Is the Fiscal Deficit of ASEAN Alarming? Evidence from Fiscal Deficit Consequences and Contribution towards Sustainable Economic Growth

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has faced a persistent fiscal deficit for the last three decades. In the vast literature, a question is still arising: is ASEAN’s fiscal deficit alarming? This study explores the fiscal deficit with different perspectives to provide guidelines for policymakers to answer this question. For this purpose, we offer fiscal causal hypotheses estimates, including the contribution of Government expenditures (GEs) and Government revenues (GRs) towards sustainable economic growth; we then evaluated two additional deficit hypotheses, the impact of fiscal deficit and deficit financing on inflation. This empirical analysis covered annual financial data for the years 1990 to 2019 of ten member countries of ASEAN by applying panel econometric techniques, which include unit root Levin, Lin, and Chu (LLC) and Im, Pesaran, and Shin (IPS) tests; the panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model for cointegration; and the Dumitrescu–Hurlin (DH) test for causality. The findings revealed that government expenditures contribute more towards sustainable economic growth while government revenues are inversely related to growth in the long run. The DH causality test supported the fiscal synchronization hypothesis and current account targeting hypothesis in ASEAN. The interest rate is found as a moderator between fiscal and current account deficits. Furthermore, the findings showed that the fiscal deficit of ASEAN could generate inflation while relying on outstanding debt. Overall, our findings concluded that the fiscal deficit of ASEAN is alarming based on the behavior of government revenues, interest rate dynamics, political stability, and outstanding debt in deficit financing.

POETRY, AS A METHODOLOGICAL RESOURCE IN TEACHING ENGLISH

This work has a sui generis origin in its editorial structure. In its first part, it brings together several academic articles related to the concepts of poetry, methods, forms, and advice on poetic writing and translation. While, in its second part, it includes a lyrical, transgressive, profoundly existential content. This unique style of mixing poetry with scientific articles is useful for unraveling and understanding the verses and especially the English translation, turning the exercise of this work into a transdisciplinary fusion of collective efforts to achieve a poeticacademic goal. In a globalized world, the Academy has broken space-time, as barriers of distance and communication, adding to the English language as a means of two-way interconnection between universities across the planet. This layout conceived that the poetic and academic contents of this work are from Spanish to English. In some cases, Latin American universities have an outstanding debt with their students regarding English teaching. For the above, this book by academics from the Universidad Nacional de Chimborazo (Unach), manages to contribute one more piece to the puzzle of learning the English language, in an innovative and formative way. Poetry, as a methodological resource in teaching English, is an original and innovative poetic and academic work. The book contains two parts. The first part includes three articles with content designed to become a support, help, and consultation on poetry and its different forms of writing in English. The second part contains 93 poems in English, with high provocative and mystical content, making it attractive to all readers who want to study different poetic points of view. All texts produced in this book are translated into English, looking in this way, to awaken interest in learning this language, in some cases, and in others, as an academic material to review the literature of William Shakespeare.

Legal Protection for Creditors Against Validity of Trade Binding Act with Loan Without Dependent Rights (Analysis of Verdict Number: 34/Pdt/2017/PT. YYK and Number : 214/Pdt.G/2014/PN.Jkt Sel)

Credit, which was previously considered taboo, is now a necessity in society. Everyone is looking for convenience for credit without knowing the risks and impacts that will occur in the future. The most important element of credit (debt) is the trust of the creditor towards the borrower as the debtor. Sale and Purchase Agreement (hereinafter referred to as PJB) is an agreement between a seller to sell his property to a buyer made with a notarial deed. Cases that occurred in Yogyakarta High Court Decision Number 34 / Pdt /2017/PT.YYK and District Court Decision Number 214 / Pdt, G / 2014 / PN. Jkt.Sel is a case of debt receivable with collateral for a certificate of land rights and the parties poured their agreement into the Sale and Purchase Binding Act (PPJB) and the Selling Power of Attorney, considering that after the two decisions, there was an outstanding debt problem, while the debtor was still have not been able to repay their debts to creditors, with guarantees of certificates of land rights without mortgage. The purpose of this study was to analyze the judges' consideration of the decision Number 34 / Pdt /2017/PT.YYK with Decision Number 214 / Pdt.G / 2014 / PN. Jkt Cell regarding sale and purchase agreement. analyze the legal protection for creditors against the validity of the deed of sale and purchase agreement with a loan without mortgage. analyze repayment by defaulting debtors relating to debts and loans without mortgages. The method used in this study is a normative juridical method, analyzed Normatively Qualitatively, The results of the study show that in Decision Number 34 / Pdt /2017/PT.YYK which states are null and void and do not have the power to bind an authentic deed regarding the "Purchase Bond" Number 01/2015 and authentic deed in the form of "Sales Authority" Number 02/2015 , because based on the Supreme Court Jurisprudence of the Republic of Indonesia number 275K / PDT / 2004. Whereas as a comparison for Decision Number 214 / Pdt.G / 2014 / PN. Jkt Cell, which originally had a legal relationship, that is, debt and receivables which stated that the Plaintiff was proven to have committed a default on the Defendant, stated the Purchase Binding Agreement No. 45 dated July 11, 2008 and all of its derivatives are valid and correct deeds; declare the Deed of Credit Recognition No. 46 dated July 11, 2008 and all of its derivatives are valid and correct deeds; certifies Fiduciary Deed (movable property) No. 47 dated July 11, 2008 and all of its derivatives are valid and correct deeds. Keywords: Legal Protection, Debt-Receivables, Binding Agreement of Purchase, Abuse of Circumstances.

