Determinants of the Technical Efficiency Performance of Privatized Manufacturing Firms in Nigeria: An Econometric Analysis (Published)
This work is designed to empirically evaluate the determinants of the technical efficiency of ten privatized manufacturing firms in Nigeria. The firms were selected from the numerous firms in the four geo political zones to represent the interest of the entire country due to their age long establishment, size and government equity investment in them. The study adopted Data envelopment analysis (DEA) and ordinary least square regression as the techniques of analysis and the period of analysis is five years before and five years after privatization. The efficiency scores generated from the first stage using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was used as dependent variables in the second stage against a set of explanatory variables. The investigation revealed that concentration ratio, size and age of firms were considered as determinant of technically efficiency. It also shows that, concentration ratio will lead to higher monopoly power, with age firms gain experience and with size, firms gain more strength to control or have a larger share of the market. It is recommended that there should be market competition with liberalization of entry conditions, in order to terminate monopoly and allow for new entrants to make operations competitive for production. This will be in line with the industrialization policy.
Keywords: Determinants, Nigeria, Privatized Manufacturing firms, Technical Efficiency
THE DETERMINANTS OF TAX EVASION IN PAKISTAN-A CASE STUDY OF SOUTHERN PUNJAB (Published)
Every citizen is legally bound to pay tax to the government to enable to meet its expenditures to discharge its obligations regarding defense, education, public health, law and justice, infrastructure etc. In most of the countries, tax revenue is a major source of government income. Taxes also play a very important role in the economic development of a country. Tax evasion is concerned with all unlawful activities which are adopted by the taxpayers in order to escape from the payment of tax. The objective of this study is to probe the determinants (causes) of tax evasion in Pakistan from both tax payers and tax collectors point of view. In order to record the views of both tax payers and tax collectors the author has collected data from 150 respondents through two separate structured questionnaires. The data collected through this method has been analyzed through different statistical techniques such as arithmetic mean, percentages, standard deviation, t-tests, ANOVA etc. The results highlight six main cause of tax collection: unproductive expenditures / misuse of funds, anti-tax culture, corrupt tax administration, multiple & higher tax rates, complex tax system and amnesties and incentives for tax evaders. The author has also made certain recommendations to combat tax evasion problem and submitted suggestions to improve tax collection in order to ensure financial independence of Pakistan.
Keywords: Determinants, Pakistan, Tax Collector’s point of view, Tax Evasion, Taxpayer
The Determinants of Foreign Reserves in Nigeria (Review Completed - Accepted)
It has been seen that Foreign exchange reserves adequacy is a key component of good macroeconomic management. The modified version of the buffer stock model was applied to assess the determinants of foreign reserve in Nigeria. The study regressed foreign reserve variable on macroeconomic variables: real income, interest rate differential (a measure of opportunity cost), exchange rate volatility, financial openness, current account vulnerability, benchmark stock of reserves, and the demand for foreign exchange. In order to avoid any spurious regression results, the time series data from 1970 -2010 was subjected to stationarity tests. The ADF cointegration procedure used suggested the existence of long run relationships. Hence, the short run dynamics was examined by means of an error correction model. The empirical evidence shows that growth in Nigeria’s foreign reserves is not influenced in the long run by current account vulnerability (proxied by trade opennes), the opportunity cost of holding reserves (DID) and the benchmark stock of reserves but by other determinants such as the real Gross Domestic Products (Y), exchange rate volatility (Ev), financial openness (Fop), and the demand for foreign exchange (DFex).
Keywords: Benchmark, Buffer Stock, Cointegration, Determinants, Error Correction, Foreign Reserves, Long-Run, Short-Run