Kenyan MPs will assert legislative independence

Significance The bill received cross-party support in parliament, illustrating its independence from the executive, which opposes the bill. The relationship between the executive and legislative branches is complex, with constituents and the president vying for influence among lawmakers. Impacts MPs will oscillate between independence and compliance over the next twelve months. By vetoing the banking legislation, Kenyatta risks opposing a popular measure with elections looming. Banks will compromise with the government and central bank on self-regulation to avoid legislated rates.

Significance The RBA has cut its growth forecasts amid rising job losses, weakening demand and increasing signs that the latest COVID-19 lockdowns will continue to slow the economy until the pace of the vaccine roll-out programme can be increased. Impacts Although the RBA is independent, the government will hope it keeps rates low ahead of the elections due next year. Commercial lenders could raise interest rates independently of the RBA if inflation remains high. Wage pressures will re-emerge as labour markets tighten but may be mitigated by the extent of underemployment. Economic growth will be uneven across the country in coming months as pandemic-related restrictions vary by location.


Significance The government hopes greater domestic and foreign investment can help turn around the pandemic-hit economy. The governor of Bank Indonesia (BI), the central bank, last week said GDP should grow by 4.6% in 2021, compared with last year’s 2.1% contraction. Impacts Indonesia will count on private vaccination, whereby companies buy state-procured jabs for their staff, to help speed up its roll-out. The Indonesia Investment Authority, a new sovereign wealth fund, will prioritise attracting more investment into the infrastructure sector. Singapore will continue to be Indonesia’s largest source of FDI in the short term.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheng-Fang Chou ◽  
Chih-Hsing Sam Liu ◽  
Jun-You Lin

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to illustrate the different systems controlling coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and curbing the impact of the virus on the hospitality economy. The author’s clarified the critical attributes of the government, organization management system and consumer behaviour using mediation-moderation models and demonstrated how those critical attributes influenced customer consumption intention during COVID-19 in Taiwan.Design/methodology/approachDue to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, this research is mainly distributed through online questionnaires through Facebook and other social media channels to recruit volunteers. Second, the pre-test survey used 100 questionnaires collected from juniors and seniors from a university in northern Taiwan to make predictions. Third, this study also conducted a questionnaire validity analysis, which identified 9 criteria and 34 items. Fourth, the questionnaire collected samples for a total of three months. Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses in a sample of 1,098 consumers in Taiwan.FindingsThis study considers government, enterprise and consumer levels and conducts relevant factor analysis from consumers’ perspectives to understand the changes in consumer behaviour under COVID-19 influence. Regarding mediation, this study finds that information and communication mediate the relationships between crisis management and COVID-19 impact. Regarding moderation, this study exposes the critical moderating part of human resources, that hygiene and safety strengthen the relationships between COVID-19 impact and attitude towards life and that perceived anxiety strengthens the relationship between attitude towards life and consumption intention.Practical implicationsDuring COVID-19, restaurants should cooperate with the government to reduce the risk of community infection. Therefore, the government also needs to cooperate with restaurant companies to enhance the industrial economy, actively communicate with consumers and provide correct and sufficient information. At the same time, restaurant enterprises also need to have sufficient human resource arrangements, hygiene and safety planning to eliminate consumers’ doubts.Originality/valueThese findings indicate that consumers’ consumption intention to eat out is affected by the COVID-19 impact and attitude towards life. This research also confirms that perceived anxiety has a mediating effect on the relationship between consumer attitudes towards life and consumption intentions. To improve the restaurant economic process, they should consider solutions to reduce consumers’ perception of the COVID-19 impact and fear of eating out.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marwa Ghanem ◽  
Ibrahim Elshaer ◽  
Samar Saad

