Paris West University Nanterre La Défense

About: Paris West University Nanterre La Défense is a education organization based out in Paris, France. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Computer science & Politics. The organization has 895 authors who have published 1430 publications receiving 21712 citations.

Procedure of test to compare the tail indices

Abstract: We propose a test procedure which compares the extreme value indices of two samples with heavy tail distributions. On a theoretical point of view, we adopt the minimax nonparametric point of view. We exhibit the separating rate between the null hypothesis and the alternative of our procedure. Next, we present a data driven test methodology and we evaluate its performance thanks to an extensive simulation study. As a practical real-life application, we compare the risk behaviors of a panel of different financial data.

Does the Entry Mode of Foreign Banks Matter for Bank Efficiency? Evidence from Transition Countries

Abstract: This paper investigates the impact of specific modes of entry of foreign banks, i.e. greenfield investment versus merger and acquisition, on bank performance in three transition economies - the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland. We use stochastic frontier analysis to model and measure the cost efficiency of banks. We adopt a maximum likelihood approach to estimation in which the variance of the one-sided error term is modeled jointly with the cost frontier, thus enabling us to retrieve efficiency scores, as well as estimating the various determinants of X-inefficiency. We first find that foreign banks are generally more cost efficient than their domestic counterparts, a result that confirms those of the existing empirical literature. We then turn our focus to comparative performance of greenfield banks versus merger and acquisition banks (M&As), and of M&As versus domestic banks. The results show that on average, M&As are surpassed in terms of efficiency by greenfields banks, but no cost efficiency difference is apparent between M&As and domestic banks. However, we find a strong age effect with respect to M&As which suggests that the evolution of M&As' efficiency follows an inverse U-shape, that means M&As tend to get more inefficient following the acquisition, but approximately 4 years and a haft later, their efficiency starts to improve.

Interethnic Relations and Shared Cultural Idioms: A Case Study of the Xiu Gu Gu Festival in Mainland China and Overseas

Abstract: By using distinct epistemological frameworks, the instrumentalist, transactionalist and constructionist theories of ethnicity emphasize the analysis of inter-group relations. They neglect however the conflation of ideas and values structuring these relations, and notably the idioms of shared cultural meanings which underlie the cooperation and/or competition between interacting groups. The present paper explores this kind of process through a case study of the xiu gu gu ("refining of the orphaned bones"), a festival that the Teochiu of Chaozhou, in northeast Guangdong province, perform periodically. The celebration of this festival in Chaozhou is compared to versions resulting from its adaptation in the sharply contrasted Malay Muslim and Thai Buddhist contexts. In the latter case, close conceptions about malevolent death have led to a fascinating interethnic cooperation, with most of the unfortunate dead whose bones are "refined" during the Teochiu festival being Thai.