The main purpose of this study is to examine if the International Fisher Effect holds between Mexico and the United States for the period from Q1: 2005 through Q3: 2016. The results of the test indicate a significant relationship between the interest rate differentials and the changes in the currency value between the two countries. The finding of this study is consistent with some of the earlier research while signifying the importance of other variables in improving the explanatory power of the independent variable.

This study examines whether shifts in exchange rate has symmetric or asymmetric impact on stock prices in Germany. Linear and nonlinear autoregressive distribution lag models are applied by using monthly data from the period January 1993 till April 2017. Findings suggest that only currency devaluation affects stock prices which implies asymmetric impact of changes in exchange rate on stock prices. The empirical results from this study would be useful for policymaking as well as for forecasting the impact of exchange rate changes on stock prices.

Poverty of the person is a frustrating hurdle for the household to acquire goods and services. Because of restricted access to resources, a poor person also falls short of his welfare targets. The determination of root causes of poverty must be the primary focus for the underdeveloped and developing economies. This study has used the labour force survey 2010 of Pakistan and extracted 21 indicators which are expected to affect the poverty profile of individuals. Principle factor analysis is used to find important indicators and logit model is used to analyse the effect of important indicators on $1.25 a day poverty status of individual. The result shows that it is the education levels, household size, and job characteristics which define the person being poor.

Using a unique short selling setting in Hong Kong stock market, we test the Chen and Singal (2003) hypothesis that speculative short sellers add to the selling pressure on Mondays and hence add to the weekend effect. We document that, first, the weekend effect exists in Hong Kong stock market, regardless of the existence of short sale constraints; second, after introducing short selling, the individual stocks face more significant weekend effect. The reported result is robust over different estimation models, and over different choices of control groups. Our findings strongly support the Chen and Singal (2003) hypothesis.

The civil pension scheme of the Moroccan pension fund is ‘Bismarkian’, contributory and mandatory. This pay-as-you-go system finds its foundation in social justice and intergenerational equity. The evaluation of the sustainability and viability of this scheme can not be carried out solely by the financial component, even if this criterion is essential to ensure the confidence of the affiliates. It also requires consideration of other criteria to ensure its ability to meet its commitments and achieve its objectives. This paper proposes to analyze and evaluate the internal civil regime performance of the Moroccan Pension Fund (CMR) based on the identification and measurement of indicators of three main parameters: generosity, equity, and the inter and intra generational redistribution.

The object of this study is to compare the economic structure through the intersectoral structure of the two economies, Vietnam and China. This research shows differences in levels of economic structure and induced impacts on output, value added, import, energy requirement and emissions of dioxin carbon in producing a final product unit. It also gives an overall picture of economy to help policy makers to make the best decisions for the economy and the environment. we find that on the surface, it seems that the economic structure of Vietnam and China have a lot of similarities, but when looking deeper into the economy, it shows diference between two economies, the economic structure of China has intersectoral linkage indexs better than these indexs of Vietnam, but Manufacturing industry in China has a high level of CO2 emission, which shows that the current technology cannot suffice for waste disposal. It also recommends that the countries attracting FDI from China should have a strict check for waste treatment.

The study tried to examine the effect of environmental forces on foreign exchange market in Nigeria. The PEST- Political variables such as change in government (CIG) and democratic rule (DMR); Economical variables such as interest rate spread (IRS) and inflation in consumer prices (ICP); Social variable like population growth (PGR); and Technological variables such as fuel exports in merchandise (FEM) and technology export (TEX) were used to evaluate the impact these environmental factors have on foreign exchange market (official exchange rate). This study employed a time series data with the time frame 1973-2015. A multiple regression model was developed and analyzed using the ordinary least square method (OLS) with the help of E-views, a statistical package. The result showed that in isolation, IRS, FEM and DMR significantly influenced dealing rates in the Nigerian foreign exchange market while ICP, CIG, PGR, and TEX did not show any significant influence on foreign exchange market in Nigeria. However, the overall result showed a significant positive relationship between the environmental forces and the foreign exchange market in Nigeria with a p -value of 0.000000. We therefore concluded that environmental factors have significant influence on the Nigerian Foreign Exchange market. Hence, we recommended that relevant stake holders should pay proper attention to those environmental factors with significant impact on our Foreign Exchange Market in Nigeria.

