This study investigates the determinants of profitability among Indian commercial banks from 2005 to 2024, with a specific focus on the novel role of dynamic growth efficiency (GE), a concept capturing a bank's ability to transform input growth into output growth, alongside conventional static efficiency measures such as level efficiency (LE) and cost-to-income ratio (CIR). As the first to operationalize GE in the Indian context, the study employs data envelopment analysis (DEA) on a panel dataset of 50 commercial banks (12 public, 17 private, and 21 foreign). Results from a system GMM estimator reveal GE to be a consistently significant driver of profitability, outperforming both LE and CIR across various market power indicators and model specifications. A key methodological advance supporting this analysis is the inclusion of technology expenditures (which account for 29% of operating and 13% of total expenses in 2024) as a fundamental input, correcting a major misspecification in prior literature. We demonstrate that omitting this crucial input artificially inflates market power and deflates efficiency estimates. The positive impact of GE is more pronounced for public-sector and new private banks, underscoring divergent strategic drivers across ownership structures and highlighting the paramount importance of fostering dynamic capabilities for sustaining profitability in a rapidly evolving banking landscape.
The first observation of the doubly charmed baryon $\itΞ_{cc}^+$ is reported through its decay to the $\itΛ_c^+ K^-π^+$ final state, with a statistical significance exceeding seven standard deviations. The observation is made using proton-proton collision data collected in 2024 with the LHCb Run 3 detector at a center-of-mass energy of 13.6 TeV, corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of $6.9\,\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$. The $\itΞ_{cc}^+$ mass is measured to be $3619.97 \pm 0.83 \pm 0.26 \,^{+1.90}_{-1.30}\,\mathrm{MeV}/c^2$, where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second is systematic, and the third is due to the unknown $\itΞ_{cc}^+$ lifetime, which is assumed to lie in the range 15-160 fs with a baseline value of 45 fs. The difference between the masses of the $\itΞ_{cc}^+$ and $\itΞ_{cc}^{++}$ baryons is determined to be $-1.77 \pm 0.84 \pm 0.15 \,^{+1.90}_{-1.30}\,\mathrm{MeV}/c^2$. This is the first observation of a new particle made with the LHCb Run 3 detector.
A measurement of the flavour-untagged decay-time-integrated ${C\!P}$ asymmetry in the flavour-specific decay ${B_s^0 \to D_s^-π^+}$, ${\langle A^s_{\rm untagged}\rangle}$, is performed using proton-proton collision data collected by the LHCb experiment between 2016 and 2018 at a center-of-mass energy of ${13\,{\rm TeV}}$, corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of ${5.4\,{\rm fb}^{-1}}$. The ${C\!P}$ asymmetry is measured in two $D_s^-$ meson decay modes, ${D_s^- \to K^-K^+π^-}$ and ${D_s^- \to π^-π^+π^-}$. The combined result, $\langle A^s_{\rm untagged}\rangle = ( -1.4 \pm 5.9\,\rm{(stat)} \pm 1.1\,\rm{(syst)}) \times 10^{-3}$, is consistent with the Standard Model expectation and provides a direct constraint on new physics in tree-level $b$-hadron decays.
A search for the rare decays $B_{(s)}^0\to J/ψγ$ is performed with proton-proton collision data collected by the LHCb experiment, corresponding to integrated luminosities of $3~\rm{fb}^{-1}$ at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV, and $6~\rm{fb}^{-1}$ at 13 TeV. Assuming no contribution from $B^0\to J/ψγ$ decay, an upper limit is set on the branching fraction $\mathcal{B}(B_{s}^0\to J/ψγ)<2.9\times10^{-6}$ at the 90% confidence level. If instead no contribution from $B_{s}^0\to J/ψγ$ decay is assumed, the limit is $\mathcal{B}(B^0\to J/ψγ)<2.5\times10^{-6}$ at the 90% confidence level. These results supersede the previous LHCb results, with the limit for $B_{s}^0\to J/ψγ$ improved by a factor of 2.5.
