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Covid-19 pandemic is a unique and extraordinary situation for the globe, which has potentially disrupted almost all aspects of life. In this global crisis, the tourism and hospitality sector has collapsed in almost all parts of the world, and the same is true for India. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the impact of Covid-19 on the Indian tourism industry.

This study develops an appropriate model to forecast the expected loss of foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs) in India for 10 months. Since the FTAs follow a seasonal trend, seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) method has been employed to forecast the expected FTAs in India from March 2020 to December 2020. The results of the proposed model are then compared with the ones obtained by Holt-Winter's (H-W) model to check the robustness of the proposed model.

The SARIMA model seeks to manifest the monthly arrival of foreign tourists and also elaborates on the progressing expected loss of foreign tourists arrive for the next three quarters is approximately 2 million, 2.3 million and 3.2 million, respectively. Thus, in the next three quarters, there will be an enormous downfall of FTAs, and there is a need to adopt appropriate measures. The comparison demonstrates that SARIMA is a better model than H-W model.

Several studies have been reported on pandemic-affected tourism sectors using different techniques. The earlier pandemic outbreak was controlled and region-specific, but the Covid-19 eruption is a global threat having potential ramifications and strong spreading power. This work is one of the first attempts to study and analyse the impact of Covid-19 on FTAs in India.

This paper aims to estimate a New Keynesian small open economy dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model for Egypt using Bayesian techniques and data for the period FY2004/2005:Q1-FY2015/2016:Q4 to assess monetary and fiscal policy interactions and their impact on economic stabilization. Outcomes of monetary and fiscal authority commitment to policy instruments, interest rate, government spending and taxes, are evaluated using Taylor-type and optimal simple rules.

The study extends the stylized micro-founded small open economy New Keynesian DSGE model, proposed by Lubik and Schorfheide (2007), by explicitly introducing fiscal policy behavior into the model (Fragetta and Kirsanova, 2010 and Çebi, 2011). The model is calibrated using quarterly data for Egypt on key macroeconomic variables during FY2004/2005:Q1-FY2015/2016:Q4; and Bayesian methods are used in estimation.

The results show that monetary and fiscal policy instruments in Egypt contribute to economic stability through their effects on inflation, output and debt stock. The monetary policy Taylor rule estimates reveal that the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) attaches significant importance to anti-inflationary policy and (to a lesser extent) to output targeting but responds weakly to nominal exchange rate variations. CBE decisions are significantly influenced by interest rate smoothing. Egyptian fiscal policy has an important role in output and government debt stabilization. Additionally, the fiscal authority chooses pro-cyclical government spending and counter-cyclical tax policies for output stabilization. Again, past values of the fiscal instruments are influential in the evolution of the future fiscal policy-making process.

A few studies have examined the interaction between monetary and fiscal policy in Egypt within a unified framework. The presented paper integrates the monetary and fiscal policy analysis within a unified dynamic general equilibrium open economy rational expectations framework. Without such a framework, it would not be easy to jointly analyze monetary and fiscal transmission mechanisms for output, inflation and debt. Also, it would be neither possible to contrast the outcome of monetary and fiscal authorities commitment to a simple Taylor instrument rule vis-à-vis optimal policy outcomes nor to assess the behavior of monetary and fiscal agents in macroeconomic stability in context of an active/passive policy decisions framework.

This paper presents economic and economic–statistical designs of the adaptive exponentially weighted moving average (AEWMA) control chart for monitoring the process mean. It also aims to compare the effect of estimated process parameters on the economic performance of three charts, which are Shewhart, exponentially weighted moving average and AEWMA control charts with economic–statistical design.

The optimal parameters of the control charts are obtained by applying the Lorenzen and Vance’s (1986) cost function. Comparisons between the economic–statistical and economic designs of the AEWMA control chart in terms of expected cost and statistical measures are performed. Also, comparisons are made between the economic performance of the three competing charts in terms of the average expected cost and standard deviation of expected cost.

This paper concludes that taking into account the economic factors and statistical properties in designing the AEWMA control chart leads to a slight increase in cost but in return the improvement in the statistical performance is substantial. In addition, under the estimated parameters case, the comparisons reveal that from the economic point of view the AEWMA chart is the most efficient chart when detecting shifts of different sizes.

The importance of the study stems from designing the AEWMA chart from both economic and statistical points of view because it has not been tackled before. In addition, this paper contributes to the literature by studying the effect of the estimated parameters on the performance of control charts with economic–statistical design.

This study aims to assess the effect of updating the Phase I data – to enhance the parameters' estimates – on the control charts' detection power designed to monitor social networks.

