Golden-rule social security and public health in a dynastic model with endogenous longevity and fertility

In this paper we investigate long-run optimal social security and public health and their effects on fertility, longevity, capital intensity, output per worker and welfare in a dynastic model with altruistic bequests. Under empirically plausible conditions, social security and public health reduce fertility and raise longevity, capital intensity and output per worker. The effects of social security, except that on longevity, are stronger than those of public health. Numerically, they can improve welfare (better when they are used together than used separately). We also illustrate numerically that there exists a unique convergent solution in the dynamic system at the steady state.Social security; Public health; Life expectancy; Fertility

Social security, welfare and economic growth

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Does government size affect per-capita income growth? A hierarchical meta-regression analysis

We conduct a hierarchical meta-regression analysis to review 87 empirical studies that report 769 estimates for the effects of government size on economic growth. We follow best-practice recommendations for meta-analysis of economics research, and address issues of publication selection bias and heterogeneity. When size is measured as the ratio of total government expenditures to GDP, the partial correlation between government size and per-capita GDP growth is negative in developed countries, but insignificant in developing countries. When size is measured as the ratio of consumption expenditures to GDP, the partial correlation is negative in both developed and developing countries, but the effect in developing countries is less adverse. We also report that government size is associated with less adverse effects when primary studies control for endogeneity and are published in journals and more recently, but it is associated with more adverse effects when primary studies use cross-section data. Our findings indicate that the relationship between government size and per-capita GDP growth is context-specific and likely to be biased due to endogeneity between the level of per-capita income and government expenditures

Government education expenditures and economic growth: a meta-analysis

Using a sample of 237 estimates drawn from 29 primary studies, we conduct a hierarchical meta-regression analysis that examines the association between economic growth and government expenditure on education. We find that the effect of government education expenditure on growth is positive for developed countries. However, when the evidence pertains to less developed countries (LDCs), we find a statistically insignificant association. We also examine the heterogeneity in empirical results and found that factors such as econometric specifications, publication characteristics as well as data characteristics explain the heterogeneity in the literature. We find no evidence of publication selectivity

Effects of government education and health expenditures on economic growth: a meta-analysis

Using a sample of 306 estimates drawn from 31 primary studies, this paper conducts an empirical synthesis of the link between economic growth and government expenditure on education or health using meta-analysis. We also explain the heterogeneity in empirical results. We find that the effect of government education expenditure on growth is positive, whereas the growth effect of government health expenditure is negative. Our meta-regression analysis suggests that factors such as econometric specifications, publication characteristics as well as data characteristics explain the heterogeneity in the literature. We also find no evidence of publication selectivity

Does government size affect per-capita income growth? A Hierarchical meta-regression analysis

Since the late 1970s, the received wisdom has been that government size (measured as the ratio of total government expenditure to GDP or government consumption to GDP) is detrimental to economic growth. We conduct a hierarchical meta-regression analysis of 799 effect-size estimates reported in 87 primary studies to verify if such assertion is supported by existing evidence. Our findings indicate that the conventional prior belief is supported by evidence mainly from developed countries but not from less developed countries (LDCs). We argue that the negative relationship between government size and economic growth in developed countries may reflect endogeneity bias

On the Synchronization of Fiscal Policy in Selected ASEAN Countries : New Evidence from Asymmetric Modelling

The country’s fiscal deficit and debt levels are still issuing, and governments would always want to solve. Before this, it is very necessary to explore and study the types of fiscal hypotheses in various countries. The types of fiscal hypothesis are tax-spend hypothesis, spend-tax hypothesis, fiscal synchronization and lastly fiscal neutrality. This research aims to access the validity of fiscal hypothesis in five ASEAN countries, namely Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand by using time series quarterly data from year 2006 to the first quarter of year 2021. The variables in this study include real gross domestic product (GDP), general government revenue (GR) and general government expenditure (GE). The methodology approach used is the asymmetric modelling approach, which includes Augmented Dickey Fuller test, Kwiatkowski-Phillips-Schmidt-Shin test, bounds test for cointegrating, Autoregressive Distributed Lag and Non-linear Autoregressive Distributed Lag models development and lastly granger causality test. The result from this research is that Malaysia and Thailand support the fiscal synchronization hypothesis, Indonesia and the Philippines support the fiscal neutrality hypothesis, and Singapore supports the spend-tax hypothesis

The importance of logistics competencies towards online shopping behaviour among university students

Online shopping is growing more rapidly and globally. With the development of Internet, the competition between online retailers has progressed into competition between logistics service providers (LSPs).From the fundamental perspective, the online shopping could not be successfully completed without LSPs.In fact, the performance of LSPs can be considered as one of the determinants that influence consumers’ online shopping behaviour.This paper presents the relationship between consumers’ online shopping behaviour and logistics competencies of LSPs in order to covering the shortcomings of previous studies that did not examine specific factors, especially logistics factors that influence online shopping behaviour.In this study, there are three dimensions of logistics competencies which in term of order accuracy, order condition and reverse logistics have been adopted.A sample of 400 respondents has been used and quantitative research is conducted by means of a structured questionnaire.As a result, the findings indicated that order accuracy is the most important variable in influencing online shopping behaviour.Likewise, other logistics variables such as order condition and reverse logistics are considered relevant to online shopping behaviour

Schizophyllum commune

Schizophyllum commune UTARA1 was used for lipase production under solid state fermentation (SSF) of sugarcane bagasse (SB) impregnated with used cooking oil medium. Pretreatments of steam, microwave, hydrochloric acid (HCl), sodium hydroxide (NaOH), and their combinations, such as steam-assisted HCl, steam-assisted NaOH, microwave-assisted HCl, and microwave-assisted NaOH, on the milled SB, were done prior to SSF to investigate their effects on lipase production via SSF. The highest lipase activity among the pretreated SB was 0.200 U/gSB, using steam-assisted HCl treated SB, which is lower than the lipase activity produced from the untreated SB, which was 0.413 U/gSB. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) imaging showed significant rupture of the SB structure after steam-assisted-HCl pretreatments where the thin walls of the SB pith were wrinkled and collapsed, with no distinctive cell wall structure. The HCl pretreated SB gave the highest crystallinity index (CrI), 91.43%, compared to the untreated, 61.90%. Conversely, microwave and NaOH pretreatments reduced the CrI, which were 46.15% and 43.36%, respectively. In this study, the results obtained indicated that pretreated SB did not improve the lipase production of Schizophyllum commune UTARA1 under SSF

Optimal social security in a dynastic model with human capital externalities, fertility and endogenous growth

In this paper we investigate the optimal scale of pay-as-you-go social security in a dynastic family model with human capital externalities, fertility and endogenous growth. Human capital externalities reduce the return to human capital investment and hence lead to under-investment in human capital and over-reproduction of the population. If the taste for the number of children is sufficiently weak relative to the taste for the welfare of children, social security can be welfare enhancing by reducing fertility and raising human capital investment per child.Social security Welfare Fertility Human capital externalities Savings