The Impact of COVID-19 on the US Economy: The Multiplier Effects of Tourism

This article explores the multiplier effects on domestic product, employment, and the external sector of the US economy due to the decline of tourism activities during the pandemic. For this purpose, we use an input-output model and the latest available input-output data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD’s) database. It was found that for every USD million decrease in tourism receipts, the net output decreases about USD 1.53 million, the level of employment decreases about 16.86 persons, imports decrease about USD 0.20 million, while the comparative analysis of these results with the economy’s average multipliers indicates that tourism constitutes a key sector of the US economy. From the evaluation of the results, it is deduced that the decline of tourism activities recorded in the year 2020 accounts for about one-fourth of the observed recession in the US economy.

Claims in construction projects: how causes are linked to effects?

Purpose Claims are increasingly becoming a norm in construction projects and thus an area that is attracting interventions through researches. This paper aims to establish causes–effects relationship of claims in construction projects. Design/methodology/approach This is correlation study type of study that attempts to establish causes–effects relationship of claims in construction projects. Significant causes and effects of construction claims were determined using one-sample t-test. To establish the relationship, the significant causes and effects of construction claims were correlated using bivariate correlation analysis. Findings Among the significant causes, variations, change of scope of the project and delay in completion of works have high level of significant positive relationship with five to six other causes and positive relationship with multiple effects ranging from five to six. Besides, among significant effects, delay in completion and delivering of construction projects, poor contractual relationship among parties and extension of time have significant positive relationship with multiple causes. Research limitations/implications The findings of this study are limited to causes-causes relationship and causes–effects relationship of claims in construction projects. This means effects–effects relationship was not covered that could be an important area to investigate as some of causes and effects are at times termed interchangeably. Practical implications With reference to previous studies which have focused on determining the causes and effects of construction claims, the findings of the current study have specific contribution on claims management as it divulges the causes of constructions claims that have multiplier effects to the project as a result of their linkage. Originality/value The paper unveils causes of claims with multiplier effects to construction projects for project participants to devise strategies to minimize and consequently eliminate them.

Effect of Climate Change on Acquisition of Quality Education: A Case Study of Maasai Pastoralists in Narok County, Kenya

Climate change is a global phenomenon with far reaching impacts. Arid and semi-arid communities in Kenya, among them the Maasai community from Narok County, are dependent on the natural resources for their livelihood thus are greatly hit by the adverse impacts of climate change. This paper sought to establish the indirect effects of climate change on the quality of education among the Maasai community. Desktop literature review approach and key informant phone interviews were adopted for data collection. The review of literature indicated that increased poverty levels arising from climate change has largely affected the affordability of quality education. Therefore, people in Maasai community resort to coping mechanisms on labour demands that accelerate school dropout as well as early marriages. The Maasai herders are forced to increase their migration trends to long distances, a practice that has increased child labour disrupting learning for most school going children. In addition, the girl child has become more vulnerable to sexual abuse and early marriages with a consequent denial of education opportunities. The effect of the climate change on wildlife habitat has led to human- wildlife conflict that poses a threat to the security of the community members and therefore interferes with the smooth running of schools. Consequently, interventions to mitigate climate change effects should not only concentrate on the direct but also the indirect impacts that have got multiplier effects on sectors like education. These interventions should include, provision of adequate water infrastructure, investment in education policy and boarding school Infrastructural development.

Russian repression grows despite regime stability

Significance 'Foreign agent', 'undesirable organisation' and 'extremist' designations have become the standard mechanisms for squeezing investigative journalists, independent media and other government critics. They are also an attack on Western values as they stigmatise contact with the world outside Russia as subservience to malign external influence. Impacts Repressive laws are used to justify Moscow's aversion to the West and liberal values. Legislation has multiplier effects since 'untainted' media can break the rules by quoting a designated organisation. The ongoing crackdown on domestic critics will be damaging for Russia's economic and investment attractiveness.

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

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.

German’s Maritime Economy Sector: Before and In Time the Pandemic

As an industrially developed economy with a large export share, Germany is inconceivable without reliable and comprehensively developed maritime and inland shipping. Shipbuilding, waterway infrastructure, ports and logistics, marine technology, research and development, energy production and consumption, high-tech services form the framework of the «maritime economy» are interconnected and ensure uninterrupted transportation of goods, goods and people. The paper analyzes the national economic significance of the maritime industry in the modern German economy. It is emphasized that in addition to performing the transport function itself, this industry provides the launch of important multiplier effects on the economy as a whole. All those issues are considered with the challenges of climate policy. In this regard, we consider that the innovative role of German shipbuilding will increase, despite the decline in economic activity during the pandemic. We hypothesize that industry is facing an uncertain future, simultaneously, it should be emphasized that after the pandemic, the federal government is sending a clear signal to the industry community – the shipbuilding industry and the merchant marine are the drivers of the industry and part of environmental change, where a lot depends on new investments in training, expanding digitalization, application new types of fuels. This may be the result of more flexibility when placing orders for various types of vessels, reducing bureaucracy in the implementation of infrastructure water projects.

Do Creative Industries Generate Multiplier Effects? Evidence from UK Cities, 1997-2018

The creative industries have received much attention from economic geographers and others, both for their propensity to co-locate in urban settings and their potential to drive urban economic development. However, evidence on the latter is surprisingly sparse. In this paper we explore the long-term, causal impacts of the creative industries on surrounding urban economies. Adapting Moretti’s local multipliers framework, we build a new 20-year panel of UK cities, using fixed effects and a historic instrument to identify effects on non-creative firms and employment. We find that each creative job generates at least 1.9 non-tradable jobs between 1998 and 2018: this is associated with creative business services employees’ local spending, rather than visitors to urban amenities such as galleries and museums. We do not find the same effects for workplaces, and find no causal evidence for spillovers from creative activity to other tradable sectors, findings consistent with descriptive evidence on the increasing concentration of creative industries in a small number of cities. Given the small numbers of creative jobs in most cities, however, the overall effect size of the creative multiplier is small, and shapes only a small part of non-tradable urban employment change. Overall, our results suggest creative economy-led policies for cities can have positive – albeit partial – local economic impacts.

AERODYNAMICS OF THE CITY

The “input-output desideratum”, outlined in the New Athens Charter, sets new requirements for urban designers. Nowadays, using modern techniques, we can solve weighty contemporary urban problems using such system of designing, which balances quantitative and qualitative parameters of the urban matter. The text presents the part of the designing system that uses methodology of the meteorology. Proper use of this system allows to control and design parameters of the socalled urban canopy. The urban canopy covers the area of reduced energy consumption and increased comfort of using the public space between the buildings constituting urban tissue. Urban canopy is characterized by multiplier effects, obtained - among others - thanks to the use of aerodynamics in urban design. Shaping buildings, supported by empirical method (with use of models), allows to implement the so-called filters and regulators postulated in the Charter: the elements that maintain the city's structure in balance.