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.     

Testing for abrupt breaks in variance structures with smooth changes

Abstract

We investigate the problem of testing for variance breaks in the case where the variance structure is assumed to be smoothly time-varying under the null. Since the classical tests are aimed to detect any change in the variance, they are not able to distinguish between smooth non constant variance and abrupt breaks. In this paper a new procedure for detecting variance breaks taking into account for smooth changes in the variance under the null is proposed. The finite sample properties of the test we introduce are investigated by Monte Carlo experiments. The theoretical outputs are illustrated using U.S. macroeconomic data.     

Sexual Dysfunction among Male Patients with Tramadol abuse: A Case-Control Study

Objective: Here we have investigated the association between tramadol abuse and male sexual function. Methods: Eighty-two male tramadol abuse patients and 55 healthy controls (20- to 45-years-old) were included in the study. Data from a sociodemographic questionnaire and the International Index of Erectile Function Questionnaire were collected and analyzed. Results: The tramadol abuse patients were 5 times more likely than their healthy counterparts to have erectile dysfunction. The tramadol abuse patients also had worse scores in the orgasmic, sexual desire, intercourse satisfaction, and overall satisfaction domains compared to the controls. Conclusion: Sexual dysfunctions are common among tramadol abuse patients.     

Non linear parametric mode regression

In this article, we propose a semi-parametric mode regression for a non linear model. We use an expectation-maximization algorithm in order to estimate the regression coefficients of modal non linear regression. We also establish asymptotic properties for the proposed estimator under assumptions of the error density. We investigate the performance through a simulation study.     

Cairo's Zabaleen garbage recyclers: Multi-nationals’ takeover and state relocation plans

The paper investigates recently launched plans to privatize solid-waste management in Cairo, focusing on its adverse effects on the sustainability of the associated recycling economy and urban settlement system of the garbage collectors communities (Zabaleen) located within the Muqattam mountain area which is adjacent to Cairo's old historical quarters. According to official development strategy, the privatization of solid-waste services is regarded as fundamental to overall government plans for Old Cairo's rehabilitation. The objectives of the rehabilitation programme tend to favour tourist-orientated projects, whilst ignoring the local population's interests through the removal of informal Zabaleen settlements in Muqattam mountain, and through the clearing of the Eastern Cemetery of its tomb dwellers and shanty town buildings.The study examines the consequences of recent official intervention in the sustainability of the Muqattam Zabaleen settlement in terms of physical and demographic growth, infrastructural development, and changes in land tenure system. The paper takes into consideration early 1980s programmes funded by the World Bank to improve the Zabaleens’ environment and to upgrade their settlement. These aimed to maintain the existing informal settlement pattern and to develop urban service delivery systems.The empirical study adopts a qualitative analysis employing ethnographic techniques of informal discussions with secondary stakeholder agencies (local municipality, planners, NGOs activists). A field survey of the primary stakeholder group (garbage collectors) involved in-depth interviews with householders and with community leaders in the Zabaleen settlement. The analysis explores narratives expressed by members of the Zabaleen community in response to the threat of enforced eviction resulting from potential state-controlled gentrification programmes for urban development and land speculation in the area.The findings emphasize the significance of local participatory mechanisms in restructuring solid-waste collection and in developing the recycling industry whilst putting vacant and under-used areas into productive use. These mechanisms would support the management of built environment and local resources and would build local capacity through developing new channels for co-operation and partnership between the garbage collectors’ association (Gamm’yya) and grass roots organizations together with the local authorities and multi-national companies. In order to promote sustainable livelihoods and better opportunities for the urban poor the study concludes that there is a need to draw on the sustainable flow of local resources within low-income garbage collectors groups, whilst seeking new means of supporting land acquisition and its development for improved housing standards, basic services and environmental quality.     

Call Center Delay Announcement Using a Newsvendor‐Like Performance Criterion

The problem of estimating delays experienced by customers with different priorities, and the determination of the appropriate delay announcement to these customers, in a multi‐class call center with time varying parameters, abandonments, and retrials is considered. The system is approximately modeled as an M(t)/M/s(t) queue with priorities, thus ignoring some of the real features like abandonments and retrials. Two delay estimators are proposed and tested in a series of simulation experiments. Making use of actual state‐dependent waiting time data from this call center, the delay announcements from the estimated delay distributions that minimize a newsvendor‐like cost function are considered. The performance of these announcements is also compared to announcing the mean delay. We find that an Erlang distribution‐based estimator performs well for a range of different under‐announcement penalty to over‐announcement penalty ratios.     

Education in the Context of Conflict and Instability: The Palestinian Case

This paper draws on the results of a study carried out in the West Bank, in 1999, to explore the role of education as a coping strategy among the children of Palestinian refugees, and to examine how the state of being refugees affects perceptions of the value and importance of education. The paper first reviews the background to the development of a formal education system in Palestine and considers the different approaches to education in different political contexts, with ensuing particular reference to the West Bank. The findings of the regional study are then reported, with special reference to the various functions of education as a coping strategy—remedial, incentive‐mobilizing and identity‐building. Education, for those who have lost their property and whose identity is under threat, emerges as a key channel for maintaining consciousness of collective rights.     

Strong consistency result of a non parametric conditional mode estimator under random censorship for functional regressors

Abstract

Let (T, C, X) be a vector of random variables (rvs) where T, C, and X are the interest variable, a right censoring rv, and a covariate, respectively. In this paper, we study the kernel conditional mode estimation when the covariate takes values in an infinite dimensional space and is α-mixing. Under some regularity conditions, the almost complete convergence of the estimate with rates is established.     

The Role of Development Oriented Non-Governmental Organizations in Creating Shared Value in the Educational Sector of Ghana: The Mediating Role of Basic Needs

This paper employed a structural equation modeling technique to investigate how Development Oriented Non-Governmental Organizations (DONGOs) could complement government efforts through the concept of shared value creation in the educational sector of Ghana. To address this objective, we analyzed whether DONGOs could create shared value by pursuing both social and economic objectives and also how the growing basic needs of education could influence these relationships. The study concluded that basic needs fully mediate social value to shared value and partially mediate economic value to shared value. Moreover, the study revealed that economic value to shared value creation is statistically significant and also demonstrated a positive and significant relationship between social value and shared value. The results further indicate that basic needs have a positive and significant relationship with shared value.