Stimulation of foreign resources into Nigeria is to transform the economy as neoclassical economics promised. Successive governments in Nigeria usually attract large inflows, yet, small proportion is usually distributed to the agricultural sector despite the importance of this sector and the need for such capital. This study therefore focuses on the policy implication of sectoral distribution of foreign capital for the agricultural sector in Nigeria. The main objective is to examine the contribution of foreign capital to growth in the agricultural sector. Secondary data are employed for analysis. The relevant data are obtained from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Statistical Bulletin. Simple percentages, tables and charts are the tools of analysis, while regression and correlation techniques are the inferential statistical approaches applied. Findings show that distribution of capital inflow in Nigeria does not reflect theoretical position that capital should flow to sectors of need, particularly, where there are abundant raw materials. This theoretical postulation has not been upheld in Nigeria where capital inflow was found to be randomly distributed. This has had negative effect on the contribution of foreign capital to growth in agricultural sector. It is therefore recommended that government should pursue policies like tax holidays and production subsidies for foreign investments in the agricultural sector.

Using time series data, this study investigated the effect of aggregated and disaggregated public spending on economic growth in Nigeria during the period 1980 – 2015. Time series data such as aggregated expenditure proxy by total federal government expenditure (TFGE), disaggregated expenditure proxy by recurrent expenditure (REXP) and capital expenditure (CEXP,) and economic growth proxy by GDP were obtained from central bank of Nigeria (CBN) statistical bulletin. Error Correction Model (ECM) was used to estimate the model. The result of the finding revealed that the total federal government expenditure (TFGE) and capital expenditure (CEXP) exerts positive and significant influences on GDP while recurrent expenditure (REXP) has a positive and insignificant influence on GDP. This implies that the higher the public spending, the higher the GDP. The researchers therefore, recommend that for sustainable Economic Growth (GDP), federal government should increase capital expenditure by allocating more funds to the productive sector of the economy. More so, the positive contributions of public spending to economic growth necessitate the continued use of fiscal policy instruments to pursue macroeconomic objectives in Nigeria.

Empirical literature on money demand is mainly based on the estimation of a long run relation by means of time-invariant cointergration approach. Taiwan has experienced the economic and financial regime change since 1979. The purpose of this paper is to test structural breaks in Taiwan long run money demand equation. We examine six of the most influential specifications proposed in the literature. The classical set of explanatory variables (e.g. income and interest rates) is extended on the base of a number underlying economic reasons related to financial, labor and international portfolio characteristics. The results suggest that international financial market variables and the classical specifications are the key determinants of structural instability observed in Taiwan broad money.

Poverty implicates a condition where people are unable to afford the minimal standards of food, clothing, healthcare, education, and also not capable to continue traditions that are important to them. Poverty reduction strategies now receive high attention across the world because of the negative impact on the individual and national prosperity. The average poverty rate of about 68.40 percent is a clear indication that a majority of Nigerian citizens sleep below the poverty line despite the presence of poverty reduction programmes. The exploratory research method was deployed for the study in an attempt to explore the impact of NEEDS as a poverty reduction strategy in Nigeria. Through statistical analysis, it was found that NEEDS has not made significant positive impact on poverty reduction in Nigeria.

During the course of the second half of the twentieth century, the world economy has become increasingly interdependent as a result of the economic liberalization measures that have been taken by many countries, and the bilateral and multilateral trade promotion and cooperation agreements that have been reached by a majority of trading partners around the world. However, the benefits from the growth in international trade, and economic cooperation and interdependence, have not been shared equally by all nations. Some have benefited more than others, and some have lagged behind due to their inability to compete in a broader and increasingly dynamic global market. This paper examines the impact of economic interdependence from the perspectives of different national groupings, particularly the developed and the least developed countries. One of the questions to be addressed is: What factors contribute to the differences among those nations in taking advantage of open trade and capital mobility? It is expected that this study would be of value to economic planners and to students of international trade and globalization.

