The relationship between government revenue and expenditure in Malaysia

The study examines the relationship between government revenue and expenditure in Malaysia. The results of the Dickey and Fuller (1979) and Phillips and Perron (1988) unit root test statistics show that government revenue and expenditure are integrated of order one. The results of the Johansen(1988) and Gregory and Hansen (1996) cointegration methods show that government revenue and expenditure are cointegrated. Thus, there is a longrun relationship between the government revenue and expenditure. The intertemporal budget constraint is not violated and the budget deficit of the Malaysian government is generally said to be sustainable. The results of the Granger-causality test generally show that the government revenue leads to government expenditure in Malaysia

"Convergence and Catching Up in ASEAN: A Comparative Analysis"

The increasing diversity of average growth rates and income levels across countries has generated a large literature on testing the income convergence hypothesis. Most countries in South-East Asia, particularly the five founding ASEAN member countries (ASEAN-5), have experienced substantial economic growth, with the pace of growth having varied substantially across countries. Recent empirical studies have found evidence of several convergence clubs, in which per capita incomes have converged for selected groupings of countries and regions. This paper applies different time series tests of convergence to determine if there is a convergence club for ASEAN-5, as well as ASEAN-5 and the USA. The catching up hypothesis states that the lagging country, with low initial income and productivity levels, will tend to grow more rapidly by copying the technology of the leader country, without having to bear the associated costs of research and development. Given the important effects of technological change on growth, this paper also examines whether ASEAN-5 is catching up technologically to the USA.

The delay of stock price adjustment to information: A country-level analysis

This study measures the speed with which the aggregate stock market in 49 countries responds to global market-wide public information. Our empirical results show that there are wide variations in the aggregate price delay values over time and across countries. Subsequent panel analysis confirms previous firm-level evidence that market size, trading volume, short sales restrictions and the degree of investability are significant determinants of price delay even at the country level.Informational efficiency, speed of adjustment, price delay, aggregate stock market

Non-linear Market Behavior: Events Detection in the Malaysian Stock Market

This paper advocates a reverse from of event studies that is data-dependent to determine endogeneously the events that trigger non-linear market behavior. Using the Malaysian stock market as our case study, coupled with the ‘windowing' approach proposed by Hinich and Patterson (1995), the present study is able to identify major political and economic events that contributed to the short bursts of non-linear behavior. The present framework can be extended to individual firm to examine the adjustment of its stock price to firm-specific events, which will provide deeper insight into issues on corporate finance.

Cross-temporal universality of non-linear dependencies in Asian stock markets

This study utilizes the Hinich portmanteau bicorrelation test in conjunction with the windowed testing procedure to examine the cross-temporal universality of non-linear dependencies in the returns series for Asian stock market indices. As a whole, the detected non-linear dependencies do not appear to be persistent or stable across time for all the stock markets. In particular, the underlying process is of a switching type, with the pure noise process from time to time switches to a non-linear dependent stochastic process for some unknown length of time, and then switches back to pure-noise. This provides a plausible explanation for the disappointing forecasting performance of many non-linear models, as these existing models do not take note of the episodic transient nature of the non-linear dependency structures.

Non-Linear Dependence in ASEAN-5 Foreign Exchange Rates: An Insight from a Battery of Non-Linearity Tests

The main purpose of this study is to provide a deeper insight into the non-linear generating mechanism in the ASEAN-5 exchange rate returns series. To achieve that end, the differing power of the non-linear tests against certain alternatives is utilized. Specifically, the BDS and Hinich bispectrum tests are employed which provide valuable information on the adequacy of the current framework of ARCH-type models in capturing the non-linear dynamics in ASEAN-5 currencies. Daily data is used in this study covering the period from 1 990 to March 200 1 . The five ASEAN countries selected are Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. The results from the BDS test indicate strong evidences of non-linearity in the ASEAN-5 exchange rate series. However, this conveys little information on the nature of the detected non-linearity since the BDS test has high power against vast class of alternatives. Further application of the Hinich bispectrum test can provide valuable non-linear identification information, in which the results reveal strong evidences against the adequacy of the ARCH-type models in explaining the nonlinear dynamics in ASEAN-5 exchange rate series. The evidences of non-linearity in ASEAN-5 currencies have profound implications on the validity of weak-form market efficient hypothesis, model adequacy as well as the pricing of future derivatives. Furthermore, the results might prompt economists or policy makers to consider alternative policy advice based on models characterised by non-linear dynamics

Toying with Science

AbstractThis paper describes the course experience of the SCE553- Creativity and Creative Teaching in Science in general and in particular, the use of ‘toys’ in teaching. The course structure is designed using the constructivist framework emphasizing inquiry approaches in teaching, highlighting among others, the creative dimension in the learning outcome. This paper offered a brief description of the course philosophy and its outlines. Learning outcomes through students’ reflective essays will be shared for the readers to capture the true essence of a constructivist approach in teaching. The approach is designed to nurture the creative and innovative mind of students as well as the acquisition of the soft skills which are deemed as essential characteristics of a quality science teacher

Motion under gravity: a creative lesson from the paradigm of constructivism / Beh Kian Lim.

This paper offers insight into the author’s experience of teaching the topic of motion under gravity to students enrolled in a pre-service science teacher preparation program. The instructional method is based on the activity of the alternative to Galileo’s experiment using the three stage teaching sequences proposed by Nussbaum and Novick from the paradigm of constructivism. The activity reveals the general misconception among pre-service physics teachers and non-physics majors regarding motion under gravity. The paper also highlights the research findings of two studies based on the same classroom activity - the alternative to Galileo’s experiment. The studies involve two groups of Form Four secondary school students from urban and rural settings. The empirical data derived from the study of school students is consistent with the observation data gathered from the pre-service science classroom activity. It is concluded that the usual way of teaching the topic of motion under gravity with the goal of introducing the idea of gravitational acceleration is ineffective To rectify this shortcoming, the author suggests the ‘teach less-learn more’ philosophy that is in line with suggestions made in most recent science education reform documents. It is suggested that insights from this study can contribute to improvements in the training of future science teachers