Dasar fiskal terhadap perbelanjaan swasta: analisis SVAR di Malaysia

Bermula dengan episod belanjawan defisit yang berpanjangan sejak tahun 1998 di NSM, menunjukkan kutipan hasil cukai kerajaan tidak berupaya untuk menampung perbelanjaan yang menyebabkan kerajaan perlu memikirkan sumber pembiayaan alternatif seperti melalui terbitan bon. Mengikut teori dana boleh pinjam, terbitan bon kerajaan menyebabkan penurunan harga bon dan seterusnya cenderung meningkatkan kadar bunga pasaran. Kenaikan kadar bunga pasaran menyebabkan kos dana meningkat yang menyebabkan firma cenderung mengecilkan saiz pelaburan. Ini menyebabkan peningkatan perbelanjaan kerajaan yang dibiayai melalui terbitan bon tidak dapat memberikan kesan sepenuhnya kepada peningkatan pendapatan negara malahan mewujudkan kesan asakan keluar ke atas pelaburan swasta. Kertas ini bertujuan untuk mengkaji keberkesanan dasar fiskal iaitu kejutan positif perbelanjaan kerajaan dan hasil kerajaan (cukai) terhadap pelaburan swasta di Malaysia. Kajian ini menggunakan model SVAR (Structural Vector Autoregressive) dalam ekonomi terbuka bersaiz kecil untuk mengenal pasti tindak balas dinamik kejutan dasar fiskal terhadap pelaburan swasta. Data kajian adalah data siri masa sukuan bagi tempoh 1991:1-2016:3. Analisis fungsi tindak balas impulse dan penguraian varian telah digunakan untuk mengupas keberkesanan dasar fiskal terhadap perbelanjaan swasta. Hasil kajian menunjukkan kesan kejutan perbelanjaan kerajaan mewujudkan kesan asakan keluar terhadap pelaburan swasta manakala bagi penggunaan swasta mengalami kesan positif. Bagi kesan kejutan hasil cukai kerajaan menunjukkan keputusan yang sama iaitu pelaburan swasta mengalami kesan negatif manakala penggunaan swasta mengalami kesan positif

Gelagat perbelanjaan golongan isi rumah b40 terhadap produk kesihatan semula jadi: pemerhatian awal di perumahan awam Sri Kota, Cheras

Produk kesihatan semula jadi merupakan salah satu produk yang menjadi pilihan dalam kalangan pengguna di Malaysia seperti kosmetik, wangian, makanan, suplemen mahupun ubat-ubatan yang berasaskan produk semula jadi yang dianggap berkesan dan selamat. Trend penggunaan produk kesihatan semula jadi semakin meningkat terutamanya dalam tempoh pandemik Covid-19 yang mana pengguna semakin sedar dan prihatin kepentingan suplemen kesihatan agar kehidupan lebih sihat dan sejahtera. Kajian ini merupakan pemerhatian awal gelagat perbelanjaan golongan isi rumah B40 terhadap produk kesihatan semula jadi di kawasan Perumahan Awam Flat Sri Kota, Cheras, Kuala Lumpur. Seramai enam orang responden telah dipilih secara rawak untuk menjalani sesi temu bual. Hasil daripada sesi temu bual dianalisis dengan mengeluarkan tema-tema yang menunjukkan faktor yang mempengaruhi pembelian pengguna terhadap produk kesihatan semula jadi. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan terdapat tujuh faktor yang mempengaruhi keputusan perbelanjaan golongan isi rumah B40 iaitu harga barang itu sendiri, pendapatan, harga barang lain, cita rasa, fesyen atau trend masa kini, maklumat barangan dan peraturan atau undang-undang kerajaan. Hasil daripada pemerhatian awal ini dapat dijadikan sebagai panduan dan asas kepada penyelidikan yang berkaitan

Impak program komuniti: ‘rakyat sihat, inspirasi negara’

