A measure of trade induced adjustment in volume and quality space.

In this paper we contribute to the literature on the measurement of international trade flows. Specifically, we combine changes in the volume and quality in matched trade changes to present a simple new index together with a geometric framework that can be used to visualise changes in quality and volume simultaneously. We illustrate the usefulness of our simple extension with data for trade between Malaysia and China between 1994 and 2004

On the measurement of employment intensity of agricultural growth

Employment is the bedrock of a functioning economy for any nation wishing to progress and prosper. It is of great importance for policy makers to be able to measure the employment intensity of a nation’s economy to identify regions of productive employment growth. Employment intensity has traditionally been measured in relation national economic growth typically as ratios. However, ratios are naturally biased and unbalanced. This does not allow the observer to take into account the differences in regions that may differ greatly in socioeconomic structure. For instance, some regions may be mired in poverty while others prosper greatly although both may show employment growth. This may instead indicate that employment is transferring from low productivity sectors into high productivity sectors instead of actual growth in the agricultural sector. Thus, we propose a new measure of employment growth focusing on the agricultural sector which we call the “Employment Intensity Index” which is symmetrical, proportional and scale invariant to regional differences. The index provides a single number that is comparable, simple and growth sensitive across all types of economic sectors across all differing policies within those sectors/regions regardless of the GDP/geographic size of sector/region. We then proceed to show its applicability

Robust logistic regression to static geometric representation of ratios

Problem statement: Some methodological problems concerning financial ratios such as non-proportionality, non-asymetricity, non-salacity were solved in this study and we presented a complementary technique for empirical analysis of financial ratios and bankruptcy risk. This new method would be a general methodological guideline associated with financial data and bankruptcy risk. Approach: We proposed the use of a new measure of risk, the Share Risk (SR) measure. We provided evidence of the extent to which changes in values of this index are associated with changes in each axis values and how this may alter our economic interpretation of changes in the patterns and directions. Our simple methodology provided a geometric illustration of the new proposed risk measure and transformation behavior. This study also employed Robust logit method, which extends the logit model by considering outlier. Results: Results showed new SR method obtained better numerical results in compare to common ratios approach. With respect to accuracy results, Logistic and Robust Logistic Regression Analysis illustrated that this new transformation (SR) produced more accurate prediction statistically and can be used as an alternative for common ratios. Additionally, robust logit model outperforms logit model in both approaches and was substantially superior to the logit method in predictions to assess sample forecast performances and regressions. Conclusion/Recommendations: This study presented a new perspective on the study of firm financial statement and bankruptcy. In this study, a new dimension to risk measurement and data representation with the advent of the Share Risk method (SR) was proposed. With respect to forecast results, robust loigt method was substantially superior to the logit method. It was strongly suggested the use of SR methodology for ratio analysis, which provided a conceptual and complimentary methodological solution to many problems associated with the use of ratios. Respectively, robust logit regression can be employed as a tool of regression in providing regression for studies associated with financial data

A new dynamic geometric approach for empirical analysis of financial ratios and bankruptcy.

This paper presents a complementary technique for the empirical analysis of nancial ratios and bankruptcy risk using nancial ratios. Within this new framework, we propose the use of a new measure of risk, the Dynamic Risk Space (DRS) measure. We provide evidence of the extent to which changes in values for this index are associated with changes in each axis's values and how this may alter our economic interpretation of changes in patterns and directions. In addition, this model tends to be generally useful for predicting nancial distress and bankruptcy. This method would be a general methodological guideline associated with nancial data, solving some methodological problems concerning nancial ratios such as non-proportionality, nonasymmetry and non-scaled. To test the procedure, Multiple Discriminant Analysis (MDA), Logistic Analysis (LA) and Genetic Programming (GP) are employed to compare results by common and modied ratios for bankruptcy prediction. Classication methods outperformed using the DRS approach

