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Several arguments have been raised about the tripartite relationship between capital inflows, trade openness and economic growth; and most especially on their role as economic stimulators. Despite the above, the role of capital inflows in the development process cannot be overemphasized since they ensure enhancement of technology transfer, efficiency and improvement in the quality of factor inputs. As alternative to aids and FDI, many West African countries embraced trade liberalisation policy with the belief that trade openness has the potential of enhancing economic growth by increasing the variety of intermediate inputs as well as the size of the domestic market. It is upon this premise that the current paper examines the individual, interactive and threshold effects of aid, FDI and trade openness on economic growth by employing panel autoregressive distributed lag (PARDL) and mean group (MG) estimation techniques on 14 West African countries using datasets from 1980 through 2018. The PARDL is adopted because of its dynamic nature and ability to obtain both short and long-term effects, while mean group technique records the uniqueness of individual West Africa countries and examine their degrees of sensitivity to regional characteristics. The results revealed that long run relationship was observed and aid, FDI and trade openness positively enhanced output growth. Second, the interactive effect of aid, trade openness and FDI was negative, but strengthens the individual effects in the long run period. Third, an average financial flows threshold of 8.3 percent is required to spur output growth to equilibrium. Fourth, MG estimation affirms that it is only in Senegal that the coefficients of these financial flow variables were sensitive to regional characteristics. These are the major contributions to knowledge. Thus, the paper recommends the need to embrace medium-and long-term policy framework which focuses on channelling funds from aid towards infrastructural and human development in order to accelerate future output growth. More so, regional representatives should concentrate efforts towards shifting their exports from primary to secondary and tertiary products so as to increase the value of trade transactions to members. Lastly, regional macroeconomic policies aimed at improving economic integration and regional sensitivity among members should be considered. JEL Classifications: F1 - F2 - F43 - C23 Keywords: Aid - FDI - Trade - Economic Growth - PARDL Corresponding author's email address: matthew.ogbuagu@fuoye.edu.ng, INTRODUCTION The role of financial flows in the development process cannot be overemphasized because growth models were developed around the assumption of adequate and frequent flow of resources (Barro & [...]

JEL A20 Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand. (Chinese proverb) One must leam by doing the thing, for though you [...]

In the past several decades, developing Asia has achieved outstanding growth rates in the globalization process. Unfortunately, this impressive growth in the emerging Asia seemly has not automatically brought about sufficient decent work for the expanding population. Particularly, temporary jobs are often claimed to be associated with lower remuneration and poor working conditions. Meanwhile, in developing Asia, where this problem is apparently acute, empirical research on this topic remains scarce. This paper attempts to fill this research gap by focusing on the interesting case of Pakistan. This research uses the Pakistani labor force survey 2008-2009. Only wage workers are kept for the analyses. The self-selection into wage workers and endogeneity associated with contract status are carefully considered. After doing different statistic tests, the control function method developed by Wooldridge (2015) appears to be the most relevant to investigate the wage differentials associated with contract status for Pakistani workers. The estimation shows that holding a fixed term written contract or no written contract instead of a long-term written contract could significantly reduce wages for Pakistani workers. However, the extent of wage inequality depends on how defining contract status. If we rely on the Pakistani national definition of fixed term contract, engaging in this job is likely to suffer the highest penalty in terms of hourly wage. Such a finding no longer holds once we refer to the international standard definition of fixed term contract. Besides, the wage gaps associated with contract status change if the monthly wage is the independent variable instead of hourly wage. These findings highlight the importance of a stable contractual arrangement and labor market regulation enforcement in tackling the wage penalty and assuring decent work for all in Pakistan. With a mega labor force and demographic dividend, Pakistan should prioritize job quality and equality to achieve inclusive and durable development and mitigate social instability. This study is a timely reply to the urgent demand for empirical evidence on contract-status-related wage differentials in Pakistan, serving as a reference for labor policymakers. JEL Classifications: J31, J41 Keywords: Wage gaps; contract status; long-term contract; fixed-term contract; non-written contract; Pakistan. Corresponding Author's Email Address: tnguyenhuu@em-normandie.fr, INTRODUCTION In the past several decades, developing Asia has achieved outstanding growth rates in the globalization process. Unfortunately, this impressive growth in the emerging Asia seemly has not automatically brought [...]

Deepening financial integration is important for developing economies especially in Africa, that accounts for less than 2% of the world's market capitalization. Financial integration facilitates risk sharing, aids the formation of larger markets which is beneficial to the firms and smoothens consumption inter-temporally. Financial integration will be enhanced through a well-developed financial sector that is all-inclusive of the economic agents in access to financial services at a low cost and at the most convenient time. The access to funds in an integrated market is further determined by the extent of financial knowledge acquired by the economic agents with respect to basic numeracy, interest compounding, understanding inflation and risk diversification. This paper examines the effect of increasing access to financial services and the level of knowledge of financial products on the financial integration of West African Monetary Zone. The ratio of total capital flows to GDP and interest rates on public debt were used in measuring financial integration while the measures of financial inclusion include the number of commercial bank branches, number of ATM machines available, Savings, number of account holders and credit to private sector. Data covering the period 1980--2020 were employed. Unit root test using Levin, Lin and chu t-test method and Im, et al statistics methods were employed while the cointegration test was conducted using the Wald t-test before the panel autoregressive distributed lag model estimation technique was used to estimate the models. The unit root test results revealed that three out of the ten variables were stationary at level whiles others were stationary at first difference. The Wald cointegration test shows that the two equations are cointegrated. The results from the study show that increasing the number of bank branches; the number of account holders; savings; credit to private sector and improvement in the level of financial knowledge with respect to financial services deepen financial integration of the West African Monetary Zone. The policy implication of the paper is that each economy's monetary authority and financial service providers must continue to advocate and institutionalise programmes that will deepen access to and knowledge of financial services, this will improve the extent of financial integration. JEL classifications: F36, E44 and C23 Keywords: Financial inclusion, financial literacy, financial integration, WAMZ panel autoregressive distributed lag model Contact author's email address: Email: oiwegbu@unilag.edu.ng, INTRODUCTION The capital and money market are very important markets which can promote sustained financial growth and development. The market is very important especially for developing economies in addressing its [...]

Among the Latin American countries, the Mexican economy has shown since the late 1990's one of the lowest rates of economic growth. This is perplexing, because of the persistency of the stagnation tendencies, and because of the rapid growth shown by its exports, especially to the US, that reached $370 billion in 2018. The poor economic performance has had adverse consequences in terms of unemployment, emigration, social conflict, and especially in terms of the losses of female and male youth employment. This paper seeks to explain the causes of Mexico's economic stagnation. The methodology consists of the estimation of cointegration equations that express per capita economic growth as a function of the growth of labor productivity, plus the growth of the female and male employment to population ratios. Additional equations were estimated to identify the variables that explain the growth of productivity and of employment ratios and to estimate the role of deindustrialization in economic stagnation. An analysis was made of the role of female employment on the mobilization of domestic savings, on the determination of the deficit in the trade account, and on the constraint exerted by the balance of payments on growth. The source of data was the World Bank's World Development Indicators. The results indicated that female employment is an important determinant of external solvency and contributes to overcoming the balance of payments constrain on economic growth. Another salient result is the negative impact of youth unemployment on labor productivity and the negative impact of the percentage of young women that neither study nor work on economic growth. The policy implications are related to the importance of promoting male and female employment with a view towards accelerating economic growth, and the need to establish measures to facilitate women's entry into the labor market. This would require the establishment of national networks of childcare centers, the expansion of early childhood education, improving the quality of education, and increasing wages. As well, policies must be implemented to promote the reindustrialization and reagriculturalization of the Mexican economy to obtain national self-sufficiency and security and impart dynamism to economic growth. JEL classifications: O11, O14, O16, O17, J48, J71 Keywords: economic growth, productivity, gender, youth unemployment Contact author's email address: luisrenecaceres@gmail.com, INTRODUCTION The Mexican economy has for several decades shown some of the lowest annual rates of economic growth per capita of Latin American countries, of about 1.5%. This is surprising [...]

