PIERS 2019
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Item type: Item , The dynamic linkages between economic growth and sectoral growth : empirical evidence from Sri Lanka(University of Peradeniya, 2019-10-18) Pusparasa, A.; Sukirtha, T.Introduction The Sri Lankan economy has been undergoing a structural change over the last few decades. Agriculture, Industry and Services sectors play an important role in Sri Lanka’s economic growth. The contribution of the agricultural sector to national GDP has been fast declining while industrial and service sectors are dominating and have been showing remarkable improvements. Experiences of the developed economies have shown that the sectoral growth process is highly unbalanced (Sastry et al., 2003). Most early development strategies, advocated by Rosenstein-Rodan, Nurkse, and Hirshman among others, emphasized industrial development as the main source of economic growth (Schiff and Valdez, 1998). The role of agriculture in generating economic growth was shown to be minimal with the experience of the newly industrialized countries and others. The services sector was identified as an emerging sector. Based on this, the key sector would stimulate greater economic activity in other sectors and thus have a large multiplier effect on growth and development. Therefore a proper understanding of sectoral growth is necessary for designing appropriate long run strategies to achieve a sustainable growth rate in real GDP. While most of the literature mainly focuses on the determinants of aggregate growth, the sectoral growth literature mainly builds on the dual economic model originating in Lewis (1954) and Hirshman (1958). The dual economic model seeks to explain economic growth by emphasizing the role of sectors. Based on this theoretical context, there is no in-depth study on the inter relationship between sectoral growth and economic growth in Sri Lanka. Thus, this study attempts to examine the relationship among sectors and economic growth in Sri Lanka. Objective The main objective of this study is to examine the inter temporal dynamic linkages between sectoral growth and economic growth in Sri Lanka. Methodology The data used in this study are annual observations spanning the sample period from 1960 to 2018 and data were extracted from Annual Reports of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. The data of Log Real Gross Domestic Product (LRGDP) is used to proxy economic growth. LogGDP of Agriculture (LGDPA), LogGDP of Industry (LGDPIND) and LogGDP of Services (LGDPSER) are used as proxies for sectoral growth. Three models were estimated for each sector of the economy as given below: The first step of this analysis is to test the order of integration of each series using Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF), Phillips Perron (PP) and Kwiatkowski Phillips Schmidt Shin (KPSS) unit root tests. Secondly, lag length selection criteria such as AIC, SIC, LR, FPE and HQIC are utilized to select the optimum lag length that can be included in the model. Thirdly, residual series of each cointegration regression model is tested for unit root using ADF approach. Fourthly, once we confirm the regression error residual as stationary, Engle Granger (1987) cointegration test is conducted to determine the long run relationship between the variables. Then, the Error Correction Model (ECM) is employed to identify the short run relationship as well as long-run adjustment among the variables. Results and Discussion The results of ADF, PP and KPSS tests confirmed that all the variables are integrated of order one. Since all the variables are integrated at the same order, the data set is appropriate for further analysis. According to the regression error residual stationary test, all residuals of cointegration model is stationary at 5% level of significance. Thus, the Engle-Granger (EG) co-integration test using fully modified OLS estimation provides evidence of long run relationship between sectors and economic growth. Thus, Long run relationship among the variables are shown in equation format below: The above equations 4, 5 and 6 reveal that as expected by theory and some of the existing empirical literature (e.g., Akita et al 2008; Alhowaish et al 2012; and Singariya et al 2016) LGDPA, LGDPIND and LGDPSER have a positive and statistically significant impact on the LRGDP at 1% significant level. As shown in equation 4, a one percent increase in GDPA, would increase RGDP by 0.38 percent. According to equation 5, due to a one percent increase in GDPIND, RGDP would be increase by 0.95 percent. Equation 6 shows that, due to one percent increase in GDPSER, RGDP would be increase by 0.97 percent in the long run. Equations 7, 8 and 9 also show that there are positive and significant relationship between all three sectors and economic growth in the short run. Negative and significant error correction coefficients of each model are - 0.172, -0.175, -0.035 respectively. They reveal that disequilibrium is corrected by each year 17.2%, 17.5%, 3.5% respectively. They indicate that real GDP moves towards long run