An Investigation into the Farm Households Consumption Patterns in Punjab, Pakistan

In the present study, the consumption data of paddy and wheat growing farm households were analysed using the Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) model, incorporating the household composition in addition to the usual price/income variables. Although the general restrictions of demand theory were rejected, the overall results were not seriously out of line of a priori expectations. All the own-price elasticities were negative and most of them were significant. Paddy and wheat were found to be gross complements in consumption whereas meat and pulses emerged as gross substitutes. Dairy products and meat were regarded as luxuries by the sample farm households and expenditure on these items was curtailed in response to any addition to household size. Significant quantitative dietary impacts were found associated with change in the age composition of farm households. A more detailed analysis of consumption behaviour of rural families may be merited; this may explore alternative groupings of consumption goods, additional socio-economic factors or use of panel data.

Adoption and Impacts of Zero-Tillage in the Rice-Wheat Zone of Irrigated Punjab, Pakistan

This study documents the adoption and impacts of zero-tillage (ZT) wheat in the ricewheat systems of Pakistan’s Punjab province primarily drawing on a detailed empirical survey of 458 rice-wheat farmers. Our random stratified sample revealed 19% to be ZT wheat adopters and a similar share of the wheat area in the surveyed communities to be under ZT. The study suggests that diffusion has stagnated and also flags the issue of disadoption (14%). ZT adopters, non-adopters, and disadopters differ significantly in terms of their resource bases, with adopters typically showing the most favorable values. ZT drastically reduces tractor operations in farmers’ ZT wheat fields from an average of 8 passes to a single pass, implying a saving of 7 tractor hours and 35 liters of diesel per hectare. ZT did not have any significant effect on the mean farmer estimated wheat yield of 3.3 tons per hectare. ZT also had no significant effect on water productivity for wheat or spillover effect on the subsequent rice crop. ZT primarily appears to be a cost-saving technology for wheat in Pakistan’s Punjab. Based on these findings, the study provides a number of recommendations for research and development in Pakistan Punjab’s rice-wheat systems.Wheat, Rice, Agricultural development, Drilling equipment, Economic analysis, Innovation adoption, Farming systems, Cropping patterns, Production costs, Zero tillage, Pakistan, Crop Production/Industries, E16, F08,

Do heavily-unionized companies compensate their CEOs less in periods of financial distress? Evidence from Canadian companies during the financial crisis.

This paper studies the strategic interaction between employee stakeholders, in particular labor unions, and top management, and evaluates the effect of the two parties’ inherent competitive rent-seeking behavior on CEO pay. Using a panel of firms listed on the S&P/TSX composite index, this paper finds that CEO compensation withstood the financial crisis despite lower and even negative corporate performance. Further, heavily-unionized companies were associated with higher CEO pay in terms of non-equity elements such as salary and pension allocations. The presence of unions had no observed effect in reducing bonuses, stock options, and restricted stock units. These findings have implications for the debate on income inequality, and the power of unions to bring about change

Consensus as a Nash Equilibrium of a Dynamic Game

Consensus formation in a social network is modeled by a dynamic game of a prescribed duration played by members of the network. Each member independently minimizes a cost function that represents his/her motive. An integral cost function penalizes a member's differences of opinion from the others as well as from his/her own initial opinion, weighted by influence and stubbornness parameters. Each member uses its rate of change of opinion as a control input. This defines a dynamic non-cooperative game that turns out to have a unique Nash equilibrium. Analytic explicit expressions are derived for the opinion trajectory of each member for two representative cases obtained by suitable assumptions on the graph topology of the network. These trajectories are then examined under different assumptions on the relative sizes of the influence and stubbornness parameters that appear in the cost functions.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figure, Pre-print from the Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Signal Image Technology and Internet-based Systems (SITIS), 201

Strategi Peningkatan UMKM terhadap Pembangunan Ekonomi Kota Medan (Studi Kasus: UMKM Komunitas Kelembagaan Tangan di Atas (Tda) Kota Medan)

