This paper examines whether conditional skewness of returns at the market level is predictable and investigates the economic mechanisms underlying this predictability. We analyze aggregate market returns in 57 countries. Lagged onemonth returns predict conditional skewness of daily returns during the following month. Returns are more negatively skewed following an increase in stock prices and returns are more positively skewed following a decrease in stock prices. This relation between skewness and...

This study tracks the nonparametric X-efficiency based measures and compares the efficiency dynamics of conventional and Islamic Kuwaiti banks over the period 1996-2010. The findings show that, in terms of all efficiency measures, Kuwaiti banks kept losing efficiency: a trend that started in 2004 and worsened after the 2008 economic crisis. However, two efficiency stages can be noted: The first trend is indicated for the period 1996-2003, during which conventional banks had clear efficiency superiority...

Customer retention is very crucial to the continuous survival of retail banking anywhere in the world, most especially when the deregulation of the sector has provided the customers with different choices to satisfy their financial needs. This has made many banks to pursue different strategies that will increase their customer satisfaction through enhanced service quality. This study examined the determinants of retail bank customer satisfaction in New Zealand through the survey of their perception...

This paper focuses on the investment methods parent companies use to form joint ventures (JVs) and investigates the relationship between those investment methods and JV stability. This study finds that factors such as parents’ percentage ownership of JVs and their duration of ownership in JVs vary with investment method. This study also finds that JV terminations differ with investment methods. This suggests that investment methods affect JV stability. Third, the study finds that when one parent...

This study investigates the impacts of financial intermediaries and stock markets on economic growth for 49 countries from 1960 to 2004. Results show that the stock market exhibits significantly positive effects on economic growth. In contrast, financial intermediary displays significantly varying effects on economic growth. Financial intermediaries accelerate economic growth at low levels of financial intermediary development but mitigate economic growth at high levels. Over-heated financial development...

This paper examines the link between intellectual property rights and world trade. To proxy for intellectual property rights, the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is used. An augmented gravity model incorporating 178 countries and over 14 years of observations is employed to tease out the effect of TRIPS on international trade. While previous studies have looked at GATT/WTO membership and its effect on trade, little...

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