Group Of Developing Countries Research Articles

Providing an accelerator for neutralising inequalities through tourism development across developed and developing countries

ABSTRACT This study uses a novel dynamic GMM approach to compare the effects of tourism development across developed and developing countries. It is the first study to examine the tourism accelerator on the alleviation of income inequality, considering the total, direct and indirect contributions. The direct contribution of tourism emerges as the most influential factor in diminishing income inequality for both developed and developing countries. We find a decrease of 0.363 and 0.077 in the Gini index, in response to a unit increase in the value of the direct variable for the respective country groups. In developed countries, a marginal increase in the indirect contribution of tourism is associated with a Gini reduction of 0.105 units, highlighting a substantial mitigating effect on income inequality. In contrast, the coefficient in developing countries is 0.041, indicating a comparatively weaker impact in addressing income inequality. Moreover, a decline of 0.171 units in the Gini coefficient is observed in response to an escalation in the total contribution of tourism in developing countries, whereas a similar scenario results in a 0.027 unit decrease in the developing country group. These findings spawn some enlightening policy recommendations that are pertinent to the economic structure of the developing economies.

BBNJ agreement in the purview of developing countries: A case study of Pakistan

The Biodiversity beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement has gained global attention since it is anticipated to be implemented in the near future. This analysis demonstrates that almost all nations have made significant efforts to complete the BBNJ Agreement. This manuscript intends to highlight the ongoing efforts of developing nations in the BBNJ discussions by utilizing a descriptive approach and concentrating specifically on Pakistan as a case study. Furthermore, the elements brought by the Asian and African groups supporting Pakistan’s role are also discussed, since these groups are ambitious in obtaining an internationally legally binding instrument (ILBI). This study goes further into the views of developing country groups in all the Intergovernmental Conference sessions (IGCs) on BBNJ. The differences between developing and developed nations, such as the concept of the Common Heritage of Humankind principle (CHH), Marine Genetic Resources (MGRs), and omitting fish from the scope of the BBNJ Agreement, are examined in this paper. Pakistan's advantageous geographical position and extensive coastline have been emphasized, underscoring the significance of BBNJ for Pakistan and its proactive engagement in the discussions, particularly its representation of the Group of 77 developing nations at the United Nations (G-77). Although Pakistan initially was not actively engaging in the debates, it voiced its ambitious attitude when representing the G-77 in 2022, which was refreshing. This study reveals that while Pakistan has played a vital role in BBNJ discussions, it still requires updating its data and policy development to embrace the BBNJ Agreement effectively. Nevertheless, this disparity may be remedied via a diligent mindset and conscientious conduct.

Группа наименее развитых стран (НРС) в международной климатической политике

Global climate change is one of the main challenges of our time. Rising temperatures threaten the stability of the ecological, socio-economic, and political systems around the globe. Countries in the Global South have the greatest material losses from climate change without having a significant impact on it. The high vulnerability of the group of least developed countries (LDCs) to climate change, coupled with social and economic challenges poverty, and lack of means for adaptation, determine its special rank and status in international climate policy. In it, the LDCs act as a single actor. Over the course of more than 30 years of climate policy, LDCs have initiated the adoption of a number of important documents and the creation of fundamental structures for international climate policy. At the same time, noticeable transformations have taken place to adapt and decarbonize the national structures of LDCs. The purpose of this article is to show the role of the LDC group in the formation of the United Nations (UN) climate agenda, institutional structures, and international mechanisms, to highlight their efforts to restore global climate justice, and to characterize modern national climate policy according to the legal documents adopted by the LDCs. The methodological basis is formed by historical, comparative approaches. The main objective of the article is to study the trajectories of the climate policy of the LDC group, highlight the stages of its evolution, demonstrate centre-peripheral relations to restore climate justice, and examine the internal policies of the LDCs. Policy initiatives of the LDCs played a direct role in the formation of climate finance funds, the group of experts on the least developed countries (LEG), and national programmes and plans for the adaptation of states to climate change. The article concludes that there are two stages in the development of climate policy in LDCs; it is assumed that the use of international mechanisms for adaptation and decarbonization could become a tool for the economic and technological modernization of LDCs and their achievement of the sustainable development goals of 2030. The main obstacles to this are the insufficient financing of available funds from countries of the Global North, high interest rates on loans, and the indebtedness of LDCs.

