Younes Boujelbene

Public road transport efficiency: a literature review via the classification scheme

The paper provides a literature review of public road transport efficiency. We classified 24 articles published between 2000 and 2011, based on journals, date of publication, the nature of the papers’, the context of the study, the adopted approach by which efficiency is measured, the adopted outputs and inputs and empirical findings. Results are presented, discussed and future directions are generated. The classification scheme technique shows that the application of the mixed approach of Data Envelopment Analysis and Stochastic Frontier Analysis (DEA-SFA), with operators of different nationalities, is more robust for analysis of public transport efficiency, and for identifying sources inefficiency. Financial variables are important inputs and outputs for efficiency studies. However, although the frontier literature has substantially contributed to the knowledge of public transport technologies and the determinants of performance, it has been found that many important issues remain unresolved.

The effect of TQM implementation on firm performance in the Tunisian context

Total quality management (TQM) is an integrated management system designed to make the best use of an organisations resources in order to increase the quality of a firms products/services, to satisfy customer needs and improve the efficiency of the production processes. Advocates of TQM have suggested that there should be a positive relationship between implementing TQM practices and performance measures. Recent research (Sila, 2007; Santos-Vijande and Alvarez-Gonzalez, 2007) on TQM has examined the relationships between the TQM practices and various levels of organisational performance. This study examines the direct and indirect effects of these practices on operating and financial performance. The model is tested using structural equations, making a survey of quality managers in 66 Tunisian firms. The causal analysis results show no significant and direct, but a significant indirect relationship between the use of TQM and improvement in financial performance. Similarly, the TQM implementation has a positive and significant impact on operating performance.

Subprime crisis and volatility spillover

The subprime financial crisis has sparked our interest in identifying channels through which US crisis spread across 20 developed and emerging stock markets. Empirical results of GARCH and EGARCH estimated models show a high persistence and asymmetric effect of volatility. Estimation of an augmented GARCH model indicates that the US current crisis spilled over American, European, Asian and Arabic financial markets. Interestingly, there are significant spillovers of volatility to Asian markets from UK and Swiss. Financial markets of Japan, Korea and especially Singapore constitute a channel through which crises are transmitted across global equity return.

Boom-bust cycles and their fundamental determinants: an empirical evidence of the Tunisian stock market

The occurrence of boom-bust cycles in emerging and developed markets has brought new attention to the linkages between macroeconomic environment and stock market cycles. This paper has identified stock market boom-bust cycles in Tunisia since 1992. Our main objective is to investigate the determinants of stock market booms and busts occurrence using the ordered logit model. Empirical evidence from quarterly data on the real BVMT index shows that the monetary and financial indicators and behaviour of investors have played a key role in explaining Tunisian stock market boom-bust cycles.

Contagion effect of the oil shock and US financial crisis on the GCC and BRIC countries

Purpose – This paper aims to employ GARCH-class models (GARCH, IGARCH and CGARCH) to estimate the volatility persistence on crude oil, US, Gulf Corporation Council (GCC), Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) stock markets. Also, the paper investigates the volatility spillover and the dynamic conditional correlation between crude oil, US stock index and stock indices of GCC and BRIC countries. The results prove a high degree of volatility persistence in the crude oil and stock markets. Based on the BEKK-GARCH and DCC-GARCH results, the paper finds strong evidence of the contagion effect of the oil shock and US financial crisis of 2008 on GCC and BRIC stock markets. Design/methodology/approach – In the beginning, the paper uses univariate GARCH models to estimate the volatility persistence of the oil market, US stock market, and GCC and BRIC stock markets. Then, the paper uses a trivariate BEKK-GARCH model of Malik and Hammoudeh to examine the volatility spillover between oil market, US stock market and s...

Banks’ stability-efficiency within dual banking system: a stochastic frontier analysis

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to examine and compare the market power and the efficiency-stability of Islamic and conventional banks in the MENA zone and South East Asia during the 2005-2012 period. Design/methodology/approach - – The author applied an empirical approach in two steps. First, the author estimates the Lerner indicator, which is a measure of competition. Then, this measure is regressed and other explanatory variables on the banking “stability-efficiency” are derived simultaneously from the estimation of a stability stochastic frontier. Findings - – The author concludes that increased competition in the Islamic banking sector promotes the overall banking stability. Besides, whether there is a low or high competitiveness, the size of an Islamic bank is positively related to financial stability. However, large conventional banks operating in market with limited competitiveness become more involved in the risk behavior. The author concludes that capitalization has a positive effect on stability only in case of low competitiveness. Originality/value - – The originality of this research lies in the application of the stochastic frontier approach (SFA) on the Z-score indicator. This methodology enables to take into account the differences between the current and the optimum stability that each bank can achieve, thus creating a new measure of financial stability called “efficiency-stability”.

