Assessing the progress of exports diversification in Saudi Arabia: growth-share matrix approach

The purpose of this paper is to provide an analytical analysis of cointegration between Europe and the other significant trading partners, namely US, China, Japan and Australia, for the period from January 1, 2010 to December 30, 2016. This captures the impact of the sovereign European debt crisis and the Greek crisis. A range of parametric techniques were adopted including Johansen cointegration analysis, Vector Error Correction Model and Granger causality. The results of the crisis Granger causality test during the European sovereign crisis implies the highest influence to be that of the US and Japanese stock market over the other four markets. Overall, found that the Asia-Pacific region plus the US stay closely related to each other, while European countries influence all the studied markets except each other. For the post-crisis sub-period, the Granger causality is slightly different. It is observable that the UK and Germany are influencing all the markets. This is probably due to the recent Brexit referendum outcome and potential consequences not only for the EU, but also for the rest of the world too. Overall, the Granger outcome shows the dependence between Europe and other global markets, but there is no European interdependence during the sovereign debt crisis period. It may be concluded that there is a separation of Asian markets from the European markets and even though cointegration exists, the relationship is rather weak.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows to Vietnam have increased significantly in recent years. Theoretically, capital inflows will put pressure on the overvaluation of local currencies in countries, despite different exchange rate mechanisms. So, the problem facing the Vietnamese government is the need to examine the relationship between the exchange rate and FDI in order to develop effective policies. This study examined the relationship between the exchange rate and FDI in Vietnam in the period of 2005–2019 using the VAR (vector autoregression) model based on quarterly frequency data. The new points of this study are: (i) using the real effective exchange rate (REER) of the Vietnamese currency with 143 major trading partners of Vietnam; and (ii) adding two control variables into the VAR model to examine the relationship between the exchange rate and FDI in Vietnam – a case study for developing countries. The findings show that, firstly, there is a positive causal relationship between FDI and Vietnam’s real effective exchange rate. Secondly, trade openness has a positive impact on FDI and REER in Vietnam. Thirdly, economic growth has an impact on REER, but no statistically significant impact on FDI was found. The findings can provide useful information to help policymakers plan and make decisions on future policies and support further research studies.

This study investigates the causal relationship between bank personnel ratio and the cost-income ratio based on performance in Nigeria for the period of 2004–2015. Secondary data collected on a cross section of 15 banks during this period was analyzed using panel unit root, cointegration and Granger causality techniques. A unit root test revealed that the variables are stationary at order one. The result further shows there is an equilibrium relationship or stability in the short and long run; furthermore, there is a bidirectional causal relationship between personnel ratio and cost-income ratio. Therefore, the study recommends that the apex bank should enforce policies in the banking sector that will minimize the unit cost of operation – even though they might hire more staff. This is to enhance the stability of the banks in Nigeria and to avoid any threat to their continuity.