ÜLKELERİN GELİŞMİŞLİK FARKLILIKLARI ÖZGÜRLÜK YAPISI İLE AÇIKLANABİLİR Mİ?

This study aims to test the relationship between the liberal structure of countries and the development of countries. GDP per capita and price stability were used as performance measures for this. For this purpose, two separate models were constructed for developed and developing countries. Model I analyses the effect of economic freedoms on GDP per capita and Model II analyses the impact of economic releases on the consumer price index. According to the analysis using panel data analysis for developed and developing country groups, the findings reveal that a libertarian structure positively affects economic growth and is a discriminator in the emergence of development differences in countries. In contrast, a libertarian design does not have a significant relationship with price stability. These findings provide evidence in support of the Monetarist view that inflation is always a monetary phenomenon. According to the results of this study, it is recommended that especially developing countries should implement prudent policies towards price stability in monetary and fiscal policy.

Nexus between renewable energy consumption, foreign capital flows, and financial development: New evidence using CUP-FM and CUP-BC advanced methods

The study tries to explore the impact of foreign capital flows and financial development on renewable energy consumption. The empirical analysis is conducted using data for 17 developing countries for the period 1990 to 2020. The analysis is conducted for three sets of countries i.e. high-income developing countries, low-income developing countries, and all developing countries. The study uses sophisticated panel data estimation approaches to find the results, i.e. continuously-updated and fully modified (CUP-FM) and continuously updated and bias-corrected (CUP-BC) panel estimation techniques. The results show that financial development and capital flows positively affect renewable energy in all three samples of developing countries. The study also employs the Dumitrescu and Hurlin (2012) panel causality test to analyze the causal relationship among variables. Bidirectional causality is found between FD and RE and between CF and RE in all income developing countries group and high-income developing group but a unidirectional causality is found from FD and CF to RE in low-income developing countries group. On the basis of the findings of the study, it is recommended that to promote RE in developing countries it is imperative to encourage FD and CF in these countries. Further, developing countries ought to support the concept of green financing and need to allocate funds for investments in green energy to promote sustainable energy resources.

Institutional Provision of Tariff and Non-Tariff Regulation of Cross-Border Trade

Introduction. The study is devoted to a comprehensive study of the global trade system in conditions of global economic instability, in particular, to the identification and analysis of the determinants of deepening its asymmetries in the regional perspective. The study contains a description of the peculiarities of the modern global trade system and regulatory regime, including tariff and non-tariff methods of regulating cross-border trade and key trends in its development.
 Aim and tasks. The purpose of the study is to diagnose the institutional provision of tariff and non-tariff regulation of cross-border trade in order to determine the presence or absence of asymmetries in the global trade system in the regional context.
 Results. The study identifies and systematizes fundamental features of the modern global trade system whose development has been directly or indirectly influenced by regional asymmetries. Particular attention is paid to the characteristics of the major international economic organizations as the main regulators of the cross-border trade process, and to the study of the impact of the use of tariff and non-tariff import and export regulatory tools on cross-border trade asymmetries. The world trading system is divided by country and individual customs territory, depending on whether it belongs to a certain geographical area or to a group of countries with a certain level of economic development.
 Conclusions. Although the expansion of global trade has visually slowed down, the integration of world trade is not over, on the contrary, there are clear signs of the beginning of a completely new phase of globalization. The presence of asymmetry in the world trading system in a geographical context, regardless of the size of the region, has been theoretically proven. According to the criterion of the asymmetry of the trading system depending on the level of economic development of the countries, in general, there is a tendency to increase the level of liberalization of trade regimes by the increase in the level of development. At the same time, it has been proven that belonging to the group of least developed countries does not necessarily mean closed access to national markets, and categorization as a developed country does not indicate the application of the least number of non-tariff measures to regulate trade volumes. At the same time, Ukraine remains a country that has undertaken the most liberal obligations regarding providing access to markets for both goods and services. As one of the world's leading exporters of agricultural products in 2020, Ukraine has set the customs tariff level at 11%, the lowest among group members.

