from the establishment of a Pan- African Continental FTA with practical steps of grabbing Africa’s rich populated markets. The gravity model uses beta estimated coefficients from the ASEAN FTA to benchmark trade potential in five regions in Africa. The paper’s methodology involves applying these statistically tested unbiased estimates on a sample of 15 randomly selected African countries per region for an evaluation period of 18 years. All the explanatory variables were tested to be statistically significant in explaining trade flows and their beta estimates used in extrapolating on the CFTA’s trade potentials in five regions and consequently building towards a single integrated and economically vibrant Africa by 2063!

Various Nigerian successive governments have recognized the need to tame poverty. This prompted varieties of anti-poverty poverty programmes, but unfortunately poverty situation is still at alarming rate, especially in the rural domains. It is on this note, that this study argued for the need to measure poverty in a multidimensional manner, as against the commonly monetary poverty measurements. Primary data from farm household was used for collection of information for the study. Alkire and Foster methods was used for the headcounts ratios, adjustment headcounts as well as poverty intensity. Probit regression was employed to assess variables that predict poverty in the study areas. Results of the study showed that about 82% are multidimensionally poor, while money-metric poor are about 86%. Major determinants of multidimensional poverty include age of the respondents, marital status, income, number of dependants and household head farming experience. The study concluded that to alleviate rural poverty, potential vulnerable categories of people (as shown in the deprivation incidence) should be given the deserved attention as to reduce poverty eventually.

Agriculture plays a crucial role in the development of the Indian economy. It accounts for about 19 per cent of GDP and about two-thirds of the population is dependent on the sector. The Approach Paper to the Eleventh Five Year Plan has set a target of 4 per cent for the agriculture sector within the overall GDP growth target of 9 per cent. Capital investment in agriculture was made by farmers in various forms, such as farm lands, bunding and other land improvements including land reclamation, farm equipment, farm buildings, livestock, irrigation, poultry, storage arrangements and transport equipment. An attempt has been made in this paper to find out the extent of capital investment in agriculture made by the sample farmers and the factors that had influenced the capital investment in agriculture. Capital investment in agriculture made by farmers and the level of capital investment made were measured with the help of a scale constructed with the help of ten selected components. The number of farmers and the level of capital investment made by them are found to be more in the case of those who had reported a medium level of investment, followed by the number of farmers who had reported a low level of investment and those who had reported a high level of investment. The personal factors influencing the level of capital investment in agriculture, namely, educational qualifications and the size of family had a role to play in establishing the level of capital investment in agriculture. The other personal factors of farmers such as their experience in farming, use of communication media and their participation in training programmes had also a lot to do with the level of capital investment. Agriculture in India, viewed as a way of life, was not considered a productive proposition by the socially, economically and technologically backward population. The inter-sectoral mobility of personnel, resources and technology was very limited and it had created a vicious circle of technological isolation in the agricultural sector.

The research looks into the structure, conduct and performance of the world's leading pension funds, namely the ABP (The Netherlands) and California Public Employees' Retirement System (U.S.A.), and benchmarks the Government Service Insurance System (Philippines) against the best practices instituted by these leading organizations. A Survey of Awareness and Practices of the GSIS Pension Fund is included in the research to validate the GSIS fund performance.

This article represents the inflations and the revaluation of constant assets and it’s handiest of the benefits, additionally its risks. Additionally to the truth that it encourages inflation, for businesses structurally in deficit, it always develop their running losses, above all for many who do not need the possibility to pass the new a number of depreciation on costs. Clear descriptions of effects of inflation on the company and its investments, accounting history and history of statutory revaluation in Algeria, positive effects of the revaluation, and negative effects of the revaluation explained.

The study was carried with the objective of understanding the level of gap exists between expectation (excellent bank) and perception (experience bank) among the banking customer in Pakistan in the content of service quality. This study is measuring service quality by using SERVQUAL- a perceived service quality questionnaire methodology. SERVQUAL examines five dimensions of service quality, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, tangible and Reliability. For each dimension of service quality measures both the perception and expectation of the service on a scale of 1 to 7, total questions in the questionnaire are 22. Through Gap analysis Gap score is calculated by subtracting the perception score from expectation score. A negative Gap indicates that the actual service is less than what was expected and the GAP is highlighted area for improvement. Convenience sample of 250 public and private bank’s account holders in Pakistan was used to collect the data. The finding of this study showed there is very huge Gap exists between excellent bank (expectation) and account holder experience (perception) bank in Pakistan with the regards of service quality. Finding of this study is help to minimize the GAP that was exist between excellent bank and account holder experience bank in Pakistan. This study used the word excellent bank because no bank in Pakistan up to the expectation of the account holders.

The present paper aims to explain the strategies that follow the Multinational enterprises to entry new markets of Emerging economies exposing an analysis of a corporation in the Mexican clothing industry. De deployment of this article is by seven parts. The first one is an introduction; the second explains the importance of the selected topic. The methodological choice is mentioned in the third part. There is a literature review. The fifth part is a short description of the enterprise of analysis and after that there is a theory explanation of the situation of this corporation analyzed. Finally the conclusions are exposed.

We present a new method for automatically generating mathematical models of complex, non-linear processes, and apply it for tracking and predicting the Canadian GDP. This method is derived from solving complex, non-linear problems in engineering, and is found to be an efficient method for forecasting of financial and economic variables. The method involves setting up a general non-linear series involving terms of up to 3rd-order products, where the model coefficients are systematically determined by the data on the Canadian GDP along with significant economic indicators such as currency, gross demand deposits, consumer price index and various loan rates. Results show that GDP can be predicted quantitatively and qualitatively, at various prediction intervals, with longer-term predictions showing less agreement owing to divergent dynamics in the economic variables and GDP. Other complex financial and economic processes may be analyzed and predicted using this method.

