Do International Fragmentation of Production and Global Value Chains Participation Affect the Long-run Economic Growth?

This article aims to investigate whether the international fragmentation of production and the global value chains (hereafter GVCs) participation affects the economic growth for a set of 40 advanced and emerging economies. It considers four aspects related to the type of participation and position in GVCs captured by different value-added measures: (a) vertical specialisation index; (b) GVC participation index; (c) GVC position index in low-tech sectors; and (d) GVC position index in high-tech sectors. A panel autoregressive distributed lag (PARDL) model is pioneeringly employed to capture the long-term relationship between economic growth and our four measures for annual value-added data from 1995 to 2011, provided by the World Input–Output Tables (WIOT). The main long-run results indicate that (a) higher levels of international fragmentation of production and GVCs’ participation ensure higher GDP per capita growth rates; (b) the fragmentation and GVCs’ participation are more important to GDP growth than the gross exports as a percentage of GDP; (c) GVCs’ participation index, which considers both the ‘forward’ and ‘backward’ participation, is less important than the vertical specialisation, measured by the foreign intermediate imports; and (d the countries engaged in upstream positions in low-technology GVCs were positively and significantly benefitted in terms of growth. JEL Codes: F14, F43

Exploring the Relation Between the Digital Divide and Government's Effort to Develop E-Participation

According to the digital divide theory, the provision of opportunities to broaden participation in political processes pose a challenge for governments worldwide. In this research, the authors analyze the relationship between the evolution governments' effort to develop citizen e-participation in public policy—measured through the UN's e-participation index—and that of national contexts variables identified by the digital divide theory at country level, using panel data for 178 countries over the period 2008-2016. The results confirm the strong and positive connection between EPI and economic development and technological infrastructure of the countries, ageing population associated to higher life standards, as well as a negative impact of rurality, gender, and political freedom and democracy result not influential, as well as education. Some practical implications derive from the findings, contributing to explain performance differences across different national settings and identifying current inequalities that still require public action to bridge the divide.

People’s Participation in Farm Pond Programmes in Dry Land Areas of Tamil Nadu

People’s participation in planning, implementation and maintenance stage is important for making any programmes successful. Realizing it, Government of India (2011), issued a Common Guidelines for Watershed Development Projects, Revised Edition, 2011 in which participation of beneficiary farmers was made as mandatory. Hence, here an attempt has been made to study the extent of participation of beneficiaries in involvement of farm pond programmes under three stages such as planning, implementation and maintenance were studied. The study was conducted during 2020 in dry land areas of Tamil Nadu to measure the extent of people’s participation in farm pond development programme. The results revealed that overall participation Index score was 64.75 per cent. It means that moderate level of participation was observed among the farmers in farm pond development programmes. Further it is noted that high level of participation was exhibited by farmers in planning stage (72.12%) and moderate level was exhibited by farmers in implementation stage (63.78%) as well as maintenance stage (58.36%) of farmers in farm pond programmes. It means farmers were participated and contributed more during planning followed by implementation and maintenance stages of programme.

Which Index Should I Use? A Comparison of Indices for Enclosure Use Studies

Enclosure use assessments have gained popularity as one of the tools for animal welfare assessments and Post Occupancy Evaluations. There are now a plethora of studies and enclosure use indices available in published literature, and identification of the most appropriate index for each research question is often challenging. The benefits and limitations of four different enclosure use indices; Original and Modified Spread of Participation Index, Entropy, and Electivity Index were compared. Three artificial data sets were developed to represent the challenges commonly found in animal exhibits, and these indices were applied to these contrived enclosure settings. Three of the indices (Original SPI, Modified SPI, and Entropy) were used to assess a single measure of enclosure use variability. When zones within an exhibit were comparable in size, all three indices performed similarly. However, with less equal zone sizes, Modified SPI outperformed Original SPI and Entropy, suggesting that the Modified formula was more useful for assessing overall enclosure use variability under such conditions. Electivity Index assessed the use of individual zones, rather than the variability of use across the entire exhibit, and therefore could not be compared directly to the other three indices. This index is therefore most valuable for assessing individual resources, especially after exhibit modifications.

Community Driven Development: The Case of Fadama II Cooperatives in Alleviating Poverty in a Developing Country

Summary This study investigated the effects of Fadama II cooperatives on poverty status of farming households in Oyo State, Nigeria. Specifically, the study assessed the level of participation in Fadama II cooperatives among the participants; determined the factors influencing the level of participation in Fadama II cooperatives; examined the poverty status of the participants in Fadama II cooperatives; and determined the effects of Fadama II cooperatives on the poverty status of the participants. The study was conducted in Oyo State, south-western Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select respondents for this study. A total number of 150 farmers were selected for the study. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, participation index, multinomial logit regression model, Foster, Greer and Thorbecke (FGT) index, and Probit regression model. The result showed that the respondents participated in the designated activities carried out within their respective Fadama II cooperatives, with the maximum participation in payment of counterpart fund (100%), followed by participatory rural appraisal process (86.7%). Participation index revealed that the majority (46.7%) of the respondents had their level of participation above the grand mean. Interestingly, gender, farming experience and income from Fadama II cooperative positively and significantly influenced both partial and full participation in Fadama II cooperatives. The poverty line is observed to be ₦44300 per month ($115.36 per month). The incidence, depth and severity of poverty are estimated to be 0.28, 0.067 and 0.013, respectively. Probit estimates revealed that Fadama II cooperatives had significant and positive effect on alleviating the poverty status of the participants. Following the findings of the study, government and non-governmental organizations are encouraged to ensure that more farmers participate in Fadama II cooperatives. In addition, the approach of Fadama II cooperatives should be adopted for intervention programmes in developing countries that depend on agriculture not only for feeding their population but also as a business venture.