Comparing Market Efficiency in Developed, Emerging, and Frontier Equity Markets: A Multifractal Detrended Fluctuation Analysis

In this article, we investigate the market efficiency of global stock markets using the multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis methodology and analyze the results by dividing them into developed, emerging, and frontier groups. The static analysis results reveal that financially advanced countries, such as Switzerland, the UK, and the US, have more efficient stock markets than other countries. Rolling window analysis shows that global issues dominate the developed country group, while emerging markets are vulnerable to foreign capital movements and political risks. In the frontier group, intensive domestic market issues vary, making it difficult to distinguish similar dynamics. Our findings have important implications for international investors and policymakers. International investors can establish investment strategies based on the degree of market efficiency of individual stock markets. Policymakers in countries with significant fluctuations in market efficiency should consider implementing new regulations to enhance market efficiency. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the market efficiency of global stock markets and highlights the need for careful consideration by international investors and policymakers.

Foreign Trade, Aid and Economic Growth in Less-Developed Countries by Gunnar Floystad. Oslo: Scandinavian University Books, Universitetsforlaget, 1968.

Gunnar Floystad's Foreign Trade, Aid and Economic Growth is concerned with the interrelations between foreign trade, foreign aid and economic growth of a group of less developed countries (LDC) comprising all of Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia, excluding USSR, Japan and Mainland China. The book is divided into two parts: Part One uses a model of trade, aid and growth to deduce a relationship between GNP, exports and net capital inflows of the LDC. Assuming exports to be given exogenously and net capital inflows to grow at a constant rate over time, growth of GNP is projected corresponding to alternative postulates about growth of exports and growth of net capital inflows via the simple exponential function, E(t) = M0 [X(t) + B(t)]B, where E, X and B stand for GNP, exports and net capital inflows respectively, and M<> is a constant. Part Two analyses in some details the export prospects for a list of traditional products currently exported from LDC to developed countries.

Are robots in rich countries a threat for employment in emerging economies?

The effects of robotization on labor market outcomes have been widely investigated within developed countries. Conversely, few studies have tried to assess how automation in advanced economies affects less industrialized countries. In this work, we analyze the impact of robotization in a group of developed European countries (EU15) on employment dynamics in a country-industry panel data of emerging markets. Our findings indicate that EU15 robotization is associated with a decline of sectoral employment in emerging economies, especially in Asia, tradable and more robotized industries. Ultimately, a small set of major European countries - namely, Germany, Italy, Denmark and United Kingdom - seems to guide the overall phenomenon. • We study how robots in rich European nations affect employment of emerging markets. • Robots in rich European nations negatively affect employment in emerging markets. • The effects are stronger in Asia, tradable and more robotized industries. • Germany, Italy, Denmark and United Kingdom seem to drive the overall phenomenon.

Sağlık Harcamalarının Medikal Ürün İhracatı Üzerindeki Etkisi: E7 Ülkeleri Örneği

It was aimed to analyze the impact of health expenditures on medical product exports in E7 countries (Turkey, China, India, Russia, Indonesia, Brazil and Mexico) in the developing countries group in the paper. In this context, it was first performed the MADF unit root test to test the stationarity of the series in the study covering the period 2000-2017. Then it was performed the Swamy S test to determine the homogeneity and heterogeneity of the series. Finally, it was applied the Dumitrescu-Hurlin Panel causality test to determine the causality relationship between the series. As a result of the findings, it was determined that the series were stationary and heterogeneous in the first difference and that there was a bidirectional causality relationship between the two variables. In other words, both health expenditures affected medical product exports and medical product exports affected health expenditures. In this perspective, when countries' health expenditures increase, medical product exports also increase, and when medical product exports increase, health expenditures also increase.

Trends in Income Inequality: Evidence from Developing and Developed Countries

We use a novel approach to answer questions like: is there a secular trend and shift in inequality across developing and/or developed countries? Do the developing countries converge the inequality level of developed countries? Unlike some recent studies that rely on casual observation of the time series, we conduct recent econometric techniques that allow us to check if there are statistically significant trends and whether these trends are deterministic or stochastic. We also test the inequality gap between developed countries and different developing country groups using convergence test. Using data of 34 countries over the 1960–2020 period, we find that inequality has been either increasing or stable in developed countries; in developing countries, both improvements and deterioration in inequality are observable. We show also that few developing countries reduce the inequality gap with developed countries. These heterogeneous trends suggest that the inequality in the last half-century is driven by national rather than global contexts. Our analysis of the Official Development Assistance and inequality nexus supports this inference.

