Structural Change in Pakistan's Interindustry Relationships

This paper examines and discusses the structural change in Pakistan's interindustrial relationships by comparing the direction of change in the input–output coefficients of the direct input requirements matrix, the total requirements matrix and the business multipliers over the periods 1975–76 and 1984–85.     

SLUM DWELLERS' HOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTION PATTERN AND ITS IMPLICATION FOR COST RECOVERY IN SLUM UPGRADING: Evidence from Dhaka, Bangladesh

Strong emphasis has recently been placed on recovery of improvement costs from slum dwellers for sustainable development of low-income urban settlements. Furthermore, socio-economic stratification of slum dwellers is perceived to influence their consumption and investment patterns in the city. Against this background, populations in six slums in Dhaka, stratified into house owners and renters, were studied. Results show that renters have stronger ties with their rural origin where they are likely to return and remit a significant portion of their income, leaving a limited amount for consumption and investment in the city. In contrast, owners have stronger attachment to the city, remit negligible amounts to their village of origin and pay more attention to city consumption and investment. Consequently, any cost recovery approach to slum upgrading implies heavy reliance on owners. But renters can also be expected to share the cost, to some limited extent, in the form of property tax or community services charges. The key point here is the concurrence of renters and owners on the sharing of costs and benefits.     

Consumer credit and monetary policy in Malaysia

What is the impact of monetary policy on the Malaysian consumer? The study addresses this issue by empirically investigating the consequences of interest rate shocks on consumer credit in Malaysia. The study relies on the impulse response functions and the variance decomposition analysis based on the structural Vector Auto‐regression methodology. Apart from analysing the responses of aggregate consumer loans (ACL) to interest rate changes, further disaggregation is made in efforts to arrive at more detailed findings. In particular, the ACL data are categorized into loans for purchase of residential property, loans for personal uses, loans for credit cards, loans for purchase of consumer durables, loans for purchase of passenger cars and loans for purchase of securities. Through this disaggregation, the study shows the relative sensitivity of the various types of consumer loans to interest rate shocks.     

Assessing the impact of cost optimization based on infrastructure modelling on CO2 emissions

Traditionally, logistics design is driven by a need to reduce costs and improve customer service. Recently, the environmental concerns from transport have been increasingly discussed. The traffic levels and associated energy consumption are influenced by supply chain structure, modal split and vehicle utilization. This paper aims to assess the impact of the traditional cost optimization approach to strategic modelling on overall logistics costs and CO₂ emissions by taking into account the supply chain structure (number of depots) and different freight vehicle utilization ratios (90%, 75% and 60%). The simulation model, based on a European case study from the automotive industry, considers strategic and operational level decisions simultaneously. The analysis shows that the optimum design based on costs does not necessary equate to an optimum solution for CO₂ emissions, therefore there is a need to address economical and environmental objectives explicitly as part of the logistics design.     

An enhanced approach for Trend Impact Analysis

Decision makers in governments, corporations and institutions all need to forecast the future. Usually, traditional quantitative forecasting techniques are applied for this purpose. But the limitation of such methods is well known since all quantitative methods that are built solely on historical data (whether time-series or causal methods) produce forecasts by extrapolating such data into the future ignoring the effects of unprecedented future events that could cause deviation from the original surprise-free forecast if they were to occur. In the meanwhile, pure qualitative methods that don't utilize historical data miss its sound foundation. In the field of future studies, attempts are often made to combine quantitative and qualitative approaches using various hybrid methods such as Trend Impact Analysis. This paper introduces an advanced algorithm to enhance Trend Impact Analysis that adds another level of sophistication to the current algorithm. This advanced algorithm takes into account not only the impact of unprecedented future events' occurrences on the future trend, but also the different severity degrees with which the event might occur. This idea of severity degrees is novel, and its implementation is the main contribution of this paper.     

A sustainable state for urban life in poor societies: Bangladesh

Cities in the Third World do not currently have favourable prospects for the future. Their planning is dedicated primarily to coping with pressures of population and infrastructure needs. Any pale imitation of advanced urbanization that they might employ as minimum standards require many times more consumption of energy, water and human time than is available. The concept of a sustainable state for the long term seems unattainable to their policy makers. This exercise seeks a path to a desirable steady state for one of the world's poorest metropolises—Dhaka. This article shows that the essential knowledge, and some experience, already exist which make this transition to sustainability possible, and outlines the crucial features required. Promotion of family planning is assigned the highest priority during the transition, followed by education.     

Pioneering Versus Incremental Innovation: Review and Research Propositions

Marketing's role in supporting a company's efforts to develop pioneering and incremental products can be quite different. Abdul Ali examines published articles and offers a set of propositions to show how several factors influence the product development decision. He cites examples from the business world to illustrate these propositions. This article suggests that a firm should take into account several factors relating to its capabilities, along with various project and market characteristics, in order to decide what products it should develop.