196,592 research outputs found
Are mergers among cooperative banks worth a dime? Evidence on efficiency effects of M&As in Italy
No full textWe study the intense wave of mergers among Italian mutual cooperative banks (Banche di Credito Cooperativo, BCCs) trying to assess whether those mergers were efficiency-enhancing. Specifically, we employ a two-step procedure: first estimating bank-level cost efficiency scores over 1993-2013 via a stochastic frontier approach, then trying to explain the estimated BCCs’ scores with a set of merger status dummies (never merged, before the first merger, merged once, merged twice, etc.) and a vector of control variables. We find that mergers increase mutual banks’ cost efficiency only in 5% of the mergers, precisely those in which a BCC has merged at least three successive times with other BCCs. Besides, we conjecture that the serial mergers led those BCCs to reach remarkably large size and this could harm especially marginal borrowers (i.e. those likely served by smaller banks but neglected by bigger ones), with strong adverse impact on development and inequality and violating BCCs’ ethics and mission
Competition Among Dominant Firms in Concentrated Markets: Evidence from the Italian Banking Industry
No full textConventional models of the industrial organisation theory usually state that in concentrated industries firms have significant market power, and that competition can be easily reduced if the leading firms collude. However, recent theoretical analyses show that strong concentration does not necessarily prevent competition among firms. In this paper we consider the Italian banking industry, where the eight largest firms operate at a national level, manage about a half of total loans, and have a notably larger dimension than the other competitors. We estimate a structural model – formed by a demand equation, a cost equation and a price cost margin equation, the latter containing a behavioural parameter – to assess the market conduct of the largest banks for the period 1988-2000. Our finding is that, in spite of their noteworthy size and significant market share, in these years the largest banks have been characterised by a more competitive conduct than the Cournot outcome: this is in line with the results of the latest literature of the field, for which in the banking industry there is often no conflict between competition and concentration.
Artificial Intelligence Applied to Spatial Cognition Assessment
No full textSpatial cognition is a function that strongly affects adaptation. This is particularly evident when it is impaired, as often happens after brain injury. Neglect, or hemispatial visual neglect, is a dramatic consequence of right hemisphere damage that leads patient to ignore the left, controlateral part of the space. It is assessed with tasks and tests that require to direct attention on the whole visual field, both on left and right. Also in healthy people, spatial exploration is not perfectly symmetrical, as witnessed by the phenomenon called pseudo-neglect. In recent years, these tools have been enhanced by new technological solutions, producing new data. In this paper, we describe our attempt to use Artificial Intelligence for the assessment of spatial cognition starting from the enhanced version of the Baking Tray Task, the e-BTT. Results indicate that Artificial Intelligence can be an effective method to analyze these new data thus leading to a more comprehensive assessment
Gap Estimation with Neural Network Models Iter Task on Diagnostics Design and R&D
No full textReport CREATE/ITER/DIAG/2001/1 (N 55 LR 1 01-05-07 W 0.1
Dr. Duane M. Jackson, Morehouse College, July 2011
No full textThis video is a conversation with Dr. Duane M. Jackson. Dr. Jackson talks about his paper, "Recall and the Serial Position Effect: The Role of Primacy and Recency on Accounting Students' Performance." Jackie Daniel, AUC Woodruff Library, is the interviewer
ELECTROMAGNETIC FORCES DISTRIBUTION AND MECHANICAL ANALYSIS IN THE FIRST WALL STRUCTURE FOR INTOR/NET.
No full textIn the context of the studies performed at JRC-Ispra for NET/INTOR, a modular stainless steel first wall, water cooled, and separated from the blanket which it envelops like a box has been proposed. During plasma disruption the metallic structure of the first wall is inevitably subject to appreciable electromagnetic forces caused by induced eddy current-magnetic field interactions. These forces produce deformations and stresses in the wall structure, which have to be considered in the design of the first wall. The behaviour of this type of structure under the electromagnetic forces mentioned was analysed. The electromagnetic forces were evaluated by means of a finite element code for shell-type structure in 3-D geometry, for the case of a 20 ms plasma disruption. The deformation and stress distributions in the first wall were quantified at various instants of time by three-dimensional calculations using the ICES-STRUDL code
"Reflections on the subject of Emigration from Europe with a view to Settlement in the United States" By M. Carey.
No full text"Reflections on the subject of Emigration from Europe with a view to Settlement in the United States: containing bried sketches of the moral and political character of those states.
By M. Carey, member of the American philosophical, and of the American Antiquarian Society, and author of The Olive Branch, Cindiciae Hibernicae, essays on banking, on political economy, and on internal improvement.
To which are now added the English editor's comments on the subject; together with Important Advice to Emigrants, and Cautions Against Impositions Practiced in the Outports
Banks as ‘fat cats’: Branching and Price Decisions in a Two-Stage Model of Competition
No full textIn this paper we develop an empirical two-stage model of competition for the banking industry that incorporates the choice of capacity in the form of new branches. It is estimated using data on Italian banks for the years 1995-2009. The results show that the conduct of banks is significantly more competitive than a Bertrand-Nash equilibrium, and support the rejection of the simple one-stage specification, which underestimates the degree of competition. In the Fudenberg and Tirole (1984)’s taxonomy, banks are found to behave as ‘fat cats’, overinvesting in the branch network so as to keep prices high and accommodate entry.bank branch network; competition; market structure; conduct
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
No full textWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
Dr. Glendon Swarthout
No full textHosted by Roger M. Busfield, MSU Assistant Professor of Speech and Theater, Meet the Author is designed to introduce a general audience to a contemporary author and their work through in-depth interviews. This episode features a conversation between Dr. Glendon Swarthout, prolific author and English professor at MSU, and assistant professors Sam S. Baskett and Theodore B. Strandness
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