Gender discrimination in education,health, and labour market: a voice for equality

The objective of the study is to examine the impact of gender discrimination in education, health, and labour market on economic growth in a panel of 20 high-income OECD countries for the period of 1980–2015. In addition, the study proposed an index of pro-equality growth, which is flared with education, health, and labour market initiatives to promote economic growth. The results show that gender parity index for educational attainment significantly promotes economic growth while health and labour market required substantial policy reforms to reduce health and labour market inequalities to sustain long-term economic growth. The results classified three countries as highly equitable growth, one country for equitable growth, two countries are moderate growth, four countries are less equitable growth while remaining 10 countries fall in the category of inequitable growth, where greater inequality promotes economic growth on the cost of education, health, and labour market inequalities.     

Shadow Banking Credit Intermediation： Determinants of Default Risks in Securitization and Collateralization

The growth in shadow banking system over the past few years is acknowledged as the key risk to Malaysia＇s financial stability. This is because that it is associated with growth in the household debts extended by the shadow banks. In line with initiatives by the Bank Negara Malaysia （the Central Bank of Malaysia） to enhance surveillance on the activities of the shadow banks in Malaysia, this study attempts to examine the determinants of default risks of shadow banks restricting to focus on their two main activities： securitization and collateralization. The results provide empirical evidence that future methodology to examine the systemic risks in the shadow banking system may need to account for additional explanatory variables that measure collateralized assets that are being intermediated.     

The Effect of Culture and Religiosity on Business Ethics: A Cross-cultural Comparison

This article examined the effect of culture and religiosity on perceptions of business ethics among students in a tertiary institution in Malaysia. A structured questionnaire was developed with scenarios on various aspects of business ethics, and self-administered to the students in the business studies program. The results from 767 respondents showed that there were significant differences among the Malays, Chinese, and Indian students on seven scenarios namely selling hazardous products, misleading instructions, selling defective products, padding expense account, taking sick to take a day off, keeping quiet on defective products, and respond to supplier’s take good care of clients attitude. There was also an association between culture and religiosity. The MANOVA results also showed that culture and religiosity have an effect on perceptions of business ethics.     

Investigating the twin-deficit phenomenon among oil-exporting countries: Does oil really matter?

This study empirically investigates the existence of twin deficits—the impact of fiscal policy on the current account—among selected major oil-exporting countries. Given the huge effects of the oil proceeds on these economies, the study separates the effects of oil on the fiscal balance from its effect on the current account balance. The investigation took a further step by grouping these countries—based on their fiscal policy actions over the period of years under review—into pro-cyclical and counter-cyclical fiscal countries. In line with the existing literature, the impact of fiscal balance on the current account balance takes into consideration the contemporaneous effects brought about by exchange rate fluctuations, the growth in GDP, rate of openness and the growth in money supply. The models are estimated based on a panel of 31 oil-exporting countries over the period 1984–2013, using the two-stage least squares estimation techniques. The results from all countries estimations reveal the existence of twin-deficit in the total economy. In the non-oil economy, on the other hand, the evidence of twin-deficit disappears. This evidence is also reported in the counter-cyclical fiscal countries. Results from pro-cyclical fiscal countries indicated the total opposite, revealing the existence of twin-deficit in the non-oil economy, while this evidence does not occur in the total economy. The indisputable conclusion is that oil dominance continues to blur the existence of twin deficits among the oil-exporting countries.     

Significance of attitudes,passion and cultural factors in driver’s speeding behavior in Oman: application of theory of planned behavior

Abstract

Traffic accidents and related fatalities have become a major public health problem in the world. This study aims to identify the significant factors that play an important role in the speeding behavior of drivers. A comprehensive questionnaire was designed and conducted with the students and employees of the University of Nizwa. The questionnaire items were designed considering the theoretical background of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and local socio-cultural aspects of the driving environment. A total of 303 usable samples were obtained. The collected data were analyzed using factor analysis and structural equation modelling technique. The extracted factors of speeding passion and culture, speeding attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control are significant determinants of drivers speeding behavior in Oman. The driver’s speeding attitudes, speeding culture, and passion have positive association with the drivers’ speeding intentions and behavior, and driver’s perceived behavioral control forms negative relationship with the speeding behavior. This study confirms the application of the TPB in predicting the drivers’ speeding behavior in the context of Oman.     

A framework for text mining on Twitter: a case study on joint comprehensive plan of action (JCPOA)- between 2015 and 2019

Quality & Quantity - In the big data era, there is a necessity for effective frameworks to collect, retrieve, and manage data. As not all tweets are hashtagged by users, retrieving them is a...     

Entrepreneurship in the tourism industry: Issues in developing countries

The tourism industry in Malaysia is one of the most important sectors in terms of its contribution to the growth of the nation. The extensive demand on the tourism industry has stimulated the emergence of many small and medium hotels, resorts, and chalets in Malaysia. According to the literature, small and medium hotels are an extension of the entrepreneurial characteristics of the owners/managers of the hotels. In Malaysia, small and medium hotel entrepreneurs (SMHEs) have not been given much attention. Looking at this gap, this study aims to provide a significant result on entrepreneurship issues in Malaysia. The main objective of this study is to examine the characteristics of small and medium hotel owners/managers and the issues and problems they confront in relation to their survivability in the industry. The result revealed that the majority of owners/managers of small and medium hotels were male, middle-aged and older, with secondary and upper level of education, and whose prior specialisations or knowledge were not related to tourism. With strong self-confidence and independent personality characteristics, the majority started to establish their businesses after the financial crisis in 1997–1998. The result also defined small scale to mean hotels with less than 50 rooms, which had been constructed with limited personal funding and bank loans. Information technology was found to be an important tool to promote their hotels, but conventional techniques such as word of mouth and signboards were still significant. The owners/managers of small and medium hotels were in agreement over their weaknesses in terms of lack of knowledge and skills in running the business. At the same time, they also felt that the government should play a more proactive role in promoting the tourism industry.     

Will African Agriculture Survive Climate Change?

Measurement of the likely magnitude of the economic impact ofclimate change on African agriculture has been a challenge.Using data from a survey of more than 9,000 farmers across 11African countries, a cross-sectional approach estimates howfarm net revenues are affected by climate change compared withcurrent mean temperature. Revenues fall with warming for drylandcrops (temperature elasticity of –1.9) and livestock (–5.4),whereas revenues rise for irrigated crops (elasticity of 0.5),which are located in relatively cool parts of Africa and arebuffered by irrigation from the effects of warming. At first,warming has little net aggregate effect as the gains for irrigatedcrops offset the losses for dryland crops and livestock. Warming,however, will likely reduce dryland farm income immedia-tely.The final effects will also depend on changes in precipitation,because revenues from all farm types increase with precipitation.Because irrigated farms are less sensitive to climate, wherewater is available, irrigation is a practical adaptation toclimate change in Africa.