A new constant market share competitiveness index

Constant-market-share analysis (CMSA) is one of the most widely employed descriptive tool for measuring the export competitiveness of a country relative to other countries or regions of trade for goods and services. Typically, export growth is attributed to growth in the country’s export competitiveness and also to the growth effect of the market itself. However, CMSA measurement is prone to a number of methodological short comings which stems from the CMS identities used in the analysis. Namely, the discrete approximation of continuously changing trade patterns, the interaction effects term residual from the CMS identity decomposition and the arbitrary choice of weights attached to base periods. This paper addresses some of the short comings of the classic CMSA approach. Within a geometric framework we reexamine the CMS decomposition and propose a new net-share approach that is easier to implement and interpret. For researchers and policy makers, this methodology presents a simpler but more consistent measurement for more accurate CMS measurement and interpretations of changing trade patterns

User perception evaluations of 3D video telephony as compared to actual experience for face-to-face immersive communications

User perception evaluations of an experimental 3D video communication system are conducted utilizing bilateral experimental setup. Subjective assessment method together with the 5-grade ITU-R quality and impairment scales are adopted in these evaluations. Two sets of experimental system are installed in two evaluation booths to emulate video communication between two users at two different locations. Evaluation items are categorized into two namely 3D effects related and system related. The results indicate that video communication through the system shows positive closeness to natural face-to-face communication and the eye contact level during video communication is the only significant limitation of the experimental system thus requires improvement

An error resilience method for depth in stereoscopic 3D video

Error resilience stereoscopic 3D video can ensure robust 3D video communication especially in high error rate wireless channel. In this paper, an error resilience method is proposed for the depth data of the stereoscopic 3D video using data partitioning. Although data partitioning method is available for 2D video, its extension to depth information has not been investigated in the context of stereoscopic 3D video. Simulation results show that the depth data is less sensitive to error and should be partitioned towards the end of the data partitions block. The partitioned depth data is then applied to an error resilience method namely multiple description coding (MDC) to code the 2D video and the depth information. Simulation results show improved performance using the proposed depth partitioning on MDC compared to the original MDC in an error prone environment

Economic integration and the evolution of trade: a geometric interpretation of trade measures

The increase in global trade and the ongoing erosion of trade barriers makes the analysis of trade patterns one of the key areas in international economics. Much of the post-war expansion of trade took the form of intra-industry trade (IIT). This paper presents a simple geometric tool to analyse trade patterns specifically inter and intra-industry trade and the compatibility between levels and measures of IIT. The applicability our methodology is demonstrated using the UKs trade experience during the critical period of EU integration 1988-1997

Multi-view video plus depth representation with saliency depth video

Saliency represents a region where viewers tend to put more focus on compared to other regions in an image or video. Although there are many saliency models available, very few exploit the saliency model based on depth video sequences. This paper proposed a saliency depth based video by utilizing selected saliency maps and fusing it into depth video sequences. The proposed saliency depth based model is used with multi-view video plus depth (MVD) and compressed using the latest High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) compression method. The proposed method showed a notable quality improvement on the virtual view video compared to other saliency model such as the frequency-tuned saliency model

The impact of monetary policy on commercial bank lending in Malaysia: The investigation on agriculture, construction & manufacturing sectors

The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the impact of monetary policy on commercial bank lending in Malaysia from 1970-2000.This dissertation, is intended to answer two research questions: 1) Will a tightening of monetary policy in Malaysia affects commercial bank lending at the aggregate level? 2) Will a tightening of monetary policy in Malaysia affects commercial bank lending to agriculture, construction, and manufacturing sector? The objectives of this dissertation is to determine the impact of monetary policy tightening on commercial bank lending at aggregate level and sectoral level namely, agriculture, construction, and manufacturing loan.To achieve the objective, this dissertation employs the vector autoregression (VAR) technique.From the VAR analysis, the results suggested that a monetary policy tightening in Malaysia gives significant impact on commercial bank lending at both the aggregate level and sectoral level from 1970-2000.The results also suggest that a monetary policy tightening in Malaysia gives larger impact on agriculture loan during the period of 1970-1996, while during the period of 1970-2000 (including the period of financial crisis), a monetary policy tightening in Malaysia gives larger impact on construction loan