steady state of RGDP. Conclusion The purpose of this study was to empirically investigate the relationship between sectoral growth and economic growth of Sri Lankan economy over the period 1960 to 2018. The study provides evidence to confirm the long run equilibrium relationship between sectors and economic growth. Positive significant relationships hold for all sectors in the short run. The study results indicate that industrial and service sectors contribute to economic growth relatively more than the agriculture sector. Thus, the government should assisting in developing these two sectors to have sustainable economic growth. However, a large number of households’ livelihood depends on agriculture sector. Thus, the government should promote and assist the agriculture sector in order to have balanced and sustainable economic growth. References Hirshman A. O. (1958). Strategy of Economic Development. New Haven, Conn. Yale University Press. Linden, M. and Mahmood, T. (2007). Long run relationships between sector shares and economic growth. A panel data analysis of the Schengen region. DP-50, Department of Economics, University of Joensuu. Sastry, D.V. S. Singh, B. Bhattacharya, K. and Unnikrishnan, N. K. (2003). sectoral linkages and growth: Prospects reflection on the Indian Economy. Economic and Political Weekly. 14 (24), 2390-97. Schiff, M. and Valdez, A. (1998). Agriculture and the macroeconomy. In: Gardner, B., Rausser, G. (Eds.), Handbook of Agricultural Economics. Elsevier Science, AmsterdamItem type: Item , The impact of the proportion of female directors on firm performance : An approach to achieve gender equality(University of Peradeniya, 2019-10-17) Zainab, A. C. H. F.; Senavirathna, H. D. N. N.; Priyashantha, W. M. S.; Yasarathna, T. A. D. K.; Jayathilaka, M. D. R. K.Introduction Sri Lanka is well known as a country that ended a 30-year civil war of which the scars have not yet healed. The end of this brutal civil war was also a beginning of a new era of peace and development. Sri Lanka can only achieve sustainable development via long-term investments in economic, human and environmental capital. The inclusion of a focus on gender equality as the 5th goal within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) illustrates the importance of women’s contribution to the economic growth. Both empowering women and ending gender based disparities are essential for sustainable development. More vigorous efforts will be required in order to achieve gender equality in terms of women’s empowerment even though it is evident that there are changes in the stereotypes that prevailed in the past. If a country makes better utilization of its female population, it would pave the way to increase economic growth, reduce poverty levels and enhance the well-being and living standards of its citizens. In order to close the gender related gaps, the governments have the responsibility to take into account the gender dimensions while implementing policies so that it can ensure that it doesn’t fail to make complete utilization of human capital resources (OECD, 2008). The focus and concern for women representation in business management has increased specially after the financial crises and corporate scandals such as Lehman Brothers and Enron. Many countries in Europe have adopted regulations in the form of legislative gender quotas for corporate boards. The main aim of implementing such gender quotas is to break the glass ceiling andprovide an equal chance for both males and females in reaching top positions of companies. However, the underpresentation of women in senior positions in Sri Lankan firms indicates that they do not play a dominant role in the labour force as do females in developed economies. This is mainly due to women in developing economies such as Sri Lanka being typically confined to family and domestic roles and therefore tending to have invisible barriers in climbing up the corporate ladder and representing themselves on boards. Therefore, the Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) is low in Sri Lanka mainly due to the low contribution of women to the LFPR (CBSL, 2014). The issue of underrepresentation of women in corporate boards has gained substantial attention in today’s corporate world. There is a significant amount of evidence supporting this research issue in the developed countries. “In an attempt to address this question, many scholars in the recent years have studied the effect of women directors on firm performance. However, the empirical evidence of the extant literature inconclusive and most studies focus on firms in the U.S. and a few other developed economies” (Liu, Wei and Xie, 2014, p.170). Thus, investigating this research gap in a Sri Lankan context will be important to identify the extent to which women directors in the listed firms of Sri Lanka have the power to make strategic decisions and enhance firm financial performance. The role of public listed companies is important since they have the ability to boost the performance of an economy by contributing to the growth of financial institutions, creating