Monetary Policy Convergence within the EAC: A Focus on Interest Rate and Exchange Rate

This study was conducted to establish whether the key variables in monetary policy transmission mechanisms are converging within the East African Community. This region is eyeing having an economic union and subsequently a monetary union hence the significance of investing developments in the monetary sector. The analysis used panel data from the year 2005 to 2020 for five EACs. To test for convergence of interest rates and exchange rates, the analysis employed; unit-root test, sigma convergence, co-integration tests, and finally used the panel fixed effect model to establish the impact of the two variables on the GDP. The analysis shows that in the short run, there is no convergence in interest rates but there is convergence in exchange rates. However, in the long run, the two monetary policy variables are co-integrated indicating that the region is doing well in terms of integration in the financial sector in their preparation to form a common trade area and monetary union. The analysis of the impact of the two variables on economic growth shows that only the exchange rate is significant, therefore, the region should strive to foster a stable exchange rate regime to realize increased economic growth.

What Are the Chances of Resilon to Dominate the Market Filling Materials for Endodontics?

This paper is a literature review with additional virtual analyses of the authors’ own experimental research results. Knowledge from various areas was synergistically combined, appropriately for concurrent engineering, presenting several possible methodological approaches used in research, optimizing the selection of engineering materials and the conditions of their application with particular application in endodontics. Particular attention was paid to the theoretical aspects of filling material strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats SWOT analysis. Attention was paid to the original concepts of Sustainable Dentistry Development in conjunction with Dentistry 4.0, which includes endodontics as an important element. The dentists’ actions, among others, in conservative dentistry, along with endodontics, requires close cooperation with engineers and the enginering sciences. Methods of root canal preparation were described, together with selected tools, including those made of nitinol. Principles concerning the process of cleaning and shaping the pulp complex are presented. The importance of obturation methods, including the Thermo-Hydraulic-Condensation THC technique, and the selection of filling materials with the necessary sealants for the success of endodontic treatment are discussed. The experimental studies were carried out in vitro on human teeth removed for medical reasons, except for caries, for which two groups of 16 teeth were separated. After the root canal was prepared, it was filled with studs and pellets of a filling material based on polyester materials, which has gained the common trade name of resilon or, less frequently, RealSeal (SybronEndo) with an epiphany sealant. The teeth for the first group were obturated by cold lateral condensation. In the second case the obturation was performed using the Thermo-Hydraulic-Condensation technique using System B and Obtura III. The experimental leakage testing was done using a scanning electron microscope SEM and a light stereoscopic microscope LSM, as typical research tools used in materialography. The research results, in a confrontation with the data taken from the literature studies, do not indicate the domination of resilon in endodontics.

Umowa o handlu i współpracy między UE a Wielką Brytanią

The Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (UK) is a free trade agreement signed in accordance with WTO rules. It consists of 12 chapters and many annexes, which contain provisions on the free movement of goods, investments, payments, rules of origin, common institutions, dispute resolution procedure, cooperation in the field of transport, environmental protection, combating terrorism and crime. In view of the UK’s exit from the EU, it is important to analyse, what is most interesting in the Agreement and what it does not contain, e.g. provisions on the free movement of workers, students, financial services, the right of citizens to work, the common trade, agricultural policy, regional policy, financing of the EU budget. Because the Agreement limits the existing freedoms and scope of mutual cooperation, the aim of this Article is to analyse not only its provisions, but also the consequences that it will bring in terms of benefits and costs for the UK and the EU. The author uses a well-known non-Europe methodology in his research, taking into account the fact that things, which are now benefits of integration, could prove to be the costs of disintegration tomorrow. The costs and benefits of the Agreement should be assessed through the lens of the current costs and benefits of the UK’s membership of the EU. From this point of view, the implementation of the Agreement will bring higher alternative costs in the form of lower trade in goods and services, capital migration and workers in comparison with their volume, that can be achieved in the EU. The conducted analysis demonstrates that these costs will not be compensated by the savings from the UK contribution to the EU budget.

The EAEU Free Trade Agreements as a New Viable Format for the Russian Trade Policy

The Regional Trade Agreements (RTA) as a legal format of trade between countries has been actively developed within the last decades. Russian involvement in RTAs until recently was modest. However, after the EAEU creation in 2015, trade policies of the member countries have changed. Setting up the RTAs has become an important priority of the EAEU’s common trade policy. In this study, the assessment is made of the significance for the Russian domestic policies of the already signed and planned FTAs. The focus of the methodology of the study lies in computations of three trade indices: export significance index (suggested by authors and based on the revealed comparative advantage index), trade intensity index and symmetric trade introversion index, which were calculated for the totality of trade partners of Russia for 2019 (193 countries) in order to identify the most promising countries to conclude new FTAs. Authors come to a conclusion that the already signed Russian RTAs and newly planned Russian common FTAs on behalf of the EAEU have a potential to generate trade. Another important result of the study is that it provides the list of the first-priority countries for the new-coming FTAs for Russia and the EAEU partners in terms of efficiency in generating trade, that are - Egypt, Turkey, Algeria, Republic of Korea and Mongolia. The authors suggest to make similar calculations for other countries to support the revealed pattern.

