Willingness to pay for the consumption of green food product among households

Green food refers to food that is safe to eat, good quality, healthy, concerned about animal welfare and is produced under the principles of sustainable development. The objective of this study is to determine the ability of households to pay according to the attributes of green food product, and to estimate the implicit price for each attribute that is modelled. Data collection was carried out in the Klang Valley from June until August 2016 by using convenient sampling method. A total of 309 respondents were selected. Data were collected using questionnaires distributed to households in the Klang Valley area, namely the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Ampang and Subang Jaya. Data were analysed using SPSS version 21 for descriptive and inferential test while SAS and 9.0 LIMDEP logit 3.0 was used to analyse the household’s willingness to pay (WTP) through the Choice Model (CM) technique. The study found that on average, consumers are willing to pay RM3.46 for the reduction of risk to human health and willing to accept the compensation of RM1.723 for the environmental impact of the chicken production process. It explains that on average, households would be very concerned about the risk factors to human health and the impact on the environment in green food choices for a healthy lifestyle. Meanwhile, the external characteristic was not significant and did not affect households in sustainable food choices. Therefore, the food manufacturers and the government should take the initiative to apply these attributes in sustainable food production so that a healthy lifestyle can continue to be practised by the consumers

Kos pengurangan pencemaran dan pematuhan alam sekitar dalam industri pembuatan

Walaupun terdapat banyak kajian empirikal yang mengkaji faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi pematuhan alam sekitar, secara relatifnya masih sedikit bukti yang dapat membantu pengurus memahami kesan keputusan pematuhan ke atas perbelanjaan pengurangan pencemaran. Kertas ini menganalisis sama ada kos pematuhan berbeza mengikut tahap pematuhan alam sekitar. Berdasarkan model kos operasi pengurangan percemaran (Pollution Abatement Operation Cost – PAOC), kami menganggarkan kesan tahap pematuhan, saiz firma, usia kilang dan piawaian ke atas kos pematuhan. Hasil kajian mendapati tahap pematuhan dan saiz firma signifikan secara negatif mempengaruhi PAOC. Firma yang tidak patuh pada peraturan alam sekitar menanggung PAOC sebanyak 3.35 peratus lebih tinggi berbanding firma yang patuh dan hampir 2 peratus lebih tinggi bagi firma kecil. Bagi penguatkuasa, keputusan ini sebagai insentif pengurangan kos untuk menggalakan firma mematuhi peraturan dan meningkatkan tahap pematuhan melalui penguatkuasaan undangundang. Namun, firma kecil memerlukan bantuan dalam menggurangkan beban merawat sisa efluen bagi mengekalkan daya saing tanpa berkompromi dengan peraturan alam sekitar

Net profit margin determinants of Islamic subsidiaries of conventional banks in Malaysia

This study investigates the determinants of Net Profit Margin (NPM) in Malaysia’s Islamic banking system for the period of 2011-2015 by using static panel data analysis. In Malaysia, conventional banks through its Islamic subsidiary banks are dominating the Islamic banking system in terms of total assets, total loans and total deposits. Therefore this paper attempts to investigate the impact of these Islamic subsidiaries of conventional banks towards the NPM. In relation to that, the impact of the conventional parent banks’ Net Interest Margin (NIM) towards its Islamic subsidiary banks’ NPM is also investigated. For the first objective, the displayed results shows positive relationship indicating that the Islamic subsidiaries of conventional banks’ NPM is higher than the full-fledge Islamic banks’ NPM. While the empirical results on the banks’ specific variables suggest that size, risk aversion and operating cost are positively related to NPM. However, credit risk tends to reduce NPM. Besides that, this study also finds that market concentrations and GDP growth will influence NPM in negative ways whilst inflation and Islamic stock market developments will increase NPM. Liquidity however is found insignificant to NPM. As for the second objective, the Islamic subsidiaries of conventional banks’ NPM is observed as being independent from its conventional parent banks’ NIM

Policy Environment and Small and Medium Enterprises Investment in the Ghanaian Oil and Gas Industry

Policy environment particularly local content legislatures in most emerging economies where oil and gas are produced have become major development agenda of host countries and stakeholders alike. Apparently, efforts are made to enact local content legislature as a means of optimizing oil and gas benefits. Per contra, mixed results had been ascertained with regards to outcome of these policies. This study was conducted to determine how dimensions of policy environment impact on SMEs investment in the Ghanaian Oil and Gas Sector. This study relied on primary data and structured questionnaire to elicit data from 497 Ghanaian SMEs across different industries. Using explanatory research design and binominal regression model we found that Skills and expertise development policy, local workforce education policy, employment policy and macro-economic environment policy significantly increase the odd of SMEs investment in the Ghanaian oil and gas sector. However, technology transfer, research and development policies exert insignificant influence on SMEs investment decisions. This study has implications on oil and gas policy reforms, investment decisions and future research. Particularly we recommend replication of this study within other emerging economies. Keywords: Ghanaian SMEs, Logit Model, Oil and Gas, Local Content Policy, Willingness to Invest JEL Classifications: D02, O17, P3

The impact of natural disasters, technological change and education on poverty rate: evidence from developing countries

