Hassan Y. Aly

Technical, Scale, and Allocative Efficiencies in U.S. Banking: An Empirical Investigation

A nonparametric frontier approach is used to calculate the overall, technical, pure technical, allocative, and scale efficiencies for a sample of 322 independent banks. The sample was drawn from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation tapes on the Reports of Condition and Reports of Income (Call Reports) for the year 1986. The results indicated a low level of overall efficiency. The main source of inefficiency was technical in nature, rather than allocative. Separate efficiency frontiers were constructed to test the effect of branching. However, the distributions of efficiency measures for branching and non-branching banks were not found to be different.

The technical efficiency of US banks

Abstract The paper uses a non-parametric frontier approach to measure the technical efficiency of a sample of U.S. banks. The results indicate that these banks could have produced the same level of output with only 70% of the inputs actually used. In addition, most of this inefficiency is due to pure technical inefficiency (wasting inputs) rather than scale inefficiency (operating at non-constant returns to scale). Finally, regression analysis indicates that the technical efficiency of the banks is positively related to size, negatively related to product diversity, and not at all related to the extent to which branch banking is allowed.

THE TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY OF ILLINOIS GRAIN FARMS: AN APPLICATION OF A RAY-HOMOTHETIC PRODUCTION FUNCTION

The purpose of this paper is to measure the extent of technical inefficiency among a sample of Illinois grain farms using the corrected ordinary least squares method. Instead of assuming a Cobb-Douglas production function, a linear form of the ray-homothetic is used. The results show a significant amount of technical inefficiency among all the farms in the sample, but with large farms being less technically inefficient than small farms.

Education and child mortality in Egypt

Abstract This paper analyzes the relative importance of education in reducing child mortality in Egypt. It uses World Fertility Survey data on various proximate determinants of child mortality for 2,599 Egyptian households. Logit analysis is used to analyze the determinants of mortality for children three and younger and five and younger separately, as well as for urban and rural households separately. The results that the number of pregnancies, the existence of a blood relationship between spouses, access to clean water, and adequate sanitation are relatively more important than other variables in directly affecting mortality. In addition, only in rural areas is the wifes education a significant factor in reducing child mortality.

Measuring and explaining the efficiencies of the United Arab Emirates banking system

Using newly collected data from a survey distributed to all banks in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), this article measures economic efficiency in the banking industry, namely allocative, technical, pure technical and scale efficiency. Employing a nonparametric Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach, the study estimates the efficiency for a cross section of the UAE banks in 2004. The results indicate that the dominant source of inefficiency in the UAE banking is stemming from allocative inefficiency rather than technical inefficiency. Furthermore, the main source of the relatively small size, technical inefficiency in the UAE banking industry is not the scale inefficiency but rather pure technical inefficiency. The results further indicate that the UAE banks are able to use their input resources more efficiently when they have more branches, and that newer banks are performing better than older banks on average. Moreover, the results also show that short experiences of employees affect efficiencies negatively and government ownership tends to reduce efficiency (as the government shares increase in the bank, the efficiency scores get lower). Finally, the most interesting results have to do with finding higher average efficiencies in banks that employ more women, more managers and less national citizens of the UAE.

Assessing the role of financial deepening in business cycles: the experience of the United Arab Emirates

The relation between financial market development and the severity of business cycles in the economy of the United Arab Emirates is investigated. No evidence is found of a dampening effect from financial deepening on cyclical fluctuations in the short-run, but strong effects in the long-run. These results extend recent findings on the financial development/economic growth nexus and imply that growth volatility reductions expected from further financial developments are slow to materialize especially in countries with relatively large and well-functioning financial sectors.

Son Preference and Contraception in Egypt

The impact of son preference on fertility in Egypt is analyzed using contraceptive practice as the end point. Data came from the 1980 Egyptian World Fertility Survey. The probability of contraception at each parity was estimated with a nonlinear maximum likelihood estimation of the cumulative logistic probability function. Dependent variables were number of sons at each parity duration of marriage wifes age at marriage husbands education religion wifes work and rural/urban location. Number of sons had a positive impact on contraceptive use at all parities. At low and high parity contraceptors had little son preference but contraception increased dramatically at each parity as the number of sons increased. The number of sons seemed to be the most important determinant of parity-specific probabilities of contraception. Education had a consistently positive and significant effect on contraception suggesting that economics motivated people to prefer well-educated quality children over quantity. Religion and wifes labor participation had no effect on probability of contraception. Sons are preferred in Egypt especially in rural areas because they cost less to raise contribute to family income with their higher earnings inherit agricultural land will potentially support parents in their old age and are preferred for social religious and status reasons.

Demographic and socioeconomic factors affecting infant mortality in Egypt

This paper analyses the relative importance of demographic and socioeconomic factors with respect to their role in reducing infant mortality in Egypt. Logit analyses of data from a nationally representative sample of Egyptian households, and for urban and rural households separately, indicate that demographic factors have more effect on infant mortality than socioeconomic factors. The results also show the need to improve housing in urban areas and sewerage systems in rural areas in order to reduce infant mortality. One of the most important policy conclusions, however, concerns the importance of providing a vigorous educational campaign to enlighten mothers and prospective mothers in both rural and urban areas on the positive effects of breast-feeding, longer birth intervals, and fewer children on the survival of infants.

International Rentierism in the Middle East Africa, 1971–2008:

What is the trend in rentierism in the Middle East and North Africa? Defining a rentier state as one that extracts a significant share of its revenues from rents extracted from international transactions, we examine a range of such transactions that together constitute a third or more of the Middle East/North Africa economies. Outlining a rentierism index that is based on the share of GDP stemming from oil/mineral exports, foreign military and economic aid, worker remittances, and international tourism, we show that rentierism is growing and that 18 of the 22 Middle East/North Africa states depend for over a third of their GDP on these international transactions. Some depend on direct rents stemming from oil/mineral exports and foreign aid, while others rely increasingly on indirect rents from remittances and tourism. This split between direct and indirect rents has implications for the political stability of these states, because it creates states that are more or less able to maintain control in the face of popular resistance and insurgency.

Privatization and surplus labor in the Egyptian textile industry

Abstract Disguised unemployment in public enterprises may be transformed into open unemployment upon privatization. This possibility is explored for the Egyptian textile industry using a Ray Homothetic production function. These public firms are found to utilize too much capital versus labor.