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Advocating for the establishment of the maize grain marketing board and futures market in Malawi as multifaceted approach to achieve several sustainable development goals by 2030
Get PDFMaize is equated to life in Malawi and has substantial influence on the policy rate determined by the monetary authorities. The results of this study show that the price of maize has significantly gone up from US0.74/kg in Malawi while annualised minimum wage has been decreasing from US365.40 forcing more Malawians to spend more portion of their depressed earnings in buying expensive maize leading to dwindling living standards. The actual perennial maize deficit in Malawi is much higher than reported when postharvest losses, animal feed, industrial usage and informal crossborder trading are factored. Maize must be treated as a special crop and establish a formal market through establishment of a maize grain marketing board and enforce formal trading through maize futures to control quantity volatility and enhance price discovery
Assessing the Impact of Firm Attributes on the Adoption of Innovations in Sri Lankan SMEs
Get PDFThis study highlights several critical insights into the innovation behaviour of Sri Lankan SMEs. The consistent positive impact of bank loan accessibility across all innovation types underscores the essential role of finance in enabling innovations. In Sri Lanka, where many SMEs face collateral-related credit constraints, this finding signals the urgent need to expand accessible and innovation-linked financing mechanisms. Similarly, the positive association of product customisation with innovation suggests that customer-oriented strategies are a practical pathway for SMEs to enhance competitiveness through incremental innovations.
However, increased competition was found to discourage product and process innovations. In the Sri Lankan context, this may reflect market saturation in certain sectors and price-driven competition that leaves little room for innovation investments. It also indicates a need for strategic support to help SMEs move from survival-based competition to value-based competition. The negative relationship between institutional support and innovation may point to the inefficiency or misalignment of government Programmes and public sector initiatives. Many such initiatives in Sri Lanka tend to be bureaucratic and detached from the ground-level challenges of SMEs, resulting in limited uptake or practical impact.
Based on these findings, several policy actions are recommended. First, Sri Lanka should enhance innovation-oriented credit schemes, particularly through institutions like the SME Banks and Regional Development Banks (RDB), targeting process and product innovations with favourable terms. Second, existing institutional support services should be restructured to be more demand-driven, localized, and participatory, including mentoring, innovation vouchers, and technical consultancy services. Third, fostering SME collaboration through industry clusters and value chains can help reduce the adverse effects of intense competition. Finally, innovation Programmes should actively promote customer-centric business models and product tailoring as viable strategies for SME growth in both urban and rural settings
Mining Exploration Business Strategy around Logging Roads
Get PDFA mining exploration company, Kermode Resources Ltd, provides an example of surface sampling results from the logging road, and this article describes methods for data visualization of exploration results. The paper uses a bottom-cut as an example of a descriptive statistical method to determine whether the best results cluster in one particular spatial area, using public results from Kermode. The paper introduces a toy model of the area around these sampling results and uses it to discuss potential acid rock drainage. Further, the paper describes a possible synergy between the mining exploration and forestry: when a logging road uses sulphide-rich rocks, it creates a potential pain point for the forestry industry because of increased pollution from heavy metals; however, these same sulphide-rich outcrops are a potential pleasure point for a mining exploration company seeking to find a minerals deposit
On Significant Misunderstandings in Macroeconomics
Get PDFI present arguments on significant misunderstandings in macroeconomics about relationship between investment and savings. I will show that investment and savings are undertaken by the same economic agent.
To summarize the meaning of Investment = Savings most simply, (setting aside the government and overseas factors) since savings are defined as income minus consumption, spending money on consumption increases the recipient's income without changing savings. Spending money on investment also increases the recipient's income, but since it's not consumption, the “minus consumption” component doesn't occur, so savings increase. Therefore, investment equals savings. The intermediary function of banks has nothing to do with it.
Excluding the government and overseas sectors, total financial assets amount to zero. Therefore, savings in the equation investment = savings do not represent the accumulation of financial assets. Instead, investment represents the accumulation of fixed assets. Consequently, this savings also constitutes an increase in fixed assets.
Both investment and savings involve spending money to purchase goods. Defining savings as income minus consumption minus investment yields
savings = fiscal deficit plus current account surplus.
