176 research outputs found
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Economic resilience under COVID-19 in the CEMAC zone: Are procyclical adjustments of capital requirements necessary?
Full text linkAbstract. This paper analyzes the effects of procyclical regulatory capital adjustments on the ability of CEMAC economies to recover from the COVID-19. To achieve the objective, it uses quarterly data from 2005 to 2020 and Generalized Least Squares estimators as a technique. The results obtained show that the severity of the COVID-19 significantly impacted the economies of the sub-region and their ability to be resilient. Further, the results are robust regardless of the economic resilience indicator considered. Pro-cyclical capital adjustments in the pandemic context have a positive impact on resilience, thereby reducing exposure to economic vulnerabilities. It is advisable to promote countercyclical adjustments of regulatory capital to improve economic resilience. This is regardless the fact that under COVID-19, economic contractions may induce banks to adopt more pro-cyclical behavior in order to reduce the vulnerability of economies.Keywords. Economic resilience; COVID 19; CEMAC; Capital requirements.JEL. E51; G32; O11; C23; N20
Impact of institution building and foreign direct investment on economic growth
Full text linkAbstract. This study tests the hypothesis that institution building leads to FDI inflows and promotes economic growth rates. We also compare the estimation results when multiple institutional variables are used, and examine whether broad legal and institutional stability is important and whether specific articles are important for FDI inflows. The results of the verification revealed that (1) institution building leads to FDI inflows and promotes economic growth rates, (2) robust results are obtained regardless of multiple legal and institutional indicators, and (3) among the legal systems, the specific deregulation of capital account regulations, laws affect FDI inflows and economic growth, and (4) the combination of an increase in broad-based legal system stability and the relaxation of capital account regulations together will promote FDI and economic growth. In other words, it is confirmed that investor and public confidence in the government and judiciary for the stability of the extensive legal system, including the protection of property rights, will bring about an inflow of foreign direct investment. (5) While FDI inflows are critical to economic growth, the study found that among institutional factors, improvements in legal and institutional capacity, in particular, are highly effective in bringing about economic growth through a rise in FDI. The importance of both capital account regulations, which are indicators that have a direct impact on foreign investors considering FDI, and legal system indicators, which show the degree of legal compliance by domestic residents, indicates that relaxing capital account regulations alone is not enough to fully promote FDI inflows. It means that the degree of legal compliance of domestic residents must be high to further promote FDI inflows. In other words, FDI inflows will bring economic growth through the maturation of the rule of law.Keywords. FDI; Barro regression; Economic Growth; Institution.JEL. O47; F30; F33; O43
Influencers on economic issues in Latin America, Spain and the United States II
Full text linkAbstract. The technological progress in our modern societies has witnessed the emergence of persons who deploy different means of communication across social networks, seeking to generate an impact among their audiences. These efforts in social media communications attempt to alter consumption preferences and patterns, political choices, as well as reinforce or modify opinions of all sorts and stripes. Individuals who attain greater relevance due to effects they trigger on third parties are characterized as influencers, and one of their preferred means of communication are online platforms or social media. Among them, Twitter stands out as the most conducive space for debates on ideas, political parties, or public policies. This social media platform is a microblogging service that allows a person to send short messages (up to 280 characters) that are displayed on a user’s individual page, and that are replicated on their followers’ pages. In this paper, we aim to identify the most important influencers in Latin America, the United States and Spain, who use this social media network to debate issues primarily related to economics and economic policy. On this subject, there is a very strong discussion about the role that the government should play in economic life, the pros and cons of greater regulation, the problem of income distribution, the impact of inflation, and the nature of free markets and capitalism. We will first describe the methodology we employed, in order to then proceed to illustrate a ranking of the ten most relevant influencers, in terms of number of followers, from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Spain, and the United States. We then explore their profiles and present an analysis of the economic issues debated on the relevant Twitter accounts on a per country basis. Based on this analysis, we present a hypothesis on the positioning of influencers in economic matters. Finally, the global reach of the universe of influencers that are considered in this essay is described and measured.Keywords. Technological progress; Social media communications; Influencers; Economists.JEL. A10
Inter-university competition in different competitive environments
Full text linkAbstract. This study examines the policy effects adopted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), the regulatory authority, on Japanese higher education, the university. It analyze using data to analyse the effects of both regional development and the improvement of the quality of education. Three hypotheses were tested regarding the MEXT's policies on quality assurance, such as increasing the number of universities, diversification of education, regional development, accreditation systems and subsidies for private education, which the MEXT has been working on since the 2000s following the relaxation of the criteria for establishing universities. The results of analysis shows that the number of students choosing regional universities did not increase, only the number of regional universities increased. In addition, small regional universities have not been able to differentiate themselves. It was confirmed that small universities are fully competitive and that the improvement in the quality of education has not been a factor in increasing the number of students at regional universities.Keywords. Competition; University; Policy effect; Differentiation.JEL. M10; I21; I23; I26
What is structure and mechanisms of governance of agro-ecosystem services in Bulgaria
