A Study of Financial Development Impact on Economic Growth: A Comparison Between Egypt and Saudi Arabia

Economic growth is always seen as one of the chief economic goals countries try to achieve, in order to develop its economics. Economic growth takes different forms following the varying economic theories, and it's mostly defined as achieving increase in average share of individual from the real gross national income at certain time period. One of the most frequently used indexes to measure economic growth is: Measuring economic growth based on the expected – no the real – income, especially in countries that possess rich resources. And based on gross domestic product at fixed price and one year, and the average individual share from real income.

Maximum Level of COVID-19 Vaccination in Rich and Democratic Countries, and in Other Political Systems

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccinations play a main role in the immunization program of countries to decrease the numbers of COVID-19 related infected individuals and deaths. However, countries, after a certain share of people vaccinated against COVID-19 have to cope with vaccine hesitancy and resistance in population. One of the fundamental problems is the detection of the max share of people vaccinable between countries without the introduction of any rule that affects basic aspects of individual freedoms of people in public and private life. The study here confronts this problem with a global analysis based on N=150 countries, using relationships between socioeconomic, institutional and political variables, and levels of vaccination. Results reveal that the share of people vaccinated increases with the level of development (and democratization) of countries, achieving the maximum level of about 70%; beyond this level, the share of vaccination starts to decrease across countries. Moreover, findings reveal that governments with Monarchy and Parliamentary Monarchy have average share of people vaccinated higher than Mixed Executives. These main findings suggest that in developed and democratic countries the maximum level of vaccination has a physiological limit, but many Western (democratic) countries are applying restriction rules (e.g., green pass/vaccine passport) to overcome this max level reducing and regulating, at the same time, many aspects of public and private life of individuals. Discussion explains these sociopolitical phenomena with aspects of politics of fear, focused on deaths of COVID-19, and of strong leaders having domestic and international support that apply rules in contexts of social insecurity with consequential reduction of equity, trust and solidarity and increase of socioeconomic issues. All these results here could aid policymakers to prepare sustainable policy responses against COVID-19 in society without distressing basics of democracy with rules of autocratic systems that can generate economic and social deterioration, and problems for mental health and economic conditions of people in society.

Analysis of the Impact of Exports and Investment on Indonesian Economic Growth

The average share of net exports to Indonesia's economic growth was only 1.01% in the last 30 years. The contribution and important role of manufacturing industry exports in total national exports ranged from 73.62 – 80.91% with an average of 78.30% in the last 10 years (2010 – 2020). This study aims to analyze the impact of manufacturing industry exports and investment on economic growth through the export-led growth hypothesis. The results show that there is a long-term relationship between foreign investment, domestic investment, employment, and manufacturing industry exports to GDP. Domestic investment and manufacturing exports have a positive effect on GDP, on the other hand, foreign investment and employment have a negative effect. An indication of the negative influence of FDI in Indonesia is due to the low rate of economic return. In addition, the negative effect of labor absorption is indicated by the unavailability of adequate employment opportunities.

Tracking Development Assistance for Health: A Comparative Study of the 29 Development Assistance Committee Countries, 2011–2019

Development assistance for health (DAH) is an important part of financing healthcare in low- and middle-income countries. We estimated the gross disbursement of DAH of the 29 Development Assistance Committee (DAC) member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for 2011–2019; and clarified its flows, including aid type, channel, target region, and target health focus area. Data from the OECD iLibrary were used. The DAH definition was based on the OECD sector classification. For core funding to non-health-specific multilateral agencies, we estimated DAH and its flows based on the OECD methodology for calculating imputed multilateral official development assistance (ODA). The total amount of DAH for all countries combined was 18.5 billion USD in 2019, at 17.4 USD per capita, with the 2011–2019 average of 19.7 billion USD. The average share of DAH in ODA for the 29 countries was about 7.9% in 2019. Between 2011 and 2019, most DAC countries allocated approximately 60% of their DAH to primary health care, with the remaining 40% allocated to health system strengthening. We expect that the estimates of this study will help DAC member countries strategize future DAH wisely, efficiently, and effectively while ensuring transparency.