A dynamic version of the degree corrected stochastic block model (DCSBM) is used to model the network. Both the Shewhart and exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) control charts are used to monitor the model parameters. A performance comparison is conducted for each chart when designed using both fixed and moving windows of networks.

Our results show that continuously updating the parameters' estimates during the monitoring phase delays the Shewhart chart's detection of networks' anomalies; as compared to the fixed window approach. While the EWMA chart performance is either indifferent or worse, based on the updating technique, as compared to the fixed window approach. Generally, the EWMA chart performs uniformly better than the Shewhart chart for all shift sizes. We recommend the use of the EWMA chart when monitoring networks modeled with the DCSBM, with sufficiently small to moderate fixed window size to estimate the unknown model parameters.

This study shows that the excessive recommendations in literature regarding the continuous updating of Phase I data during the monitoring phase to enhance the control chart performance cannot generally be extended to social network monitoring; especially when using the DCSBM. That is to say, the effect of continuously updating the parameters' estimates highly depends on the nature of the process being monitored.

The study assesses the non-linear nexus between fixed broadband and economic growth. The study focuses on data from 33 African countries for the period 2010 to 2020.

The empirical evidence is based on unit root tests, panel smooth transition regression and the generalized method of moments.

The following findings are established in this study. (1) The proportion of the population with access to electricity above and below which the relationship between fixed broadband and economic growth changes in sign is about 60%. (2) Below this threshold, each 1% increase in fixed broadband subscriptions induces a decline in economic growth of about 2.58%. Above the threshold, economic growth would increase by 2.43% when fixed broadband subscriptions increase by 1%. Sensitivity analyses and generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation show that these results are robust.

Due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, which requires countries to take adequate measures to curb the spread of the pandemic, especially by means of virtual economic activities, any national policy aiming at improving the access of populations to high levels of fixed broadband services should be preceded by the implementation of an electrification program for at least 60% of the total population. Otherwise, providing a good quality internet connection for the benefit of the population would not produce the expected effects on economic growth and would, therefore, be counterproductive.

This study complements the extant literature by providing thresholds at which fixed broadband affects economic growth.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of remelting each layer on the homogeneity of nickel-titanium (NiTi) parts fabricated from elemental nickel and titanium powders using laser powder bed fusion (LPBF). In addition, the influence of manufacturing parameters and different melting strategies, including multiple cycles of remelting, on printability and macro defects, such as pore and crack formation, have been investigated.

An LPBF process was used to manufacture NiTi alloy from elementally blended powders and was evaluated with the use of a remelting scanning strategy to improve the homogeneity of fabricated specimens. Furthermore, both single melt and up to two remeltings were used.

The results indicate that remelting can be beneficial for density improvement as well as chemical and phase composition homogenization. Backscattered electron mode in scanning electron microscope showed a reduction in the presence of unmixed Ni and Ti elemental powders in response to increasing the number of remelts. The microhardness values of NiTi parts for the different numbers of melts studied were similar and ranged from 487 to 495 HV. Nevertheless, it was observed that measurement error decreases as the number of remelts increases, suggesting an increase in chemical and phase composition homogeneity. However, X-ray diffraction analysis revealed the presence of multiple phases regardless of the number of melt runs.

For the first time, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, elementally blended NiTi powders were fabricated via LPBF using remelting scanning strategies.

This paper aims to investigate the reciprocal nonlinear relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and firm performance (FP).

The authors used a sample of 814 European firms over the period 2008–2017. The Panel Smooth Transition Regression (PSTR) model was performed as an econometric approach.

Firstly, results show a threshold effect in the CSR–FP relationships within the two directions. More specifically, the authors found that firms are more likely to engage in CSR by surpassing a threshold of 1.231% for return on assets (ROA) and 0.821% for Tobin’s Q ratio. Secondly, the authors also found that the impact of CSR on FP is positive and significant only if the environment, social and governance score surpasses the threshold of 56.780% when the dependent variable is ROA and 41.02% when Tobin’s Q ratio measures performance.

A significant part of the literature supports the linear relationship between CSR and FP from the unique direction (CSR → FP). This study comes to fill this gap by assessing the possible nonlinear relationship. In addition, this nonlinear relationship is tested under the two directions. Therefore, defining the threshold of FP that allows companies to engage in CSR, on the one hand, and the threshold of engagement in CSR that improves FP, on the other hand, could be an exciting topic.

To get the full benefit from CSR effects, firms should be with better financial performance to be socially responsible.

To the best of our knowledge, few studies have explored the nonlinear relationship between CSR and FP. In addition, this study raises the question of whether this relation is causal. The authors assess the two nonlinear relationships between CSR ? FP and FP ? CSR by determining the optimal thresholds.

