Economics Department Research Articles

Effects of poverty on academic performance of undergraduates in Nwafor Orizu College of Education, Nsugbe, Anambra State.

The study was aimed at ascertaining the effects of poverty on the academic performance of undergraduates in Nwafor Orizu College of Education, Nsugbe. Three (3) research questions and one (1) hypothesis guided the study. The population of the study is made up of year 2, year 3 and final year B.Ed students of Nwafor Orizu College of Education, Nsugbe, comprising 3, 394 undergraduates. The study used a proportionate random sampling technique to select the sample of the study, to ensure that each school of the six (6) schools in Nwafor Orizu College of Education, Nsugbe was proportionately represented in the population. A total of 300 students were selected as the sample for the study. Questionnaire was used to collect data for the study. In other to ascertain the face and content validity of the instrument, the questionnaire was given to an expert in Economics Department and also two experts in the department of education Measurement and Evaluation for validation. The reliability of the instrument was established using test-retest method. The data collected were analyzed using mean and chi-square. Based on the analysis of the data, the following findings were made that the government and the people, on how to improve the standard of living of the masses more especially the undergraduates in the institutions of higher learning which was as a result of effect of poverty on academic performance of the students. With view to finding out solutions to the problems in order to improve the academic performance and wellbeing of the undergraduates, it was recommended among others that undergraduates will be trained in the institutions, if only the government should help in alleviating economic poverty by providing the undergraduates with all their essential needs both in terms of social, political and economic ways which will go a long way in developing the man power and state at large. Provision of the necessary materials needed by the undergraduates will help in the development of the state.

A Study on the Impacts of social media Towards Job Performance among Lecturers in UiTM Shah Alam

The widespread adoption of social media platforms has significantly transformed the way individuals communicate, interact, and share information. The existing research is limited in terms of industry representation and organizational levels, leaving a gap in our understanding of how social media usage affects different dimensions of job performance. The objective of the study was to examine the impact of social media on employees’ job performance in education sector. The aim was to provide insights for organizations to develop effective strategies and policies regarding social media usage in the workplace. The study was carried out among lecturers from the Faculty of Business and Management (FBM), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Shah Alam with 66 responses. The sampling technique used was stratified sampling from Department of Economics and Financial Studies. Questionnaire was developed based on a 5-point Likert scale and reliability analysis accepted Cronbach’s Alpha more than 0.7. Based on the findings, all factors namely: (i) work-related use (ii) social-related use, (iii) synchronicity, (iv) dialogism, (v) richness, and (vi) mobility were correlated with job performance and only synchronicity and richness were the most significant factors influencing lecturers’ job performance. These highlighted that synchronization needed between people to work together and collaborate while richness represented by the need of understanding and the meaning shared in the organizations to perform a better job.

Перспективы производства овощей в садоводческих некоммерческих товариществах граждан

Abstract. The article is devoted to the issues of assessing the prospects for the development of horticultural non-profit partnerships of citizens. Including the identification of opportunities to increase the production of vegetables from this category of agricultural producers to meet the needs of their families and the sale of existing surpluses of certain types of these products. The purpose of the study is to develop a methodological approach to assessing the prospects of vegetable growing in horticultural non-profit partnerships of citizens and its testing in the conditions of the region to identify the possibility of its use in other territories. Methods. In the course of the study, methods of comparison, statistical and economic, sociological research, analysis and synthesis were applied. The scientific novelty of this study lies in the development of a methodological approach to assessing the prospects of vegetable production in horticultural non-profit partnerships of citizens. As a research tool, we have developed a questionnaire for interviewing members of horticultural non-profit partnerships. The scientific result is the testing of the developed methodological approach on the materials of the Irkutsk region, which made it possible to identify factors hindering the growth of vegetable production in the studied category of agricultural producers: insufficient support of horticultural associations from the authorities, poor quality of seed material, zoning to the climatic conditions of the region, difficulties in selling surplus products. In addition, based on the results of the approbation, recommendations have been developed aimed at increasing the production of vegetables in horticultural associations. The study was conducted within the framework of the scientific laboratory “Economic Research” on the basis of the Department of Economics and Accounting of the Irkutsk State Agrarian University named after A. A. Ezhevsky. The methodological approach can be used in other regions. The article may be useful to authorities at all levels when developing programs to support this category of agricultural producers.

