The issue of food and the provision of society's needs have a priority in the Egyptian economic policy. Therefore, the state tends to import large quantities of these commodities annually from the global market to bridge the gap between consumption and domestic production. This study focuses on determining the main factors that affect Egyptian food imports during the period 1990–2019, using a Vector Error-Correction Model (VECM) that will help policymakers use the appropriate monetary, fiscal, and trade tools to manage Egypt’s food imports and decrease the import cost. The empirical results revealed that the most important factors' effects on Egypt's food imports are population growth and inflation rate, but imported food prices and GDP per capita have an effect only in the long run. On the other hand, there are no significant effects of the foreign reserves, exchange rate, and agricultural production on food imports.

Climate change has adverse effect on agricultural production in developing countries, especially in those with low incomes and a high rate of hunger and poverty. Although the agricultural sector will be costly to adapt to climate change, it is essential to achieving food security. This study aims to analysis the impact of climate change on agriculture and adaptation mechanisms in Egypt during the period (1980:2018) using Autoregressive Distributed Lags Model (ARDL). The empirical results inferred that most of the variables are insignificant in the short-run. In the long run, the empirical results revealed that the impact of climate change on agricultural production, including the emissions of carbon dioxide and temperature, is positive. Hence, even if the impact of the rain variable is negative, but its value is low, and then Egypt has not entered a critical or dangerous stage. On the other hand, the results indicated that the research directed at increasing productivity and developing new varieties more compatible with climate changes is insufficient. Even if the research is available, the Egyptian farmer does not use it due to lack of agricultural Extension. For mechanical and chemical technology effect, the long-run coefficient of Fertilizers is insignificant. The long-run coefficient of the number of tractors is negative and significant, while rural population coefficient is positive and significant. This means that Egyptian agriculture is more dependent on manpower than mechanical technology

PurposeThis study focuses on forecasting the price of the most important export crops of vegetables and fruits in Egypt from 2016 to 2030.Design/methodology/approachThe study applied generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) model and autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model.FindingsThe results show that ARIMA (1,1,1), ARIMA (2.1,2), ARIMA (1,1,0), ARIMA (1,1,2), ARIMA (0,1,0) and ARIMA (1,1,1) are the most appropriate fitted models to evaluate the volatility of price of green beans, tomatoes, onions, oranges, grapes and strawberries, respectively. The results also revealed the presence of ARCH effect only in the case of Potatoes, hence it is suggested that the GARCH approach be used instead. The GARCH (1,1) is found to be a better model in forecasting price of potatoes.Originality/valueThe study of food price volatility in developing countries is essential, since a significant share of household budgets is spent on food in these economies, so forecasting agricultural prices is a substantial requirement for drawing up many economic plans in the fields of agricultural production, consumption, marketing and trade.

Quality of service is a major competitive advantage within the tourism industry and cruise liners are no exception. In recent years, the Asian-Pacific company Star Cruises has striven to strengthen and retain the loyalty of its customer base in an increasingly challenging market. This study aims to look at the interface between Star Cruises' service quality dimensions and customer satisfaction level by analyzing data on one of its ships, the Super Star Libra, with its homeport in Penang, Malaysia. An adapted version of the SERVQUAL model was used by the researchers to evaluate the quality of service and customer satisfaction aboard the Libra, as was a questionnaire, whose instruments were developed from past studies. 102 questionnaires were given out to and collected from passengers who had ridden aboard the Super Star Libra. Results indicated that service quality dimensions such as tangibility, responsiveness, reliability, assurance, and empathy had a significant bearing on customer satisfaction. The latter also helped determine which cruise customers would prefer to spend their vacations on in the future. The outcome of this research provides useful guidelines for cruises that intend to capitalize on the quality of their service to both maintain the satisfaction of their existing customers and attract more potential customers going forward.

The current study aimed to investigate the factors affecting investment decision making. Moreover, the moderating effects of age, gender, and financial information were also tested. The study utilized a quantitative research design for that the data was collected using a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was sent to 570 individuals out of that 374 questionnaires were returned however 372 of the questionnaires were found to be useable. The study framework had 6 constructs namely heuristics, financial information, corporate governance, risk aversion, and experience were independent variables while investment decision making was dependent variable while age, gender and financial education were moderating variables. All the latent construct were measured using multi items based on 5 point Likert scales from 1 strongly disagree to 5 strongly disagree. The results found the Heuristics, Risk Aversion, Financial Information, Corporate Governance and Experience to be significant factors affecting the investment decision making. Moreover, the moderating effect of gender was found to be significant in the relationship of (financial information, corporate governance, and experience) and investment decision making. The moderating effect of age was found to be significant in the relationship of (Heuristics, Corporate Governance, and Experience) and investment decision making while the moderating role of financial education was found to be significant in the relationship of (financial information, corporte governance and experience) and investment decision making.