Volatility spillovers and dynamic conditional correlation between crude oil and stock market returns

This paper investigates the volatility spillover and the dynamic correlation between crude oil and stock index returns. Monthly returns from January 1997 to December 2010 of the crude oil, oil-importing and oil-exporting stock indices are analysed using three multivariate GARCH specifications specifically the BEKK-GARCH model, the CCC-GARCH model and the DCC-GARCH model. Based on the BEKK-GARCH estimation results, we find strong evidence of volatility spillovers from crude oil to all oil-importing and oil-exporting stock markets. Based on the CCC model, the estimates of conditional correlations for returns across crude oil and market indexes are very low, which means the conditional shocks are correlated only in the same market. Though, the DCC estimates of the conditional correlations are always significant. This finding suggests that the assumption of constant conditional correlations is not supported empirically. The time varying correlations of crude oil and stocks returns do not differ for oil-importer or oil-exporter countries. Oil price shocks seem to have a significant impact on the relationship between oil and stock indices returns in world turmoil periods. The extent of the effect of the 2008 stock market crash on the correlation coefficients is significantly important than those of the previous financial crises.

The risk-capital-efficiency trilogy: A comparative study between Islamic and conventional banks

Based on a matched sample of 34 Islamic banks and 89 conventional ones, the purpose of this paper is to analyze and compare the risk-capital-efficiency interconnection.,Based on the triple square model (3SLS), two major risk measures have been accounted for, namely, the ratio of non-performing loans to total loans (credit risk) and the z-score indicator (risk insolvency). In addition, certain bank-specific factors as well as macroeconomic ones have also been considered in the model.,The reached results appear to reveal that the best capitalized Western banks turn out to be more engaged in an excessive risk-taking behavior, resulting in increased toxic-loan ratios and, simultaneously, a rather shaken stability. Concerning Islamic banks, cost efficiency has proven to have a negative and significant effect on NPLs. However, the capital, technical efficiency, competitiveness and macroeconomic factors turn out to have a significant and positive effect on Islamic banks’ insolvency risk, thus helping promote these banks’ stability.,In addition to the enrichment of literature regarding dual-banking systems, the authors hope the present work would provide a modest contribution to the regulators belonging to the MENA region and Asia with useful results. In particular, the authors recommend developing some management and monitoring tools whereby the risk-taking behavior of highly capitalized conventional banks could be moderated. As a matter of fact, special attention should be paid to the agency problems prevalent within Islamic financial institutions, particularly the best capitalized ones.

Behavioral explanation of contagion between oil and stock markets

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate empirical evidence of behavioral contagion between oil market, US market and stock markets of oil-importing and oil-exporting countries, during the oil shock and US financial crisis period of 2008-2009, after controlling for fundamentals-driven co-movements. Design/methodology/approach – To examine the volatility spillover among oil market and stock markets, the conditional variance of the trivariate BEKK-GARCH model includes three variables: oil returns, US index returns, and the respective individual market returns of 22 oil-importing and exporting countries. The authors estimate the time-varying correlation coefficients between the prediction error of oil market and each stock index. Also, the authors estimate the time-varying correlation coefficients between the prediction error of US market and each stock index. Findings – The estimation of the trivariate BEKK-GARCH model for VIX, oil market and 23 stock markets of oil-importing and oil-exporting countries sug...

Decision making linked to the outsourcing risks

The examination of outsourcing – the purchase of goods or services that were previously provided internally (Lacity and Hirschheim, 1993a) – has been an investigation domain for several years. When we consider the potential gains that can be achieved through outsourcing, most of academic discussions have addressed the questions of ‘why’, ‘what’ and ‘how’ to outsource. This research focuses on ‘what are the risks of outsourcing?’. In fact, certain decisions of outsourcing involve unforeseen risks. So, our goal in this research consists in proposing modes and steps of adaptation to the risks related to the strategies of outsourcing and adapting those within a sample of Tunisian outsourced companies. The suggested assistance to these firms consists in developing an interactive system of decision-making aid which allows them to diminish the effect of risk on success of the strategy.