KSP Journals
Not a member yet
1100 research outputs found
Sort by
A study on impacts of institutions on sustainability of Bulgarian agriculture
Get PDFAbstract. The interdisciplinary New Institutional Economics framework is applied and assessment made on specific effects of major components of the “external” institutional environment on agrarian sustainability level in different administrative, geographical and ecological regions, subsectors of agriculture, and farms of variousjuridical type and size in Bulgaria. Our study has found out that individual elements of external institutional, market and natural environment affect quite unequally farms of different types, individual subsectors of agriculture, and specific ecological and geographical regions.This type of studies is to be expended and their precision and representation increased. The latter however, requires a close cooperation between all interested parties, and participation of the farmers, agrarian organizations, local and central authorities, interest groups, research institutes and experts, etc.Keywords. Institutional, Market, Natural environment, Governance, Agrarian sustainability, Bulgaria.JEL. Q13, Q12, Q18, D23, E61, H23, L14, L22, L33, L51
Inflation and economic activity in Suriname
Get PDFAbctract. Maintaining a low rate of inflation and sustainable economic growth are at the core of monetary policymaking. Price stability is considered a condition for a healthy macroeconomic environment which promotes sustainable growth and a low rate of inflation is necessary to maintain stability in the financial sector as well as to boost investment activities. Motivated by the largely-discussed relationship between inflation and output, this paper examines this relationship for the economy of Suriname over the period 1975 to 2015, utilizing a vector autoregressive model and impulse response functions. The findings of the study reveal how the various sources of inflation impact on the economy of Suriname. Domestic price shocks and money-supply shocks, in particular, seem to substantially impact on economic activity. Exchange-rate shocks are detrimental to domestic prices. Based on the findings of this study, it is highly recommended for the Central Bank of Suriname to continue its prudent monetary policies in order to maintain a stable exchange rate and price stability. The study advocates for maintaining a healthy macroeconomic climate with price stability, which is a crucial condition for Suriname to follow a sustained path for economic growth and development.Keywords. Economic growth, Inflation, Time-series models.JEL. C32, E31, E47
Unemployment and wages and centralization in wage bargaining: Some analytical explanations
Get PDFAbstract. This paper discusses the relation between centralization in union bargaining and the wage-(un)employment mix. Empirical findings point to a positive relation between the degree of coordination in union bargaining and wages till a certain point, and a negative one afterwards. A theoretical argument fits such evidence, relying on the mechanism behind the free-rider problem in union bargaining. If earnings taxes were introduced to finance the unemployment insurance fund, that relation could change. The impact on the equilibrium wages and multipliers in the several scenarios is briefly explored. Indirectly, an explanation for the shape of the empirical “wage curve” is also derived.Keywords. Monopoly unions, Wage determination models, Union bargaining, Corporatism, Wage curve, Unemployment insurance.JEL. J51, J65, E24, E62, H55, H39, D42, D43
Intra-regional trade facilitation: A comparative analysis between ECCAS and ECOWAS
Get PDFAbstract. Since the advent of the Abuja Treaty, Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) recorded poor intra-regional trade performance while Economic Community of West African States (ECWAS) performed better. The objective of this paper is to comparatively analyse the impact of trade facilitation measures on intra-regional trade between those two Communities, focusing on the role of Information and Communication Technology and custom environment indicators. Using data from United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Geodist of Centre d’Etudes Prospectives et d’Informations Internationales and World Bank, our augmented gravity model results showed that internet has a positive and significant impact on the intra-ECCAS trade and no impact on intra-ECOWAS trade. Mobile phone has a positive and significant impact on the intra-regional trade in both zones. The number of days for export has a negative and significant impact on intra-regional trade in both zones, while the result of the number of document is ambiguous. The impact of the increase in these two indicators reduced trade more in ECCAS than in ECOWAS.Keywords. Trade facilitation, ICT, ECCAS, ECOWAS, Augmented gravity model.JEL. C23, H54, O24, R58
The effects of exchange rate volatility on foreign trade in Ghana
Get PDFAbstract. This paper examined the effect of real exchange rate volatility on the growth of export and import in Ghana. A monthly data was used. All the variables were cointegrated and vector error-correction model was used. It was found that, in the long-run, depreciation of real exchange rate, increase in volatility and increase in output growth were significant factors that increased the growth of export. Also, decrease in real exchange rate volatility and increase in industrial output growth were significant factors that can reduced the growth of import. However, in the short run, depreciation of real exchange rate and reduction in real exchange rate volatility were significant factors that can increase the growth of export. Also, depreciation of real exchange rate and reduction in real exchange rate volatility were significant factors that can decrease the growth of import. Finally, considering the directional causality, the current values of growth of export is determined by the past values of real exchange rate volatility Therefore, it was recommended that government policies that stabilized real exchange rate and reduce its volatility are to be encouraged to facilitate the growth of export and discourage the growth of import in Ghana.Keywords. Real exchange rate volatility, Import, Export, VECM, Cointegration.JEL. E40, E50, E60
Real level of public investment: How to manage the inflation?
