Does tourism activity reduce the size of the informal economy? Capturing long-term heterogeneous linkages around the world

This paper investigates the long-term and causal relationship between tourism activity and the informal economy in 76 countries from 1995 to 2015. We explore this relationship at the global level and by country group, using panel, co-integration techniques that indicate the existence of a long-run co-integration relationship between tourism and informal economy for the whole sample and at the level of country groups. Additionally, the paper analyzes the long-run coefficients of the model by using fully modified ordinary least square regressions (FMOLS). The results from FMOLS evidence a negative and significant impact of tourism on the informal economy at the global level and in high, upper-middle, and lower-middle income countries, but a positive link in low-income countries. However, the results reveal a heterogeneous long-run relationship within country groups. Also, the result of the Dumitrescu-Hurlin Granger causality test indicates bidirectional causality in the global sample, but the direction of causality varies by country group. The main policy implication derived from our findings suggests that in order to reduce the size of informal economy, policy-makers should foster tourism activities. JEL Classification : J01, L83, C23, O57, C00, C01

Government Size and Openness: Insights Based on Country Classifications

This study investigates the nexus between government size and openness by paying special attention to country classification. The main results of our empirical investigations show that (i) there are two government size trends meaning two different country groups exist; (ii) there is a positive relationship between trade openness and government size for the first country group, which validates the compensation hypothesis; (iii) a negative relationship between financial openness and government size is found for the second country group, which confirms the efficiency hypothesis; (iv) the effect of financial openness is nearly ten times higher than trade openness; (v) an endogenous country classification process yields better results to understand the linkages between openness and government size. In this regard our study incorporates both hypotheses and provides a uniform explanation.

Overview: The international group for indigenous health measurement and COVID-19

The International Group for Indigenous Health Measurement (IGIHM) is a 4-country group established to promote improvements in the collection, analysis, interpretation and dissemination of Indigenous health data, including the impact of COVID-19. This overview provides data on cases and deaths for the total population as well as the Indigenous populations of each country. Brief summaries of the impact are provided for Canada and New Zealand. The Overview is followed by. separate articles with more detailed discussion of the COVID-19 experience in Australia and the US.

The Effect of Export Diversification on Economic Growth

There are many studies on the growth of emerging economies under the leadership of foreign trade in the literature. The majority of the mentioned studies reveal that exports increase growth. In addition to expressing the increase in exports in numbers in recent years, it is also seen that researches about its effect on growth are also prominent. In this context, Dumitruscu-Hurlin (2012) panel causality test was applied using data covering the period of 1990-2018 to determine the relationship between Turkey and BRICS countries' product diversification in exports and economic growth. Findings obtained shows that product variety in exports in the relevant country group is effective on long-term economic growth.

Association between proteomic blood biomarkers and DTI/NODDI metrics in adolescent football players

ABSTRACTThe objective of the study was to examine the association between diffusion MRI techniques [diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and neurite orientation/dispersion density imaging (NODDI)] and brain-injury blood biomarker levels [Tau, neurofilament-light (NfL), glial-fibrillary-acidic-protein (GFAP)] in high-school football and cross-country runners at their baseline, aiming to detect cumulative neuronal damage from prior seasons. Twenty-five football players and 8 cross-country runners underwent MRI and blood biomarker measures during preseason data collection. The whole-brain, tract-based spatial statistics was conducted for six diffusion metrics: fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), axial/radial diffusivity (AD, RD), neurite density index (NDI), and orientation dispersion index (ODI). Diffusion metrics and blood biomarker levels were compared between groups and associated within each group. The football group showed lower AD and MD than the cross-country group in various axonal tracts of the right hemisphere. Elevated ODI was observed in the football group in the right hemisphere of the corticospinal tract. Blood biomarker levels were consistent between groups except for elevated Tau levels in the cross-country group. Tau level was positively associated with MD and negatively associated with NDI in the corpus callosum of football players, but not in cross-country runners. Our data suggest that football players may develop axonal microstructural abnormality. Levels of MD and NDI in the corpus callosum were associated with serum Tau levels, highlighting the vulnerability of the corpus callosum against cumulative head impacts. Despite observing multimodal associations in some brain areas, neuroimaging and blood biomarkers may not strongly correlate to reflect the severity of brain damage.

Features of party education in the USSR in the late 1920s-1930s

The article attempts to reveal the main features of the emergence and further development of the Soviet party elite of the USSR in 1920-1930. In the article, the political elite is understood as the partyadministrative elite of the country, which, as a rule, consisted of members or candidates of the CPSU (b), and was the most significant in its influence on the life of the country group of managers, both national and local authorities. One of the necessary attributes, by the end of the 1920s. it became possible to get education in Soviet party schools in a number of relevant areas. At the beginning of the 1930s. had to deploy a system of party schools, lower, middle and higher, the main purpose of which was to train the party-Soviet and partyeconomic managers of higher and middle management. But also higher education institutions not party also were a forge of shots of party managers-functionaries and Communists-economic managers and experts. The article is devoted to the history of the system of training managers of the party-state apparatus of the USSR. Attention is drawn to the peculiarities of the formation of the Soviet state, associated with the implementation of three global transformations, such as industrialization, collectivization and cultural revolution, which contributed to a significant change in the social structure of society.

Identifying the Relationship Between Health Investment and Economic Development

The purpose of this study is to reveal the relationship between the economic development of countries and the importance they attach to health. In this context, macroeconomic data on the economic development levels and health of 127 countries were included in the study. In the application part of the study, clustering and cross-table analysis were used. As a result of the k-means clustering analysis, a 76.4% similarity was found between the three countries groups and the economic development levels. Therefore, it is possible to talk about significant relationships between health expenditures/investments and economic development. In addition, it is seen that 90% of the country group that attaches importance to health expenditures consists of developed countries.

Relationship Between Tax Revenues and Globalization

The aim of this chapter is to investigate the potential impacts of globalization on tax revenues with reference to theoretical explanations within the context of tax and globalization. In the study, G10 country group and the data belonging to these countries between the years of 1990 and 2015 are used. In order to determine the relationships between tax revenues and globalization, cross-sectional dependency test, slope heterogeneous tests, and bootstrap panel Granger causality tests were used to understand the direction of causality between long-term coefficient estimations and variables. While the results of the long-run coefficient obtained from the study show differences according to the countries, a bi-directional causality relationship is determined between tax revenues and foreign trade. The diminishing effect of globalization found on the tax revenues of nation states considered within the scope of the study. It can be thought that these outcomes may provide some preliminary information to policymakers.