This study investigates whether there is any interaction existent between the exchange rate movements in the official and parallel foreign exchange markets and whether or not the official exchange rate manipulation can serve as an instrument for controlling the parallel market rate. The study utilizes annual data series for official foreign exchange rate and parallel foreign exchange rate in Nigeria for the periods 1980-2012. We employed the unit root test, Q-test, BDS and ARCH test to evaluate the linear dependence and volatility in the series while the Bivariate GARCH was used to test for transmission existent between the official and the parallel foreign exchange markets. The unit root test results report that all the variables prove to be stationary at first difference, the Q-test shows evidence of no linear dependence in the series thereby suggesting that the series are not linearly correlated and that both the official and parallel exchange rates are random in nature. The BDS test revealed the existence of linear dependence meaning that there is serial correlation existent between the items in the series and also suggesting that both the official exchange rate and the parallel exchange rate can be predicted. The ARCH test results indicate that there is the influx of volatility in the two markets and that the series are volatile in nature. The Bivariate GARCH test for transmission existent between the two markets reveals that volatility does not transmit from the official foreign exchange market to the parallel foreign exchange market. This negates the exchange rate pass-through theory but supports the theory of exchange rate disconnect. The study therefore posits that changes in the official exchange rates are not important in explaining or influencing changes in the parallel exchange market in Nigeria. Thus, policy makers may not be able to use the manipulations of the official foreign exchange rate as a tool for controlling the activities of the parallel foreign exchange market in Nigeria. The study recommends that the managers of the Nigeria economy should ensure influxive design and implementation of policies and strategies that will ensure a more favourable official exchange rate regime in Nigeria so as to eliminate the wide premium existent between the two markets.

The relationship between unemployment and poverty has been of interest to many a scholar with interest in development economics and social sciences. This paper is an addition to the empirical attempts to re-examine the relationship between unemployment rate and poverty incidence in Nigeria using secondary data sourced from relevant institutions to obtain major Social and Economic indicators spanning within 1980-2015. The study used Trend graph analysis, Correlation coefficient analysis and Granger causality tests in its analyses. As shown from the results, there is a positive-significant correlation between unemployment and poverty in Nigeria. More so, this was corroborated by the Trend graph analysis. It also established that unemployment granger causes poverty in Nigeria as suggests from the Granger causality tests. The economic implication of this result is that poverty is an increasing function of unemployment; and the Error Correction Mechanism (ECM) pointed that short run disequilibrium in the economy can be returned to equilibrium in the long run with a poor speed of adjustment of 6 %. In the light of these findings, this study recommends that efforts should be intensified in Nigeria towards implementation of unemployment reduction policies as this will significantly reduce poverty incidence.

Japan moved towards the road of economic export-oriented development, foreign trade and foreign investment increased rapidly after World War II, and the economy recovered rapidly and came to the forefront of the world. Then, what role did foreign capital and foreign trade play in the process of economic growth? Based on the import, export FDI and GDP data of Japan from 1996 to 2015, this paper uses eviews 7.2 and co-integration test to confirm the long-term co-integration relationship between GDP and import, export, FDI. The results show that the long-term equilibrium relationship between GDP and export is positive correlation, and GDP and import, FDI are negatively related long-term equilibrium relations. The influence of Japan’s export-oriented economy on economic growth is mainly through the form of export trade.

This study used error correction model (ECM) to analyse the effect of total external debt (TED) on the Nigerian economy proxied by gross domestic product (GDP) during the period 1980-2015. The data such as TED and GDP were obtained from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) statistical bulletin. The result of the finding revealed that total external debt exerts negative and significant influence on GDP. This implies that, as total external debt increases, GDP also decreases and vice versa. Therefore, the researcher recommends that any external loan obtained by the government should be channelled to productive projects that yield high on returns on investment rather than allocating the fund to finance dead-weight debt, hence, engendering sustainable economic growth in the economy.