New channels of communication, such as the internet, provide new research opportunities. However, before they can be used widely, researchers must first solve the question of whether they can be [...]

Supply chain problem of a large international pulp producer with five pulp mills located in Scandinavia is studied. The company currently uses manual planning for harvesting and transportation of pulp, production scheduling, and distribution of products to customers.

The focus of this paper is to highlight the cognitive skills as an entrepreneurial dimension and to investigate the strength of the relationship between those skills and accounting students' start-ups career in Business schools of Arab region. Cognitive abilities are brain-based skills that students need to carry out any task, it includes; Communication skills, Creative thinking, Problem solving and Logical thinking. The role of educators is to enhance cognitive skills and deliver courses which will affect the process of the Entrepreneurship. Moreover, this study is considered one of its kind as focusing on cognitive skills in business schools of Arab region, no such studies have been conducted regarding encouraging cognitive skills for accounting students to enhance entrepreneurship start-ups. The literature review suggests that the relationship between entrepreneurial education of cognitive skills and Accounting students career of start-ups is subject to further investigation. Arguments and discussions are contradicting; empirical results are not consistent. Despite the inconsistency, the contributions of entrepreneurial education of cognitive skills cannot be denied. From here, it may be stated that entrepreneurship education of cognitive skills can be effectively taught and considered as a successful factor for going through the process of entrepreneurship and starting- up a business. Consequently, the important question here is "how to enhance the delivery of skills for accounting students to meet the needs of the marketplace nowadays". The paper concluded that the traditional image of the university graduate who seeks for a public or private sector job is becoming unacceptable in a very competitive environment due to the large number of university graduates as well as the limited number of available job opportunities. The theoretical framework pointed out the importance of education in teaching cognitive skills needed for entrepreneurship. This paper calls for changing the traditional methods used in accounting education and finding new methods which allow us to teach accounting students important entrepreneurial skills either for personal business or entrepreneurial activities among corporations. This paper opens the door for applied papers to introduce methods needed in this field. We suggest that these issues should be discussed among future studies including accounting curriculums and studying factors that enhance entrepreneurial skills for accounting students. These issues are considered as important factors that would affect economic growth especially in low income countries which aim at investing in education to enhance their economies and social status. JEL Classifications: C3, M2, D7 and D8 Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Cognitive skills, business schools, Accounting students, Arab region., INTRODUCTION Decision makers and practitioners have agreed that Entrepreneurship education has an effect on successful entrepreneurial start-ups. It is relatively important to equip students with knowledge and skills necessary for [...]

The paper argues that it is impossible to resolve the public debt problem within the existing economic policy model without changing the conceptual relationship between monetary and fiscal policy, i.e. without reconfirming the relationship between the policies and without strengthening the fiscal policy role. Otherwise, it is believed, the current model leads to a recession, while public debt problem remains unresolved. The existing model does not question the creation and structure of private debt and its effects on public debt, but the attention is given only to irresponsible fiscal policy. Understanding the public debt determinants is a prerequisite for effective public debt management and for private agents' positive expectations. In the paper, several managerial implications of the research results are, also, identified and presented. Keywords: public debt management, EU monetary and fiscal policy, determinants of public debt, 1. INTRODUCTION - PUBLIC DEBT AS A STRUCTURAL MONETARY AND FISCAL PHENOMENON The sovereign debt crisis has birthed a great theoretical debate regarding both its causes and consequences but also [...]

In this special issue, six papers were selected from the International Conference of the Competitiveness Research Network that took place in Mexico. The first research paper titled "Capital Structure in [...]

Future Unit, Department of Trade and Industry (1999), Work in the Knowledge-driven Economy, DTI, London, August This paper is available as a free download at: www.dti.gov.uk/future-unit/complete/index, html. `WORK IN THE [...]

This paper studies foreign direct investment spillovers on the gender-related labour market practice of domestic firms, based on a unique firm-to-firm data set of Bangladesh's textiles and garment sectors. The paper looks at the female employment of domestic firms that are directly and indirectly related to foreign-owned firms through supply chain linkages. These domestic firms are either the local suppliers or customers of foreign-owned firms, or they share local suppliers and customers with foreign-owned firms. The estimates show that domestic firms related to foreign-owned firms have significantly more female administrative workers, but not necessarily more female non-administrative workers, owing to the former participating in more firm-to-firm interactions. Keywords: Bangladesh, female labour force participation, foreign direct investment, supply chain linkages, women, JEL: F1, F2, F6, J2. 1. Introduction Foreign direct investment (FDI) may affect gender parity objectives and gender inequality through increased economic growth and new employment opportunities. Jobs in foreign-owned [...]

Acquisition of technology and its diffusion foster productivity growth. Developing countries across the world have relied largely on technology import from developed countries for driving their technological changes. India too has been no exception. Against this backdrop, the present paper assesses the role of technology transfer in promoting productivity growth in Indian manufacturing industries. Foreign technology may be imported into a country via three channels, namely, trade channel, investment channel and license channel. India witnessed manifold increase in the importance of these channels of technology transfer since its economic liberalization in the early nineties. Using industry level secondary data on- productivity, import of capital and intermediate goods, FDI and Royalty and license fee, the present paper works out two econometric models. Model 1 evaluates changes in productivity levels within the industry importing the technology while model 2 examines changes in productivity levels of the industries upstream of the technology importing sectors. Results from two-way panel estimations show that import of technology via import of capital and other intermediate goods did lead to productivity growth in the technology importing sectors. However, this downstream import of capital goods and intermediate goods failed to penetrate and impact the productivity of the upstream input supplying sectors. Neither did downstream FDI result in improving the productivity of the upstream sectors. Thus, productivity growth that has happened in India due to technology import are those within the raw materials and capital goods importing sectors and via the trade channel of technology transfer. But unfortunately, no import penetration that positively impacts productivity has happened among domestic firms that supply inputs to either the input importing downstream sectors or the foreign invested downstream sectors. With India's renewed focus on increasing output share and productivity of manufacturing sector, such non-penetration of technology imports is definitely not good news. Usage of foreign technology to increase productivity may be a short run solution to attaining better productivity, but one has to learn from this imported knowledge and it should result in penetration and learning across industries so that the growth in productivity may be sustained over the long run., INTRODUCTION Literature establishes the significance of technology transfer from developed to developing countries in promoting development or 'catch-up growth' in the latter. Technology transfer is a comprehensive term, which encompasses [...]

BRIAN TOYNE and DOUGLAS NIGH (eds.), (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1997. Pp.xii + 695. H/back ISBN 1 57003 012, $73). Conference papers are usually of uneven quality [...]

Malaysia has been experiencing sustained current account surplus during post-Asian crisis period. Although current account surplus is not as harmful as deficit, it cannot be sustained forever. Moreover, if the surplus is caused by bad reasons, such as, insufficient social insurance, inefficient financial intermediation, then it is reflected in deteriorating external competitiveness through more depreciated real exchange rate. Therefore, examination of current account sustainability is of crucial importance for the long-run health of the economy. Previous studies on Malaysian current account sustainability produce diverse results and leave it as an unsettled issue open to further research. In this backdrop this paper investigates the sustainability of Malaysia's current account balance for the period 1970-2010. This paper employs inter-temporal budget constraint to understand the behavior of exports and imports of Malaysian economy. Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) method is applied to examine the long cointegrating relation between Malaysian exports and imports plus interest on external borrowing. Advantage of employing the ARDL method is that it does not require the variables to be integrated to the first order. This method can be applied to a set of stationary and nonstationary variables. The paper uses annual data over the periods 1970-2010. Export, import and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data are in current US dollars. Interest payment on long-term external borrowing in US dollars is used as a proxy for interest on net foreign debt. Estimation results indicate that these two variables are cointegrated, which implies that Malaysia's current account is sustainable in the long run. Strong sustainability requires the coefficient of cointegrating vector to be one. In addition to ARDL method, coefficient of cointegrating vector is estimated by two other methods, namely, fully modified OLS (FMOLS) and dynamic OLS (DOLS). All three estimations show that the long-run coefficient is greater than one. This indicates that in the long-run export increases more than import plus interest on external borrowing. Therefore, if the excess export earnings in the long run cannot be utilized productively current account surplus may not sustain. It is, therefore, concluded that Malaysian current account is weakly sustainable. This findings call for policy intervention at macro level to make efficient utilization of excess saving to boost economic growth through promoting social insurance, facilitating efficient financial intermediation and encouraging private investment. JEL classifications: F32, F34, F41. Keywords: Current account, sustainability, ARDL, cointegration Corresponding Author's email: a.hoque@murdoch.edu.au, INTRODUCTION Current account is an indicator of a country's ability to meet its financial obligations with the rest of the world. Persistent deficit in current account increases the likelihood of [...]