This study employs Dynamic Conditional Correlation (DCC) multivariate GARCH model
to comparatively analyse the impact of uncertainty (VIX, VSTOXX) on liquidity dynamics across the
US (Dow Jones, Oil) and EU (STOXX, Oil) markets, focusing on asset classes critical to capitalintensive
sectors (equity and crude oil liquidity). Results reveal a fundamental structural divergence
in cross-asset relationships. The US market exhibits a strong, persistent positive correlation between
Equity and Oil liquidity (ranging 0.20 to 0.50), indicating a highly integrated US energy-equity
relationship. In contrast, the EU market maintains a near-zero correlation in this pair, suggesting
greater structural separation and enhanced diversification potential. Furthermore, systemic
uncertainty, while weakly correlated with liquidity during quiescent periods, only triggers
temporary negative liquidity shocks during acute fluctuations.
Dante Ayaviri Nina, Gabith Quispe Fernández, Alba Isabel Maldonado Núñez
et al.
Los sistemas productivos, en el contexto rural, adquieren una importancia desde la perspectiva social y económica; su abordaje como un fenómeno de estudio permite observar e identificar debilidades y oportunidades en el accionar de la actividad productiva local. Así, el sistema productivo del cantón Guano en Ecuador es un conjunto estructurado de actividades agrícolas, pecuarias y, en menor proporción, industrial. La investigación pretende determinar las estrategias de generación de unidades de negocios en la actividad productiva rural del cantón Guano, se apoya en un método de investigación no experimental, de tipo descriptivo, y asume un enfoque cualitativo y cuantitativo. La muestra fue de 244 productores de una población de 21 851. Para la obtención de datos, se aplicó una encuesta con preguntas de tipo dicotómica, estructurada y de escala de Likert. Los resultados reflejan que la organización familiar, la inversión y los incentivos al sector productivo rural son las estrategias que contribuyen de forma significativa en el establecimiento de unidades productivas. En consecuencia, es relevante la importancia de las unidades productivas en el desarrollo rural del cantón Guano.
Economics as a science, Economic history and conditions
Given the significant role that banks play in the global economy and the inherent risks they encounter in their day-to-day operations, studying operational risk management in banks is crucial. The purpose of this research is to comprehend the operational risk management challenges in banks, mainly focusing on human errors and management response to them, as human factors often play an important role in operational failures. The aim of this paper is to investigate the governance cultures and operational risk management strategies of banks, to identify the gaps in risk mitigation activities and controls and to determine the improvements needed to minimize human errors. This research aims to provide prospective operational risk management solutions for banks by gathering and analysing survey data from finance sector employees worldwide as well as empirical information, making the topic practical. Factors influencing operational risk management form the basis of the qualitative method used in this study. The main findings indicate that management’s attitude towards human errors and the role of risk governance structures, such as risk committees and internal control functions, have significant relationships with the reasons for human errors in banks and thus have an impact on operational risk management in banks. Banks need to examine their risk management frameworks; evaluate the standard reactions of bank management to human error, such as root cause analysis, incident investigation, and planning for corrective action; strengthen their working policies; integrate more lessons learned from sessions and training; re-evaluate their internal controls; and analyse their escalation procedures. Studying management response to human errors and key controls in banks has several practical implications for organizations. First, insights from this research can help banks enhance their risk management practices, identify their weaknesses, improve their internal controls, and put preventive measures in place to reduce the possibility and consequences of human errors. Second, a positive safety culture can be promoted by encouraging open collaboration, accountability and learning from mistakes. Third, enhancing employee improvement and training can be achieved by understanding the needs of employee development based on the insights from this study. Finally, studying management responses to human errors can help banks oversee compliance with regulatory reporting standards, investigation protocols, and corrective measure specifications.
Economics as a science, Marketing. Distribution of products
Mădălina Maria Brezuleanu, Carmen Olguta Brezuleanu
Wellbeing is an indicator of the quality of life and depending on the duration and intensity of wellbeing we can characterize how our existence as human beings is of a better or less good quality. The COVID-19 pandemic has left everyone on the planet facing issues they've never faced before. We insist on the negative psychological implications. Well-beinghas been known since 1561 and means “the state of being happy, healthy or prosperous: WELL-BEING” (Merriam-Webster.comdictionary). SWB, in fact, is “a broad category of phenomena that includes people's emotional responses, domain satisfactions, and global judgments of life satisfaction” (Diener et al., 1999: p. 277). Specifically, the reported SWB consists of two distinct components (cf. Diener, 1994: p. 106): an affective part, which refers to both the presence of a positive affect (PA) and the absence of negative affect (NA), and a cognitive part (Diener, 2000, Subjective well-being: The science of happiness and a proposal for a national index, American Psychologist, 55(1), 34).
