Journal of Economics, Management and Trade

Retained-Earnings Capacity and Risk-Adjusted Bank Performance: Evidence from Indonesian Banks

Esti Wiyandari, Bahtiar Usman, Susy Muchtar — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Aims: To evaluate the association between retained earnings relative to equity (retained-earnings capacity) and Risk-Adjusted Return on Capital (RAROC) among listed Indonesian conventional banks.

Study Design: Quantitative longitudinal study using balanced panel data.

Place and Duration of Study: Seventeen conventional banks listed in Indonesia, observed annually from 2013 to 2024.

Methodology: An annual balanced panel of 17 banks (2013–2024; 204 bank-year observations) is analysed using a random-effects specification with bank-specific operating indicators and annual monetary variables. Retained earnings/equity is the focal predictor. The reported estimates rely on model-based standard errors, and the available measurement documentation does not fully specify the RAROC risk-capital calculation.

Results: Retained-earnings capacity is positively associated with RAROC (b = 0.1439, SE = 0.0481, model-based p = .003; standardised β = 0.242). Technology expenditure intensity, loan-to-deposit ratio, nonperforming loans, the agency-cost proxy, and leverage do not reach the 5% significance level. The policy rate has a positive coefficient, and annual rupiah depreciation has a negative coefficient, but inference on these time-varying covariates is especially sensitive to their limited number of distinct annual observations.

Conclusion: Retained earnings/equity shows a positive conditional association with risk-adjusted performance in the analysed sample. This relationship should not be interpreted causally: the contemporaneous design, a potentially shared equity denominator, extreme observations, and incomplete information on economic-capital measurement and panel dependence limit the strength of inference.

The Institutional Logic of Salt Tax Culture in the Lianghuai Region and Its Implications for Contemporary Tax Administration: A Study Based on the Image of Salt Merchants

Xu Yingqian, Zhang Jianjie — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Aims: This study re-examines the institutional dimensions of Lianghuai salt-tax culture by considering the public image of salt merchants, analyses the operation of the salt-tax system during the Qing dynasty, and explores its implications for contemporary tax administration.

Study Design: The study combines historical institutional analysis with a comparative examination of contemporary tax governance.

Methodology: Using historical institutional analysis, the paper examines rules governing market entry, salt-certificate quotas, designated territories, and transferable operating rights, and traces their effects on merchant roles and institutional reform. It then compares the resulting governance mechanisms with selected contemporary tax-administration instruments while noting the limits of the analogy.

Results: Merchants’ commercial activities and income opportunities were shaped by state regulation, market organisation, and the allocation of institutionally granted rights. The state-supervised, merchant-operated system relied on merchants to organise salt distribution and facilitate tax collection, while the capitalisation of operating rights generated opportunities for institutional rents and associated regulatory risks. The Huaibei salt-ticket reform illustrates the importance of adapting administrative arrangements to changing market conditions. Four governance mechanisms emerge: oversight through key transaction nodes, collaboration with market participants, supervision of rights and responsibilities, and institutional adaptation.

Conclusion: Understanding Lianghuai salt merchants requires moving beyond assessments of wealth, privilege, and individual conduct to examine the institutional structures shaping their behaviour. The governance experience embedded in Lianghuai salt-tax culture offers historical insights into identifying dispersed tax bases, collaborating with market participants, defining responsibilities, and improving contemporary tax administration.

Understanding Socio-economic Disparities in North-East India: Evidence from an Inter-state Comparative Study

Purabi Gogoi — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Regional inequality remains an important development concern in India as improvements in national averages can conceal wide differences across states. This paper examines socio-economic disparities among the eight states of North-East India using a descriptive comparative framework. The analysis draws on secondary data on per capita Net State Domestic Product (NSDP), relative per capita income, work participation, unemployment, literacy, gross enrolment, multidimensional poverty, infant mortality and life expectancy. The results show a mixed development pattern rather than a uniform regional pattern. Sikkim and Mizoram perform strongly on several income and social indicators, while Assam, Manipur and Meghalaya continue to face important gaps in particular dimensions. Poverty has declined throughout the region, literacy has improved considerably, and infant mortality has fallen in most states, yet differences in income, labour-market outcomes, educational progression and health remain visible. The findings suggest that regional policy should move beyond a uniform approach and respond to state-specific constraints. Greater emphasis is required on productive employment, human capital, health systems, connectivity, local enterprise and the quality of public service delivery. The study concludes that balanced regional development in North-East India depends not merely on raising aggregate growth, but on reducing persistent gaps in capabilities and access to opportunities across states.

Impact of Work-life Balance on Job Performance and Satisfaction: Evidence from Panchayat Secretaries in Telangana State

N. Naresh Reddy, M. Anuradha Reddy — Sat, 31 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Work–life balance is relevant to employee outcomes, but evidence concerning Panchayat Secretaries in Telangana State remains limited. This study examined the associations of three work–life balance dimensions with job performance and satisfaction among these rural public administrators. This study examines the impact of work-life balance on the job performance and satisfaction of Panchayat Secretaries, a frontline rural administrative cadre in Telangana State, India, whose experience of work-life balance remains largely unexamined in the literature. Design/Methodology: Data were collected from 400 Panchayat Secretaries using a structured questionnaire measuring three distinct dimensions of work-life balance — perception of work-related variables (workplace flexibility, culture, and social support), self-care practices, and institutional work-life balance programmes — alongside an eight-item job performance and satisfaction scale. Data were analysed using Cronbach's alpha, Pearson correlation, and multiple linear regression. Findings: All three work-life balance constructs, taken together, significantly predicted job performance and satisfaction (R² = 0.185, F = 29.14, p < 0.001). However, this relationship was carried specifically by self-care practices (β = 0.335, p < 0.001) and institutional programmes (β = 0.267, p < 0.001); the general perception of work-related variables was not a significant unique predictor (β = −0.021, p = 0.677) once the other two constructs were accounted for. Practical Implications: Organisations seeking to improve employee performance through work-life balance initiatives may achieve more measurable results by investing in concrete, specific-purpose resources — self-care support and named institutional programmes — than by pursuing broad, general improvements to organisational culture alone. Originality: This is among the first studies to disaggregate work-life balance into distinct resource categories and test their differential relationship with job performance among rural public administrators in India.

