The paper discusses the currents that led to the 2007-2009 financial crisis. We discuss the crisis in a historical context and present evidence regarding the incidence and unit price of risk. Our results show that the unit price of risk prior to the subprime crisis is comparable to the price of risk prior to the great depression and similar to the price of risk at onset of the technology bubble. We then discuss global imbalances, the associated risks with regard to international optimal allocation of capital, and arrangements to minimize problems of global imbalances.

The paper assesses the transmission of foreign inflationary disturbances for Malaysia. Using quarterly data from 1971 to 2003, we form a four-variable vector error correction model (VECM) consisting of domestic prices, US prices, Ringgit exchange rate and relative interest rate. Apart from the full-sample analysis, recursive and rolling regressions are adopted to examine potential changes in inflation transmission from the US to Malaysia. As a basis for inferences, we rely on the speed of adjustments estimates as well as the significance of lagged first-differenced terms of the VECM. The results unequivocally suggest significant spillover of US inflationary disturbances to Malaysia in the short run regardless of the estimation periods. However, the speed of adjustment estimates for domestic prices tend to decline or turn insignificant when recent observations are added. Our findings demonstrate that inflation transmission across nations ought not to be cast in the light of exchange rate regimes alone. Indeed, the degree of capital mobility may have played a more dominant role.

This study seeks to examine the use of Accounting Information Systems (AIS) by ZBMS Sdn. Bhd., and it's contribution to the knowledge management and strategic role of the organisation. ZBMS is a company that registered in Kuala Lumpur and operate in construction industry. The company used automated AIS known as Contract Plus Financial & Project Accounting package commercially developed by a private company (ZYXW). Wide variety of people that involve in the company's operation within and outside the organisation uses accounting information generated by this system for decision-making. Based on input provided by operational level managers, the Contract Plus software produces monthly projects' income statements, balance sheets and statement of changes in financial position for the strategic and tactical managers to plan, control and make decision on the resources allocation. The role-played by AIS enhanced the organisations' accounting functions, and add information value. The automated AIS speed up the process to generate financial statements and overcome human weaknesses in data processing. The system enhances management of resources and the process of monitoring, control and prediction of ZBMS business for better future. With the advent of AIS, the growth of tacit and explicit knowledge could be seen from the intensive training of personnel at the early stage of system implementation to the development and use of company's own manual in training of new staff and assisting the job of existing staff. Given the benefit of AIS to ZBMS, this paper recommended that the source of data should be fully automated, and the existing system should be upgraded through computerise the pre-tendering and post-tendering of projects to enable AIS integration.

An action having an acceleration term in addition to the usual velocity term is analyzed. The quantum mechanical system is directly defined for Euclidean time using the path integral. The Euclidean Hamiltonian is shown to yield the acceleration Lagrangian and the path integral with the correct boundary conditions. Due to the acceleration term, the state space depends on both position and velocity, and hence the Euclidean Hamiltonian depends on two degrees of freedom. The Hamiltonian for the acceleration system is non-Hermitian and can be mapped to a Hermitian Hamiltonian using a similarity transformation; the matrix elements of this unbounded transformation is explicitly evaluated. The mapping fails for a critical value of the coupling constants.

The Euclidean action with acceleration has been analyzed in Ref. 1, and referred to henceforth as Paper I, for its Hamiltonian and path integral. In this paper, the state space of the Hamiltonian is analyzed for the case when it is pseudo-Hermitian (equivalent to a Hermitian Hamiltonian), as well as the case when it is inequivalent. The propagator is computed using both creation and destruction operators as well as the path integral. A state space calculation of the propagator shows the crucial role played by the dual state vectors that yields a result impossible to obtain from a Hermitian Hamiltonian. When it is not pseudo-Hermitian, the Hamiltonian is shown to be a direct sum of Jordan blocks.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between the rate of interest on the key instrument of monetary policy in Australia, the overnight cash rate and the debt instruments comprising the Australian Government Yield curve, during the climate of low inflation and transparent monetary policy in Australia since the early 1990s. This relationship is fitted to an Expectations Theory based function. The methods applied are the error-correction and variance decompositions techniques including the most recently developed ‘long run structural modelling’ (Pesaran and Shin, 2002). The findings indicate that, contrary to common belief, longer-term interest rates more often than not tend to lead the cash rate and other shorterterm rates. Australian monetary policy relies on the assertion that the shorter term rate leads the longer term rates, and that changes in the cash rate will reverberate through the yield curve to the longer term rates, which in turn affect aggregate demand and other economic indicators. The findings of our study based on the recent rigorous time-series techniques tend to cast doubts on the efficiency and effectiveness of current monetary policy in Australia.

