A capability approach to the analysis of rural households' wellbeing in Nigeria

Rural households in Nigeria have been characterized as poor, and with little opportunity for development. Many studies have equated poverty with well being, however empirical literature on well being is less researched. This paper attempts bridge the knowledge gap in the empirical literature of well being studies and specifically the use of the capability approach in its application in the Nigerian well being context which is not as well researched as poverty studies. The study made use of the Nigerian Core welfare indices survey questionnaires of 2006 to provide data relevant to capability well being dimensions. The dimensions include housing, health, nutrition, education, asset ownership/economic, information flow and security. The first part of the study involve developing indices of well being using the fuzzy set in order to generate a composite well being index by the elementary indicators of the well being dimensions. The second part of the study used a logistic regression to explore the variability in achieving the composite well being index value by a set of Conversion factors. The fuzzy set result revealed that the capability to attain a desired state of well being is highest with respect to asset ownership and lowest with respect to security. The logistic analysis shows that the predicted probability of attaining the mean capability well being level increases for male headed rural households, increasing educational level and age of the head, increasing household size, employment in the public sector and residence in any other geopolitical zone except the Northwestern zone.Well being, Capability, Rural Households, Nigeria

On the Power Efficiency of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and the Classical Regression Model

This research work presents new development in the field of natural science, where comparison is made theoretically on the efficiency of both classical regression models and that of artificial neural network models, with various transfer functions without data consideration. The results obtained based on variance estimation indicates that ANN is better which coincides with the results of Authors in the past on the efficiency of ANN over the traditional regression models. The certain conditions required for ANN efficiency over the conventional regression models were noted only that the optimal number of hidden layers and neurons needed to achieve minimum error is still open to further investigation.Key words

HCME: An Environment-Friendly I.C. Engine Fuel

The study revealed that Hura crepitans oil is a good candidate for Hura crepitans methyl ester (HCME) production. Two steps (esterification and transesterification) production stages influenced the high yield of HCME. Three possible experimental runs were performed in each step, the best of the three conditions were 1.45 (% v/v) for H2SO4 conc., 5:1 for methanol/oil molar ratio, 40 min for reaction time which gave 1.06 % for FFA in the first step, in the second step, 92.70 %(w/w) of HCME was obtained at 0.55% KOH, 5:1 methanol/oil molar ratio, 60 oC temperature and 30 min reaction time. The produced HCME had fuel properties which satisfied both ASTME D6751 and EN 1424 standards. The fatty acid profile of the HCME revealed the dominant fatty acids were linoleic (64.50%), oleic (17.54%) and palmitic (12.70%). Exhaust emissions from an internal combustion (I.C.) engine revealed that there is 60% decreased in CO, 58% decreased in NOx, 60% decreased in HC, 39% decrease in smoke opacity and 42% decreased in BSFC at B20, respectively. Flue gas temperature increased by 12% at B20, 45% increased in BTE at B50 when compared to pure diesel (AGO). Hence, it can be concluded that B20 (20% HCME + 80% AGO) will provides the best emission reduction at the lowest cost

Estimating Seemingly Unrelated Regressions with First Order Autoregressive Disturbances

In Seemingly Unrelated Regressions (SUR) model, disturbances are assumed to be correlated across equations and it will be erroneous to assume that disturbances behave independently, hence, the need for an efficient estimator. Literature has revealed gain in efficiency of the SUR estimator over the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) estimator when the errors are correlated across equations. This work, however, considers methods of estimating a set of regression equations when disturbances are both contemporaneously and serially correlated. The Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS), OLS and Iterative Ordinary Least Squares (IOLS) estimation techniques were considered and the form of autocorrelation examined. Prais-Winstein transformation was conducted on simulated data for the different sample sizes used to remove autocorrelations. Results from simulation studies showed that the FGLS was efficient both in small samples and large samples. Comparative performances of the estimators were investigated on the basis of the standard errors of the parameter estimates when estimating the model with and without AR(1) and the results showed that the estimators performed better with AR(1) as the sample size increased especially from 20. On the criterion of the Root Mean Square, the FGLS was found to have performed better with AR(1) and it was revealed that bias reduces as sample size increases. In all cases considered, the SUR estimator performed best. It was consistently most efficient than the OLS and IOLS estimators

Evaluation of Simultaneous Equation Techniques in the Presence of Misspecification Error: A Monte Carlo Approach

One  of  the  assumptions  of  Classical  Linear  Regression  Model (CLRMA),  is  that  the  regression  model be  ‘correctly’   specified.  If  the  model  is  not  ‘correctly’  specified,  the  problem  of  model  misspecification  error arises. The objective of the study is to know the performances of the estimator and also the estimator that is greatly affected by misspecification error due to omission of relevant explanatory variable.  Four simultaneous equation techniques (OLS, 2SLS, 3SLS, LIML) were applied to a two-equation model and investigated on their performances when plagued with the problem of misspecification error. A Monte Carlo method simulation method was employed to investigate the effect of these estimators due to misspecification of the model. The findings revealed that the estimates obtained by 2SLS and 3SLS are similar and variances by all the estimates reduced consistently as the sample size increases. The study had revealed that 2 3 SLS performed best using average of parameter criterion while OLS generated the least variances. LIML is mostly affected by misspecification. Keywords: Monte Carlo, Misspecification error, Simultaneous equation

