Eurasian Journal of Business and Economics

1-26

Authors: Sunil KUMAR & Nitin ARORA

Using time series data spanning over the period 1974/75 to 2004/05, this paper provides the trends of capacity utilization (CU) levels in Indian sugar industry from regional perspectives. The results reveal that: i) on an average, the sugar industry in India is operating with the excess capacity in tune to 13 percent in each sampled year; ii) substantial variations in CU levels appear in the sugar industry of 12 major sugar producing states under consideration; iii) a precipitous decline in CU levels is noted in the post-reforms years relative to what has been observed in the prereforms period; iv) except the state of Rajasthan, the sugar industry in the remaining 11 states observed a significant decline in CU levels during the postreforms period relative to the pre-reforms period; and v) availability of raw material is most significant variable explaining the CU in Indian sugar industry.

43-62

Authors: Pooja MALHOTRA & Balwinder SINGH

The paper describes the current state of Internet banking in India and discusses its implications for the Indian banking industry. Particularly, it seeks to examine the impact of Internet banking on banks’ performance and risk. Using information drawn from the survey of 85 scheduled commercial bank’s websites, during the period of June 2007, the results show that nearly 57 percent of the Indian commercial banks are providing transactional Internet banking services. The univariate analysis indicates that Internet banks are larger banks and have better operating efficiency ratios and profitability as compared to non-Internet banks. Internet banks rely more heavily on core deposits for funding than non-Internet banks do. However, the multiple regression results reveal that the profitability and offering of Internet banking does not have any significant association, on the other hand, Internet banking has a significant and negative association with risk profile of the banks.

77-94

Authors: Sinan ASLAN & Hatice ELCI

Basel II settlements have a strong influence on the SMEs that are of great importance to countries’ economies. Conditions to become an SME have changed and rating of SMEs has become very important with this new settlement. In this study, in order to be awarded high credit ratings SMEs will be evaluated by analyzing this period in accordance with Basel II. The following were studied; the rating period and its requirements under the framework of Basel II, rating of SMEs and the criteria used during this period, credit rating analysis methods under the scope of the rating procedure and principles.

113-137

Authors: Sarika MAHAJAN & Balwinder SINGH

This paper examines the empirical relationship between return, volume and volatility dynamics of stock market by using daily data of the Sensitive Index (SENSEX) during the period from October 1996 to March 2006. The empirical analysis provides evidence of positive and significant correlation between volume and return volatility that is indicative of the both mixture of distribution and sequential arrival hypothesis of information flow. Causality from volatility to volume can be seen as some evidence that new information arrival might follow a sequential rather than a simultaneous process. In addition, GARCH (1,1) documents the small declines in persistence of variance over time if one includes trading volume as a proxy for information arrivals in the equation of conditional volatility and ARCH and GARCH effects remain significant, which highlights the inefficiency in the market. This finding supports the proposition that volume provides information on the precision and dispersion of information signals, rather than serving as a proxy for the information signal itself.

1-14

Authors: Simon W. TAI &Jung Wan LEE

This study debates the roles of trade liberalization and regional economic cooperation for the sustainable economic growth of the Central Asian countries. An economic research paradigm was used to obtain a macro view from the perspectives of Kazakhstan and neighboring countries. In general, factors that enhance regional trade development and regional economic integration include improving business environment, increasing trade policy coordination, accelerating trade liberalization, and increasing economic cooperation. Selected policies and practical implications are identified, which facilitate enhancing free trade agreements and regional economic cooperation, coordinating WTO accession, and creating a systematic monitoring organization.

15-34

Authors: Maria ROSARIA ALFANO

The public economic literature of the past century is characterized by a traditional paradigm that ascribes little attention to the spatial dimension. However, contemporary globalization requires that researchers and economists expand their perspectives to consider space conceptualization. What is required in the 21st century is a richer and more realistic framework that broadens existing concepts of socio-economic analysis while overcoming narrow national borders. Although national governments will remain prominent performers in the global market, regional and local governments cannot be ignored because citizens worldwide are exerting greater self-determination in influencing governmental decisions. This paper is focused on the opportunity to analyze the governance of decentralization by the new optimizing procedures provided by complex system theory. The first section of the paper explores the positive and normative issues related to centralization and decentralization in a globalized framework as well as the increased interdependence in power sharing among different jurisdictional level. In the second section, Kauffman’s (1993) contributions are examined as a means of determining if the fitness landscape allows combining the institutional evolution. Finally, this paper concludes highlighting that complex system theory is one of the possible tools useful to redesign the map of institutional sharing power in an era of globalization, considering that it allows catching Pareto improving in the level of welfare.

55-71

Authors: Mutascu Mihai IOAN

The corruption is a complex and generalized phenomenon all over the world, with cultural, social, psychological, political and economical dimensions. The defining and the studying of the phenomenon are going through the most different thinking filters known in the specialized literature: social-cultural, political, administrative and economic. The article’s aim is to quantify and analyze the relationship between corruption and political, administrative and economic determinants factors, through a regressive "pool data" model. The sample includes 135 countries of the world, from all continents, with different degrees of economic development and political-administrative structures, for the period 1996-2008. What is interesting is that, the study shows the distortion into the government intervention function in the economy, seen as a significant proliferation factor for the corruption phenomenon. This connection has different intensity, as the state is developed, developing or in transition. Moreover, there is a number of unobserved factors, which emphasizes or temperate in temporal approach the relationship between corruption - political, administrative and economic determinants factors.