employment opportunities and developing infrastructure facilities. If board gender diversity can trigger profitability and performance of the listed firms, then it will also be a determinant for economic growth. Objective The main purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of the proportion of female directors on firm performance of companies listed in the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE). Methodology In order to investigate the impact of the proportion of female directors on firm financial performance, this study is based on a panel data set of the 297 CSE- listed companies. There are two main panel estimation methods commonly used in literature which are pooled Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and panel regression with Fixed Effects (FE). However this study employed panel regression FE to estimate the main regression model as this method helps to avoid constant omitted variable bias and yearly FE due to unobservable heterogeneity. This study overcomes limitations of the existing Sri Lankan literature by selecting all the listed firms in all the CSE classified sectors during the period of 2012 to 2018. Consisting of unobservable and unavailable data, the final data set consists of 1,865 firm-year observations on over 281 listed companies. The following is the main regression model in this study: with FFP: Firm Financial Performance (Return on Assets ratio), BGD: Board Gender Diversity (Propotion of women directors on board), BC: Board Char (Board characteristics), FC: Firm Char (Firm characteristics), i: Company and t : Time, α: intercept, π : Individual impact with the time and ε: white noise error term. Variables of the regression model were chosen based on the common variables used to measure the impact of women directors on firm performance in the literature. Financial Performance measures the extent to which companies achieve their financial goals and this is essential to determine the success of the firms. In this study, Return on Assets (ROA) ratio is used as the proxy to measure financial performance since ROA is a widely used financial performance indicator (Liu, Wei and Xie, 2014). This ratio can be calculated as net income divided by total assets. The proportion of women directors on the board is taken as proxy to measure the BGD. This was measured using the percentage of female directors on the board. Control variables used in this model are grouped into two categories, BC and FC. The board characteristics consist of chairwoman, independent board directors, board size and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) duality while the firm characteristics consist of leverage and firm age. With regards to the control variables, chairwoman is a dummy variable that equals 1 when the board chair is a woman and 0 otherwise. Independent directors is the percentage of independent directors in the board. Boardsize is the natural log of the board size. CEO duality is a variable that equals 1 when the chairperson and CEO is the same person and 0 otherwise. Leverage is the total debt divided by total assets. Firm age is the natural log of the number of years that the firm is listed with CSE. Results and Discussion Table 1 shows the descriptive statistics for all the variables used in this study for 1865 firm–year observations. The approximation of ROA has a mean value of 5.2%. The mean percentage of women in the director board is 0.08 which is remarkably low. The average board size is equal to 8.02 and the maximum number of directors in the board is 18 while the minimum is 2. Average independent directors of the director board, is reported as 38.8%. The average leverage ratio reveals that the CSE listed companies have a mean of 45.6% of debts relative to their assets. This study employs FE method to estimate the effects of board gender diversity on firm financial performance. Table 2 shows the findings of the main regression model.The results suggest that women directors have a positive and statistically significant impact on firm financial performance. For instance, with a 1% rise in percentage of women directors, ROA increases by 0.13%. With regards to other control variables, results in Table 2 reveals that leverage and firm age have a significantly negative impact on ROA while the other control variables do not have any statistically significant impact. Therefore, the positive impact created by women directors on the financial performance of the firms implies that gender diverisity can be beneficial for firm performance. In addition, the presence of women directors on the board can attract more female employment and lead to an increase in the female LFPR and eventually contribute to the potential output of the economy. Female directors have the ability to create a positive impact on the financial performance of the firms since their presence in the board may reduce the agency conflict or the cost as they are more responsible of their duties and tend to freely express their opinions while having a concern for the shareholders’ wealth (Pasaribu, 2017). Proper gender diverse boards improve