Purpose This study aims to address the absence of a thorough understanding of commitment in tourism public-private partnerships (PPP) by exploring antecedents of PPP commitment and their underpinning relationships in regard to the destination management system (DMS). Design/methodology/approach An empirical investigation of the case of the Egyptian DMS, a PPP which was forsaken by the government partner and which subsequently failed. Qualitative and quantitative approaches are used for a comprehensive overview of the researched phenomena pertaining to external and internal stakeholders. Findings The results indicated that stakeholder management, relational capital, perceived benefits and stakeholder capabilities could influence intentions to commit to a tourism PPP project. Also, the latter three factors were found to mediate the relationship between stakeholder management and long-term PPP commitment. The results also shed light on the important aspects of non-contractual, interpersonal relationships between internal and external PPP stakeholders. Originality/value This research pioneers inquiries on the commitment of Tourism PPP/DMS projects and its possible drivers in a non-Western context. Also, this study contributes to knowledge by exploring the relationship within and between internal (partners) and external (e.g. local service providers) stakeholder groups and provided evidence on the crucial role of both on long-term PPP commitment and success. The current study has a few significant contributions to the PPP literature regarding the commitment and success of PPP in the complicated environments in which tourism PPP projects are operated. Moreover, this study offers essential information and practices for improving partner relationships with external stakeholders.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 174-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gro Holst Volden ◽  
Bjorn Andersen

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study public project governance frameworks in various ministries and agencies in Norway, following the introduction of such a framework on the topmost level (i.e. the cabinet) which applies to the very largest projects. Design/methodology/approach The study is methodologically designed as a qualitative assessment of project governance frameworks that apply to state-funded investment projects in selected sectors, based on data gathered through document reviews and interviews. Findings The study finds that all of the agencies have introduced their own project governance frameworks, which are basically consistent with the recommendations from the project management literature and with the cabinet’s overall requirements in Norway. By contrast, only one ministry has taken a formalized role as a project owner. Governance tasks thus seem to be extensively delegated to the subordinate agencies. This even includes strategic tasks such as project selection and portfolio management, and implies there is a risk that public project governance has a narrow and internal focus. Originality/value The paper is a first step toward a better understanding of public project governance as a hierarchical system and the relationship between project owners on three levels, the cabinet, the sectoral ministry, and the government agency.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinan Liu ◽  
Apostolos Serletis

PurposeTo investigate the complex relationship between inflation, inflation uncertainty and equity returns.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses a bivariate VARMA, GARCH-in-mean, asymmetric BEKK model to investigate the relationship between inflation, inflation uncertainty and equity returns.FindingsUsing monthly inflation and equity returns data for the G7 and EM7 economies, we find that the effects of inflation and inflation uncertainty on equity returns vary across countries.Research limitations/implicationsThe mixed evidence we find potentially reflects the changing dynamics, policy regimes, economic shocks and country-specific factors (such as differences in the financing patterns of enterprises and the legal and financial environments) across the G7 and EM7 countries.Practical implicationsWe contribute to the empirical literature in the following ways. First, we rely on a wide sample of countries, including both developed and emerging economies. Second, we extend previous research by estimating a GARCH-in-mean model of monthly equity returns in which both realized returns and their conditional volatility are allowed to vary with inflation. Previous articles that studied the relationship between inflation and stock market returns generally sought time-invariant effects of inflation on stock returns.Social implicationsThe paper helps to reconcile the divergent results of previous empirical studies and distinguish between alternative explanations of the relationship between inflation and equity returns.Originality/valueOur study provides an improved comprehension of the ambiguous relationship between inflation, inflation uncertainty and equity returns under various central bank mandates and different levels of central bank independence. The mixed empirical evidence across countries we present provides insights for the macroeconomic models that consider the relationship between uncertainty and macroeconomic performance as a fundamental building block. Therefore, our empirical study calls for further work on the relationship between inflation, inflation uncertainty and equity returns.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 933-962
Author(s):  
Zhifang Zhou ◽  
Tao Zhang ◽  
Jiachun Chen ◽  
Huixiang Zeng ◽  
Xiaohong Chen

