83 research outputs found
Essays on the effect of inflation volatility and institutions on growth and development
No full textThe purpose of this dissertation is to analyze empirically and theoretically the impact of the decrease in inflation volatility versus the impact of the improvement in institutions on growth and development. The first chapter of this dissertation estimates the effects of inflation and inflation volatility on economic growth in the presence of different degrees of legal and financial institutions. The main contribution of this chapter is to show that while the level of inflation does not have a significant effect on growth, which is in line with previous studies; inflation volatility does significantly impact growth even for countries with moderately high levels on inflation. In addition, improving either legal or financial institutions has a statistically significant positive impact on growth and helps to reduce the negative impact of inflation volatility on growth.
The second chapter analyzes the channel through which inflation volatility and financial institutions affect a country's ability to borrow on international capital markets; which affects their ability to invest and therefore grow. The findings of this chapter show that reducing inflation volatility or improving financial institutions will significantly improve a country's sovereign debt rating leading to a drop in its cost of borrowing, which is to be quantified. One important contribution of this chapter is to show that it is inflation volatility that is important in determining a country's sovereign debt rating rather than the level of inflation which has been argued in the literature.
The welfare implications of the decrease in inflation volatility versus the improvement in institutions are quantified in chapter three. This chapter analyzes a micro-foundation based small open economy model that is used to help fully understand the dynamics of a decrease in inflation volatility and an improvement in institutions for a developing economy. The study finds that the welfare effect of improving institutions and of reducing inflation volatility is large with the largest effect being caused by an improvement in financial institutions. One policy implication of these results is that developing economies can get larger welfare gains from improving their institutions than from reducing inflation volatility.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical references (p. 177-188)by Noha Emar
Participatory Strategic Foresight Framework: Embracing Future Thinking in Design Education and Community Vision Planning
No full textChanges in society, student expectations, and technology continue to shift the ways in which we learn. The contemporary state of design education is being affected by changes in the professional realm that requires a future thinking-centered design to increase the citizen participation in designing their own future city-environment. As new forces reshape the academic landscape and conversations around educational accessibility pervade public debate, examining existing methodologies of design research and curricula is significant to enhance the student experience and equip them with the skills needed for future professional practice. Future thinking can be seen as a crucial premise to approach solving a problem in an innovative way. It is particularly essential
at circumstances in which challenges are complex, vague, and ambiguous. Any futures-focused effort, strategic foresight, or provocation about an alternate future scenario is a means of exploring and learning from generated possibilities. Design-Futures deal with the role of design in shaping future alternatives. Future thinking incorporates two particular approaches: diverging and converging. It requires both a flexible way of understanding, to come with different thoughts, and know-how to make responsible decisions. This chapter reviews the literature crossing strategic foresight and interior design with the accentuation put on how design students, educators and design practitioners may engage with the future to investigate the challenges to decision-making.
The author has developed a framework crossing the area of service & product design through future thinking, user and community centered design. The framework is structured to educate design practitioners effectively and also empower them to lead the market as change-makers. This paper will present case studies of participatory design workshops that addressed different areas of
concern but were underpinned by a shared approach. Through this framework, conclusion is presented as the elaboration of a futures thinking framework that can contribute to many other design disciplines
Popularity of Floorball in the Czech Republic
No full textof bachelor thesis Title of thesis: Popularity of floorball in the Czech Republic Name of the author: Jakub Noha Department: Department of Kinanthropology and Humanities Subject of study: Sports management Head of the thesis: PhDr. Vladimír Janák CSc. Number of pages: 70 Number of enclosures: 1 Year of the Oral defence: 2011 Methodics: electronic questioning, analyse, evaluation and interpretation of facts Key words: Popularity, history and development of floorball, marketing research, electronic questioning, floorball at schools, popularity of floorball Summary: The bachelor thesis is about the research of populartity of floorball in the Czech Republic espacially among rising generation and also about awareness and konwledge of this sport. In the first part there is introduced genesis and development of floorball in the world and in the Czech Republic. There is described in more detail the process of marketing research. The other part presents results achieved by electronic questioning