Penyakit tidak berjangkit termasuk hipertensi, diabetes dan penyakit jantung merupakan penyakit kronik yang menjadi punca utama morbiditi dan mortaliti serta menimbulkan cabaran penting kepada sistem penjagaan kesihatan. Pengetahuan tentang faktor risiko dan komplikasi penyakit ini penting dalam menggalakkan amalan gaya hidup yang positif. Aktivti pencegahan menerusi pendidikan individu atau berkumpulan untuk meningkatkan tahap pengetahuan adalah aspek penting yang sewajarnya diberi perhatian. Kajian rintis berbentuk program komuniti ini bertujuan meningkatkan tahap pengetahunan mengenai gejala dan komplikasi tiga penyakit tidak berjangkit utama iaitu hipertensi/tekanan darah tinggi, diabetes dan penyakit jantung dalam kalangan komuniti di sebuah kawasan perumahan awam. Seramai 40 orang penghuni telah terlibat di dalam program ini. Aktiviti program komuniti ini berdasarkan adaptasi daripada modul yang telah dibina dengan sedikit ubahsuai untuk menepati peserta sasaran. Modul yang terlibat adalah ‘Modul Status Kesihatan, Kualiti dan Keperluan Hidup di Kalangan Wanita B40 di Malaysia’. Satu set borang soal selidik digunakan untuk pengumpulan data iaitu: i) sosiodemografi ii) penilaian impak program dan iii) penilaian proses program. Seramai 36 peserta menjawab soalan pra-program dan 33 peserta menjawab soalan pasca-program. Bagi penilaian impak, daripada 17 soalan, terdapat peningkatan peratusan (64.5%) peserta yang menjawab soalan dengan betul. Untuk penilaian proses, item “secara keseluruhannya, program ini adalah berjaya dan bermanfaat” mendapat min skor tertinggi [4.91 (sp 0.29)]. Terdapat peningkatan tahap pengetahuan tehadap gejala dan komplikasi tiga penyakit berjangkit utama ini. Peserta berpuashati dengan proses pelaksanaan program. Dapatan kajian rintis ini boleh menjadi asas untuk membentuk strategi program komuntiti yang lebih komprehensif di masa hadapan

Penggunaan produk kesihatan semulajadi yang selamat: pemerhatian awal dalam kalangan penduduk perumahan awam Sri Kota, Cheras

Pasca pandemik penggunaan produk kesihatan semulajadi semakin meningkat dalam kalangan masyarakat di seluruh dunia, dan juga di Malaysia. Terdapat beberapa tujuan penggunaan produk kesihatan berasaskan bahan semulajadi oleh pengguna iaitu untuk merawat penyakit, mengawal simptom penyakit, mencegah penyakit dan untuk kesihatan umum. Seringkali penggunaan produk kesihatan semulajadi ini merupakan keputusan peribadi pengguna, dan sukar dipantau. Justeru itu, penggunaan produk kesihatan semulajadi yang selamat merupakan satu aspek yang penting untuk ditangani. Kesedaran dan pengetahuan pengguna perlu dipertingkatkan supaya keselamatan pengguna dapat dijaga. Kajian ini merupakan pemerhatian awal di Perumahan Awam Sri Kota, Cheras, dimana seramai 32 orang penduduk ditemubual secara ringkas untuk mendapatkan maklumat awal berkaitan penggunaan produk kesihatan semulajadi yang selamat. Terdapat lima (5) soalan ringkas ditanya untuk mendapatkan maklumat mengenai i) elemen produk yang disemak sebelum membuat pembelian produk, ii) individu yang dirujuk dalam penggunaan produk, iii) Faktor pemilihan/penggunaan produk, iv) logo yang dilihat pada produk dan v) pendaftaran produk melalui Quest 3+. Daripada kelima-lima soalan ini, didapati bahawa majoriti ahli komuniti yang ditemubual di Perumahan Awan Sri Kota, Cheras mempunyai tahap pengetahuan yang sederhana rendah mengenai penggunaan produk kesihatan yang selamat. Oleh yang demikian, inisiatif untuk meningkatkan kesedaran dan pengetahuan mengenai penggunaan produk kesihatan yang selamat perlu dipergiat melalui pelbagai pendekatan agar masyarakat menjadi pengguna produk kesihatan yang bermaklumat dan selamat

Fiscal Policy Effects on Private Expenditure for Sustainable Economic Growth: A Panel VAR Study from Selected Developing Countries

This study examines the effects of fiscal policy on private expenditure using a panel VAR for the sample of 60 developing countries from 1990 to 2020. The VAR panel model framework was used to focus on the disaggregated government expenditures which included the defense, economic and social expenditure. The main findings showed a positive shock effect of defense expenditure which led to crowding out effect on private expenditure and domestic income. Conversely, economic and social expenditure had the crowding in effect on private consumption and domestic income. To detail out the analysis, the composition of government spending was divided into two, namely productive expenditures and non-productive expenditures. Therefore, the findings indicate that defense expenditure is non-productive since it does not stimulate an increase in private spending and national income while economic expenditure and social expenditure are classified as productive expenditure with the ability to increase economic activity. The policy implication suggests that the government should carefully examine and identify the sectors or composition that have greater potential, capacity and relevance in stimulating sustainable economic growth

Fiscal Policy Effects on Private Expenditure for Sustainable Economic Growth: A Panel VAR Study from Selected Developing Countries

