scholarly journals Have IT improvements had positive impacts on international trade?

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Kurihara Y ◽  

IT (Information Technology) was invented and penetrated into our daily lives and business world from the 1980s. It has also spread quickly in developed economies. This study examines whether such phenomenon has impacted international trade. More concretely, this study empirically examines the relationship (1) between the improvement of banking and financial services and international trade, (2) between the Internet speed and international trade, and (3) mobile subscribers and international trade. The empirical results show that GDP per capita is positively related with international trade significantly. Moreover, they show that banking and financial services can increase international trade. Also, Internet speed is significantly associated with promoting international trade. However, there is no evidence that the spreading use of mobile has caused increasing international trade. If the pros of the spreading use of mobile related IT are large, there is some room for promoting this transition. Security, reliability, and so on are key factors to promote mobile into business, including international trade.

2018 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 573-589
Author(s):  
Zsuzsanna Banász ◽  
Vivien Valéria Csányi

Education is one of the key factors of economic growth. Despite the huge amount of researches investigating the relationship between education and GDP as a proxy of well-being, to the best of our knowledge, none of these studies examined a group of post-socialist countries comparing with not-post-socialist countries. This paper aims to fill this gap. We examine the correlation between growth and education with panel data evidence for 18 post-socialist (PS) countries and 16 developed market economies (DME) over the 1990–2014 period. The goal of this paper is to test two hypotheses: (i) The relationship between GDP per capita and tertiary education’s enrolment rate is stronger in the post-socialist countries than in other countries. (ii) In the post-socialist countries, the relationship between GDP per capita and tertiary education’s enrolment rate is stronger than the relationship between GDP per capita and any other level of education. Correlation analyses confirmed both hypotheses. Our findings suggest that the patterns of relationship between GDP and measures of tertiary education are different for PS and DME countries and would be interesting to observe when and how the gap between the patterns disappears.


Author(s):  
Antonia Gkergki

This paper examines the relationship between the energy consumption and economic growth from 1968 to 2019 in Greece, by employing the vector error-correction model estimation. A series of econometric tests are employed concerning the stationary of the data, and the co-integration and the relationship among the variables during the long- and short-term. The em-pirical results suggest that there is no bidirectional relationship between economic growth and energy consumption. More specifically, GDP per capita does not affect the energy consump-tion of the three primary sources either in the long-term or the short-term. In other words, the economic crisis and its implications for GDP do not affect energy consumption, and they are not responsible for the considerable decrease in energy sources' consumption. On the other hand, the energy consumption of oil and coal negatively affect the GDP per capita. These re-sults are different from previous studies' conclusions for Greece; this is because the never been experienced before. These findings raise new research questions and also show the limi-tations of the Greek market, as it is regulated and controlled by the government.


2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 568-581 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olaniyi Evans

Purpose The increased adoption of internet-enabled phones in Africa has caused much speculation and optimism concerning its effects on financial inclusion. Policymakers, the media and various studies have all flaunted the potentials of internet and mobile phones for financial inclusion. An important question therefore is “Can the internet and mobile phones spur the inclusion of the financially excluded poor? This study therefore aims to examine the relationship and causality between internet, mobile phones and financial inclusion in Africa for the 2000-2016 period. Design/methodology/approach The empirical analysis followed these three steps: examination of the stationarity of the variables; testing for the cointegration; and evaluation of the effects of the internet and mobile phones on financial inclusion in Africa for the 2000-2016 period using three outcomes of panel FMOLS approach and Granger causality tests. Findings The empirical evidence shows that internet and mobile phones have significant positive relationship with financial inclusion, meaning that rising levels of internet and mobile phones are associated with increased financial inclusion. There is also uni-directional causality from internet and mobile phones to financial inclusion, implying that internet and mobile phones cause financial inclusion. The study also shows that macroeconomic factors such as capital formation, primary enrollment, bank credit, broad money, population growth, remittances, agriculture and interest rate, as well as institutional factors such as regulatory quality are important underlying factors for financial inclusion in Africa. Originality/value In the literature, there is a dearth of research on the internet, mobile phones and financial inclusion, especially in Africa. Most of the related studies are conceptual and micro-based, with little empirical attention to the relationship and causality between internet, mobile phones and financial inclusion. In fact, this dearth of rigorous empirical studies has been attributed as the main cause of inadequate policy guidance in enhancing information communication technologies (Roycroft and Anantho, 2003), despite saturation levels in developed economies. This study fills the gap by evaluating the effects of the Internet and mobile phones on financial inclusion for 44 African countries for the 2000-2016 period.