Economic theory. Demography, Economics as a science
The authors of the article analyze the reasons for the rapid development and implementation of artificial intelligence achievements, which opens up great opportunities for solving problems in many industries and is a reliable assistant to people in everyday life. The article analyses different approaches to the definition of "artificial intelligence", possible threats to humanity from its implementation, and focuses on the need to increase the responsibility of developers of programs, algorithms, systems and strengthen control over the work of users of equipment and devices with elements of artificial intelligence. People around the world have long been dependent on technical inventions and devices. The achievements of artificial intelligence provide people with convenience and comfortable conditions. The development of intelligent machines is an important area of scientific and technological progress. Artificial intelligence technologies contribute to solving many problems related to various areas of life, including the economy. Today, artificial intelligence is a global trend in technology development and innovation. Advances in computing power, the ability to collect and process huge amounts of information, and instant access to the latest algorithms are important prerequisites for the evolution of intelligent technologies. The development of sophisticated computers and robots poses risks to the world’s people. Without the use of artificial intelligence, the development of scientific and technological progress is impossible. Key words: artificial intelligence, the achievement of civilization, a threat to humanity, strengthening control over the operation of machines. Therefore, the development of intelligent machines and devices must continue, but with the warnings of global authorities who warn of the existing threat to humanity.
MOHAMMAD EHSANIFAR, Associate Professor Ph.D, FATEMEH DEKAMINI, Ph.D, MOEIN KHAZAEI, Ph.D
et al.
The current research was conducted with the topic of investigating the effect of cultural, economic and technological
factors on the risk management of construction companies in Iran. This research was applied in terms of purpose and
descriptive-survey in terms of method. The statistical population of this research is: senior managers and engineers of
grade 1 construction companies in Iran, of which 120 people were selected as a sample through sampling in available
was selected and a researcher-made questionnaire was distributed among them and they were asked to rate each item
according to its importance from one (lowest) to five (highest). To analyze the data, partial least squares technique was
used with the help of SmartPLS software, and the results showed that cultural and economic factors do not affect the
risk management of Iran construction companies, but technological factors have an effect on the risk management of
Iran construction companies.
Commercial geography. Economic geography, Economics as a science
LHCb collaboration, R. Aaij, A. S. W. Abdelmotteleb
et al.
The branching fraction of the rare decay $Λ_{b}^{0}\to Λ(1520) μ^{+}μ^{-}$ is measured for the first time, in the squared dimuon mass intervals, $q^2$, excluding the $J/ψ$ and $ψ(2S)$ regions. The data sample analyzed was collected by the LHCb experiment at center-of-mass energies of 7, 8, and 13 TeV, corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of $9\ \mathrm{fb}^{-1}$. The result in the highest $q^{2}$ interval, $q^{2} >15.0\ \mathrm{GeV}^2/c^4$, where theoretical predictions have the smallest model dependence, agrees with the predictions.
LHCb collaboration, R. Aaij, A. S. W. Abdelmotteleb
et al.
Correlations of same-sign charged particles are analysed using proton-lead collision data collected by the LHCb experiment at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.06 nb-1. Bose-Einstein correlations are observed in the form of an enhancement of pair production for same-sign charged pions with a small four-momentum difference squared. The dependence of the correlation radius and the intercept parameter on the reconstructed charged-particle multiplicity is investigated. The measured correlation radii scale linearly with the cube root of the reconstructed charged-particle multiplicity, being compatible with predictions of hydrodynamic models on the collision system evolution.
Nature (one’s genes) and nurture (one’s environment) jointly contribute to the formation and evolution of health and human capital over the life cycle. This complex interplay between genes and environment can be estimated and quantified using genetic information readily available in a growing number of social science data sets. To help the novice reader interested in understanding individual decision making, public policy, and inequality using genetic data, we introduce essential genetic terminology, review the literature in economics and social-science genetics—with a focus on the interplay between genes and environment—and discuss policy implications and future prospects of the use of genetic data in the social sciences and economics.
Igor Anatol’evich Kalmykov, Artem Bronislavovich Sarkisov, Ekaterina Mihaylovna Yakovleva
et al.
Computational systolic model for orthogonal signal transformation in extended Galois GF(pv) fields based on polynomial system of residue classes is examined. Modular codes' ability to increase fault-tolerant characteristics is proven.
