Analysis of the Propagation Effects of Remittances on the Vulnerability of External Trade of the Republic of Moldova

In the Republic of Moldova remittances have become a much-discussed subject, the country ranking among the economies with the highest share of remittances in terms of GDP. What is more, remittances, unlike FDI, external trade and other sources of income, seem to have a significant impact on economic growth. Republic of Moldova is a small open economy vulnerable to external shocks. We will examine the effect of remittances on the balance of trade by creating an econometric model. Am attempt has also been made to capture the positive and negative spillovers that migrants’ remittances have on a country’s socio-economic development. Within the research a variety of analytical tools are employed including Granger causality tests, unit root tests, coupled with a structural vector auto regression (SVAR), impulse response function (IRF) analyses and variance decomposition. We find that net trade and remittances are closely associated and follow an almost identical path. Remittances have strong effect on the growth of negative net trade of the Republic of Moldova.

Theoretical and Conceptual Issues on Covid-19 Pandemic

The study set out to evaluate the theoretical, empirical and conceptual issues on COVID-19 Pandemic. It stated that the American system is described as a liberal capitalist system, which theoretically operates upon private ownership of the means of production, pursues profit in business trading as the motivation and production are for the markets. In this system, price mechanism determines demand and supply. China on the hand, had started reforms where they transited from Communism to Socialist market economy with strong State –Owned- Enterprises driving the economy. They have acquired the capitalist ethics of profit and competition hence aiming at profit in the global market place. In the course of this, they obtained favorable balance of trade with the U.S. The former U.S. president was desirous to change the situation, and started a trade-war with China which negotiations failed. In the midst of this came COVID-19,which this study termed the third World War given the fact that the number of nations and casualties caused by COVID-19, is greater than both the first and second World Wars. The study applied the descriptive research technique and deployed the Elite theory and the political economy perspective of analysis. It alluded to the logic of competition in capitalism which operates in both systems as accounting for the COVID-19 as ammunition to outwit one another. It outlined the manifest and latent manifest outcomes of the COVID-19, showing the various military ships in which their occupants were infected by COVID-19 after participating in the 7th CISM world Military games in Wuhan,-China. It also listed a number of Cruise-Liners which were docked because the occupants were infected by the virus. It concluded that just as global alliance helped to resolve the World wars and previous pandemic, global solidarity in finding out where and how the virus started and conduct research to find potent vaccine to end the pandemic is the solution to covid-19, else mankind would live with it.

INDO – CHINA TRADE: A NEW CENTRE PERIPHERY RELATIONSHIP

Indo China trade names for last 3-4 years mainly because of three reasons one; China has become the robust trading partner of India outpacing USA, second; the balance of trade deficit of India is very high almost 60 Billion dollar, three; India and China are face to face on boundary issue and army skirmishes which has led to a boycott China slogan in India. But the issue do not end here. In fact China has become a manufacturing hub of all kind of industries in India. The inputs assembles spares as well as sophisticated machinery in India all Imported from China. In pandemic Covid-19 found that even dominant pharmaceutical companies of India are dependent on Chinese support. The whole consumer durable market of India is in fact only an assembly market. All parts of refrigerator, AC, cameras, microwave and what not are imported and then only assembly is done by Indian companies. Same is true for Electric gadgets, Telecommunication instruments, plastic industry and even handicrafts and handloom sector. Economics call it dependency of development. A Metropolis satellite like relationship in which India’s economic development at present is been conditioned by China. In fact this is an extension of Prebisch singer Centre periphery model where in the International division of labour is such that some group of countries (periphery) output, raw material, agro and mineral-based product to while the other group of countries (Centre) add value and exports them back to periphery. This leads to exploitation of resources of periphery and analogous development of the developed countries. In this research paper the researcher is trying to analyse the Indochina trade through the lens of dependency theory. KEYWORDS: Centre periphery relationship, manufacturing, exports, BOT, Indo China trade

Alleviation or Politicization of Poverty in Africa? A Critique of Nigeria’s Social Investments Programs under Buhari-led Administration, 2015-2020

The study interrogates the politics of poverty alleviation amidst the prevalence of poverty in Africa, focusing on Nigeria. Nigeria currently ranks among the poor countries in the world. While many studies have examined aspects of poverty mitigation within the national development frameworks, the politics underlying such endeavors have been under-explored. This study narrows this gap by investigating how politicians bastardize social investment programs through tokenish material 'hand-outs' designed to serve immediate political ends. The study is based on textual and contextual analysis of secondary sources, as complemented by corroborated anecdotes. Appropriating Marxian production theory, the study posits that the prevalence of poverty in Africa has been occasioned by macro and micro-level politics. At the macro-level, the balance of trade cum balance of payment asymmetries has reproduced conditions that perpetuate dependency and underdevelopment in the developing countries in general and Nigeria in particular. At the micro-level, local politicians trivialize social investments by exploiting the poverty situation of the populace for electoral gains through ad hoc material 'hand-outs.' This has weakened the social investment policy environment and alienated the citizenry in decision-making concerning wealth creation, distribution, and social investments priorities. The study recommends mainstreaming social investment governance into national development programing for sustainability.

The Dynamics of Exchange Rate, Inflation, and Trade Balance in Indonesia

Balance of trade has become an essential indicator for economic activities, particularly in countries adopting the open economy. During the last two decades, Indonesia has had trade surplus. The open economy has created dynamics in macroeconomic variables. The purpose of this research is to identify any dynamics between exchange rate, inflation, and balance of trade in Indonesia. Using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag, this study finds the dynamics between the said variables. In the short run, there are causalities between exchange rate and balance of trade, exchange rate and inflation, and balance of trade and inflation. In addition, J-Curve also occurred in Indonesia, where depreciation in exchange rate gradually improves the country’s balance of trade in the second and fourth quarters. Keywords: Exchange Rate, Inflation, Balance of Trade, Autoregressive Distributed Lag JEL Classification: F1, F4, C1