Purpose This paper investigates the relationship between product market competition and firms’ water information disclosure and how firms’ ownership type can affect this relationship in China, offering new insights into corporate water management. Design/methodology/approach The authors investigated 303 Chinese listed companies in highly water-sensitive industries to examine how product market competition influences corporate water information disclosure by subdividing the product market competition into market competition at the firm level and the industry competition intensity at the industry level. Findings The results show that there exists an inverted U-shaped relationship between industry competition and water information disclosure; enterprises with the highest market power in a mildly competitive industry are more willing to voluntarily disclose water information and play an industry benchmarking role. Further tests demonstrate that the relationship between industry competition intensity and water information disclosure is stronger for state-owned enterprises than for private enterprises. Research limitations/implications The current water resources regulations in China are relatively lax and the water risk awareness of firms is weak, which may affect the applicability of the results. In addition, water information disclosure research is a relatively new field and a quantitative index system for water information disclosure is still in the exploratory stage. Further developments, including the selection, definition and measuring methods of a water index are required. Practical implications The authors developed a new direction of enterprise water management activities from the perspective of market competition. Based on the market conditions in China, the authors also investigated the impact of the ownership type of the enterprises on the relationship between market competition and water information disclosure. Social implications The authors suggested that the government should improve laws and regulations and adopt incentive mechanisms to encourage enterprises to implement water resource management. In addition, the government should encourage high market status enterprises to actively fulfill their environmental responsibilities so that the entire industry is encouraged to follow suit. Originality/value This study represents an important development in the field of environmental accounting and is the first research on corporate water information disclosure; it also extends the research on the influence mechanisms of market competition on the environmental management practices of enterprises.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 951-968 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ni Wayan Rustiarini ◽  
Sutrisno Sutrisno ◽  
Nurkholis Nurkholis ◽  
Wuryan Andayani

Purpose This study aims to examine the effects of fraud triangle (pressure, opportunity and rationalization) on individual fraudulent behavior in Indonesian public procurement. Empirical research in this area is relatively sparse. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected using laboratory experiments. Findings The results revealed that fraudulent behavior is higher when an individual has high pressure and high opportunity. These factors play an important role in determining individual rationalization. Most of participants used “displacing responsibility” to rationalize their actions. This study also demonstrated that negative affect mediates the relationship between fraudulent behavior and rationalization. Research limitations/implications First, fraudulent behavior research cannot be separated from social desirability bias. Second, the experiments only involved individual decision-making, not in groups. Finally, this study did not examine the effectiveness of rationalization in reducing negative affect. Practical implications Over the years, the government has only focused on the identification of pressure and reduction of opportunities, but ignored individual psychological reasons. Considering that procurement fraud is always increasing, the government must more focus on individual reasons to design an effective prevention and detection system. Social implications There are various conflicts of interest in public procurement budgeting. These conflicts can distort resource allocation and causes budget leakage. As a result, the government is incapacitated to achieve social and economic goals of the community. Originality/value There is limited research about fraud in public procurement budgeting, especially in developing countries. In addition, the fraud triangle research, which focuses on rationalization is still limited.


2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 372-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gitana Dudzevičiūtė ◽  
Agnė Šimelytė ◽  
Aušra Liučvaitienė

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide more reliable estimates of the relationship between government spending and economic growth in the European Union (EU) during the period of 1995-2015. Design/methodology/approach The methodology consisted of several different stages. In the first stage for an assessment of dynamics of government spending and economic growth indicators over two decades, descriptive statistics analysis was employed. Correlation analysis helped to identify the relationships between government expenditures (GEs) and economic growth. In the third stage, for modeling the relationship and the estimation of causality between GE and economic growth, Granger causality testing was applied. Findings The research indicated that eight EU countries have a significant relationship between government spending and economic growth. Research limitations/implications This study has been bounded by general GE and economic growth only. The breakdowns of general GE on the basis of the activities they support have not been considered in this paper, which is the main limitation of the research. Despite the limitation, it might be maintained that the research highlights key relationships in the EU countries. Originality/value These insights might be useful for policy makers. In countries with unidirectional causality running from GE to economic growth, the government can employ expenditure as a factor for growth. The governments should ensure that resources are properly managed and efficiently allocated to accelerate economic growth in the countries with unidirectional causality from GDP to GE.


2020 ◽  
Vol 119 (3) ◽  
pp. 637-645
Author(s):  
Lucía Cavallero

Since the organization of the first international feminist strikes, Argentina’s feminist movement has used the method of the assembly to produce analyses of the relationship and interconnection between sexist violence and economic violence. As part of that political process, in May 2017, the feminist movement convened a mobilization, with the slogan “We Want Ourselves Alive, Free, and Debt Free” in the doorways of the Central Bank to denounce the process of massive indebtedness of domestic economies that occurred in parallel to the taking out of debt by the state. From that moment on, a form of fighting back against financialization and the invasion of finance into increasingly more areas of the reproduction of life emerged. Today the feminist movement is questioning access to rights through debt in the struggle against the end of social security extensions (which provided important benefits to housewives and other informally employed women) and in the processes of compulsory urbanization in the peripheries of Buenos Aires. This article seeks to account for the fabric of this political process and its innovative forms of weaving together resistance against the government of finance.


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