Indonesian local business climate set to worsen

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Social Policies ◽  
Investment Climate ◽  
Business Climate ◽  
Municipal Governments ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Regional Autonomy ◽  
Provincial Level ◽  
Local Business ◽  
Legal Costs

Subject Outlook for the business climate at the district and municipal levels. Significance To improve the local investment climate by making it more predictable and transparent, the 2014 Regional Autonomy Law empowered national and provincial governments to revoke lower-level regulations that were violating national or provincial-level laws. However, the Constitutional Court in April ruled in favour of district and municipal governments, annulling some crucial provisions of the 2014 law. Impacts The local business climate is likely to become geographically more uneven. Discriminatory social policies, notably for women and minorities, will be harder to revoke. Legal costs for businesses wishing to challenge predatory regulations may prove prohibitive.

Colombia vote raises concerns for mining firms

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Mining Activity ◽  
Government Support ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Mining Activities ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mining Companies ◽  
Legal Costs ◽  
Mining Projects

Subject Local vetoes on mining activities. Significance Local governments opposed to mining projects planned in their districts have been awarded new powers to derail developments through a series of decisions from the Constitutional Court. On July 29, authorities in Tolima became the first to leverage one such decision in order to approve plans for a referendum over a proposed local ban on mining activity. Impacts Even firms with strong central government support will have scant protection from regulatory risk. Mining companies may see legal costs mount as they prepare appeals against court rulings that could undermine the viability of projects. Delays will further undermine government efforts to bolster Colombia's economy via the expansion of this strategic industry.

India's federal reforms could damage business climate

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Fiscal Federalism ◽  
Public Expenditure ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
State Governments ◽  
Investment Climate ◽  
Business Climate ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Regional Investment ◽  
The Cost

Subject Federal reforms. Significance Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration has been keen to advance fiscal federalism since assuming power in May 2014. To this end, the latest (14th) Finance Commission has increased the share of state governments in centrally collected taxes, from 32% to 42%. Together with other funds raised regionally, state governments will now be responsible for administering over 70% of total public expenditure in India. Yet elsewhere, state authority is being curtailed. Impacts The goods and services tax would streamline taxation, but state governments may yet block it. Should federal reforms be perceived as indirect disenfranchisement, street protests could intensify. The regional investment climate will remain fractured, forcing investors to bear the cost of navigating a complex federalist structure.

Friendly bureaucrats, formal rules and firms' investment decisions: evidence from a survey experiment in Russia

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrei Yakovlev ◽  
Denis Ivanov
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Support ◽  
Political Connections ◽  
Investment Climate ◽  
Business Climate ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
Investment Activity ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Doing Business ◽  
Personal Connections ◽  
The Relationship

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the links between investment activity and personal contacts for small- and medium-sized firms with public officials at the subnational level in Russia.Design/methodology/approachA list-experiment design, using a survey of 21,000 Russian firms in 2017, was used to evaluate the importance of personal connections with officials for conducting business.FindingsA total of 27% of firms without investment and 37% with investment considered personal connections with officials an important factor for doing business. The importance of such contacts was lower in regions with a better investment climate. However, a higher proportion of firms were likely to invest in the regions where higher importance was placed on political connections. Therefore, in Russia in the mid-2010s, investment from politically connected firms did not crowd out investment from other firms.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough the available data did not allow causality to be defined, the research shows that political connections are important for investors in emerging markets and that the importance of political connections diminishes with improvement in the business climate.Originality/valueThis paper provides a quantitative estimate of the relationship between political connections and firm investment in Russia, an example of large emerging economy. This relationship is moderated by institutional quality at the subnational level. The results provide empirical support for the theory of limited access orders elaborated by North et al. (2009), and stress the importance of rents and their productive utilization for the development of emerging economies.

The effect of local business climate on employment

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-24
Author(s):  
Stefan Fölster ◽  
Li Jansson ◽  
Anton Nyrenström Gidehag
Keyword(s):  
Instrumental Variable ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Business Climate ◽  
Structural Unemployment ◽  
Total Employment ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Climate Policies ◽  
Local Business ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse empirically whether policies to improve the local business climate affect employment in general, and among groups of immigrants that suffer from structural unemployment. Design/methodology/approach – The paper analyses the relation between Swedish entrepreneurs’ perception of the local business climate and total employment as well as employment among immigrants born outside of Europe, a group that tends to be particularly affected by structural unemployment. Instrumental variable and Arellano-Bond GMM estimation indicate that a better local business climate improves immigrants employment considerably more than total employment. Findings – The results suggest that improvements in institutions and policies that entrepreneurs perceive as shaping the business climate may have an important effect on employment, in particular employment of groups that tend to have high rates of structural unemployment. Given the limitations, the estimates appear robust over a variety of specifications. Research limitations/implications – The authors use a subjective measure of local business climate policies, but instrument this with an exogenous variable and lagged variables. The unit of observation are Swedish municipalities, which in contrast to other countries control many factors important for business. Practical implications – Employment policies often focus on labour market institutions. The results suggest that other policies and their local implementation may be equally important for employment. Unfortunately the study does not reveal much detail of which specific measures give the greatest effects. That remains to be done in future research. Social implications – The positive employment effects the authors find are particularly large for immigrants born outside of Europe. If the results are correct, then better local business climate could make an important contribution to social cohesion. Originality/value – While there are more studies that analyse the relation between entrepreneurship and employment, much fewer previous studies have tried to establish a link between business climate policies and employment. The authors do this with a novel approach.