Factors affecting road traffic crashes with drivers with disabilities who use hand controls in a less developed country

One of the most common vehicle modifications is the installation of hand controls that allow persons who are unable to operate the brake and accelerator pedals with their feet due to physical impairment to drive. Considered the specifics of hand controls (higher workload during driving and lower passive safety), it is very important to analyze the safety of the category of drivers with disabilities who use them. This paper aims to determine which factors influence the participation in road traffic crashes of drivers with disabilities who use hand controls. Based on the identified factors, measures and activities are defined to improve the road safety of drivers with disabilities who use hand controls, to improve the mobility of persons with disabilities, and to encourage potential drivers with disabilities, especially in less developed countries. The research was conducted in Serbia, which belongs to the group of less developed countries in the world. Considering the estimated number of drivers with disabilities who use hand controls, every fourth driver in Serbia participated in the survey (65 respondents). The statistical analysis was performed by the decision tree CART algorithm. Driving experience with hand controls is the most important variable of the participation of drivers with disabilities in a road traffic crash while driving vehicles with hand controls. Improving the system of maintaining hand controls, harmonize the performance of hand controls with the medical status of the drivers with disabilities, improving awareness of drivers with disabilities about risky behaviors in traffic are recognized as the most important measures and activities.

Climate negotiations: time to implement planetary health promises

Climate negotiations: time to implement planetary health promises

Population Dynamics in Russia in the Context of Global Trends

—The article examines the current demographic trends in Russia as compared to population changes in the world and its major regions based on data from the Russian Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat), Eurostat, and the UN Population Division. It is shown that in terms of a number of characteristics of population reproduction—low fertility, ageing population structure, natural population decline—Russia is quite similar to the developed countries group. However, Russia is behind many countries in reducing the mortality rate of the middle-aged and older population, especially in men, and, correspondingly, in life expectancy for all age groups, which results in a noticeable increase in natural population decline and in deformation of the sex structure of the population. The specifics of the age structure of the Russian population that have been formed by a number of demographic waves are such that changes in the number of births and in age group sizes come in waves; this trend will continue in the coming decades. The article also analyzes excess mortality in Russia during the COVID-19 pandemic in comparison with similar data for the European Union (EU-27) and compares healthy life expectancy estimates for Russia, the entire world, individual countries, and different groups of countries by income.

CLUSTER ANALYSIS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION GENDER EQUALITY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Purpose – The article aims at discovering classes and clusters of EU member-states considering their levels of economic development and gender equality to foster the enhancement of EU cohesion policy. Research methodology – The methodology includes the grouping by two parameters, economic development and gender equality, and the cluster analysis, the “far neighbor principle”, agglomerative hierarchical classification algorithm and the usual Euclidean distance as the distance between objects. Findings – There are no gender equality laggards among EU member-states. More developed countries belong to gender equality leaders, while there are two gender equality leaders and one gender equality adopter among transition countries. The group of less developed countries consists of six gender equality leaders and seven gender equality adopters. Research limitations – The results of cluster analysis may be impacted by off-shore activity of Ireland and Luxembourg. Practical implications – The EU supranational bodies can use our results to develop more efficient cohesion policy tools to ensure the adherence to the principle of gender equality. Originality/Value – The study is a pioneer one in determining nine classes and five clusters of EU member-states considering their levels of economic development and gender equality, as well as in introducing three types of countries depending on their level of gender equality, namely gender equality leaders, adopters, and laggards.

Is the Rule of Law Essential for Economic Growth? Evidence from European Countries

This paper aims to measure the influence of human capital, rule of law and protection of property rights on GDP. The research has been inspired by the works of Acemoglu. In this study it has been used a self-structured sample containing eight countries: Germany, Czech Republic, Hungary, Serbia, Italy, the UK, Spain and Sweden. The selection of countries in the sample was intentional. While choosing it, business culture, path dependence and geopolitical situation of the countries have been taken into account. The analysis showed a high correlation of all three observed indices with GDP/cap. In order to determine the relative share of overall indices in economic growth, a graphic representation was used. The regression analysis showed that the change in the IPRI value by one percentage point leads to a more significant positive impact on GDP growth in the group of less developed countries than in the leading developed economies. Although GDP jumps percent are higher in countries with lower IPRI, if observed in real terms they are roughly equal to those recorded in developed countries. This can be explained by the fact that countries with high IPRI have accumulated a higher mass of GDP over time.

