Gender Equality and Institutions as the Driving Force of Football Performance: Women vs Men

Gender equality should be a necessity in every developed economy of the world. Despite this assumption, this is not the case. The field of sports is no exception. This study addresses the relationship between gender equality, institutions and football performance of national teams. Correlation and regression analysis is used to determine the relationship between variables. The results suggest that higher gender equality leads to better performance for footballers on the fields. Countries with higher gender equality perform better (more FIFA points). The economic condition of the country has a similar effect on performance. Estimates have shown a statistically significant positive relationship between economic prosperity and performance on the pitch. Climate and age of players do not affect the performance of national teams. Institutional factors significantly affect players’ performance. Members of the European Union perform significantly higher than those that are not in the EU. As well as countries in which there was no communist regime in the past . Keywords: gender inequality index, FIFA ranking, men, women, institutions

Origins and consequences of long ties in social networks

Social networks play a predominant role in determining how information spreads between individuals. Previous works suggest that long ties, which connect people who do not share any mutual contact, provide access to valuable information on economic opportunities. However, no population-scale study has determined how long ties relate to economic outcomes and how such ties are formed. Using a novel dataset from Facebook, we reconstruct the network of interactions between users and we uncover a strong relationship between the share of long ties and economic outcomes at the local level in the United States and in Mexico. Administrative units with a higher proportion of long ties have higher incomes, higher economic mobility, lower unemployment rates and higher wealth, even after adjusting for potential confounders of these outcomes. In contrast to the weak tie theory, we find that having stronger long ties is associated with better economic outcomes. Furthermore, we discover that users with a higher proportion of long ties are more likely to have migrated between US states, to have transferred to a different high school, and to have attended college outside of their home state. Taken together, these results suggest that long ties contribute to economic prosperity and highlight the role played by disruptive life events in the formation of these ties.

Beyond Welfare

Invoking a broad catalog of applicable Bahá’í principles, this paper presents the conceptual and theoretical underpinnings of a Bahá’í approach to economic growth and disparity and then maps these concepts onto an applied framework of economic rights and responsibilities. The framework that emerges thus both conceptualizes the underlying virtues that govern economic prosperity in a Bahá’í model and shows how these principles might lead to normative prescriptions for economic rights and responsibilities. The paper concludes that the Bahá’í principles dealing with economic prosperity expand the theory and practice of economic justice and give rise to individual and institutional rights and responsibilities that go beyond the imperatives of conventional models of welfare.

Authentic Research, Teaching, Events, and Assessments for Economic Prosperity

Responsive research serves as an alternative platform to address issues of human rights violations, ACEs, structural violence, and systemic poverty in particular as it relates to educational opportunities. This chapter identifies four step-by-step processes that can be used when conducting community-led research and education. Activist anthropology, studying up, studying through, and financial implications of debt foreground earlier efforts made by anthropologists to use their research as a way to examine how policy decisions shape cultural practices and impact the livelihood of specific communities. These efforts are expanded upon by examining the controversy, pitfalls, and rewards found within the epistemological paradigms and research methodologies. The second half of the chapter identifies four pathways researchers can use when engaging in activist anthropology: teaching to a goal; responsive mapping to uncover mystical barriers; community building as the goal for focus groups, interviews, and surveys; and responsive programs and events.

THE CRISIS IS A NATURAL PART OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, IT IS NECESSARY TO LEARN TO FACE IT

Europe has the strongest and largest tourism in the world. As in times of economic prosperity, the industry can prosper, in the case of a change in the economic environment as a result of a crises, it is hit hard and the tourism industry throughout the European Union is suffering billions of euros in damage. It is the case of all post-communist countries and also in Slovak Republic. The effects of such fluctuations are all the greater for the country´s GDP because they do not have contingency plans in place and solutions are often chaotic or implemented too late. The article assesses the impact of several crises, including the current one associated with COVID-19 and predicts a possible approach to mitigate the consequences of the crisis and at the same time better manage the future crisis.

