Studies on the accumulation of international reserves by most of the crisis-hit countries have progressively gained in importance and continue to attract discussion among academics and policy-makers. Furthermore, the unprecedented increase of international reserves among the Asian crisis-hit countries (due to Asian Financial Crisis 1997/98) including Malaysia and the lack of studies on this topic underline the urgency of analyzing this issue. Thus, this paper specifically attempts to shed light on the cost of the joint decision to hold international reserves and external debt after the 1997 Asian financial crisis. The article's main findings are that holding international reserves does confer benefits on the country in terms of lower cost and improves the country's ability to protect itself from sudden shock. The results also suggest that Malaysia should hold international reserves of at least 4.96 months of imports, which is higher than the conventional rule of thumb. However, in its current international reserves position, Malaysia could finance 9.3 months of retained imports, which is too much and far above the optimal level.

This article investigates the existence of credit and housing booms in the Malaysian economy, with high levels of household indebtedness. The results reveal that both the credit boom and the housing boom exist and imply the fragility of the financial sector of the economy. � 2017, Oviedo University Press. All rights reserved.

The purpose of this paper is to re-examine whether mean reversion property hold for 15 emerging stock markets for the period 1985 to 2006. Utilizing a panel stationarity test that is able to account for multiple structural breaks and cross sectional dependence, we find that the emerging stock markets follow a random walk process. However, further analysis on individual series show that the majority of stock prices in emerging markets are governed by a mean reverting process. This result, which is inconsistent with efficient market hypothesis, suggests that past information is useful in predicting future prices in most of the markets.

The objective of this paper is to investigate the relationship between financial and economic uncertainty (risk) and the demand for international reserves. In addition, the association between this relationship and the political risk condition is further analysed for selected emerging economies. By using panels of 20 emerging countries, the empirical results show that the decision by the emerging economies to hold international reserves is largely dependent on the fluctuations in the financial risk indicators. In addition, the interdependency between the demand reserves function and the type of financial risk indicator also varies across countries' political conditions. � 2014 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Objective: The present study aimed to determine the psychological factors that modulate pain perception experienced when a loved one is nearby. Design: This is a within-subjects study design involving two conditions: alone and in the presence of a loved one. Materials and methods: Seventeen right handed female volunteers (mean age: 20.59; SD: 2.85) were recruited. All volunteers were given two sets of questionnaires: (1) Experiences Close Relationship-Relationship Structure (ECR-RS) to assess their attachment types (secure, dismissing, fearful and preoccupied) with respect to 4 accompanying loved ones (parents, sibling, best friend and romantic partner); and (2) Personality Inventory (USMaP-i) to test personality traits in five dimensions: Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, and Openness. Only candidates with 'preoccupied' attachment type were asked to accompany the volunteers during the experiment. Pain threshold was determined by giving volunteers pain stimuli over the dorsum of the right hand using Th:YAG laser with the energies gradually increased until they felt pain. Results: Results from this study revealed that increased pain threshold was seen in those accompanied by their romantic partners and positively correlated with Extraversion type of personality. Conclusion: There is variation in individual responses to pain when a loved one is present which could be dependent on the personality type, current emotions, and type of relationship between the person and the accompanying loved one. � 2019 Japan Health Sciences University & Japan International Cultural Exchange Foundation.

This study is to model the connectivity between activated areas in the brain associated with pain responses in the presence and absence of a loved one. We used Th:YAG laser targeted onto the dorsum of the right hand of 17 Malay-female participants (mean age 20.59; SD 2.85 years) in two conditions: (1) in the absence of a loved one in the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) room (Alone condition), and (2) in the presence of a loved one (Support condition). The laser-induced pain stimuli were delivered according to an fMRI paradigm utilising blocked design comprising 15 blocks of activity and 15 blocks of rest. Brain activations and connectivity were analysed using statistical parametric mapping (SPM), dynamic causal modelling (DCM) and Bayesian model selection (BMS) analyses. Individual responses to pain were found to be divided into two categories: (1) Love Hurts (participants who reported more pain in the presence of a loved one) involved activations in thalamus (THA), parahippocampal gyrus (PHG) and hippocampus (HIP); and (2) Love Heals (participants who reported less pain in the presence of a loved one) involved activations in all parts of cingulate cortex. BMS showed that Love Heals could be represented by a cortical network involving the area of anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), middle cingulate cortex (MCC) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) in the intrinsic connectivity of ACC ? PCC ? MCC and ACC ? MCC. There was no optimal model to explain the increase in pain threshold when accompanied by the loved one in Love Hurts. The present study reveals a new possible cortical network for the reduction of pain by having a loved one nearby.

This paper extends the empirical literature on the relationship between the country risk and the demand for international reserves in selected ASEAN4 economies, namely Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, for the period 1980 to 2006. The empirical findings reveal that the fiscal position and stock of external indebtedness have a huge impact on a country's decision to hold international reserves. In addition, the results also find that Indonesia, a country with the highest risk in terms of economic and financial sectors, has taken corrective measures to deal with any sudden shocks.