Implementation of GASING Stock Gamification to Increase Financial Literacy for High School Students

Financial inclusion played an essential role in increasing the nation's welfare. Therefore, it is crucial to increase financial literacy since the literacy index in Indonesia is still 38,03%. Stock market investment had the lowest contribution toward the level of literacy index. The advancement of ICT and the penetration of internet users support the spreading of financial information among the young generation. Due to its low literacy rate, Indonesians are still vulnerable to false financial information, leading to investment fraud. Gamification is chosen as an alternative method in taking advantage of interactive game development that can easily download via smartphone. The gamification system design, which is named GASING, gives the younger generation adequate information related to secure financial investment. The target game user of GASING is high-school students. The feature of the GASING that offer attractive UI/UX design was expected to increase the knowledge of high-school students in learning stock investment. The usage of GASING gamification was also expected to increase more young generation participation in the Indonesian capital market while simultaneously increasing their knowledge, skills, and confidence in the stock market.

International Trade and Economic Misery in African Countries with Low Human Development

Puzzled by the demeaning level of poverty most African countries continue to grapple with despite their extensive participation in international trade, the study attempts to examine the encumbrances that tend to impede African countries from optimally reaping the developmental gains inherent in partaking in international trade, which seems to also worsen the economic misery the inhabitants endlessly contend with. The System Generalized Method of Moments (System-GMM) estimation technique was used in the study which involves 17 African countries and spans from 1995 - 2018. While misery index is used to measure economic misery, the impact of international trade on economic misery is captured by means of its effect via economic misery, economic growth rate, balance of payment, total export, manufacture export and exchange rate. The results of the study reveal that balance of payments, total export, manufacture export, per capita GDP growth rate, exchange rate and lagged form of economic misery all have positive effect on economic misery. While the effects of total export, manufacture export, per capita GDP growth rate, and exchange rate on economic misery are significant, those of balance of payments and lagged form of economic misery are insignificant. While the study recommends that international trade be engaged strategically such that it results in favourable balance of payments, it also encourages the discarding of obsolete trade policies such as outright bans on importation of certain commodities. Bilateral trade agreements are recommended over multilateral trade agreements, since they are more mutually beneficial and binding on the parties involved

External Debt, Public Investment and Economic Growth in Cameroon

This study investigates the extent to which external debt and public investment contributes to economic growth in Cameroon - emphasising on how public investment modulates the effect of external debt on economic growth. Time series data spanning the period 1980-2018 obtained from the World Bank’s world development indicators are used, together with the Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) approach to ascertain the nature of the long-run relationship between external debt, public investment and economic growth. Consistent with the debt-overhang and crowding-out literature, the study reveals a negative significant influence of external debt on economic growth in Cameroon. Results also reveal that there is a positive and significant direct effect of public investment on economic growth in the long run. Further results indicate that public investment and external debt positively and significantly engender economic growth. This is evidence that public investment is modulating the effect of external debt on economic growth in Cameroon. These findings suggest the need for developing country governments to create an enabling environment for private sector development, while accompanying external debt resources with domestic revenue mobilization by broadening the tax base - taxes on landed property being potential candidates

Relationship Between Exchange Rate and Stock Market Volatilities in India

With increasing globalisation and integration of national stock exchanges, for the global investor, the portfolio risk increases not only from the local stock market volatility but also in the exchange rate risk. This paper examines the exchange rate volatility effect on volatility in stock market return from India’s perspective for the period January 2010 to December 2015, applying ARCH and GARCH estimation. The daily data of the BSE SENSEX returns, exchange rates of US dollar/rupee, British pound/rupee, Euros/rupee are used. It is estimated that the Euro/rupee exchange rate volatility has a significant positive effect on the BSE SENSEX return volatility, while the effect of the US dollar/rupee and British pound/rupee exchange rate the volatilities are insignificantly negative. The larger GARCH parameter over the ARCH term indicates that the own lagged values of the stock return cause more volatility in stock returns than the innovations. There exists a highly persistent effect of shocks to the BSE SENSEX return and the volatility effect wanes only slowly

Credit Risk Management and Sub-Standard Loans of Commercial Banks in Nigeria: A Panel Data Analysis

This study examined the effect of credit risk management on sub-standard loan portfolio of quoted commercial banks in Nigeria. Cross sectional data was sourced from financial statement of commercial banks and Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical bulletin from 2009-2018. Sub-standard portfolio was used as dependent variable while bank risk diversification, Basel risk compliance, risk transfer were used as independent variables. Panel data methodology was employed while the fixed effects model was used as estimation technique at 5% level of significance. Fixed effects, random effects and pooled estimates were tested while the Hausman test was used to determine the best fit. Panel unit roots and panel cointegration analysis were conducted on the study. The empirical results proved that 41.7 per cent variations in the sub-sub-standard loans’ portfolio was explained by credit risk management. From the random effect results, bank risk transfer and Basel compliance have positive relationship with sub-standard loan portfolio while risk bank risk diversification have negative relationship with sub-stand ad loan portfolio of the commercial banks. We recommend that management of the commercial banks should be pro-active and devise effective measures of managing credit risk to reduce the incidence of sub-standard loans. The monetary authority should monitor the Basel compliance rate and policies of the commercial banks to credit risk management

