Bolivia’s ambitious development plans face challenges

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Investment ◽  
Import Substitution ◽  
Economic Diversification ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Fiscal Constraints ◽  
Policy Orientation ◽  
Development Plans ◽  
Capital Intensive

Significance The strategy, which has attracted criticism from opponents as being overly statist, is based largely on the policy orientation adopted by the Morales administrations between 2006 and 2019. Broadly, it seeks to promote economic diversification and import substitution under the aegis of an interventionist state. Impacts Import substitution will face problems arising from the scale of contraband shipped through neighbouring countries. Most of Bolivia’s main exports are capital intensive, providing only limited employment spin-offs. Fiscal constraints and lower reserves may limit the resources available for public investment.

Brazil infrastructure spending will face obstacles

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Daily Life ◽  
Public Investment ◽  
Infrastructure Investment ◽  
Foreign Investors ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
Fiscal Constraints ◽  
Export Competitiveness

Significance Brazilian infrastructure requires urgent investment. Fiscal constraints are strengthening the government’s inclination towards privatisation and concession plans. As part of the Investment Partnerships Programme (PPI), auctions regarding operation and administration of airports, ports and railways in the country have attracted foreign investors and exceeded the government’s initial targets. Impacts Sluggish infrastructure investment will affect daily life in large cities and hinder long-term export competitiveness. Political turbulence may undermine foreign investors’ interest in Brazil. New rounds of infrastructure auctions will partially offset low public investment.

Successful Aramco sale may squeeze Saudi finances

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Initial Public Offering ◽  
Public Investment ◽  
Investment Fund ◽  
Economic Diversification ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Price Range ◽  
High Valuation ◽  
Crown Prince ◽  
Public Offering

Significance The initial public offering (IPO) of a 1.5% stake in Saudi Aramco on December 6 reached the top end of the recommended price range, giving the company a relatively high valuation of 1.7 trillion dollars and netting a record 25.6 billion dollars for the Public Investment Fund (PIF) -- a vindication for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The shares were sold mainly to Saudi and regional investors. Impacts The PIF will deploy sale proceeds as part of a drive for economic diversification, both domestically and in acquiring global assets. Aramco’s commitment to generous dividends could pose problems if oil prices weaken. PIF spending of the domestic sale proceeds will lead to a foreign exchange outflow, either directly or through new imports.

Brazil infrastructure investments will fall far short

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Power Plants ◽  
Public Investment ◽  
Thermal Power ◽  
Public Infrastructure ◽  
Water Shortages ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Fiscal Constraints ◽  
Price Increases ◽  
Infrastructure Investments ◽  
Private Investors

Significance Public investment in Brazilian infrastructure has declined in recent years, given the government’s fiscal constraints. President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration favours privatisations and concession plans, but low investment levels have generated fragilities that may affect both short- and long-term competitiveness. Impacts Water shortages will cause energy price increases due to the use of thermal power plants and energy imports. Bolsonaro’s continued criticism of China will raise doubts about forthcoming 5G auctions. Lack of public infrastructure investment will make infrastructure projects less attractive to private investors.

The new Zambian president faces long-term challenges

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
National Development ◽  
Social Costs ◽  
Debt Restructuring ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Fiscal Constraints ◽  
Reform Programme ◽  
The Social ◽  
Voter Suppression ◽  
Spending Cuts

Significance Hichilema's surprise win came despite extensive voter suppression and intimidation attributed to former President Edgar Lungu and the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) against supporters of Hichilema’s United Party for National Development (UPND). Impacts The broad scope of Hichilema’s reform programme will pose difficulties of prioritisation, particularly within current fiscal constraints. Higher copper prices may mitigate some of the social costs associated with debt restructuring and spending cuts. The cancellation of a meeting between President Joe Biden and Hichilema over LGBT rights concerns may complicate relations with Washington.

Entry barriers could easily thwart China’s tech plans

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Quantum Computing ◽  
Import Substitution ◽  
Entry Barriers ◽  
The West ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Technological Competition ◽  
Efficiency And Productivity

Significance These are: artificial intelligence, semiconductors, quantum computing, genetics, biotechnology, neuroscience and aerospace. Impacts It is not always useful to view technological competition between China and the West as a ‘race’. China will likely burn significant capital just to achieve parity with advanced countries, and may never achieve it. Low margins will encourage protectionism and import substitution, with an impact on efficiency and productivity.

Oil will drive record Guyana growth again in 2022

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
National Development ◽  
Oil Industry ◽  
Medium Term ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Development Plans ◽  
The Government ◽  
Wage Increases ◽  
Oil And Gas Sector

Significance As in 2020 and 2021, this projected growth will be driven by the ongoing expansion of the oil and gas sector, and related investment and state revenues. These rising revenues will support the government’s ambitious national development plans, which include both increased social and infrastructure spending. Impacts The government will prioritise enhancing the oil and gas investment framework. Investment into joint oil and gas infrastructure with Suriname will benefit the growing oil industry in both countries. The expansionary fiscal policy may lead to a rise in inflation, leading to further calls for wage increases. In the medium term, strong growth in the oil and gas sector could lead to increased climate change activism in the country.

