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Transition of Sri Lanka trade; exchange rate effect on bilateral trade of Sri Lanka.

Saman Wickramage1, Anoja Kulathung2

1-Department of Economics, University of Ruhuna, Matara, Sri Lanka

2-Department of Economics, University of Colombo, Colombo 03, Sri Lanka

Using quarterly data from 2000-Q1 to 2014-Q4, this study estimates the long-run cointegration relationships in Sri Lanka’s bilateral real exports, bilateral real imports and bilateral trade balances held with its top 20 trading partners. The objective of this study is to evaluate how differently a given change in exchange rate affects the bilateral trade with Sri Lanka’s major trading partners. We work on the key hypothesis that a given currency devaluation improves Sri Lanka’s bilateral trade with some countries, and deteriorates with some other countries simultaneously, ultimately driving the overall trade balance into deficit. The findings revealed that depreciation / devaluation of Sri Lankan Rupee is likely to boost real exports to 7 countries namely USA, UK, India, Germany, Turkey, Netherland and China while the impact on the remaining 13 countries is insignificant. Those 7 countries share roughly about 51% of total exports of Sri Lanka. Essentially, it would be beneficial to switch the direction of trade towards those 7 countries, particularly towards India and China, when pressure is mounting to depreciate local currency. Sri Lanka has so far seized only a negligibly small portion of those two huge markets in the world. Although currency depreciation / devaluation is beneficial for Sri Lanka in the long-run, except for Hong Kong, South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia, for all other 16 countries, it was proven that an increase in domestic price level of Sri Lanka would cause a downfall in real exports driving trade balance into deficit. This sets a limit to currency devaluation as a policy tool. An improvement in the trade balance through currency devaluation is feasible, only if domestic price level can be controlled.

Key wards;Sri Lanka, Devaluation, Tarde Balance, Exchange rate, Bilateral trade

Authors wish to acknowledge the guidance from Prof. AlfrodHauseman of Oxford University, and the financial support received from IDAS project- Netherland in conducting this research.

A Study on the Level of Social Media Addiction among Sri Lankan Undergraduates

TACJS Bandara1, PABH Amarathuga2, Shamitha Pathiratne3

1- University of Colombo, Sri Lanka

2- Wayamba University, Sri Lanka

3- ESOFT Metro Campus, Sri Lanka

Social Media Addiction has become an increasingly debated issue among experts and social media users studied for well over a decade. With the exordium of formats that sanction users to interact more often then they may have interiorly done, such as Twitter, Facebook, etc., the possibility to become addicted or affixed to social media sites has become more plausible. Does social media addiction subsist? How can such an addiction be diagnosed and treated? In fact, so far very little research has been carried out on the subject. Hence, the objectives of this study are: a) to understand the socio demographic profile of the respondents; and b) to ascertain the calibre of social media addiction among Sri Lankan undergraduates. The researchers used a descriptive research design for the study. While the population consists of a group of 1500 undergraduates studying in a private university in Colombo, a lottery method was employed to select 100 samples from different stratifications on the basis of the degree courses they are following and the batches they belong to. The researchers used a self-prepared questionnaire to collect the data from the respondents. The findings denote that the respondents’ university grades are affected because of the amount of time they spend on chatting. They often stay online longer than they intend, and a very few of them are aware of the consequences of long time chatting in social media and the influence that over addiction in social media has in the undergraduates. In conclusion the study reveals that aspects such as the sex, the source of motivation, the amount spent per month, the primary mode of accessing social media and the time spent per session have an influence over addiction of social media in undergraduates. The researchers suggested that the extortionate utilization of incipient technologies may be concretely addictive to adolescents.

Keywords: addiction, chatting, social media, undergraduates

Authors wish to acknowledge the technical advices from Prof. HamitonPerera of Amsterdam University, and the financial assistance from Asian Development Bank.