E-MARKETING OF PASTRY AND DOUGH PRODUCTS AND CONSUMERS’ SATISFACTION OF SERVICE QUALITY DELIVERY IN LAGOS STATE

The study determined e-marketing of pastry and dough products and customer satisfaction on Service Quality Delivery in Mainland Local Government Area of Lagos State. Four research questions guided the study. Descriptive survey design was adopted. Population for the study was 1,500 household members. Sample size for the study was 306 which comprised of household members in Mainland Local Government Area of Lagos State. Questionnaire was used for data collection. The questionnaire was validated by three experts from the Home Economics Department, University of Lagos. Reliability of the instrument was determined through test-re-test method and a reliability co-efficient of 0.97 was obtained using spearman’s rank correlation method. Findings indicated that the pastry and dough products commonly purchased online included cakes, meat pies, fish pie, chin chin among others. The most commonly delivery method was the use of courier service. Findings also revealed that customers are satisfied with marketing vendors when food products ordered are delivered in good condition and when food products ordered are delivered timely. Results showed that the problem customers face in e-marketing of pastry and dough products delivery includes the delivering of product that are not of the same shape, size and quality with the particular products ordered. It was concluded that the right delivery method should be adopted to ensure that food product ordered are same as food products delivered. Among recommendations made were that e-marketing vendors should ensure that pastry and dough products ordered are same with products delivered.

PCFC—Head of the Economics Department, RTZ

PCFC—Head of the Economics Department, RTZ

Using lotteries instead of auctioning is both inefficient and inequality-creating

Using lotteries instead of auctioning is both inefficient and inequality-creating Yew-Kwang Ng, Emeritus Professor in the Department of Economics at Monash University, compares the use of the lottery and auctioning to allocate scarce goods. In a recent eBook for Open Access Government, I discuss the anti-market sentiment, including why it is common, based on incorrect reasonings, and how recognising this mistake may make us more accepting of the beneficial market expansion. Here, I discuss a specific manifestation of this anti- market sentiment: Using the lottery to allocate scarce goods (including resources and services) instead of using the market (such as auctioning). An example is the allocation of permits for car ownership. In Singapore, a Certificate of Entitlement (COE) is required to buy a car. Singapore allocates these COEs by the most efficient Vickrey second-price auction. (1)

About the first head of the Department of Economics and Management, Professor Lin Alexander Alekseevich

The essay is dedicated to Alexander Alekseevich Lin, Professor, Doctor of Pharmaceutical Sciences, the first head of the Department of Economics and Management of the St. Petersburg State Chemical and Pharmaceutical Academy. This essay presents his biography, contribution to pharmaceutical science and education, the results of his work, the most important scientific achievements, as well as information about the scientific, educational, methodological and organizational work of the department, which he headed. Alexander Alekseevich was awarded the prize of the Government of St. Petersburg and the certificate of honor of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation for outstanding achievements in the field of higher education and healthcare, as well as awarded the medal “100 years of Russian trade unions”. His vivid and significant contribution to educational activities and the sphere of public life will remain for a long time in the memory of colleagues, students and everyone who knew him. In our short essay, we used the materials of the department, archival data, bibliographic and abstract databases.

Salary inequality in young professors: evidence from public U.S. economic department

ABSTRACT The current literature provides little empirical evidence on the study of salaries for young faculty members in the economic department, possibly because effective recognition of their research productivity remains a difficult challenge. To address this research gap, we analyse the effects of gender, PhD graduation school rank and undergraduate major on the salaries of young economics professors with varying experience levels. We create a novel dataset by manually collecting detailed and time-varying research productivity measures and demographic information of young economics professors from the top 50 public research universities in the U.S. We use double machine learning to obtain consistent estimators, which allows us to account for non-parametric features associated with the high-dimensional control variable set. Our findings indicate that in experience years 4 to 8, which is the time most faculty tenured, the gender effect estimates are statistically significant and large enough in magnitude to have practical implications. For PhD graduation school rank and undergraduate major, the effects in experience years 7 to 9 are large in magnitude but do not have statistical significance.

