Women in Gabon

Gabon, a small oil-rich country straddling the equator on the west coast of Africa, is the wealthiest of France’s former colonies. An early period of colonization in the 19th century resulted in disease, famine, and economic failure. The creation of French Equatorial Africa in 1910 marked the beginning of the sustained lucrative exploitation of Gabon’s natural resources. Gabon began off-shore oil production while still a colony of France. Uranium was also discovered in the last decade of the French Equatorial African empire. Coupled with rich reserves in tropical woods, Gabon has achieved, since independence in 1960, a higher level of export revenue per capita of population than any other country in sub-Saharan Africa in the postcolonial era. However, significant inequality has characterized access to wealth through paid employment throughout the recorded history of monetized labor. While fortunes have been amassed by a minute proportion of the female population of Gabon associated with the ruling regime, and a professional female middle-class has emerged, inequalities of opportunity and reward continue to mark women’s experience of life in this little-known country of West Central Africa. The key challenge facing scholars researching the history of women in Gabon remains the relative lack of historical resources. While significant strides have been made over the past decade, research on women’s history in Francophone Africa published in English or French remains embryonic. French research on African women began to make a mark in the last decade of colonization, notably with the work of Denise Paulme, but then remained a neglected area for decades. The publication in 1994 of Les Africaines by French historian Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch was hailed at the time as a pioneering work in French historiography. But even this new research contained no analysis of and only a passing reference to women in Gabon.

Anti-Inflammatory, Antioxidant, Chemical Characterization, and Safety Assessment of Argania spinosa Fruit Shell Extract from South-Western Morocco

Argania spinosa (L.) plays an important role in the Moroccan agroeconomy, providing both employment and export revenue. Argan oil production generates different by-products with functionalities that are not yet investigated, in particular, the shell fruit. The present study aims, for the first time, at evaluating the acute and subacute toxicity, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant effects of argan fruit shell ethanol extract (AFSEE). The LD50 of AFSEE was determined to be greater than the 5000 mg/kg body weight of mice. No significant variation in the body and organ weights was observed after 28 days of AFSEE treatment compared to that of the control group. Biochemical parameters and histopathological examination revealed no toxic effects of AFSEE. The AFSEE produced a significant inhibition of xylene-induced ear edema in mice. AFSEE reduced significantly the paw edema in mice after carrageenan injection. The chemical characterization showed that AFSEE contains a high level of total phenol content, flavonoids, condensed tannins, and flavanols. The obtained IC50 of DPPH, ABTS, reducing power, and β-carotene demonstrates that AFSEE has a potential antioxidant effect. The results indicate that AFSEE was safe and nontoxic to mice even at higher doses. Furthermore, the present findings demonstrate that AFSEE has potential anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities.

The Impact of Exchange Rate on Ethiopia’s Coffee Export

Although coffee constitutes the largest share of exports, producers in Ethiopia have historically received a small percentage of the export revenue from the price of green coffee. Reasons often mentioned are heavy government intervention and high marketing and processing costs. Before 1992, government regulation of the domestic coffee market in the form of fixed producer prices and the Ethiopian Coffee Marketing Corporation's monopoly power put a substantial wedge between the producer price and the world price of coffee by imposing an implicit tax on producers. Having liberalized the market and adopted a floating exchange rate regime to boost exports (coffee) as the country struggles with foreign exchange shortages, not much has improved in exports (coffee) or foreign reserve availability. This paper utilizes monthly data from 2010-2015 to develop a multiple regression model to determine the impact the exchange rate has on coffee export if there is any. The empirical findings indicate that the exchange rate is not significant in determining or influencing exports but the prices of the two famous coffee types (Arabica and Robusta). Corroborated by the research outcome, we suggest that policymakers do not rely on the depreciation or devaluation of the ETB (Ethiopian Birr) as a tool for export promotion and growth.

Services export diversification and services export revenue stability: does trade openness matter?

