Time series models are promising tools for forecasting commodity prices. However, their applications to guide producers in agricultural investments and marketing decisions are still limited. This article compares the ARIMA and Holt-Winters Exponential Smoothing models in terms of forecasting the monthly wholesale rice price in Tanzania. Even with very little difference, the Holt-Winters additive model showed the best results for forecasting rice prices compared to the ARIMA model. Thus, both mod...

Business Finance and Investment  Economics 

The study presents an empirical analysis to investigate the effect of export volume and significant factors on PM2.5 emissions in the highest concentrations of air pollution provinces in China during 1998-2015. This paper proposes a spatial econometric model based on an extended Stochastic Impact by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology (STIRPAT) model. The results revealed evidence that spatial spillover effects of PM2.5 emissions exist among major provinces. Provinces in the nort...

Environmental Economics  Economics  International Economics 

The economic meltdown and infrastructure decay in Zimbabwe over the past two decades has been strongly attributed to the absence of public-private sector partnerships amid political decay. The rapid intervention by government in the last two years to undertake PPPs has been more pronounced in road network re-construction although not so many projects have been done to date. The financing model of these PPPs has taken centre stage hence the main objective of this research is to evaluate the effec...

Economics 

Small-Scale Mining (SSM) predates Large-Scale Mining (LSM) in Ghana but was relegated to the background in the 1980s following the Economic Reforms and Structural Adjustment Programmes which heavily liberalized the mining sector. Conversely, the small-scale mining sector continues to boom attracting a large chunk of the labour force in the mining sector. The small-scale mining sector has affected the livelihoods of several thousands of people especially those living in mining communities across ...

Economics 

As the salary rise for teachers has been an on-going issue, the researchers studied the spending habits of the teaching personnel and their reasons in borrowing money from financing institutions. This study was conducted in twenty-two public schools in Palayan City with a total of one hundred seventy-seven teaching personnel as respondents. Descriptive research was used in this study through survey questionnaire and interview method in order to reveal the relationship between variables and to an...

Behavioral Economics  Sociology  Social Issues And Public Policy  Socioeconomics  Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility  Marketing  Economics  Consumer Behavior  Psychology  Education  Business and Economics Education  Marketing Theory and Applications 

Saving is the important variable in achieving financial security and growth affecting both individual and national wellbeing. However, saving level in Ethiopia specifically in rural areas is limited and less is known empirically about its factors. The general objective of this study was to characterize choice and determinants of saving in rural households’ of the study area. To examine this general objective, the study employed descriptive statistics and Econometric model. Both primary and secon...

Economics 

This study explores the current situation of leisure needs, leisure participation, and leisure barriers of family caregivers with intellectual disabilities, and then analyzes the differences between the different background characteristics of each facet and the correlation between facets. According to the difference analysis, the most important leisure needs were psychological needs, physiological needs and achievement needs. The participation frequency of leisure activities of family caregivers...

Sociology  Economics 

In Namibia, most health care facilities have not been yielding good results in response to patients’ health care needs. Health care systems are becoming more complex with paradoxical challenges resulting into inefficiencies due to ever increasing science and knowledge in medicine, which makes it difficult to internalise and understand, as well as to implement certain procedures. The study explored and found that research indicates that total quality management (TQM) and continual quality improve...

Economics 

The paper was conducted to analyze different factors influencing clients’ choice of insurance companies. Insurance is essential for peace of mind, however, clients should be cautious when choosing insurers to avoid future disappointments. Clients should also be aware of fake agents, misrepresentation of information, fraud and coercion by agents and brokers. The main objective of this paper was to identify the factors that drive clients’ preferences in selecting insurance companies, whilst the se...

Economics 

The in-depth integration of culture and tourism in the 21st century has brought great opportunities and brand-new challenges to the advancement of museums. Taking Shanghai Museum and Hamburg Museum of History as examples, this paper explored how these museums, as one of the most traditional modes of cultural tourism integration, innovated public services concept and applied service marketing strategies in the differing Chinese and German cultural contexts through official website comparison and ...

Culture  Economics