Identifying and Evaluating the Mechanisms and Modes of Governance of Ecosystem Services – The Case of Bulgarian Agriculture

This article presents the results of a large-scale study on the mechanisms and modes of governance of diverse ecosystem services in Bulgarian agriculture. Firstly, it identifies the type, amount, and importance of various ecosystem services maintained and “produced” by the Bulgarian farms. The study has found out that country’s farms provide a great number of essential ecosystem services among which provisioning food and feed, and conservation of elements of the natural environment prevail. Secondly, it identifies and assesses the efficiency and complementarities of specific modes and mechanisms of governance of ecosystem services used by agricultural holdings. The study had found out that a great variety of private, market, collective, public and hybrid modes of governance of farm activity related to agroecosystem services are applied. There is significant differentiation of employed managerial forms depending on the type of ecosystem services and the specialization of agricultural farms. Furthermore, the management of agroecosystem services is associated with a considerable increase in the production and transaction costs of participating farms as well as big socio-economic and environmental effects for agricultural holdings and other parties. The factors that mostly stimulate the activity of agricultural producers in Bulgaria for protection of (agro)ecosystems services are participation in public support programs, access to farmers’ advice, professional training, available information, and innovation, received direct subsidies from EU and national government, personal conviction and satisfaction, positive experience of others, long-term and immediate benefits for the farm, and integration with suppliers, buyers, and processors.

Tourism Industry in Kashmir Valley: Issues & Challenges Associated with the Process of Concretisation

Tourism product is associated with livelihood of both rural and urban population. Tourism is one of the leading sectors in the valley followed by horticulture, providing employment to a huge chunk of population whether skilled or unskilled. Tourism industry is the only sector which is working throughout the year be it summer or winter. The present paper is an attempt to analyse the potential and growth of tourism in the economy of Jammu and Kashmir and examine the issues associated with the concretisation at tourist spots/destinations. During 2015-16, the total number of foreign tourists visited Jammu and Kashmir was recorded to be 58568. Tourism industry is playing a pivotal role in the U.T. economy which is evident from the fact that tourism sector accounts for 5.92 per cent of India’s GDP and 8 per cent to Jammu & Kashmir economy. But, during turmoil period (1990-2000), the U.T. of Jammu and Kashmir in general and Kashmir valley in particular was worst hit, there was unrest in every nook and corner of the valley. The results revealed that though tourism contributes to the employment generation of the U.T. but from the analysis of the data it was astonish recorder that less than 1 % growth was observed during past two decades. The infrastructure was created leaps and bound every nook and corner of the tourist destination, but it has posed serious challenges and threats to the various socio-economic characteristics like employment, living standard, income, environmental degradation and obviously the greenery of the tourist destination. But there are certain issues and challenges associated with the modernisation and concretisation at tourist destinations for sustainable tourism in the region.

The Impact of Parental Behavior on the Cognitive Level of Preschoolers in Upper-Egypt

COVID-19 has reshaped our lives. Our houses turned into co-working areas, school classrooms, and playgrounds. Social distancing has put more weight on parents to ensure their children’s education and cognitive gains. This has raised questions about the impact parents had on their children’s cognitive levels even before COVID-19. This paper is an attempt to show how parents’ behavior contributes to improving the cognitive level of their preschool children in a developing country. The paper also attempts to determine the relationship between parenting behavior and socioeconomic factors such as income and education.

Performance Evaluation of China Internet Monetary Fund Based on Super-efficient DEA

Since 2013, China’s Internet money fund market has entered a new era. On June 17, 2013, Yu’e Bao, jointly launched by Alipay and Tianhong Fund Company, was the first to go public. In just a few short years, the Internet money fund market has developed in full swing, and Tencent, Baidu, and JD have also participated in the development of related change wealth management businesses. This article uses super-efficiency DEA to evaluate fund performance. Through the validity test of 16 sample fund products in 2019, 7 sample funds are valid according to the DEA; and 16 sample fund products in 2020 are tested for validity, 9 sample funds are valid according to the DEA. The research found that most of the Internet financial products have not yet reached their effectiveness, which is mainly reflected in the fund’s custody and management fees. There is still a lot of room for development in China’s Internet fund market.

Research on Operating Efficiency of Security Companies Based on Super-Efficiency DEA-Malmquist Index

In China’s economic system, security companies are important participants, and their high operating efficiency can improve the country’s economy. Based on the traditional CCR-DEA model, this paper uses super-efficiency DEA model and MALMQUIST index model to analyze the operational efficiency of 10 listed security companies in China from 2016 to 2020, it is found that the operating efficiency of security companies as a whole has a slight upward trend, and the improvement of business efficiency depends on technical efficiency, and relates to pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency.

Socio-Economic Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic and Strategies for Reviving Nigeria’s Economy