Usaha Mikro, Kecil dan Menengah (UMKM) tetap bertahan dan sangat berkontribusi terhadap Pembangunan Ekonomi di Indonesia. Krisis moneter yang terjadi di Indonesia yang terjadi di tahun 1997 tidak membuat UMKM mengalami permasalahan namun memberikan solusi terbaik untuk menstabilkan perekonomian. Peningkatan UMKM dapat menjadi suatu cara yang sangat efektif untuk menciptakan kemandirian suatu bangsa dan bisa melepaskan ketergantungan dari segala permasalahan dan membantu pemerintah dalam mewujudkan kemakmuran. Dalam mewujudkan kemakmuran, kumpulan kelembagaan pengusaha diharapkan akan meningkatkan strategi yang bisa menyelesaikan segala permasalahan UMKM dan beberapa dari anggota yang terhimpun juga bisa memberikan saran dan kritik membangun untuk bisa menjadikan konsep bisnis bisa menjadi lebih bagus dan pertemuan yang dilaksanakan bertajuk mentoring, seminar hingga gathering, bisa mempertemukan dari semua kalangan di Kota Medan baik dari pemerintah Kota Medan, Akademisi, Komunitas Bisnis dan masyarakat umum untuk bisa menciptakan semangat pembaharu (cracker) yang tentunya bisa menjadi kontribusi penting terhadap pembangunan ekonomi di Kota Medan

Information needs and access of Members of Vigilante in Adamawa State, North -East Nigeria

ABSTRACT The study investigated the Information needs and access of Members of Vigilante in Adamawa state, North-eastern Nigeria, one of the three states bedeviled by the Boko Haram insurgency. Quantitative research methodology and Cross-sectional survey design was applied for the study. The population of the study comprised of One Thousand Four Hundred Members (1400) drawn from Nineteen (19) local governments areas in the state. Krejcie and Morgan Table (1970) was used to draw (302) members as sample of the population, while Walpole’s (1982) formula for proportions was used in arriving at a sample for each stratum (i.e. each local government area). In collecting data, a total of Three Hundred and Two (302) copies of questionnaires were administered, and Two Hundred and Forty 240 copies (79.47%) were returned and found useful. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The outcome of the study revealed that the information needs of members were daily mainly work related and from informal sources, as there were no public libraries/information centers in 17 local governments’ areas of the state. The outcome of the research also revealed barriers to information access to include general lack of formal information infrastructure such as libraries/information centers, poor and unreliable informal information sources, as well as lack of training on information literacy skills for members of Vigilante. It is recommended that there is a need for those involved in vigilante information delivery to continuously examine and identify evolving information needs of members of vigilante in order to meet such needs. Government should resuscitate the dying public libraries in all the local government areas of Adamawa state to provide information services. Libraries should organize training on information literacy and other information use skills for members of vigilante, because if this is done, it will enhance and improve information access across communities in Adamawa state. Finally, information resources be repackaged in order to take care of challenges of proximity to sources of information, language barrier and other challenges faced by members of vigilante

Koeksistensi Konsep Makna Simbolik Rumah Kaum Kaomu (Malige) dengan Kantor Dispenda Kota Baubau

Kenyataan diberbagai kota besar di dunia memang menunjukkan gejala kian lunturnya jatidiri akibat bermunculannya karya-karya arsitektur moderen. Penelitian ini bertujuan mengkaji dan mengidentifikasi koeksistensi rumah kaum Kaomu (Malige) dengan Kantor Dispenda. Penelitian ini dilaksanakan di Kota Baubau Kabupaten Buton Sulawesi Tenggara. Jenis penelitian ini adalah kualitatif dengan pendekatan kausal komparatif terhadap rumah kaum Kaomu dengan kantor Dispenda. Penelitian ini disimpulkan bahwa koeksistensi konsep makna simbolik antara rumah kaum Kaomu (Malige) dengan kantor Dispenda ada dan sudah dimodifikasi

PENGARUH NET PROFIT MARGIN, RETURN ON INVESTMENT, DAN EARNING PER SHARE TERHADAP RETURN SAHAM PADA INDUSTRI ROKOK YANG TERDAFTAR DI BURSA EFEK INDONESIA

Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui pengaruh Net Profit Margin (NPM), Return On Investment (ROI), dan Earning Per Share (EPS) terhadap Return Saham. Penelitian dilakukan dengan menggunakan objek pada perusahaan rokok yang terdaftar di Bursa Efek Indonesia pada periode 2012 sampai 2016. Metode pada penelitian ini menggunakan analisis regresi linier berganda, dimana terdapat uji asumsi klasik dan uji kelayakan model yang juga perlu dilakukan. Pengambilan sampel dilakukan dengan menggunakan metode purposive sampling. Data yang digunakan diambil dari laporan kinerja keuangan pada tahun 2012-2016. Berdasarkan pengujian yang dilakukan dengan menggunakan analisis Uji t menyatakan bahwa variabel Net Profit Margin (NPM) dan Return On Invesment (ROI) yang tidak berpengaruh terhadap return saham, dan hanya Earning Per Share (EPS) yang berpengaruh terhadap return saham pada perusahaan rokok yang terdaftar di Bursa Efek Indonesia untuk periode 2012 sampai 201