The Journal of Economic Concerns

Bank Interest Rates and Deposit Growth in Nepal

Arjun Bahadur Pathak — Sat, 31 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Nepalese banking is characterized by the fragmented system where different classes of banks and financial institutions operate simultaneously. Recently, sluggish deposit growth leads to tighter Credit to Deposit Ratio (CD-ratio) and banks suffer from deficit of loanable funds. Immediate response of banks at the time of shortfall of deposit is increasing deposit interest rate. Does bank’s strategy of increasing deposit rate work? This is key question of this paper. This study aims to find the interest elasticity of bank deposit in Nepalese commercial banks. Monthly average data of deposit and interest are used for the purpose of analysis and the result shows unitary elasticity of interest rate. Bank deposit and bank’s liquid assets holding have highly significant negative relationship. This study reveals weak association of interest rate change and deposit growth. Banks are recommended to increase banking access and enhance better banking services for sustainable deposit growth.

FDI and Total Factor Productivity Nexus in Nepal

Raghu Bir Bista — Sat, 31 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This study empirically investigates the impact of FDI on the TFP growth of firms in Nepal from 1990 to 2018, employing an econometric model based on the Cobb-Douglass production function and a theoretical Solow model of the TFP growth accounting method. The study used a time series database (1990–2018). As a result, the econometric and non-parametric TFP estimations provide mostly positive TFP growth of FDI firms in Nepal, except for a few cases influenced by political and security disturbances. Positive TFP growth in almost years indicates increased productivity of FDI firms at a lower than expected level, despite the fact that FDI firms are still constrained by problems such as massive inferior labor, no significant technological and financial transfer, and a poor business environment. Issues of continuity and stability between the two periods indicate the unpredictable situation of productivity. Therefore, FDI policy framework should focus on output and outcomes to invite FDI rather than FDI size, nature, and source.

Awareness of Household Energy Consumption and its Impact on the Environment: A case of Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

Bhintuna Vaidya, Keshav Raj Panthee, Jeeban Amgain — Sat, 31 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The purpose of this paper is to assess the situation as it currently exists and the environmental impacts of household energy consumption in Nepal's urban setting. The paper makes several recommendations for joint environmental regulation and sustainable energy consumption. The study evaluated the level of sustainable energy consumption and examined the extent and composition of household energy use in urban areas based on questionnaire survey data. The findings indicate that electricity is the primary means of lighting, and LPG is the primary means of cooking. The findings also demonstrated that only a minority of those living in the Kathmandu Valley exhibit energy conservation behaviors and are cognizant of environmental effects like climate change. The overall energy consumption in urban areas is positively influenced by both population density and income levels. It is crucial to implement appropriate measures, such as optimizing the renewable resource and enhancing energy usage efficiency through technological advancement, in order to meet the goal of emission reduction and sustainable energy consumption.

Herding to Market Consensus: An Empirical Investigation of its Presence in Nepal Stock Exchange

Aman Rijal — Sat, 31 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The study examines herd formation in Nepalese equity market. The study uses linear regression models including quadratic variant to model the relationship between return dispersion of individual scrips and aggregate market return for finding the herding behavior. The study does not find presence of herding. On the contrary, when presence of herding is tested for bearish and bullish trend, herd formation is detected in bullish trend. The study supports the notion that Nepalese equity market is prone to behavioral biases leading to pricing inefficiencies. The findings of the study can be helpful to make policies to protect retail investors from downside risk arising from these behavioral biases.

Perception of Relationship Marketing in Commercial Bank: Empirical Evidence from Kathmandu Val

Sat, 31 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Network based relationship marketing in commercial bank continues to be crucial, where success or failure is directly related to staff. Only when quality of relationship is stable and engaged, customer satisfaction and customer engagement will be connected with discovering new solutions for existing and future markets to sell the banking product. Therefore, this study tries to understand perception of relationship marketing in commercial bank of Kathmandu Valley. The explanatory research design was used with the essence of network-based theory. The data was evaluated quantitatively by using descriptive and inferential analysis by using structured questionnaire method using KOBO toolbox. SEM was applied to analyze the relationship from sample of 204 responses in Kathmandu Valley. Findings reveal that banks are aware about the relationship marketing practices and depict that there is significant relationship between bonding, trust and communication to customer satisfaction. Therefore, banking workers feel that trust, bonding, communication, shared values and empathy are critical factors in relationship marketing.

Expanding Access to Finance for Small and Medium Enterprises: An Analysis of Demand and Supply Side Constraints of Nepal

Jeebanath Adhikari — Sat, 31 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The objective of this article is to analyze the constraints on expanding access to finance with a special reference to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Nepal. Following explorative research design, tools like review of literature, field observations, key informant interview with Banks and Financial Institutions (BFIs), and a quick questionnaire survey with SMEs in hilly districts of Nepal were deployed to collect data for this article. The descriptive statistics showed the financing gap very clearly. The constraints of SMEs on access to finance are found in policy and operational levels on both the demand and supply sides. There is a huge scope of modern technology to reduce the constraints towards expanding access to finance for SMEs in rural areas. The major constraints area includes the policy measures, lending approach and use of technology, rate of interest, availability of collateral with SMEs, risk-mitigating measures, the position of financial literacy, stage of SMEs’ market development and their business incomes, regulatory compliances, general price level, and development of the physical infrastructures.

Factors Influencing Stock Price Variability of Commercial Banks in Nepal

Joginder Goet, Kiran Kharel — Sat, 31 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This study investigates the impact of variables such as Dividends Per Share (DPS), Earnings Per Share (EPS), Price-Earnings Ratio (PER), and Net Worth Per Share on the Market Price Per Share of Nepalese commercial banks. The panel data (40 observations) of four commercial banks have been used to assess the association and impact of determinants of stock price behavior. In this study, secondary panel data covering ten years (2011/2012-2020/2021) has been used. According to the findings of this study, Earnings per share has a significant positive relationship with the Dividends Per Share and Price-Earnings Ratio but a negligible positive relationship with Market Price Per Share, Earnings Per Share, and Net Worth Per Share of commercial banks.

Cognitive Ergonomics on Employee Wellbeing: A Literature Review

Ranjana Koirala, Kiran Maharjan — Sat, 31 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Ergonomics is a strategy to reduce occupational disease rates and improving general working conditions for employees in order to improve productivity. Employee participation is often suggested to improve employees’ relations to the organization. Research shows that ergonomics adoption on workplace to enhance the productivity level by reducing health related problem and building employee friendly work environment is milestone to enhance employee performance. However, it is less known in context of Nepal. This study aims to explore cognitive ergonomics on employee wellbeing. For this study, research papers are exhaustively selected from scientific databases like Scopus, Web of Science, Science Direct and Google Scholar by developing criteria for each component to ensure the idea goes in-depth and analyzes the roles of the importance of cognitive ergonomics in promoting employee performance. In the process of paper selection, we set a criterion that the paper should directly or indirectly comprise cognitive ergonomics on employee wellbeing. The papers available in the database from 2000 to 2022 are mostly reviewed in order to complete this study. This study concludes that cognitive ergonomics is a subset of the greater subject of human factors and ergonomic sciences; however, it is still a relatively untapped resource for enhancing employee wellbeing. If planned effectively, cognitive ergonomics may make major contributions to increasing job performance, lean operations, productivity, and, ultimately, establishing safer and healthier workplaces in the industry.