This correctly represents changes in financial assets
Spatial and Temporal Boundaries in Difference-in-Differences: A Framework from Navier-Stokes Equation
Get PDFThis paper develops a unified framework for identifying spatial and temporal boundaries of treatment effects in difference-in-differences designs. Starting from fundamental fluid dynamics equations (Navier-Stokes), we derive conditions under which treatment effects decay exponentially in space and time, enabling researchers to calculate explicit boundaries beyond which effects become undetectable. The framework encompasses both linear (pure diffusion) and nonlinear (advection-diffusion with chemical reactions) regimes, with testable scope conditions based on dimensionless numbers from physics (P\'eclet and Reynolds numbers). We demonstrate the framework's diagnostic capability using air pollution from coal-fired power plants. Analyzing 791 ground-based PM monitors and 189,564 satellite-based NO grid cells in the Western United States over 2019-2021, we find striking regional heterogeneity: within 100 km of coal plants, both pollutants show positive spatial decay (PM: , km; NO: , km), validating the framework. Beyond 100 km, negative decay parameters correctly signal that urban sources dominate and diffusion assumptions fail. Ground-level PM decays approximately twice as fast as satellite column NO, consistent with atmospheric transport physics. The framework successfully diagnoses its own validity in four of eight analyzed regions, providing researchers with physics-based tools to assess whether their spatial difference-in-differences setting satisfies diffusion assumptions before applying the estimator. Our results demonstrate that rigorous boundary detection requires both theoretical derivation from first principles and empirical validation of underlying physical assumptions
Regional Isolation and the Absence of Demographic Spillovers: Evidence from Japanese Aging Dynamics
Get PDFThis paper tests whether demographic aging shocks propagate across Japanese municipalities through spatial and economic network channels. Using quarterly panel data on 4,547 municipalities from 2018 to 2024, I apply the spatial treatment effect framework from \citet{kikuchi2024dynamical} and \citet{kikuchi2024stochastic}, extended with a Lévy–Brownian process \footnote{A temporal jump-diffusion process combining continuous Brownian motion with Lévy jumps.} to capture discontinuous crisis events alongside continuous evolution. The central finding contradicts conventional assumptions: aging shocks remain strictly localized with zero spillovers despite connected infrastructure and dense networks. Five analyses establish this result. Perturbative decomposition shows 99.82 percent of variation explained by direct effects. Treatment effect estimates (ATT=0.355pp, ATE=0.541pp) exclude spillover components. General equilibrium multipliers of 1.04 indicate minimal amplification. Stochastic uncertainty quantification reveals that while Lévy jumps raise crisis probability from 3 to 12 percent, tail risk remains localized. Temporal trends document increasing regional isolation. The absence of spillovers reflects fundamental isolation: Tokyo concentration, infrastructure decay, service withdrawal, and economic hollowing transform Japan's spatial structure from integrated to fragmented. Regional coordination policies are ineffective; local interventions are sufficient
Artificial Intelligence Investment and Firm Profitability: Evidence from Pakistan’s Financial and Audit Sectors
Get PDFThis study investigates the impact of artificial intelligence investment on firm profitability in Pakistan’s accounting, finance, and external audit sectors by introducing a composite metric called adjusted artificial intelligence investment. The data of 28 Pakistani firms from 2020 to 2024 has been used for empirical analysis. The research integrates technological infrastructure, cybersecurity risk, and regulatory support into a unified econometric framework. The study is anchored in the technology acceptance model and the resource-based view theory to explain the strategic value and adoption dynamics of artificial intelligence. Using panel least squares, fixed effects, and random effects regressions, the results consistently reveal that adjusted artificial intelligence investment and technological infrastructure significantly enhance firm profitability, while cybersecurity risk negatively influences it. Regulatory support exhibits mixed effects, being negatively associated in pooled models but positively in fixed effects analysis, highlighting the contextual role of governance frameworks. These findings carry significant implications for multiple stakeholder groups. For firm managers, the results underscore the importance of adopting a strategic, infrastructure-backed approach to AI implementation, prioritizing integration with secure digital environments. Policymakers must move beyond generic regulatory frameworks and instead focus on designing sector-specific policies that promote innovation without compromising compliance. Investors, too, can benefit from evaluating AI maturity as a key indicator of future profitability. Therefore, the study not only confirms the financial value of AI but also highlights the ecosystem-level support needed to realize its full potential. This research fills a key gap by holistically evaluating artificial intelligence's role in shaping firm performance in a developing economy context and offers actionable insights for businesses and regulators aiming to enhance profitability through technological integration
External Variables Affecting the Transfer Pricing Decisions: Arm’s Length Basis and Transfer Pricing