monitoring and controlling functions by increasing the effectiveness of decision making. The reason is that the women directors tend more towards questioning while men are stumble to ask questions (Wellalage and Locke, 2013). A balanced board always provides more opportunities of achieving competitive advantages over market challenges than boards which are completely dominated by male directors (Liu, Wei and Xie, 2014). Conclusion The empirical findings of the research reveal that women directors have a positive and statistically significant impact on firm financial performance. It also reveals that leverage and firm age have a significantly negative impact on firm financial performance. In developing economies such as Sri Lanka the effectiveness of corporate boards resulting from gender diversity is still a new area of research. In order for the Sri Lankan economy to grow at a reasonably high pace and to meet the changing demands of the various sectors, there should be well diversified labour force and corporate boards. By tracking the presence of female directors in this study, the extent to which boards are dominated by men, and whether women have attained an equal opportunity to dominate with power in the corporate environment of Sri Lanka, will be evident. Unlike the firms in many developed economies, Sri Lankan listed firms have no compulsory gender quotas to comply with when determining its board gender composition. The findings of this study will be important for the practitioners as it provides a contribution in support of female composition in corporate boards. It will also be useful for policy makers such as United Nations (UN) since such organizations are interested in ensuring the rights of women and in implementing gender inclusive policies. Moreover, the results obtained will support institutions such as the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the The World Bank to increase the representation of women directors in the corporate boards of the firms in Sri Lanka. This study encourages women participation in senior positions and corporate boards thereby reducing the gender based discrimination in such positions since it is evident from these results, that women directors also have the ability to drive the financial performance and increase the profitability of various sectors in Sri Lanka and they equally deserve the right to be a part of every company’s corporate board. Therefore, it is important to strategically focus on gender diversity in the process of policy making and gender equality related sustainable development. References CBSL. (2014). Annual Report - 2014. Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Colombo. Liu, Y., Wei, Z. and Xie, F. (2014). Do women directors improve firm performance in China? Journal of Corporate Finance, Vol.28 (C), pp.169-184. OECD. (2008). Gender and Sustainable Development. Available: http://www.oecd.org/social/40881538.pdf [Accessed 6th August 2019]. Pasaribu, P. (2017). Female Directors and Firm Performance: Evidence from UK Listed Firms. Gadjah Mada International Journal of Busines [online], Vol. 19(2), pp.145-166. Wellalage, N. H. and Locke, S. (2013). Corporate Governance, Board Diversity and Firm Financial Performance: New evidence from Sri Lanka Int. J. Business Governance and Ethics, Vol. 8(2), pp.116-136.
Item type: Item , Exploring employer expectations in the software development industry in Sri Lanka(University of Peradeniya, 2019-10-17) Jayakody, A.; Bulathsinghala, A. S. K.; Lihinigama, L. G. C. S.; Anurad, K. H. A.; Karunarathna, D. M. K. N.Introduction The sustainable development process needs the establishment of basic economic and social institutions necessary for economic growth (Rutherford, 2002). Higher education plays a critical and prevailing role. UNESCO (2005) mentions that ‘education for sustainable development’ has become a hot topic and it “empowers people to change the way they think and work towards a sustainable future”. Furthermore, higher education gives knowledge and understanding along with competencies, where graduates will learn how to work towards sustainable development while achieving all their goals and targets. With the growth of globalization, new development approaches incorporate software development around the world and encourage engineering and management practices. In the global software development environment, employ ability of new IT graduates always depends on the knowledge and competencies they leran thorugh information technologies. There are several studies conducted regarding gap between the expectations of employers and employees, but no studies have been done to explore how these competencies affect the performance expectations of employers in the Sri Lankan context. In contrast to individual learning, team work is seen as a vital aspect of the software development industry. Noll et al. (2016) examined a global teaming model for the governance of global software development, which focuses on a system of governance for working teams. They highlighted how team integration can be influenced by the practices of each team. Mukhtar