The ESP Scenario in EFL Economics Courses

The term "ESP" refers to a method of teaching English for any possible goal. It addresses with determining the curriculum for a scenario where students are grouped as homogeneous and have a common set of requirements. Thus, the goal of this study is to investigate the state of ESP teaching and learning in a third-year graduate student class at the University of Murni Teguh, Department of Economics. The researcher makes an effort to determine whether the ESP method of teaching EFL is used in this particular class. In order to do this, a representative sample of 50 students was selected at random and joined by their ESP instructor, a specialist in the same department. Two study tools have been used to gather data: a structured interview with the teacher and a questionnaire for the students. Consequently, a quantitative and qualitative analysis has been conducted. The findings showed that students are taught in general English with little consideration for their academic and professional demands (once they are employed). Instead, there is a strong emphasis on learning economic concepts and translating brief texts into Arabic, the students' native tongue. The ESP teacher also mentioned how he sensed a need for particular "teacher training." The findings may help ESP teachers understand what is actually required in this particular situation. Therefore, depending on the needs of each specific subject, ESP approaches should be used to teach English.

Sergey I. Tyulpanov — statesman and outstanding scientist: Historical role and academic legacy

Sergei Ivanovich Tyulpanov is an outstanding scientist, military leader, diplomat, citizen, an extraordinary person, born in 1901, who for more than eighty years shared the fate of his people and his Motherland. The article presents the joint work of N. P. Kuznetsova, one of Tyulpanov’s graduate students in the 70s of the last century, S. F. Sutyrin, head of the department of world economics, who took the baton from the school of the department of international economic relations and the department of modern capitalism economics in 1996, and professor L. D. Shirokorad, who spent his entire professional life working on the problems of the history of economic thought and the development of the Faculty of Economics at Leningrad State University — St. Petersburg State University. The article is divided into four parts: the initial stage of Tyulpanov’s military and academic career up to the WWII, military and ideological activity during the Great Patriotic war, the role of the Soviet military administration in Germany / SVAG Information Department in the formation of post-war Germany, the creation of the Department of Modern Capitalism Economics — a unique center for teaching and studying the economics and politics of developed and developing countries.

Analyzing the Tradeoff Between the Economic and Environmental Performance: The Case of the Chinese Manufacturing Sector

The so-called by-production approach, introduced by Murty and Russell [“On modeling pollution-generating technologies,” Department of Economics, University of California, Riverside, CA, USA, 2002], has provided researchers with an improved methodology for approximating polluting production technologies. However, the original by-production model is not capable of addressing the potential tradeoff between the economic and environmental performance since it does not impose any relationship between its economic and environmental subtechnologies. Although this link has been recently proposed in the extensions to the original by-production approach, the tradeoff framework remains ambiguous with respect to the weights that can be assigned to the economic and environmental subobjectives. This article proposes a novel approach for estimating the green productivity growth in the Chinese manufacturing sector based on the scenario analysis that simulates policy preferences. Our results suggest that environmental inefficiency is generally higher than economic inefficiency and that the annual growth rates of economic and environmental productivity are sensitive to the chosen scenario or the weights assigned to the different types of performance. We demonstrate that productivity growth can range from −0.43%, when only the environmental performance is considered to 2.56%, when only the economic performance is taken into account.

Perceived Influence of Inflation on Nigeria Educational System: A Case Study of Federal Polytechnic, Oko.

