Determinants of improved cookstove adoption and its benefits in Ethiopia.

BackgroundBiomass is the most dominant source of energy for both food cooking and lighting in rural parts of Ethiopia. Energy conversions are carried out in open fires using inefficient traditional stoves, results in poor quality of life due to smoking-related health outcomes, and consume a large quantity of wood. This resulted in increased costs of health and cutting trees which facilities climate change. To change the situation, improved cooking stoves (ICS) have been introduced through youth cooperatives in the study area.Objective The study examined the major sources of energy for the rural households, evaluate the health and related benefits of using improved cook stove and assessing the determinants for its adoption.MethodData were collected from 344 households using a questionnaire in supplement with interview schedule. The collected data were analyzed using both descriptive and econometric models.ResultsThe findings of the study showed that only 22.97% of the respondents adopted the ICS whereas the vast majority (67.03%) still rely on traditional stoves that are highly inefficient. The positive and significant variables in predicting the adoption of ICS were the educational level of household head (OR 1.23; CI at 95% 0.029-0.040), access to ICS (OR 5.88; CI at 95% 1.05-2.48), affordability (OR 2.31; CI at 95% 0.11-1.56) and demonstration about the stove (OR 6.74; CI at 95% 1.13-2.68). Family size (OR 0.74; CI at 95% -0.45-0.12) and Availability of firewood (OR 0.27; CI at 95% -2.00-.56) significantly and negatively affected the adoption of the ICS.ConclusionsLow adoption levels of ICS were found in the study area. This has been triggered by socio-economic, institutional, financial, and resource endowments. Therefore, it is recommended that increasing access to improved stoves, diversifying income sources, creating awareness about ICS health benefits, climate changes, and providing reasonable prices will facilitate its adoption.

Empirical Assessment on the Impact of Leverage and Capital Adequacy on Performance of Non-Bank Financial Institutions in Bangladesh

Non-Bank Financial Institutions (NBFIs) epitomize the most significant source of financing in our economy. NBFI is highly levered in nature. This study tries to empirically identify how capital adequacy and leverage impact NBFIs’ performance in Bangladesh. A number of econometric models using panel data from 2009 to 2019 of 23 NBFIs of Bangladesh have been estimated to achieve the objective of this study. In this research, Return on Assets, Return on Equity and Tobin’s Q are used as a measure of NBFIs performance of Bangladesh. According to estimated result it has been found that capital adequacy has a positive effect on profitability of NBFI’s in Bangladesh. However, the research has found conflicting results when impact of leverage on NBFI performance is measured. Taking the empirical findings into consideration, the management of the NBFIs should embrace policies that are likely to help the NBFIs to maintain enough capital. Keywords: leverage, capital adequacy, NBFI performance, profitability, NBFI equity

The role of transition regime models for corn prices forecasting

Given the relevance of corn for food and fuel industries, analysts and scholars are constantly comparing the forecasting accuracy of econometric models. These exercises test not only for the use of new approaches and methods, but also for the addition of fundamental variables linked to the corn market. This paper compares the accuracy of different usual models in financial macro-econometric literature for the period between 1995 and 2017. The main contribution lies in the use of transition regime models, which accommodate structural breaks and perform better for corn price forecasting. The results point out that the best models as those which consider not only the corn market structure, or macroeconomic and financial fundamentals, but also the non-linear trend and transition regimes, such as threshold autoregressive models.

ECONOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF EXPORT VOLUMES OF OILSEEDS AND GRAIN CROPS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

The article presents econometric models of time series presented on the basis of quarterly data on the export volumes of oilseeds and cereals of the Russian Federation in the period from 01.01.2017 to 31.09. 2021. According to the obtained multiplicative model, the forecast of export volumes for 12 commodity groups for the 4th quarter of 2021 is presented

CUSTOMS PAYMENTS IN THE STRUCTURE OF THE ECONOMIC INDICATORS OF THE CUSTOMS BODIES ACTIVITY AND THEIR CURRENT DYNAMICS

The given article presents an econometric analysis of the volume of enumerations of customs payments into the federal budget of the Russian Federation during export and import. On the basis of the given data for 2012-2020, econometric models have been constructed and the volumes of the customs payments in both directions of movement for 2021 have been predicted