Victoria K, Delphine Seyrig et moi ou La petite chaise jaune : un matrimoine en conversion d’archives
No full textLe texte lauréat du Prix RFI Théâtre (2019) Victoria K, Delphine Seyrig et moi ou La petite chaise jaune (2021) de Valérie Cachard s’inscrit dans la mouvance de la « littérature hors du livre » (Rosenthal et Ruffel, 2010 : 4), où l’auteur·trice légitime la réception de son texte à travers une performance narrative. Après avoir interrogé la nature et le bien-fondé des archives intimes de Victoria K, lettres extraites de son journal intime abandonné dans sa maison, l’article s’intéresse aux allers-retours entre la fiction et le réel fictionnel qui systématisent une mémoire solidaire de la guerre civile en apparence fragmentaire. La performance du texte à Beyrouth par la dramaturge et son acolyte artistique Hadi Deaibes tend à éroder les dimensions sociopolitiques de l’archivage au profit d’une hybridation des identités scéniques. Cette contribution, coécrite par Noha Nemer et son amie de longue date Valérie Cachard, propose une réflexion sur l’expropriation discursive, esthétique et scénique d’une littérature intimiste.The award-winning text of the RFI Theater Prize (2019), Victoria K, Delphine Seyrig et moi ou La petite chaise jaune (2021) by Valérie Cachard, falls within the trend of “literature beyond the book” (“littérature hors du livre”; Rosenthal and Ruffel, 2010: 4), where the author legitimizes the reception of their text through a narrative performance. After questioning the nature and validity of the intimate archives of Victoria K – letters taken from her diary left behind in her house – the article focuses on the back-and-forth between fiction and fictional reality, which creates a cohesive memory of the seemingly fragmented civil war. The text’s performance in Beirut by the playwright and her artistic collaborator Hadi Deaibes tends to erode the sociopolitical dimensions of archiving in favor of a hybridization of stage identities. This contribution, co-written by Noha Nemer and her long-time friend Valérie Cachard, offers a reflection on the discursive, aesthetic, and scenic expropriation of intimate literature
The relationship between sustainable performance and economic value: an evaluation of the economic implications of sustainable development goals
No full textThis paper aims at investigating the potential effect of sustainable performance on economic value on a global country level, responding to the recent calls for accelerating the worldwide achievement of sustainable development goals (SDGs). Based on assessing the sustainable performance of the 193 UN country members for the period of 2015–2023, it is found that countries that achieve higher scores of SDGs have better economic values, represented in higher GDP outputs and lower inflation rates. These results provide two main contributions. First, the paper attempts to fill the gap in literature through providing insights on how the SDGs are being integrated into different contexts and the potential contribution of that integration to the national economic performance of each country. Second, the findings of the paper would be of interest to national/governmental policy and decision makers toward such integration
Adapting authoritarianism: institutions and co-optation in Egypt and Syria
No full textThis PhD thesis compares Egypt and Syria’s authoritarian political systems. While the tendency in social science political research treats Egypt and Syria as similarly authoritarian, this research emphasizes differences between the two systems with special reference to institutions and co-optation. Rather than reducibly understanding Egypt and Syria as sharing similar histories, institutional arrangements, or ascribing to the oft-repeated convention that “Syria is Egypt but 10 years behind,” this thesis focuses on how events and individual histories shaped each states current institutional strengthens and weaknesses. Specifically, it explains the how varying institutional politicization or de-politicization affects each state’s capabilities for co-opting elite and non-elite individuals.
Beginning with a theoretical framework that considers the limited utility of democratization and transition theoretical approaches, the work underscores the persistence and durability of authoritarianism. Chapter two details the politicized institutional divergence between Egypt and Syria that began in the 1970s. Chapter three and four examines how institutional politicization or de-politicization affects elite and non-elite individual co-optation in Egypt and Syria. Chapter five discusses the study’s general conclusions and theoretical implications.
This thesis’s argument is that Egypt and Syria co-opt elites and non-elites differently because of the varying degrees of institutional politicization in each governance system. Rather than view one country as more politically developed than the other, this work argues that Syria’s political institutions are more politicized than their Egyptian counterparts. Syria’s political arena is, thus, described as politicized-patrimonialism. Syria’s politicized-patrimonial arena produces uneven co-optation of elites and non-elites as they are diffused through competing institutions. Conversely, the Egyptian political arena remains highly personalized as weak institutions and individuals are manipulated and molded according to the president’s ruling clique. This is referred to as personalized-patrimonialism. As a consequence, Egypt’s political establishment demonstrates more flexibility in ad hoc altering and adapting its arena depending on the emergence of crises.
