Malaysian bilateral exports and bilateral real exchange rates

This paper analyzes the performance of Malaysian bilateral exports to its major importing countries: the United States, Japan, and Singapore and then investigates whether the export performance could be improved through depreciation or devaluation of domestic currency using co-integration technique and VECM. The co-integration test suggests that real exports, real exchange rates, real imports, and foreign income are co-integrated. The estimated long-run export equations indicate that the real exchange rates, real foreign income, and real imports are important determinants of exports. The major policy implication from this study is that a devaluation or depreciation of ringgit could improve the competitiveness of Malaysian exports

Study on the Characteristics of Effective Information Literacy Programs for High School Students in Japan

Thesis (Master of Science in Library and Information Studies)--University of Tsukuba, no. 36036, 2016.8.3

Social media websites as a marketing channel for businesses in Malaysia

Social media are communication platforms that enable user-interactions, connecting people from all around the world.Nowadays, many companies worldwide are using social media as a cheaper and alternative tool to market their products or services.In Malaysia, many companies are starting to use social media to promote their businesses. The present study aims to determine and analyse the type of companies using social media as a promoting tool to market their product and the reasons to their decisions.The research is based on datasets collected from respondents working in different companies.The findings from this research show that 64% of the local companies from various sectors that responded do actually use social media as a marketing channel whilst the other 36% do not use social media.The findings show that overall companies which use social media find that the benefits of using social media include speed of information and easy access to customers.Whilst companies which do not use social media are worried about the possible leak of information of their companies.In conclusion, the present data shows that there are still many companies in Malaysia which are not using social media as a marketing channel despite knowing the benefits

Expectations and the Demand for Agricultural Loans

The demand for agricultural loans incorporating price expectations was formulated and estimated in this study. All equations estimated indicate that the interest rate is not an important determinant of the demand for agricultural loans. But other variables such as price of output, assets and acreage are significant at 5 percent level, except for rubber and oil palm. In the rubber equation, only the price and acreage are significant, while in the oil palm equation, only the acreage is significant. The results suggest that the naive expectations model is good enough to explain the behaviour ofthefarmers in Malaysian agricultural loans market

Face-voice association towards multimodal-based authentication using modulated spike-time dependent learning

We propose a reward based learning to associate face and voice stimuli. In particular, we implement learning in a spiking neural network paradigm using modulated spike-time dependent plasticity (STDP).The face and voice stimuli are paired with a temporal delay, and the network is trained to associate the paired face-voice with a target response.The learning rule is dependent on a reward policy in which the network is given a positive reward for a correct response to a face-voice stimulus pair, or the network receives a negative reward for an incorrect response. Despite a stochastic environment, the learning result of real images and sound indicates a good performance with 77.33% accuracy.The result demonstrates that a machine can be trained to associate a pair of biometric inputs to a target response

Paediatric Community: Healing Environment Conducive Enough?

AbstractHealing environment can be simply described as the overall environment (physical and non-physical) created to aid the recovery or healing process. This research is to identify the impact of the physical setting and healing process of hospitalized children, their families and related community. Preliminary studies were conducted and interested argument on how and what are the factors that contributes to the healthcare environment? The methodology for data collection involved site visits, personal observations and photograph documentation, the use of NHS (2008) evaluation toolkits for healthcare buildings – the AEDET Evolution and ASPECT. However, lacking were considerations for pediatric ergonomics and the utilization of audio therapies

Riba, profit rate, Islamic rate, and market equilibrium

Muslim economists have suggested the profit rate to replace riba in an Islamic economic system. While this suggestion is a step in the right direction, it still has problem since not all profits are halal, as for example, profits from gaming and liquor businesses are definitely haram. This paper discusses the concept of riba and differentiates it from the profit rate and Islamic rate. As riba is prohibited in Islam, this paper explains the concepts of Islamic rate, which is lawful in Islam as it is directly derived from the profits of halal business activities. The Islamic rate is the clearing mechanism in the money market and good market. The paper has also derived the money market equilibrium and good market equilibrium conditions or the IS-LM framework which can be used to analyse the efficacy of monetary and fiscal policy in an Islamic state. In order to clear the notion that the conventional banking system has been dictating the decision makings in the Islamic banking system in Malaysia, the paper uses the Toda-Yamamoto technique of Granger causality test to see the causality between the Islamic investment deposit rates of Islamic banking and the fixed deposit rates of the conventional banking. The results are not conclusive as a number of Islamic investment deposit rates have caused the fixed deposit rates while some fixed deposit rates cause Islamic investment deposit rates, and yet some others show that there are no causality between the two types of rate. Keywords: riba, profit rate, Islamic rate, good market and money market equilibriu

Wage rate and employment in the manufacturing sector of Malaysia

This paper examines the importance of Malaysian manufacturing industries to the domestic economy and then estimates the demand for labor as a function of wage rate, output, and capital. The study uses the survey data of firms categorized according to the 3-digit Malaysian Standard Industrial Classification. The manufacturing sector has been contributing significantly to the Malaysia’s economy in terms of its contribution to GDP, employment, and exports. The OLS results suggest that wage rate, output or production, and capital are all important determinants of labor employment in the manufacturing sector in Malaysia. Although their elasticities with respect to employment of labor are all inelastic, the demand for labor is relative more responsive to the changes in the output and capital than the wage rate. Therefore implementing policies to encourage capital accumulation and overall economic growth are indeed helpful to boost employment in the manufacturing sector. Malaysia’s manufacturing output are mostly exported to foreign countries. This study indicates that the wage rate is an important determinant of labor demand in the manufacturing sector. Malaysia therefore has to manage it wage structure carefully such that the increase in wage rate must be in line with the increase in labor productivity. Otherwise Malaysian exports of manufactures will not be competitive in the world market and this will adversely affect the performance of Malaysian economy since Malaysia has been an export-oriented country in which exports have been the engine of growth

The effects of real exchange rate on trade balance and domestic output: a case of Malaysia

The main objective of this study is to determine the effects of real exchange rate changes on the real Malaysian trade balance and the domestic output during the pegged exchange rate regime, 1977:1{1998:2, using quarterly data. The cointegration results suggest that a real ringgit exchange rate depreciation improves the Malaysian balance of trade in the long run.The impulse response analysis suggests that the effects of a depreciation of ringgit on the trade balance and domestic output are quite similar. A devaluation will initially improve the trade balance and domestic output, after which the trade balance starts to deteriorate and then the recession sets in, but subsequently both the trade balance and domestic output improve