Impact of Tourism on Economic Growth of Nepal: Is Tourism-Led Growth Hypothesis Valid for Nepal?

A voluminous study is available on tourism-growth nexus as tourism industry received considerable attention as a potential source of economic growth. This paper empirically examines the impact of tourism on economic growth of Nepal by using time series data of 1976-2020 and applying autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach. Real GDP was used as proxy measure of economic growth, which was the outcome variable whereas the variable of interest was tourism receipts. Foreign aid, total volume of trade and ratio of government consumption expenditure to GDP were taken as control variables. The result of ARDL model shows that tourism has no significant impact on economic growth of Nepal in both short-run and long-run. However, total volume of trade has positive and significant effect on economic growth in short-run whereas foreign aid, total volume of trade and ratio of government consumption expenditure to GDP have positive and significant effect on economic growth in the long-run. In such context of tourism and growth relationship, tourism-led growth hypothesis is rejected for Nepal.

Technical Framework of Qatar’s Foreign Aid Policy: Guiding Documents and Operative Institutions (Rangka Kerja Teknikal Dasar Bantuan Asing Qatar: Dokumen Panduan dan Institusi Pelaksana)

This paper presents essential aspects of the State of Qatar foreign aid policy (QFAP), which is closely tied to the wider country’s foreign policy. The study traces and explains vital foundations of the country’s foreign aid policy framework and its decision-making process, mainly the guiding documents and operative institutions. Evidently, the content and structure of these two technical elements reflect the political and socio-cultural background as well as the regional and global surrounding of the state of Qatar. Although it is an emerging donor, Qatar’s aid documents and institutions are showing radical development and prestigious institutionalizing. The technical guidance and the inclusiveness of QFAP documents and widespread operations of its institutions show that Qatar has further benefited from its partnerships and global engagements to advance its aid policy making. This research used face-to-face interviews with key Qatari officials and scrutinized the state official documents and quoted speeches and statements, in addition to other relevant academic materials. Keywords: Foreign Aid Policy, Qatar, Documents, Institutions, Policy-Making. Abstrak Artikel ini membentangkan aspek dasar bantuan luar negeri Qatar (QFAP), yang berkait rapat dengan rangka kerja umum dasar luar negeri yang lebih luas. Kajian ini mengesan dan menerangkan 2 asas penting rangka kerja dasar bantuan asing negara dan proses membuat keputusannya; iaitu dokumen panduan dan institusi pelaksana. Melalui kajian ini, jelas menunjukkan bahawa kandungan dan struktur kedua-dua elemen teknikal ini mencerminkan latar belakang politik dan sosio-budaya serta persekitaran serantau dan global negara Qatar. Walaupun Qatar merupakan penderma yang baru menonjolkan diri dalam landskap bantuan global, namun dokumen dan institusi bantuan Qatar menunjukkan ia sebagai perkembangan positif dan institusi yang berprestij. Panduan teknikal dan keterangkuman dokumen QFAP dan operasi meluas institusinya menunjukkan bahawa Qatar telah terus mendapat manfaat daripada perkongsian dan penglibatan globalnya untuk memajukan pembentukan dasar bantuannya. Kajian ini dijalankan berdasarkan temu bual langsung dengan para pegawai Qatar dan pakar yang berkaitan, di samping menganalisis dokumen dan laporan rasmi negara, memetik ucapan dan kenyataan rasmi, serta mengambil kira sumber akademik dan saintifik lain yang berkaitan. Kata Kunci: Dasar Bantuan Asing, Qatar, Dokumen, Institusi, Proses Pembentukan Dasar.

African Asylum Seekers in Europe: The Interplay between Foreign Aid and Governance in Origin Countries

This paper empirically investigates the effects of governance quality on the number of African asylum seekers in Europe over the period 1996–2018 and evaluates the extent to which official development aid acts as a catalyst. With this purpose in mind, different gravity model specifications and estimation approaches have been employed. The obtained results suggest that the asylum flows are strongly determined by governance quality in the country of origin and that this effect does depend on the amount of foreign aid received from developed countries. Moreover, it is also found that development aid is only effective in reducing asylum applications coming from countries with good governance. Moreover, we find no differences in the estimated elasticity of foreign aid on asylum claims for the beneficiaries of the European Union Emergency Trust Fund (EUTF) for Africa, the main aim of which has been to improve living conditions of potential migrants in their countries of origin.