Modeling Causality Between Financial Deepening and Poverty Reduction in Egypt

This paper explores the determinants of immigration to Portugal. It is the first study to empirically evaluate an extended set of determinants to explain this new phenomenon in Portugal, a highly globalized economy and a 40-year-old democracy. This study finds evidence that the use of Portuguese as the mother tongue and prior Portuguese immigration are the main determinants of current immigration to Portugal from a given country. Depending on which subgroup is considered (refugees, students, or workers), more specific findings also arise. For refugees and foreign workers, human rights violations help explain increased immigration; for foreign students, low per capita income (in the home country) is a significant factor. Dividing the sample into Portuguese speakers and non-Portuguese speakers, we also identified the level of economic development as an important determinant for immigrants from non-lusophone countries. The military situations of the home countries were also important determinants for lusophone immigrants.     

When the victim becomes vicious: Combined effects of pseudo transformational leadership and epistemic motivation on contempt and deviant behaviors

Utilizing affective events theory (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996), the current study unravels how and when pseudo-transformational leaders promote contempt, avoidance, and aggression. Specifically, we examined whether pseudo-transformational leadership enforces feelings of contempt, which, in turn, fosters interaction avoidance and covert aggression in followers. We hypothesized that contempt also has an indirect effect that is contingent on levels of epistemic motivation of followers. By adopting a multi-wave research design, we gathered data from 277 employees of the service sector of Pakistan. The results signified that followers of pseudo-transformational leaders feel contemptuous of them and respond with interaction avoidance and indirect aggression. Further, we found that the impact of pseudo-transformational leadership on contempt was more pronounced in individuals with higher levels of epistemic motivation. We believe that this study opens up a new avenue in the pseudo-transformational leadership literature by highlighting the mechanism and conditions under which such leaders are deleterious for organizations.     

A heuristic algorithm for the m-machine,n-job flow-shop sequencing problem

In a general flow-shop situation, where all the jobs must pass through all the machines in the same order, certain heuristic algorithms propose that the jobs with higher total process time should be given higher priority than the jobs with less total process time. Based on this premise, a simple algorithm is presented in this paper, which produces very good sequences in comparison with existing heuristics. The results of the proposed algorithm have been compared with the results from 15 other algorithms in an independent study by Park [13], who shows that the proposed algorithm performs especially well on large flow-shop problems in both the static and dynamic sequencing environments.     

A mathematical model for industrial project evaluation

Different approaches to the evaluation of alternative industrial projects range from listing of subjective factors for use as guidelines on the one hand to construction of mathematical models with quantitative objective data on the other. This paper presents the method of developing a comprehensive model with all relevant factors, both subjective and objective. The approach used here is to identify and evaluate all important objective and subjective factors on consideration of the macro-level national objectives as well as the micro-economic investment criteria for each alternative project, and to convert them into consistent and dimensionless indices which are finally combined together to yield the appropriate project measure of utility in each case for comprehensive evaluation. Thus, the model, presented here, can provide a new tool for industrial project evaluation and also for establishing priorities among projects competing for allocation of resources.     

EWMA and DEWMA repetitive control charts under non-normal processes

In this paper, we present a repetitive sampling method to construct control charts using exponentially weighted moving averages (EWMA) and double exponentially weighted moving averages (DEWMA) to monitor shift in the process. For non-normal processes, t-distribution with various degrees of freedom (i.e. df=4,10,20,40,50) is used as symmetric distribution, gamma distribution with unit scale parameter and various shape parameters (i.e. 0.5,1,2,3,4) is used as positively skewed distribution and Weibull distribution with unit scale parameter and various shape parameters (i.e. 10 and 20) is used as negatively skewed distribution. We use Monte Carlo simulations to check whether the process is out of control. We use average run length as a tool to find the ability of proposed control charts to identify a shift earlier in a process, as compared to other control charts currently used to monitor the same type of process. The proposed control charts are applied to two real datasets.KEYWORDS: Control charts, EWMA statistic, DEWMA statistic, t distribution, gamma distribution, Weibull distribution     

On designing new optimal synthetic Tukey’s control charts

Tukey’s control chart is generally used for monitoring the processes where the measurement process physically damages the product. It is based on single observation and robust to outliers. In this paper, two optimal synthetic Tukey’s control charts are proposed by integrating the conforming run length chart with the Tukey’s control chart and its modification. The performance comparison of the proposed charts with the existing Tukey’s control charts is made by using out-of-control average run length and extra quadratic loss as performance metrics. The proposed charts offer better protection against the process shifts as compare to the existing Tukey’s control charts when the underlying process distribution is symmetric or asymmetric. Simulation studies also establish the supremacy of the proposed control charts over the existing Tukey’s control charts. In the end, an illustrative example based on a real data set of the combined cycle power plant is provided for practical implementation.     

The Performance of Gaussian and non Gaussian dynamic models in assessing market risk: The Implications for risk management

The developing markets are more volatile, unstable illiquid, and more prone to the external shocks. The non Gaussian VaR model gives more accurate risk models than Gaussian VaR models. Hence, the purpose of this study is to test if and how non Gaussian VaR models are comparatively better fit for risk modeling of developing markets than the Gaussian VaR models. The study measures the market risk for the daily closing price of Karachi Stock Exchange 100 index over the period of 2004–2016. The evaluation of VaR models suggests that non Gaussian dynamic model outperformed the Gaussian VaR models in developing markets.     

Association between femininity and women voters political trust in Pakistan

Political trust has been researched extensively since long in the sociology of politics. However, feminine attributes are rarely tested against political trust, especially in developing countries such as Pakistan. The present research explores the association of feminine attributes possessed by rural women with different attributes of political trust in politicians. A total of 414 registered women voters were recruited through a multistage sampling technique from selected tehsils of Punjab Province, Pakistan. The data were collected through an interview schedule, processed through SPSS (21.0), and presented in a tabular format. Pearson R correlation was applied to find out the association between hypothesized variables. The findings suggest that emotionality is significantly correlated with performance, ability, and the conduct of politicians (r = .302, r = .267, r = ?.216, p < .01). Feminine purity is significantly correlated with performance and the ability of politicians (r = .309, r = .202, p < .01). Feminine stereotypical image is significantly correlated with performance and the ability of politicians (r = .174, r = .196, p < .01). Traditional gender relations in the society need to be looked at carefully to realize the true potential of women in terms of their political participation.     

Impacts of Demographics on Citizen's Access to Information: An Empirical Study of District Dera Ismail Khan, North Western Frontier Province, Pakistan

The impact of demographic dimensions on local government behavior is well identified, analyzed and documented at the global level. Likewise, several studies are available on developing countries, but empirical evidence on the conditions of Pakistan is lacking. This study is an effort to unearth empirical evidence on access to information in the local government system exemplifying data from the district Dera Ismail Khan (DIK), North Western Frontier Province (NWFP). Most global hypotheses for developing countries are accepted in this study but the statistics on local data are far more different in terms of the value and weight of variables, relationships and impacts on the research concepts. The most dominant concept in the impact of access to information on the local government system is "education for all." Mass education is a leading concept in making or breaking the role of people participation in the success or failure of local democracies. Data show that illiteracy is causing many problems, including the mass population's unawareness of their interests and duties at the public level, thereby giving the ruling elite a free hand in exploiting public resources for self-interest, at the cost of the public good.