This paper aims to: a) analyse the environmental disclosure practice in the Serbian banking sector, b) determine whether the degree of disclosure is higher in the case of big, i.e. systemically important banks, and c) examine if there is a positive relationship between the banks' CSR practice and their fnancial performance. The environmental disclosure index (EDI) based on 15 variables was employed to measure environmental disclosure performance for the Serbian banking industry. The data were generated through content analysis of the annual and sustainability reports of a total of 10 banks, fve of which were classified as systemically important banks for the period 2015-2019. The sample was determined by the availability of reports for the analysed period and the bank establishment year. The results show that the majority of Serbian banks discloses their environmental policy (74%), the undertaken environmental activities with the local community (51%), and the utilization efciency of water, energy, and paper (48%). Although the findings indicate that the environmental disclosure practice among all banks in Serbia is growing, the reports are not standardized. In addition, the systemically important banks in Serbia do not have a better disclosure practice. The econometric analysis implies that the bank's status does not infuence the level of environmental disclosure and that there is no positive relationship between fnancial performance (ROA and ROE) and EDI. This study has implications for policymakers and accounting bodies in Serbia in standardizing non-fnancial reporting and creating certain green and sustainable banking guidelines. Keywords: environmental disclosure, banking sector, content analysis, Serbia, 1. INTRODUCTION Due to increasingly unfavourable climate changes that the world has been witnessing, the environment started to be analysed as one of the company's stakeholders (Dragomir, 2010). Research discourse [...]

This paper seeks to indentify the determinants of smallholder farmer's market participation decisions using a farm level approach. By opening the black box which conceals the complex mechanism guiding farmers' market participation decision, this paper's contribution resides on its ability to take account of the conditional nature of farmers' decision to participate in the market. The paper develops a farm level sequential market participation model while taking account of the conditional nature of farmer's decision to participate in the market. In fact, the paper argues that the farmer's decision to participate in the market of a certain crop is dependent on producing the crop. Therefore, failing to account for this may bias the results. From a policy implication standpoint, the highlights of the results suggest that providing affordable and easily accessible fertilizers will incentivize both greater market participation and market volume supplied of both cash and food crop types. JEL Classifications: Q12, Q13, Q16 Keywords: Africa, Benin, Market Participation, Poor Farmers, Fertilizers, INTRODUCTION The main goal of development agricultural economics consists of finding ways of breaking the semi-subsistence poverty trap that appears to ensnare many smallholder farmers. Many of the policy recommendations [...]

This book is a collection of recent papers on the multinational enterprise. With only a very few exceptions the papers were published in the ten-year period 1978-88. According to Casson's [...]

The labor force constitutes a paramount factor of production in the realm of business operations. In the past, China's abundant labor force significantly boosted productivity for firms. However, as the demographic dividend gradually wanes, concerns have arisen regarding a scarcity of labor force, exacerbating worries about rising labor costs. Therefore, focusing on enhancing firms' labor investment efficiency becomes pivotal. Using a sample of A-stock listed firms in China from 2013 to 2020, we examine the impact of customer concentration on the labor investment efficiency of supplier firms. Prior literature provides mixed results regarding the effect of concentrated customers. They can act as a governance mechanism for reducing agency problems, thus, increasing investment efficiency. Conversely, agency problems are aggravated in suppliers with concentrated customers, consequently, reducing investment efficiency. Our results suggest that customer concentration reduces labor investment efficiency, and this effect is more pronounced when customers possess high bargaining power. Additionally, the mechanism analysis reveal that customer concentration leads to less accurate information disclosure, higher operating risk, and an incentive to 'empire building', reducing labor investment efficiency. The cross-sectional analysis reveals that customer concentration results in both over- and under-investment in labor, thereby reducing investment efficiency. In addition, we employ augmented models to rule out the possibility of a U-shaped relationship between customer concentration and labor investment efficiency. Furthermore, we adopt the instrumental variables approach as well as a two-stage regression model to address potential endogeneity concerns and mitigate the omitted variable concern. Our results hold after the robustness tests and endogeneity tests. The findings of this paper imply that firms should strategically diversify their customer bases, thereby reducing their reliance on a few large customers. Simultaneously, governments should actively encourage firms to broaden their customer base. It can help enhance labor investment efficiency by spreading the risks associated with customer concentration. Moreover, it is crucial to acknowledge that substantial customer bargaining power can negatively impact supplier firms. Thus, policymakers should promote antitrust regulations and fair trade practices to mitigate the high bargaining power of large customers. JEL Classifications: G31, E22, J20 Keywords: Customer concentration, Agency problems, Business risk, Labor investment efficiency, INTRODUCTION Labor constitutes a fundamental resource for firms' production and operational activities, holding significant implications for both macroeconomic growth and the competitiveness of micro-firms (Atanassov and Kim, 2009; Jung et [...]

Poverty remains a serious problem in Nigeria; women are among those mostly affected and are often deprived in many ways. This paper uses the multidimensional approach to examine poverty levels among women in Ibadan South West Local Government Area, Oyo State. Primary data was obtained from a sample of 393 women across the population density areas on socio-economic characteristics and poverty indicators (health, education and standard of living). The Alkire-Foster multidimensional approach was used to estimate the multidimensional poverty index (MPI) for the sampled women. The weights assigned to these poverty dimensions were generated using the multiple correspondence analysis. The MPI for each woman were categorized as abject poor (deprived in at least two dimensions), moderate poor (deprived in one dimension) and non-poor (not deprived in any dimension). The mean age of the women was 30.8[+ or -]6.7 years. One-third of the respondents were mostly artisans (30.0%) and traders (26.5%), and 52.2% had completed secondary education. About 23.0% of women were deprived in education, 61.0% in health and 70.4% in standard of living. Based on location, the study indicated that the women in the medium and high density areas are mostly deprived in the different dimensions of poverty. When the poverty cut off K= 1, poverty incidence is 94% and 51.7% of the women were multidimensional poor as against 28% poverty incidence and 19.6% poor women when k=3 using the Alkire-Foster Multidimensional methodology. This implies that when women are deprived in at least one dimension; 51.7% are multidimensional poor. More than half of the respondents (51.0%) were categorized as moderately poor, 26.0% were abject poor while 23.2% were non-poor. This study revealed high poverty levels among women in Ibadan South West Local Government Area. Deprivation in standard of living and health in the three areas could be improved upon through the concerted effort of the government with appropriate ministries by initiating more productive and empowerment programs to improve their purchasing power and disseminating educative information that will improve their nutritional status through health talks to reduce the level of multidimensional poverty in urban locations respectively. JEL Classifications: D33, J16, N37 Keywords: Multidimensional poverty, women, Alkire and Foster, INTRODUCTION Poverty refers to an undesirable state which endangers life, and considering its universal occurrence, it is referred as the principal developmental challenge of many nations across the globe over [...]

