Capital Controls: Mud in the Wheels of Market Discipline

Widespread support for capital account liberalization in emerging markets has recently shifted to skepticism and even support for capital controls in certain circumstances. This sea-change in attitudes has been bolstered by the inconclusive macroeconomic evidence on the benefits of capital account liberalization. There are several compelling reasons why it is difficult to measure the aggregate impact of capital controls in very different countries. Instead, a new and more promising approach is more detailed microeconomic studies of how capital controls have generated specific distortions in individual countries. Several recent papers have used this approach and examined very different aspects of capital controls - from their impact on crony capitalism in Malaysia and on financing constraints in Chile, to their impact on US multinational behavior and the efficiency of stock market pricing. Each of these diverse studies finds a consistent result: capital controls have significant economic costs and lead to a misallocation of resources. This new microeconomic evidence suggests that capital controls are not just "sand", but rather "mud in the wheels" of market disciplin

Rats and the city: Implications of urbanization on zoonotic disease risk in Southeast Asia

Urbanization is rapidly transforming much of Southeast Asia, altering the structure and function of the landscape, as well as the frequency and intensity of the interactions between people, animals, and the environment. In this study, we explored the impact of urbanization on zoonotic disease risk by simultaneously characterizing changes in the ecology of animal reservoirs (rodents), ectoparasite vectors (ticks), and pathogens across a gradient of urbanization in Kuching, a city in Malaysian Borneo. We sampled 863 rodents across rural, developing, and urban locations and found that rodent species diversity decreased with increasing urbanization—from 10 species in the rural location to 4 in the rural location. Notably, two species appeared to thrive in urban areas, as follows: the invasive urban exploiter Rattus rattus (n = 375) and the native urban adapter Sundamys muelleri (n = 331). R. rattus was strongly associated with built infrastructure across the gradient and carried a high diversity of pathogens, including multihost zoonoses capable of environmental transmission (e.g., Leptospira spp.). In contrast, S. muelleri was restricted to green patches where it was found at high densities and was strongly associated with the presence of ticks, including the medically important genera Amblyomma, Haemaphysalis, and Ixodes. Our analyses reveal that zoonotic disease risk is elevated and heterogeneously distributed in urban environments and highlight the potential for targeted risk reduction through pest management and public health messaging

Regional integration and industrial growth among developing countries - the case of three ASEAN members

Has the revival of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the early 1990s affected the industrial growth of Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines? The author uses two mechanisms to capture this potential impact: scale effects, and intermediate imports variety. She performs the analysis on twenty two industries (at the three-digit level of the International Standard Industrial Classification) over the period 1971-95. The results show significant heterogeneity in industry-level returns to scale. Moreover, the three ASEAN members have very small, mostly negative cross-industry scale effects. As a result, they may not achieve large, or across-the-board gains from their regional arrangement through scale effects. The author finds unexpected results with respect to the role of intermediate imports variety in industrial growth. She finds no support for the hypothesis that non-regional (rest of the world) suppliers, and goods variety have a positive effect on ASEAN industries through the channel of imported intermediate inputs. The regional variety measure, however, seems to have a positive effect on the output growth of a handful of industries. This result seems due to the fact that these countries have long had a strong intra-regional, and intra-industry trade, whose history predates, and outweighs the ASEAN revival.Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Economic Theory&Research,Water and Industry,Public Health Promotion,Environmental Economics&Policies,Water and Industry,Economic Theory&Research,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT

A study of the pass - through effects of exchange rates and international prices shocks on inflation in the Fiji Islands

The main purpose of this study is to examine the effects of the exchange rates,international prices, and the demand shocks on inflation in Fiji Island. The study covers the annual data from 1975 to 2010.The variables are transformed into changes/per cent and then Ordinary Least Squares methodology (OLS) is used. The appropriateness of the OLS assumptions is tested including the normality of the residuals, autocorrelations,heteroskedasticity and functional forms. The main findings are that the Fijian dollar depreciation increases, the international price shocks in the form of Australian consumer prices increase, the Keynesian demand shocks increase, and the devaluation events increase the consumer price inflation in Fiji. As a monetary policy instrument the flexibility of the exchange rate policy is indispensable for Fiji to absorb appropriately the international supply and price shocks. We have been able to include the international supply shocks, the domestic demand shocks, the exchange rates, and devaluation dummies in our model. Though we have used a simple OLS model, the originality of our study is the comprehensiveness of the theoretical variables in our model. This study will have an important implication for the small open economy of Fiji especially its exchange rate policy

Macroeconomic Impacts of Immigration in Malaysia: Trade, Remittances and Unemployment

The macroeconomic consequence of immigration is a disputable area among many interested parties as evidenced by the empirical studies. Most studies, however, employ Anglo-Saxon countries as their subjects, while there is an increasing demand for studies on the economic consequences of immigration in developing countries. As a developing country, Malaysia has attracted immigration over the years, and the population of migrant labour in Malaysia has reached more than two million in 2008, which makes up 7% of the total population and 20% of total labour force. Thus, such large presence has provided a rationale for an economic analysis on the impact of immigrations on the Malaysian economy. This research, hence, aims to analyze the economic impact of immigration in Malaysia in the context of trade, remittance and unemployment in an interrelated manner. These topics are examined in detail in three separate empirical essays. Specifically, the first essay examines the link between bilateral trade and immigration, while the second essay explores the relationship between remittances of the Indonesian workers in Malaysia and the macroeconomic variables both in Malaysia and Indonesia. The last empirical essay analyses the relationship between unemployment and immigration in Malaysia. These empirical essays use quantitative research methodology in the form of panel and time series data analysis. However, each essay is based on a different theoretical framework, econometric methods, timelines and samples due to availability data and the nature of the study. The findings of the first essay indicates that immigration increases both exports and imports through both preference and immigration-link mechanisms, implying that immigrants play a vital role in fostering trade between Malaysia and countries of origin. In the second essay, it is found that Indonesian labour in Malaysia take macroeconomic conditions in both countries into account in their remittance decisions and the findings demonstrate that the main motives to remit is altruism and portfolio investment, indicating the importance of the level of economic activities in both countries. The third essay reveals that there is a lack of evidence supporting the hypothesis of adverse employment effect of immigration in Malaysia, implying that the job-creation effect of immigration has taken place, which has resulted in further economic and employment growth in both public and private sectors. In conclusion, immigration is vital for both host and home countries’ economic developments as the findings of this research have demonstrated, thus refuting the claims that their presence brings more harms than benefits

