The elites’ collective subjectivities of the history of ethnic politics in Malaysia

ABSTRACT

Malaysia is one of the multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious countries in Southeast Asia. Due to the pluralistic nature of Malaysia, it has a political structure based on ethnic politics. The ethnic preferential policies affected most domains of this country. The objective of this article is to examine the origin and background of ethnic politics in Malaysia. Findings of this study indicate that, ethnic politics originated during the British colonial period, it became a tool used by the Barisan Nasional for the legitimacy of regime. Moreover, ethnic politics in Malaysia today is intertwined with religion. Besides, there is the dilemma of the choice between the interest of certain ethnic group and national interests. However, with the opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan won the election in 9th May, UMNO-led BN lost power and interrupted its 61 years control, which leaves us an interesting topic to think about the future of Malaysian ethnic politics.     

Expenditure Differences of University Degree Holders Across Occupational Sectors in Malaysia

This study was motivated by the key role university degree holders play in Malaysia's vision for the future and by concerns expressed about the drift of university degree holders from one sector to another. A questionnaire was mailed to a sample of 400 Malaysian families that had at least one member who held a university degree. The objective was to elicit details of the household economic situation of respondents, with special reference to the differences in expenditure patterns between families whose degree holder worked in higher education, government, or the private sector.Results of tobit analysis of expenditures show that there are some differences between the sectors regarding expenditure patterns, but the differences are not as great as expected. Nevertheless, university-educated persons in the private sector seem to have somewhat different expenditure patterns than their counterparts in other sectors.     

Deconvolution boundary kernel method in nonparametric density estimation

This paper considers the nonparametric deconvolution problem when the true density function is left (or right) truncated. We propose to remove the boundary effect of the conventional deconvolution density estimator by using a special class of kernels: the deconvolution boundary kernels. Methods for constructing such kernels are provided. The mean squared error properties, including the rates of convergence, are investigated for supersmooth and ordinary smooth errors. Numerical simulations show that the deconvolution boundary kernel estimator successfully removes the boundary effects of the conventional deconvolution density estimator.     

A probabilistic model for nonsymmetric correspondence analysis and prediction in contingency tables

Summary Nonsymmetric correspondence analysis is a model meant for the analysis of the dependence in a two-way continengy table, and is an alternative to correspondence analysis. Correspondence analysis is based on the decomposition of Pearson's Ф²-index Nonsymmetric correspondence analysis is based on the decomposition of Goodman-Kruskal's τ-index for predicatablity. In this paper, we approach nonsymmetric correspondence analysis as a statistical model based on a probability distribution. We provide algorithms for the maximum likelihood and the least-squares estimation with linear constraints upon model parameters. The nonsymmetric correspondence analysis model has many properties that can be useful for prediction analysis in contingency tables. Predictability measures are introduced to identify the categories of the response variable that can be best predicted, as well as the categories of the explanatory variable having the highest predictability power. We describe the interpretation of model parameters in two examples. In the end, we discuss the relations of nonsymmetric correspondence analysis with other reduced-rank models.     

Postnatal breastfeeding education at one week after childbirth: What are the effects?

Background

The first week after childbirth is a crucial period for exclusive breastfeeding initiation.

The reconfiguration of social movements in post-2011 Romania

ABSTRACT

Since 2011, a series of citizen mobilizations have emerged in Romania, from local replicas of the ‘Occupy’ movement to the 2017 and 2018 mass protests against corruption. In this article, we develop three arguments for a better understanding of the successive waves of protests that have shaken the Romanian social and political landscape since 2011. First, while each protest has a specific claim and target, the forms of commitments, repertoire of actions and relationship to politics point to clear continuities between protest events that should be analyzed as part of the same cycle of protests. Second, while some analyses have emphasized the specificities of the Romanian context, we maintain that the actors and dynamics of this cycle of protest are simultaneously deeply national, embedded in the mutations of Eastern European civil society, and in resonance with the post-2011 global wave of movements. Third, while it is indispensable to analyze these citizen mobilizations as a whole, it is equally important to understand that they result from the convergence of diverse activist cultures, from left-wing autonomist activists to right-wing citizens and even nationalist militants. Each of these activist cultures has its own logic of action and its vision of democracy and of politics.     

Regularized robust estimation in binary regression models

In this paper, we investigate robust parameter estimation and variable selection for binary regression models with grouped data. We investigate estimation procedures based on the minimum-distance approach. In particular, we employ minimum Hellinger and minimum symmetric chi-squared distances criteria and propose regularized minimum-distance estimators. These estimators appear to possess a certain degree of automatic robustness against model misspecification and/or for potential outliers. We show that the proposed non-penalized and penalized minimum-distance estimators are efficient under the model and simultaneously have excellent robustness properties. We study their asymptotic properties such as consistency, asymptotic normality and oracle properties. Using Monte Carlo studies, we examine the small-sample and robustness properties of the proposed estimators and compare them with traditional likelihood estimators. We also study two real-data applications to illustrate our methods. The numerical studies indicate the satisfactory finite-sample performance of our procedures.     

Is more health always better for society? Exploring public preferences that violate monotonicity

There has recently been some literature on the properties of a Health-Related Social Welfare Function (HRSWF). The aim of this article is to contribute to the analysis of the different properties of a HRSWF, paying particular attention to the monotonicity principle. For monotonicity to be fulfilled, any increase in individual health—other things equal—should result in an increase in social welfare. We elicit public preferences concerning trade-offs between the total level of health (concern for efficiency) and its distribution (concern for equality), under different hypothetical scenarios through face-to-face interviews. Of key interests are: the distinction between non-monotonic preferences and Rawlsian preferences; symmetry of HRSWF; and the extent of inequality neutral preferences. The results indicate strong support for non-monotonic preferences, over Rawlsian preferences. Furthermore, the majority of those surveyed had preferences that were consistent with a symmetric and inequality averse HRSWF.     

Tests of fit for the Gumbel distribution: EDF-based tests against entropy-based tests

In this article, we propose some tests of fit based on sample entropy for the composite Gumbel (Extreme Value) hypothesis. The proposed test statistics are constructed using different entropy estimates. Through a Monte Carlo simulation, critical values of the test statistics for various sample sizes are obtained. Since the tests based on the empirical distribution function (EDF) are commonly used in practice, the power values of the entropy-based tests with those of the EDF tests are compared against various alternatives and different sample sizes. Finally, two real data sets are modeled by the Gumbel distribution.KEYWORDS: Entropy estimator, Gumbel distribution, Monte Carlo simulation, test power