Exact moments of order statistics from a power-function distribution

Summary

In this note a problem on exact moments of order statistics from a power-function distribution is considered. The characteristic function of the kth order statistic is obtained and moments about the origin of the kth order statistic are expressed in terms of gamma functions. An exact expression for the covariance of any two order statistics Y_i < Y_j is obtained in terms of beta and gamma functions. Various recurrence relations between the expected values of order statistics are also obtained.     

Predicament of identity in Iran: a qualitative meta-analysis of theoretical and empirical studies on identity

Identity is regarded as a theoretical and practical problematic issue constituting a large range of literature in social planning, political activities and cultural policy-making in the last decades. Thus, this study is to Meta-analyze three sorts of studies on identity in a distinctive perspective. These are: universal theories of identity, theoretical studies of identity in Iran and research studies on Iranian identity in Iranian academic sphere. The findings demonstrate that the sociological theories are more effective to discuss identity than other scientific fields. While the theoretical studies focused mainly on national level of identity, the empirical ones highlighted the sub-nation and global dimensions of identity. Most of studied researches employed constructivist approach. According to literature review of identity studies in Iran, the main sources of identity are the Persian language, Shiite religion, Islam, Oriental Culture, Oriental Mysticism, Modernity and National History. Generally, the sources of identity are diverse. The results indicate that the constitution of Iranian identity portrays a hybrid and synthetic texture in all levels.     

Correction to: The Inhibitory Effect of Political Conservatism on Consumption: The Case of Fair Trade

Journal of Business Ethics - A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-021-04780-w     

An analysis of political uncertainty and corporate investment cycles in Pakistan

Quality & Quantity - This paper documents the cycles in corporate investments around national elections in Pakistan from 2000 to 2016. It employed the investment-Q model as the baseline...     

The nexus between sectoral FDI and institutional quality: empirical evidence from Pakistan

This study investigates short- and long-run bidirectional causality between institutional quality and sectoral-level FDI in Pakistan by using the ARDL technique. The results confirm that long-run bidirectional causality exists between institutional quality and aggregate FDI. The in-depth sectoral-level FDI analysis substantiates the presence of long-run bidirectional causality between institutional quality and FDI in services and manufacturing sectors, while no long-run causality is observed between institutional quality and FDI inflows in primary sector. Furthermore, the results in the study reveal short-run bidirectional causality only between institutional quality and manufacturing FDI and report insignificant short-run causal link between institutional quality and FDI in primary and services sectors. The overall findings of the study suggest that in the long-run institutional quality attract FDI and FDI inflows, particularly to manufacturing and services sectors, significantly enhance the quality of institutions in Pakistan.     

Conflicting Bifuzzy Multi-attribute Group Decision Making Model with Application to Flood Control Project

We propose a group decision making model based on conflicting bifuzzy sets (CBFS) where evaluation are bi-valued in accordance to the subjective assessment obtained from the experts for the positive and negative views. This paper discusses the weighting methods for particular attribute and subattribute with emphasis given to the unification of subjective and objective weights. The integration of CBFS in the model is naturally done by extending the fuzzy evaluation in parallel with the intuitionistic fuzzy. We introduce a new technique to compute the similarity measure, being the degree of agreement between the experts. We end up the paper by demonstrating the applicability of the proposed model to the empirical case of flood control project, one of the project selection problems.     

Current Account Deficit in Mauritius: Risks and Prospects

Mauritius is often cited by international institutions, including the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, as a success story in economic development. The island has, since the early 1970s, adopted an export‐led growth strategy to power its economy. However, a constant decline over the last decade in the exports to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio has resulted in a worsening current account to GDP ratio, which is now a cause for concern. Using a three‐regime, self‐exciting threshold autoregressive (SETAR) model, this paper finds that the Mauritian economy may converge to either of two current account equilibria, namely a deficit of 9% or a surplus of 2.5% on a seasonally adjusted basis. A dynamic simulation exercise suggests that the Mauritian current account is more likely to switch from surplus to deficit equilibrium than from deficit to surplus equilibrium. Given that the prevailing deficit is in the vicinity of the deficit equilibrium, structural policies aiming to boost productivity and efficiency are indispensable for pulling Mauritius out of the “deficit trap,” the more so since the island has been experiencing a continuous erosion of trade preferences, which formerly enabled it to have privileged access for its exports to the EU market.     

The impact of external environmental on business process management and organizational performance

The external business environment as a variable for explaining the impact of business process management (BPM) on organization performance is investigated. The developed model is tested using partial least squares, using a survey on human resource/information technology managers in Malaysia. Statistical results show that dynamism and hostility influence the degree of implementation of BPM. The extent of BPM also has an impact on organization performance. The model can be used by organizations to assess their level of BPM success depending on specific environmental characteristics. This research also contributes to understanding an environment–BPM–performance interface in a developing economy, not previously examined.     

Ethnic minority consumers' responses to sales promotions in the packaged food market

Many scholars have stressed the significance of understanding ethnic minority subcultures and the associated cultural dimension for marketing. Most of the previous research involving ethnic minority consumers has largely focused on coupon usage and remains North American in origin and application. Also, previous research emphasises the short-term nature of sales promotions, ignoring their dynamic effects in specific consumption settings such as the family. The paper explores ethnic consumers' responses to different sales promotional formats for packaged food products in family settings. Face-to-face in-depth interviews were conducted in original settings involving ethnic participants who regularly shopped at mainstream supermarkets, and who were the principal grocery shoppers for the family. Findings suggest that sales promotions have the potential to make consumers more responsive, less responsive or even hostile to sales promotional offers and while some promotions are better perceived than others, their overall effectiveness is largely determined by their “net-worth” as perceived by ethnic consumers in a given shopping situation. The paper discusses implications for retailers, particularly for those having store locations in market areas with high concentrations of ethnic consumers.     

Risk management of precious metals

This paper examines volatility and correlation dynamics in price returns of gold, silver, platinum and palladium, and explores the corresponding risk management implications for market risk and hedging. Value-at-Risk (VaR) is used to analyze the downside market risk associated with investments in precious metals, and to design optimal risk management strategies. We compute the VaR for major precious metals using the calibrated RiskMetrics, different GARCH models, and the semi-parametric Filtered Historical Simulation approach. The best approach for estimating VaR based on conditional and unconditional statistical tests is documented. The economic importance of the results is highlighted by assessing the daily capital charges from the estimated VaRs.