From the Gangyan System to the Ticket-Based (Piaoyan) Salt System: Salt Administration Reform in Northern Huai during the Qing Dynasty and Its Contemporary Implications

Xu Yingqian, Zhang Jianjie — Mon, 02 Nov 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Aims: To analyse the transition from the gangyan (designated-merchant) arrangement to ticket-based (piaoyan) salt distribution in Northern Huai and to consider carefully delimited implications for tax administration.

Study Design: Qualitative historical and institutional analysis of published primary documents and scholarly interpretations.

Place and Duration: Northern Huai in the Qing Dynasty, especially the Jiaqing and Daoguang reigns, with emphasis on the ticket reform of 1832 and the assessment decision of 1837.

Methods: Reform memorials and salt-administration compilations were examined for changes in trading eligibility, tax and fee arrangements, transport inspections and official accountability. Documentary claims were compared across sources and assessed for their evidentiary limitations.

Results: The reform allowed tax-paying ticket holders to transport salt in specified territories while preserving the state monopoly and inspection requirements. A retrospective account gives an aggregate exceeding 7.7 million taels for accumulated arrears, deficiencies in transport capital and associated liabilities. An imperial record reports a previous quota above 90,000 permits for stagnant territories and more than 100,000 ticket applications during lunar months seven to nine of 1832. These represent different accounting categories, not observed shipment or revenue totals. Contemporary records further describe improvements in tax remittance, but do not permit causal estimation.

Conclusion: The experience illustrates how distribution rights, regulatory procedures and administrative accountability could be jointly adjusted in response to institutional strain. Its relevance to current tax administration is conceptual rather than evidence of policy transfer or causal continuity.

Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Growth in Kenya

Wycliffe Nyaemo Motende — Thu, 05 Nov 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is widely regarded as an important source of capital, technology transfer, employment creation and productivity enhancement in developing economies. Kenya has implemented various measures to attract FDI; however, economic growth has remained unstable, and empirical evidence on the contribution of FDI to growth is mixed. This uncertainty creates a need to reassess the short-run and long-run effects of FDI on Kenya’s economic growth while accounting for domestic capital formation and inflation. The paper investigated the effect of FDI on economic growth in Kenya using annual time-series data from 1990 to 2025. The study employed an ex post facto research design and used the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) method to estimate both the short-run and long-run relationships among economic growth, FDI, gross capital formation and inflation. The unit-root tests indicated a mixed order of integration: economic growth, FDI and inflation were stationary at level, whereas gross capital formation was stationary after first differencing. The bounds test demonstrated the existence of a long-run relationship among the variables. The paper found that the short-run and long-run effects of FDI on economic growth were positive and negative, respectively, and statistically insignificant. Gross capital formation had a positive and significant short-run effect on economic growth but a positive and insignificant long-run effect. Inflation had a significant negative effect on economic growth in both the short run and the long run. The paper concluded that FDI did not contribute significantly to Kenya's economic growth during the study period, whereas domestic capital formation and macroeconomic stability were important for sustaining economic growth.

Export Performance of Uttar Pradesh among Major Indian States: Growth, Share and Instability

Shalini Yadav, Sunil Kumar Niranjan, Arpita Soni — Wed, 11 Nov 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Background: Uttar Pradesh is among India's largest merchandise-exporting states, but evidence comparing its export growth and instability with those of other major exporting states remains limited.

Aims: To examine the merchandise export performance of Uttar Pradesh relative to India and the ten largest exporting states, focusing on growth, its share in India's exports, trend-adjusted export instability and the concentration of India's exports across states.

Study Design: A descriptive comparative study of official state-wise export values in US dollars.

Place and Duration of Study: Uttar Pradesh and the ten largest exporting Indian states, 2014-15 to 2023-24; 2024-25 is reported separately as a sensitivity year.

Methodology: Growth was measured using compound and semi-log rates. The study also measured the state's share in India's exports, trend-adjusted instability with the Cuddy-Della Valle index, and concentration across states with the Herfindahl-Hirschman index.

Results: Uttar Pradesh's exports grew by 4.4% a year compared with 3.9% for India, and its share rose from 4.5% to 4.7%. However, this advantage arose before 2019-20; from 2019-20 to 2023-24 India grew faster (8.7% a year against 4.9%). With 2014-15 as the starting year, its growth ranks sixth among the ten largest exporting states, and comparisons with closely ranked peers depend on the starting year. Its trend-adjusted instability index of 8.2% is below India's 11.4% and is the second lowest among the ten largest states. This ranking holds for deviations from a log-linear trend but not for the raw coefficient of variation. India's export concentration across states fell until 2020-21 and then rose alongside Gujarat's expansion.

Conclusion: Uttar Pradesh's exports grew steadily and with lower trend-adjusted instability than India's, but the state's place in India's export map barely changed. State data for 2024-25 appear to have been affected by a change in attribution and are reported separately as a sensitivity check. The findings are descriptive and do not identify causes.