Regspraak: Einde van gemeenskaplike boedel van ’n egpaar getroud in gemeenskap van goed en aanvang van uitwissende verjaring van tersake vorderinge val saam

But for an extraordinary order for a division of the joint estate stante matrimonio under section 20 or 21 of the Matrimonial Property Act 88 of 1984, the default joint estate of spouses married in community of property will come to an end with the demise of the marriage. This is either with the death of the firstdying spouse or by an order of the divorce court. It is impossible to extend the joint estate beyond these moments. With the end of the joint estate, the erstwhile spouses (or the estate of the demised spouse) are entitled to claim half of the value of the erstwhile joint estate. If the parties are unable to reach an amicable agreement to this end, a liquidator will be appointed to finalise the division of the assets. As from the end of the marriage, the former spouses have separate estates. Any new acquisition, gift, inheritance or income acquired after that date falls into the newly founded separate estate of the holder, and the other party has no claim to share in these assets. In Koko v Koko the respondent was married in community of property to Mr Koko in 1979 but that marriage ended in divorce by court order in 2001. The respondent left the previous marital home that was registered as joint property in the names of both spouses and retained inter alia some movable property from the erstwhile joint estate. Mr Koko remained in the house and continued to pay all rates and taxes, and the outstanding debt secured by a mortgage bond was amortised by the time of his demise. He later married the applicant and the couple lived in the house until his demise in 2013. Only years later did the respondent claim half of the current value of the immovable property as the still-registered co-owner. In this contribution, attention is devoted to the justifiability of the premise of the court that the claim should succeed notwithstanding the fact that more than nineteen years had lapsed since the applicable joint estate ended with the divorce order and the claimant did not contribute to the current unencumbered value of the property. If the claim to half of the value of the former joint estate is categorised as a personal right of the claimant, it is submitted that the effect of extinctive prescription should have been considered. By default, a debt is extinguished after three years and just the listed categories of debts mentioned in section 11(a) of the Prescription Act, including a judgment debt, will prescribe only after 30 years. It is submitted that the division of the joint estate is a natural consequence of the end of the marriage in community of property, and in KwaZulu-Natal orders for a division of the joint estate of parties married in community of property are consistently refused when divorce orders are granted for the very reason that they are unnecessary. In the absence of an applicable court order, the relevant debt cannot be defined as a “judgment debt” and the default prescription period governed by section 11(d) of Act 68 of 1969 should apply. It is inequitable that a previous spouse may, more than nineteen years after the divorce, benefit from the subsequent enhanced value of an asset that formed part of the erstwhile joint estate at the cost of another, who had contributed to that currently enhanced value of the asset since the joint estate came to an end. It boils down to unjustified enrichment if this is accomplished under the guise of her joint ownership of the immovable property still registered in the names of the former spouses as original co-owners because the real right of ownership is imprescriptible. A personal claim for half of the value of the assets in the estate would, however, have been prescribed after three years since the claim had vested.

Shocks, financial constraints and households’ consumption amid the great recession

Overall, there is now considerable evidence that financial constraints are at the root of the lack of consumption smoothing during the Great Recession. We push this evidence forward and show that in the presence of credit constraints, a job loss leads to larger drops in households? consumption. We build a set of testable hypotheses from our theoretical model and employ microdata taken from the second round of the Life in Transition Survey (LiTS II) (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development 2010). We specifically assess the role of financial constraints in explaining households? consumption coping strategies after the crisis shocks. Economic hardship is more likely to be observed if households experience difficulties in meeting outstanding debt obligations or in obtaining new credit lines because of financial constraints. The impact of job and wage shocks on households? consumption is much attenuated, by around a half, when we control for sample selection bias in accessing the formal credit markets. In the context of increasing impoverishment across Europe, the paper shows that a careful analysis of the main determinants of households? economic and financial hardship is crucial to formulate targeted measures at the regional and local level.