et al. (2009) found that there is a close relationship between employability and employers’ general performance expectations. There is always a mismatch between the qualification of computing graduates and the expectations of computer industry. Akman and Turhan (2018) suggest that expectations of employers in individual and teamwork settings have a significant effect on general performance expectations of the employers and this study investigate employers' performance expectations of new IT graduates’ competencies in individual and teamwork settings for software development (Akman and Turhan, 2018). The study revealed that employers perceive significant diversity existing in competencies within individual and teamwork settings in terms of adapting to new software development methods, using time and experiences gained in undergraduate projects effectively (Akman and Turhan, 2018). Objectives The objective of this study is to examine the influence of individual work expectations and team work expectations on employers’ general performance expectations for new IT graduates in the software development industry in order to achieve quality IT education for sustainable development in Sri Lanka. Methodology A sample of 120 employers such as IT unit/project managers or senior IT professionals were selected and 8 outliers were removed. Simple random sampling method was used to select the research participants for the study. A structured questionnaire was developed to gather primary data from employers in the software development industry and for the purpose of examining how individual and teamwork expectations influence employers’ general performance expectations. A 5 point Likert scale was used with 1 = “strongly agree” and 5 = “strongly disagree”. Descriptive analysis was used, as was Multiple Regression analysis using General Performance Expectation (GPE) as the dependent variable (Y). Sample size was 112 for multiple linear regression and the equation can be given as follows: Where, Y: General Performance Expectation (GPE), X₁ : Individual Work Expectation (IWE), X₂: Teamwork Expectation (TE), a : error term. The study included one qualitative variable as a dummy variable in the multipleregression model. D is preference for specific university (Preference), preferred = 1, otherwise 0. Results and Discussion The model summary of the multiple regression analysis shows that R² is 0.63 and explains the overall model fit of the variables. That can be interpreted as 63% of the variance in GPE can be explained by the combination of individual work expectation, teamwork expectation and preference of specific university. The ANOVA results yields that the level of significance and multiple regression model is significant at the 5% significant level (p<0.05), which indicates that model is a right fit for the data. Furthermore, the findings yield that individual work expectation and teamwork expectation are statistically significant at the 5 % level. However, employers’ preference for specific university is not significant at the 5 % level. As indicated in Table 1, using unstandardized coefficients, the regression model can be generated as below: The results from the analysis shows that 71% (80 employers) of the sample shows preference for specific universities, while 29% (32 employers) of the sample is do not prefer specific universities. Using five-point Likert-scale, among the 80 employers, 67% of employers preferred graduates from local public universities. Furthermore, 61% of employers responded as preferring graduates from local private universities. However, employers’ preference for graduates from foreign universities is neutral. It represents 43% and 42% respectively. Moreover, out of 32 employers, which means employers who do not prefer a specific university also responded as preferring graduates from local public universities by representing 75%, and 56% preferred graduates from local private universities. Employers’ preference for graduates from foreign universities is neutral at 50% and indicates that 16 of employers’ preference for foreign university graduates is moderate while other 16 responded as preferred and least preferred. Conclusion The findings indicate that IWE and TE tend to be vital for the employers’ GPE regarding new IT graduates in the software development industry. As the objective of this study is to examine the influence of individual work expectations and team work expectations on employer’s general performance expectations regarding new IT graduates, in order to achieve quality IT education, it is clearly visible that employers are paying keen attention on the new IT graduates’ competencies in order to hire them. Higher education should be of quality in order to create a graduate full of potential and competencies so that they can be hired by employers which will support the the country’s development. Consequently, as UNESCO (2005) mentioned that quality of education “empowers people to change the way they think and work towards a sustainable future”; so employers will work towards a sustainable future while supporting the development of the country. References UNESCO. (2005). Understanding education quality [Online]. Available:http://www.unesco.org/education/gmr_download/chapter1.p df [Accessed 16th August 2019]. Akman, I. & Turhan, C. (2018). Investigation of employers’ performance expectations for new IT graduates in individual and team work settings for software development. 