Energy, Exergy, Exergoeconomic, and environmental (4E) analyses of thermal power plants for municipal solid waste to energy application in Bangladesh

With a population of 165 million, Bangladesh is undergoing rapid industrialization and urban development, and is well on track to move out from the group of least developed countries by 2024. This results in a significant increase in the urban energy needs and the amount of generated waste. Most of the municipal solid waste in Bangladesh is currently deposited in landfills, thereby contaminating nearby cultivable soils. It is desirable to have a system that recovers energy from the municipal solid waste in order to satisfy the increasing energy needs, while simultaneously addressing the land scarcity and pollution issues. This paper proposes using incineration to recover energy from municipal solid waste to produce electricity in the urban areas of Dhaka and Chattogram. A detailed technical analysis involving energy, exergy, exergoeconomic, and emission is presented. The power plants in these two cities show potential capacities of 169 MW and 83 MW respectively, with exergoeconomic factors of 61 %. The results indicate energy and exergy efficiencies of 32 % and 27 %, respectively, and a production cost in the range of 53.9–56.7 USD/MWh which is comparable to the production cost from the current power plants in Bangladesh. The proposed plants also result in a reduction in the greenhouse emissions and exhibit ecological efficiencies of over 87 %.

Sensitivity and specificity of optical coherence tomography angiography in the diagnosis of active choroidal neovascularization: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

This meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the diagnostic value of optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) for active choroidal neovascularization (CNV) of all types and etiologies. We searched the Web of Science, PubMed, Cochrane Library, Medline, and Embase databases for all interrelated published studies from inception to August 2020. Meta-disc and STATA were used for the data analyses. We measured the diagnostic value by assessing the pooled diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio (PLR), negative likelihood ratio (NLR), diagnostic odds ratio (DOR), and area under the summary receiver operating characteristic curve (sROC AUC). Sources of heterogeneity were also analyzed. Nine studies involving 785 eyes were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled sensitivity was 0.83 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.75-0.88), specificity was 0.89 (95% CI, 0.79-0.94), PLR was 7.4 (95% CI, 3.8-14.6), NLR was 0.20 (95% CI, 0.13-0.29), and DOR was 38 (95% CI, 16-91). The sROC AUC was 0.91 (95% CI, 0.89-0.94). With respect to heterogeneity, the sensitivity of the fluorescein angiography (FA) reference standard group (0.71 [0.64-0.78]) and developed country group (0.77 [0.70-0.84]) was both lower than the sensitivity of the FA combined with optical coherence tomography (OCT) reference standard group (0.89 [0.84-0.93], P < 0.001) and developing country group (0.90 [0.85-0.95], P < 0.001). This meta-analysis suggests that OCTA is a non-invasive, convenient diagnostic method for active CNV and has high diagnostic value. Moreover, the accuracy of the diagnostic accuracy is independent of the types of device, algorithms, and the etiology of CNV.

Informal Sector in GDP: A Panel Estimation Method

Estimation of the activities of the informal sector in an economy poses a serious problem for obtaining a correct estimate of GDP. This happens to be so because of the fact that informal sector activities are not registered. The literature has tried to solve the problem of estimation of the informal sector using the method of latent variables. The standard approach is generally aims to estimate for a single point. The present paper aims to model the statistical estimation of informal sector of many countries in a common framework and the evolution of the informal sector over time. Thus the adopted approach in this paper is panel estimation for a group of 22 countries, both from the developed and developing world. The study contributes in the literature by way of developing statistical model ‘Panel Dynamic Multiple Indicators and Multiple Causes’ model to account for the variations in the contribution of informal sector. Using the statistical model the paper presents modified estimates of the informal sector of the group of countries over a period ranging from 1990 through 2018. Our estimates of the informal sector are found to be generally higher, sometimes more than 10% for the developing country group while the estimates for the developed countries show little variability.

The role of coalitions at international tariff negotiations: a CGE perspective

Developing countries coalitions form an integral part of tariff negotiations that take place under the aegis of the World Trade Organization. While there was only a single coalition in the 70s, their number increased to 31 in the year 2005. Despite the apparent proliferation of coalitions in tariff negotiations, little research on their theoretical and empirical implications has been produced. In particular, we lack an understanding of efficiency and equity effects of coalitions. By exploring this equity-efficiency nexus, the study finds that developing countries coalitions like the G-90 and the Least Developed Countries Group – while benefiting member countries – lead to less efficiency and less equity overall. Forming the Cairns Group, however, leads to a more efficient and equal distribution of the gains from trade.