Description of Colombian Electricity Pricing Derivatives

Electricity markets are becoming a popular field of research amongst academics because of the lack of appropriate models for describing electricity price behavior and pricing derivatives instruments. Models for price dynamics must consider seasonality and spiky behavior of jumps which seem hard to model by standard jump process. Without good models for electricity price dynamics, it is difficult to think about good models for futures, forward, swaps and option pricing. In this paper we attempt to introduce an algorithm for pricing derivatives to intuition from Colombian electricity market. The main ambition of this study is fourfold: 1) First we begin our approach through to simple stochastic models for electricity pricing. 2) Next, we derive analytical formulas for prices of electricity derivatives with different derivatives tools. 3) Then we extent short of the model for price risk in the electricity spot market 4) Finally we construct the model estimation under the physical measures for Colombian electricity market. And this paper end with conclusion.

Challenges on Taxi Management in Kathmandu Valley

Taxi as a means of transportation has been emerging as a handy option for people of any age for any occasion if they need to travel. Thus, this study aims to analyze challenges on taxi management in Kathmandu valley, Nepal, from the perspective of taxi drivers. A descriptive method is applied in the survey, and qualitative analysis is made among 386 taxi drivers of Kathmandu valley. The study's findings revealed that 77% of taxi drivers face challenges in the valley. Significant challenges arise from increasing private vehicles and easy access to public transportation, emergence of online vehicle service providers, government rules and regulations, and parking difficulties. Therefore, the study concludes that policymakers and responsible authorities should consider the strategy to improvise the overall taxi management system in the valley. This study can be useful to concerned authorities in taxi management services to make strategies for the betterment and to mitigate the challenges in the field. If the taxi management system got effective, that would be encouragement for other vehicle management.

Trivariate Modelling of the Nexus Between Financial Development, Globalization and Economic Growth: Insight from African Countries

Financial development has been identified as main drivers of economic growth. However, empirical probe of this nexus remains inconclusiveness due use of an inappropriate proxy by previous studies, and the inability of previous studies to consider globalization in this nexus. To this end, we probe the finance-growth nexus in the presence of globalization by applying the Pooled Mean Group (PMG) estimator to a sample of 21 countries spanning 1990–2017. The empirical results affirm the supply-leading hypothesis which indicates that financial development spur economic growth. In addition, our estimate provides evidence of a positive linear relationship between globalization and economic growth. Further, results indicate that physical capital investment plays an important role in accelerating economic performance of African economies. Based on these findings, it is important for African countries to promote globalization-financial development policies in order to have access to alternative sources of external financing and attract foreign investment that can spur growth of African countries.

Renewable Energy Consumption and Sectoral Based Output

The study explores the effect of renewable energy consumption on sectoral output in the presence of government effectiveness. A regressions method was used to analyze data from 1989 to 2019. The result revealed evidence of the positive and vital impact of renewable energy consumption on the sectoral output of the manufacturing and construction sectors. Although the elasticity of government effectiveness is neutral, trade openness has revealed evidence of positive and significant impact on sectoral outputs. However, population growth does not have a favourable impact on sectoral outputs. Furthermore, renewable energy consumption is not essential in determining the agricultural sector, transportation sector and other sectors. To quickly diversify the economy, policymakers should further increase awareness and provide more incentives for renewable energy in these sectors

Use of Force Account Procurement Method for Development of Small and Medium Contracting Firms in Mbeya

The study investigates on the value of using force account procurement method in development of small and medium contracting firms. To explicitly reveal what is behind the scene three objectives were formulated which were:-to examine the features of force account in procurement undertakings; to determine the value behind force account procurement method in procurement process towards development of SME and; to assess the bottleneck over effective enforcement of force account policy. The target population being (30) contractors, engineers and technicians employed with TANROADs, TARURA, TANESCO, and REA and those self employed (37) in Mbeya. Snow ball sampling technique was used to obtain a total of 67 respondents deduced. The semi-structured intereview and checklists schedules being used to gather the facts then descriptively and through the use of simple frequencies and percentage the reality was revealed:- force accounts involves local contractors by 100% executing contracts defined under force account policy to its end. Moreover force account is 100% local community participation procurement regularities; force account increases competence (70%); experience (66%) and financial capacitating (59%) of local contractors. Furthermore it was revealed that though projects assigned under force account are to be executed by indigenous contractors by 100% but from the field area it was found only 50% to be sustained. This gap of >50% of contracts under force account none executed was revealed to be caused by technical deficiency given the wilks’ lambda, λ<0.9; management incompetence given -X<5.0 and δ2>0.05; cases over (unethical practices reported >60%; financial difficulties >54.7%; and tax burden >60%).