The Impact of Personal Characteristics on Consumer’s Purchase of Innovative Durable Electronics Products in Kano Metropolis

The study assessed the Impact of Personal Characteristics on Consumer’s Purchase of Innovative Durable Electronics Products in Kano Metropolis. The objectives of the study is to ascertain the extent to which personal characteristics of gender, age, income and education affect consumer’s purchase of innovative durable electronic goods. The study population was the entire consumers that purchases electronic products from the 8 local governments areas selected for the study. The researcher used sample size of 500 respondents and data were obtained using questionnaires. Data presentation and discussions were supported with chart and tables to make the whole work easy to read and understand by all and sundry. The study showed that out of the four consumer’s personal characteristics of age, sex, income and education examined, only age is found to have significant impact on consumer’s purchase preference for innovative durable electronic goods of TV, refrigerator, DVD players, and satellite receivers. This is basically supported by previous researches, and especially Roger’s innovation diffusion theory, which forms the theoretical basis of this study. The researchers recommend that marketers should take cognisance of age in new product diffusion. Importantly, opinion leaders, being younger should be targeted tv advertorials to make innovations more sellable. Invariably, customized advertising can equally evolve. In addition, as Hausman (2015) reiterates, such could be given some stipends to encourage them perform the opinion leadership more effectively. Keywords: Personal Characteristics, Consumer, Consumer Purchasing Power, Innovation, Durable Electronics Product

On the Exponentiated Weibull Distribution for Modeling Wind Speed in South Western Nigeria

One of the bases for assessment of wind energy potential for a specified region is the probability distribution of wind speed. Thus, appropriate and adequate specification of the probability distribution of wind speed becomes increasingly important. Several distributions have been proposed for describing wind distribution. Among the most popular distributions is the Weibull whose choice is due to its flexibility. An exponentiated Weibull distribution is proposed as an alternative to model wind speed data with a view to comparing it with the existing Weibull distribution. Results indicate that the proposed distribution outperforms the existing Weibull distribution for modeling wind speed data in terms of minimum Akaike information criterion (AIC) and likelihood function. Thus, the exponentiated Weibull can be used as an alternative distribution that adequately describe the wind speed and thereby provide better representation of the potentials of wind energy

Maximum Likelihood Estimation of the Kumaraswamy Exponential Distribution with Applications

The Kumaraswamy exponential distribution, a generalization of the exponential, is developed as a model for problems in environmental studies, survival analysis and reliability. The estimation of parameters is approached by maximum likelihood and the observed information matrix is derived. The proposed models are applied to three real data sets

On the Beta-Nakagami Distribution

This study is focused on combining Nakagami distribution and beta distribution with a view to obtaining a distribution that is better than each of them individually in terms of the estimate of their characteristics and parsimonious in their parameters using the logit of beta (the link function of the Beta generalized distribution by Jones (2004)). The resulting model, beta Nakagami distribution is better in terms of its flexibility and shape. The statistical properties of the proposed distribution such as moments, moment generating function, the asymptotic behavior among others were investigated. Our findings showed that beta Nakagami apart from being flexible, has better representation of data than Nakagami distribution.  It therefore describes situations better than the Nakagami distribution

An Examination of the Impact of Sources of Information on Consumer Preference for New Durable Electronic Goods in Kano Metropolis

The study was designed to assess the impact of sources of information on consumer preference for new durable electronic goods in Kano Metropolis. Specific objectives of the study cover the sources of information used by consumers in their purchase decision of innovative durable electronic goods and the extent to which sources of information used by consumers affect their purchase decision of innovative durable electronic goods. The study population was the entire consumers that purchases electronic products from the 8 local governments areas selected for the study. The researcher used sample size of 500 respondents and data were obtained using questionnaires. Data presentation and discussions were supported with chart and tables to make the whole work easy to read and understand by all and sundry. The study revealed that the diffusion of new durable electronic goods is greatly enhanced by TV advertorials, suggestions by friends/relations and price discounts. Other sources of information used by consumers in the purchase of durable electronic products in the descending order are advertisements on radio, advertisements in magazines, trade shows, advertisements on billboards, suggestions by salesmen and handbills, so the researcher recommended that Proper Research and Development (R & D) efforts through an organization’s Marketing Intelligence/Marketing Information Systems (MIS/MKIS) can help unearth people’s tastes and preferences and hence shape new products and services. This will enhance better segmentation with regards to relevant consumer personal/socio-economic variables. Product diffusion and hence frequency of purchase is often enhanced by consumer’s level of awareness, perceived product quality and reliable warranty among others. Keywords: Sources of Information, Consumer Preference, New Durable Electronic Goods and Kano Metropoli