Globalisation has led to a rapid increase in the growth of foreign direct investment (FDI) globally. Over the last decade China has become the largest recipient of FDI whilst simultaneously increasing its outward FDI dramatically. The growth in China's outward FDI has attracted little attention...

In the last decade, the Chinese government-owned banks have undergone a privatization program resulting in considerable changes in ownership of Chinese banks. These changes invite important questions to be answered. In particular how have banks changed in terms of performance indicators with...

The work is motivated by a quantitative magnetic resonance imaging study of the differential tumour-healthy tissue change in contrast uptake induced by radiation. The goal is to determine the time in which there is maximal contrast uptake (a surrogate for permeability) in the tumour relative to...

Plastic mulching is an important agricultural practices used to improve crop productivity. Field experiments were conducted to determine the effect of plastic mulch patterns and crop rotations on runoff, erosion and soil physical properties in 2010 and 2011 growing seasons. The experiment was a...

This paper explains in non-technical terms various techniques used to measure volatility ranging from time invariant measures to time variant measures. It is shown that a weakness of the former measures arises from the underlying assumption that volatility is considered to be constant over time....

The study of financial stability has become the cornerstone of modern macroeconomic policy particularly for developed countries. The recent global financial crisis has underscored the importance of understanding financial instability especially in the context of managing credit risk with...

Using panel data on selected Financial Soundness Indicators (FSIs) this paper investigates the potential strengths and vulnerabilities of financial intermediaries across more than 50 countries. Our econometric analysis reveals strong influence of business cycle, inflation, and real effective...