The uncovered interest rate parity (UIP) is a parity condition stating that the interest rate differential between two currencies should equal to the expected change in exchange rate between them. But, it has been well documented though that such condition does not stand resulting in an opportunity to benefit from its failure. Traders take advantage of UIP failure by conducting a well-known strategy called carry trade where they borrow low interest rate currencies and invest in high interest rate currencies taking advantage of the interest rate differential and hoping that the movement in exchange rate would not offset it. With interest rate differential being the main components in conducting such strategy for carry traders, Russian ruble offers a very attractive opportunity for such investors. This paper examines the profitability of exploring the failure of UIP using carry trade by borrowing low interest rate currencies which are the U.S. dollar and the Japanese yen and investing in Russian ruble.

Variations or irregular rise of consumer price index worldwide of which Ghana is no exception has affected many businesses in the country. However, the obvious indicator of an inflationary situation is rising prices of consumer goods. On the basis of the above, the researchers decided to do a trend analysis on consumer price indices obtained from the Ghana Statistical Service to serve as a guide to the business community in Ghana. The main objective of the analysis is to determine the overall pattern in the data and to subsequently fit an appropriate trend for forecasting future values. The main statistical technique used in this work is time series analysis. Based on the trend analysis carried out, the study revealed that, there was general upward trend in the CPIs in Ghana, collaborating an earlier research conducted by Ampofo. However, the shapes of graphs of the CPIs, showed a slight difference. Finally, forecast values or predictions for the CPIs were made for the year 2008.

The long-run relationship between exports and imports has been the subject of intensive research in developed and developing economies. This relationship is of importance due to the fact that it reflects the stability of foreign trade situation of a country. The main objective of this paper is to study and investigate the long-run relationship between exports and imports in Ghana’s economy. A time series econometric techniques of unit root tests, Johansen cointegration and error-correction mechanism were applied. Annual data for real exports and real imports for the period 2002 – 2015 were used. The results of ADF unit root tests suggest that the two variables export and imports are integrated of order one. Johansen cointegration test revealed that, a long-run cointegrating relationship exist between exports and imports in Ghana. The error-correction model found a long-run unidirectional causality from imports to exports. This means that the short run fluctuations between exports and imports are sustainable since, in the long run, they will eventually converge towards an equilibrium state. The study confirms that Ghana is not in violation of its international budget constraints, and macroeconomic policies have been effective in bringing exports and imports into a long-run equilibrium.

The paper proposes that the PetroChina listing event has significantly impacted the change in stock price trend of petrochemical firms. The study selected three firms for cases. The paper tested for the break date using both the Perron IO Model C and Zivot-Andrews Model C. Also, the study conducted a unit root test applying regular ADF and PP techniques. Data were monthly stock price series. Tests suggest that only one out of three petrochemical firm stock price series contains a break date, which occurred around 2007 and was very close to the PetroChina listing date (November 2007). The study concludes that the PetroChina listing has produced a significant shock to the stock prices on the trend function. A high degree of similarity with the PetroChina in one firm’s size and main businesses can account for the occurrence of a breakpoint on the firm’s stock price trend. Break-date tests for more petrochemical stock price series are needed to justify the proposition.

The aim of this paper is to re-interprete the accelerationist Phillips curve, by studying the effect of the higher-order derivatives of acceleration. We show that a complex dynamic behavior emerges when dealing with a jerk and jounce displacement of price settings, whose simple unfolding leads to a three dimensional vector field which generates a double-scroll chaotic attractor.

Korean economy undergoes pre-modernized corporate governance. Financial-market imperfections assumed to be incorporated in equity ratio affect the sensitivity of internal funds to physical investment. Empirical analyses show that the effects of asymmetric information are significant. Theories predict that internal finance is less costly than borrowing or issuing equity. Higher cash flow from higher profits affects investment ratio. But, this marginal effect is decreased by equity ratio. If we assume that more imperfect financial market requires more equity than borrowing, we can see that agency costs change the way economic variables like cash flow affect physical investment. Cash flow plays two opposite roles for implementing investment. In the case of financial-imperfections, we can expect that firms with higher profits invest more. But, according to free cash flow hypothesis by Jensen (1986), managers with only a small ownership interest have an incentive for wasteful management. We can expect to see more wasteful activity in a firm with large cash flows. Our regression result shows that the former dominates the latter, so we get positive coefficient for cash flow variable on the physical investment.