31, 199-214. Noll, J., Beecham, S., Richardson, I. & Canna, C. N. A. (2016). Global Teaming Model for Global Software Development Governance: A Case Study. IEEE 11th International Conference on Global Software Engineering (ICGSE), 2-5. 179-188.Item type: Item , The socio-economic consequences of post-consumed polythene: The case of Western and Uva Province(University of Peradeniya, 2019-10-17) Shantha, A.Introduction Rapid urbanization and changing income patterns lead to changes in consumption patterns and life styles resulting in the generation of plastic and polythene wastes which exceed the assimilation capacity of the environment for natural decomposition. It is estimated that about 160,000 tons of plastic raw materials and products are imported and out of this 30% has been exported as finished products, with the remainder used in the local market. In Sri Lanka, dumping takes place of one million sachet packets - be it with sauce, jam or shampoo – and 20 million polythene bags and 15 million lunch sheets landfill per day (Dangalla, Chandrasena, Semasingha, & Amarasingha, 2013). The Colombo municipal Council collects 700 tons of garbage on average per day and 10 percent of this is polythene and plastic waste. Although the share of polythene and plastics in Municipal waste is only about 10 per cent of the total solid waste, its environmental impact is much greater than the other waste material. In 2025 annual imports of plastic would reach 430,000 metric tons and out of that 310,000 metric tons would be consumed locally (Gunarathna, 2010). Also in 2025 the estimated recycling capacity would be around 220,000 tons with about 50,000 tons (23% of the wasted) would not being recycled (Kokusai Kogyo, 2016). Local Government Authorities in Sri Lanka are statutorily responsible for the management of waste generated within their respective boundaries. Most of the post consumed plastic and polythene in local authorities becomes Municipal waste component due to the limitations of open dumping with limited home land in urban and municipal areas. The literature proposes recycling to minimize the negative externalities of post-consumed plastic, and policy makers have taken some action to enhance the plastic and polythene recycling process in the country. However, most of the post-consumed plastic and polythene ends up with open dumping, land filling or open burning causing with many negative externalities to the environment. Further, local recyclers also not much motivated to enhance the recycling process due to a very slim profit margin. Thus the present plastic waste management system in Sri Lanka is not sustainable. However, research conducted in this area to explore sustainable plastic waste management in Sri Lanka is inadequate. Therefore, this study aims to develop a proper model for plastic waste management practices in Sri Lanka. Objectives The main objectives of this study are to develop a predictive model for waste generation pattern, waste composition and waste management; and to accurately estimate the existing post-consumed plastic and polythene. In addition this study is observes the existing behavioral pattern of waste management practices and determinent factors which are affect current practices while examining how behavior change can take place among Sri Lankan consumers to ensure the disposal of plastic and polythene waste without harming the environment. Methodology In this study the term “Solid Waste” is defined as nonliquid material that no longer has any value to the person who is responsible for it. According to this definition the materials still reflecting economic value are not considered as waste. Especially reusable and recyclable materials do not come under the waste category. Further, in this study the 3R concept, to reduce, reuse, and recycle, classified accrding their hierarchy level in waste management options, was employed. Waste management hierarchy is instrumental in the concept of sustainability and Integrated Solid Waste Management. The hierarchy of waste management principles has been set up as: waste prevention minimization, re-use, recycling, incineration and disposal (Kirkpatrick 1992). At the top of the hierarchy stands waste minimization as the most desirable option. For this study, out of 235 local Authorities (23 Municipal Councils, 41 Urban Councils and 271 Pradeshiya Sabhas) 48 local authorities from Western Province and 28 local authorities from Uva Province were considered as the field research areas to collect primary data. The Western Province is the largest which accounts for 33% of total waste generation and Uva Province is the smallest which shares only 5% of the waste generation of the country. Sample size was 4,000 households and it was proportionately (based on number of households) distributed among 76 local authorities in Western and Uva provinces. Sample selection was done based on simple random sampling methods comprising high, low and medium-income levels. The study used Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) tools for data analysis. MCDA tools utilize various optimization algorithms to rank options, selecting a single optimal alternative or differentiating between acceptable and unacceptable alternatives. (Kalini, 2013). The study used PROMETHEE (Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation) for finding the behavioral pattern of existing waste management practices. A multiple regression model was applied to determine the factors which currently affect present post consumed plastic and polyethene waste management practices. Descriptive statistics were used to develop a predictive model for waste generation pattern, waste composition, waste management, waste characteristics and accurate estimation of existing post-consumed plastic and polythene. Results and Discussion Table 1 shows the average of polythene usage and sources of generation level of a household in both provinces. In Western Province (WP) more than 71% polythene was generated due to super market (SM) purchasing process and for the Uva Province (UP) that figure was only 21% and it shows that urban areas create more polethene wastes. In WP, per-household polythene usage was 0.32 kg per month and in UP, 0.22 kg per month. The major source of polythene generation is small scale boutiques in UP. As described in Table 2, the study identified seven alternative management options for post-consumed polythene, with incineration being the most popular option in both provinces. The second management option was handing over to the local authorities and open dumping in WP and UP, respectively, while the third options were, respectively, open dumping and landfilling. Bad management practices, which are incineration, landfilling and open dumping comprise around 63% for WP and more than 80% in UP. These findings indicate how present practices in the post consumed polythene waste management process in the country damages the environment. According to the analysis, the household’s attitudes and behavior on post consumed polythene management is backward, since the average score in 3R process (reduce, reuse, and recycle) is negative. The average score in bad practices reflects moving towards environmentally harmful management practices in both provinces. According to the regression analysis, good practices of polythene waste management (reduce, recycle and reuse) significantly depend on the level of education, knowledge on environmental protection, family income, size of the homestead and existing waste management facilities. Polythene usage by household significantly depends on family income, level of education, type of employment, purchasing behavior and distance to supermarket and main city.Conclusion It is evident from the study that composting is a nationally attractive and practically implementable solution to the post consumed polythene waste management problem in Sri Lanka. Further, it is important to conduct a national level survey to identify the present usage of polythene, sources of generation and waste management practices which is timely to develop a national level policy framework for a post consumed polythene waste management model for each province. Since the attitudes on well known good practices such as reuse, reduce and recycle were significantly backward, relevant authorities must focus on possible awareness programmes for enhancing 3R related activities. Conversely, all bad practices, which are currently popular among households such as incineration, landfilling and open dumping need to be controlled in formulating a new law and order program and changing the consumption pattern of polythene with awareness programmes. In an environmental perspective, this problem will be one of the most challenging issues in the country during the next few decades. References Dangalla, N., Chandrasena, U., Semasingha, W., & Amarasingha, A. (2013). Report of the Survey on the Usage of Polythene Shopping bags and Lunch Sheets in Sri Lanka - Case studies of five Selected Municipal Council. Colombo: Central Environment Authority of Sri Lanka. Gunarathna, G. & Liyanage, S. (2010). Analysis of Issues and Constraints associated with plastic Recycling Industries in Sri Lanka. Department of Forestry and Environmenta Science. Colombo: University of Sri Jayawardanapura. Kokusai Kogyo, L. (2016). Data Collection Survey on Solid Waste Management in Demografic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. Colombo: Japan International Cooperation Agancy (JAICA). Khalili, N. & Dehcker, S. (2013). Application of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis in decision of Sustainable Environmental Management System. Journal of Cleaner Production, 47, 188-198. Shantha, A. & Samarakoon, A. (2016). Cost Benefit Analysis for National Post Consumer Plastic Waste Management Project. Colombo: Central Environmental Authority.