AGOA exclusion adds to economic pressure on Ethiopia

Significance This adds to the bad economic news for the country, which recently had to postpone its second telecoms licensing round, is still waiting to restructure its foreign debt and faces huge reconstruction costs in conflict-affected areas. Impacts Foreign companies that have evacuated personnel, let alone tourists, may be slow to return until the security situation improves markedly. A debt restructuring deal should be reached this year, easing fiscal pressure after the end of the G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative. Ethiopia’s AGOA exclusion is not up for review again until 2023, and could even be extended absent real improvement in the situation.

Lessons from Applying Sanctions and Blockades

From the geo-economic standpoint, a power may avail itself of a spectrum of constraining measures against a hostile or dangerous nation - measures ranging from sanctions, boycotts to embargos and blockades, which last represent the ultimate form of economic pressure to which an adversary may be subjected. Because they are an extreme type of economic banishment, their imposition reveals the physiognomy of the power struggle; and, because they obstruct the free flow of goods, they also appear to be an ephemeral anomaly within the Liberal world order. Yet, their incumbency in the game is a reflection of geo-economic complexity. Whether enacted to great fanfare or not, blockades freeze some transactions while generating business opportunities elsewhere. And while an activity momentarily stilled in one zone may be reshaped to the advantage of another, blockades still allow their instigators to zero in on key sectors of the enemy's economy without endangering the country's survival. Thus, we can see blockades as an economic and military measure serving imperial ends. This essay succinctly reviews the history of famous blockades and garners the core economic lessons one may learn from them.

Community norms and corporate philanthropy: the moderating role of women on board of directors

PurposeThis study examines how community norms, such as religious atmosphere and economic pressures, affect corporate philanthropic giving. Grounded in upper echelon theory, the authors further focus on how the women on board of directors (BODs) play an important role in the relationship between community norms and corporate philanthropic giving.Design/methodology/approachThis study utilizes a two-stage Heckman selection model to control the sample-selection bias. The final sample includes 8,566 observations for the first stage and 5,575 observations for the second stage. Then, by using a sample of Chinese listed firms in 2010–2014, this study establishes a strong and robust support for the hypotheses.FindingsThis study finds that religious atmosphere is significantly and positively associated with corporate philanthropic giving, whereas the relationship between economic pressure and corporate philanthropy is negative. Furthermore, women on BODs not only strengthen the relationship between religious atmosphere and corporate philanthropic giving but also strengthen the relationship between economic pressure and corporate philanthropic giving.Originality/valueFirst, the authors contribute to community literature by developing a subdivided perspective. The authors provide the first attempt to empirically investigate the hidden association between the two perspectives of community (religious atmosphere and economic pressure) and corporate philanthropic giving. Second, the authors contribute to the literature on corporate philanthropy by expanding the antecedents of corporate philanthropic giving to communities where firms are headquartered. Third, by capturing the multiple identities of women, the authors enrich the study of the influence of minority groups on corporate decision-making. The authors find that gender diversity on BODs strengthen the influence of community norms on corporate philanthropic giving.

Bakti Sosial Sinergisitas TNI, POLRI, PEMKOT, ORMAS dan Mahasiswa UCIC Dalam Rangka Sumpah Pemuda dan Pelaksanaan Kampus Merdeka

The synergy between TNI, POLRI, ORMAS, PEMKOT and students is a form of solidarity between components of society during the current Covid-19 pandemic. This synergy in social service aims to help some people directly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic so that they have better endurance. This social service activity is also in commemoration of the 93rd youth oath day in 2021. From Catur University Insan Scholar this activity is represented by BKM as a student organization at the university level. This social service activity is carried out by helping to provide material assistance in the form of basic food packages. Food packages of 2000 packages. The result of this Social Service activity is the distribution of a number of material assistance so that it can increase people's resilience to get out of the economic pressure due to COVID-19.

Health Behavior of Adolescent Smokers During Covid-19 Pandemic

AIM: This research aims to determine the health behavior of adolescent smokers during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHOD: Both quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted simultaneously using the design of “t” and Chi-square test through the distribution of questionnaires to 135 respondents as well as descriptive design and case studies, respectively. The data were collected by 13 informants through in-depth interviews, observation, and documentation. RESULTS: The results showed that 5 out of the 6 indicators of the demographic characteristics were correlated to the economic pressure of the families of adolescent smokers which also correlates with their health behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. CONCLUSION: The increase in the price of cigarettes and family control are measures that regulate children from buying cigarettes.

Biosimilars in Treatment of Multiple Sclerosis in Iran

Biological drugs are manufactured via some changes made to the living organisms by genetic engineering. Notably, biological drugs are very expensive and their importation can impose economic pressure, especially on poorer countries. Thereafter, manufacturing these drugs has been considered by policymakers in many countries, resulting in the production of biosimilars. Iran requires a wide range of biological drugs due to the growing number of patients with multiple sclerosis. On the other hand, the poor economic situation of Iran due to repeated sanctions has had a great impact on the health care system, which has prevented the allocation of sufficient financial resources in this regard. Therefore, manufacturing biosimilar drugs due to their lower cost has received much attention in various fields of treatment.

Stress, Dyadic Coping, and Relationship Instability During the COVID-19 Pandemic

How romantic partners respond to stress has important implications for the well-being of their relationship. In this study, we examined the effects of three types of stress on relationship instability and evaluated individuals’ perceptions of their partner’s dyadic coping as a mediator in a sample of 117 different-gender couples ( N = 234) across 6 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that perceived stress, but not economic pressure or pandemic concerns, was associated with increases in relationship instability for both men and women. For women but not men, perceived stress was negatively associated with dyadic coping, and dyadic coping was related to lower relationship instability. Although direct effects were present for most of the variables of interest, dyadic coping did not mediate the associations between stress and relationship instability for either partner. These findings underscore the direct paths between stress, adaptive responses, and relationship instability, building upon past theorizing and research on stress and dyadic coping.

Analysis and Evaluation of Comprehensive Competitiveness of China’s Main Coastal Ports

As the center of national resource strategy and global resource allocation, the port is of great significance in economic development and foreign trade. The implementation of “The Belt and Road” initiative makes China’s ports play a more prominent role in foreign trade than before. As the dominant node of the maritime route of the Silk Road, China’s ports are facing great opportunities and challenges. With the increasing economic pressure in the world, the competition of ports is increasingly fierce, and the ports are facing a severe challenge. This paper analyzes the basic problems and explores how to develop further in China’s coastal major ports along “The Belt and Road”. The evaluation factors of port comprehensive competitiveness are selected to establish the evaluation index system. The factors of 13 ports are defined by SPSS software to obtain the ranking of comprehensive competitiveness of the ports through the ladder comparison with cluster analysis. Based on the result, the appropriate policy is suggested.

The future of Swiss hydropower: how to distribute the risk and the profits?

Low electricity prices put economic pressure on hydropower companies. A more flexible water fee design can counteract this pressure and support hydropower companies during times when market revenues are low. However, this comes at the cost of lower revenues for resource owners. Using a sample of cost data for 62 companies and revenue data derived from an electricity market model, we have quantified this trade-off for the case of Switzerland. We found that electricity market price developments dominate changes in water fees and that for the profitability of hydropower, electricity prices are more important than water fee levels. However, with electricity prices of around CHF 40 per MWh, water fees can make the difference between profit and loss. Therefore, while flexible water fee regimes shift the market risk from producers to resource owners to some extent, the extent of this risk shift depends on the detailed design of the flexible regime.