A Model of Search with Two Stages of Information Acquisition and Additive Learning

This paper presents a model of choice with two stages of information acquisition. In this model, the choice problem can be interpreted as a variant of a more general multiarmed bandit problem. We assume that information acquisition takes a simple “additive form”—the value of an alternative is the sum of two components, which the decision maker can learn by undertaking two stages of information acquisition. This assumption yields a model that is tractable for the purposes of structural estimation. One possible application of the model is to online purchasing on e-commerce sites. For a consumer on an e-commerce website, there are potentially two stages of information acquisition: the consumer can obtain information about an alternative from (i) browsing the search results page and (ii) clicking on the alternative. By way of contrast, in much of the literature on structural econometric models of online purchasing, there is typically only one stage of information acquisition. Our paper may, therefore, provide a more realistic theory for modeling search, at least for those types of search—such as online purchasing—that involve two stages of information acquisition. This paper was accepted by Manel Baucells, behavioral economics and decision analysis.

Opportunities and Challenges of Companies from the Romanian E-Commerce Market for Sustainable Competitiveness

Consumer behavior differs from country to country, which may implicitly influence the financial performance of e-commerce companies. The paper’s objective is to study the characteristics of the companies from the Romanian e-commerce market for sustainable competitiveness. The empirical analysis was a quantitative and qualitative one. For the qualitative analysis of the studied sample, variables that represent the specific characteristics of companies were taken into account, the most relevant of which will be included as control variables in econometric models. Research results highlight that the recognized companies registered lower values of financial performance, they influence each other and for the company to improve the customer relationship, they have to invest in brand consolidation. The practical implications can be for managers to focus on companies’ branding, improving customer relations, disclosing more information about the company, the products they sell online, and sustainability actions to have sustainable competitiveness.

The Influence of Heating Degree Days on Fuelwood Consumption in Households in Selected Countries of Central and Southeastern Europe

Serbia is one of the few European countries that does not keep official statistics and does not have data on heating degree days. A heating degree day (HDD) represents a measure to quantify the energy needs for heating a building. In order to create a database, six meteorological stations in Serbia had been selected, for which the heating degree days were calculated for every year in the period 2010-2018. The months with the highest values of heating degree days were also determined for each year of the analyzed period. In addition to the annual level, heating degree days in the heating seasons over the analyzed period were calculated for the six selected stations, as well as the length and the average air temperature of each heating season. In Serbia, heating season officially lasts from October 15 to April 15. To determine the influence of the calculated annual heating degree days on fuelwood consumption in households in Serbia, over the period 2010-2018, multiple econometric models were formulated. The influence of the annual values of heating degree days on fuelwood consumption for household space heating in Slovenia and Croatia was analyzed, as well. The analysis of energy consumption in the households of the selected countries showed that wood fuels are mostly used for heating, primarily fuelwood. This is the reason why this type of fuel was selected for the research.

Sustainability of Print Media in the Slovak Republic with Regard to the Economic and Technological Development

(1) Background: The main purpose of the research study is to identify and quantify significant development trends in the market of selected print media in Slovakia for the period 2010–2020 but especially to analyze their decline trend and estimate their sustainability in the media market after the entry of digital media. (2) Methods: To be able to arrive at qualified answers to the above research questions, we obtained and statistically processed available data on the scope of production and sales of relevant periodicals for the period 2010–2020 in the form of a time series. Subsequently, we chose suitable econometric models (regression analysis, panel data analysis, autoregressive models) as tools for their analysis with the possibility of prognostic applications. (3) Results: Research on selected dailies in the Slovak Republic in the years 2011–2020 revealed findings about the trend and also the nature of its variability, showing approximately the same decreases in the streams of dailies sold. We consider the growing popularity of digital media at the expense of traditional media to be the main reason for the decline in the cost of daily newspapers sold. The analysis and quantification of this substitution relationship will be the subject of our next paper. (4) Conclusions: If the current trend of decreasing daily average sold costs continues in the Slovak Republic, based on derived econometric models, it is possible to qualitatively estimate the minimum acceptable level of daily press sales and, thus, estimate the life of dailies in their classic form. The result will be their new orientation toward the electronic form of media products.