This research work investigates the Perceived influence of inflation on the Nigerian educational system: a case study of Federal Polytechnic, Oko, in Orumba North Local Government Area of Anambra state. Three research questions were raised to guide this study. Descriptive survey research design was used to conduct this study. The population for the study comprised of all the students and teaching staff of Federal University, Oko. The sample of this study comprised of four hundred (400) students and eighty (80) teaching staff. Simple random sampling technique was used in selecting the samples of this study. Data were collected using a self-developed questionnaire. The instrument was validated by two experts, one from the economics department and the other from educational foundation department. A pilot testing method was used to establish the reliability of the instrument, the scores obtained were analyzed using Cronbach Alpha and the reliability coefficient was estimated at 0.80. The data obtained were analyzed using mean. Based on this analysis and findings, it was discovered that there was significant relationship between perceive influence of inflation and education in Nigerian University(r(399) = .670**, p<.05),also result reveals that there was relationship between perceive influence of inflation and the quality of education within the educational system in Nigeria(r(399) = .606**, p<.05) and there was significant relationship between inflation and decrease in enrollment in educational institutions in Nigeria(r(399) = 0.464, p<0.05)However, it was recommended that government spending on education should be increased. A system of regular salary adjustments for teachers should be established. Inflation-indexed tuition fees and other educational costs should be developed and implemented. Measures to improve the quality of education within the system should be implemented such as providing more professional development opportunities and better training for teachers.

Impact of China's Economic Dynamics and Financial Markets on Gold Valuation Master of Science in International Bank and Finance Department of Economics

Impact of China's Economic Dynamics and Financial Markets on Gold Valuation Master of Science in International Bank and Finance Department of Economics

Academic legacy of Professor Sergei V.Valdaytsev

This article shows the main stages of the creative path of St. Petersburg State University professor Sergei Vasilievich Valdaitsev (1951–2012), who made a significant contribution to the creation and development of the domestic school of economics, science and innovation. The features of the Soviet stage of the emergence of scientific studies and the economics of scientific and technological progress, the origins of the formation of the first scientific and technical complexes in the Soviet Union are characterized. The problems of the first studies in this area are shown: the history of science and technology, the subject of the economics of science, the peculiarities of labor in the scientific field, the forms of combining science and production. The contribution of scientists from Leningrad State University in the formation of the national school of economics, science and innovation is noted. The article focuses on the contribution of S.V.Valdaitsev to the transformation of domestic innovation in a market economy. After completing a year-long internship at the Free University of Berlin, Sergei Vasilyevich was able to formulate the basic principles of the transition of domestic scientific studies to a market-oriented approach. In just a few years, the educational process at the Department of Economics of Research and Development of Leningrad State University was restructured: the courses taught began to reflect market realities in the field of science and technology. A process of consulting domestic scientific organizations and high-tech enterprises of the city of Leningrad regarding the transition to market relations was established. Thanks to the efforts of S.V.Valdaytsev, the domestic school quickly caught up with the level of foreign research and began to contribute to the achievements of the global economy of innovative activity. The article reveals the content of the most important scientific works of Sergei Vasilievich, shows his contribution to reforming the educational process in the training of managers of innovative projects and the management system of the innovation process in the Russian Federation.

Академик АН СССР А. Н. Ефимов: истоки интеллектуальной биографии

Anatoly Efimov, a Soviet academician, exerted a significant influence on the theory, methodo­logy, and practice of long-term planning and forecasting for the national economy during his leadership at the Research Institute of Economics under the State Planning Commission of the USSR in Moscow. However, his foundational years as a scholar and organizer unfolded in Sverdlovsk. This article seeks to explore the early stages of his intellectual journey. Methodologically, the study employs the intellectual history approach, intertwining the history of ideas with an analysis of contextual factors that shaped the emergence, institutionalization, and development of specific viewpoints. The research relies on Efimov’s publications and archival materials from the library of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The article suggests that the backgrounds of scholars shape the creation and development of important theories or concepts. Efimov’s va­ried roles as an economist, including his work in the cooperative movement and industrial production, coupled with his positions as a teacher at the Ural Industrial Institute and the head of the Department of Economics, impacted the organization of his research, choice of topics, and the validity of his conclusions. Particularly noteworthy is Efimov’s practical orientation and steadfast connection with production.