Since early years, humans are migrating to ensure their survival or to improve their socio-economic position in society. In Pakistan, internal migration has not been given proper attention in policy making. Consequently, government is facing problems in managing the challenges and opportunities posed by internal migration. The present study attempted to analyse socio-economic factors that play crucial role in a household's decision to migrate internally by using data of Labour Force Survey 2020-21. In the questionnaire of labour force survey, there is a specific section related to migration. The migration is defined as 'households that has moved from one district to another district or to different country', it excludes the migration within district. The logit regression has been used to estimate the model. It has been found that more educated people particularly having professional and technical education tends to migrate. The internal migration increases with age, but after certain level it tends to start declining. It has also concluded that employment in public sector (due to job security or provision of housing facilities) motivate people to internally migrate. People belonging to middle income families are more likely to migrate in comparison to rich or very poor. Study confirms that search of better job opportunities and family compulsions are major factors in internal voluntary migration. However, law and order situations emerge as a significant factor in forced migration. As the internal migration are much higher than international migration so there is need that role of internal migration may be recognised in reducing poverty, employment and socio-economic development. Unfortunately, there exists lack of policy on internal labour flows. Most the labour force is not even registered at migration destinations. It is very crucial to calculate value of domestic remittances. It will be helpful in devising the policy to improve the status of internal migrants by providing them targeted technical and vocational education training so that they can get better job opportunities in destination places. JEL Classifications: R23, I23, E24 Keywords: Internal Migration, Education, Employment, INTRODUCTION Since early years of human settlement, they have been migrating in search of food, shelter, to escape impacts of changing climate and due to overpopulation in a particular area. [...]

The Caribbean region faces a daunting challenge as it confronts the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to shed light on the intricate relationship between governance quality and the economic performance of Caribbean nations, especially in the context of a global health crisis. Our research method involves a panel-random effects model, which captures the effects of governance quality and the COVID-19 pandemic on economic growth. We utilize data from various Caribbean countries, considering six dimensions of governance quality, trade openness, inflation, investment, and human capital. This comprehensive approach ensures a nuanced understanding of the region's economic landscape during these turbulent times. Our findings expose a significant negative association between the various dimensions of governance and the ongoing pandemic crisis. Specifically, governance indicators such as voice and accountability, rule of law, political stability, and absence of violence, along with government effectiveness, emerge as positive catalysts for economic growth. On the contrary, the control of corruption and regulatory quality demonstrate a notable negative impact on growth. Furthermore, our research unveils that investment and human capital significantly contribute to boosting output growth in the Caribbean. Conversely, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation, and trade openness is observed to be detrimental to economic growth. These findings corroborate existing empirical evidence on the governance-growth nexus, underscoring the complex interplay between governance and economic development. These results emphasize the urgency of long-term strategies to enhance governance quality in Caribbean countries. It is imperative to bolster the capacity of governments to address future epidemic episodes, recognizing the persistent threat of pandemics. Policymakers should prioritize measures that promote voice and accountability, rule of law, political stability, and government effectiveness while addressing corruption and regulatory quality issues. This research holds profound significance for both academics and policymakers, offering a pathway to stable and sustainable long-term economic growth and calling for proactive preparedness in the face of future global health challenges. It also invites further research in this critical area. JEL Classifications: F63, O10, C33, C01 Keywords: COVID-19, virus, governance quality, economic growth, Caribbean, panel-random effects model, INTRODUCTION The novel COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has had a major impact on the economies in the Caribbean and elsewhere. This is reflected in the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths, [...]

Extant literature investigates on the determinants of NPL (non-performing loan) many a time, however, little is known on the relationship between economic uncertainty and NPL for any developing country. Historically, Bangladesh is suffering from high level of NPL in the banking sector. In addition to that, Bangladesh observes high level of macroeconomic uncertainty as characterized by high and volatile Gross Domestic Products and inflation, continuous exchange rate devaluations, and shallow financial markets. Motivated by this, we investigate the nexus between economic uncertainty and NPL for Bangladesh. Based on the data availability, we use the annual dataset covering 1990-2018. Furthermore, we use autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model considering its benefit accommodating both I(0) and I(1) variables. The empirical results show that there is positive relationship between economic uncertainty and NPL in the long run. The results are robust to the alternative measures of economic uncertainty and specifications. Consistent with the expectation, financial development carries a negative sign on the asset quality albeit the effect of economic uncertainty is actually pronounced (both the size and significance changes) in the augmented models. Key policy implication of this study is that government should formulate well anchored, rule-based policies to reduce inflation and interest related uncertainties. With a rule-based policy (for example, inflation targeting), people believe that central bank can achieve its targets. Government should adopt floating exchange rate regime that will adjust the external shocks well via exchange rates. In addition to this, government can monitor, and regulate stock market so that uncertainty in stock market is reduced. Finally, monetary and fiscal policies should be communicated well to the people. Thus, it is possible to reduce asymmetric information among the people, which may reduce economic uncertainty, and thus reduce NPL. JEL Classifications: E44, G28, E58 Keywords: Non-performing loan, economic uncertainty, Bangladesh evidence., INTRODUCTION Given the persistent and rising Non-performing loans (NPL) in Bangladesh since 1990, we are motivated to study whether economic uncertainty, as the key macroeconomic factor, lead to systematic development [...]

This paper takes a closer look at the well-researched topic of the determinants of health expenditure. However, as an improvement over previous studies, the current study tested the cost disease hypothesis in the healthcare sector in sub--Saharan Africa to assess the sector's productivity. The cross-sectional units in the current study comprise forty-eight sub-Saharan African countries; spanning the period 2000 to 2020. The data was sourced from two main sources; namely, World Development Indicators and the ILOSTAT. The main variable of interest (Baumol variable) was constructed using a combination of various variables. The methodology relied on several econometric techniques i.e., fixed effect, random effects and two-stage least square estimations. The growth rate of gross fixed capital formation was used to control for the potential reverse causation between the growth rate of health expenditure per capita and the Baumol variable. Based on the empirical results from the various estimations, it appears that there is some evidence of the presence of the cost disease in the healthcare sector of sub--Saharan Africa. This effect became stronger when the endogeneity in the model was taken into consideration. However, this effect became greatly diminished after the growth rate of GDP per capita and the growth of the price level were introduced in the model. The statistical significance of the growth rate of these variables reinforces their important roles in the determination of the levels and growth in health expenditure. The confirmation of the basic Baumol model in determining the growth of health expenditure suggests that the growth of health expenditure in sub-Saharan Africa might be a result of health workers' wages outstripping productivity in the sector. This suggests that the inelastic nature of the demand for health care is the main driver of the growth of health expenditure; thus might not be reflected in improved health care. Furthermore, policymakers need to consider changes in the price level as it may deflate the real value of the budgetary amount. JEL Classifications: C12; C23; I10; O41 Keywords: Health Expenditure, Unbalanced growth, sub--Saharan Africa panel., INTRODUCTION In the discussions of the determinants of health expenditure, income is an important contributor to the levels of health expenditure (Ekpenyong, 2022). However, some underlying conditions might be driving [...]

Sustainable societies of the future should be designed on the basis of a green public budgeting, as green public spending and investment are the key drivers of sustainable development. Studies on green budgeting have so far tended to focus on green taxes and favourable regulatory regimes for specific sectors, although 14 out of 38 OECD countries have introduced these in some form. Based on secondary research of Slovenian budget documentation for the period from 2018 to 2022, our research findings show that green and sustainable content is weak, both in terms of content and scope. Only 11 out of 24 policies and only 23 out of over 3000 projects have included some ideas of the green and sustainable concept. Due to the evolving methodology and framework of green budgeting, the research challenge could be identified in a repeated and deeper analysis, including the targets and indicators in the coming years. KEYWORDS: Green budget, Sustainable society, Budget, Budget documentation Odrziva drustva buducnosti trebala bi biti oblikovana na temelju zelene javne proracunske politike, buduci da su zeleno javno trosenje i ulaganja kljucni pokretaci odrzivog razvoja. Dosadasnja istrazivanja o zelenom proracunu cesto su bila usmjerena na zelene poreze i povoljne regulatorne okvire za odredene sektore, iako je samo 14 od 38 zemalja OECD-a to uvelo u nekom obliku. Na temelju sekundarnih istrazivanja slovenske proracunske dokumentacije za razdoblje od 2018. do 2022. godine, ovo istrazivanje pokazuje da je zelena i odrziva komponenta slaba, kako u smislu sadrzaja, tako i opsega. Samo 11 od 24 politika i samo 23 od preko 3000 projekata ukljucili su neke ideje sa zelenim i odrzivim konceptom. S obzirom na razvijanje metodologije i okvira zelenog proracuna, izazov istrazivanja se moze prepoznati u ponovljenom i dubljem analiziranju, ukljucujuci ciljeve i pokazatelje u iducim godinama. KLJUCNE RIJECI: zeleni proracun, odrzivo drustvo, proracun, proracunska dokumentacija, 1. INTRODUCTION In 2015, the United Nations (UN) adopted 17 Sustainable Development Coals (SDGs) aimed at reducing poverty and inequality, securing peace, and addressing pressing environmental issues. The document, entitled [...]