Full text linkAbstract. The products and the variety of direct and indirect benefits that humans receive from nature and the various ecosystems (agricultural, forest, grass, mountain, river, marine, etc.) are commonly known as ecosystem services. Agricultural ecosystems of different types and their specific “agro-ecosystem” services are among the most widespread in the world. In recent years increasing attention is given to the system of (“good”) governance as a key to achieving public, collective, corporate, and private goals in relation to conservation and improvement of (agro)ecosystem services. Nevertheless, in Bulgaria, like in many other countries, there are few studies on the amount and importance of agro-ecosystem services, and the specific mechanisms, modes, factors, and efficiency of their management. This article tries to fill the gap and presents the results of a large-scale study on the structure and governance of diverse ecosystem services of Bulgarian farms. Firstly, it identifies the type, amount, and importance of various (provisional, economic, recreational, aesthetic, cultural, educational, supporting, water and air purification, biodiversity preservation, climate regulation, etc.) ecosystem services maintained and “produced” by the Bulgarian farms of different juridical type, size, specialization, and location. The study has found out that country’s farms provide a great number of essential ecosystem services among which provisioning food and feed, and conservation of elements of the natural environment prevail. Secondly, it identifies and assesses the efficiency and complementarities of specific modes and mechanisms of governance of ecosystem services used by the Bulgarian farms. The study had found out that a great variety of private, market, collective, public and hybrid modes of governance of farm activity related to agroecosystem services are applied. There is significant differentiation of employed managerial forms depending on the type of ecosystem services and the specialization of agricultural holdings. Furthermore, the management of agroecosystem services is associated with a considerable increase in the production and transaction costs of participating farms as well as big socio-economic and environmental effects for agricultural holdings and other parties. The factors that mostly stimulate the activity of Bulgarian agricultural producers for protection of (agro)ecosystems and their services are participation in public support programs, access to farmers' advice, professional training, available information, and innovation, received direct subsidies from EU and national government, personal conviction and satisfaction, positive experience of others, long-term and immediate benefits for the farm, and integration with suppliers, buyers, and processors. The suggested holistic and interdisciplinary framework for analyzing the system of management of agro-ecosystem services is to be further extended and improved, and more widely and periodically applied in the future. The later requires systematic in-depth multidisciplinary research in this new area, as well as the collection of original micro- and macro information on ecosystem survives, and forms, efficiency, and factors of their management. The accuracy of analyzes is to be improved by increasing representativeness through enlarging the number of surveyed farms and related agents, applying statistical methods, special "training" of participants, etc. as well as improving the official system for collecting agricultural, agro-economic, and agri-environmental information in the country.Keywords. Ecosystems, Services, Governance, Efficiency, Agriculture, Farms, Bulgaria.JEL. Q10, O31, O33, Q01, Q16, Q18
How do SMEs ensure a balanced financial structure despite bank credit rationing?
Full text linkThe aim of this article is to highlight ex-ante financial imbalance so as to propose means of funding the long and medium term needs of SMEs confronting excessive bank credit rationing in order to achieve a balanced financial structure. It is based on two surveys, the first one was carried out in 2011 on 70 Cameroonian SMEs; it enabled to highlight the frequency of occurrence of alternative funding methods for SMEs’ long and medium term needs. The second one was conducted between 2013 and 2016 on 452 SMEs in Cameroon; we resorted to the above-mentioned frequencies of occurrence to spotlight the funding methods used by SMEs in a context of bank credit rationing. We then brought out the mechanisms by which SMEs achieve financial equilibrium. So our first investigation pointed to the following constantly used funding methods: equity, tontines (savings and loan associations), help from relatives, microfinance institutions, bank loans, leasing. As for the second study, there are tontines (savings and loan associations), microfinance institutions, inter-company credit, help from relatives, help from friends, contributions from associates, leasing institutions, associations, capital increase. The results thus obtained could constitute a hopeful prospect in line with the models by Modigliani and Miller, Myers and Majluf, and Quintart for those showing interest in the funding of SMEs in a context of excessive credit rationing.Keywords. SME; Rationing; Structure.JEL. E50; G21; G24; N10; O16
Taxation and mobility in dualistic models– (and) Some neglected issues of fiscal federalism
Full text linkAbstract. In this paper we present and confront the expected outcome of a raise in earnings taxes on the regional or sectoral allocation of labor force and employment. The basic frameworks are the benchmark dualistic scenarios. A single-input analysis of an homogeneous product economy is provided once extensions were designed to highlight the role of mobility barriers and how they interact with local wage-setting rules to determine regional allocation rather than trade issues or factor substitution. We report the main effects on equilibrium local after-tax wages, supply, employment and aggregate welfare surplus of a unilateral as well as a simultaneous unit tax increase of the (a) basic two-sector model in six different scenarios: free market; partial (one-sector) coverage with perfect intersector mobility; partial (one-sector) coverage with imperfect mobility (Harris-Todaro); multiple (two-sector) coverage with imperfect mobility (Bhagwati-Hamada); partial (one-sector) coverage with affiliation restrictions in the covered sector; partial (one-sector) coverage with limited employment generation ability in the traditional uncovered sector. Needless to say, the results would apply to any other production factor, one or other scenario being more appropriate for inference of the consequences of differential taxation systems.Keywords. Taxation and migration, Taxation and mobility, Taxation and segmented labor markets, Regional labor markets, Fiscal federalism.JEL. O15, O18, O24, R13, R23, R59, H29, H71, H73, J42, J61, J62, J68, F22, F42