INVESTMENT ATTRACTIVENESS OF THE COUNTRY AND HER COMPONENTS

Important role in creating favorable conditions for the development of any economy is played by foreign investment. The attraction of foreign investment enables the recipient country to obtain a number of advantages, the main of which is the improvement of the balance of payments; transfer of the latest technologies and know-how; complex use of internal resources; development of export potential and reduction of dependence on imports; achievement of socio-economic effect (increase of employment level, development of social infrastructure, etc.). Possibilities of attracting investments into the country are depended first of all for the conditions for the investors who are created, that is, from the investment attractiveness of the country. The paper substantiates the theoretical positions that reveal the essence of the notion of investment. It is shown that investment attractiveness should be considered as an integral (factorial) characteristic, since the investment attractiveness of the country reflects the current state and level of development of the state, which is determined by the set of its economic, political, social, cultural, scientific and technological, infrastructure, financial, resource and raw materials, environmental and other factors that determine the solvent demand for investment. That is, this parameter is a cumulative estimate of all industries of the state's operation. The proposed approach to the estimation attractiveness of the country allows us to identify and assess the causes and problems in the economy, the degree of their importance and urgency, there is an opportunity to comprehend the influence of various factors on the increase or decrease of investment attractiveness of the state and there is a basis for an active approach to the identification of its constituent parts.

Vietnamese Version of the Geriatric Depression Scale (30 Items): Translation, Cross-Cultural Adaptation, and Validation

The proportion of geriatric depression recorded in Vietnam was 66.9%. Depression in older people is a risk factor for problems related to dementia, poor quality of life, and suicide. To have a good Vietnamese questionnaire for assessing geriatric depression, we conducted the study to translate and cross-culturally adapt the Geriatric Depression Scale—long-form with 30 items (GDS-30). The study has two steps. Step 1 is a translation of the GDS-30 scale. We followed the guideline by Beaton et al. (2000 & 2007). Firstly, two translators (informed and uninformed) translated the questionnaires. Secondly, the translations were synthesized. Thirdly, back translation was performed by two translators fluent in both Vietnamese and English but completely unknown of the original version of the scale and did not have medical expertise. Finally, seven experts reached a consensus on the pre-final Vietnamese version (GDS-30). Step 2 is a field test of the questionnaires on people 60 years or older. Then, we determined the internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the questionnaire in 55 Vietnamese inpatients in a geriatric department. Construct validity was determined by examining the relationship between depressive scores and patient characteristics. The Vietnamese version of GDS-30 was built with the agreement of all experts on the semantic, idiomatic, experiential, and conceptual equivalences between the original and pre-final Vietnamese versions of the GDS-30. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient value was 0.928, indicating the items’ adequate internal consistency. Spearman’s correlation coefficient value of total scores between the first and second interviews showed medium correlation (0.479, p < 0.001), and the stability is acceptable. The GDS-30 scale reached the construct validity because the proportion of geriatric depression according to GDS-30 was significantly different between characteristics groups, such as gender, employment, level of education, economic status, and sleep disturbance. The Vietnamese version of the GDS-30 scale had high consistency, satisfactory reliability, and understanding and can be used as a screening tool for depression in elderly patients in primary healthcare centers. This is the first depression rating scale for the elderly in Vietnam to be translated and validated. Non-psychiatric health professionals or patients can quickly self-assess and screen for the illness.

Impact of COVID-19 on food outlets: symmetric or asymmetric? A case study of Amritsar

