Follow Up: Medical Rhetoric – Making the Case for Oral Presentations

Goal: •Oral case presentation skill is fundamental in clinical communication •This skill is first developed in medical school pre-clinical training •Continued development is often by “Trial and Error” – often without a formal curriculum Purpose: Development of a new curriculum designed to acknowledge the importance of this skill development and create a method in building this skill mindfull

Non-Linearity between Inflation Rate and GDP Growth in Malaysia

This study analyses the relationship between inflation rate and economic growth rate in the period 1970-2005 in Malaysia. A specific question that is addressed in this study is what the threshold inflation rate for Malaysia. The findings suggest that there is one inflation threshold value exist for Malaysia. This evidence strongly supports the view that the relationship between inflation rate and economic growth is nonlinear. The estimated threshold regression model suggests 3.89% as the threshold value of inflation rate above which inflation significantly retards growth rate of GDP. In addition, below the threshold level, there is statistical significant positive relationship between inflation rate and growth. Bank Negara (central bank of Malaysia) should pay attention to inflation phenomena and substantial gain can be achieved in low-inflation environment while conducting the new monetary policy.

Population growth and standard of living: A threshold regression approach

This study employs Hansen's (2000) threshold regression analysis to examine the relationship between population growth and per capita GDP in 117 countries. Threshold regression analysis allows controlling the quality of population when examining the relationship between the quantity of population and per capita income in a country. The paper uses Human Development Index (HDI) value as the threshold regression variable. In the course of the analysis, a sample of 117 countries was split twice and separated into four sub-samples. The threshold regression analysis revealed that there was a significant negative relationship between population growth and per capita GDP only in the countries with a low level of human development. In other words, quantitative expansion of population would have negative impact on standard of living only in the countries with low quality of population. The empirical findings of this paper support a proposition that the quality of population aspect should be included in the debate on the relationship between population expansion and economic development.

Does export dependency hurt economic development? Empirical evidence from Singapore

A rapid export growth in East Asia was once identified as a source of the sustainable economic development that the region enjoyed. However, the current global recession has turned exports from an economic virtue to a vice. There is a growing awareness that a heavy reliance on exports has caused a serious economic downturn in the region. The present paper chooses Singapore as a case study to examine the relationship between the origin of the East Asian Miracle (i.e. export dependency) and the economic growth. For this purpose, the study employs a causality test developed by Toda and Yamamoto. The empirical findings indicate that despite a negative long-run relationship between export dependency and economic growth, Singapore's heavy reliance on exports does not seem to have produced negative effects on the nation's economic growth. This is because the increase in export dependency was an effect, and not a cause, of the country's output expansion.

Is Malaysian Stock Market Efficient? Evidence from Threshold Unit Root Tests

This paper investigates the behavior of Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange Composite Index (KLCI) for the period from 1980:1 to 2008:8 using a two-regime threshold autoregressive (TAR) model with an autoregressive unit root developed by Caner and Hansen [Threshold autoregression with a unit roots, Econometrics 69 (6) (2001) 1555-1596] which allows testing nonlinearity and nonstationarity simultaneously. Our finding indicates that the KLCI is a nonlinear series that is characterized by a unit root process, consistent with the efficient market hypothesis.Efficient Market Hypothesis, Threshold Autoregressive Model, Unit Root.