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.

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.

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This study uses time-series analysis to investigate the long-run relationships and short-run dynamic interactions between beer consumption and the independent variables of income level (Gross Domestic Product per capita), wealth (proxied by money supply, M2) and total exports in Malaysia over the period 1961 to 2009. The study applies the multivariate cointegration methodology to establish the possible causal relations between these variables. The cointegration test and the vector error correction model demonstrate the evidence of a positive long-run relationship between beer consumption and the income level while wealth and exports have a negative impact on beer consumption in Malaysia. The long-term elasticity coefficients of the independent variables on beer consumption display relationships that are theoretically grounded. Further innovative analysis using variance decompositions lends evidence of the dominant influence of income level and exports in forecasting variance in the consumption of beer in Malaysia. The study concludes with an examination of policy implications of these findings.

In this study we attempt to determine the long-run relationship between budget deficit and inflation in thirteen Asian developing countries, namely; Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, India, South Korea, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Nepal and Bangladesh. Using annual data for the period 1950-1999 our Granger causality within the error-correction model (ECM) framework suggest that all variables involved (budget deficits, money supply and inflation) are integrated of order one. Our ECM model estimates indicate the existence of a long-run relationship between inflation and budget deficits. Thus, we conclude that budget deficits are inflationary in Asian developing countries

A normative definition views crime as deviant behavior that violates prevailing norms-cultural standards prescribing how humans ought to behave normally. This approach considers the complex realities surrounding the concept of crime and seeks to understand how changing social, political, psychological, and economic conditions may affect the current definitions of crime and the form of the legal, law enforcement, and penal responses made by society. In the United States since 1930, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has tabulated Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) annually from crime data submitted by law enforcement agencies across the United States. Officials compile this data at the city, county, and state levels into the UCR. United States overall crime rate is displayed in two indices. The violent crime index comprises forcible rape, robbery, murder and assault. The property crime index consists of burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft. The crime rate is measured by the number of crimes being reported per 100,000 people.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of economic conditions on various categories of criminal activities in Malaysia for the period 1973‐2003. The autoregressive distributed lag bounds testing procedure was employed as the main tool. Dynamic ordinary least squares was also used to check the robustness of the results. The results indicate that murder, armed robbery, rape, assault, daylight burglary, and motorcycle theft exhibit long‐run relationships with economic conditions, and the causal effect in all cases runs from economic conditions to crime rates and not vice versa. In the long‐run, strong economic performances have a positive impact on murder, rape, assault, daylight burglary, and motorcycle theft, while on the other hand, economic conditions have negative impact on armed robbery. Further researches using other macroeconomic variables and also other countries are encouraged. The important implication of this result is that real gross national product per capita is an exogenous variable and it is, therefore, useful for fiscal policy variable. Government of the day should seriously consider the results of this study in any crimefighting policies that are formulated.

This study investigates the relationship between crime and socio and macro economic variables such as income, unemployment, inflation, interest rate, and also the political violence, both domestic and regional. The main motivation of the study is to have a better understanding of crime as well as finding and suggesting alternative ways of approaching crime. We analyzed 21 countries, with data spanning from 1960 to 2001.We adopted the model and framework introduced by Viren (2001) based on Becker (1968), Block and Heineke (1975). However, we slightly modified by rephrasing it in order not to only capture the long run relationship but also the short run adjustment. We employed the panel error- correction based cointegration (Persyn and Westerlund (2008)) to analyze and estimate the model. A number of important findings are extracted from the analysis in accordance to the objectives of this study. Firstly, we discover a negative long run relationship between income and crime; positive long run relationship between inflation and crime; unemployment and crime; as well as lending rate and crime. As for the political violence variable, domestic political violence seems to be negatively related; on the contrary regional political violence is positively related. We believe this might be attributed to the spillover effect. All the signs are as anticipated and justified in this study; and are concurrent with most of the past literatures.

The economic theory on crime behavior proposed by Becker (1968) suggests that an increase in the number of policemen can deter crimes. However, recent studies found a positive relationship between police personnel and crime rates. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the effect of police personnel on 15 categories of crime rates in Malaysia for the period of 1973 to 2005 by using the vector error-correction model. Our results suggest that 8 categories of crime rates support Becker’s crime economic theory, while 6 categories of crime support the ‘long-run natural rate of crime’ hypothesis.

The economic theory on crime behavior proposed by Becker (1968) suggests that an increase in the number of policemen can deter crimes. However, recent studies found a positive relationship between police personnel and crime rates. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the effect of police personnel on 15 categories of crime rates in Malaysia for the period of 1973 to 2005 by using the vector error-correction model. Our results suggest that 8 categories of crime rates support Becker’s crime economic theory, while 6 categories of crime support the ‘long-run natural rate of crime’ hypothesis

The purpose of the present study is to determine whether there is long-run relationship between crime rates and unemployment rate in Malaysia for the period 1973 to 2003. The autoregressive distributed lag bounds testing procedure was employed as the main tool to infer cointegration or the long-run relationship between unemployment and the crime rates. The results indicate that the unemployment rate, and crime rates: total crime rate, violent crime (murder, robbery, and assault), and property crime (daylight burglary, night burglary, and motorcycle theft) are cointegrated. The estimated long-run coeffi cients suggest that unemployment rate has negative effect on violent crime, murder, robbery, assault, and motorcycle theft. The paper shows that jobless population in Malaysia as a result of recession tend to remain in or near homes and neighborhoods and this likely will reduce the occurrence of crime.