Bejli poslednji put među Srbima – poseta Nišu decembra 1944. godine i njene posledice

The paper reveals an attempt by a British mission to visit a part of the Serbian territory in December 1944. The fundamental purpose of the mission was to evaluate the situation in the wake of military operations in the Trepčamining complex in Kosovo and Metohija, with British interests in mind. Up until the 1941 April War, Britain’s Trepča Mines Ltd. held a majority stake in the Trepča lead and zinc mine.The observation operation was guided by Colonel William Bailey, head of the economic department of the British Mission in Sofia. Bailey, who as a prominent member of the British secret service SOE (Special Operations Executive) spent most of the war (1942-1944) leading or advising the British military mission to the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland (JVuO), was stationed with General Dragoljub Mihailović. Before the war, Bailey had worked as a mining engineer at Trepča.An extensive report on this mission, which was a joint British-Soviet effort classified as top secret, sheds new light not only on the situation in Niš and its surroundings in the days following the liberation in 1944, but also on the conduct of high-ranking Partisan officers. The mission actually ended before it began: a Partisan commissioner, Vasilije Smajević, following orders from the “highest authorities,” commanded the Allies to leave the Serbian territory without delay, threatening with arrest. The documents used in this paper are stored by the National Archives of the United Kingdom (TNA) in London.

Assessing students’ research competencies with the main focus on the level and direction of their development

Introduction. The article presents an analysis of approaches to the problem of effective assessment of university students’ research competencies. The purpose of the article is to reveal and demonstrate the results of adopting the inventory for assessing students’ research competencies, focusing on the level and direction of their development. Materials and Methods. The research is based on the application of a systematic approach and contextual methods in the assessment and development of university students’ research competencies. The authors applied comparative and retrospective analysis, systematization and generalization of existing approaches and methods for assessing students’ research competencies, which allowed them to develop and propose a content-based inventory. The empirical part of the study was conducted at the Department of Labor Economics and Personnel Management at Ural State University of Economics. More than 80 full-time students took part in the research by testing the inventory. The results of the empirical testing are presented using the tools of descriptive statistics, Spearman's correlation analysis, and Student's t-test determination. Results. Based on reviewing scholarly literature, the authors substantiate the importance of involving students in research activities and the development of research competencies (RC) as competitive advantages in the labor market. On the basis of generalization, a number of research approaches to the development and application of methods for assessing students’ RC are revealed. As a result, the authors present a six-component questionnaire for assessing research competencies as the basis of a comprehensive and personalized approach to the development of students’ potential, including: theoretical-information, cognitive, communicative, motivational-organizational, operational-activity and reflexive-prognostic components. The effectiveness of the inventory is proved by its content validity and the results of a two-stage approbation of the questionnaire in groups of students with and without research experience. The results of empirical testing of the inventory confirm that with comprehensive, contextual and systematic approaches to the assessment of research competencies containing personal recommendations for their development, the indicators for all 6 components of RC increase. Conclusions. The study concludes that there are many approaches to the assessment of RC and each of the methods can be relevant to the research tasks in the case of complexity and consistency. The six-component inventory has passed the stage of content validation and has shown relevance to the tasks of assessing university student’ research competencies with the main focus on the level and direction of their development.

Physico-Chemical Analysis of the Fruits and Consumer Preferences of New Apple (Malus × domestica Borkh) Hybrids Bred in Poland

Apples are the most important species in Polish fruit production, and their fresh fruit and processing products occupy a very important place in the European and world food economies. A natural process on the apple market is the replacement of older cultivars with new ones. Consequently, breeding work is being carried out all over the world to obtain new, attractive apple cultivars. In this work, four new apple hybrids obtained in the Department of Pomology and Horticulture Economics at the University of Life Sciences in Warsaw (WULS—SGGW), i.e., two red-skinned hybrids (‘I’P’ and ‘TL’) and two green-skinned hybrids (‘GL’ and ‘LG’), were tested for their main physico-chemical characteristics after harvest and after storage, as well as for their consumer acceptability in a comparison with three popular cultivars in Poland (‘Šampion’, ‘Golden Delicious’, and ‘Ligol’). The hybrids evaluated were differentiated in terms of the tested features. It was found that the fruits of the ‘GL’ hybrid had the highest firmness—both after harvest and post storage; it was also one of the highest-rated overall impressions by consumers among the cultivars tested (only ‘Ligol’ apples had higher scores). The hybrid with low fruit quality and low health-promoting properties at this stage of the study was ‘TL’, whose overall impression was also rated lowest by consumers. The study also showed that the content of bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity of apples can be higher in green-skinned cultivars compared to red-skinned cultivars.