This study aims to analyze the impacts of natural disasters (total affected and total damages), technological change and education on poverty rates using 38 selected developing countries over the period of 1984-2013. A panel regression method is used in estimating the model. The results show that more impactful natural calamities will increase the poverty rate (positive relationships), while the impact of technological change has brought the poverty rate down to the lowest level (negative relationships). However, this study finds positive relationships between technological change and poverty, with an increase in technology causing a rise in poverty. The study also reveals a negative relationship between education on poverty. This implies that improvements in education can play an important role in increasing welfare and reducing poverty in developing countries. The results of this study suggest that education might be the best solution for minimizing the impact of natural disaster and poverty avoidance

The impact of financing contracts on the profitability of Islamic banks

This paper investigates the impact of financing contracts on Net Profit Margin (NPM) of the Islamic banks. Focussing on two financing contracts of Bai’ Bithaman Ajil (BBA) and Al-Ijarah Thumma Al-Bai’ (AITAB), the paper employs static panel data of Malaysian banks over 2008 to 2018. Controlling for bank and market-specific factors, the results indicated that AITAB exerted significant impact on the NPM. The paper further found that risk aversion, operating cost, liquidity and asset quality improves the NPM. In addition, the results show that the market structure influence the level of NPM. The Islamic banks may control these variables in setting for their preferred NPM level. Finally, the banks may need to carefully examine the types of financing contracts offered as they have different characteristics and may affect NPM

Consumers’ willingness to pay for basic goods and services before and during pandemic Covid-19 in Malaysia

In the early of 2020, Malaysia had been affected by the outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). With regards to what people are buying, Malaysians reported that they spend more on items with longer shelf life than they would usually do. The aim of this study to analyse the consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for goods and services before and during pandemic COVID-19. A total of 481 respondents involved in this study through convenience sampling method via self-administered questionnaires were distributed. Collected data were then analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22 and EViews version 10. The mean WTP that consumers willing to pay for face mask was MYR1.92 (21.9%) during COVID-19 as compared before COVID-19 at MYR1.50. Meanwhile, Logit estimation result shows all of the predictor variables (ScoreDif, Age, Income1, Income2, Location and Family size) of WTP for higher prices were significant. In conclusion, the consumers were WTP more for basic goods and services during COVID-19 outbreak as compared before COVID-19 outbreak. Through this study, Malaysian consumers could get to know more about how much they are WTP for basic goods and services before and during COVID-19 outbreak

The impact of advertising expenditure on the performance of Islamic banks in Malaysia

This paper investigates the impact of advertising expenditure on the performance of Islamic banks in Malaysia. A static panel data employed to analyse the data gathered from each Islamic banks annual report over the period of 2008 to 2021. The finding reveals that advertising expenditure (InADT) has significant impact on both Return On Assets (ROA) and Return On Equity (ROE) where the higher the advertising expenditure, the higher the ROA and ROE. Logarithm of the bank net income (lnINC) also has the same significant relationship towards ROA and ROE. On the other hand, logarithm of total financing (InTF) significant only to ROE while logarithm of total costumer deposit (lnDEP) not significant to both ROA and ROE. In conclusion, the Islamic banks need to spend on advertising expenditure to boost its performance. At the same time, the management of the Islamic banks need to carefully plan their advertising strategy based on the segmentation of the customers in order to increase the performance of the Islamic banks. Meanwhile, future study may include macroeconomic variables in the model, investigate the impact of InADT towards conventional banks in Malaysia and examine the long-run impact of advertisement expenditure on the banking performance

Hubungan kecederaan trafik dengan pembangunan ekonomi Malaysia

World Health organization (WHO) telah meramalkan menjelang tahun 2020 kecederaan trafik (KT)akibat daripada kemalangan jalan raya merupakan antara ancaman kesihatan (termasuk kematian, kecederaan parah dan ringan)utama kepada penduduk dunia terutama penduduk di negara-negara membangun. Seterusnya KT juga menyebabkan negara yang terlibat kerugian harta benda benilai berbillion ringgit setiap tahun. Sebagai salah sebuah negara yang pesat membangun, Malaysia tidak terkecuali daripada menghadapi permasalahan di atas. Sebagai contoh pada tahun 2006, dari segi harakinya KT merupakan penyebab kematian keenam tertinggi diMalaysia dan ketiga untuk bilangan pesakit yang dimasukkan kehospital. Oleh itu kajian ini bertujuan untuk menguji hubungan antara kecederaan trafik dengan petumbuhan ekonomi berdasarkan rangka kerja keluk environmental kuznets curves dengan menggunakan data-data siri masa Malaysia dari tahun 1979 hingga 2007. Hipotesis kepada teori ini menyatakan bahawa wujudnya hubungan keluk berbentuk U terbalik (inverted-U) antara kadar kematian akibat daripada kemalangan jalan raya dengan tahap pembangunan ekonomi. Dapatan kajian telah dapat membuktikan wujudnya hubungan seperti diatas seterusnya menyokong dapatan kajian oleh beberapa pengkaji terdahulu di negara maju. Untuk menilai keberkesanan dasar, kesan peningkatan pendapatan individu kepada permintaan untuk tahap keselamatan yang lebih tinggi. pembentukan pelbagai dasar dan institusi serta perlaksanaan undang-undang jalan raya yang tegas, bukanlah semata-mata sebab kepada penurunan kadar kematian dan kecederaan