This paper focuses on the two most prevalent and economically significant services of the sharing economy: accommodation and transport. Its primary objective is to compare these two crucial sectors in terms of user perspective and their perceived service quality. Given that these platforms operate similarly, this study aims to determine if there are unique aspects that require different approaches or areas that need to be improved. This is crucial for making these platforms function better and provide a better experience for users. The quality of service was analysed through technical and social categories. The goal was to determine whether and how the aforementioned service quality categories affect user behaviour and whether there are differences in the ranking of service quality categories from the users' perspective, depending on the individual sector of the sharing economy. On a sample of 327 respondents, SEM analysis was used to show that the technical and social categories of service quality positively and directly influence the behavioural intentions of users in the sharing economy in both the accommodation and transport sectors. The findings also revealed that, for the users of the sharing economy service in the accommodation sector, the social category of service quality is more important than the technical category, while for the users of the sharing economy services in the transport sector, the technical category of service quality is more important than the social one. KEYWORDS: user perspective, sharing economy, service quality, accommodation, transport Ovaj rad usredotocuje se na dvije najrasprostranjenije i ekonomski znacajne usluge u ekonomiji dijeljenja: smjestaj i prijevoz. Njegov primarni cilj je usporediti ova dva kljucna sektora s aspekta korisnika i njihove percipirane kvalitete usluge. S obzirom na slican nacin djelovanja ovih platformi, ovo istrazivanje ima za cilj utvrditi postoje li jedinstveni aspekti koji zahtijevaju razlicite pristupe ili podrucja koja treba poboljsati. To je kljucno kako bi ove platforme bolje funkcionirale i pruzile bolje iskustvo korisnicima. Kvaliteta usluge analizirana je kroz tehnicke i drustvene kategorije. Cilj je bio utvrditi hoce li i kako navedene kategorije kvalitete usluge utjecati na ponasanje korisnika te postoje li razlike u rangiranju kategorija kvalitete usluge s gledista korisnika, ovisno o pojedinom sektoru ekonomije dijeljenja. Na uzorku od 327 ispitanika, SEM analiza koristena je kako bi se pokazalo da tehnicke i drustvene kategorije kvalitete usluge pozitivno i izravno utjecu na ponasanje korisnika u ekonomiji dijeljenja u sektorima smjestaja i prijevoza. Takoder, rezultati su otkrili da je za korisnike usluga ekonomije dijeljenja u sektoru smjestaja drustvena kategorija kvalitete usluge vaznija od tehnicke kategorije, dok je za korisnike usluga ekonomije dijeljenja u sektoru prijevozna tehnicka kategorija kvalitete usluge vaznija od drustvene. KLJUCNE RIJECI: aspekt korisnika, ekonomija dijeljenja, kvaliteta usluge, smjestaj, prijevoz, 1. INTRODUCTION The sharing economy is an economic system that has gained significant attention in recent years due to its potential to promote sustainable consumption and efficient use of resources. [...]

This study explores the finance-specific factors that help domestic companies operating in Thailand receive foreign direct investment (FDI) related to mergers and acquisitions (M&A). The three main objectives of this paper are to: analyse whether the firms receiving FDI differ from those that do not; identify significant finance-specific determinants that make Thai companies more likely to receive foreign investment; and explore the heterogeneity (different responses to investment decisions) at the firm-level, and the impact of financial constraints. This research makes use of the operational and financial data of both listed and unlisted Thai companies over the 2012-20 period and finds that larger as well as younger firms draw more foreign attention and have a higher probability of receiving M&A type of FDI. Moreover, companies with substantial intangible assets attract more investments from abroad. These findings have practical implications for business policies related to the accumulation of intangible assets. Specifically, developing flexible formal/informal linkages with potential M&A partners is key to promoting M&A-type FDI. Keywords: Productivity, intangible capital, multinational firms, foreign direct investment, mergers and acquisitions., 1. Introduction For most developing and emerging countries, foreign direct investment (FDI) plays a significant role in the development process, although the exact benefits differ according to the host country's [...]

This study aims to empirically explore the nexus between foreign direct investment (FDI) and other factors for global value chain (GVC) participation (backward and forward) in Vietnam, a transitional economy. The estimation shows that the economic size and market development of Vietnam and its trading partners are the main determinants of the nation's GVC participation. Inward FDI flows into the country have a positive impact on its GVC participation in both forward and backward linkages. Geographical distance is an impediment to Vietnam's backward GVC participation, whilst engagement in free trade agreements is advantageous to its GVC participation in both backward and forward linkages. We find that the logistics performance of Vietnam and its trading partners also positively affects the country's GVC participation. The paper provides policy implications for Vietnam to better use FDI and other factors to enhance its GVC participation, such as by attracting large supplier firms in upstream industries across the multinational enterprises' (MNEs) value chains, promoting trade liberalization and improving logistical efficiency. Keywords: Vietnam, global value chains (GVCs), foreign direct investment (FDI)., 1. Introduction Research by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) (2013) has estimated that about 80 per cent of global trade (in terms of gross exports) is [...]

This study quantifies the effect of servicification on productivity using firm-level data from Indonesian manufacturing industries. The empirical strategy employed involves two procedures. The first stage is based on the estimation of productivity from the Cobb-Douglas production function using a semi-parametric method. The second stage involves regressing the derived productivity with servicification, which is proxied by the share of industrial service cost to total input and the share of service revenues to total output. The results show that servification is positively related to productivity. The study also finds evidence of the importance of firm heterogeneity, i.e., foreign ownership and participation in global value chains (GVCs) in boosting productivity. Keywords: Servicification, productivity, global value chains, Indonesia., 1. Introduction Service activities in manufacturing have been intensifying over the past decade. The effects of services are increasing both supply-side and demand-side activities in the manufacturing process, strengthening the [...]

This paper examines the Indonesian government's policy response under the PEN (National Economic Recovery) programme aimed at assisting MSMEs during the COVID-19 crisis. The findings show that the scheme significantly benefited the enterprises. Credit restructuring and interest subsidy programmes offered critical assistance to the beneficiaries and improved their access to credit options. Moreover, the Productive Government Assistance for Micro Businesses (BPUM) initiative enabled the beneficiary enterprises to address emergency working capital needs required during the pandemic. However, this study also identifies several hurdles that reduced the effectiveness of the PEN programme. These challenges could have been overcome by striking a balance between banked and unbanked MSMEs, maintaining reliable databases for targeted recipients, and strengthening coordination between the various agencies involved. Keywords: Indonesia, MSMEs, COVID-19, PEN programme, 1. Introduction The damaging impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Indonesian economy was first observed in 2020. After growing positively in the first quarter of 2020 by 3 per [...]