This study examines the effects of fiscal policy on private expenditure using a panel VAR for the sample of 60 developing countries from 1990 to 2020. The VAR panel model framework was used to focus on the disaggregated government expenditures which included the defense, economic and social expenditure. The main findings showed a positive shock effect of defense expenditure which led to crowding out effect on private expenditure and domestic income. Conversely, economic and social expenditure had the crowding in effect on private consumption and domestic income. To detail out the analysis, the composition of government spending was divided into two, namely productive expenditures and non-productive expenditures. Therefore, the findings indicate that defense expenditure is non-productive since it does not stimulate an increase in private spending and national income while economic expenditure and social expenditure are classified as productive expenditure with the ability to increase economic activity. The policy implication suggests that the government should carefully examine and identify the sectors or composition that have greater potential, capacity and relevance in stimulating sustainable economic growth

Green Technology Solution for Small-World Communication Using Plastic Optical Fiber (POF) and Light Emitting Diode (LED)—Design and Application

Plastic optical fiber (POF) has become a dominant technology, with potential to be fully utilized in a small-world communication system because it has many advantages over existing systems. Among several high-speed solutions, POF can be considered as one of the most promising technologies because of its attractive features, such as efficiency, user friendly, environmentally friendly, low maintenance and economic metric, compared to silica fiber optics. POF devices are divided into several types based on fabrication techniques and continue to spread to a number of applications that have a high impact in the world of communication today. This paper will discuss the overall POF technology and sustainable solutions for small-world communication from device fabrication, device types, configurations and applications. Discussion will focus on the technologies that have been developed in our laboratory concerning a user-friendly approach, energy efficiency, ease of maintenance and high-performance solution. The performance of our optical splitter is comparable to commercialized devices that are less than 5 dB of insertion loss and 0.53 dB of excess loss. This sustainable solution in high-speed communication is the first reported up to this time

Green Technology Solution for Small-World Communication Using Plastic Optical Fiber (POF) and Light Emitting Diode (LED)—Design and Application

Plastic optical fiber (POF) has become a dominant technology, with potential to be fully utilized in a small-world communication system because it has many advantages over existing systems. Among several high-speed solutions, POF can be considered as one of the most promising technologies because of its attractive features, such as efficiency, user friendly, environmentally friendly, low maintenance and economic metric, compared to silica fiber optics. POF devices are divided into several types based on fabrication techniques and continue to spread to a number of applications that have a high impact in the world of communication today. This paper will discuss the overall POF technology and sustainable solutions for small-world communication from device fabrication, device types, configurations and applications. Discussion will focus on the technologies that have been developed in our laboratory concerning a user-friendly approach, energy efficiency, ease of maintenance and high-performance solution. The performance of our optical splitter is comparable to commercialized devices that are less than 5 dB of insertion loss and 0.53 dB of excess loss. This sustainable solution in high-speed communication is the first reported up to this time

Customer Edge Downstream Detection for Automatic Restoration Scheme in FTTH-PON Distribution Network

Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) networks are seen as the most future-proof technology to offer increasing bandwidth to customers. By utilizing passive optical network (PON) technology, they provide flexibility and capability to carry higher bandwidths as compared to the legacy copper-based access network. Optical performance monitoring could potentially enable higher stability, reconfigurability, and flexibility in a self-managed optical network. This paper will describe the specific fiber impairments that affect the quality of service for fiber-to-the-home networks. The impairment needs to be monitored and restored. The proposed solution will utilize a photodiode and optical switch as the main components, can easily be integrated with the ONU through the optical interface, and will be referred to as ‘PROMO’. With this scheme, the protection and restoration mechanisms are archived through the detection and availability of the downstream signal from the OLT. The results show that the received power, BER values, and maximum Q factor are acceptable for both simulation and experimental conditions in the case of normal and protection conditions

Customer Edge Downstream Detection for Automatic Restoration Scheme in FTTH-PON Distribution Network

Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) networks are seen as the most future-proof technology to offer increasing bandwidth to customers. By utilizing passive optical network (PON) technology, they provide flexibility and capability to carry higher bandwidths as compared to the legacy copper-based access network. Optical performance monitoring could potentially enable higher stability, reconfigurability, and flexibility in a self-managed optical network. This paper will describe the specific fiber impairments that affect the quality of service for fiber-to-the-home networks. The impairment needs to be monitored and restored. The proposed solution will utilize a photodiode and optical switch as the main components, can easily be integrated with the ONU through the optical interface, and will be referred to as ‘PROMO’. With this scheme, the protection and restoration mechanisms are archived through the detection and availability of the downstream signal from the OLT. The results show that the received power, BER values, and maximum Q factor are acceptable for both simulation and experimental conditions in the case of normal and protection conditions