Get PDFAbstract. When the government collects a supplementary indirect tax on an output, the price of that output increases by consequence. Then, using the resulting revenue for public investments will lead to an under consumption of the total revenue invested. This is due to an inflation that has been created by this mechanism. This paper investigates the determination of the net amount of investment projects taking into account the effect of inflation. We use the computable general equilibrium model to test our hypothesis. As result, we show that, some simulations are needed in order to reach the equilibrium.Keywords. Government spending, Inflation, Taxes, Investment, Computable general equilibrium.JEL. C68, E62, H50
Growth-youth unemployment nexus in upper-middle-income countries in Sub-Saharan Africa
Get PDFAbstract. The issue concerning growth-youth unemployment nexus has not been verified with respect to upper middle-income countries (UMIC) in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The importance of this paper is to ascertain the relationship between economic growth and youth unemployment based on panel and individual countries data in term of annual series data from 1991 to 2017. To achieve the objective of this paper, data were sourced from the World Bank development indicators, for GDP growth rate and youth unemployment rate. Several statistical and econometric tests were conducted, the results obtained revealed that the average GDP-growth rate was 6.36% while youth unemployment rate was 32.30% for UMIC in SSA. The individual countries statistics indicated that Gabon has the highest GDP-growth rate of 21.01% while the highest youth unemployment rate was in South Africa with 47.30%. The lowest GDP-growth rate was observed in South Africa while the lowest youth unemployment was observed in Equatorial Guinea with 11.69%. The empirical results indicated that there exists a long-run and positive relationship between the variables of GDP-growth rate and youth unemployment rate in UMIC in SSA and that Okun’s law is not applicable in these countries. Based on the results obtained statistically it revealed high rate of youth unemployment and low rate of GDP-growth within the period of study, hence this paper suggest that individual countries in the UMIC in SSA should implement youth employment scheme in order to reduce the level of unemployment with respect to this age cohort. Creation of jobs for youth will help to reduce the economic and social costs associated with youth unemployment especially in countries like South Arica, Namibia, Botswana and Gabon. The UMIC in SSA are encouraged to boost their level of economic activities through investment in order to stimulate employment of young-able body persons in UMIC in SSA.Keywords. Economic growth, Youth unemployment, Upper middle-income countries, Sub-Saharan Africa, Okuns’s coefficient.JEL. O40, O57, J64
Artifical intelligence technology in cancer imaging: Clinical challenges for detection of lung and breast cancer
Get PDFAbstract. In the domain of Artificial Intelligence, deep learning is part of a broader family of machine learning methods based on deep neural networks, deep belief networks, recurrent neural networks and convolutional neural networks that have been applied to fields including computer vision, medical image analysis, histopathological diagnosis, with results comparable to and in some cases superior to human experts. This study shows that these methods applied to medical imaging can assist pathologists in the detection of cancer subtype, gene mutations and/or metastases for applying appropriate therapies. Results show that trajectories of AI technology applied in cancer imaging seems to be driven by high rates of mortality of some types of cancer in order to improve detection and characterization of cancer to apply efficiently anticancer therapies. This new technology can generate a technological paradigm shift for diagnostic assessment of any cancer type. However, application of these methods to medical imaging requires further assessment and validation to support the efficiency of the workflow of pathologists in clinical practice and improve overall healthcare sector.Keywords. Artificial intelligence, Diagnostic assessment, Histopathology images, Deep learning algorithms, Cancer, Clinical challenges.JEL. O32, O33