The present paper analyzes the role of stock market returns as a predictor of real output for a fast-growing emerging market, Malaysia. In the analysis, forecasting equations for 1-, 2-, 4-, and 8-quarter forecasting horizons based on autoregressive distributed lags framework are adopted. From the estimation, we find evidence that stock market returns do contain predictive ability at short-forecasting horizons, especially at less than 4-quarter horizons. Estimating the forecasting models recursively, we note reduction of out-of-sample forecasting evaluation statistics, namely the mean absolute errors (MAE) and the mean squared forecast errors (MSFE), from those obtained from the simple autoregressive (AR) model. More importantly, the null hypothesis of equal predictive accuracy between the model with stock returns as a predictor and the AR model is rejected for the 1-quarter and 2-quarter forecasting horizons by the McCraken’s (2007) out-of-sample-F statistics

The option pricing model introduced by Black-Scholes in 1974 gained wide acceptance for its simplicity but was inefficient in pricing options as it relied on implied volatility. Despite the evolution of various versions of option pricing models since their seminal work, little progress had been documented on the use of implied volatility, leaving Black-Scholes to be a mathematical identity to calculate the instantaneous implied volatility as it fails to be an efficient pricing equation. Although interpreted as market expectation of future volatility of stocks, implied volatility is literally a black box that captures market information that is not specifically known yet also internally inconsistent (e.g., having a different implied volatility surface for put and call options). The four main objectives of this thesis are: first, to empirically studying the performance of the Oscillator model developed by Baaquie (2019) and examining its efficiency in pricing options as compared to Black-Scholes model. The Oscillator model has only two sets of parameters in addition to the classical form of Black-Scholes; one to model for the underlying stochastic evolution of the stock price, and the second are of market time. Market time is a behavioural parameter introduced by Baaquie and Bouchaud (2004) which scales the time to maturity to capture the market sentiment of the underlying instrument. This thesis also introduced an alternative version of Black-Scholes by adjusting it for market time. Second, the thesis tested the put-call parity violation. Third, the thesis tested three main option hedging Greeks; Delta, Gamma, and Theta, which are partial differentiations of the option pricing equation. Fourth, the thesis discussed the calibrated output and parameters' behaviour to provide insights into the implied volatility information content and gain new understanding of the parametric gap of Black-Scholes particularly in the light of the Oscillator and Black-Scholes models adjusted for market time.

There has been a tremendous growth in the number of empirical research on happiness by economists in the past decade. The present study is in the right direction as it explores a relatively intriguing area of research on the 'economics of happiness'. The purpose of this study is to find the existence of linkages between happiness and several economic variables. A cross-sectional econometric analysis is employed to examine the impact of the economic variables of income (Gross Domestic Product per capita), health care expenditure and pollution (proxies by CO2 emissions) on happiness across 42 countries in 2006. The findings indicate that a significantly positive relationship exists between happiness and income while pollution has a negative impact on a nation's well being. The level of health care expenditure however, does not have a significant impact on happiness. The study concludes with an examination of policy implications of the findings.

Malaysia has witnessed strong sustained growth over the last three decades, growing at an average annual rate of 5.8%. This sustained growth performance has been accompanied by significant structural shifts in the economy, reflecting the transformation of the Malaysian economy amid the changing global and domestic environment.

Malaysia has a long history of internationally valued exports, being known from the early centuries A.D. as a source of gold, tin and exotics such as birds’ feathers, edible birds’ nests, aromatic woods, tree resins etc. The commercial importance of the area was enhanced by its strategic position athwart the seaborne trade routes from the Indian Ocean to East Asia.

An issue in the pricing of contingent claims is whether to account for consumption risk. This is relevant for contingent claims on stock indices, such as the FTSE 100 share price index, as investor's desire for smooth consumption is often used to explain risk premiums on stock market portfolios, but is not used to explain risk premiums on contingent claims themselves. This paper addresses this fundamental question by allowing for consumption in an economy to be correlated with returns. Daily data on the FTSE 100 share price index are used to compare three option pricing models: the Black-Scholes option pricing model, a GARCH (1, 1) model priced under a risk-neutral framework, and aGARCH(1, 1) model priced under systematic consumption risk. The findings are that accounting for systematic consumption risk only provides improved accuracy for in-the-money call options. When the correlation between consumption and returns increases, the model that accounts for consumption risk will produce lower call option prices than observed prices for in-the-money call options. These results combined imply that the potential consumption-related premium in the market for contingent claims is constant in the case of FTSE 100 index options.

