scholarly journals Centrality in Trade Networks and Investment in Security

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincenzo Bove ◽  
Leandro Elia ◽  
Marco Pelliccia

AbstractThe contemporary empirical literature on military spending has focused on institutional and conflict factors, and although has acknowledged the role of trade openness, it has not taken into account the position of a state in the trade network. Building on the concept of network centrality, we claim that the structure of trade networks affects the optimal investment in security, and that a country’s level of military spending is a function of its strategic position in the global network of a critical commodity, such as oil. Our empirical results show that network centrality constrains military spending.

2019 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-29
Author(s):  
Marko Senekovič ◽  
Alenka Kavkler ◽  
Jani Bekő

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to estimate government consumption multiplier and to examine the effect of various characteristics of countries on the size of fiscal multiplier. We apply a panel VAR model following Ilzetzki et al. (2013) for a sample of 28 EU countries covering the period from 1995 to 2017. Key findings are, first, the estimated average fiscal multiplier is larger than unity. Second, the size of fiscal multiplier is larger in the cases of lower public indebtedness, for more developed European countries and for more financially open economies, which is also in line with relevant empirical literature. Regarding the role of trade openness, the results are inconclusive. In addition to this, membership of countries in the European integrations positively affects the size of fiscal multiplier. Therefore, fiscal policymakers should use fiscal stimuli as the instrument of boosting short-term economic growth selectively and consider country-specific characteristics. This paper contributes to the ongoing discussion in two ways, it examines the effect of additional characteristics of countries on the size of fiscal multiplier and updates existing empirical literature.


e-Finanse ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 67-76
Author(s):  
Piotr Bartkiewicz

AbstractThe article presents the results of the review of the empirical literature regarding the impact of quantitative easing (QE) on emerging markets (EMs). The subject is of interest to policymakers and researchers due to the increasingly larger role of EMs in the world economy and the large-scale capital flows occurring after 2009. The review is conducted in a systematic manner and takes into consideration different methodological choices, samples and measurement issues. The paper puts the summarized results in the context of transmission channels identified in the literature. There are few distinct methodological approaches present in the literature. While there is a consensus regarding the direction of the impact of QE on EMs, its size and durability have not yet been assessed with sufficient precision. In addition, there are clear gaps in the empirical findings, not least related to relative underrepresentation of the CEE region (in particular, Poland).


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brett Buttliere

Over the last decade, there have been many suggestions to improve how scientists answer their questions, but far fewer attempt to improve the questions scientists are asking in the first place. The goal of the paper is then to examine and summarize synthesize the evidence on how to ask the best questions possible. First is a brief review of the philosophical and empirical literature on how the best science is done, which implicitly but not explicitly mentions the role of psychology and especially cognitive conflict. Then we more closely focus on the psychology of the scientist, finding that they are humans, engaged in a meaning making process, and that cognitive conflict is a necessary input for any learning or change in the system. The scientific method is, of course, a specialized meaning making process. We present evidence for this central role of cognitive conflict in science by examining the most discussed scientific papers between 2013 and 2017, which are, in general, controversial and about big problems (e.g., whether vaccines cause autism, how often doctors kill us with their mistakes). Toward the end we discuss the role of science in society, suggesting science itself is an uncertainty reducing and problem solving enterprise. From this basis we encourage scientists to take riskier stances on bigger topics, for the good of themselves and society generally.


2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anh D. Pham ◽  
Men T. Bui ◽  
Dung P. Hoang

This research investigates the determinants of entrepreneurial intention among Vietnamese employees, a crucial segment of potential entrepreneurs yet mostly neglected in previous studies. Given the focus on intention to create an international business venture and the working segment, we expand the entrepreneurial event theory by supplementing perceived competence and job satisfaction as determinants of entrepreneurial intention while testing the mediation of perceived feasibility and perceived desirability in such relationships correspondingly. Three focus groups on 27 Vietnamese employees were conducted to explore the specific relevant competences and develop the conceptual model. Afterwards, data from an empirical survey on 567 Vietnamese employees was analysed using a partial least squares structural equation model to test the hypothesised relationships. The empirical results indicate that perceived competences, viz. administrative competence, communication skills, network building competence, and international business expertise have a positive impact on entrepreneurial intention. The relationships between either administrative competence, network building capacity or international business expertise, and entrepreneurial intention are totally mediated by perceived feasibility. The study also reveals a noteworthy finding about the negative direct effect of overall job satisfaction on entrepreneurial intention and the partial mediating role of perceived desirability in this relationship.