Foreign aid’s impact on domestic business climates

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nabamita Dutta ◽  
Russell S. Sobel ◽  
Sanjukta Roy
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Foreign Aid ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
North American ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Economic Institutions ◽  
Business Climate ◽  
Government Regulations ◽  
Content Type

Purpose Existing literature has expressed significant pessimism about the outcomes of foreign aid received by developing nations. Foreign aid can lead to negative outcomes by generating greater rent-seeking opportunities and creating aid dependence. While aid’s negative impact has been explored in the context of growth, political institutions, and economic institutions, the literature has not investigated the effect of aid on business climate of recipient nations. The purpose of this paper is to explore foreign aid’s impact on government regulations on the business climate in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) and Middle East and North American countries. Design/methodology/approach The authors consider a panel of 64 countries over six years. Since foreign aid is most likely to be endogenous, as identified in most studies, the identification strategy follows two methodologies – system GMM estimator, that creates its own instruments via moment generating conditions and instrumental variable approach that relies on an external instrument. Findings The authors find that aid worsens the business climate by increasing government restrictions. Foreign aid provides the recipient governments and the political elite resources to strengthen their power and reinforce predatory policies that are harmful for the business climate. The results further show that in the presence of long-lasting and sustainable democratic regimes, the negative impact of foreign aid on business climate mitigates to a certain extent. Originality/value While aid’s negative impact has been explored in the context of growth, political institutions, and economic institutions, the literature has not investigated the effect of aid on business climate of recipient nations. The authors explore the impact of foreign aid on government regulations on the business climate in SSA and Middle East and North American countries.

Determining the factors affecting the technical efficiency scores of public hospitals using different regression methods

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bayram Şahin ◽  
Gülnur İlgün ◽  
Seda Sönmez
Keyword(s):  
Public Hospitals ◽  
Regression Analyses ◽  
Tobit Regression ◽  
Control Variables ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Provincial Level ◽  
Regression Methods ◽  
Input And Output ◽  
Dea Method

PurposeThis study aims to identify the efficiency scores of hospitals affiliated to the Ministry of Health in Turkey between the years of 2010–2015 at provincial level and to reveal the factors that affect the efficiency scores.Design/methodology/approachThe two-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) method was used to achieve the study purpose. In the first stage, DEA method based on input-oriented Charnes–Cooper–Rhodes (CCR) model was performed to calculate the efficiency scores of public hospitals at the provincial level between 2010 and 2015, and in the second stage, Tobit regression and linear regression analyses were used to identify whether the efficiency scores of provinces are affected by the input, output and control variables.FindingsUpon the analysis, the average efficiency scores of 81 provinces by years were found to vary between 0.79 and 0.89. According to both regression analyses, all of the input and output variables were found to have significant effects on the efficiency scores of provinces while only the population of province among the control variables was identified as the factor with an effect on the efficiency scores of provinces (p < 0.05).Practical implicationsThe results of this study are thought to guide health policymakers and managers in terms of both determining efficient and inefficient hospitals at the provincial level and revealing which variables should be taken into account in order to increase efficiency.Originality/valueThe study differs from previous studies on the efficiency of hospitals. First, although previous studies were generally descriptive studies to determine the efficiency level of hospitals, this study is an analytical study that tries also to show the factors affecting the efficiency of hospitals. In addition, while examining the effect of input and output variables on efficiency scores, control variables were also included in the study.

scholarly journals Delivery of the Compulsory Section 129(1) Notice as required by the National Credit Act of 2005

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 1-39
Author(s):  
Sarah Govender ◽  
Michelle Kelly-Louw
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
Consumer Credit ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Legal Action ◽  
Legal Costs ◽  
Credit Agreement ◽  
National Credit Act ◽  
Court Of Appeal