On some aspects of assessing the competencies of employees in foreign economic departments

Introduction. The conditions of a market economy present modern enterprises with the challenge of achieving the maximum level of profit while maintaining optimal costs in the context of conducting foreign economic activities. However, to attain this goal, enterprise managers are confronted with rather complex tasks aimed at enhancing organizational efficiency. One of the primary factors in this endeavor is the presence of qualified personnel, the proper formation of their structure and composition, as well as maintaining an appropriate level of professional training. Consequently, it follows that one of the key tasks for senior management in enterprises is the development of plans for the competence growth of employees aligned with the directions of their functional responsibilities. This includes ensuring the assessment of the effectiveness of their implementation and the achievement of set objectives. The purpose of the paper is to identify key issues and develop recommendations for the use of the "one-on-one" method to ensure feedback following the assessment of competencies among employees in the foreign economic department. Results. Competencies are fundamental requirements for a specific profession, while competence is an individual characteristic of an individual's professional skills. Thus, it can be said that competence is based on competencies defined by the company according to a specific position. Despite the high efficiency and significance of conducting staff competence assessments, several problems or obstacles may arise during the process, including issues such as insufficient objectivity of assessors, the lack of clear and understandable evaluation criteria, the absence of standardized methods and techniques for assessing employees, inadequate resource provision for assessments, the absence of a feedback and motivation system for employees, leading to their lack of understanding of the necessity of assessments, and more. Based on the conducted research, it was identified that employees of one of the enterprises in Lviv region named the lack of feedback as a key problem. To address this issue, it is recommended to conduct one-on-one meetings following the assessment of competencies among employees in the foreign economic department. Conclusion. The assessment of staff competencies alone will not yield the expected results if there is no feedback between the management conducting or initiating the assessment and the staff whose competencies are being evaluated. Therefore, the recommended "one-on-one" method is currently the most suitable. It allows for a private discussion with the employee about their strengths and weaknesses, ensures the confidentiality of information, enhances the level of trust between the manager and team member, and fosters cohesion within the team.

My Father-like Professor Shi Zhengyi: The Pioneer of Chinese Ethnological Economics (Personal Story)

Professor Shi Zhengyi (1932-2015) was the same age as my father. In Chinese tradition, a teacher for a day is a father for life. Hence, I respectfully call Professor Shi my Father-like Professor. Born in Tongcheng County, Anhui Province, in 1932. Professor Shi graduated from the Master’s Program in History of Economics of the Department of Economics of Renmin University of China in 1957. As a renowned Chinese ethnographer and economist, he has been engaged in theoretical research and teaching economics and ethnology for a long time. With meticulous scholarship and profound knowledge, he has studied Chinese and Western cultures with countless new ideas for research. Moreover, he proposed and verified the scientific approach to theoretical thinking that goes from “representation to the abstract and the concrete.” He initiated the establishment of the discipline of ethnological economics and the Institute of Ethnological Economics, pioneering the Marxist theory of ethnology specific to China. He was also the first to systematically verify the develop-the-west strategy, providing a theoretical basis for formulating national policies. He has been devoted to teaching for over 50 years, producing fruitful academic results. He has published eight monographs, edited 14 books, and published more than 120 papers. The Collected Works of Professor Shi, with more than 600,000 characters, represents the crystallization of his academic thoughts throughout his life. In his long-term academic activities and educational practices, Professor Shi developed a unique scientific approach to study known as the “rigorous, diligent, practical, creative and contextual” approach.