School of Management

Dr Meryem Duygun Fethi

Lecturer in Finance
Co-ordinator of Efficiency and Productivity Research Unit
Programme Leader - MSc in Accounting & Finance
Programme Leader - MSc in Management, Accounting & Finance

T: +44 (0) 116 252 5328
F: +44 (0) 116 252 5515
E: m.fethi@le.ac.uk

Office: Room 327, Ken Edwards Building.
Office Hours: Wednesdays & Fridays 10.00-11.00

Brief Biography

Meryem Duygun Fethi is a lecturer and coordinator of the research unit, EPRU at the University of Leicester School of Management (ULSM). Meryem is an economist and she completed her postgraduate degrees as an ODA and Commonwealth scholar at the University of Leicester. She has been researching and teaching at the ULSM since 1996. She is also coordinating the EURO Working Group on Efficiency and Productivity Analysis and the UKEPAN (UK Efficiency and Productivity Analysis Network).

Research Interests

Meryem's major research fields are efficiency and productivity analysis, banking and finance and quantitative modelling. She is currently collaborating with international scholars on various research projects:

• Applying several competing approaches to measure world productivity by using aggregate country data from UNIDO's World Productivity.
• Productivity performance of international airlines industry.
• Performance assessment in the banking sectors of transition & emerging markets.
• Determining the future financial hubs using productivity methodology.
• Analysing undeclared economy in the EU regions using Eurobarometer 2007 survey data.
• Revisit the nexus between the development of financial markets and economic growth.
• Governance and ownership effects on the efficiency of the World Insurance Companies.
• Market risk quantification in particular applying Extreme Value Theory to quantify market risk in emerging markets.

Selected Recent and Forthcoming Publications (2006-2009)

Williams, C., Kedir, A. Fethi, M.D. Illegitimate Wage Practices in Southeast Europe: An Evaluation of "Envelope Wages", Balkanistica, Forthcoming in 2011.

Fethi, M.D., Shaban, M. and Weyman-Jones, T.G. Liberalisation, Privatisation and the Productivity of Egyptian banks: a non-parametric approach. Services Industry Journal, Forthcoming.

Fethi, M.D. and Pasiouras, F. (2009). Assessing bank efficiency and performance with operational research and artificial intelligence techniques: A survey. European Journal of Operational Research. doi:10.1016/j.ejor.2009.08.003.

Katircioglu, S.T., Fethi, S. and Fethi, M.D. (2008) Twin deficits phenomenon in small islands: an empirical investigation by panel data analysis. Applied Economics Letters. doi: 10.1080/13504850701578850.

Fethi, M. D., Fethi, S. and Katircioglu, S.T. (2008) Does Trade Policy Matter in an Isolated Economy: The Case of North Cyprus, 1978Q1-2002Q4. Economia Internazionale. Vol. LXI, 4, 637-664.

Fethi, M.D., Jackson, P.M. and Weyman-Jones, T.G. (2008) Productivity Growth and Structural Changes in Airlines: A distance function approach. International Journal of Business Performance Management. Vol. 10, 4, 391-411.

Fethi, M. D., Fethi, S. and Katircioglu, S.T. (2006) Estimating the Size of the Cypriot Underground Economy: A Comparison with European Experience, International Journal of Manpower, 27, 6.

Selected Recent Conference Presentations (2006-2009)

Fethi, M.D., Isaksson, A. and Sickles, R. Measuring World Productivity. EWEPA 2009, Pisa Italy, 23-26 June, 2009.

Fethi, M.D. and Shaban, M. The Banking Sectors in the World Financial Centres: Are they Really Efficient? EWEPA 2009, Pisa Italy, 23-26 June, 2009.

Fethi, M.D., Shaban, M and Weyman-Jones, T.G. "The Impact of Environmental Factors on Bank Efficiency: A Parametric Analysis of Liberalized Egyptian Banks", North American Productivity Workshop, Stern School of Business, New York University 24-27 June, 2008.

Fethi, M.D., Shaban, M and Weyman-Jones, T. G. Financial liberalisation, privatisation and productivity in banking: the experience of two emerging economies, The FENFE Meeting, Lille, 25 February, 2008.

Barca, M., Ozcan, K. Fethi, M.D. Intersection points of Turkey to the knowledge economy: perspectives from the macro and micro viewpoints, 6th Knowledge, Economy & Management Congress, Istanbul, Turkey, 26-28 December, 2007.

Fethi, M.D., Lozano-Vivas, A., Kumbhakar, S., Shaban, M. "Bank Consolidation and Loan Prices in European Banking: Is there a Cause for Concern for Borrowers?" XVI International "Tor Vergata" Conference on Banking and Finance on "European Financial Markets Integration, Institutional Convergences and Public Debt Policies" Rome, Italy, 5-7 December 2007.

Lozano-Vivas, A., Kumbhakar, S. Fethi, M.D., Shaban, M. Consolidation in the European Banking Industry: How Effective is it? EWEPA, Lille, 27-30 June, 2007.

Fethi, M.D., Shaban, M and Weyman-Jones, T. G. Generalized Malmquist Productivity Measurement in the Banking Systems of Two Emerging Economies. Hellenic Workshop on Productivity & Efficiency Measurement, University of Patras, Greece, June 16-18, 2006.

Lozano-Vivas, A., Kumbhakar, S. Fethi, M.D., Shaban, M. Effectiveness of Consolidation in the European Banking Industry, North American Productivity Workshop IV, New York University, 27-30 June, 2006.

Fethi, M.D., Shaban, M and Weyman-Jones, T. G. Financial Liberalisation, Privatisation and Productivity in Banking: the Experience of Two Emerging Economies. Asia-Pacific Productivity Conference, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea. August 17-19, 2006.

