Development Aid, Economic Growth Volatility and Poverty Volatility in Developing Countries

This article has analysed the effect of development aid flows on poverty volatility in developing countries, including through the economic growth volatility channel. Using a sample of 106 countries over the period 1980-2017, and the two-step system Generalized Methods of Moment (GMM) technique, the analysis has shown that development aid flows dampen the positive poverty volatility effect of economic growth volatility: the magnitude of the negative effect of development aid on poverty volatility rises as the degree of economic growth volatility increases. Additionally, development aid exerts a higher negative effect on poverty volatility as countries face higher poverty rates. These findings highlight the importance of development aid for stabilizing poverty rates.

Seeking Incentives for a Successful Second and third Business Opportunity after Bankruptcy in Times of Recession

In the years of the financial and sovereign debt crisis in Greece, many viable businesses that are facing financial difficulties are led to liquidation rather than timely restructuring, with very few entrepreneurs having a second chance. This corporate failure faced by Greek companies in recent years may have been caused by either endogenous or exogenous factors or a combination of these two. In this paper we investigate the factors (economic, social and political) that will help to facilitate entrepreneurs' access to a second and third opportunity, taking also into account socially vulnerable groups such as disabled people and women entrepreneurs. Moreover, we try to find the characteristics that would encourage honest bankrupt entrepreneurs to a second business venture and the sectors where a second chance may have increased chances of sustainability in Greece. The aim of our research is to lead Greece to higher levels of self-employment, reduction in unemployment, and exit from the crisis.

Assessment of the Trend and Development of Regional Economy in Central Asia

Assessment the trend of regional economic development is significant to address the economic situation and developmental policy. This study assesses the regional economic development in Central Asia since 1992. Several developmental indicators were applied. The results demonstrated that the regional economy was gradually growing. Relatively, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan enjoyed a rapid economic growth. Production of oil increased in Kazakhstan as exporting rose to China whereas declined in Uzbekistan – shifted to natural gas. Central Asia is moving gradually toward industrial and trade economic sector. Nevertheless, enormous natural resources were exported from Central Asia to China and Russia, and strong economic relationship was established with Europe, India and Algeria. Therefore, this research is significant for general understanding in economic growth of Central Asia, and it may be helpful for further studies.

Relationship Dynamics of Sustainable Development Goals on Poverty and Inequality in sub-Saharan Africa: Beyond the Covid-19 Pandemic

The study examined the relationship dynamics of sustainable development goals on poverty and inequality in sub-Saharan Africa: beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. Monthly data were sourced from World Bank Sustainable Development Goals Data Bank, Africa SDG index from 2015 (m01) to 2020 (m12). Both static and dynamic panel analysis techniques were employed in estimating the interrelationship among the seventeen SDGs and cases of COVID-19. The study presents mixed results as it revealed the SDGs having both and either positive or negative short run or long run relationship with poverty, inequality and COVID-19. By implication, some SDGs presents a short-term relationship while some SDGs presents a long-term relationship. In another scenario, some SDGs presents both short term and long-term relationship towards the achievement of No poverty and reducing inequality on or before year 2030. The study therefore recommends that policy should be put in place in sub-Saharan Africa so as to differentiate the SDGs having short term goals from SDGs having long term goals and from the SDGs having both short term and long-term goals towards the achievement of No Poverty and reducing Inequality on or before year 2030.

Determinants of Bilateral Trade Flows Between Vietnam and Trading Partner Countries – Gravity Model Approach

This study uses the gravity model to investigate the bilateral trade flows between Vietnam and 52 countries from 2001 through 2011. The data are collected from International Trade Centre (ITC), International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Bank (WB). The results show that economic size, geographical distance, economic distance, technological innovation, trade openness, free trade agreement, population, exchange rate, and common border affect the bilateral trade flows between Vietnam and these 52 countries. More importantly, this study uses the speed-of-convergence method to find new potential trading partners for Vietnam, such as those in Africa and Southwest Asia.