Analysis of sport development index Sambi Sub-district Boyolali District in 2020

<p><em>This research was based on the unked development of sports in Sambi Subdistrict, Boyolali Regency, which was reviewed from the Sport Development Index (SDI). In SDI itself there are 4 indicators that are used as a tool to help how sports development in Sambi District Boyolali Regency. The purpose of this research is to find out: (1) the availability of open space in Sambi Subdistrict (2) the availability of human resources in Sambi Subdistrict (3) the level of community participation in exercising in Sambi Subdistrict (4) the physical fitness level of the community of Sambi Subdistrict so that later known sports development index (SDI) in Sambi Subdistrict. This research is a descriptive quantitative research. The approach used in this research is survey. The sample of this study amounted to 90 people who were distinguished into 3 age categories, namely children 7-12 years old, teenagers 13-17 years old, and young 18-40 years taken from 3 different villages in the district of Sambi which is representative of Catur Village, Sambi Village, and Canden Village. The collection of areas from cluster 3 villages is based on SDI guidelines where the 3 villages represent low, medium, advanced categories. Instrument test used in the form of questionnaires and Multi Stage Fitness Test (MFT). The results of this study are (1) the availability of open space in the district of Sambi Sudan is quite good and in the index of open space 0.726, (2) The availability of human resources in Sambi sub-district is relatively low with an index of 0.0024, (3) the index of community participation in exercising is quite good in view of the participation index of 0.522, (4) physical fitness of the community wilaah Sambi district gets an index of 0.292 which is in the low category. The conclusion of this study is the SDI index which includes Physical Fitness, Human Resources, Open Space Sports, Sports Participation in Sambi District of 0.385, and if seen from the norms of SDI, Sambi district is still classified in the low category.</em><em></em></p>

Comparative Study of Sports Participation Index in Wonogiri Regency in 2017 and 2020

<p><em>This research uses descriptive and comparative research methods. The sampling technique in this study was stratified random sampling with cluster sampling. The samples taken in this study were Wonogiri District as a district with high population density, Slogohimo sub-district as a district with medium population density and Pracimantoro District as a sub-district with low population density and divided into age group and gender, totaling 270 people. The data collection technique in this study was a questionnaire technique. The reliability test in this study is guided by the SDI instrument as an instrument for measuring the results of sports development which has been trusted because it has been patented in the book Sport Development Index 2007 by Cholik and Maksum. The validity test of the measuring instrument used is the standard set in the Sport Development Index (SDI). The data analysis technique in this research is the stage of data collection, data reduction, data presentation, and drawing conclusions. The results of this study are: (1) the sports participation index in Wonogiri Regency is 0.388. The index was obtained by combining the sports participation index in Wonogiri District of 0.588, the sports participation index in Slogohimo District of 0.488, and the participation index of the Pracimantoro District of 0.477. The sports participation index of Wonogiri Regency shows that the level of sports participation is included in the low category, (2) The comparison of sports participation in Wonogiri Regency in 2017 and 2020 is sports participation in 2017 of 0.237 while sports participation in 2020 is 0.388 which means sports participation in Wonogiri Regency 2020 has increased and is better than in 2017, (3) The sports development of Wonogiri Regency in terms of sports participation is still far from being good or advanced, there are many things that need to be considered and addressed by the Wonogiri Regency government.</em></p>

The crossroads of melatonin: Bibliometric analysis and mapping of global scientific research

Melatonin is a molecule that has attracted a great deal of attention from the scientific community in the last 50 years. The aim of this study is to analyze the scientific production on related to melatonin using bibliometric tools. We performed a search in Web of Science, involving documents published between 1958 and 2019. We used bibliometric indicators to explore documents production, dispersion, distribution, time of duplication and annual growth, as Price&#39;s law of scientific literature growth, Lotka&#39;s law, the transient index and the Bradford model. We also calculated the participation index of the different countries and institutions. Finally, through bibliometric mapping, we explored the co-occurrence networks for the most frequently used terms in melatonin research. A total of 20,768 documents were retrieved. Scientific production was better adjusted to linear growth (r = 0.9535) than exponential (r = 0.9313). The duplication time of the documents obtained was 14.2 years. The transience index was 62%, which indicates that most of the scientific production is due to very few authors. The signature rate per document was 1.95. Thirty-four journals made up the Bradford core, highlighting Journal of Pineal Research. USA and University of Texas present the highest production. Map network visualization shows the generated term map detailing on clusters of closely related terms. The growth of the scientific literature on melatonin was linear, with a very high rate of transience, which indicates the presence of numerous authors who sporadically publish on this topic. No evidence of a saturation point was observed. In the last 10 years, there has been a relevant increase in documents on melatonin.

Role of Rural Women in Organic Farming: A Case Study From Turkey

In this study, it was aimed to determine the participation tendencies in organic agriculture activities of women living in rural areas of the northwestern part of Turkey. The data were collected from 183 rural women by simple random sampling method. The survey was conducted from March to May 2020. The data were evaluated by descriptive statistics, a participation index score and multiple regression analysis. According to the results of the participation index score, rural women’s participation of in organic farming activities was highest in the fertilizer application stage and the least in the marketing stage. The results of multiple regression analysis showed that there was a statistically significant relationship between the participation level of rural women in organic farming activities and socio-economic characteristics (age, education level, household size, organic farming experience, household income, agricultural land asset and participation in agricultural training programs). As a result, the findings of the study are expected to make significant contributions to rural development, province economy and further emphasizing the importance of rural women in organic farming activities.