C.H. Ponnu, T.N. Ramakrishnan
This study evaluates the management of non-performing loans (NPLs) of banking institutions in Malaysia surrounding the East Asian crisis in 1997. The study aims to determine if the level of NPLs has declined and the asset quality has improved since the 1997–1998 crisis. In addition, it also aims to evaluate the effectiveness of Danaharta, Malaysia's national asset management company, in addressing the NPL problem in banking institutions of Malaysia. The trend of gross NPL
ratios and percentage of total loan provisions, the ageing of NPLs and the percentage of NPLs restructured and disposed were some of the indicators used on the secondary data collected from Bank Negara Malaysia and Danaharta. Results show that the level of NPLs has declined since the 1997–1998 crisis. In addition, a less volatile rate of change in the NPL ratios after year 1998, and the decline in NPL ratios along with a decline in total NPL provisions after year 1999 suggests that
better prudential practices on NPLs are followed and asset quality in banking institutions has been improving after the 1997–1998 crisis. Danaharta has been effective in reducing the level of NPLs in banking institutions but less effective in disposing the NPLs acquired.

D. Zdolsek, T. Jagric
Several prior research studies have presented a model for audit opinion identification using a chosen combination of the company's accounting ratios as derived from financial statements. However, from the methodological viewpoint, there is one questionable issue: the appropriate performance evaluation of developed model taking into account auditors' subjective preferences. In the present study, a model for identification of qualified audit opinions using logistic regression is developed and validated using ROC curves and AUC values in combination with misclassification costs as performance criterion. Considering auditors' subjective preferences the model's performance results based on these performance criteria are adequate.

Theory and evidence have been pointed out the negative effect of natural resources abundance and specialization on economic growth. On the contrary, recent empirical evidence has pointed out the inexistence of this negative effect. In this article we show using panel data analysis and recent data that the effect does not exist. However, we show that variations in natural resources specializations and their slopes can decrease economic growth.

In this article authors analyze the potential profits of online advertising services. Social networking sites were chosen for analysis due to their high popularity and world- or at least countryrange. Authors focus on a specific group of Internet users – disabled people and their influence on profits from online advertising. Legal aspects of adjusting the accessibility is also discussed.

In this paper we seek to examine the impact of political events on Pakistan's equity market using mathematical calculations rather than judgements. Questionnaires and interviews were used to collect data from historians, economists, politicians, government officials, bankers and stock market analysts in Pakistan. KSE100 index closing figures were extracted in order to monitor movements of stock market before, during and after each event. As data is sparse, several Bayesian hierarchical models and Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) techniques were used in the forecasts in order to overcome difficulties associated with obtaining conjecture within this framework.

The present paper tries to observe the evolution of alarmism since Malthus and its most important end of the world scenarios. For a long time human civilization has been exploiting the resources of the planet. Until the 19th century most of these resources were renewable, after the discovery of coal and later oil we have been confronted with the idea of depletion. Since the 19th century, but mainly in the second half of the 20th century authors from different backgrounds and countries have raised questions regarding the future of human civilization, if tendencies continued.

Of the total population in Turkey 35% lives in rural areas and 26% of total work force is employed in the agricultural sector. In this paper we explore how much employment is sufficient to sustain the current agricultural production level. To this end, labour requirements of crop and livestock production activities and total labour force are calculated and compared with annual employment figures. Then, we estimate the surplus of labour force supply.

Genetically modified (GM) food products are credence goods which remain undetected even after consumption. It is difficult, if not impossible, for consumers to determine whether a GM product has health or safety risks. Thus, GM food continues to advance and new GM food is continuously being developed and diversified with industry globalization, yet stakeholders such as government, food industry and consumers are reluctant to accept GM products comfortably due to its credence nature. In developing and implementing policy and marketing strategies for successful commercialization of a GM product, it is important to assess factors affecting consumers' purchase intention as for GM products.