This article examines technical and pure technical efficiencies of 10 major financial institutions in Botswana during the period 2001 to 2006 using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). To obtain more robust and reliable results, the sensitivity of our efficiency indices were put to test by choosing...

We propose an alternative approach to examine the nonlinear (asymmetric) behaviour of interest rates which can be both size and sign dependent. Compared to other widely used approaches, our model performs quite well based on two model selection criteria.

There is an ongoing controversy over whether banks’ mortgage rates rise more readily than they fall due to their asymmetric responses to changes in the cash rate. This paper examines the dynamic interplay between the cash rate and the variable mortgage rate using monthly data in the post-1989...

We present a new approach to evaluate the full extent of price stickiness in credit card interest rates by modifying the existing asymmetric models so that they can be adopted for testing both the amount and adjustment asymmetries as well as the lagged dynamic inertia. Consistent with similar...

This article examines the dynamic relationship between the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA's) cash rate and the variable interest rate for lending to small businesses. The relationship is evaluated via an asymmetric GARCH model using monthly data spanning from August 1990 to October 2012. Our...

This paper examines if the dynamic interplay between the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) cash rate and the standard variable mortgage rates of 23 major lenders is subject to both the amount and adjustment asymmetries. Using weekly data (2000–2012), the cash rate and lending rates are...

This study addresses a very significant policy issue not previously examined at a disaggregated level for Australia by identifying on which day(s) petrol is more expensive and in which locations discount days are non-existent. After conducting a time series analysis of the day of the week effect...

Within the context of a product variety model, this paper examines the impact of international outsourcing of some skill intensive tasks on wage inequality. We consider four possibilities: long-run equilibrium where varieties of producer services are non-traded, long-run equilibrium where...

Purpose – The main purpose of this paper is to provide more accurate estimates of Iran's time varying non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU) than what already exists in the literature. Design/methodology/approach – Using the Kalman filter approach and annual time series data...

In order to analyse the impact of policy reforms on the performance of the banking sector in Iran we present a decomposition of the Hicks–Moorsteen Total Factor Productivity (TFP). This entails a comparison of both the intermediate and operating performances of different types of banks in the...