Incomes and earnings are highly volatile in developing countries and credit and insurance markets are inadequately developed. At the same time schooling attainment and investment are low. This paper analyzes effects of household income risk on schooling investment in Bihar, India. Bihar is one of the poorest states in India. Schooling in Bihar faces several challenges including low investment and learning outcomes. This paper utilizes a unique primary survey data eliciting schooling indicators and subjective income distribution from households in twelve villages in Bihar. The survey contained a module designed to elicit information on the cumulative probability distribution of future income of households. Using this information, household-specific variance of future income is derived, which is used as an indicator of income risk. This is one of the first papers to use subjective income distribution data to analyze the effects income risks on schooling in a developing country. Data shows that there is a significant bias against female children in schooling investment in Bihar. Regression analysis suggests that this gender bias in schooling investment can partly be due to income risks faced by households. Results show that household income risk has a significant negative effect on schooling expenditure and time-spent by children on tuition and homework, particularly of female children in Bihar. It has significantly larger negative effect on schooling expenditure of low income households and time-spent by their children on tuition and homework relative to higher income households. Overall these findings suggest that income risk faced by poorer households is an important reason for the persistence of low educational achievement and outcomes in Bihar, particularly for female children. Government policies which reduce income risks such as provision of health insurance, unemployment insurance, old age pension scheme and easier availability of consumer credit targeted towards poor households, are likely to have significant positive effect on schooling. Microfinance institutions and NGOs can play an important role in the provision of insurance and labor market information. Public investment in irrigation and better weather information can reduce income risk and encourage schooling investment. JEL Classifications: D64, D81, I21, I25, O15 Keywords: Subjective Income Distribution, Household Income Risk, Schooling Expenditure, Time-Spent on Schooling Contact Author's Email Address: kumara@uvic.ca, INTRODUCTION Incomes and earnings are more volatile in developing countries than in developed countries. At the same time credit and insurance markets are inadequately developed in developing countries. Most households [...]

Although the relationship between colonial education and economic growth are topics of growing interest, few studies have examined the influence colonial education on economic growth in South Africa. This paper uses archival data (derived from Bluebooks, De Zwart 2011, Statistical yearbook of the colony of Natal and Malherbe (1925)) from colonial South Africa over the 1859-1910 period to study the extent to which economic growth is influenced by education. The analysis applies fixed effect to account for unobserved colony-level heterogeneity and minimise the omitted variable bias. It also employs certain methods (such as Fixed effects two-stage least squares (FE-2SLS) procedure)) that account for a possible endogeneity bias caused by reverse causation between the dependent variable (growth) and our variable of interest (education). Our analysis yields two important results. First, the results suggest that levels of education (proxied by spending on education) have a robust positive impact on economic growth. The results are robust to addressing the potential reverse causality between education and economic growth and using alternative measures of education (proxied by enrolment rate). Secondly, the impact of education on economic growth appear to vary from one population group to another. Specifically, the effect of education on economic growth is found to be significantly higher for Europeans compared to natives groups, adding a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between education and growth in the South African context. The estimated coefficients of control variables such as natural resources present positive and significant estimates on economic growth, in line with many studies in developing countries which have found that discovery of natural resources favourably affects the rate of economic growth. Thus our results suggest that there is a need to think about how available resources could be used more efficiently to guarantee quality education for all and proposes that policy interventions in the historically disadvantaged schools and universities might have important implications to stimulate economic growth. This does not mean that historically advantaged schools must be ignored as biased educational policy that is not inclusive to all would lead to large educational gaps that can be persistent and destructive to the development of a country. JEL Classifications: O47, I21, I25 Keywords: FE-2SLS, Colonies, Education, South Africa, Growth, Fixed Effect Contact author's email address: mbiyase@uj.ac.za, INTRODUCTION This study examines the role played by education in economic growth over the period 1859 to 1910. The increase in economic growth in any country hinges on a number [...]

Robert Sullivan (2000), `Entrepreneurial Learning and Mentoring', International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp160-175. THIS PAPER IS DESCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR IN its abstract as [...]

As the green bond market continues to develop and assume a critical role as a post-pandemic vehicle for supporting a balanced economic rebuild and credible transition efforts, policymakers must reassess the current disclosure regime. This paper derives findings from Bayesian games to demonstrate that the prevailing labelling regime for green bonds is susceptible to the adverse selection problem; due to informational asymmetries, allocative inefficiencies arising from capital misallocation to inherently 'non-green' bonds may ensue. To prevent the erosion of confidence in the market segment and support the potential of impact finance instruments to affect positive social and environmental change, this paper draws on established game theory frameworks to inform recommendations for policy-led solutions to uphold the market's credibility. These recommendations concern the integration of a regulatory infrastructure, a centralized ongoing audit under an 'exogenously costly' regime and the introduction of a clearer course for legal recourse against issuers that mislabel bonds. Keywords: green bonds, Bayesian equilibria, voluntary disclosure, adverse selection JEL classification codes: C70, G14, G18, M48, Q56, 1. Introduction As a response to the climate free-rider problem, among other ineffaceable environmental and social issues, the impact finance market introduces a private sector-led solution that serves to internalize [...]

This paper investigates the impact of levels of central bank independence (cbi) on the relationship between foreign direct investment (fdi) and economic growth. Economic theory confirms that a higher level of central bank independence is associated with a relatively lower and stable rate of inflation. To the extent that inflation moderation contributes to macroeconomic stability, and the latter provides a favorable environment for fdi to impact growth significantly, we considered it important to examine the possible effect of cbi on the fdi-economic growth relationship. Our attempt in this direction fills an important gap in the literature by adding a new dimension to the fdi-growth nexus. We proceed by subjecting data on fdi flows and gross domestic product (gdp) to Granger causality tests within a panel cointegration framework. Our panel consists of 22 emerging countries subdivided into groups of high and low cbi countries. The empirical investigation in our framework proceeds in three different steps. We begin by testing for non-stationarity in the two variables of fdi flows and gdp in our panel of 22 countries. Prompted by the existence of unit roots in the time series of the referred variables, we use the panel cointegration technique to test for a long-run cointegrated relationship between the two variables of interest in the second step of our estimation. With evidence of cointegration in the long-run fdi-growth relationship for the full and the subdivided panels, we finally use an error correction model to uncover Granger causality in the long run relationship along with its short-run dynamics. The results of our tests indicate a strong cointegration between fdi and economic growth for both the subdivided country groups referred above; causal links between the two variables, however, vary substantially between the two groups. While the high cbi countries show a significant long run bidirectional causality between fdi and economic growth, the low cbi countries demonstrate only a unidirectional link running from economic growth to fdi; there is no evidence of a link running from fdi to economic growth for the low cbi countries. Additionally, we find that for both the country groups, fdi induced growth is a long run phenomenon only. These results seem to suggest that with associated price stability, high cbi countries serve not only as an attraction for fdi flows but, through productivity spillovers, triggers economic growth that induces additional fdi flows. JEL Classifications: F33, E58, E59 & G42 Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment, Economic Growth, Emerging Countries, Inflation Rates, and Central bank Independence., INTRODUCTION Whether or not foreign direct investment inflows (fdi) unambiguously induce growth in the receiving country remains ambiguous in the literature. While a study of fdi-economic growth nexus on Spain [...]

It is important for the policy makers to know what kinds of shocks are responsible for macroeconomic fluctuations or recession to formulate appropriate policy responses. This paper exploits a stylized model to identify the sources of macroeconomic and exchange rate fluctuations in the US. The model consists of a productivity equation, a demand function, an exchange rate augmented Phillips curve, a monetary policy rule and an exchange rate equation (uncovered interest parity (UIP) condition). The stylized model implies a set of short-run restrictions that allow for the identification of the structural shocks in a vector autoregression model in order to test the model's consistency with data. We use real GDP for output, GDP deflator for price, Federal fund rate (FF) as monetary policy. The other two variables are unemployment rate and Nominal effective exchange rate (NEER). Throughout the analyses oil price is used as an exogenous variable. The Sample period starts from 1980q1, and ends at 2008 q2 to avoid possible non-linearity arise from 2008 financial crisis. Results show that more than half of the fluctuation in unemployment and output is explained by two shocks namely productivity/technology shock and aggregate demand shock. Monetary policy shock can explain around 15 per cent while supply and exchange rate shock explain less than 10 percent of the variation in unemployment and output. These results from our simple model are compatible with those from more sophisticated models found in current literature. Hence, our model is more appealing to the policy makers. Further, to gauge the importance of monetary policy in stabilizing the economy, a counterfactual simulation exercise is performed. The exercise shows that monetary policy has stabilized inflation and unemployment, though at the cost of increasing variability in output. The findings of this paper emphasize that policy makers should be aware of the importance of demand side shocks such as policy uncertainty and money supply. A positive uncertainty shock (an increase in uncertainty) may reduce investment and may slow the economic recovery. On the other hand, a prolong period of expansionary monetary policy may make the inflation expectations less anchored. Therefore, the policy makers should try to keep the impact of policy uncertainty at the minimum level and should follow prudent monetary policy. JEL Classifications: E32, E37 Keywords: Macroeconomic Fluctuations, Productivity Shock, Monetary Policy, Structural VAR, Counterfactual Simulation Contact author's email address: mailtorafayet@gmail.com, INTRODUCTION It is important for the policy makers to know what kinds of shocks are responsible for macroeconomic fluctuations or recession to formulate appropriate policy responses. The main body of [...]