The corporate name is the identity and pride of a corporate entity. A name change is an important corporate event and done only if the benefits out weights the costs. This study attempts to investigate whether a corporate name change has a wealth effect on the company's shareholders. It investigates the wealth effects of name change announcement concurrent with announcement of reorganisation and restructuring of the firm. Event study methodology was employed to examine the above issues with respect to failed and non-failed firms for the period from 1980 to 1996 ...

The main purpose of the study is: i. to examine the long- and short-term dynamic linkages among international and Asian emerging stock markets and then ii. try to quantify the extent of the Asian stock market fluctuations which are explained by intra-regional contagion effect. The study, therefore, proceeds first by examining the dynamic causal linkages among eight national daily stock price indices four major established markets and four Asian emerging markets. and then quantifying the extent of their dynamic interdependencies through the application of recent time-series econometric techniques a. vector error-correction model Toda and Phillips, 1993. and b. level VAR model containing integrated and cointegrated processes of arbitrary orders Toda and Yamamoto, 1995. At the global level, the findings tend to confirm the widely-held view of the leadership of the US over both the short- and long-term and the existence of a significant short- and long-term relationship between the established OECD and the emerging Asian markets

The present study attempts to investigate whether shadow economy and the tourism sector are related. In the European countries, Schneider reported that 20 to 25 per cent of the shadow economy is represented in the tourism-related industries – wholesale and retail, automotive and motorcycle sales and maintenance; transportation, storage and communications; and hotels and restaurants. For the tourism sector, the services given by operators (unregistered and/or underreporting) operate in the shadow economy will ultimately wiped off the map of high quality tourist destinations and destroyed the development of the tourism industry itself. This study examines the short-run and long-run relationships between international tourism receipts and shadow economy for 149 countries over the period 1995-2008. We use a generalized one-step error-correction model (ECM) in combination with a system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) to explore the long-run relationship between these two variables. Our results suggest that tourism receipts and shadow economy are cointegrated. This implies that shadow economy and the tourism industry worldwide are related in the long-run. The long-run elasticities indicate a negative impact of the shadow economy on the tourism sector suggesting that increase in shadow economy activities will adversely affecting the tourism industry.

This review evaluates and reports on the clarity, quality, originality as well as other aspects of the following research article: Khong WK, 'Spam Law for the Internet', 2001 (3) The Journal of Information Law and Technology (JILT)

Full text not available from this repository

The present paper characterizes the mean-reverting behavior of six ASEAN markets - Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam – using an autoregressive exponential GARCH-in mean model and daily data from August 2000 to May 2010. The results indicate fast speed of mean-reversion in the returns of these markets but with quite distinct patterns of return dynamics. The evidence seems strong to suggest asymmetric mean reversion and overreaction during market downturns in the Indonesian market. The Vietnamese market exhibits most persistent return autocorrelation with some evidence pointing to higher persistence during market downturns. However, there is no evidence indicating significant serial correlation in the markets of Singapore and Thailand. Finally, the leverage effect is documented in all markets except Vietnam. We tentatively attribute these differences to stages of market development and, accordingly their levels of efficiency, and to the degree of market volatility.

This paper examines the perception of bankers on contribution of audit committees towards external auditor independence in public listed companies. All Malaysian public listed companies are required to establish an audit committee as a measure to improve on the internal control mechanism that can help improve the corporate governance practices of firms. Postal questionnaires and interview surveys were used to solicit the perception and views of loan officers. The majority of the respondents believe that auditor independence is preserved with the presence of an actively functioning audit committee. This implies favourably on the corporate governance

This study examines the disclosures contained in Audit Committee Reports (ACRs) and the level of compliance of current practices with the amended Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange listing requirements after the adoption of various recommendations made by the High-Level of Finance Committee on Corporate Governance and the Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance (MCCG) in 1999 and 2000 respectively. All firms listed on the KLSE's main and second board, and MESDAQ counters were sampled. Consistent with the literature in developed markets, the findings reveal that very few companies provide more than what is expected by the ACRs in their listing requirements. Further, companies in finance, technology and IPC counters, and companies on the main board counter have greater initiative to provide value added (or termed as 'non-boiler plate') statements to information users.