Author(s):  
Mohammad Paydar ◽  
Asal Kamani Fard

More than 150 cities around the world have expanded emergency cycling and walking infrastructure to increase their resilience in the face of the COVID 19 pandemic. This tendency toward walking has led it to becoming the predominant daily mode of transport that also contributes to significant changes in the relationships between the hierarchy of walking needs and walking behaviour. These changes need to be addressed in order to increase the resilience of walking environments in the face of such a pandemic. This study was designed as a theoretical and empirical literature review seeking to improve the walking behaviour in relation to the hierarchy of walking needs within the current context of COVID-19. Accordingly, the interrelationship between the main aspects relating to walking-in the context of the pandemic- and the different levels in the hierarchy of walking needs were discussed. Results are presented in five sections of “density, crowding and stress during walking”, “sense of comfort/discomfort and stress in regard to crowded spaces during walking experiences”, “crowded spaces as insecure public spaces and the contribution of the type of urban configuration”, “role of motivational/restorative factors during walking trips to reduce the overload of stress and improve mental health”, and “urban design interventions on arrangement of visual sequences during walking”.


2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (8) ◽  
pp. 1194-1209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marwan M Kraidy

Islamic State’s (IS) image-warfare presents an auspicious opportunity to grasp the growing role of digital images in emerging configurations of global conflict. To understand IS’ image-warfare, this article explores the central role of digital images in the group’s war spectacle and identifies a key modality of this new kind of warfare: global networked affect. To this end, the analysis focuses on three primary sources: two Arabic-language IS books, Management of Savagery (2004) and O’ Media Worker, You Are a Mujahid!, 2nd Edition (2016), and a video, Healing the Believers’ Chests (2015), featuring the spectacular burning of a Jordanian air force pilot captured by IS. It uses the method of ‘iconology’ within a case-study approach. I analyze IS’ doctrine of image-warfare explained in the two books and, in turn, examine how this doctrine is executed in IS video production, conceptualizing digital video as a specific permutation of moving digital images uniquely able to enact, and via repetition, to maintain, visual and narrative tension between movement and stillness, speed and slowness, that diffuses global network affect. Using a theoretical framework combining spectacle, new media phenomenology, and affect theory, the article concludes that global networked affect is projectilic, mimicking fast, lethal, penetrative objects. IS visual warfare, I argue, is best understood through the notion of the ‘projectilic image’.


2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 437-456
Author(s):  
Seema Wati Narayan

This paper investigates the role of financial technology (FinTech) in propelling economic growth in Indonesia from 1998 to 2018. The FinTech industry employs a technology-based business model to provide financial services, including lending, payment, investment, and financing services. The study is motivated by endogenous growth theory, which seeks to explain technology as the most important driver of economic growth. The study finds that FinTech startups are positively correlated with Indonesia’s economic growth. FinTech firms in their first year are found to be disruptive, but they fail to have serious consequences on Indonesia’s economic growth; however, they seem to significantly encourage economic growth in their second year. These findings are derived after accounting for other important growth determinants, namely, capital per labor, foreign direct investment (FDI), stock market development, and trade openness.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabrice Senger ◽  
Amandine Pitaval ◽  
Hajer Ennomani ◽  
Laetitia Kurzawa ◽  
Laurent Blanchoin ◽  
...  

Cell and tissue morphogenesis depend on the production and spatial organization of tensional forces in the actin cytoskeleton. Actin network architecture is complex because it is made of distinct modules in which filaments adopt a variety of organizations. The assembly and dynamics of these modules is well described but the self-organisation rules directing the global network architecture are much less understood. Here we investigated the mechanism regulating the interplay between network architecture and the geometry of cell’s extracellular environment. We found that α-actinin, a filament crosslinker, is essential for network symmetry to be consistent with extracellular microenvironment symmetry. It appeared to be required for the interconnection of transverse arcs with radial fibres to ensure an appropriate balance between forces at cell adhesions and across the entire actin network. Furthermore, the connectivity of the actin network appeared necessary for the cell ability to integrate and adapt to complex patterns of extracellular cues as they migrate. Altogether, our study has unveiled a role of actin-filament crosslinking in the physical integration of mechanical forces throughout the entire cell, and the role of this integration in the establishment and adaptation of intracellular symmetry axes in accordance with the geometry of extracellular cues.


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