The classical Phillips curve shows a negative relationship between inflation and unemployment. However, various studies have documented temporal positive and negative relationships between inflation and unemployment, leading to strong criticisms against the Phillips curve. In particular, the triangle approach indicates that the nature of the inflation-unemployment nexus is contingent on the source of the shocks, the length of lagged responses, and the policy response. Similarly, the strong linearity assumption on which the Phillips curve rests may have led to its empirical failure. Prior studies have modelled the possibility of threshold effects in the Phillips curve but no study has established the thresholds of when the relationship switches from negative to positive in the Eurozone. This paper addresses this limitation using 11 Eurozone countries for the period of January 1999 to February 2017. The paper also estimates both short- and long-run Phillips curves for these countries. We found that, by assuming linearity, there exists a Phillips curve in the short and the long run. We also established that the linearity assumption in the classical Phillips curve might be too strong since there is evidence of threshold effects. The thresholds in unemployment were 5.00% and 6.54%. By estimating the Phillips curve using these thresholds, we found that the relationship between inflation and unemployment is only negative when unemployment is lower than 5.00%. The negative relationship turned positive when unemployment was between 5.00% and 6.54%. Inflation and unemployment are unrelated once a threshold of a 6.54% unemployment rate is surpassed. These findings do not only highlight the importance of threshold effects in the Phillips curve, they also shed light on the need to fight unemployment in the Eurozone. JEL Classifications: E24, E31 Keywords: Inflation, Unemployment, Nonlinearity, Phillips Curve, Eurozone Corresponding Author's Email Address: alicehosinyu@gmail.com, hosy@unisa.ac.za, INTRODUCTION Unemployment remains one of the most pressing challenges facing humanity and as a result has been one of the main foci of economic policies around the world. Over time, [...]

In the past several decades, developing Asia has achieved outstanding growth rates in the globalization process. Unfortunately, this impressive growth in the emerging Asia seemly has not automatically brought about sufficient decent work for the expanding population. Particularly, temporary jobs are often claimed to be associated with lower remuneration and poor working conditions. Meanwhile, in developing Asia, where this problem is apparently acute, empirical research on this topic remains scarce. This paper attempts to fill this research gap by focusing on the interesting case of Pakistan. This research uses the Pakistani labor force survey 2008-2009. Only wage workers are kept for the analyses. The self-selection into wage workers and endogeneity associated with contract status are carefully considered. After doing different statistic tests, the control function method developed by Wooldridge (2015) appears to be the most relevant to investigate the wage differentials associated with contract status for Pakistani workers. The estimation shows that holding a fixed term written contract or no written contract instead of a long-term written contract could significantly reduce wages for Pakistani workers. However, the extent of wage inequality depends on how defining contract status. If we rely on the Pakistani national definition of fixed term contract, engaging in this job is likely to suffer the highest penalty in terms of hourly wage. Such a finding no longer holds once we refer to the international standard definition of fixed term contract. Besides, the wage gaps associated with contract status change if the monthly wage is the independent variable instead of hourly wage. These findings highlight the importance of a stable contractual arrangement and labor market regulation enforcement in tackling the wage penalty and assuring decent work for all in Pakistan. With a mega labor force and demographic dividend, Pakistan should prioritize job quality and equality to achieve inclusive and durable development and mitigate social instability. This study is a timely reply to the urgent demand for empirical evidence on contract-status-related wage differentials in Pakistan, serving as a reference for labor policymakers. JEL Classifications: J31, J41 Keywords: Wage gaps; contract status; long-term contract; fixed-term contract; non-written contract; Pakistan., INTRODUCTION In the past several decades, developing Asia has achieved outstanding growth rates in the globalization process. Unfortunately, this impressive growth in the emerging Asia seemly has not automatically brought [...]

Deepening financial integration is important for developing economies especially in Africa, that accounts for less than 2% of the world's market capitalization. Financial integration facilitates risk sharing, aids the formation of larger markets which is beneficial to the firms and smoothens consumption inter-temporally. Financial integration will be enhanced through a well-developed financial sector that is all-inclusive of the economic agents in access to financial services at a low cost and at the most convenient time. The access to funds in an integrated market is further determined by the extent of financial knowledge acquired by the economic agents with respect to basic numeracy, interest compounding, understanding inflation and risk diversification. This paper examines the effect of increasing access to financial services and the level of knowledge of financial products on the financial integration of West African Monetary Zone. The ratio of total capital flows to GDP and interest rates on public debt were used in measuring financial integration while the measures of financial inclusion include the number of commercial bank branches, number of ATM machines available, Savings, number of account holders and credit to private sector. Data covering the period 1980-2020 were employed. Unit root test using Levin, Lin and chu t-test method and Im, et al statistics methods were employed while the cointegration test was conducted using the Wald t-test before the panel autoregressive distributed lag model estimation technique was used to estimate the models. The unit root test results revealed that three out of the ten variables were stationary at level whiles others were stationary at first difference. The Wald cointegration test shows that the two equations are cointegrated. The results from the study show that increasing the number of bank branches; the number of account holders; savings; credit to private sector and improvement in the level of financial knowledge with respect to financial services deepen financial integration of the West African Monetary Zone. The policy implication of the paper is that each economy's monetary authority and financial service providers must continue to advocate and institutionalise programmes that will deepen access to and knowledge of financial services, this will improve the extent of financial integration. JEL classifications: F36, E44 and C23 Keywords: Financial inclusion, financial literacy, financial integration, WAMZ panel autoregressive distributed lag model Contact author's email address: Email: oiwegbu@unilag.edu.ng, INTRODUCTION The capital and money market are very important markets which can promote sustained financial growth and development. The market is very important especially for developing economies in addressing its [...]

Among the Latin American countries, the Mexican economy has shown since the late 1990's one of the lowest rates of economic growth. This is perplexing, because of the persistency of the stagnation tendencies, and because of the rapid growth shown by its exports, especially to the US, that reached $370 billion in 2018. The poor economic performance has had adverse consequences in terms of unemployment, emigration, social conflict, and especially in terms of the losses of female and male youth employment. This paper seeks to explain the causes of Mexico's economic stagnation. The methodology consists of the estimation of cointegration equations that express per capita economic growth as a function of the growth of labor productivity, plus the growth of the female and male employment to population ratios. Additional equations were estimated to identify the variables that explain the growth of productivity and of employment ratios and to estimate the role of deindustrialization in economic stagnation. An analysis was made of the role of female employment on the mobilization of domestic savings, on the determination of the deficit in the trade account, and on the constraint exerted by the balance of payments on growth. The source of data was the World Bank's World Development Indicators. The results indicated that female employment is an important determinant of external solvency and contributes to overcoming the balance of payments constrain on economic growth. Another salient result is the negative impact of youth unemployment on labor productivity and the negative impact of the percentage of young women that neither study nor work on economic growth. The policy implications are related to the importance of promoting male and female employment with a view towards accelerating economic growth, and the need to establish measures to facilitate women's entry into the labor market. This would require the establishment of national networks of childcare centers, the expansion of early childhood education, improving the quality of education, and increasing wages. As well, policies must be implemented to promote the reindustrialization and reagriculturalization of the Mexican economy to obtain national self-sufficiency and security and impart dynamism to economic growth. JEL classifications: O11, O14, O16, O17, J48, J71 Keywords: economic growth, productivity, gender, youth unemployment, INTRODUCTION The Mexican economy has for several decades shown some of the lowest annual rates of economic growth per capita of Latin American countries, of about 1.5%. This is surprising [...]