PurposeThe present study is an intra-industry analysis, which aims to investigate whether the impact of COVID-19 on employment level, clientele rate, liquidity constraints and sustainability aspect of different food outlets is symmetric or asymmetric in nature.Design/methodology/approachWith the help of well-structured questionnaire, the study has surveyed 80 food outlets in total by interviewing the managers and owners of these outlets. Food outlets have been classified into four categories namely international, national, local and street food outlets. Econometric techniques like MANOVA and Garret ranking have been employed to fulfil the objective of the study.FindingsThe results depict that the impact of COVID-19 on employment level and liquidity constraints is significantly asymmetric amongst different groups of food outlets, even though the decline in extent of clientele is somewhat same for all groups. The survival aspect of outlets also witnesses clear-cut asymmetry in results as big outlets have greater potential to survive for longer if lockdown happens again when compared to street food outlets as their financial availability and stability differ.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample size of study is restricted, mainly due to lesser number of national franchise's food outlets available in Amritsar, though other categories of eateries were sufficient in number. Further, the study is restricted only to one district of Punjab state, whereas for future research, inter-district comparison can be done.Practical implicationsThe findings reveal that the street food outlets may gain by fostering its online functioning. Similarly national food outlets are encouraged to alter their business strategies to revive their sales against their competitors.Originality/valueThis study is one of the explorer studies to analyse the impact of COVID-19 by making an intra-industry comparison for the eatery industry – considering four different categories of eateries. The classification of eateries helps in analysing whether the employment level, clientele rate, liquidity constraints and survival perspective have been affected symmetrically for the whole eateries industry or does severity of being affected differ asymmetrically. The study makes a contribution by adding a new string of dimension to the existing load of literature in the domain of hospitality.

What Encourages Longer Educational Careers in Tertiary Education? A Three-Level Approach for the Case of Romanian Universities

Students’ commitment and engagement in the educational process are shaped by a dense combination of factors, with effects on educational attainment and on the length of their educational careers. Decisions of prolonging education by enrolling in master’s degrees are beneficial for both individuals and societies, as such programs provide higher levels of specialized skills Longer educational careers are favored by a mix of factors acting at the level of individual, university, or wider environment. We focus our study on exploring factors conducive for students’ intentions to pursue master’s degrees considering longer educational careers as desirable outcomes. Thus, this article investigates how the individual and environmental factors interplay and shape the predisposition of students to prolong their educational career by enrolling in master’s degrees. For this, we applied three-level logistic regression models for a sample of 502 students enrolled in their final year of bachelor studies grouped by universities and universities grouped by counties. The empirical results revealed that the final grade, the father level of education, the type of working contract, and job seniority are individual-level determinants influencing the decision of enrolment in a master’s program. At the university level, the type of university and the university performance score positively impact the students’ decision to enroll in a master’s program. At the county level, the empirical evidence pointed out the significance of determinants such as the proportion of students enrolled in bachelor studies; participation rate in education and training; employment level in high-technology sectors (HTC), total-knowledge intensive sectors (KIS), and knowledge-intensive high-technology sectors (KIS_HTC); proportion of persons with tertiary education employed in science and technology; proportion of scientists and engineers; local development; R&D expenditure, personnel, and researchers in the business sector; average gross earnings; density of active firms; birth rate of companies; proportion of innovative enterprises or those introducing product innovations on the decision to enroll in a master’s program.

Are Pueblos Mágicos Really Magic? Tourism Development Program in the Context of the Quality of Life of Town Residents

Among the countless attractions awaiting tourists in Mexico are towns characterized by an exceptional atmosphere, which in conjunction with natural environmental attractions, leads one to believe that these places are magical. The promotion of tourism in Mexico rests on the principle of cultural and environmental diversity and includes a development program called Pueblos Mágicos. This program is designed to help expand small towns’ tourism offering and to create new jobs in the service sector that normally accompanies tourism. This growth in the employment level is supposed to produce a direct impact on the lives of members of the local community in terms of their standard of living and quality of life. The aim of the present paper is to examine the effects of the implementation of this program in a comprehensive manner. The viewpoint examined is that of the local population and its living conditions. Employment levels in towns designated Pueblos Mágicos are examined in the paper, as is the rate of business development. A comprehensive index is used in the study to analyze these issues. The index of exclusion in the study also varies from town to town—both statically and over time. The paper also examines a number of other studies that have focused on the benefits and downsides of this program. Thus, the aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the effects of the introduction of the tourism development program Pueblos Mágicos (PPM) from the perspective of its impacts on the quality of life of the residents of the affected towns, based on statistical data such as job growth rates and marginalization, as well as a review of existing studies. Research has shown that the Pueblos Mágicos program has not substantially improved the quality of life of residents in Mexican towns designated Pueblos Mágicos. In fact, in some cases, the quality of life has, in some respects, declined over the course of the program’s functioning. However, it is conceivable that with a proper town vetting process the program may yet produce better results in terms of improvements in the quality of life of Pueblo Mágico town residents.