Econometric Analysis of Benin Public Debt Sustainability

Public indebtedness rates (outstanding debt recorded in the GDP) of Benin are respectively from 41.2% (4th term 2019), 43.9% (1st term 2020) and 48.4% (2nd term 2020). Previously, these rates have increased from 56.2% on December 31, 2018, compared to 54.3% in 2017 (Autonomous Amortization Fund - CAA, 2020). The progress of these indebtedness rates deserves an analysis of Benin public debt sustainability. This study thus aims at carrying out the econometric analysis of Benin public debt sustainability. The outcomes of data processing in the programming software R reveal that estimated β ( = 0,7318), is comprised between 0 and 1; we can deduce, according to QUINTOS (1995) that the revenues and expenditures partially adjust and that Benin public has a low sustainability.

Public Finance in Pandemic Times

Never before in living memory has economic destruction been so severe as it has been caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has struck at a time when the economy has already been slowing due to structural problems. Therefore, hastening the recovery process and accelerating the pace of economic growth requires the government not only to provide substantial stimulus but also to implement structural reforms. The stimulus provided so far has been mainly by the RBI on the supply side in terms of reducing interest rate, augmenting augment liquidity, restructuring loans to stressed sectors, moratorium on repayment of loans to severely impacted businesses and regulatory forbearance. The fiscal stimulus on the demand side has not been significant and amounted to just about 1.5 percent to 2 percent of GDP. The sharp contraction of the economy by 15.7 percent in the first half has substantially eroded revenue collections requiring both central and state governments to sharply reduce both government consumption and investment expenditures. Faster recovery in the second half of the year will crucially depend upon heavy lifting by the governments which requires them to increase consumption expenditures, transfers as well as capital expenditure by scaling up borrowing as well as monetizing the assets. The aggregate fiscal deficit as well as outstanding debt are likely to show a sharp increase which will raise questions of sustainability. The government has initiated a number of reforms, particularly to infuse flexibility to land and labour markets, reform regulatory systems in education and healthcare, and has made additional borrowing to the states conditional on undertaking power sector reforms, property tax reforms and improving the ease of doing business. However, implementation of these reforms holds the key. There is a need to urgently address problems of the financial sector. Reforms in sectors such as police and judiciary too are overdue to protect the life and property of people and enforce contracts.

ADHD, financial distress, and suicide in adulthood: A population study

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) exerts lifelong impairment, including difficulty sustaining employment, poor credit, and suicide risk. To date, however, studies have assessed selected samples, often via self-report. Using mental health data from the entire Swedish population (N = 11.55 million) and a random sample of credit data (N = 189,267), we provide the first study of objective financial outcomes among adults with ADHD, including associations with suicide. Controlling for psychiatric comorbidities, substance use, education, and income, those with ADHD start adulthood with normal credit demand and default rates. However, in middle age, their default rates grow exponentially, yielding poor credit scores and diminished credit access despite high demand. Sympathomimetic prescriptions are unassociated with improved financial behaviors. Last, financial distress is associated with fourfold higher risk of suicide among those with ADHD. For men but not women with ADHD who suicide, outstanding debt increases in the 3 years prior. No such pattern exists for others who suicide.

The Implication of Fiscal Principles and Rules on Promoting Sustainable Public Finances in the EU Countries

The purpose of this study was to analyze fiscal behavior in the European Union countries, to highlight the implications of institutional constraints on healthy fiscal attitudes, and to test the relationship between government decisions, fiscal responsibility instruments, and the sustainability of public finances during the period 2000–2014. By using panel data analysis, we tested the responsiveness of primary balance to government indebtedness, as well as to some determinants of fiscal responsibility, such as the degree of public spending or fiscal rules effectiveness, and we included two different perspectives regarding fiscal rules status. First, we computed a fiscal responsibility index, which measures the applicability of or compliance with the fiscal rules, referring to legal dimensions and administrative and institutional capacity. Second, we established a fiscal responsibility convergence index, which measures the status of the EU Member States regarding the approach of numerical rules. The empirical findings indicate that fiscal authorities do not act to the existing stock of public debt and highlights a negative response of budget balances to the stock of outstanding debt. Fiscal position improves when the index of fiscal responsibility is involved and countries become more sustainable when they are related to the entire level of fiscal governance, with respect to legal framework, institutional and administrative capacity, but at the debt ratio threshold of over 90%, the effect of the overall fiscal rule comes out as less relevant for the improvement of the primary balance.