Get PDFTransfer pricing estimations play a crucial role in transactions involving multinational enterprises, and the decisions regarding transfer pricing may be affected by a range of influential factors. This research investigates selected external determinants that impact transfer pricing choices made by multinational enterprises across a sample comprising 95 countries. Panel data covering the years from 2014 to 2023 has been employed for empirical analysis, and using panel data regression techniques, the study assesses the influence of several variables, including effective tax rates, the level of economic development, the extent of trade openness, and the quality of regulatory institutions, which shape the strategies of multinational enterprises concerning profit shifting. The findings indicate that lower levels of taxation, weaker enforcement of legal standards, and greater trade openness contribute to a higher probability of manipulative transfer pricing behavior. The research concludes that practices related to base erosion and profit shifting can be curtailed by improving the strength of legal enforcement mechanisms
Climate Shocks, Local Governance Quality, and Household Economic Resilience: Micro-Level Evidence from Vietnam
Get PDFThis paper examines whether and how local governance quality shapes household economic resilience to climate shocks in Vietnam - one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable emerging economies. Combining nationally representative microdata from three rounds of the Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey (2018, 2020, 2022) with province-year indicators of disaster severity and governance performance (PAPI), we estimate a pooled ordinary least squares (OLS) and interaction model with two-way fixed effects at the province and year levels to identify the moderating role of governance in the climate shock–income relationship. The results show that climate shocks significantly reduce household per-capita income, but higher-quality provincial governance substantially attenuates these losses. Marginal effects indicate that in high-governance provinces, the income-dampening effect of shocks becomes negligible. Moreover, governance benefits are markedly larger for vulnerable groups, including poor, rural, and agricultural households, suggesting that institutional quality can be inherently pro-poor in climate-stressed contexts. These findings advance the resilience and governance literature by providing micro-level causal evidence from a developing country and highlight governance strengthening as a core policy lever for climate adaptation, equitable development, and inclusive growth
Принципы институционального дизайна как основа для конструирования механизмов совместной деятельности
Get PDFВ данном исследовании используется концепция (фреймворк) «Институциональный анализ и развитие» (ИАР), одним из соавтором которой является нобелевский лауреат Элинор Остром. ИАР используется для разработки абстрактной модели механизмов совместной социально-экономической деятельности. Обобщая принципы институционального дизайна ИАР, предлагаемое исследование описывает структуру и ключевые функции абстрактного механизма совместной деятельности и определяет набор конструктивных элементов, позволяющих создавать реальные механизмы, такие как «сети», «иерархии», «рынки» и «институты». Механизмы совместной деятельности, выполняющие функции координации и управления, анализируются через призму режимов коммуникации — прямых, косвенных и отсутствующих. Построение механизмов совместной деятельности рассматривается как задача выбора комбинации конструктивных элементов, оптимальным образом соответствующих характеристикам заданной совместной деятельности и окружающей среды. Обсуждаются перспективы разработки формальной модели механизмов совместной деятельности. Вводится понятие «метамеханизма», который обеспечивает эволюцию и гибридизацию традиционных механизмов. Данный подход позволяет объяснить как разнообразные механизмы возникают и адаптируются к социально-экономическим сложностям. Подход дает теоретическую основу для исследования путей совершенствования систем коллективных действий. Результаты могут быть использованы для исследований в областях организационного дизайна и институциональной экономики, включая управление общими ресурсами.
This paper examines the application of the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework co-authored by Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom to develop an abstract model of mechanisms for socio-economic activity. Summarizing the principles of institutional design in IAD, the paper describes the structure and key functions of an abstract mechanism for joint activity and identifies a set of design elements that allow for the creation of real mechanisms such as networks, hierarchies, markets, and rules/institutions. The joint activity mechanisms that function as coordination and governance tool are analyzed through the prism of communication modes: direct, indirect, and absent. Designing the mechanisms is viewed as a task of selecting a combination of design elements that best match the characteristics of a given joint activity and the environment. Prospects for developing a formal model of the mechanisms are also discussed. The paper introduces the concept of a metamechanism that enables the evolution and hybridization of traditional mechanisms. This approach helps explain how diverse mechanisms emerge and adapt to socio-economic complexities. It provides a theoretical basis for investigating ways to improve collective action systems. The results can be used for research in the areas of organizational design and institutional economics, including the management of public resources