Normaz Wana Ismail

Do migrant remittances promote human capital formation? Evidence from 89 developing countries

The few published empirical studies on the effect of migrant remittances on educational attainments are roughly based on cross-sectional microdata from household surveys. This paper applies the generalised method of moments (GMM) estimator on aggregate level data from 1970 to 2010 in five-year intervals to examine the impact of migrant remittances on human capital formation in 89 developing countries. The estimation results show that, on average, an increase in migrant remittance inflows by 1% is associated with a 2% rise in years of schooling at both the secondary and tertiary levels. This suggests that migrant remittances have the potential to relax liquidity constraints and generate spillover effects that facilitate more schooling opportunities in remittance-receiving countries.

Tourism and CO2 emissions nexus in Southeast Asia: new evidence from panel estimation

The past decade has seen the rapid development of the tourist industry in Southeast Asia. There is increasing concern that tourism is highly affecting CO2 emissions, but the nature of the relationship is still unclear. The main target of this paper is to investigate the existence of a linear and/or nonlinear relationship between tourism and CO2 emissions in the five most important countries located in Southeast Asia, using the panel cointegration and pooled mean group techniques. The results indicate that tourism and CO2 emissions are cointegrated, implying that tourism affects CO2 emissions in the long run. Our findings support the nonlinear relationship between tourism and emissions as well as economic activities and CO2 emissions. Accordingly, an inverted U-shaped relationship exists between tourism and emissions confirming the existence of an Environmental Kuznets Curve in the Southeast Asian tourism industry. Furthermore, the empirical results show that economic activities and energy consumption greatly increase emissions.

Effect of foreign aid on corruption: evidence from Sub-Saharan African countries

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of foreign aid on corruption in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. Foreign aid is aimed to promote economic growth by complementing the recipient country’s shortfall of financial resource. However, if the recipient country’s quality of governance and institutions is poor, the process of growth will be undermined. Since foreign aid to SSA countries has been increasing substantially in recent years, it is imperative to explore its impact on the level of corruption in the SSA countries. Design/methodology/approach - – The paper opted to use a Quantile regression (QR) approach to examine the impact of foreign aid on corruption. The data cover from the year 2000 to 2010 for 42 Sub-Saharan countries. QR is appropriate to achieve the stated objective because the method enables to examine the effect of aid on at different level of corruption. Findings - – The paper provides empirical insights on the impact of foreign aid on corruption level in SSA countries. The finding indicates that foreign aid has reduction effect on the corruption level of SSA countries. The effect is likely to be greater in nations that experience a higher level of corruption. The findings further reveal that aid from different bilateral sources has different effect on corruption. As a whole, the findings are statistically significant and robust to alternative measure of corruption. Research limitations/implications - – Since the study just focus on Sub-Saharan African countries, the research findings may lack generalization to the entire African countries or poor developing countries that are receiving substantial amount of foreign aid. Therefore, future research should incorporate all the African countries or all poor developing countries. Practical implications - – Since the empirical findings reveals that aid reduces the corruption level and aid from different bilateral source have different effect on corruption, it is important to establish more cooperation between donor countries in allocating aid. The conditions attached to aid should be, among other things, be related with improvement of governance and institutional environment. Allocation of aid should be selective such that countries in institutional quality should be among the important criteria for a country to qualify for aid. Originality/value - – This paper fulfills the need to study the relationship between foreign aid and corruption in the case of SSA countries. The aid-corruption nexus is relatively under explored issue especially in the case African countries.

The effects of air pollution on human mortality: does gender difference matter in African countries?

The relationship between environmental factors and human health has long been a concern among academic researchers. We use two indicators of environmental pollution, namely particulate matter (PM10) and carbon dioxide (CO2) to examine the effects of poor air quality on human mortality. This study explores an issue that has largely been ignored, particularly in the African literature, where the effect of air pollution on human mortality could be influenced by gender specification. We analyse a panel data from 35 African countries and our result suggests that the elevated levels of PM10 and CO2 have a significant effect on the increasing mortality rates in infants, under-five children and adults. Although the effect of poor air quality on adults is found to differ between genders, such difference is not statistically significant. We conclude that the air pollution effects, on average, are similar between genders in the African countries.