Research Funding

• International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), £2225, April, 2008.
• Avmark, $350 (10% reduction in historical data), June, 2008.
• British Academy Conference Grants, £1467, December, 2006.

Visiting Fellows to EPRU for Research Collaboration

Prof Robin Sickles (Rice, US) 2008.
Ms. Pi-Lien Chen (Executive Yuan, Taiwan) 2008.
Assoc Prof Mehmet Barca (Sakarya, Turkey) 2007.
Dr Kerim Ozcan (Afyon, Turkey) 2007-08.
Prof Subal Kumbhakar (SUNY Binghamton) 2006.
Prof Ana Lozano-Vivas (Malaga, Spain) 2006.

Lecture/Workshop/Conference Organisations

1. International Conference - The UK Efficiency & Productivity Analysis Network - UKEPAN Finance Conference, 14-15 November, 2009.
2. Academic Talk by Prof Robin Sickles, Rice University, US - title of talk: "Semiparametric, Nonparametric and Parametric Estimation of Panel Data Models with Applications to Stochastic Frontier Production", ULSM, 15 May, 2008.
3. Training Workshop - UKEPAN International Training Workshop on Performance Measurement, 2-7 July, 2007. A successful event with 30 international participants and an international faculty. The workshop succeeded to attract sponsorship from Cambridge University Press, ESI - Econometric Software Inc. and PIMsoft - Performance Improvement Software. The funds raised in the Workshop aims to finance the research activities at the EPRU.
4. International Conference - The UK Efficiency & Productivity Analysis Network - UKEPAN Conference, February, 2006.
5. Young Researchers' Workshop - Co-organiser. Workshop organised within the 9th European Workshop on Efficiency & Productivity Analysis, Brussels, Belgium, on July 2, 2005.
6. International Workshop - The Easter 2002 International Workshop on Efficiency and Productivity Analysis in April, 2002.
7. Two Lecture Series on Performance Measurement Methodologies (April 8-11, 2002) and Production Theory (November 25, 26 & 28, 2003) involved both academics and research students from Leicester and other universities.

Invited Seminars/Workshops

• Invited speaker at the Workshop on 'Small banks Efficiency and Competitiveness Studies: Theoretical Approaches and Operational Implications', University of Padova, Italy, forthcoming.
• Eastern Mediterranean University, Famagusta, N.Cyprus. June, 2008.
• Eastern Mediterranean University, Famagusta, N.Cyprus, 17 April, 2007.
• Universiti Sains Malaysia, 22 August 2006.
• Universiti Putra Malaysia, 6 September 2006 - Dr S H Law.
• Hartford Institute, Hong Kong, 10 March, 2006.
• Girne American University, Kyrenia, North Cyprus, 28 December, 2005.
• Development Research Centre of State Council, People Republic of China, June, 2004. Dr Xiaoyu Sun, the Vice Minister of the DRC
• Universiti Putra Malaysia, 6 September 2006.
• Hartford Institute, Hong Kong, 10 March, 2006.
• Girne American University, Kyrenia, N. Cyprus, 28 December, 2005.
• International Cooperation Department, Development Research Centre of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, in Beijing May 28, 2004.
• Staff seminar at Leeds Business School, Economics Division, May 2002.

PhD Supervision

Currently I am supervising 2 PhD students:

Rossignolo, A. F. Quantifying exposure to market risks: A study on Latin American stock markets (Started in January, 2008).

Pathan, Saima. Outward foreign direct investment - Empirical tests of three macroeconomic theories (Started in September, 2007).

3 PhD students completed their PhDs under my supervision:

Ozlem Olgu 'Productivity Decomposition in European Banking with Accession Economies: An Application of Parametric & Nonparametric Malmquist Techniques' (Completed in 2006).

Muhideen Adesokan 'Overcoming Unboundedness in Malmquist Productivity Measures: Empirical Tests of the Mamquist Total Factor Productivity Index' (Completed in 2007).

Mohamed Shaban 'Financial Liberalisation, Privatisation and productivity in banking: The experience of two emerging economies' (Completed in 2008).

PhD External Examining

Loughborough University - Forthcoming.

University of Essex - "Evaluating the Performance of International Airlines: Non-Parametric versus Parametric Methods" by Hamid Kordbacheh, 24 April, 2007.

University of East Anglia - "Measuring efficiency of general hospitals in Vietnam" by Linh Thuy Pham, October, 2008.

University of Essex - "Investigating the performance of Saudi Commercial Banking system and its determinants" by Ahmed al Darwish, November, 2008.

Links

EPRU Website - for research, training and consultancy for SMEs.

Teaching

• Foundations of Financial Analysis (MSc in Finance)
• Financial Modelling (MSc in Finance)
• Economics for Management and Decision Making (BA Management Year 1)
• Corporate Finance (BA Management Year 3)
• Managing People & Organisations (Distance Learning MBA-Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong)

Other Organisations/Networking Activities

Local organiser for UKEPAN International Training Workshop, EPRU, University of Leicester School of Management, Leicester, UK, July 2-7, 2007.

Scientific Committee Member of EWEPA X, Lille, France, June 27-30, 2007.

The UKEPAN conference, "Efficiency & Productivity Analysis: Theoretical Issues & Practical Concerns in International Perspective", held at ULSM on 18 February 2006.

Young Researchers' Workshop, EWEPA IX, Brussels, Belgium. July 2, 2005.

The Easter 2002 International Workshop on Efficiency and Productivity Analysis held at the ULSM, on 27 April 2002.

The Lecture Series on Performance Measurement Methodologies held at the ULSM, April 8-11, 2002.

Founder of the EPRU at the ULSM.