PurposeThe international trade literature has established that export product diversification lowers export product revenue instability. The current analysis investigates whether this finding carries over services exports.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical analysis covers a sample of 152 countries over the period 1980–2014 and employs the two-step system generalized method of moments (GMM) approach.FindingsThe empirical findings indicate that services export diversification reduces services export revenue instability both over the full sample as well as over sub-samples of high-income countries (HICs), least developed countries (LDCs) as well as developing countries (i.e. non-HICs) that are not LDCs. HICs appear to experience a higher positive effect of services export diversification on services export revenue instability than in developing countries. The analysis also shows that countries that further open-up to international trade enjoy a greater reducing effect of services export diversification on the instability of services export revenue.Research limitations/implicationsThis analysis, therefore, adds to the existing studies on the relationship between export product diversification and the instability of revenue derived from goods exports by focusing on the services export side. An important message from the analysis is that countries that diversify their services export basket enjoy lower services export revenue instability when they further integrate into the world trade market.Practical implicationsThis study highlights the importance of services export diversification, including for stabilizing services export revenue to services traders. Diversifying services export items, including across traditional and modern services sectors involves the implementation of a wide range of policies and measures, of which the liberalization of the services sectors through reduction and eventually the elimination of services trade barriers; the improvement of the business environment and the development of domestic financial markets (see for example, Hoekman, 2017). It could be interesting that another study consider policies and measures that could promote services export diversification.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time this topic is being addressed, including empirically.

The impact of public external debt on private investment. Evidence from Zimbabwe under the multi-currency system.

The levels of public debt have grown significantly in both emerging and developed countries even during times of peace. The rising levels of debt pose substantial debt sustainability issues to developing countries including Zimbabwe. A defaulting country usually has limited access to new international credit lines or tends to borrow at a higher cost, due to high perceived country risk premium, making the country a less attractive investment destination. Zimbabwe is currently suffering debt distress and has since the year 2000 struggled to service her external debt from international multilateral financial institutions. Zimbabwe’s external debt continues to pile up due to penalties on defaults. This paper examines the impact of public external debt on private investment in Zimbabwe, using quarterly time-series data for the period 2009 and 2017. The period of study was a period of relative stability when Zimbabwe operated under a multicurrency system. Interest rates, political risk, trade openness and household consumption are control variables of this study. Using the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM), we find that external debt and external debt squared have a negative impact on private investment in the long run. Results suggest that Zimbabwe’s external debt is crowding out private investment. In the short-term, we urge the government of Zimbabwe to apply for debt rescheduling to avoid penalties that have so far contributed to the ballooning of Zimbabwe’s external debt obligations. In the medium term, we urge the government of Zimbabwe to design comprehensive debt and arrears reduction strategies, to reduce Zimbabwe’s external debt to sustainable levels. In the long term, after regaining borrowing rights, we urge the government of Zimbabwe to invest external borrowings in productive ventures, to facilitate debt amortisation. Secondly, we recommend that external debt be invested in education, health and infrastructure, which can potentially stimulate private investment, and thus create a multiplier effect on economic growth. Lastly, we recommend the government to invest foreign loans in sectors where Zimbabwe enjoys a comparative advantage, to ensure reliable export revenue for debt servicing.

Exploring Barriers to International Trade Faced by Sri Lankan Exporters to the Indian Market

In recent decades, India has emerged as a major economy in the world. Although Sri Lanka is situated in close proximity to India and has entered into trade agreements with India to boost its international trade, it has still not been able to achieve the expected level of growth in exports to India. Based on the 2019 United Nations COMTRAD data, India is the third largest export destination of Sri Lanka, and the export revenue from trade with India amounted to US $ 759 million in 2019. However, the statistics in the past years indicate a drop in Sri Lankan export revenue to India from $ 767 million in 2018 to $ 759 million in 2019. In spite of different bilateral and multilateral trade agreements entered into between the two countries, Sri Lankan export performance still remains unsatisfactory. This indicates that apart from tariff reductions, certain other non-tariff barriers influence international trade performance between the two countries. Therefore, this study aims to explore barriers to Sri Lankan exporters which undermine their international trade performance in the Indian market. The study follows a qualitative research methodology and has collected data using face-to-face unstructured interviews with twenty (20) respondents representing different stakeholders engaged in the process of exporting from Sri Lanka to India. The collected data was coded and analyzed through template analysis. Findings revealed thirty-five (35) important factors which influence successful penetration into and performance in the Indian market. The results reveal that host market and home market characteristics have a greater impact on successful performance in the Indian market than product or firm characteristics.