The study gauged the influence of exchange rate fluctuations on the Performance of the Nigerian Economy over the time from of 1986 to 2016, utilizing secondary data tracked from the statistical report of the Apex Nigerian bank, and utilizing techniques such as Unit root test, Generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (GARCH), Impulse-Response Output and Variance-Decomposition Test to evaluate variables such as Interest rate, inflation rate, exchange rate against a sole indicator of Economic Performance I.e. Gross Domestic Product Growth rate (GDPGR), it was discovered that despite the short run influx of the spill over volatility of Interest rate and inflation rate, there exist no long run volatility influence of interest rate on Economic Performance in Nigeria. It was therefore recommended that the apex financial institution and relevant policy makers should ensure an interest rate system and status that could stimulate growth or production and the nation should endeavour to utilize her interest rate in controlling its output level as it motivates Economic Performance (GDPGR).

The study is on the effect of Net capital inflow on inclusive growth in Nigeria. This study seeks to deepen the understanding on how capital inflow creates opportunity for inclusive growth in Nigeria through increase in GDP per capita. The objective of the study were to : determine the effect of Net capital inflow , Net foreign direct investment and trade openness on inclusive growth in Nigeria. The study employed the time series data in its analysis. The period of analysis spanned through 1980-2015 and the dataset required for the analysis were sourced from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Statistical Bulletin and National bureau of statistics publications. The study conducted trend analysis, descriptive analysis. The data were also tested for stationarity using the Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) unit root test and Ordinary Least Square (OLS) analytical techniques, cointegration test and error correction mechanism. It was evident from the unit root test that the variables were fractionally integrated while the cointegration test reveals that long run relationship exists among the variables. The findings equally reveal that capital inflow exerts significant negative influence on GDP per capita. This could be attributed to the problem of managing external capital flows which has been sub-optimal in most developing economies including Nigeria. The implication of this finding is that the perceived benefits that are associated with capital inflows tend not to hold sway in Nigeria over the sampled period which may be attributed to institutional and governance failure. Owing to the findings, this study recommends for the adoption of investment friendly policies and ensure transparency and good governance, appropriate economic management practices capable of supporting reforms in the Nigerian financial system and guide international capital inflows to ensure that the associated economic turnarounds are people-centered.

The objective of this paper is to test the efficiency in the foreign exchange market by using four exchange rates ($/€, $/£, C$/$, and ¥/$). Different theoretical models are applied, like the random walk hypothesis, the unbiased forward rate hypothesis, the composite efficiency hypothesis, the semi-strong market efficiency, and the exchange rate expectations based on anticipated and unanticipated events (“News”). If exchange rate efficiency does not hold, a risk premium must exist and can be measured. Also, the determination of this exchange risk premium is taking place by using a GARCH (p, q) model. The empirical results for these four major exchange rates (five currencies) show that relative efficiency exists, but there are significant risk premia for some exchange rates used, here.

The purpose of this study was to find out the impact of exchange rate volatility on hospitality industry in the Lusaka Province of Zambia. This research aimed to find out the impact of exchange rate volatility on profitability, capacity utilization and the impact of GDP and inflation on profitability of hospitality industry. The study used quarterly secondary data from 2005 to 2015 with respect to three big hotels which had international branding and received over fifty percent revenue in forex. The multiple regression model was used to measure the impact of independent variables on the dependent variable. The study revealed that volatility in exchange rate had significant effect on profitability. But inflation had negative effect on profitability. The GDP growth rate had positive effect on the capacity utilization. The study concluded that the Central Bank of Zambia should take necessary steps to increase the value of domestic currency, i.e., Kwacha, and stop fluctuations in it to safeguard the profitability in the hospitality industry. The study also concluded that through appropriate monetary policy, i.e., increasing the bank rate and reserve ratio and selling the bonds in the market, the inflation could be reduced by controlling money supply.q