Minimum wages, youth employment and spatial spillovers: New evidence for Spain

The effect of minimum wages increases on youth employment level has been extensively analysed, but recent contributions have highlighted the potential bias in these studies due to neglected spatial autocorrelation in the considered relationship. This paper contributes to this scarce literature by providing novel evidence for a country with very low interregional mobility. The aim is to see if the bias of neglecting spatial dependence acts in a similar direction than in the few studies for the United States and if this bias explains the low elasticity of youth employment to minimum wages in Spain compared to the international literature. Our results show the relevance of spatial spillovers in the Spanish regional labour markets, but after correcting for the bias, we do not find a significant negative elasticity of youth employment to minimum wages, with the only exception of those between 16 and 19 years old.

The Impact of Training on Administrative Creativity at Private Banks in Hodeida City

This study aimed to assess the impact of training on administrative creativity at private banks in Hodeida city, as creativity is an important factor for making banks pioneering in the services they offer and, accordingly, for strengthening their sustainability in the market. To achieve the study objective, the descriptive analytical method was used; and a questionnaire was administered to collect data from a sample of (133) participants who were selected from the study population (164) members working at (8) private banks in Hodeida city by the complete census method. After applying statistical analysis to test the study hypothesis, such as simple linear regression, t-test of two independent groups and one-way of analysis of variance, the study results revealed that the assessment degree of training and administrative creativity received a high score. There was also a significant positive impact of training on administrative creativity. Results also reported absence of statistically significant differences between the mean scores of the participants attributed to gender, age, education, employment level andyears of experience. However, there were statistically significant differences between the mean scores of the participants’ responses attributed to the number of training courses. The study concluded with stressing the need to include training among the strategic priorities at private banks in Hodeida city. The required resources should also be allocated for training as it hasimpact on administrative creativity.

Teaching Labor Laws: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial in South Africa

We assess whether imperfect knowledge of labor regulation hinders job creation at small and medium-sized firms. We partner with a labor law expert organization that provides information about labor regulation via newsletters and access to a specialized website. We randomly assign 1,800 firms to get access to this service for a 21-week period. Six months later, the average employment level at treatment firms was 12 percent higher than at control firms. The intervention decreased the perception that labor regulation is a constraint to hiring and increased optimal employment level. (JEL D22, D83, J63, L25, K31, O15)

Skilled Migrant Women’s Experiences of the Job Search Process

In this article, we address how skilled migrant women experience job search processes in Finland, and the expectations and emotions that arise from these workforce encounters, which we explore through unique qualitative data. Although Finland relies strongly on principles of equality and inclusion, highly educated migrant women face major difficulties in job application processes. The employment level of migrant women in Finland is low compared to other Nordic countries, and even though migrant women are more educated than migrant men and their Finnish language skills are better, they encounter many hurdles in employment. As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the situation is getting more difficult for many women with non-Finnish background.There are multiple hurdles in highly educated women workers’ employment, which relate to structural and cultural aspects and which end up in discrimination in recruitment processes.

Investigating the Relationship Between Country Competitiveness and Financial Market Development in Times of Crisis

A country’s competitiveness depends on many factors related to general governance, effectiveness of markets, social development, and business perspectives. The role of financial markets for economic growth has been the subject of many scientific studies; most of them concluded that a well-developed financial system should improve the efficiency of financing decisions, favouring a better allocation of resources and thereby economic growth. The financial crisis that started in the summer of 2007 is still testing the strength of the global economic system. It started in the financial sector, but is now having an important impact on the real economy. The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between a country’s financial market development and its competitiveness in particular in times of crisis, with the use of a series of econometric models. We find evidence that financial market development is affected (with the anticipated sign of impact) by the Global Competitiveness Index, the GDP per capita and the (un)employment level of a country. It is also related (with an unexpected direction of impact) with the foreign market size and exports, as well as infrastructure. Our findings can be used by the policymakers of countries which wish to improve their competitiveness so as to steer the determining variables in the desired directions and approach their desired competitiveness levels.