Exploring Exports and Economic Growth Causality in Algeria

This paper investigates the causality relationship between economic growth, exports and imports in Algeria using Cointegration, Error Correction Model, and VEC Granger causality/Wald Exogeniety tests. The paper finds that economic growth in Algeria is linked to export industries and import is linked to economic growth. In other words, the growth in export sectors Granger causes economic growth which, in turn, promotes the growth of imports in Algeria. The paper suggests policy prescription that the government of Algeria should put emphasis on promoting growth and development of export industries by ensuring increased productivity in such sector

ECON 420 Managerial Economics

Course syllabus for ECON 420 Managerial Economics Course description: Deals with analysis and theoretical constructs of microeconomics applied to managerial decision making. Emphasizes consumer demand, production and cost analysis, business behavior, market performance, and growth equilibrium

Analysis of Comparative Efficiencies of Islamic Banks Across Nine South and Southeast Asian Countries.

The purpose of this paper is two folds: (i) obtain the overall technical efficiencies (TE), pure technical efficiencies (PTE), and scale efficiencies of the Islamic bank of the nine South and Southeast Asian (SSEA) countries during 2011-2016. (ii) compare them among the Islamic banks of the SSEA. The paper applied the Bootstrap Data Envelope Analysis (DEA) for obtaining three efficiencies in the production of loan and earning assets and found that the average TE, PTE, and SE of the Islamic banks in the region were 77.3 percent, 81.2 percent, and 95.3 percent respectively. The comparison of PTE efficiencies across the Islamic banks found: (i) the average TE of the Islamic banks of Malaysia was 81.9 percent and was higher than the average of other countries in the region; (ii) the average managerial efficiency (PTE) of the Islamic banks of Malaysia, excluding Brunei, Singapore, and Thailand, was 87.0 percent and was higher than the average of other countries in the region; (iii) among countries of the South and Southeast Asia, excluding Singapore and Maldives, the Islamic banks of Pakistan were more scale efficient than other countries in the region. The average scale efficiency of Pakistan’s Islamic banks was 96.8 percent. The underlying reason for the Islamic banks of Malaysia and Pakistan most efficient in the region is because they were the forerunners. They were the first countries to introduce Islamic banks. Secondly, the banks of counties survived through competition with conventional banks operating side by side in the Islamic banks. The policy prescription suggests that bank regulators allow the opening of more Islamic banks to compete with conventional banks for improving PTE efficiency

ECON 420 Managerial Economics: The Economics of the Firm

Course syllabus for ECON 420 Managerial Economics: The Economics of the Firm Course description: Deals with analysis and theoretical constructs of microeconomics applied to managerial decision making. Emphasizes consumer demand, production and cost analysis, business behavior, market performance, and growth equilibrium

A retrospective evaluation of the effectiveness of the mobile HIV / AIDS treatment teams in the Amajuba district kwa- Zulu Natal

Magister Public Health - MPHAim: This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Mobile HIV/AIDS Treatment Teams in initiating and treating patients with HAART at fixed primary health care clinics Amajuba District

Hybrid Rice: Economic Assessment of a Promising Technology for Sustainable Food Grain Production in Bangladesh

Hybrid rice, one of the viable and proven technologies has been considered as a new frontier to increase rice production for meeting growing demand for staple food in Bangladesh. Using farm survey data this paper examines comparative profitability of hybrid and inbred rice cultivation and estimates a Stochastic Frontier Function to determine the effect of key variables on farm efficiency. Results show that hybrid rice gives substantially higher yield as well as net return compared to inbred rice which leads to increase and sustainable growth of food grain production. Analysis of Stochastic Frontier model shows hybrid rice farms are technically more efficient than inbred.Hybrid Rice, Technology, Economics, Food Self-sufficiency, Crop Production/Industries, International Development, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

An Exploratory Investigation of Foreign Language Classroom Speaking Anxiety Amongst Pakistani EFL University Students

Abstract Foreign language anxiety is a phenomenon specific to language learning contexts that can have seriously detrimental consequences on the ability of students to acquire, retain, and speak the language they are learning. To the best of my knowledge, this study is the first to be carried out on foreign language classroom speaking anxiety (SA) specifically in the Pakistani context. The overall purpose of this study is to investigate the perceptions of Pakistani postgraduate (MA/MSc) non-major EFL (English as a foreign language) students about SA. It attempts to achieve the following four objectives: to explore whether speaking creates more anxiety than reading, writing, and listening; to identify the factors that may contribute to SA; to investigate the type of teacher behaviour and classroom activities that may alleviate SA; and to explore Pakistani EFL university teachers’ perceptions of their students’ SA along with the strategies used by teachers to reduce it. This study has been conducted using an interpretive approach. It employed a mixed-methods approach, combining both quantitative (questionnaire) and qualitative (open-ended questions in the questionnaire, semi-structured interviews and semi-structured classroom observations) to collect data from five universities in Pakistan. The questionnaire was completed by 170 Pakistani EFL students. In order to achieve a deep understanding of their SA, semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 20 students. 14 Pakistani EFL teachers were also interviewed and 12 classes taught by three teachers were observed. Quantitative data were analysed to obtain descriptive statistics. Qualitative data were analysed using exploratory content analysis. The study suggests that of the four skills, speaking produces the most anxiety. Findings also highlight a number of sources of SA which have been classified into five main categories: individual learner-related sources, classroom-related sources, linguistic-related sources, teacher-student interaction, and socio-cultural-related sources. The study highlights some possible sources of SA such as: lack of student voice; teacher bias; fear of saying anything socially unacceptable or against religion; cultural alienation; and mixed-gender classrooms, all of which do not appear to have been reported earlier in the field of language anxiety. Moreover, only a few studies have reported socio-cultural factors as contributors to students’ SA; as such, this study reinforces the idea that certain socio-cultural factors may also influence students’ SA. Further, the students suggest that a variety of teacher behaviours could both reduce their SA and encourage their spoken English in class. These include: having a friendly, supportive, and relaxed attitude towards students; providing them with a sociable classroom environment; using positive reinforcement; involving them in the learning process, and correcting their mistakes gently. In addition, the data reveal a number of classroom activities which may reduce SA. These include allowing students: to prepare oral tasks in advance; to work in groups; to use some Urdu when they cannot express themselves in English; voluntary participation in oral tasks, and providing students with adequate wait-time. Finally, the findings indicate that most of the teachers were not fully aware of SA and its potentially debilitating effects on language learning. As a consequence, they did not take students’ SA into account when they were teaching. In addition, a model of identifying factors, initiatives and behaviours required to address the sources of Pakistani EFL learners’ speaking anxiety has been proposed. The theoretical implications of the study are offered. Implications and suggestions for teachers and educational/language policy-makers are discussed. Finally, suggestions for further research are provided

Civilians heroes: A social network analysis of information structure on social media during disaster

Online social activists through social media play an important role in disseminating information during disaster.However the nature and scale of the typical activist’s involvement with social media have remained unexplored topic.This study applies Social Network Analysis to identify the key information brokers, their roles and the type and flow of information exchanges between the online activists in the network structure.The analysis was performed on a dataset consisting of 139 posts from a voluenteer social media group. The findings demonstrate that civilians play crucial role during disaster as information broker and information boundary spanner, bridging different clusters of network.There were 5 important clusters discovered, each orchestrated around different type of supports.The different types of information posted also reflected the integrative supports covering physical, mental and supports offered for the victims.The evolution of clusters during and post period demonstrates the transitions of social media use by the civilians in coping and managing disasters.This finding can serves as a foundation for integrating public and formal efforts during disaster which ideally increase the efficiency of disaster management