SUSHIL CHAUDHURY and MICHEL MORINEAU (eds.), Merchants, Companies and Trade: Europe and Asia in the Early Modern Era (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp.xi + 330. ISBN 0 521 56367 [...]

The paper considers a monetary union composed of two representative countries characterized by different inflation aversions. The model derives Nash equilibria after a country-specific shock in which the countries have a costly option to abandon the common currency. The main results are that the higher the inflation aversion of the country affected by the shock, the lower its exit probability. The higher the inflation aversion in both countries, the lower the probability that the country not directly hit also abandons the monetary union (contagion). Keywords Monetary unions * Contagion * Nash equilibria * Inflation aversion JEL Classification F30 * F31 * F41 * G01, Introduction This is a very short stylized paper focused on assessing the stability of a monetary union. The paper aims to analyze the role played by heterogeneous inflation aversions of [...]

This paper introduces a remittance-induced credit expansion in a static Keynesian macroeconomic model. A credit expansion in the monetary sector results in lowering the equilibrium level of interest rates, which in turn stimulates interest-sensitive consumption and investment. Secondly, the paper introduces a direct effect of remittances on investment. With the two extensions in a static Keynesian model of remittances, the paper derives the equilibrium level of national income and shows the effects of interactions of remittances with the monetary sector on national income. The results of the paper are illustrated numerically., 1. Introduction The World Bank report "Migration and Development Brief', 2014, states that remittance flows to all developing countries were $50 billion (US) in 2000 and that these flows rose [...]

Mike Wright, Harry J. Sapienza and Lowell W. Busenitz (eds) Venture Capital, 3 Volumes. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2003. 1560 pp. (xlvi + 437 pp., viii + 484 pp., x + [...]

This paper attempts to estimate if credit access can discipline the borrower in terms of consumption of goods like tobacco and alcohol, using a large scale agricultural credit reform from India. While such evidence of disciplining behaviour exists for group lending and microfinance programs, there is very little known about this for more formal and large scale credit programs. This paper uses a triple difference identification strategy exploiting exogenous variation in the reach of the program generated by institutional features and coverage intensities. Essentially, the methodology relies on differences in mean outcomes between districts having more banking infrastructure and the ones having less number of banks, states that are politically aligned with the centre versus ones that are not and states that have high initial program penetration with states that are laggards in implementation. The idea is that in the absence of the actual policy variation, these triple differences would be statistically indistinguishable from zero. The paper relies on nationally representative household survey data from India for the analysis. The findings suggest that access to credit leads to a decline in consumption expenditure on temptation goods such as tobacco and other intoxicants but increases expenditure on necessary items such as food. While usually such results are explained by the presence of strict monitoring regimes in institutions such as microfinance, in our case because there is no clear monitoring regime, alternate explanations must be explored. Intuitively the results can be explained by lack of stress from peer pressures of repayment leading to reduced dependence on intoxicants. The paper contributes to the literature by providing novel evidence of reduced consumption of intoxicants with access to credit in a non-monitored environment. Major policy implications coming out of this study is that it may not always be necessary to have a strict regiment for monitoring of loan usage and repayments as it may be counterproductive. It may be far more efficient to have a more liberal credit program with simple norms for eligibility which will not only relax credit constraints but also lower stress levels of borrowers. Given the agricultural credit angle of the program under study, such policies may eventually be beneficial in lowering farmer suicides resulting from stress of repayments. JEL Classifications: O12; D12 Keywords: temptation goods; consumption; agricultural credit reform; Kisan credit cards Contact Author's Email Address: somdeep@iiml.ac.in, INTRODUCTION Credit market institutions are often considered to be commitment devices for individuals to get around the problem of time-inconsistency and self-control, allowing the poor to commit themselves to a [...]

This objective of this paper is to analyze the impact of human capital on economic growth in North African countries usinga threshold model applied to panel data over the 1985/2017 period. The results revealed the significant impact of the human capital threshold on economic growth, which reflects higher levels of financial development and high trade openness. For a long time, the economic growth in the North African countries has been based mainly based on traditional economic growth factors. On the other hand, the impact of school enrollment is also significant, which implies the existence of a nonlinear relationship. In fact, school enrollment was shown to play an indirect role by increasing the impact of financial development, foreign direct investment and trade openness on economic growth, which showed that higher levels of financial development creates new business opportunities and increases the performance and efficiency of their financial sectors by ameliorating their overall economic performance .To fill this research gap, the present paper showed that the trade openness is positively correlated with economic growth, which implies the importance of globalization and trade liberalization in the valuation of economic growth. The paper finds that the high level of human capital is considered as incentive for domestic companies to easily understand the technical configurations of the technologies adopted by foreign companies .These findings are expected to help policymakers to increase the literacy rate in these countries through the improvement of the educational system to ensure economic growth , it is necessary to orient the economic policies to encourage the accumulation of human capital and improve financial intermediation .Furthermore, our results indicated that the role of education is very important for the economic activity, innovation, social and even political changes and democratic transitions. JEL Classifications: J24, D63, O50, O55 Keywords: Human capital, economic growth, Panel Threshold Model, North African Countries Contact Author's Email Address:saoussenouhibi@yahoo.fr, INTRODUCTION The North African countries are vulnerable to both the impact of the 2008 world financial crisis and the 2011 Arab spring movement. These economic shocks had a significant impact [...]

The literature on the finance-growth nexus predominantly suggests that finance affects growth through capital accumulation in developing countries. The existing literature has also produced conflicting findings on the impact of finance on economic growth. This paper suggests that the infusion of financial technology into Africa can propel the continent to distribute credit into productive sectors that can induce per capita income convergence between the continent and the United State of America, the world's technological leader. The paper also examines whether shocks in the growth of financial resources are responsible for economic growth in Africa. In the first instance, the paper employed contemporaneous cross-sectional analysis using the robust least square tool to ascertain the long-run per capita income convergence between Africa and the United States if financial resources are channeled into productivity growth. In the second instance, a dynamic generalized method of moment tool was employed to implement both symmetry and asymmetry impact of finance on the growth of Africa. The paper's objectives are analyzed based on country-level data obtained from the World Bank, PennWorld Table 9.0, and the Heritage Foundation. The paper also explores the impact of sub-regional economic integration by analyzing the role of the various economic groupings in Africa in channeling financial resources into growth. The contemporaneous analyses suggest that the level of financial development can propel African countries to converge to the per capita income level of the United States of America in the long run provided other growth fundamentals such as human capital, trade openness, and telecommunication infrastructure are present. 13 African countries, given their level of financial development and other policy measures are likely to converge to the per capita income of the USA. In the dynamic analysis, we find that lower growth in financial systems development is detrimental to economic growth. However, the growth in financial development in the various economic groupings in the continent produces divergent responses on economic growth. Whereas financial innovation in COMESA and ECCAS induces economic growth, that of ECOWAS and ARABMAG is detrimental to economic growth. The evidence makes a strong case for measures to promote productivity-oriented financial intermediation in Africa. The African Union should liaise with the financial institutions to encourage them to channel more financial resources to support innovation in the private sector to boost industrialization and therefore aid in the realization of sustainable development. The partnership with the financial sector should be tailored-made to suit the special needs of the various sub-regions of the continent. Anthony Adu-Asare Idun University of Cape Coast, Ghana JEL Classifications: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05. Keywords: Africa, Convergence, Innovation, Financial development, Economic growth Corresponding Author's Email Address: aidun@ucc.edu.gh, INTRODUCTION The world has embraced the tenets of globalization to the extent that physical barriers do not impede the transfer of technology from technological innovators to laggards. Similarly, models exist [...]