Trends and prospects of oilseeds production in Ukraine and analysis of oil exports

The beginning of this century was marked by increased interest in food and energy security. The favorable geographical position and favorable natural and climatic conditions together with exclusive black earths make Ukraine one of the most promising producers of food in the world. However, there are a number of problems, both internal and external, that do not allow our country to fully reach its full potential. Along with the war in the east and political instability, there are a number of problems with the transformation of foreign trade and integration into the EU. The purpose of this article is to analyze the export potential of oilseeds and oilseeds in Ukraine, to determine the relationships between gross harvest, yield and export of oils, as well as to formulate recommendations for determining the efficiency of Ukrainian exports, its capacity and opportunities to increase due to transition to new cultivation technologies. cereals in changing climatic conditions. Due to the high demand for oilseeds and the level of profitability of these crops, there is a gradual and constant expansion of sown areas. Thus, in 2000 the sown area for oilseeds was 3.26 million hectares, separately sunflower – 2.94 million hectares, and in 2019 the area under oilseeds reached 8.89 million hectares, respectively, sunflower – 5.95 million hectares, that is, oilseeds for the period 2000-2019 increased the sown area by 2.73 times. Thus, the oil export rate gradually increased every year, starting from 0.554 million tons in 2000 and ending with 7.014 million tons of oil in 2019. The increase was not only in the gross collection in digital terms, respectively, a slight increase was observed in the share of exports in the gross collection. Therefore, the share of oil exports increased from 15.1 % in 2000 to 31.5 % in 2019. The average share of exports is 25.3 %. The study shows that Ukraine has the prerequisites to increase oil exports, which is facilitated by external factors such as WTO accession, integration processes and market orientation in the EU. At the same time, it is substantiated that considerable attention should be paid to organizational and technological factors of the internal environment of agricultural producers. Due to the change of climatic conditions there is a gradual change in the technology of growing crops. The change in cultivation technology involves the transition to new agricultural units that will provide moisture-saving agriculture. Without state support for agricultural production, it is impossible for farmers to make a qualitative and quantitative transition to higher yields.

Essential oils in Czech hop varieties

Czech hop varieties were evaluated as part of maintenance breeding. The evaluation was performed in a single location between 2011 and 2020. The average weight of hop essential oils (HEOs) is 0.43 to 2.28% w/w. The Saaz, Saaz Brilliant, Mimosa, Saaz Shine and Saaz Comfort hop varieties have a low amount of HEOs. Their maximum content of these compounds amounts to 1.1% w/w. The average proportion of myrcene is between 23.42 and 45.14% rel. Only the Agnus, Vital and Boomerang hop varieties have the maximum myrcene proportion above 50% rel. The average share of caryophyllene ranges between 6.19 and 13.15% rel. Saaz Late has a broad range of caryophyllene percentage – from 5.39% rel. to 15.53% rel. The average percenatge of farnesene is between 0.14 and 16.91% rel. Only the Saaz Comfort and Saaz Shine hop varieties have the maximum farnesene share above 20% rel. The average humulene content has a very broad range between 2.23 and 35.79% rel. The Vital, Mimosa, Gaia and Saaz Comfort hop varieties are in a group with a low humulene percentage, which is clearly different from other hop varieties. The average share of selinenes ranges broadly from 0.97 to 33.56% rel. Mimosa differs from the before mentioned varieties with its proportion of selinenes between 23.08 and 43.75% rel. The aim was to characterize and compare Czech hop varieties in terms of content and composition of HEOs.