Detection of epstein-barr virus in lower gastrointestinal tract lymphomas

Background: Many studies in the literature have shown that Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is associated with several human lymphoid and epithelial malignancies. However, the prevalence of EBV in non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) of the lower gastrointestinal (Gl) tract has not been fully elucidated. Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the presence and distribution of EBV in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue samples obtained from 18 Malaysian patients diagnosed with NHL of the lower GI tract. Methods: The GI tract lymphoma tissue samples analyzed for the presence of EBV were divided into the following groups: NHL of the smalJ intestine (seven cases); NHL of the ileocecum {ten cases); and NHL of the rectum {one case). The presence ofEBV-encoded RNA (EBER) in all of the above tissue samples was tested for using conventional in situ hybridization technology. · Results: Two of 18 cases (11.1%) ofNin.. of the lowerGI tract demonstrated positive signals forEBVIEBER. In the first positive case, EBV lEBER signals were located in lymphoma cells in the serosa layer of the small intestine. In the second EBVIEBER-positive case, EBVIEBER signals were detected in diffuse B-celllymphoma of the ileocecum. Conclusion: These findings demonstrate a rare association between EBV and lower GI tract lymphomas in this group of Malaysian patients

Linguistics in the digital humanities: (computational) corpus linguistics

Corpus linguistics has been closely intertwined with digital technology since the introduction of university computer mainframes in the 1960s. Making use of both digitized data in the form of the language corpus and computational methods of analysis involving concordancers and statistics software, corpus linguistics arguably has a place in the digital humanities. Still, it remains obscure and fi gures only sporadically in the literature on the digital humanities. Th is article provides an overview of the main principles of corpus linguistics and the role of computer technology in relation to data and method and also off ers a bird's-eye view of the history of corpus linguistics with a focus on its intimate relationship with digital technology and how digital technology has impacted the very core of corpus linguistics and shaped the identity of the corpus linguist. Ultimately, the article is oriented towards an acknowledgment of corpus linguistics' alignment with the digital humanities

Using graphic organizer in helping year five pupils to comprehend the small 'I'

Graphic organizers are structural tools that help readers organize thoughts. By using graphic organizers, pupils can experience words beyond pronunciation and display connections between ideas and concepts to improve comprehension. Graphic organizers help pupils sort, show relationship, make meaning, and manage data quickly and easily before, during, and after reading and discussion. As a result, pupils can display connections between ideas and concept, thus improving the text comprehension. The subjects were primarily Year Five pupils (n = 60) at a suburban school in Kota Kinabalu. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of using graphic organizers as a learning tool to help Year Five pupils organize thoughts and improve reading comprehension. Using a triangular approach to data collection, this 6 week study utilized a Pre-test and Post-test control group design and individual interviews to determine the effects of graphic organizers on pupils' achievement. The data suggests that using graphic organizers might have been one factor that aided pupils in the reading comprehension process. In addition, 'this study revealed that pupils believed that graphic organizers were helpful in allowing them to organize their thoughts after reading a story. A paired samples t - test determined significant difference in achievement between the groups. The experimental group improved in achievement at least as much as the control grou

Special oils for halal and safe cosmetics

Three types of non conventional oils were extracted, analyzed and tested for toxicity. Date palm kernel oil (DPKO), mango kernel oil (MKO) and Ramputan seed oil (RSO). Oil content for tow cultivars of dates Deglect Noor and Moshkan was 9.67% and 7.30%, respectively. The three varieties of mango were found to contain about 10% oil in average. The red yellow types of Ramputan were found to have 11 and 14% oil, respectively. The phenolic compounds in DPKO, MKO and RSO were 0.98, 0.88 and 0.78 mg/ml Gallic acid equivalent, respectively. Oils were analyzed for their fatty acid composition and they are rich in oleic acid C18:1 and showed the presence of (dodecanoic acid) lauric acid C12:0, which reported to appear some antimicrobial activities. All extracted oils, DPKO, MKO and RSO showed no toxic effect using prime shrimp bioassay. Since these oils are stable, melt at skin temperature, have good lubricity and are great source of essential fatty acids; they could be used as highly moisturizing, cleansing and nourishing oils because of high oleic acid content. They are ideal for use in such halal cosmetics such as Science, Engineering and Technology 75 skin care and massage, hair-care, soap and shampoo products

Film policy and the emergence of the cross-cultural: exploring crossover cinema in Flanders (Belgium)

With several films taking on a cross-cultural character, a certain ‘crossover trend’ may be observed within the recent upswing of Flemish cinema (a subdivision of Belgian cinema). This trend is characterized by two major strands: first, migrant and diasporic filmmakers finally seem to be emerging, and second, several filmmakers tend to cross the globe to make their films, hereby minimizing links with Flemish indigenous culture. While paying special attention to the crucial role of film policy in this context, this contribution further investigates the crossover trend by focusing on Turquaze (2010, Kadir Balci) and Altiplano (2009, Peter Brosens & Jessica Woodworth)