The Role of Tourism Sector in Economic Growth: An Empirical Evidence From Palestine

This study examines the long-term relationship between economic growth and international tourism receipts in the state of Palestine during the period 1995-2014. To achieve the purpose of the study, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is used as proxy for economic growth while International Tourism Receipts (ITR) is used as a proxy for tourism sector. The findings of the study showed that there is a unique long-term relationship between GDP and international tourism receipts. Furthermore, Granger causality test affirms a causal relationship from international tourism receipts towards economic growth in the state of Palestine. This paper uses an empirical evidence to show the role of tourism sector in economic performance of a country where its economy is highly dependable on foreign aids and donations. So, Palestinian government should develop dynamic policies to promote tourism sector into the country. This in turn leads to generate employment opportunities, poverty alleviation and economic growth. Keywords: Tourism, Palestine, Economic Growth, Co-integration, Causality JEL Classifications: C22, O11, L8

The Impact of COVID-19 on the Congolese Financial System : An empirical Investigation

The COVID-19 pass-through on the financial system moves      at supersonic speed,      undermining      financial stability with a contraction of claims on the private sector, withdrawing      deposits, and tightening the fiscal      circumstances     . The primary goal      of this research      is to investigate the unprecedented influenceof COVID-19      on the Congolese financial system. An autoregressive Vector Bayesian model is used to test the connection     .      The data utilized is a monthly series from December 2013 to October     2020. The results reveal      that the COVID-19 pandemic has varying degrees of negative impact on      the Congolese financial system. The Congolese government      should immediately      ado     pt macroeconomic and financial policies by boosting and injecting liquidity into      the banking sector to mitigate the negative consequences. At the same time, the expansion of Fintechs on the one hand and the expansion of cyberattacks on the other would enhance the financial system landscape     . To maximize      the digitization      of the financial systems and enhance the effectiveness of cybersecurity, financial institutions should implement intelligent      policies and invest in research. This study is the first to be done in Congo to the authors' best knowledge      and serves      as a battery for further research in Africa and the world

Financial Performance Comparison of Islamic and conventional banks in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)

This paper examines the financial performance of Islamic and commercial banks in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The paper gives an empirical insights and comparisons between the performance of Islamic and conventional banking sectors.  The sample of the study consists of 5 fully-fledged Islamic banks and 14 conventional banks working in the UAE under the period 2011-2014. The study uses descriptive analysis, correlation, independent sample t test and multiple regression analysis to assess the performance and to compare between both types of banks. The Return on Assets (ROA) is used as proxy for profitability for both types of banks while bank size (log A), liquidity, capital adequacy, financial risk and operating efficiency as proxies for financial performance for both types of banks. The results showed that there is no significant difference between Islamic banks and conventional banks in terms of profitability (ROA) while there is a significant difference between Islamic and conventional banks in terms of liquidity, operation efficiency, capital adequacy, and financial risk. Further, the results indicated that the Islamic banks have higher operating efficiency, bank size and more liquidity than their counterparts of UAE. However, conventional banks are found to have better capital adequacy ratio than Islamic banks. In terms of financial risk, Islamic banks are found to have higher five times than conventional banks which may reflect challenges in the area of risk management in Islamic banks. Keywords: Financial performance, Islamic banks, Conventional banks, ROA, UAE. JEL Classification: A10, E60, G2

Impact of Students-Teachers-Peers’ Emotional Intelligence (EI) on Students’ Academic Achievement (AA): A Conceptual Framework

Social-emotional knowledge illustrates many abilities and attributes that are essential for today’s students who intend to work globally. Students who are emotionally intelligent have higher levels of creativity, work performance, stress tolerance, and interpersonal skills. However, studies on the impact of students-teachers-peers’ EI on academic achievement of students are limited. The main purpose of this study to propose a framework in order to investigate the impact of students-teachers-peers’ EI on students’ academic achievement. The objectives were three-fold; First, to investigate whether the impact of teacher’s emotional intelligence on students’ academic achievement is different for male and female students studying dissimilar disciplines across New Zealand’s educational institutes; Second, to determine the impact of near-seated peers’ EI on students’ academic achievement; Third, to investigate the moderating impact of teachers and peers’ EI on the relationship between students’ EI and academic achievement. This study contributes to existing literature by proposing a framework of the impact of Students-Teachers-Peers’ Emotional Intelligence on Students’ Academic Achievement (AA) that has neither been empirically explored nor conceptually presented

The Impact of Oil Price Volatility, Gross Domestic Product, Foreign Direct Investment on Islamic Banking Investments: An Empirical Evidence of The United Arab Emirates