The present economic development of Malaysia is inherited from the previous three levels, beginning with the rapid growth and rapid development of the natural resources industry from the mid-19th century until 1914, followed by a period of volatility or instability of the natural resources industry between the First and Second World War and finally The level of unification and rationalization of the natural resources industry along with economic diversification after 1945. Although Malaysia was a former British colony, South Korea’s economic interests had contributed to the change of foreign policy from the Pro-West Policy during colonial and post-colonial times to the East View Policy During the administration of Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. Hence the principal problem in this study is to unravel the existence of the Look-To-The-East in Malaysia which focuses on South Korea before it becomes the main policy formed by Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. In terms of methodology used, the initial stage of the research is to identify and collect primary and secondary sources from libraries, archives and reports from various government organizations. Recognizing the importance of South Korea to the Malaysian economy, the Look-To-The-East Idea is still maintained during the Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Abdul Razak and Tun Hussein Onn era. The continuity of the Look-To-The-East Idea which was continued by the three Prime Minister figures saw South Korea emerging as an inspiration in Malaysia’s trade relations when Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad took over the leadership of the country.

The high levels of corruption, unemployment and abysmal development reflect a situation of poor macroeconomic management in Nigeria. Sound macroeconomic policies and management contribute in many ways to high quality growth that has positive correlation with poverty reduction. Increased and more efficient public spending in the areas of public education, healthcare, and employment remain the catalysts for poverty reduction and sustainable development. It is believed that efficient use of resources is central to economic growth and sustainable development. Descriptive research design was used for the study. Data generated were triangulated, analyzed and it was found that prudent macroeconomic management has positive association with poverty reduction and sustainable development.

The government of Ghana is not an exception with regards to putting in place measures that aim to improve the lives and livelihoods of its citizenry including the welfare of school children. In the context of the New Partnership for Africa Development (NEPAD’s) Comprehensive African Development Programme (CADP), the Government of Ghana (GoG) set-up the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP). Its concept of home grown school feeding addresses one of the United Nation’s (UN’s) three pillars to fight hunger (United Nations, 2005). ‘The government of Ghana was of the view that the if the School Feeding Programme was properly funded and implemented, the hunger, education and the food security and poverty landscape in Ghana will change for good (Government of Ghana, 2006). The study investigates the factors determining GSFP caterer’s choice to buy local rice from farmers and farmers’ factors influencing rice farmers to supply to the caterers. Purposive sampling was mainly used to select 120 respondents from GSFP beneficiary communities. The respondents were made of up 80 farmers and 40 GSFP caterers from the four selected districts. The study revealed that 46% % of rice farmers have access to the market created by the Ghana school Feeding Programme and about 48% of this group are able to sell their rice produce to the caterers of GSFP. However majority of the rice farmers are aware of the existence of the programme without any proper rules of engagement except that less than half of the farmers have been linked up with programme with the support of World Food Programme and the Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV), operating in the Northern Region. The major problem associated with rice farmers accessibility to the GSFP is caterers’ unwillingness to buy from them even though majority of the farmers are aware of the programme and its basic of objective of providing free meals to pupils in basic schools. Farmers indicated they would be willing to sell to the caterers if the prices offered by caterers are good or if they are able to produce enough to meet the demand of caterers on termly basis or the caterer is more willing to pay them in cash when they purchase their rice or other farm produce or better still be willing to pay on time for a period not more than one month when they buy on credit. The probit model was used to analyse the factors influencing rice farmers to supply to the programme on one hand and the factors affecting caterer’s decision to purchase rice from the rice farmers on the other.

The study examined the effect of fair value accounting on predictive power of earnings of listed Deposit Money banks (DMBs) in Nigeria. Fair value accounting has been a subject of serious concern in corporate finance and accounting literature following the adoption of International Financial Reporting standards. Data were collected from all the fifteen DMBs listed on the Nigerian stock exchange between 1st January 2011 and 31st December 2015. In analyzing the collected data, the study adopted descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and a panel multiple regression analysis to identify the possible effects of fair value accounting on predictive power of earnings. The results revealed that fair value accounting significantly enhances earnings predictability. The results further established that where as fair value hierarchy level one does not significantly enhance earnings predictability of listed DMBs in Nigeria, level two and three was found to be negatively and significantly influencing earnings predictability. This implies that level two and three significantly reduces earnings predictability of listed DMBs in Nigeria. Therefore, it is recommended that Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria should develop valuation guidelines that must be followed enhance reliability of fair value measurement in Nigeria.

