Vol. 4 No. 8 (2012)

This study introduces the emergence of behavioral finance (BF) and behavioral portfolio theory (BPT). BF research dives the conventional suppositions of projected value optimization with coherent investors in proficient enjoinments. There are two major component of BF which are “way of people’s thinking” (cognitive approach) and “when markets will be incompetent” (arbitrage limits). Behavioral portfolio theory describes investor’s behavior, how they divide their wealth into portfolio mental account’s layers (MAL) parallel of their ambitions. The development of BF study has stimulated due to the incapability of conventional structure to explore several pragmatic models.

This paper employs ECM approach to investigate the long run and short-run components of the broad money demand function in Mauritius for the period spanning from 2000 to 2009. To the author’s best knowledge, no study has been undertaken over broad money in Mauritius since 1992, with an update being long overdue. Results show that M2 is positively elastic with respect to GDP, with the elasticity coefficient revolving around 2.80%, clearly showing that Mauritius is not endowed with a fully developed financial system with monetization moving faster than output. The low adjustment coefficient for VECM furthers substantiates the fact that there is indeed a lack of alternative assets to M2 and above all fully justifies the transition from monetary targeting to interest rate targeting. Evidence is found in favor of foreign asset substitution but only through the exchange rate channel. Findings further show that the local stock market does not act as a substitute to local money holdings. Overall, the study points out a rather stable demand for money function in Mauritius so that the monetary authority can contemplate using it as a complementary tool but chiefly for long-run policy assessments.

This research paper aims to examine the impact of zakat distribution on growth in the Federal Territory Malaysia. Specifically, an econometric study is carried out to examine the ability of zakat expenditure to affect real economic growth in the Federal Territory Malaysia by employing various econometric procedures such as the unit root tests, the cointegration tests, the vector error-correction model (VECM), and the Granger causality tests. The findings of the study suggest that zakat expenditure has a positive relationship with real GDP in the long-run. The Granger causality test indicates that zakat spending causes real economic growth with no feedback. In other words, zakat expenditure could boost GDP in the Federal Territory Malaysia both in the short-run and long-run.

We analyze the daily returns on 63 real estate investment trusts (REITs) that comprise five US Small Cap REIT indices, and test for weak-form efficiency by estimating the Hurst exponent and fractal dimension. Fourteen of the 63 firms (or roughly 22% of the firms studied) fail to exhibit weak-form efficiency, based on Classical Rescaled Range Analysis. Two additional self-affine fractal analysis techniques (Roughness-Length and Variogram analyses) provide some support for this finding. In particular, it is found that a majority of the series for which weak-form efficiency is rejected are anti-persistent, with estimated Hurst exponents below 0.50.These results are further confirmed by Lo’s (1991) modified rescaled range analysis, which reveals significant memory at long lags. Overall, the results suggest inefficient pricing for a significant subset of REITs, with important implications for trading and for the modeling of REIT returns. .Some aspects of their returns behavior warrant further study.

As the Taiwanese government gradually opens up the country’s banking sector in recent years, the number of financial institutions of Taiwan has increased rapidly. Until the end of January 2010, the number of the domestic banks is up to 37, the average number of the customers served in each branch is less than 4,000. As all banks wish to be more competitive in such an environment, new advertising and marketing skills are taken. New banking services and technology are also provided in order to attract more customers. The study aims to discuss the relationship among three aspects including the Electronic Customer Relationship Management, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Loyalty, and we choose Bank Sinopac users as subject. In addition, the following results are concluded by statistics and analysis: 1. Using e-CRM had obvious on the customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. 2. Customer satisfaction had obvious on the customer loyalty.

Sustainable consumption indicates preferring products that do the least damage to the environment as well as those that support ethical behavior. Therefore, this study refers and combines ethical and green issues to get a more holistic understanding of consumers’ sustainable practices. The authors examine the green and ethical purchases of consumers in an exploratory and cross-national base. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were carried out with 48 American and Turkish consumers. Results reveal that both Turkish and American consumers believe that greenness is a part of ethical behavior and convert their knowledge of corporate ethics into ethical purchase. American consumers have been aware of green issues much longer than Turkish consumers have.