Purpose In a dynamic environment, understanding the consumer’s behavior in an online market is critical for the development of online retailers’ strategies. In Egypt, although the number of internet users is growing rapidly, online shopping is at an early stage of development. In addition, there is a lack of knowledge about the behavior of Egyptians toward online shopping and the factors that influence their behavior. Design/methodology/approach To demonstrate the applicability of the technology acceptance model (TAM), this research applies an extended TAM to analyze the factors that impact the Egyptian consumers’ online shopping behavior. Structural equation modeling is used for fitting the data and testing the hypothesis. Findings Findings revealed that perceived enjoyment, perceived ease of use, social norm and perceived risk have significant influences on the respondents to shop online; while the site language effect was insignificant. Research limitations/implications This study has mainly four limitations. The first concerning the sample, it should cover diversified areas other than Cairo and should include respondents from different education levels. Future studies may consider using a national sample of current and potential online shoppers to be able to generalize the results. Second, the questionnaire should include questions about the levels of education and the level of income to analyze if they influence actual online shopping. Third, although the benefits of using online surveys such as reducing the costs and time and collecting data more accurately compared to paper-pencil surveys, the low response rate may lead to non-response bias. Finally, constructs such as website content, design, and response could be added to the TAM to examine different aspects of website functionalities on the actual shopping. Originality/value Considering that online shopping is still at the early stage of development in Egypt, there is a need to examine the factors that influence the behavior of Egyptian consumers while adopting online shopping. To fill in this gap, this study is analyzing the factors impacting the consumers’ decisions to shop online by examining a sample of students from the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University. This study will contribute to providing an empirical application of the TAM on the Egyptian consumers in addition to, enhancing the knowledge of electronic retailers about the factors that drive consumers toward shopping online.
Today, information technology plays a special role in the development of business entities, creating new promising management areas, making it possible to optimize business processes and positively affect the operation quality and general efficiency of enterprises. This fact contributes to the scientists’ interest in conducting research in e-business as a new, promising area of economic activity. Given the relevance of this research area, the article considers theories describing the formation and development of e-business as a whole system. Using methodological apparatus of the systemic approach as a universal concept of perceiving systems of different nature, the article formulates its own interpretation of the "e-business system" category. The latter is suggested to be considered as a holistic, single object of study. a set of relationships between economic entities occurring in the process of buying, selling, producing and exchanging goods and services due to the use of information and communication technologies, having its own purpose and complex structure, and interacting with other environmental systems. A model of such a system has also been designed. In addition, the article considers the structural features of such a system. To do this, attributes for grouping the main elements in the e-business system are identified, namely: the content attribute (the method of separating the components of this system depending on economic activities that can be attributed to e-business) and the subjectivity attribute (studying e-business areas by analyzing the peculiarities of the relationship between individual economic entities). Their essence and the corresponding components of the specified system, which are identified based on these attributes, are considered
The preponderance of matter over antimatter in the early universe, the dynamics of the supernovae that produced the heavy elements necessary for life, and whether protons eventually decay -- these mysteries at the forefront of particle physics and astrophysics are key to understanding the early evolution of our universe, its current state, and its eventual fate. DUNE is an international world-class experiment dedicated to addressing these questions as it searches for leptonic charge-parity symmetry violation, stands ready to capture supernova neutrino bursts, and seeks to observe nucleon decay as a signature of a grand unified theory underlying the standard model. Central to achieving DUNE's physics program is a far detector that combines the many tens-of-kiloton fiducial mass necessary for rare event searches with sub-centimeter spatial resolution in its ability to image those events, allowing identification of the physics signatures among the numerous backgrounds. In the single-phase liquid argon time-projection chamber (LArTPC) technology, ionization charges drift horizontally in the liquid argon under the influence of an electric field towards a vertical anode, where they are read out with fine granularity. A photon detection system supplements the TPC, directly enhancing physics capabilities for all three DUNE physics drivers and opening up prospects for further physics explorations. The DUNE far detector technical design report (TDR) describes the DUNE physics program and the technical designs of the single- and dual-phase DUNE liquid argon TPC far detector modules. Volume IV presents an overview of the basic operating principles of a single-phase LArTPC, followed by a description of the DUNE implementation. Each of the subsystems is described in detail, connecting the high-level design requirements and decisions to the overriding physics goals of DUNE.