Heavy or semi-heavy tail,that is the question

While there has been considerable research on the analysis of extreme values and outliers by using heavy-tailed distributions, little is known about the semi-heavy-tailed behaviors of data when there are a few suspicious outliers. To address the situation where data are skewed possessing semi-heavy tails, we introduce two new skewed distribution families of the hyperbolic secant with exciting properties. We extend the semi-heavy-tailedness property of data to a linear regression model. In particular, we investigate the asymptotic properties of the ML estimators of the regression parameters when the error term has a semi-heavy-tailed distribution. We conduct simulation studies comparing the ML estimators of the regression parameters under various assumptions for the distribution of the error term. We also provide three real examples to show the priority of the semi-heavy-tailedness of the error term comparing to heavy-tailedness. Online supplementary materials for this article are available. All the new proposed models in this work are implemented by the shs R package, which can be found on the GitHub webpage.     

Administration, Globalization, and the Arab States

Globalization involves risks and opportunities for the Arab world. Realistic knowledge of these possibilities is essential for adaptation of governance and reform of public administration to deal more effectively with the unfolding processes of globalization. To be participants rather than mere subjects, the Arab states have to recognize opportunities and limit potential negative consequences. Success requires good governance and professional public management. Public administration in the Arab world has to transform traditional methods of command and control and nepotism into a more collaborative management that relies on institutional capabilities and practicing managerial values of accountability, performance evaluation, transparency, and ethics.

The 1947 Partition of India: A Paradigm for Pathological Politics in India and Pakistan

This article seeks to shed light on the role a particular historical event can play in conferring legitimacy to the politics of communal and national animosities and hostilities. The Partition of India in 1947 was, on the one hand, a gory consummation of a long process of mutual demonising and dehumanising by Hindu and Muslim extremists. On the other, in the post-independence era, it became a model of violent conflict resolution invoked and emulated by ethnic and religious extremists and the hawkish establishments of India and Pakistan. The paper argues that the Partition of India epitomises the politics of identity in its most negative form: when trust and understanding have been undermined and instead fear and insecurity reign supreme, generating angst at various levels of state and society. In the process, a pathological socio-political system comes into being. I try to show how such a system functions within the domestic sphere as well as in India-Pakistan political interaction.     

Dynamics of Corruption and Citizens’ Trust in Anti-Corruption Agencies in Three South Asian Countries

The comparative analyses of citizens’ trust in Anti-Corruption Agencies (ACAs) in three countries’ (Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka) indicate that despite ACA’s low level of effectiveness in curbing corruption, trust level varies. The Nepalese ACA has higher level of trust than Bangladesh and Sri Lanka which is earned by targeting mainly lower level public officials. Though it fails to reduce the level of corruption in Nepal; citizens tend to trust ACA more. This is because of higher visibility of ACA’s activities. Such findings indicate about the methodological challenge to use ‘trust’ as a proxy to measure institutional performance.     

The Institutional Trust Paradox in Bangladesh

This paper maps institutional trust in Bangladesh and analyzes to what extent citizens perceive public institutions to be trustworthy. According to a number of expert evaluations, public and political institutions in Bangladesh do not stand out as very trustworthy. Yet, despite such expert evaluations, recent survey data indicate that popular trust is quite high in certain major institutions such as the parliament and the central government. Since it is misplaced, the high level of popular institutional trust presents a paradox. It implies some kind of blind or naive trust, which may be dysfunctional for the emergence of a democratic governance system.     

Challenges of Coordination in Implementing Urban Policy: The Bangladesh Experience

The paper analyzes factors that impede inter- and intra-organizational coordination in urban governance in policy implementation. The unit of analysis is the Rajshahi City Corporation, one of six large municipalities in Bangladesh. Inadequate institutional rules and regulations, ambiguous system for financial management and shady practices create a large degree of discontent amongst officials and impede both inter-organizational and intra-organizational coordination in implementing urban infrastructure policy. In addition, central-local relations, different modes of operation and patterns of accountability act as barriers to sound working relationships between the city corporation and other government departments and autonomous agencies operating within the jurisdiction of the city corporation.