In terms of section 129(1) of the National Credit Act 34 of 2005 (NCA), a credit provider first needs to provide a consumer with notice of his default and a list of possible remedies to overcome the default, before enforcing the agreement in a court of law. This ensures that the consumer is given the opportunity to remedy his default by, for example, undergoing debt counselling instead of having to incur legal costs when defending legal action brought against him by the credit provider. Before the National Credit Amendment Act 19 of 2014 came into operation, the NCA neglected to specify how this notice should be delivered to consumers, and this has led to various conflicting decisions. The matter was eventually settled by the Constitutional Court in two separate cases. After the Constitutional Court pronounced on the matter, the National Credit Amendment Act came into operation prescribing the manner in which the notice must be delivered. Consumer-credit legislation that existed prior to the NCA coming into operation generally also made provision for similar notices to be delivered to consumers. In this article we briefly look at how the previous consumer-credit legislation dealt with the delivery of similar notices and also consider how the delivery of notices is currently governed by the NCA. Most of the problematic issues surrounding the delivery of the section 129(1) notice have been resolved, but some still remain. One such example is found in a recent Supreme Court of Appeal case, where despite the correct delivery of the notice to the consumer, the notice caused unintended jurisdictional problems for a credit provider trying to enforce the credit agreement    

scholarly journals Validating a second-order model for oil and gas projects’ investment climate scale

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdulsalam Mas’ud ◽  
Nor Aziah Abd Manaf ◽  
Natrah Saad
Keyword(s):  
Goodness Of Fit ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Fit Indices ◽  
Investment Climate ◽  
Order Model ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Latent Construct ◽  
Climate Scale ◽  
Second Order Model

Purpose The investment climate is one of the key factors considered by foreign investors while deciding their investment destination. This paper aims to attempt at validating the second-order model of oil and gas projects’ investment climate. Examination of the relationship between the dimensions of oil and gas projects’ investment climate; strategy, participants/operating environment and risk/return; and the overall latent construct was conducted. The study also evaluates the goodness of fit of the second-order model using relevant fit indices. Design/methodology/approach Oil and gas experts in Malaysian marginal oil fields subsector were deployed, through whom responses were collected that formed the data set used in the analysis. Then, the data were used for confirmatory factor analysis, evaluation of the second-order model through path analysis and for model fit evaluation. Findings The finding revealed that the second-order model of oil and gas projects’ investment climate is valid and reliable. It also revealed that all the three dimensions, strategy, participants/operating environment and risk/return, have significant effects on the formation of the oil and gas projects’ investment climate. Finally, the goodness of fit of the second-order model satisfied the relevant fit indices. Research limitations/implications The findings present valuable insights to policymakers on the extent of the influence each of the dimensions has on the overall latent construct. The validity and reliability analysis suggests the measurements of the second-order model of oil and gas projects’ investment climate construct, and its dimensions are valid, reliable and fit for future empirical research. Thus, it calls for replication in other oil and gas settings. Originality/value The findings from the results of this study are pioneering. Extant literature falls short in attempting the validation of the second-order oil and gas projects’ investment climate scale, as well as relating each of the dimensions with the overall latent construct.

Asian investments target large Latin American markets

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chains ◽  
Latin American ◽  
High Technology ◽  
Global Value Chains ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Automated Manufacturing ◽  
Investment Climate ◽  
Content Type ◽  
South Korean ◽  
Technology Investment

Significance Major Japanese and South Korean conglomerates are driving adoption of automated manufacturing, digitalisation of supply chains and other technologies critical to the region’s competitiveness. However, the pandemic forced many investors, especially mid-sized firms, to refocus on Asian markets. Increasingly, Latin America’s investment climate will be shaped by growing US-China rivalries. Impacts Investment from Japanese and Korean companies is critical for the region’s competitiveness in increasingly digitalised global value chains. Smaller economies risk missing out on the benefits of high-technology investment from Japan and Korea, concentrated in Brazil and Mexico. US efforts to try to decouple global value chains from China have sparked interest in investing in the region, but to date lack substance.

Romania heads for clash with EU over legal sovereignty

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Judicial Independence ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Past ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Eu

Significance After accentuated rule-of-law erosion during 2017-19, the new government encouraged hopes that such violations would become a thing of the past. However, last month, the government sacked the ombudsman, while the Constitutional Court declared void a judgement of the EU Court of Justice (CJEU) defending judicial independence. Impacts Recent developments erode hopes that last month’s positive CVM report will lead to Romania’s Schengen zone accession later this year. Failure to replace the ombudsman will not affect the coalition parties electorally, given the politicisation of rule-of-law issues. Subnational courts will be left confused whether to apply the Constitutional Court or the CJEU ruling to legal disciplinary cases.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document