EU Demand for Defense, 1990–2019: A Strategic Spatial Approach

For 1990–2019, this study presents two-step GMM estimates of EU members’ demands for defense spending based on alternative spatial-weight matrices. In particular, EU spatial connectivity is tied to EU membership status, members’ contiguity, contiguity and power projection, inverse distance, and arms trade. At a Nash equilibrium, our EU demand equations are derived explicitly from a spatially based game-theoretical model of alliances. Myriad spatial linkages among EU members provide a robust free-riding finding, which differs from the spatial and non-spatial literature on EU defense spending. Even though the EU applies common trade policies and allows for unrestricted labor movement among members, members’ defense responses adhered to those of a defense alliance. Moreover, EU defense spending exhibits positive responses to GDP and transnational terrorist attacks, and a negative response to population. During the sample period, EU members did not view Russia as a military threat.

The Culture of Technological Creativity in the Islamic World during the First Islamic Golden Age

The Islamic world in the period between 132AH/750AD – 655AH/1258AD is marked by technological advancements stemming from the ability of its community to preserve, adapt and build on already existing knowledge assimilated from others. There was a culture highly creative in its approach to driving technological progress, which led to the development of valuable innovations and the accumulation of vast wealth. More importantly, these innovations enabled the community to achieve the Maqāṣid. Leadership, stable rules of law, common trade rules, effective administration, and strong institutions are some of the ingredients giving rise to a culture of technological creativity. An often-underrated essential ingredient is the communication of information. Knowledge codified as information in patents, journal articles, and book chapters is only useful when it is efficiently communicated to individuals who can transform the information into innovations. During this golden age, there were many individuals involved with the delivery and exchange of information. Non Muslim members within the community-made notable contributions, particularly in translating non-Arabic scientific works into Arabic. Later generations of Muslim innovators made extensive use of these translated works which included insightful dialectical commentaries.

Common Trade Exposure and Business Cycle Comovement

A large empirical literature has shown that countries that trade more with each other have more correlated business cycles. We show that previous estimates of this relationship are biased upward because they ignore common trade exposure to other countries. When we account for common trade exposure to foreign business cycles, we find that (1) the effect of bilateral trade on business cycle comovement falls by roughly 25 percent and (2) common exposure is a significant driver of business cycle comovement. A standard international real business cycle model is qualitatively consistent with these facts but fails to reproduce their magnitudes. Past studies have used models that allow for productivity shock transmission through trade to strengthen the relationship between trade and comovement. We find that productivity shock transmission increases business cycle comovement largely because of a country-pair's common trade exposure to other countries rather than because of bilateral trade. When we allow for stronger transmission between small open economies than other country-pairs, comovement increases both from bilateral trade and common exposure, similar to the data.

Common Trade Exposure and Business Cycle Comovement

A large empirical literature has shown that countries that trade more with each other have more correlated business cycles. We show that previous estimates of this relationship are biased upward because they ignore common trade exposure to other countries. When we account for common trade exposure to foreign business cycles, we find that (1) the effect of bilateral trade on business cycle comovement falls by roughly 25 percent and (2) common exposure is a significant driver of business cycle comovement. A standard international real business cycle model is qualitatively consistent with these facts but fails to reproduce their magnitudes. Past studies have used models that allow for productivity shock transmission through trade to strengthen the relationship between trade and comovement. We find that productivity shock transmission increases business cycle comovement largely because of a country-pair's common trade exposure to other countries rather than because of bilateral trade. When we allow for stronger transmission between small open economies than other country-pairs, comovement increases both from bilateral trade and common exposure, similar to the data.

INDIA’S EXPORT POTENTIAL WITH NON-ASEAN RCEP NATIONS-AN EMPIRICAL ESTIMATION

In November 2019, India decided to pull out from the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), initiated in 2012 to create a common trade block comprising 10 ASEAN nations along with Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea P R, and New Zealand. India already has free trade agreement (FTA) with ASEAN nations. In this backdrop, it becomes quite interesting to know about India’s export potential with Non-ASEAN RCEP nations. Since India has significant scope in export of services, this paper aims to assess India’s merchandise export potential with Non-ASEAN RCEP countries, viz. Australia, China, Japan, Korea P R, and New Zealand. The gravity model of international trade is employed to estimate India’s merchandise export potential with these nations. Panel data on India’s merchandise exports, spanning from 2005 to 2018, have been employed and results are based on pooled effects, random effects and fixed effect methods of OLS estimation. The study shows that India seems to have merchandise export potential with China only, while no merchandise export potential seems to exist with Australia, Japan, Korea and New Zealand. The finding of this research would be useful for academics, industry experts and government policy makers. KEYWORDS: Gravity Model, Export Potential, ASEAN, RCEP, India JEL Classification: F1, F12, O24

Romania and the Beginning of CMEA Controversies over a Common Trade Policy Towards the EEC, 1969–1972

This article examines Romania’s opposition to the attempts of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) in the early 1970s to adopt a common trade policy towards the European Economic Community (EEC). The article covers the period between 1969, when the CMEA embarked on negotiations regarding the deepening of the intra-bloc cooperation and integration, and 1 January 1973, which is the date marking the end of the derogations that the Eastern European states received with regard to the implementation of the EEC’s Common Commercial Policy. The article focuses on Romania’s reasons and tactics of opposition, but it also outlines its views with regard to the EEC, in general, and the CMEA-EEC relations, in particular. Corroborated by findings involving studies in other Eastern European archives, this article will help to create a better understanding of the CMEA debates on integration, on the CMEA-EEC relations, in general, and on Romania’s opposition to the CMEA’s intended common policy towards the EEC, in particular.