Ethical ambiguity in the academic periphery: Global versus local science in explaining plagiarism

The past decade has seen extensive research carried out on the systematic causes of academic misconduct. Simultaneously, less attention has been paid to the variation in academic pathologies between research fields, as most empirical studies focus on one particular discipline. We propose that academic discipline is one of several systematic factors that might contribute to academic misbehavior. Drawing on a neo-institutional approach, we argue that on the academic periphery, the norm of textual originality has not drawn equal support across different research fields depending on its level of internationalization. Using plagiarism detection software, we analyzed 2,405 doctoral dissertations randomly selected from all dissertations defended in Russia between 2006 and 2016. We measured the globalization of each academic discipline by calculating the share of publications indexed in the global citation database in relation to overall output. Our results showed that, with an average share of detected borrowings of over 19%, the incidence of plagiarism on the academic periphery is remarkably higher than in Western countries. Overall, disciplines closely follow the pattern of higher globalization associated with a lower percentage of borrowed text. We also found that unauthorized borrowing is less prevalent at research-oriented institutions supporting global ethical standards. Our findings suggest that it might be misleading to measure the prevalence of academic misconduct on the academic periphery without paying attention to variations at the disciplinary level.

Mandatory audit of financial statements: Does agricultural sector differ from others?

The main purpose of this paper is to determine if there are any differences when it comes to the type of opinion and content of audit reports between agricultural and other public companies (non-agricultural). Research sample consists of 398 public companies, and this number makes up about 70% of the total number of public companies listed on the Belgrade Stock Exchange. The sample was divided into two groups; one comprising companies from the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector (29); while the second group consists of public companies from other sectors (369). The research results indicate that companies in the first group received unqualified auditor's opinions more often than second group companies. The similarity between the first and the second group is the dominant use of auditing services of domestic companies with an average share of 64.70% compared to the international and Big 4 auditing companies.

How Many Older Informal Caregivers Are There in Europe? Comparison of Estimates of Their Prevalence from Three European Surveys

Informal caregivers are people providing some type of unpaid, ongoing assistance to a person with a chronic illness or disability. Long-term care measures and policies cannot take place without taking into account the quantitatively crucial role played by informal caregivers. We use the European Health Interview Survey (EHIS), the European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS), and the Study on Health and Ageing in Europe (SHARE) to measure the prevalence of informal caregivers in the European population, and analyze associated socio-demographic factors. This rate ranges between about 13 percent in Portugal and Spain, and more than 22 percent in Luxembourg, Belgium, and Denmark. It declines in older age groups and, on average, is lower in men than in women in all countries studied, and lower among the poorly educated compared to those with higher levels of education. However, large variance was observed in the average share of informal caregivers for most countries between the three surveys. Our findings, estimated through the three surveys, reveal common trends, but also a series of disparities. Additional research will be needed to enable policy makers to access a richer and more harmonized body of data, allowing them to adopt truly evidence-based and targeted policies and interventions in this field.

Investments in Braskem Green Polymers: Extraordinary Profits or Decarbonization of the Environment?

Braskem is the only company in the world that produces green polyethylenes (HDPE – high density polyethylene and LLDPE – linear low density polyethylene) derived from the dehydration of sugarcane ethanol. Although the performance of green and fossil nominally same polyethylenes are equivalent, commercial clients may use blends of up to 51% of green polyethylenes and 49% of fossil polyethylenes and still have the right to use the I’m greenTM label which appeals to environmental conscious consumers and places these companies in a noticeable position. The Annual Income Statement - AISs from 2010, when Braskem started production of green PE, until 2018, show there was growth of revenues. Despite of the production of polyethylenes have continued stable and the number of green polyethylenes patents have decreased since 2014, the profits with the BRKM5 stocks increased. There is no transparency of how carbon credits were gained and in the AIS. Investments in securities in the Brazilian financial market (BRKM5 and carbon credits) are much more attractive than the investment in new patents, because they generate greater gains (268% increase in the average share price of BRKM5 from 2012 to 2018) and do not require large investments in R&D.