Re-placing “Place” in Internationalised Higher Education: Reflections from Aotearoa New Zealand

Aotearoa New Zealand is a small, island nation located on the rim of Oceania. Since colonisation by British settlers in the mid-1800s, the internationalisation of higher education (HE) in Aotearoa New Zealand has reflected shifting notions of nationhood – from an extension of Great Britain, to a (separate) bicultural nation, to a player in the global knowledge economy. Since the late 1980s, internationalisation policy has reflected the primacy of market concerns; the internationalisation of HE has been imagined primarily as a means to attract export revenue and human capital to Aotearoa New Zealand, and to increase brand recognition. However, internationalisation, as the movement of people and knowledge between places, can also be seen as pre-dating the development of nations, particularly in the Oceania context.Within mātauranga Māori, or Māori (indigenous) epistemological traditions, place is central to identity. To be human is to be part of something bigger than oneself; care for the land is care both for ancestors and the wellbeing of future generations. In this paper, we (re)consider internationalised HE in light of three questions that are central to mātauranga Māori: “Who am I? What is this world that I exist in? What am I to do?” (Royal, 2012, p. 35). After tracing the connections between internationalisation, colonisation, and nationhood in Aotearoa New Zealand,we consider how attention to Māori place-based epistemologies and values drawn from mātauranga Māori might challenge, stretch and ground contemporary internationalisation policies and practices in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Agricultural Commercialisation and the Political Economy of Cocoa and Rice Value Chains in Nigeria

Nigeria has sought to diversify its economy away from dependence on oil as a major source of government revenue through agricultural commercialisation. Agriculture has been a priority sector because it has very high growth potential and the greatest potential for employment and export revenue. The cocoa and rice value chains are central to the government’s engagement with agriculture to achieve these objectives. This paper sets out to investigate the underlying political economy dynamics of the commercialisation of the cocoa and rice value chains in Nigeria in terms of smallholder farm households’ shift from semi-subsistence agriculture to production primarily for market, and predominantly commercial medium- and large-scale farm enterprises complementing or replacing smallholder farm households.

Statistical Analysis of Performance Indicators of the Leading Russian Exporters

Promoting the country’s competitiveness amid global turbulence is an important task at every level of the economy’s management. In the circumstances of Russia’s shrinking trade balance, which is due to the unfavorable resource market environment, studying the businesses of Russian exporters becomes a relevant research problem. The focus is placed on the dilemma of commodity/non-commodity exports, which is important to emerging markets.During the research, the authors conducted an analysis of revenue indicators and commodity and geographical diversification indicators of the leading Russian exporters based on materials from Expert Business Weekly, which may yield the following conclusions. First, resource companies’ export revenues are less volatile. Second, research results confirm, in a direct or an indirect way, the greater inclination and efficiency of resource exporters towards geographical (country-wise) diversification, whereas commodity diversification is an export strategy tool of non-resource companies. Third, the authors identified a positive correlation between foreign trade revenues, on the one hand, and the number of countries served and trade items offered, on the other hand, for mineral and energy companies; moreover, a higher elasticity of export revenue on a number of markets served was revealed. For the manufacturing exporters representing chemical, petrochemical, and food industries, a positive correlation between export revenues and the number of HS 4-digit commodity lines was identified in some years and industries alongside a higher elasticity of export income on number of commodity lines. The linear regression model showed that the addition of a new product in terms of HS 4-digit code would lead to a bigger increase in export income than a new national market entry. So, the authorities should support a product diversification of both commodity and manufacturing exporters encouraging the innovation.Thus, the performed analysis is of great practical importance, since Russia is the largest trading country in Central Europe. And the results shed light on export performance of its leading companies.

“Soft Power” and Russia’s Export Potential in Non-Raw Materials Sectors of Economy

The subject of the research is the export potential of Russia in non-resource sectors of the economy. The purpose of the article is to assess Russia’s international competitive advantages and export revenues in the sectors of the national economy that fall within the scope of “soft power”. The study, based on expert assessments and quantitative analysis methods, confirms the hypothesis that Russia has significant means of intellectual and emotional influence on foreign consumers, designed to improve the country’s current position in the system of international relations. It is shown how the tools of so-called “soft power” can be used to increase Russian geostrategic influence in the world, including using national ideological attitudes, conceptual political ideas and demonstration-effective business models. The realization of export revenue growth opportunities in areas of the national economy associated with the spread of “soft power” helps to solve this problem. Based on the concept of “soft power” and the postulates of the experience economy, dream society, behavioral economy and glam capitalism, with the involvement of statistical and factual materials, the prospects for the development of Russia’s export potential in the field of tourism, education, as well as certain areas of culture, art and sports that are most indicative of their competitiveness, including ballet, figure skating and animation, are evaluated. The author concludes that Russia has competitive advantages in both general and highly specialized areas of the non-resource economy, which, in addition to export revenues, can become a productive “soft power” of influence on foreign audiences. An important task of regulating foreign economic activity in the Russian Federation should be to support these areas of activity that are potentially attractive for increasing non-resource exports in the long term.