Macroeconomic modelling for policy analysis

Over the last 30 years, the Inforum approach to macro modelling has been shared by economists worldwide. Researchers have focussed much of their efforts to developing a linked system of international interindustry models with a consistent methodology. A world-wide network of research associates use the same methods and software obtaining comparable results. The XXth Inforum World Conference was held in Florence in September 2012 and this book contains a selection of papers presented during that Conference. All these contributions are aimed at policymakers, stakeholders, and applied economists. Some papers are devoted to specific topics (total factor productivity, energy issues, external linkages, demographic changes) and some others are oriented to macro model building and simulations

The doctoral research abstracts. Vol:6 2014 / Institute of Graduate Studies, UiTM

Congratulations to Institute of Graduate Studies on the continuous efforts to publish the 6th issue of the Doctoral Research Abstracts which ranged from the discipline of science and technology, business and administration to social science and humanities. This issue captures the novelty of research from 52 PhD doctorates receiving their scrolls in the UiTM’s 81st Convocation. This convocation is very significant especially for UiTM since we are celebrating the success of 52 PhD graduands – the highest number ever conferred at any one time. To the 52 doctorates, I would like it to be known that you have most certainly done UiTM proud by journeying through the scholastic path with its endless challenges and impediments, and by persevering right till the very end. This convocation should not be regarded as the end of your highest scholarly achievement and contribution to the body of knowledge but rather as the beginning of embarking into more innovative research from knowledge gained during this academic journey, for the community and country. As alumni of UiTM, we hold you dear to our hearts. The relationship that was once between a student and supervisor has now matured into comrades, forging and exploring together beyond the frontier of knowledge. We wish you all the best in your endeavour and may I offer my congratulations to all the graduands. ‘UiTM sentiasa dihati ku’ Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Prof Ir Dr Sahol Hamid Abu Bakar , FASc, PEng Vice Chancellor Universiti Teknologi MAR

Mobile networks and internet of things infrastructures to characterize smart human mobility

The evolution of Mobile Networks and Internet of Things (IoT) architectures allows one to rethink the way smart cities infrastructures are designed and managed, and solve a number of problems in terms of human mobility. The territories that adopt the sensoring era can take advantage of this disruptive technology to improve the quality of mobility of their citizens and the rationalization of their resources. However, with this rapid development of smart terminals and infrastructures, as well as the proliferation of diversified applications, even current networks may not be able to completely meet quickly rising human mobility demands. Thus, they are facing many challenges and to cope with these challenges, different standards and projects have been proposed so far. Accordingly, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been utilized as a new paradigm for the design and optimization of mobile networks with a high level of intelligence. The objective of this work is to identify and discuss the challenges of mobile networks, alongside IoT and AI, to characterize smart human mobility and to discuss some workable solutions to these challenges. Finally, based on this discussion, we propose paths for future smart human mobility researches.This work has been supported by FCT–Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the R&D Units Project Scope: UIDB/00319/2020. This work has also been supported by national funds through FCT–Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia through project UIDB/04728/202

An Econometric Analysis of Domestic Aviation in the US

In this dissertation, we examine two dimensions of domestic aviation - demand and delay - that directly influence economic impact of the sector. We conduct a comprehensive analysis of airline demand employing airline data compiled by Bureau of Transportation Statistics. The demand analysis is conducted in three steps. First, we propose a novel modeling approach for modeling airline demand evolution over time. Specifically, we develop a joint panel group generalized ordered probit (GGOP) model system for modeling air passenger arrivals and departures in a discretized framework that subsumes the traditional linear regression approach. Further, we consider the influence of observed and unobserved effects on airline demand across multiple time periods. Second, we explore the impact of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on domestic airline demand in the US. The effect of COVID-19 on airline demand is identified by considering global and local COVID-19 transmission, temporal indicators of pandemic start and progress, and interactions of airline demand predictors with global and local COVID-19 indicators. Based on the results, we present a blueprint for airline demand recovery using three hypothetical scenarios of COVID-19 transmission rates – expected, pessimistic and optimistic. Finally, we build on the novel airline demand modeling framework by accommodating for observed and unobserved spatial and temporal effects. Specifically, we develop spatial lag model and spatial error model formulations of the GGOP model proposed in the first step. The second part of the dissertation is focused on flight level delay analysis. In this part, we identify the factors affecting flight level airline delay by jointly modeling departure and arrival delays. Towards this end, we develop a novel copula-based group generalized ordered logit model system that accommodates for the influence of common observed and unobserved effects on flight departure and arrival delays