本文旨在探究企業社會責任 (以下簡稱企社責) 與公司業績之間的相互非線 性關係。

研究所採用的樣本為814間歐洲公司, 涵蓋期為2008年至2017年。研究人 員使用縱橫平滑轉換模型、作為經濟計量方法和工具去進行研究。

研究結果顯示、在有關的兩個方向內, 企社責與公司業績之間的關聯上是 存在著閾值效應的。更具體地說, 研究人員發現, 若企業的資產報酬率超過1.231%的 水平, 以及托賓的Q比率 (Tobin’s Q Ratio) 0.821%的水平的話, 它們會更願意承擔企 社責。其次, 研究結果亦顯示, 企社責對企業的業績會產生積極的影響; 另外, 只有 當資產報酬率是因變數、而環境、社會和公司治理的分數 (ESGS) 超過56.780%, 以 及當托賓的Q比率用來測量績效、而數值為41.02%時, 企社責對企業的業績所產生的 影響會較為顯著。

過去的學術文獻、大部份都是以唯一的方向 (企社責 ->公司業績) 去確認 企社責與企業業績之間的線性關係。本研究評估了兩者之間可能存在的非線性關係; 而且, 這非線性關係是在有關的兩個方向下而進行測試的; 因此, 本研究一方面給可 讓公司以企社責的精神和理念去營運的企業業績的閾值下了定義; 另一方面, 又給參 與企社責為公司帶來業績的改善的閾值下了定義。這均為令人興奮的課題。

企業若想取得因參與企社責而帶來的完全好處, 它們必須擁有更佳 的財務績效、以能盡其社會責任。

盡我們所知, 探究企社責與企業業績之間的非線性關係的研究實在不 多; 而且, 本研究對這兩者的關係是否是因果關係提出了質疑; 就此, 我們藉著釐定 最佳的相對閾值、來評估企社責 ->企業業績與企業業績 ->企社責之間的兩個非線性的 關係。

The purpose of this paper is to incorporate risk in technical efficiency of ASEAN banks in a panel data framework for the period 2000 to 2015.

The directional distance function and semi-parametric framework are employed to estimate efficiency scores for two scenarios, one with only good outputs and the other with a combination of good and bad outputs.

The findings show there is no evidence of technological progress for banks in ASEAN and concerns about the outperformance of Vietnam’s banks. In addition, performance of Vietnam’s banks tends to be distorted by low level of loan loss reserves.

To reflect the true performance and shorten the period of removing bad assets, the State Bank of Vietnam can request banks in Vietnam to book more loan loss reserves.

By examining such a new approach, this study makes an early attempt to incorporate credit risk into the banking efficiency in ASEAN region.

The study aims to investigate the impact of additive manufacturing (AM) on the performance of a spare parts supply chain with a particular focus on underlying spare part demand patterns.

This work evaluates various AM-enabled supply chain configurations through Monte Carlo simulation. Historical demand simulation and intermittent demand forecasting are used in conjunction with a mixed integer linear program to determine optimal network nodal inventory policies. By varying demand characteristics and AM capacity this work assesses how to best employ AM capability within the network.

This research assesses the preferred AM-enabled supply chain configuration for varying levels of intermittent demand patterns and AM production capacity. The research shows that variation in demand patterns alone directly affects the preferred network configuration. The relationship between the demand volume and relative AM production capacity affects the regions of superior network configuration performance.

This research makes several simplifying assumptions regarding AM technical capabilities. AM production time is assumed to be deterministic and does not consider build failure probability, build chamber capacity, part size, part complexity and post-processing requirements.

This research is the first study to link realistic spare part demand characterization to AM supply chain design using quantitative modeling.

The purpose of the paper is to assess the fiscal sustainability of nine southern African countries that belong to the Southern African Development Community.

In this paper, the author performs a novel time-varying analysis of fiscal sustainability in southern African countries.

The authors found that in Zimbabwe and Namibia, the formal condition of solvency was not fulfilled, resulting in the explosive growth of debt during the recent slowdown. In contrast, Angola, Botswana and Malawi prove to run sustainable fiscal policies, and they were also fiscally invulnerable to the recent unfavourable economic developments in Africa. For the rest of the countries in the sample (Eswatini, Lesotho, South Africa and Zambia), the results are mixed.

In the existing literature, there is abundance of empirical evidence concerning fiscal sustainability in European and American countries. In contrast, there is strikingly little knowledge concerning this phenomenon in African countries. The authors tried to fill this gap using a novel, time-varying approach.