Foreign Economic Factors Research Articles

Development Problems of the Regional Agro-Industrial Complex Management System

The present article deals with the problems concerning ensuring the effective management of the agro-industrial complex in the region, which determines the status and development of the country's economy. The process of improving the agro-industrial complex structure is being considered, which, based on the variety of forms of management and features of land properties and other means of production, should result in the formation of mixed agrarian economy and initiate attempts to create an agricultural market with the competitive environment. The authors substantiate the necessity of state monitoring and analysis of the effectiveness of decisions taken based on new approaches to the agro-industrial complex management in the region, taking into account the numerous forms of agricultural enterprises’ specialization, the competition of individual sectors, the characteristics of regional markets, foreign economic factors, as well as preferences and traditions of social medium. At that, the paramount importance is given to methods and means of forming and organizing anti-crisis management systems, which would take into account the possibility of anticipating crisis situations, assessing the likely losses of the state on the basis of monitoring of the internal and external environment of the management object.

Complex analysis of the efficiency of plants for the thermochemical conversion of solid fuel

The results of an analytical study of the thermodynamic and economic efficiency of power-engineering plants, which use the steam–oxygen gasification of coal as a head-end process, are presented. The target products of gasification are synthesis gas and electrical and thermal energy. The study was based on a systems test procedure in heat-power engineering, which makes it possible to determine the expediency and timeliness of this technology with consideration for the forward fuel–energy balance of the country and foreign-economic factors. The rational areas of the applicability of the proposed plant were determined.

The impact of economic fundamentals on stock markets in southern Africa

The issue of whether stock markets reflect economic fundamentals or speculative bubbles is an important one for their potential role in allocating capital, and relates to a policy issue of whether stock markets should be encouraged in developing countries. This article examines the impact of both domestic and foreign economic factors on real stock market returns in three southern African stock markets – South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana, from 1985-95 – using cointegration and error correction techniques. It finds that, while in all cases stock markets are influenced by domestic economic growth, there are no common patterns beyond this. The influence of other domestic and economic variables depends on the size, openness and market-orientation of the individual economies, as well as the size and liquidity of the various stock exchanges. Where foreign economic variables are important, they appear to be those related to trade, rather than international capital flows, indicating that there is little integration of these capital markets, whether regionally or internationally.

Technological progress and patent applications in the Netherlands

In economic research technological progress is often regarded as a given factor and estimated as a residual constant in time. In this study, technological progress is considered as an economic problem in itself. This problem was investigated empirically for the Netherlands, using the numbers of patent applications filed in the Netherlands as an indicator of technological progress. Distinguished are sectors of origin that produce newly invented goods and production processes, and sectors of destination that use these goods and processes. The main conclusion of this study are: • Patent applications are influenced by domestic, but still more, by foreign economic factors. • The development of the state of technological knowledge is reflected in the growth rate of labour productivity with an average time lag of 15–20 yr. • The decline in the number of patent applications from 1969 will have a negative influence on the growth rate of labour productivity in the future, because of this very long time-lag.

The Regional Development of the Economy of the USSR Under the Influence of Socialist Economic Integration

One of the important economic tasks confronting territorial planning is that of determining the avenues and methods of the rational location of the productive forces in the immediate and extended future. Internal factors influencing the regional development of the nation's economy and its territorial structure (1) are organically supplemented by foreign economic factors caused by the participation of the USSR in the international division of labor and socialist economic integration. (2)