Urban Education: High-Quality Education, the Economic Impact it Generates, and the Tragedy of Urban Education in the United States of America

Education is an investment in improving the quality of life for individuals, and therefore benefiting society in general. Education in the United States of America exemplifies a correlation between the level of an individual's education, their salary level due to those academic qualifications, and the impact they generate within themselves, their families, society, and within the nation. This contemporary study of education in the U.S. shows how a community in an urban center of Massachusetts made fundamental changes to transform the education of its students who historically experienced school failure. This exceptional case of leadership and altruism was accomplished with intensive influence from the State Government. This case can be the basis for educational initiatives that can have relevance and social impact anywhere in the world. At a global level, we can see that a society with high levels of education, based on knowledge and academic training, stands out for the multiple opportunities that arise to obtain a higher quality of life. The outcomes of a good education are beneficial to the growth of an entire society. Societies benefit from advances in technological and economic fields, health systems, construction and accessible housing, industry, commerce, and even social security.

Growth Elasticity of Poverty in Nigeria: Empirical Analysis

This study examined growth elasticity of poverty (GEP) in Nigeria, using elasticity procedure with data from the 2020 World Bank World Development Indicators and Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics (2020), covering the period 1992-2019. The findings showed 77.1% of the GEP coefficients as positive; signifying failure of economic growth to alleviate poverty in the country. It is therefore imperative for Nigeria to initiate and implement policies covering employment generation, good governance, reduction in all forms of inequalities, functional education, among others for growth to engender poverty reduction among the citizens.

Perception of Greed and Unfairness

In the past decade, interest in greed among empirical business scholars has emerged. It starts with the trailblazing attempt to analyze greed by Wang and Murnighan (2011), followed by the development of the Dispositional Greed Scale by Seuntjens et. al. (2015a, 2015b), which serves as a basis for the research done by Zhu et. al. (2019) and Bao et. al. (2020). However, since Seuntjens’ work, the overwhelming focus has been on greed as a disposition to “always want more and never being satisfied with what one currently has” (Seuntjens et. al., 2015b). Independently, Cheung (2019) proposed a more sophisticated philosophical analysis of greed, which argues that there are three dimensions of greed, and its dimension of unfairness has largely been neglected. This article reports on our investigation of that neglected dimension of greed. Our cross-cultural study (n=395) shows that when the rating of greediness was not very high, the perception of greed went hand in hand with the perception of unfairness, such that there was a positive linear association between the two. The demographics of the participants suggests that the sample is diverse enough to make a broad generalization. The result of this study confirms the conception of greed in Cheung (2019), which claims that the perception of unfairness, i.e., (2) above, is a significant component of perceived greed. Cheung’s account of greed can also explain the data when the rating of greediness is very high, but logically there could be other explanations.

Democratisation of Business How More Democratic Business Structures Generate Innovation

Democratisation is a topic that is increasingly finding its way into the economic debate and is also becoming more and more of a trend within companies. The debates reveal various advantages and disadvantages of democratising companies. Within the various models of democratisation of companies, however, there seems to be a lack of coherent integration of the theoretical integration of this into the broad corporate structures – at least within business perspective. These often refer to orthodox theoretical foundations of hierarchical structures and corporate orientations, which in principle oppose and partly run counter to various forms of democratisation. In the present contribution, minimal conditions are to be worked out on the basis of democracy as cooperation and applied to the most elementary corporate structures. In such a coherent orientation and embedding, it can be shown that disadvantages of democratisation in the corporate context can be reduced and innovation and thus competitiveness can be promoted in a multidimensional way.

Sectoral Analysis of Employment Intensity of Growth in Nigeria

This study assessed employment intensity of growth (EIG) in the agriculture, industry and service sectors in Nigeria from 1991 to 2019 within the context of Okun’s theory/law. Data from the 2020 World Development Indicators were employed for analysis, using elasticity procedure after decomposing the scope into different periods and regimes. The findings showed negative EIG in the agriculture and industrial sectors while the service sector returned positive EIG. Therefore, government should invest significantly in the service sector while the agricultural sector should be mechanized to boost output and supply of raw materials to industries to enhance employment generation.