This study sets to assess the effect of government intervention on economic development adopting Songhai Development Initiative Farm in Rivers State of Nigeria as a case study. It adopted the survey design with the instruments of personal observations, interviews and questionnaires to collect the required data. The data has internal consistency of 0.87, test-retest reliability of 0.85 (p < 0.001), split-half reliability of 0.82 (p < 0.001). The mean of 3 points was chosen as a cut off point for accepting or rejecting each of the items in the Likert’s scale. The Chi-square was also used to test the hypothesis. All items have mean (X ¯) that are higher than the cut-off mark and this is supported by low standard deviation for all the items which depicts a low variation of the observations from the mean. With the calculated Chi-square greater than the table value (i.e 30.34957 > 21.026) in absolute term, the study concludes that there is a significant relationship between Songhai Development Initiative Farm and the economic development. It, therefore, recommended that such and similar government direct involvements in the agricultural and other sectors should be encouraged for optimum benefits in output, job creation, income, social welfare and technological advancement.

Risk management in banks is a crucial issue mainly in Islamic banks. This study seeks to examine the impact of the incomes of mudharaba and musharaka on the relationship between risk and performance, which is measured by ROAA. This study employs unbalanced panel data regression analysis of Ordinary Least Squares method, from 16 Islamic banks from different countries over the period 2012 to 2015, which was processed by the software stata13. The results show that the income of Sharing of Losses and Profits (PLS) products (mudharaba and musharaka) has a moderating effect particularly on the relationships between performance and liquidity risk, and operational risk. However, it has no moderating effect on the relationship between performance and market risk. This study helps to enrich the literature with new models that can help bankers and Islamic finance students to get ideas and make relevant decisions in terms of investment.

This study addresses two methods commonly used to measure overconfidence and examines their reliability. It is shown that traditional methods of assessing subjective certainty concerning a given forecast can contribute to a systematic overestimation of overconfidence. It also becomes apparent that a common approach measuring relative overconfidence can cause a distortion of scientific results. This is particularly valid for study groups in which female and male participants are not equally represented.

This paper evaluates the hedging effectiveness of the Malaysian crude palm oil futures market using daily settlement prices over the periods from January 4, 2010 to August 30, 2017. Hedge ratios and the hedging effectiveness are determined by employing four competing econometric models namely: the standard ordinary least square (OLS) regression model, vector error correction model (VECM) and two variations of the multivariate generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (MGARCH) models namely; diagonal-VECH and diagonal-BEKK GARCH models. The first two models estimate constant hedge ratios while the other two models estimate time varying hedge ratios. Hedging performance is evaluated and compared in terms of in-sample (Jan 2010 – Dec 2016) and out-of sample periods (Jan 2017 – Aug 2017) of the four hedge ratio models. The empirical results show that the MGARCH models particularly diagonal-BEKK GARCH model performs better than the other three models indicating that this model fits better in designing hedging strategy. The empirical finding suggests that the investors in crude palm oil markets in Malaysia can use CPO futures contract as an effective instrument to minimize the risk.

This paper analyzes the trends and evolution of public expenditures in the agriculture sector in Togo, as well as its impact on the growth of agriculture during the period 1985–2015. To this end, we constructed a model capturing both the effect of the volume and the composition of public expenditures in Togolese agriculture. The results highlight the fact that the public investments on agriculture had a positive impact on agriculture growth, whereas public expenditures on fertilizer subsidies had the opposite effect. The study recommends that to revitalize the agriculture sector, the public expenditures should be directed at improving the provision of public investments and services rather than at subsidizing private inputs.

Smooth functioning a bank depends on the stability of stream of returns that it gets from its financing decision. This study is an attempt to showcase the reason for idling or shortage of funds and the factors for the case of Islamic banking. This effort will determine the strategy which can boost the financing in the economy, for this, this study has used the panel data of full-fledged Islamic banks from countries Pakistan and Malaysia, spanning to several years and based on several banks. Based on the analysis of internal and external factors of Islamic banks, it can be seen that increase in the market rate leads to decrease in demand of financing while the increase in deposits and equity do not show a proportional increase in financing which hints that there is excess liquidity available in the Islamic banks. On the positive side, it is evident that increase in the economic activity boosts the demand for Islamic financing.