Nanthakumar Loganathan

A systematic review and meta-Analysis of SWARA and WASPAS methods: Theory and applications with recent fuzzy developments

The Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) utility determining approaches and fuzzy sets are considered to be new development approaches, which have been recently presented, extended, and used by some scholars in area of decision making. There is a lack of research regarding to systematic literature review and classification of study about these approaches. Therefore; in the present study, the attempt is made to present a systematic review of methodologies and applications with recent fuzzy developments of two new MCDM utility determining approaches including Step-wise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis (SWARA) and the Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment (WASPAS) and fuzzy extensions which discussed in recent years. Regarding this, some major databases including Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar have been nominated and systematic and meta-analysis method which called “PRISMA” has been proposed. In addition, the selected articles were classified based on authors, the year of publication, journals and conferences names, the technique and method used, research objectives, research gap and problem, solution and modeling, and finally results and findings. The results of this study can assist decision-makers in handling information such as stakeholders’ preferences, interconnected or contradictory criteria and uncertain environments. In addition, findings of this study help to practitioners and academic for adopting the new MCDM utility techniques such as WASPAS and SWARA in different application areas and presenting insight into literature.

The nexus between tourism demand and output per capita with the relative importance of trade openness and financial development A study of Malaysia

This article revisits the tourism-growth nexus in Malaysia using time series quarterly data over the period 1975–2013. The authors examine the impact of tourism using two separate indicators – tourism receipts per capita and visitor arrivals per capita. Using the augmented Solow production function and the autoregressive distributed lag bounds procedure, they also incorporate trade openness and financial development and account for structural breaks in series. The results show the evidence of cointegration between the variables. Assessing the long-run results using both indicators of tourism demand, it is noted that the elasticity coefficient of tourism is 0.13 and 0.10 when considering visitor arrivals and tourism receipts (in per capita terms), respectively. Notably, the impact of tourism demand is marginally higher with visitor arrivals. The elasticity of trade openness is 0.19, that of financial development is 0.09 and that of capital share is 0.15. In the short run, the coefficient of tourism is marginally negative, and for financial development and trade openness, it is 0.01 and 0.18, respectively. The Granger causality tests show bidirectional causation between tourism and output per capita, financial development and tourism and trade openness and tourism demand, duly indicating the feedback or mutually reinforcing impact between the variables and providing evidence that tourism is central to enhancing the key sectors and the overall income level.

Does Tourism Sustain Economic Growth? Wavelet-Based Evidence From the United States

This study explores the relationship between tourism development and economic growth in high tourist arrival country such as the United States of America (USA) by adopting the wavelet transform approach using monthly data over the period 1996M01-2015M08. Three innovative techniques that are continuous wavelet, wavelet coherence power spectrum and wavelet based Granger causality that consider the decomposition of time-series at different time frequencies, are utilized to conduct the study. The results of autoregressive distributed lag and combine cointegration tests show that there is a significant long-run relationship occurs between tourism development and economic growth in USA. Furthermore, the results indicate that there is a unidirectional causal influence of economic growth on tourism development in the short-run whereas, in the long-run the opposite causal relationship is evident in USA. Thus it can be recommended that government needs to increase and promote tourism demand and further providing and nurturing the expansion of tourism supply with the advancement of economic growth.

Taxation, growth and the stock traded nexus in emerging Asian countries: heterogeneous and semi-parametric panel estimates

Abstract This study attempts to investigate the impact of economic growth and stock traded on taxation for emerging Asian countries, namely China, India, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Malaysia and Thailand. To examine the plausible links between these indicators, we used semi-parametric, heterogeneous and panel causality analysis by employing data covering the period 1990–2014. The semi-parametric estimates indicate a U-shape effect between growth and taxation, along with elastic opposite direction effects of stock traded on taxation. This suggests that higher growth will have a positive influence on taxation in emerging Asian countries. The findings of the Dumitrescu and Hurlin (DH) heterogeneous Granger causality test revealed that there is a bi-directional causality running between growth and taxation, and a uni-directional causality running from stock traded to taxation,and from growth to stock traded.This confirms the presence of a growth-led taxation nexus in emerging Asian countries.

DETERMINANTS OF FEMALE FERTILITY IN ASEAN-5: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM BOUNDS COINTEGRATION TEST

The ASEAN countries have been experiencing drastic declines in fertility of more than 10 percent, particularly since the 1990s. Though the literature on fertility has clearly delineated the importance of income, female labor force participation and infant mortality as key determinants of fertility rates (FRs), the empirical findings from previous studies remains at best mixed. This study therefore identifies the determinants of female fertility for the countries, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand (ASEAN-5 countries), spanning the period 1980–2010. Using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) cointegration and causality techniques, the main findings of the study are summarized as follows: First, a long-run (LR) stable relationship is evident between female fertility, female labor force participation, income and infant mortality for ASEAN-5. Second, there is a deviation of FRs from the short-run (SR) to the LR equilibrium for ASEAN-5, with the highest and lowest speed of adjustment recorded for Malaysia and Thailand, respectively. Third, FR and economic stability are found to be complementary in the LR for ASEAN-5. When the joint LR and SR causalities are considered, we found that female labor force participation, income and infant mortality have dynamic relationships with FR for all the five ASEAN countries.

Influencing Factors Mitigate Middle East Tourist Travelling to Malaysia: the Quantile Estimates

This research examines the possible impacts of global oil prices, exchange rate and tourism prices on Malaysia’s demand for the Middle East tourists’ arrivals using monthly data covering the period from 1995 to 2017. We covered the 5 major sources of Middle East tourism to Malaysia in the last 2 decades, such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iran, Syria and the United Arab Emirates. The estimates of the quantile regression reveal that the global oil price fluctuation has affected the Middle East tourist arrivals to Malaysia. First, we found that there is a positive quantile effect of tourism, domestic tourism prices and global oil prices with Middle East tourism demand in Malaysia throughout the estimated quantiles. Secondly, we could not find any specific influence of exchange rate and this shows that the fluctuating Malaysia’s currency is not a major issue for the Middle East tourists. Overall, this finding can be useful for policymakers while improving their future tourism planning and in attracting more tourists to visit Malaysia in the upcoming years.

Financial Instability, Trade Openness and Energy Prices on Leading African Countries Sustainable Growth

This study aimed to examine the effect of financial instability, energy prices and trade openness on economic growth for leading African countries (Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa). We employed the second-generation cointegration test and the Dumitrescu and Hurlin (DH) heterogeneous panel Granger causality test over the period from 1970 to 2016. The result of cointegration analysis revealed that, there is the existence of a cointegration relationship between the financial instability, oil prices, and trade openness on economic growth sustainability for leading African countries. While, the causality test has revealed a unidirectional causal relationship, which running from financial instability to real economic growth, oil price to real economic growth; and a bidirectional causality running between trade openness and economic growth. The empirical results also showed that, the intervention by leading African countrys policymakers could create rigidity or financial repression policies rather than a more stable financial system which could achieve by financial rules and regulations being designed to widen the space for the growth and stability of oriented macroeconomic policies.