The current paper examines the impact of Oil Price (OP) fluctuations on Islamic banking investments growth in the UAE. Besides, oil price, the study also uses other variables like Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to identify the determinants of the Islamic banking investments growth in the emerging economy, UAE.  The study is based on econometric analysis with the help of annual time series data from 1990 to 2015 for the study variables. Stationary tests, Cointegration methods, Vector Error Correction Model (VECM), and Granger causality tests are used in the analysis. The major findings of the study revealed that oil prices have long-term and short-term relationships on the Islamic banking investments in the UAE. Our results explore the importance of oil price stabilization in enhancing growth and progress in the UAE economy. The Government of UAE should reform policies and procedures to minimize the effect of such volatility in oil prices which in turn leads to positive impacts on the UAE economy as well. Keywords: Oil Price, Volatility, FDI, GDP, Islamic investments, Growth, UAE. JEL Classifications: F21, F41, O1

Rural women characteristics and sustainable entrepreneurial intention: a road to economic growth in Bangladesh

Purpose: This study aims to provide a better understanding of the individual-level factors that affect rural women’s sustainable entrepreneurial intention in starting and running a business in Bangladesh and contributing to national economic growth. Design/methodology/approach: Data from a sample of 297 rural Bangladeshi women were analysed using a quantitative approach with Smart PLS 3.0 (SEM) and SPSS V25. This was to explore the direct influence of perceived capability, social perception and individual competencies on women’s intention to become sustainable entrepreneurs. The indirect consequences of these three variables on perceived opportunity were also evaluated. Findings: The studies confirmed a positive and significant association between perceived capability and social perception with the intention to become a sustainable entrepreneur. There is no conventional connection between women’s individual competencies and their intention to become an entrepreneur. Moreover, the data confirmed that perceived opportunity mediates the relationship between perceived capability and individual competencies with the intention to become an entrepreneur. However, no mediation role of perceived opportunity in the relationship between social perception and intention was found. Originality/value: This study is one of very few to explore through empirical analysis the relationship between women’s individual characteristics and their intention to become sustainable entrepreneurs and to investigate whether rural women are motivated to become empowered to contribute to economic development through sustainable entrepreneurial intention

Do positive and negative variations in stock indexes lead to depreciation in local currencies? A beyond symmetrical evidence from ASEAN-5 region

Preliminary studies overlooked the importance of the financial crisis in the asymmetric transmission of financial market shocks to FX market returns. Moreover, existing studies also concentrated on the response of aggregate equity market returns to the forex market returns rather than the vice versa asymmetric effect for the ASEAN-5 region. We utilised the panel based ARDL and NARDL framework using pooled mean group method for conducting this study. There are 415 observations spanning the pre-crisis period of January 2001 to December 2007. Furthermore, 595 and 1135 observations are taken into consideration when post-recessionary, and overall sampling periods of January 2010 to December 2019 and January 2001 to December 2019 are considered, correspondingly. Overall, the findings indicated that in the short run, only negative equity market returns caused depreciation in the local currencies of ASEAN-5 member countries during the pre-crisis period, whereas only positive shocks during the post-crisis regime appreciated the local currencies of ASEAN-5 member countries. Furthermore, only longer-term negative financial market shocks contribute to post-crisis local currency deflation in the ASEAN-5 member nations. This demonstrates that investors and exporters must consider the importance of the particulate crisis period when formulating forward currency arrangements

Comparative Bayesian Analysis of GARCH and Stochastic Volatility Models using R and Stan

This study uses modelling and model comparison to compare three widely used GARCH models with their stochastic volatility (SV) counterparts in modelling the dynamics of inflation rates using the Bayesian approach. BRICS country consumer price index (CPI) data are used to assess these models. We find that the stochastic volatility models perform better than the GARCH models most of the time. The stochastic volatility in the leverage (SV-L) model is also demonstrated to be the most effective for the BRICS nations that we took into consideration. The article also looks at which model attributes are crucial in simulating inflation rates. It turns out that when modelling inflation rates, inflation volatility feedback is an important component to take into account. For each of the five countries we took into consideration, SV-L outperforms all other models. The study was done in rstan, a programming language for statistical inference, and the simulation uses the Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC) algorithm of the Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) to sample from the posterior distribution

The impact of political instability, macroeconomic and bank-specific factors on the profitability of Islamic banks: an empirical evidence

This study investigates the impact of political instability, macroeconomic and bank-specific factors on the profitability of Islamic banks in the context of Yemen. The study used two common measures of profitability, namely, Return on Assets (ROA) and Return on Equity (ROE) as dependent variables. Seven key independent (internal and external) variables are also used. There are five fully-fledged Islamic banks (IBs) working in Yemen. The study selected only three out of five IBs due to the availability of data for the period ranging from 2010 to 2014. The descriptive and multiple regression analyses were done. The results of the study indicate that operating efficiency and financial risk have negative and significant relationships with ROA and ROE. The findings also show that capital adequacy has a negative and insignificant relationship with ROA and ROE. Furthermore, the study reveals that assets size (LogA), assets management, liquidity and deposits have a significant and positive impact on banks’ profitability. GDP, Inflation rate (IR) and Political instability have positive and significant impact on Yemeni banks’ profitability. Based on the best knowledge of the authors, this study is considered one of the first and pioneering studies that determine the factors affecting the profitability of Islamic banks of Yemen. Therefore, the study gives good insights for the policy makers, regulators and interested parties for enhancing the profitability of Islamic banks in Yemen