An overview of genetically modified crop governance, issues and challenges in Malaysia

The application of agricultural biotechnology attracts the interest of many stakeholders. Genetically modified (GM) crops, for example, have been rapidly increasing in production for the last 20 years. Despite their known benefits, GM crops also pose many concerns not only to human and animal health but also to the environment. Malaysia, in general, allows the use of GM technology applications but it has to come with precautionary and safety measures consistent with the international obligations and domestic legal frameworks. This paper provides an overview of GM crop technology from international and national context and explores the governance and issues surrounding this technology application in Malaysia. Basically, GM research activities in Malaysia are still at an early stage of research and development and most of the GM crops approved for release are limited for food, feed and processing purposes. Even though Malaysia has not planted any GM crops commercially, actions toward such a direction seem promising. Several issues concerning GM crops as discussed in this paper will become more complex as the number of GM crops and varieties commercialised globally increase and Malaysia starts to plant GM crops.

The Impact of Infrastructure on Trade and Economic Growth in Selected Economies in Asia

Infrastructure plays a key role in facilitating trade, especially since recent trade liberalization in Asia has resulted in significant tariff reductions. This study quantifies the impacts of both hard and soft infrastructure on trade volume for exporters and importers in the region as well as on various economic growth indicators.

The sources of house price changes in Malaysia

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the house market in Malaysia from 2002 to 2015. Specifically, the macroeconomic determinants on the house price and house demand are investigated. Design/methodology/approach Structural Vector Autoregressive Regression was adopted to estimate the unexpected changes in both house demand (residential transaction volume) and prices based on economic theoretical reasoning that consider shock from macroeconomic determinants. Findings The transaction volume and real house prices respond to most of the macroeconomic shocks. While the impact of real gross domestic product (GDP) on house prices appears to be stronger and longer in comparison to other macroeconomic shocks, a 60 per cent change in house prices can be explained by real GDP regardless of whether it is in the short run or the long run. The studies also reveal that a positive effective exchange rate plays an important role when demonstrating the transaction volume. Moreover, monetary liquidity plays a major role in justifying the transaction volume. This implies that mortgage lending may have an impact on housing demand. Meanwhile, movements of house prices cannot be explained by the demand in quantity. This signifies that supply has a strong influence in determining the price. Research limitations/implications This study has implications on policymakers of which the interest rate as a cooling measure might not be effective in the short run. The interest rate has very little impact on housing prices. Furthermore, policymakers should address the concerns on speculations, as the results reveal that monetary liquidity and the exchange rate have a strong impact on the housing demand. Originality/value This study seeks to provide answers regarding the recent upsurge of Malaysian housing prices. Besides focusing on the house price changes, this study addresses the role of transaction volume while evaluating the house market, as housing prices are usually downwards rigid. Since the price and transaction volume are both related to the transaction activity, this study is significant and could be a good reflection on the actual demand behaviour in the residential market.

The Impact of Trade Liberalization on Tax Structure in Developing Countries

Abstract In this paper, we investigate the impact of trade liberalization on tax structure in a panel 97 developing countries for the period 1993-2012. Our empirical results, based on the fixed-effect estimator, reveal that trade liberalization in the form of trade openness did not seem to have a strong impact on major tax sources of developing countries. Instead, trade liberalization in the form of tariff reduction seems to have a contribution to tax structure in these countries.

An Analysis of Real Oil Prices and Real Exchange Rates in Five African Countries

This article examines the long-run interactions between real oil prices and real exchange rates in five oil-exporting African countries: Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and Tunisia. To accomplish this, symmetric and asymmetric cointegration tests and an error-correction modelling technique are applied. The results of the analysis reveal evidence of long-run co-movements between real oil prices and real exchange rates. More specifically, this involved symmetric adjustment of the real exchange rates to the long-run equilibrium values in Egypt, South Africa and Tunisia, caused by changes in real oil prices. Further evidence of persistence, as well as asymmetric adjustments of the real exchange rates to the long-run equilibrium path, were found to exist following an increase in oil price shocks in Ghana and Nigeria. Moreover, the analysis of short-run dynamics between real oil prices and real exchange rates produces evidence of real exchange rate appreciations in Nigeria, South Africa and Tunisia and real exchange rate fluctuations in Egypt and Ghana.

Traditional Craftsmanship: The Origin, Culture, and Challenges of Batik Industry in Malaysia

Batik is a process of dyeing fabric by making use of a resist technique. Approximately, 70 % of the national industry in Malaysia is derived from SMEs, and microenterprise is one of the main components in SMEs. In the Malaysian context, most of batik enterprises have been categorized in SME industries. Recently, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). had classified the craft industry as one of the items in the creative industries. They believe the creative industries will provide new opportunities for developing countries to leapfrog into emerging high-income countries due to the contribution on output level, employment, and tourism sector. Even though batik production has long been established in this country, unfortunately, it is still dominated by microenterprises with around 86 %. Hence, this paper is written to bring readers to understand the origin, culture, and the challenges faced by batik makers in order to preserve and flourish batik industry in Malaysia.