Creative Batik Motif Design Based on Local Cultural Art and Natural Environments

Local arts, culture, and natural environment of Indonesia had their own uniqueness. They might be explored to help and to develop batik industry in Indonesia, especially in motif aspect. It was necessary to help craftsmen to create new and innovative batik products. The study was conducted as an effort to motivate batik craftsmen in developing batik industry through production of creative and unique batik motives. First study question： What are artistic motives of local arts and culture of natural environment of Yogyakarta and Central Java able to give distinct and characteristically local styles？ Second was how to create creative batik inspired by local arts and natural environment.     

Exploring the benefits of international government bond portfolio diversification strategies

We use the Bayesian approach of Wang (1998) to examine the diversification benefits of investing in international government bonds. We find that no short-selling constraints substantially reduce but do not eliminate the diversification benefits when only investing in G7 government bonds with different maturities. There are significant diversification benefits when using the G7 bonds, an inflation-linked bond index, and emerging market bonds even in the presence of no short-selling constraints. The superior performance is driven by the emerging markets bonds. We also find that the diversification benefits vary across different economic states.