Study was based on data collected from 400 women from four district named in Manikganj, Kishorganj, Tangail and Gopalganj respectively of Bangladesh. In 2013 the percentage of only women decision making over loan was 17, 15, 21, 15 and in 2014 percentage of only women decision making was increased to 19, 18, 25, 23 respectively. In 2013 the percentage of only man decision making over crop production was 30, 51, 34, 35 and in 2014 percentage of only man decision making was increased to 24, 34, 23, 22 respectively. In 2013 the percentage of only women decision making over child education was 11, 12, 17, 9 and in 2014 percentage of only women decision making was increased to 17, 19, 20, 15 respectively. In 2013 the percentage of freedom of women to go outside for social activities was 28, 17, 33, 31 and in 2014 percentage of freedom of women to go outside for social activities was increased to 45, 33, 39, 37 respectively. The objectives of the study were to determine the participation of women in decision making process over various activities and to identify the freedom of women in social and cultural activities.

While business cycles are crucial for determining the dynamics of government budget deficits, it is rare to find an analysis of optimal fiscal rules that are designed to cope with the asymmetric behavior of fiscal variables during the cycle. In this paper I characterize the dynamics of budget deficits along the cycle: i) in recessions marginal propensity to spend is higher than the coefficient of marginal tax revenues, causing an increase of the deficit over GDP; ii) in expansions tax revenues soar allowing for a deficit reduction; however, marginal spending is still high and consequently a full cycle implies an increase in the deficit. Then, I present a model in which fiscal rules are designed to cope with a political bias that is based on two components: the cyclical bias and discretionary tax reductions. According to my analysis, the new generation fiscal rules should be based on a combination of expenditure and revenue rules, which are newer than budget deficit rules and are becoming widespread. According to my empirically calibrated simulation, this combination of rules succeeds on avoiding the political bias and is more cycle-friendly than a budget deficit rule.

In this paper, the case of glass and plastic Mexico, Guadalajara's company that was recently acquired by the French corporate Essilor through Essilor Mexico will be addressed. Essilor's strategy of further expanding economies of scope, with glass and plastic as optical laboratory, corporate through its new acquisition achieved distribute products from other brands to market where so far could not reach. For the company glass and plastic Mexico, the practice represents an opportunity for growth and stability; however, the acquisition led to major changes in the organizational structure, as the implementation of controls and processes in the small business, glass and plastic Mexico had not.

This study finds out the determinants of life insurance demand in the Ayeduase-Kumasi community from the perspective of consumers. The study adopted Logistic regression modeling technique with 256 cross section observations. Income, higher education, number of dependents, employment by someone else and better perception about insurance firms improved the chances of taking life insurance. Age however, has negative relationship with the odds of taking life insurance. Number of dependents was statistically significant at 1%. Age and Type of employment were both significant at 5% while’s income and education level were significant at 10%. Overall the Chi-Square showed that the model was statistically significant at less than 0.001. This study had similar results to previous studies and deviates as well. Çelik and Kayali found a positive relationship between income and odds of taking insurance and that was not different from the results of this study. Contrary to Çelik and Kayali, higher education influences positively the odds of taking life insurance. Moreover, segmenting customers into different groups by using the type of employment as basis of segmentation could help insurance firms to prescribe policies that customers may patronize.

The main objective of this study is to analyze through tripod strategy Peng, the basics of why the acquisition and sale of Group Model (which it is the largest brewer in Mexico with the highest market share) through analysis of the annual reports of the company. The analysis will be supported under three main theories: theory of industry, theory of resources and capabilities and ultimately theory of institutions. The paper concludes with a compilation and analysis of information giving rise to answer the question why Group Model sold? And if have you had a positive result in the acquisition of Group Model by the company ABI?

This paper examines the Italian public pension system reforms and the possibility of switching to a private capitalization system. Currently several countries are experiencing a high level of public debt, and the political debate is gravitating around the reduction of budget deficits and the improvement of public debt as a percentage of GDP ratio. An important part of public expenditure is represented by pension benefits; its amount is constantly increasing due to the architecture of public pension system, which cannot face the change happened in the demographic composition nowadays. I try to use the Chilean experience as a model for the Italian pension system. In the Conclusion, several policies are laid out to help facilitate this transition.

This paper highlights the various conceptual understandings of learning in practice, the various terms of andragogy and their particular systems that will reflect great educational implications. It will include a discussion of some of these learning perspectives, focusing upon their theoretical and practical strengths and limitations within applied and experiential contexts. The following needs further consideration: • Analysis of the learning perspectives. • Key underpinning questions that need to frame an analysis and interrogation of the concepts and practices of learning that foreground experiences. • Implications of the learning perspectives applied to my roles and practices. It is important to realize the implications and contributions of the learning concepts and to forge a bigger interactive picture between knowledge and experience on current and future biological lives. This monograph focuses and examines experiential learning through different lens that attempts to fill any unfulfilled pedagogical gaps in my work area.

We examined money-output regression (St. Louis equation) considering econometric problem, macroeconomic theory, and policy implications. Our results reveal that increases in money affects real variables like output over a few quarters. These results ascertain Keynesian macroeconomic view that price-wage rigidity cause output to respond to nominal shocks like shifts in money demand. Out derivation adds contribution to the original empirical results with regard to; endogeneity of money, lags from monetary shocks on output, and serial correlation in output disturbances (persistence), and fundamental equilibrium relationship (co-integration), etc.