This study provides multi-disciplinary assessment of coronavirus pandemic transmission in Nigeria, magnitude of confirmed cases, recoveries, deaths, and inventory of infected person with recovery lags. It applied the statistical outcomes in predicting spilling over to subsequent periods. It identifies economic sectors worst hit by COVID-19 triggered recession, simulate the estimates of potential fiscal and other macroeconomic impact of the pandemic in the country in short run alongside synthesis of restoration and sustainability strategies. Secondary data relating to coronavirus infection cases, spreads, recoveries and fatalities were assessed, using the susceptible-infected-recovered” (SIR) model in absence of mass testing and probable cessation from health crisis management. It identified economic sectors/activities being devastated by COVID-19 induced recession, provides interim estimates adverse impact based on economic peak and down-turn cycle method. The study also measured the magnitude of macroeconomic shocks in Nigeria’s economy using a standard global computable general equilibrium model and exploration of sustainability strategies based on synthesis of extant reports were employed. These data-sets were obtained from the Nigerian sources and partly from global sources. Furthermore, it utilized trend analysis derived from empirical data of extant daily confirmed cases, discharges and hospitalized person together with tentative projection of additional confirmed cases as from July–September, 2020. Results revealed that confirmed cases in Nigeria will increase steadily from 25694 (in June) to around 74825 by the end September and expected to reach 121000 by end of year 2020. This suggests that the pandemic is likely to persist up to the second quarter of 2021. Education, transport (aviation), hospitality, tourism and sports businesses; trade (informal sector) in the services sector; petroleum exploration in mining sub-sector are most severely contracting activities industries in the economy. Given the prevailing intensity of recession, the result indicates that a reduction of about 5-to-7% in GDP will be recorded in 2020. Result of variance analysis of fiscal budget estimates indicates adverse increase of -2% or more in overall fiscal deficit balances during the periods, which may aggravate debt burden with decline of about -5.7 percent and up to -7 percent in nominal GDP. Health, education, agriculture, petroleum exploration; petroleum refining and petrochemical industries, manufacturing (particularly pharmaceuticals), energy and power generation should be given priority in the sustainability programme.

Asymmetric Dynamics of Industrial Response to Exchange Rate Variation in Nigeria

Exchange rate policies are germane to industrial subsector development and the country at large. In this regard; the study examines the asymmetric pass through of official exchange rate policy on Nigerian industrial Subsector from 1970Q1 to 2019Q4. Non-linear ARDL method of estimation was adopted to ascertain the long run and short run asymmetric relation between official exchange rate and industrial output subsector. The results confirmed the presence of both long run and short run asymmetries between manufacturing output and official exchange rate. In the long run, increase in official exchange rate (appreciation) portends a corresponding increase in manufacturing output, while decrease in official exchange rate (depreciation) is negatively related to manufacturing output. On the other hand, the short run dynamics revealed that positive changes in official exchange rate choked off industrial output though statistically insignificance while negative change (depreciation) crowded in industrial output in Nigeria in the period under review against a priori expectation. The result also indicated that the crowding out impact of official exchange rate depreciation is more enduring (long lasting) compared to the positive variations. The presence of asymmetry is novel and instructive for policy pundits, executors, theorists, monetary authorities and allied agents to take decisive steps in order to stem the debilitating effects of exchange rate misalignment to encourage domestic investors, attract foreign investors and thus, stimulate the industrial subsector.

Analysis of Critical Determinants of Commercial Banks Profitability: Evidence from Nigeria

This study investigated the critical determinants of commercial bank profitability in Nigeria. The objective was to develop empirical models for predicting commercial bank profitability. The study adopted a combination of ex-post facto and survey research design in data collection and analysis, while quantitative and qualitative tools were employed in data analysis. The CAMELS performance basket provided the framework that guided the investigation. Two industry drivers (bank size and market share) and one macroeconomic driver (cyclic output growth rate of the economy) were included into the CAMELS basket. The quantitative approach made use of descriptive statistics and set of econometric tools in the analysis. The result of econometric analysis identified assets quality, liquidity and earnings as the significant determinants of commercial bank profitability in Nigeria. The result of the qualitative analysis based on expert opinion equally identified asset quality, earnings and liquidity as three top determinants of commercial bank profitability. This also validates the result of quantitative analysis. The study concludes that irrespective of whatever is the industry and macroeconomic state of the economy, commercial banks’ ability to remain profitable, strictly dependent on the capacity of internal management to invest the banks resources into quality assets that affords the bank the opportunity to maintain optimal liquidity and generate earnings sufficient to offset all associated cost of doing business as well as create positive margin adequate to reward shareholders. Based on the above conclusion, the study recommends for increased capacity building (technical and managerial) of internal managers of commercial banks in Nigeria for enhanced strategic, tactical and operational planning and management of banks.

Inflationary Impact of Funding Options for Budget Deficits in Nigeria

This paper investigates the inflationary impact of the various financing options for the federal government budget deficit which has accumulated overtime. Using Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) methodology and quarterly data over the period 2000Q1 to 2017Q2, the study found significant relationship between inflation and the current financing options of the Government. Overall, the result of our ARDL model affirm that the impact of fiscal spending in Nigeria on inflation is captured more in the short-run since none of the variables is significant in the long-run. In addition, the use of Banking System Financing to fund government deficits has better potentials as the optimal choice because its impact on inflation is insignificant. Federal Government Bonds as a tool for financing budget deficits is also considered an optimal choice because though it causes inflation to rise by the second quarter, but its impact on inflation is expected to fizzle out in the long-run. Ways and Means Advances on the other hand, was shown to have the highest inflationary impact and as such, its use as a tool for financing government deficit should be discouraged. We, therefore, recommend a couple of appropriate policy options for financing budget deficits in Nigeria namely monetary financing and the issuance of federal government bonds. On the policy side, more efficient public expenditure management. Capital market, co-financing arrangements with pension funds and issuance of project-tied bonds, would be beneficial.

Economic Growth and Labour Market Dynamics in Nigeria: Further Evidence from ARDL Bound Testing

Recently the phenomenon of jobless growth has become common, defying the famous Okun law which predicted increase in job with increase in economic growth. Many factors have been advanced as explanations for this, most prominent of which are changes in the labour market and lopsidedness in economic growth. This paper is an attempt to measure labour market dynamics in Nigeria focusing on the relationship between economic growth and unemployment. The paper used data from 1991 to 2020 and employed GMM and ARDL models to analyze the data. Unlike the Okun law which prophesies negative relationship between unemployment and economic growth, the result from this analysis show that there is positive relationship between unemployment and economic growth, confirming the existence of the phenomenon of jobless growth in Nigeria. The paper recommended structural changes in the economy and the labour market.