The working poor of the world are observed to engage in long hours in hard jobs and to work more if wages are further reduced. Mainstream economics brushes off this tendency to increase labour supply as wages fall as perverse because it does not fit the conventional wisdom and tries to explain it as a result of "subsistence mentality", "limited aspiration", or "target income" behaviour of the poor. This however ignores the observed fact that the poor work long hard hours but most of the time, fail to meet their minimum needs of subsistence and live impoverished lives in absolute poverty deficient of both food and physical rest. This book postulates that the observed behaviour is the result of economic distress the working poor suffer and analyses it as a rational behaviour using the conventional utility maximization framework and derives both theoretical and empirical results consistent with the observation. This book aims to correct a serious misconception persisting in the literature relating to the working-poor labour-supply behaviour that is almost universally observed. It also goes onto develop, using the supply function, a methodology to determine the standard of subsistence income and physical rest for the worker.

This title was first published in 2003. The working poor of the world are observed to engage in long hours in hard jobs and to work more if wages are further reduced. Mainstream economics brushes off this tendency to increase labour supply as wages fall as perverse because it does not fit the conventional wisdom and tries to explain it as a result of "subsistence mentality", "limited aspiration", or "target income" behaviour of the poor. This however ignores the observed fact that the poor work long hard hours but most of the time, fail to meet their minimum needs of subsistence and live impoverished lives in absolute poverty deficient of both food and physical rest. This book postulates that the observed behaviour is the result of economic distress the working poor suffer and analyses it as a rational behaviour using the conventional utility maximization framework and derives both theoretical and empirical results consistent with the observation. This book aims to correct a serious misconception persisting in the literature relating to the working-poor labour-supply behaviour that is almost universally observed. It also goes onto develop, using the supply function, a methodology to determine the standard of subsistence income and physical rest for the worker.

This book contends that high fertility is rational in that it achieves short term economic benefit and long term old age-support for families. Wider macroeconomic effects are not the concern of the individual family. This means that the fertility choices of the poor are not a result of ignorance. The objective of this book is to drive home the fact that it is poverty that is responsible for high fertility and that until the problem of poverty is effectively dealt with the problem of high fertility will continue to persist. The book concludes with a series of policy recommendations for the eradication of poverty.

This descriptive study discussed depression among senior citizens that lived in the Home for the Aged, Darul Takrim (DT), Jamiyah, Singapore. The aim of this study was to identify the level of depression among senior citizens, effect of depression on their emotion and to find out the form of emotional support needed by them in the institution. Depression experienced by senior citizens is due to several factors such as psychological factor, life experience and physiological factor. This study is carried out using quantitative and qualitative approach. 26 subjects have been selected based on random sampling. They consist of 19 male and 7 female. The quantitative research instrument used questionnaires that are made up of two parts: demographic information built by researcher and Zung Depression Self-Rating Scale inventory that was downloaded. The qualitative study using face-to-face interview method was executed after quantitative study findings for level of depression are analysed using the Statistical Packages for the Social Sciences (SPSS Version 16.0 software). Four citizens under the purposive sampling found depressed was interviewed. Results showed that there are some citizens which experience medium depression that required attention in the institution, similarly for the effect of depression on their emotion. From there, the data collected from face-toface interview was analysed based on the feedback given by the subject and were classified according to the three levels: minimum, medium and critical based on researcher's observation. Result analysed showed that emotional effect of senior citizen in DT were critical. Symptoms such as regret, sad, sleep complaints, unable to sleep, feeling useless, and isolation of self, proved its criticality. The analysis of the three characteristics for the Diagnosis of Depressive Disorders in Zung Depression Self-Rating Scale consisting of 'Pervasive Affect' which shows a mean value of 1.652, 'Physiological equivalents' which shows a mean value of 1.673 and 'Psychological equivalents' which shows a mean value of 1.673 concluded that depression among the citizens in the institution is satisfactory. For the forms of emotional support, it was found that social support from the staff and from the institution itself is of high hope. There is also social support from their children and also from some of the residents. This study has also adduced a few suggestions so that the authority from MCYDS/JKM will continue to give their help and support to operators of Home for the Aged in the country.

This research in carried out in order to find out the relationship of emotional intelligence (self awareness, self regulation, self motivation, empathy and social skills) with the level of counselling leadership skills (excellent skills and self development) within counsellor teacher at sekolah menengah in the district of Kulaijaya, Johor. Sample is taken from 52 counsellor teacher whom is chosen to be the respondent of this research. This research is carried out using the quantitative method with the use of survey form as an instrument to gather the required data. The t-Test and One Way Anova method is used to gauge the level of emotional intelligent base on demography factor. The statistic technique of percentage, mean, minimum score and standard deviation is used to gauge the level of emotional intelligent and the level of counselling leadership skills, meanwhile Pearson Correlation is used to analyse the relationship of emotional intelligence against counselling leadership skills. This research shows that there are no significant relationship between emotional intelligence against the gender (0.95) and the location of the school (0.17) but the level of emotional intelligence is found to be different base on job grade (0.00) and length of service (0.00). This research also shows that the level of emotional intelligence of the respondent is at an average level (3.41) meanwhile the level of counselling leadership skills is at a high level (4.93). Other result indicate that the relationship of emotional intelligence (self awareness, self control, self motivation, empathy and social skills) with the level of counselling leadership skills (excellent skills and self development) is proven to have a significant positive relationship (0.65), meanwhile the relationship of emotional intelligent (self awareness, self regulation, self motivation, empathy and social skills) with counselling leadership skills (self development) also indicates an average significant relationship (0.67). The research also indicates that in the effort to improve the quality of counselling services at school, the high level of emotional intelligent is required in the process to strengthen the counselling leadership skills among the counselling teachers. There are recommendations made by the researcher at the end of this research.