Author(s):  
Tinghui Li ◽  
Junhao Zhong ◽  
Mark Xu

The 2008 international financial crisis triggered a heated discussion of the relationship between public health and the economic environment. We test the relationship between the credit cycle and happiness using the fixed effects model and explore the transmission channels between them by adding the moderating effect. The results show the following empirical regularities. First, the credit cycle has a negative correlation with happiness. This means that credit growth will reduce the overall happiness score in a country/region. Second, the transmission channels between the credit cycle and happiness are different during credit expansion and recession. Life expectancy and generosity can moderate the relationship between the credit cycle and happiness only during credit expansion. GDP per capita can moderate this relationship only during credit recession. Social support, freedom, and positive affect can moderate this relationship throughout the credit cycle. Third, the total impact of the credit cycle on happiness will become positive by the changes in the moderating effects. In general, we can improve subjective well-being if one of the following five conditions holds: (1) with the adequate support from the family and society, (2) with enough freedom, (3) with social generosity, (4) with a positive and optimistic outlook, and (5) with a high level of GDP per capita.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 224-238
Author(s):  
Frederick Pobee ◽  
Thuso Mphela

The research paper provides an in-depth analysis of the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Malawi. Employing the Global Entrepreneurship Index (GEI) methodology, the findings reveal a weak entrepreneurial ecosystem with a GEI score of 12.2 out of a possible 100. The relationship between the GDP per capita and the three entrepreneurship sub-indices, thus, attitude, ability, and aspiration are very weak and fall well below global average trends. Unfortunately, despite the high total entrepreneurship activities (TEA) in Malawi, this leads to little contribution to the country's GDP per-capita – a common phenomenon in many developing countries. At the pillar level, Malawi’s performance is a mixed bag, however, with most pillars performing not only poorly but below world averages. Despite the general positive perception of entrepreneurship by citizens, the country’s weak entrepreneurial ecosystem has failed to harness the propensity to develop new products and adopt new technologies for innovation and high growth entrepreneurship. From a policy intervention perspective, Malawi needs to focus most of its efforts and investments in five areas that include start-up skills, risk acceptance, high growth, risk capital, and human capital to improve the country's GEI score by 0.02.


2014 ◽  
Vol 52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noluxolo Kortjan ◽  
Rossouw Von Solms

The Internet is becoming increasingly interwoven in the daily lives of many individuals, organisations and nations. It has, to a large extent, had a positive effect on the way people communicate. It has also introduced new avenues for business; and it has offered nations an opportunity to govern online. Nevertheless, although cyberspace offers an endless list of services and opportunities, it is also accompanied by many risks, of which many Internet users are not aware. As such, various countries have developed and implemented cyber-security awareness and education measures to counter the perceived ignorance of the Internet users. However, there is currently a definite lack in South Africa (SA) in this regard; as there are currently, little government-led and sponsored cyber-security awareness and education initiatives. The primary research objective of this paper, therefore, is to propose a cyber-security awareness and education framework for SA that would assist in creating a cyber-secure culture in SA among all of the users of the Internet. This framework will be developed on the basis of key factors extrapolated from a comparative analysis of relevant developed countries.


Author(s):  
Graeme Mckinnon-Nestman

Microfinance is a movement which aims to promote financial inclusion and empower individuals through small loans (as well as other services) to finance business ventures in the developing world and beyond. Microfinance aims to meet the financial needs of individuals who are left out of the scope of more mainstream financial services, while avoiding the perceived shortfalls of traditional aid such as dependence. Along with the expansion of microfinancial institutions (MFIs) since the turn of the century and the proliferation of the internet, diligent and prudent management of these institutions has never been of greater importance. Though there is a lot of research on entrepreneurship, business, finance, andmanagement concerning more mainstream practices, it is clear that microfinance is at a frontier of modern commerce. Risk is basic to all business (as well as life in general) and in order for the microfinance movement to maintain its growth, it must be self-sustaining while maintaining its ability to assist meaningful development. This presentation will compare the risk management practices standard to MFIs now, as well as look at how risk is fundamentally different to small entrepreneurship in developing regions in comparison to developed economies. In doing so, it should shed light on the financing needs and realities of target individuals and see how MFIs in the status quo are able to meet them. From this we should seewhere the shortfalls currently lie and where things may be improved.