This study’s theoretical implications suggest that, contrary to modernization and democratization theory’s adage that institutions lead to a political development, politicized institutions within a patrimonial order actually hinder regime adaptation because consensus is harder to achieve and maintain. It is within this context that Egypt’s de-politicized institutional framework advantages its top political elite. In this reading of Egyptian and Syrian politics, Egypt’s personalized political arena is more adaptable than Syria’s. These conclusions do not indicate that political reform is a process underway in either state
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry in the Syrian Arab Republic : AN EVALUATION OF THE COMMISSION‟S EFFECTIVENESS AND EFFICACY IN SYRIA
No full textThe aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and effectiveness1 of the work done by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (CoI) in the Syrian Arab Republic. This study strives to evaluate how well the commission succeeded in pursuing its mandate as stated, in addition to, evaluating how well the work of the commission in Syria was perceived to have been fulfilled by the people affected and involved. This study applies a qualitative approach. In order to obtain more in depth information of the commission‟s work the study combines interviews with a number of stakeholders, a literature study, in addition to, the author‟s own acquired experience from the United Nations. This study reveals that the main reason for the unwillingness of Syria to cooperate with the commission was due to the fact that the people, as well as, the government of Syria perceive the United Nations to be biased and to have lost the humanitarian aspect. The Col Syria overall fulfilled their mandate and it was performed as efficiently as could be given the constraints it faced. Yet, the work of the UN and the UN mandated missions are not perceived to be effective or satisfactory. The UN branches are perceived to be too politically affected and no longer prioritize the people of a country. Keywords: Syria, United Nations, International Independent Commission of Inquiry, EvaluationThe aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and effectiveness1 of the work done by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (CoI) in the Syrian Arab Republic. This study strives to evaluate how well the commission succeeded in pursuing its mandate as stated, in addition to, evaluating how well the work of the commission in Syria was perceived to have been fulfilled by the people affected and involved. This study applies a qualitative approach. In order to obtain more in depth information of the commission‟s work the study combines interviews with a number of stakeholders, a literature study, in addition to, the author‟s own acquired experience from the United Nations. This study reveals that the main reason for the unwillingness of Syria to cooperate with the commission was due to the fact that the people, as well as, the government of Syria perceive the United Nations to be biased and to have lost the humanitarian aspect. The Col Syria overall fulfilled their mandate and it was performed as efficiently as could be given the constraints it faced. Yet, the work of the UN and the UN mandated missions are not perceived to be effective or satisfactory. The UN branches are perceived to be too politically affected and no longer prioritize the people of a country. Keywords: Syria, United Nations, International Independent Commission of Inquiry, EvaluationThe aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and effectiveness1 of the work done by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (CoI) in the Syrian Arab Republic. This study strives to evaluate how well the commission succeeded in pursuing its mandate as stated, in addition to, evaluating how well the work of the commission in Syria was perceived to have been fulfilled by the people affected and involved. This study applies a qualitative approach. In order to obtain more in depth information of the commission‟s work the study combines interviews with a number of stakeholders, a literature study, in addition to, the author‟s own acquired experience from the United Nations. This study reveals that the main reason for the unwillingness of Syria to cooperate with the commission was due to the fact that the people, as well as, the government of Syria perceive the United Nations to be biased and to have lost the humanitarian aspect. The Col Syria overall fulfilled their mandate and it was performed as efficiently as could be given the constraints it faced. Yet, the work of the UN and the UN mandated missions are not perceived to be effective or satisfactory. The UN branches are perceived to be too politically affected and no longer prioritize the people of a country. Keywords: Syria, United Nations, International Independent Commission of Inquiry, EvaluationThe aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and effectiveness1 of the work done by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (CoI) in the Syrian Arab Republic. This study strives to evaluate how well the commission succeeded in pursuing its mandate as stated, in addition to, evaluating how well the work of the commission in Syria was perceived to have been fulfilled by the people affected and involved. This study applies a qualitative approach. In order to obtain more in depth information of the commission‟s work the study combines interviews with a number of stakeholders, a literature study, in addition to, the author‟s own acquired experience from the United Nations. This study reveals that the main reason for the unwillingness of Syria to cooperate with the commission was due to the fact that the people, as well as, the government of Syria perceive the United Nations to be biased and to have lost the humanitarian aspect. The Col Syria overall fulfilled their mandate and it was performed as efficiently as could be given the constraints it faced. Yet, the work of the UN and the UN mandated missions are not perceived to be effective or satisfactory. The UN branches are perceived to be too politically affected and no longer prioritize the people of a country. Keywords: Syria, United Nations, International Independent Commission of Inquiry, Evaluatio
Socialism is work. The life of Rudolf Bechyně 1881-1948
No full textThe present thesis discusses the life of Rudolf Bechyně, the eminent Czech Social-Democratic politician of the first half of the twentieth century. The author studies in a practically chronological order the life's path of the poli tician, start ing in Moravia (sti ll dur ing the era of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), over the period of the First Republic of Czechoslovakia, until his exile to London during the Second Wor ld War when Bechyně, a s the Chairman of the Council of State, became together wi th the President Edvard Beneš the main leader of the Czech resistance movement abroad. Wi th respect to extant archival materials, the thesi s focuses more systematically on the description of Bechyně' s work at the Ministry of Public Supply, as well as on the last decade of his life when the politician was forced to revalue most of hi s atti tudes and principles. Al though the author tends to follow the traditional biographical pattern, through the fate of Rudolf Bechyně he furthermore depicts the fate of the Czech Social Democratic Party. A certain excursus of the thesis is presented in an attempt at a comparison of the socialist ideas and their differentiation under the influence of the Bolshevik Revolution; and in a separate case study of the politicalcultural review Nová Svoboda published by the left-wing..
Author Correction:The power of genetic diversity in genome-wide association studies of lipids
No full textIn the version of this article initially published, Noha A. Yousri (Department of Genetic Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar, Doha, Qatar and Department of Computer and Systems Engineering, Alexandria University, Egypt) and Steven C. Hunt (Department of Internal Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA and Department of Genetic Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar, Doha, Qatar) were not included in the author list. In addition, Hieab H. H. Adams (Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands and Department of Clinical Genetics, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands) was shown with an incorrect second affiliation in the HTML and PDF versions of the article. Finally, in the HTML version, Cristen J. Willer was mistakenly listed with an extra affiliation (Princess Al-Jawhara Al-Brahim Centre of Excellence in Research of Hereditary Disorders (PACER-HD), King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia). The authors and affiliations have been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions of the article
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