This study wishes to examine and validate the ‘broken window’ hypothesis among the fifty one states in the United States. The chosen method for this analysis is Johansen cointegration test to test for cointegration, and if any cointegrating vector is found, we proceed to test for Granger causality based on VECM. We test whether property crime (proxy for minor crime) leads to violent crime (proxy for major crime) in the fifty one states with respect to the period 1960 to 2007. Result of the study indicates that violent crime and property crime are cointegrated in forty eight states out of fifty one states. Further analysis to test for the validity of the broken window hypothesis provides stunning result whereby we found that the hypothesis is indeed valid in forty four out of forty eight states.

This study will focus on assessing the total amount of damage and losses that has occurred during the 2014 flood disaster in Kelantan. The phenomenon of heavy rainfall during monsoon season is normal in Malaysia especially for the east coastal state areas between November to March every year. With the rainfall rate of 794mm which is 1.6 times higher than the average rainfall from the previous year, it has destroyed dwelling houses, animals, crops and also agricultural land. By using cross-sectional data analysis with Ordinary Least Square (OLS) method on 686 respondents in Kuala Krai, Kelantan, the results showed that early warning indicators such as Short Message Services (SMS) and other flood indicator instruments can reduce the risk of losses due to flood. Meanwhile, the ownership of insurance and an increase in household income is expected to reduce the burden of flood victims in the area.

This paper investigates the long run Granger causality between defense spending and economic growth for 20 selected Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) by employing the Error-Correction Model (ECM) framework using annual data for the period 1960 to 2005. defense spending (milex) is measured using the ratio of defense spending to gross domestic product (GDP); while economic growth (rgdpc) is proxy by the real GDP per capita. The results of our study indicated that one way long run Granger causality was found running from economic growth to defense spending for Burkina Faso, Indonesia, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Togo and Turkey. On the other hand, one way long run Granger causality was found running from defense spending to economic growth was found for Iran, Mauritania and Nigeria. However for the rest of the OIC countries, the results suggested no relationship between defense spending and economic growth.

This paper investigates the long run Granger causality between defense spending and economic growth for 20 selected Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) by employing the Error-Correction Model (ECM) framework using annual data for the period 1960 to 2005. defense spending (milex) is measured using the ratio of defense spending to gross domestic product (GDP); while economic growth (rgdpc) is proxy by the real GDP per capita. The results of our study indicated that one way long run Granger causality was found running from economic growth to defense spending for Burkina Faso, Indonesia, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Togo and Turkey. On the other hand, one way long run Granger causality was found running from defense spending to economic growth was found for Iran, Mauritania and Nigeria. However for the rest of the OIC countries, the results suggested no relationship between defense spending and economic growth

The paper "Demographic transition and economic growth nexus: the case of Malaysia" presented at 6th International Borneo Business Conference (IBBC) 2014, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia.

There is available evidence from different parts of the world that floods and storm account for about 67 percent of the natural disasters. While, earthquake, landslides, drought, extreme temperature, wildfire and volcano eruptions contribute to the remaining 23 percent. In many developing countries, the frequent occurrences of natural disasters, particularly floods are not uncommon. Yearly recurrence of floods bring devastate economies. The objective of the present study is to investigate factors that can mitigate the impact of floods on human fatalities and damages. We use a panel of 79 countries for the period of 1981-2005 and employ the two-step system GMM estimator to show that the level of economic development, population, investment, openness and education impact flood fatalities, total people affected and total cost of damages.

In the present study we estimate the size of the shadow economy for Malaysia using the modified-cash-deposit-ratio (MCDR) approach. Subsequently, we relate shadow economy with its determinants such as national income, government spending, stock market development, misery index and tax burden. Our emphasis in this study is on the role of Islamic stock market in mitigating shadow economy in Malaysia. We consider Bursa Malaysia as an Islamic stock market as more than 70% of the companies listed in the Bursa Malaysia stock indices are Sharia-compliant. Our results clearly suggest that there is a role for Islamic stock market in reducing the size of shadow economy in Malaysia.

Tourism is an important sector that contributes to government revenues, national income, foreign exchange earnings as well as provides job and business opportunities for many nations. In 2013, international tourist arrivals reached a record 1.1 billion worldwide, with USD1.2 billion in international tourism receipts. At the same time, the shadow economy in the tourism sector also flourished. In the European countries, Schneider reported that 20% to 25% of the shadow economy is represented by tourism-related industries, wholesale and retail, automotive and motorcycle sales and maintenance; transportation, storage and communications; and hotels and restaurants. Services given by these operators (unregistered and/or underreported) will ultimately be wiped off the map of high-quality tourist destinations and destroy the development of the tourism industry itself. This study examines the short-run and long-run dynamics between international tourist's arrival and shadow economy for 141 countries over the period 1995-2008. We used an error-correction model (ECM) combined with a system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) to explore the long-run relationship between these two variables. Our results suggest that tourists' arrival and shadow economy are cointegrated. The long-run coefficients indicate a negative impact of the shadow economy on the tourism sector. This implies that the shadow economy plays a significant role in the global tourism industry.

Present paper analyzes the interrelations between output, energy consumption, and carbon emissions in light of Malaysia's development experience from a commodity-based economy to an industrial-based economy by means of a vector autoregression (VAR) framework. The results suggest substantial interactions among the three variables. Moreover, manufacturing output tends to exert persistent influences on carbon emissions, energy consumption, and non-manufacturing output. Meanwhile, the significant causal relations from non-manufacturing output to energy variables are found for first few years. These results are robust to the inclusion of additional variables, namely, trade openness, investment, and population in the system.