Economic Dividends of the Abraham Accords

The UAE and Israel had no direct relations before August 2020, as UAE had not recognized Israel as a state. However, the UAE was keen on building diplomatic relations with all countries in the recent past and is progressively becoming more liberal and tolerant. The UAE signed the historic Abraham Accord with Israel in September 2020. The Abraham Accord is an avenue of peace. It supports the efforts for prosperity and advancement as it paves the way for deepening economic, knowledge and cultural ties between the countries. There are opportunities to expand cooperation, engagement and knowledge sharing in various sectors such as agriculture, energy, technology, tourism, education, health care and services, trade and homeland security, climate issues, water, food security and smart mobility. Since September 2020, several transactions have been signed between Israeli and Emirati firms in different fields, valued at tens of millions of dollars. On the anniversary of the agreements, the volume of trade between Israel and the Emirates amounted to more than $ 100 million per month. The Abraham Accord has paved the way, is gradually improving the relationships in the region, and will slowly but surely lead to better peace and economic prosperity of the region.

Religious, Civil, and Economic Freedoms: What’s the Chicken and What’s the Egg?

This paper studies the relationship between religious liberty and economic freedom. First, three new facts emerge: (a) religious liberty has increased since 1960, but has slipped substantially over the past decade; (b) the countries that experienced the largest declines in religious liberty tend to have greater economic freedom, especially property rights; (c) changes in religious liberty are associated with changes in the allocation of time to religious activities. Second, using a combination of vector autoregressions and dynamic panel methods, improvements in religious liberty tend to precede economic freedom. Finally, increases in religious liberty have a wide array of spillovers that are important determinants of economic freedom and explain the direction of causality. Countries cannot have long-run economic prosperity and freedom without actively allowing for and promoting religious liberty.

Two Nations, Different Regions, Same Challenges: Legal and Political Analysis of Internal Security Threats in Nigeria and Pakistan

