Hasanul Banna

Household’s perception of water pollution and its economic impact on human health in Malaysia

Environmental problems are a major global concern. In this global problem, water pollution is perhaps one of the more threatening causes of environmental problems. Water pollution significantly affects public health. Hence, this paper investigates household risk perception of water pollution and examines the demographic and socio-economic factors that influence their risk perception. The data was collected using a structured questionnaire and analysed by SPSS. The findings indicate that gender, age, education, income, AWN and ATT significantly affect household risk perception of water pollution. Upon discussing the water resource policies in Malaysia, we offer recommendations that will be helpful for policy-makers to improve river water quality in Malaysia.

How does total quality management influence the loan quality of the bank

This paper aims to investigate whether, and to what extent, total quality management (TQM) influences bank loan quality. We propose an approach to measure TQM for evaluating this relationship. The proposed measure is the residual from the Fama–MacBeth regression based on bank efficiency proxied by the income-to-cost ratio. Our proposed TQM measure is statistically significant. We obtain data of 581 US commercial banks from the SNL Financial database for the period 1991–2013 with a total of 13,303 bank-year observations. The result shows that TQM is positively related to bank loan quality. This suggests that the implementation of better TQM can help management to monitor borrowers, improve competition and efficiency, manage good-quality loan portfolios, minimise expenses, and generate more revenues. This research has several implications for regulation, TQM implementation, and policy for the banking industry. In sum, an association between TQM and loan quality allows us to expand our knowledge of the specific role of TQM in bank performance, management decision, and managing loan portfolios.

Does income inequality affect environmental sustainability? Evidence from the ASEAN-5

ABSTRACT Income gap among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has widened, while environment degradation has worsened since the 1990s. Using the Gini coefficient as a measure of income inequality, this paper attempts to examine whether the increasing income gap would have adverse effects on environmental sustainability and the causality relationship between income inequality and environmental sustainability. Using data from the World Bank and the Standardized World Income Inequality Database, this paper deployed the Granger causality and panel regression tests to examine these relationships on the ASEAN members of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam over the period of 1985–2015. The empirical results indicate that bi-directional causality relationship between income inequality and environmental sustainability exists among the bottom 40%, but the causality relationship results for the overall sample are mixed. The evidence shows that policy-makers in these countries should reduce income inequality to strengthen environmental sustainability.

Factors Associated with HIV Testing Behaviors among Female Sex Workers in Rajshahi City, Bangladesh

ABSTRACT Female sex workers are usually at high risk of transmission of HIV/AIDS. The aim of the study was to identify factors related to HIV testing behavior among FSWs in Rajshahi city, Bangladesh. A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 200 FSWs. The present study revealed that sixty-eight percent of FSWs in Rajshahi city have been tested for HIV. It was noted that FSWs who were between 21-30 years of age, had secondary, or higher level of education, came from a richer family, had been tested for sexually transmitted infections (STI), and traded sex at residence, were more likely to have been tested for HIV. FSWs used condoms while having sex, and regularly asked new clients on their HIV testing status, that were more likely had been tested for HIV. This information would allow health authorities to target FSWs who may not be aware of their health, and controlling HIV/AIDS in this country.