Author(s):  
Sevgi Sezer

In this chapter, the effects of military expenditure (MEXP) on high-tech exports (HTX) and GDP per capita (GDPPC) of G7 and new industrialized countries (NIC) are analyzed for period 1988-2015 by panel data analysis. The causality relationships between the series are examined by Dumitrescu and Hurlin test. In G7 countries, one-way causality relationship from HTX to MEXP and two-way causality relationship between MEXP and GDPPC have been identified. Also, in NIC countries, two-way causality relationship between HTX and MEXP and one-way causality relationship from GDPPC to MEXP have been determined. Cointegration relations are tested by Pedroni test and the series are found to be cointegrated. It is seen that in the G7 countries, 1% increase in MEXP during the period of 1988-2015 increased HTX by 0.71% and GDPPC by 0.98%. In NIC countries, the 1% increase in MEXP increased HTX by 1.7% and GDPPC by 0.96%. The effect of MEXP on HTX is found much higher in NIC countries.


2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (7) ◽  
pp. 1689-1710
Author(s):  
Eric Akobeng

PurposeThis paper examines the relationship between foreign aid, institutional democracy and poverty. The paper explores the direct effect of foreign aid on poverty and quantifies the facilitating role of democracy in harnessing foreign aid for poverty reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).Design/methodology/approachThe paper attempts to address the endogenous relationship between foreign aid and poverty by employing the two-stage least squares instrumental variable (2SLS-IV) estimator by using GDP per capita of the top five Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries sending foreign aid to SSA countries scaled by the inverse of the land area of the SSA countries to stimulate an exogenous variation in foreign aid and its components. The initial level of democracy is interacted with the senders’ GDP per capita to also instrument for the interaction terms of democracy, foreign aid and its components.FindingsThe results suggest that foreign aid reduces poverty and different components of foreign aid have different effects on poverty. In particular, multilateral source and grant type seem to be more significant in reducing poverty than bilateral source and loan type. The study further reveals that democratic attributes of free expression, institutional constraints on the executive, guarantee of civil liberties to citizens and political participation reinforce the poverty-reducing effects of aggregate foreign aid and its components after controlling for mean household income, GDP per capita and inequality.Research limitations/implicationsThe methodological concern related to modeling the effects of foreign aid on poverty is endogeneity bias. To estimate the relationship between foreign aid, democracy and poverty in SSA, this paper relies on a 2SLS-IV estimator with GDP per capita of the top five aid-sending OECD countries scaled by the inverse of land area of the SSA countries as an external instrument for foreign aid. The use of the five top OECD's Development Assistance Committee (OECD-DAC) countries is due to the availability of foreign aid data for these countries. However, non-OECD-DAC countries such as China and South Africa may be important source of foreign aid to some SSA countries.Practical implicationsThe findings further suggest that the marginal effect of foreign aid in reducing poverty is increasing with the level of institutional democracy. In other words, foreign aid contributes more to poverty reduction in countries with democratic dispensation. This investigation has vital implications for future foreign aid policy, because it alerts policymakers that the effectiveness of foreign aid can be strengthened by considering the type and source of aid. Foreign aid and quality political institution may serve as an important mix toward the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and the Africa Union Agenda 2063.Social implicationsAs the global economy faces economic and social challenges, SSA may not be able to depend heavily on foreign partners to finance the region's budget. There is the need for African governments to also come out with innovative ways to mobilize own resources to develop and confront some of the economic challenges to achieve the required reduction in poverty. This is a vision that every country in Africa must work toward. Africa must think of new ways of generating wealth internally for development so as to complement foreign aid flows and also build strong foundation for welfare improvement, self-reliance and sustainable development.Originality/valueThis existing literature does not consider how democracy enhances the foreign aid and poverty relationship. The existing literature does not explore how democracy enhances grants, loans, multilateral and bilateral aid effectiveness in reducing poverty. This paper provides the first-hand evidence of how institutional democracy enhances the poverty-reducing effects of foreign aid and its components. The paper uses exogenous variation in foreign aid to quantify the direct effect of foreign aid and its components on poverty.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 4734 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Cibulka ◽  
Stefan Giljum

The relationship between economic affluence, quality of life, and environmental implications of production and consumption activities is a recurring issue in sustainability discussions. A number of studies examined selected relationships, but the general implications for future development options to achieve environmentally and socially sustainable development of countries at different levels of per capita resource footprints, quality of life, and income have not yet been investigated in detail. In this study, we use a global dataset with 173 countries to assess the overall relationship between resource footprints, quality of life, and economic development over the period of 1990–2015. We select the material footprint and carbon footprint and contrast them with the Human Development Index, the Happiness Index, and GDP per capita. Regression analyses show that the relationship between various resource footprints and quality of life generally follows a logarithmic path of development, while resource footprints and GDP per capita are linearly connected. From the empirical results, we derive a generalized path of development and cluster countries along this path. Within this comprehensive framework, we discuss options to change the path to respect planetary and social boundaries through a combination of resource efficiency increases, substitution of industries and sufficiency of consumption. We conclude that decoupling and green growth will not realize sustainable development if planetary boundaries have already been transgressed.


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