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The purpose this study is to investigate national innovation systems (NIS) using Porter’s Diamond model (PDM) by examining the five founding member nations of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, for the period 2010-2014 (WCY 2015, WDI 2015).

PDM of competitiveness helps us understanding a nation’s competitive position in world trade. In exploring the empirical relationship between NISs and PDM, a non-parametric approach has been applied using the Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI). This study focused on representing the PDM in a simplified manner and endeavored to understand NIS more rigorously through PDM. The study has used several innovation input-output variables to investigate the efficiency and productivity of the countries concerned. The accuracy of the study has been enhanced by the use of MPI.

PDM is found efficacious in the practice and strengthening of NIS in the context of these countries’ competitiveness. This study found unchanged Total Factor Productivity (TFP) for Philippines, Singapore and Thailand; that is technological progress is yet to be obtained. Indonesia lags both in technical and technological progress. On the other hand, Malaysia is found to be over-using the existing input-output factors of NIS.

Many authors have attempted to measure competitiveness and NIS separately in the context of ASEAN or other South-East Asian countries. However, as yet, no empirical investigation has been conducted to assess the competitiveness of a nation by applying NIS-based analysis according to PDM.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the link between trade diversion risk and new Halal market exploration.

This paper analyzes the Halal trade flows for Malaysia’s top 11 halal food/food-related commodities from 1967 to 2018 by relying on co-integration and auto-regression techniques.

This paper determines that the greater the country’s current comparative advantage in an exported good, the higher the risk of export diversion between the Halal and conventional markets. The diversion risk, however, disappears with a lower current comparative advantage.

To take advantage of the fast-emerging Halal market, a country should expand export of commodities with relatively low current comparative advantage but high demand in the target market, along with supportive trade policies to build competitiveness in the long term.

This study fills the gap in the literature by investigating if the theory of comparative advantage can predict the market diversification risk that may arise from the expansion of exports to the Halal market occurring alongside existing exports to the conventional market.

The recent interconnection and trade of electricity between NSW and Victoria is likely to exacerbate any misallocation of resources due to inefficient pricing. The aim of this article is to investigate the likely divergence between electricity generation costs using current market prices of coal and natural gas, and those when coal and natural gas are priced efficiently. To do so, the paper applies the concept of full social cost pricing to five different generation technologies in the two states. It concludes that the current movement to privatisation and interconnection in the electricity sector, while it may promote pricing closer to marginal private costs, will not result in efficient outcomes in the presence of external costs and the different tax regimes which currently apply to each generation fuel and in each state.

The Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) model has been used to claim that genetically modified (GM) crops have substantial positive welfare potential for sub‐Saharan Africa. The purpose of this paper is to critically examine these claims with a view to seeing if this type of modelling provides any meaningful basis for agricultural policy recommendations.

One particular study is examined to show that because any possible negative effects of GM foods are ignored, optimistic assumptions are made about increases in productivity and trade, and selective scenarios are used, the modelling must, perforce, result in positive welfare effects.

It is found that, because of the assumptions of the study and the restricted scenarios investigated, all the modelling can do is estimate the size of the supposedly positive benefits. A negative outcome is not possible.

It is argued that the GTAP model is inappropriate for sub‐Saharan Africa and that the sweeping conclusions from this type of stylised modelling trivialize the complex poverty and socio‐economic problems of sub‐Saharan Africa.

It is demonstrated that, in this case, the GTAP model is not only redundant, but also can yield risky policy recommendations for sub‐Saharan Africa as it affects not only the livelihoods of millions of poor Africans but the ecological balance, biodiversity and economic independence of these nations.

YOU WILL HAVE seen, no doubt, recent announcements that my wife and I have sold our book‐publishing business of Clive Bingley Ltd to the Munich‐based firm of international reference publishers, Verlag Dokumentation.

IT IS BY direction of NLW'S Subscription Department—to whom I have the good fortune to have been married for nigh on 16 years—that I open my first column of the new year with a lot of gubbins about subscriptions and their administration. Do please read it and, if appropriate, take action, or I'll never hear the end of it.

Posits that library public relations are concerned with effective management of communication between the library organization and its public. Suggests that, because of this fact the goodwill of elected community representatives is an important factor in the maintenance of a library's wellbeing. Examines some methods by which this has, or might be achieved. Concludes that the long‐term survival of public library services may well depend on the ability to present them to our political rulers in an effective and persuasive way.

WITH A PICKET LINE on the front door of Islington Town Hall where the meeting of June 12 was being held, Council might have been denuded of its NALGO members, but there did not seem any numerical difference made to the attendance and the President assured everyone present that they were not really blacklegs!