Financial economics

Do Islamic banks shift from mark-up to equity financing when their contracting environments are improved? (with Nafis Alam), Applied Economics Letters, 24(8), 545-548, 2017. Download; Working Paper; Abstract

Islamic banks, as their charters require, should share their profits and losses with their customers through equity financing; but they do mark-up financing instead, which is similar to bank loans. Theoretically, one of the reasons is Islamic banks operate in poor contracting environments where equity financing is very risky. Using fixed effects models, we examine what Islamic banks do when the countries they are in reform their economies. We do not find better contracting environments induce Islamic banks to do more equity financing, which suggests that Islamic banks are unlikely to shift from mark-up to equity financing in the near future—they are likely to remain similar to conventional banks.

Investors are unwilling to pay for corporate social responsibility activities: Evidence from India’s Companies Act 2013 (with Saumik Paul), MPRA Paper No. 61360, 2015. Download; Abstract

We examine the effects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities on the values of firms. Using a non-parametric regression discontinuity design, exploiting a natural experiment induced by India’s Companies Act 2013, we find investors devalue the stocks of firms that do CSR activities by 2-5%, which suggests investors are unwilling to pay for CSR activities.

Family hardship and the growth of micro and small firms in Indonesia, Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, 50(1), 53-73, 2014. Download (open access); Working Paper; Abstract

I examine what happens to the total assets of micro and small firms in Indonesia when their owners experience hardship such as the death or sickness of family members, crop losses, or natural disasters. Using a representative sample of firm owners, I find that deaths of family members reduce the assets of such firms, that the adverse effects of these are long-lasting and economically large, and that the smaller the firms the greater the magnitude of these effects. There is no evidence, however, that the sickness of family members, crop losses, or natural disasters reduce firms’ assets. These results suggest that only severe family hardship impedes the growth of micro and small firms.

Bank ownership and efficiency in the aftermath of financial crises: Evidence from Indonesia (with Yohanes E. Riyanto), Review of Development Economics, 18(1), 93-106, 2014. Download (open access); Working Paper; Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between types of ownership of banks and their efficiency in the aftermath of a financial crisis using Greene's “true” panel data stochastic frontier model, which takes into account unobserved heterogeneity among banks. The Indonesian banking sector is analyzed using financial data of 144 banks operating in Indonesia over the period of 2000Q4–2005Q2. In the aftermath of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the cost efficiency of all banks improves over time on average. However, there is some evidence that, as these banks improve their efficiency, state-owned banks are the least efficient banks while joint-venture and foreign-owned banks are the most efficient.

The impact of the strategic sale of restructured banks: Evidence from Indonesia (with Yohanes E. Riyanto), World Development, 40(3), 446–457, 2012. Download; Working Paper; Abstract

We examine the effect of strategic sale, which is the sale of banks to strategic foreign investors, on bank performance. The Government of Indonesia implemented such a policy as part of a bank restructuring in the aftermath of the 1998 banking crisis. Using difference-in-differences models, we find that strategic sale leads to a 12–15% cost reduction. These results are robust to the use of other estimators such as difference-in-differences matching estimators and stochastic-frontier analysis, to that of other performance measures such as return on assets and net interest margin, and to that of different sample types. These results suggest that strategic sale could play an important role in restructuring troubled banks in developing countries.

Do banks respond to capital requirements? Evidence from Indonesia (with Yohanes E. Riyanto), Applied Financial Economics, 21(9), 651-663, 2011. Download; Working Paper; Abstract

Using dynamic panel data models, and addressing a common inappropriate use of simultaneous equation models in the literature, we examine the effect of capital requirements on banks’ behaviour in Indonesia. We find that banks tend to comply with capital requirements by increasing their capital ratios when the ratios are lower than, or falling towards, the 8% regulatory minimum. However, our results are mostly driven by large private-domestic banks and heavily undercapitalized banks that were closely monitored by the regulator in the aftermath of the 1998 crisis. Therefore, whether in normal circumstances banks in Indonesia comply with capital requirements remains questionable.

Exchange rate, monetary and financial issues and policies in Asia (with Ramkishen S. Rajan and Shandre M. Thangavelu), World Scientific, 2008. Google Book; Amazon; Website; Description

A decade has passed since the Asian crisis of 1997–1998 which decimated many of the regional economies. While the crisis itself led to severe economic and political consequences, its primary cause was an inappropriate mix of policies, as regional economies attempted to simultaneously maintain fairly rigid exchange rates (soft US dollar pegs) and monetary policy autonomy in the presence of large-scale capital outflows. The chapters in this volume focus on selected exchange rate, monetary and financial issues and policies that are of contemporary relevance and importance to Asia, including choice of exchange rate regimes, causes and consequences of reserve accumulation, international capital flows, macroeconomic synchronization, and regional monetary and financial cooperation.