This study is a modest but objective comparative evaluation of internal security threats facing two sub-regional large countries of Africa and South Asia-Nigeria and Pakistan. Considering the fact that ethnicity, sectarianism and economic instability are fundamental variables of internal security threats in both countries, the study argued that religious extremism has created an unenviable image of both nations in the eyes of the rest of the world, undoubtedly, this has affected both nations adversely. The study also identified inter-regional grievances as potential causes of damages to both federations. Also identified is ethno-sectarian problem as a major security threat to both nations. This in the opinion of the authors will remain a huge impediment to the goals of economic prosperity to both nations. Consequently, the focus of this study is to examine interdependence of these multifaceted challenges and their overall impact on internal security in both countries. To achieve this, the study employed qualitative research method in which analytical approach was used to examine the similarities in the security challenges in Nigeria and Pakistan. Structural questionnaire was used as the instrument for data collection. The employment of thematic analytic approach was adopted to analyse data collected for the study. The study concludes among others, the need for both countries to individually address these national security threats and find viable solutions to the problems of socio-economic and political reforms and unemployment within a reasonable timeframe to mitigate future threats.Keywords: Internal Security; Ethnicity; Sectarianism; Challenges Dua Bangsa Satu Tantangan: Analisis Politik dan Hukum pada Ancaman Keamanan dalam Negeri (Internal Security) di Nigeria dan PakistanAbstrak Penelitian ini merupakan evaluasi komparatif sederhana namun objektif terhadap ancaman keamanan internal yang dihadapi dua negara besar sub-regional Afrika dan Asia Selatan-Nigeria dan Pakistan. Mempertimbangkan fakta bahwa etnisitas, sektarianisme, dan ketidakstabilan ekonomi adalah variabel fundamental dari ancaman keamanan internal di kedua negara. Penelitian ini berpendapat bahwa ekstremisme agama telah menciptakan citra yang tidak baik dari kedua negara di mata dunia. Tidak diragukan lagi, ini telah mempengaruhi kedua negara secara merugikan. Penelitian ini juga mengidentifikasi kasus-kasus antar-regional sebagai penyebab potensial kerusakan pada kedua federasi. Juga diidentifikasi masalah etno-sektarian sebagai ancaman keamanan utama bagi kedua negara, dimana akan tetap menjadi hambatan besar bagi tujuan kemakmuran ekonomi kedua negara. Fokus penelitian ini adalah untuk menguji saling ketergantungan dari tantangan beragam ini dan dampaknya secara keseluruhan terhadap keamanan internal di kedua negara. Untuk mendapatkan data tersebut, penelitian ini menggunakan metode penelitian kualitatif dimana pendekatan analitik digunakan untuk menguji kesamaan dalam tantangan keamanan di Nigeria dan Pakistan. Kuesioner struktural digunakan sebagai instrumen pengumpulan data. Penggunaan pendekatan analitik tematik diadopsi untuk menganalisis data yang dikumpulkan untuk penelitian ini. Studi ini menyimpulkan antara lain, perlunya kedua negara untuk secara individual mengatasi ancaman keamanan nasional ini dan menemukan solusi yang layak untuk masalah reformasi sosial-ekonomi dan politik dan pengangguran dalam jangka waktu yang wajar untuk mengurangi ancaman di masa depan.Kata Kunci: Keamanan dalam Negeri; Etnisitas; Sektarianisme; Tantangan Две нации, разные регионы, одинаковые вызовы: правовой и политический анализ угроз внутренней безопасности в Нигерии и Пакистане АбстрактныйЭто исследование представляет собой скромную, но объективную сравнительную оценку угроз внутренней безопасности, с которыми сталкиваются две субрегиональные крупные страны Африки и Южной Азии - Нигерия и Пакистан. Учитывая тот факт, что этническая принадлежность, сектантство и экономическая нестабильность являются фундаментальными переменными угроз внутренней безопасности в обеих странах, в исследовании утверждается, что религиозный экстремизм создал незавидный имидж обеих стран в глазах остального мира, несомненно, это повлияло на обе нации неблагоприятно. Исследование также определило межрегиональные жалобы как потенциальные причины ущерба для обеих федераций. Также определена этно-сектантская проблема как серьезная угроза безопасности для обеих стран. Это, по мнению авторов, останется огромным препятствием на пути достижения целей экономического процветания обеих стран. Следовательно, целью данного исследования является изучение взаимозависимости этих многогранных вызовов и их общего воздействия на внутреннюю безопасность в обеих странах. Для достижения этой цели в исследовании использовался качественный метод исследования, в котором использовался аналитический подход для изучения сходства проблем безопасности в Нигерии и Пакистане. Структурная анкета использовалась в качестве инструмента для сбора данных. Для анализа данных, собранных для исследования, был использован тематический аналитический подход. В исследовании, среди прочего, делается вывод о необходимости для обеих стран индивидуально противодействовать этим угрозам национальной безопасности и находить жизнеспособные решения проблем социально-экономических и политических реформ и безработицы в разумные сроки для смягчения будущих угроз.Ключевые слова: внутренняя безопасность; Этническая принадлежность; Сектантство; Вызовы

Promoting a capability approach and impacting social justice through a wellbeing framework: a case study of VET reform in Georgia

Georgia is currently undergoing a VET reform, bringing together public, private, and social actors, based on the principle of solidarity. This paper aims to identify ways in which the Georgian VET reform can be a force for economic prosperity, as well as wellbeing for different communities. Results are presented through a comprehensive research methodology, mobilizing a state of the art through in-depth analysis of primary and secondary data sources, as well as seven semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with education practitioners and policymakers in Georgia. The article highlights how progress is hindered by a peculiar mix of Soviet era and neo-liberal legacies that has shaped a unidimensional human capital approach focused on economic growth. We suggest limitations to this approach, and instead propose to re-align the system towards the objective of wellbeing, employing a Social Return on Investment (SROI) framework and advocating for collectivized intelligence between actors. Through an innovative meta-theoretical framework, we emphasize the importance of historical path-dependency and lay out the context. We analyze stakeholder interviews through the SROI framework and suggest socially-minded changes, benefiting individuals and the society as a whole.