Building entrepreneurial capacity in rural areas

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 903-918
Author(s):  
Anna Krakowiak-Bal ◽  
Urszula Ziemianczyk ◽  
Andrzej Wozniak
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
Local Development ◽  
Practical Implication ◽  
Public Investment ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Important Criterion ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Ahp Method ◽  
Content Type

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to verify the development of economic activities in rural areas in terms of their public infrastructural equipment. Design/methodology/approach As a case study, the Polish rural areas were selected. A two-stage survey was conducted in 2015. The first stage involved entrepreneurs from rural areas. The second stage of survey was data collection for rural areas regarding economic activity and infrastructural equipment. In total, 121 objects (communes) were selected. The multicriteria analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method was used for the analysis. Findings The results demonstrate that for each kind of business, communication accessibility is the most important criterion. By contrast, environmental awareness and concern for the environment is the least important element for pursuit of the economic activity in rural areas. Research limitations/implications Limitations are connected mainly with the applied AHP method. The number of the comparable elements at the same hierarchy level is limited due to practical purposes. In addition, an assumption of full comparability of elements (criteria and alternatives) in the hierarchy model can be discussed. Furthermore, data quality and availability limit the scope of the empirical work. This study is a major simplification of reality modeling, but it gives practical benefits by simplifying the decision support procedure. Practical implications The findings of this paper contribute to the advancing theory of local development, with public infrastructure being one of its basic elements (factor of production). This paper explores the importance of physical infrastructure for different economic activities, and thus offers theoretical insights in two areas. First, this paper indicates the uneven weight of each infrastructure element for the various business sectors. Second, based on the collected data, this study also contributes to the literature, by using the AHP method to explore the relationships between infrastructural equipment and economic activity in rural areas. As the practical implication for local and regional development policies, this study indicates, that the most important criterion for each kind of economic activity is communication accessibility. This kind of public investment should be undertaken primarily to support entrepreneurship, especially in rural areas. Originality/value The uniqueness of the method lies in assumption about the uneven weights of infrastructure elements and therefore their impact on the process of ranking the objects (rural areas). The weight of individual infrastructure elements will vary depending on the kind of economic activity; therefore, the way of ordering will also be different for each economic activity.

scholarly journals Impact of the volatility of resource revenue on non-resource revenue volatility

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sena Kimm Gnangnon
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Analysis ◽  
Economic Diversification ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Generalized Methods Of Moments ◽  
Public Revenue ◽  
Revenue Volatility ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Methods Of Moments ◽  
The Empirical Analysis

PurposeThis paper investigates the effect of the volatility of resource revenue on the volatility of non-resource revenue.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical analysis has utilized an unbalanced panel data set comprising 54 countries over the period 1980–2015. The two-step system generalized methods of moments (GMM) is the main economic approach used to carry out the empirical analysis.FindingsResults show that resource revenue volatility generates lower non-resource revenue volatility only when the share of resource revenue in total public revenue is lower than 18%. Otherwise, higher resource revenue volatility would result in a rise in non-resource revenue volatility.Research limitations/implicationsIn light of the adverse effect of volatility of non-resource revenue on public spending, and hence on economic growth and development prospects, countries whose total public revenue is highly dependent on resource revenue should adopt appropriate policies to ensure the rise in non-resource revenue, as well as the stability of the latter.Practical implicationsEconomic diversification in resource-rich countries (particularly in developing countries among them) could contribute to reducing the dependence of economies on natural resources, and hence the dependence of public revenue on resource revenue. Therefore, policies in favour of economic diversification would contribute to stabilizing non-resource revenue, which is essential for financing development needs.Originality/valueTo the best of our knowledge, this topic has not been addressed in the literature.

scholarly journals Government public infrastructure investment and economic performance in Spain (1980-2016)

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose Perez-Montiel ◽  
Carles Manera
Keyword(s):  
Public Investment ◽  
Infrastructure Investment ◽  
Annual Data ◽  
Public Infrastructure ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Autonomous Communities ◽  
Vector Autoregressive ◽  
Acyclic Graphs ◽  
Multiplier Effects

Purpose The authors estimate the multiplier effect of government public infrastructure investment in Spain. This paper aims to use annual data of the 17 Spanish autonomous communities for the 1980–2016 period. Design/methodology/approach The authors use dynamic acyclic graphs and the heterogeneous panel structural vector autoregressive (P-SVAR) method of Pedroni (2013). This method is robust to cross-sectional heterogeneity and dependence, which are present in the data. Findings The findings suggest that an increase in the level of government public infrastructure investment generates a positive and persistent effect on the level of output. Five years after the fiscal expansion, the multiplier effects of government public infrastructure investment reach values above one. This confirms that government public infrastructure investment expansions have Keynesian effects. The authors also find that the multiplier effects differ between autonomous communities with above-average and below-average GDP per capita. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no research uses dynamic acyclic graphs and heterogeneous P-SVAR techniques to estimate fiscal multipliers of government public investment in Spain by using subnational data.

A place to work: examining workplace location attributes that appeal to generation Y and Z talent

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wasuthon Wisuchat ◽  
Viriya Taecharungroj
Keyword(s):  
Generation Y ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Traffic Density ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Work Activities ◽  
Development Plans ◽  
The City ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose This paper aims to identify and to compare workplace location attributes that appealed to Generation Y and Z talent. Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 participants to identify workplace location attributes. Choice-based conjoint surveys were collected from 750 Generation Y and Z individuals in the talent pool of Bangkok, Thailand to compare the importance of attributes. Findings The most important workplace location attribute was the availability and diversity of restaurants followed by place appearance, traffic density, availability of public workspaces, public transport and after-work activities. Transport-related attributes were more important for older generations, whereas public workspaces and place appearance were more important for younger talent. Practical implications To attract talent, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) should address the weaknesses of potential workplace locations through efficient, low-cost and rapid development plans. Although Bangkok is known for street food, BMA policies that promote restaurants as the most important attribute are limited. The BMA should initiate plans to promote the availability and diversity of restaurants. Innovation districts in Bangkok should connect to restaurants and food networks in their vicinity. Originality/value The existing literature explored factors that attract talent at the city level, but no study has investigated attractiveness at the workplace location level. Despite some similarities, workplace location attributes identified in this study were more specific than city-level attributes.

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