Foreign Funds Research Articles

The impact of Russia’s war against Ukraine on Sino-European relations

ABSTRACT This paper analyses the development of Sino-European relations following Russia’s attack on Ukraine. I argue that the behaviour of European and Chinese leaders is driven by the availability and attractiveness of outside options. While both sides want to reduce their dependence on the other, neither actor seeks a radical decoupling. Measures to diversify supply chains, the negotiation of new trade agreements around the world, and the ‘technology war’ have made Beijing’s outside options less favourable. Europeans are emboldened to articulate their interests more forcefully, particularly in the areas of human rights, scrutiny of foreign funding, and economic coercion. China, in turn, provides diplomatic cover for Russia but resists undermining Western sanctions.

Foreign aid and its impact on Afghanistan s Economic Setup: Purposes and Implications

The notion that foreign aid harms recipient governments' economic autonomy and undermines citizens’ trust in political institutions and actors remain prevalent and paradoxical. The fact that foreign aid has come to mean development assistance has raised a series of questions that have been debated in the scholarly literature. Moreover, it is universally acknowledged that donors use aid to achieve objectives other than development and poverty reduction. This study assesses the impact of foreign aid on the economic autonomy of different regimes (2001–2021) in Afghanistan. The study opines that foreign aid supported economic growth and the longevity of the Afghan government. However, on the other hand, both on-budget and off-budget foreign aid funding had several ripple effects. This study offers a comparative analysis of foreign aid in the Karzai and Ghani era; and explores the knock-on economic implications of aid dependency in Afghanistan. The comparative analysis of regimes in the post-9/11 context illustrates that stringent conditions were attached to aid granted to the Ghani administration compared to the Karzai administration. The study has found that US aid has undermined the economic setup in Afghanistan. However, the leverage of US aid to influence decision-making is minimal. Afghanistan's strategic calculation and policymaking are determined by regional security conditions rather than US influence. Furthermore, it is pertinent to note that since 2014, a significant decrease in US aid has been witnessed due to divergence between the two states. The significance of assistance in US foreign policy towards Afghanistan is minimal. The study suggests that foreign aid projects harm institutional trust by lowering citizens' evaluations of government performance and administrative competence. Additionally, aid projects can incentivize rent-seeking behavior and hurt citizens' perceptions of political corruption. In mapping the future discourse on aid in Afghanistan, the current authorities need to be more oriented toward foreign aid. As a policy tool, support has not been confined to the roles that foreign and economic policy theorists have prescribed. Key Words: Afghanistan, Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEoA), Taliban, Foreign Aid, Economic Autonomy.

Activists in international courts: Backlash, funding, and strategy in international legal mobilization

Activists in international courts: Backlash, funding, and strategy in international legal mobilization

Foreign agents or agents of justice? Private foundations, backlash against non-governmental organizations, and international human rights litigation

AbstractThe premise of Russia's 2012 “Foreign Agents” Law, one of the first such laws restricting foreign funding for non-governmental organizations (NGOs), is that foreign monies equal foreign agendas. Since then, over 50 countries have adopted similar laws using a similar justification. This paper interrogates this claim of foreign donor influence through examining legal mobilization by human rights NGOs at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). We track donor support for litigation by providing an overview of all foundation grant flows relating to strategic litigation for 2013–2014, and then matching the granting activities of two major U.S. foundations over 14 years to human rights NGO participation in cases before the ECtHR. Further, through case studies of Russian NGOs, we assess the causal role that donor support has played in facilitating their increased involvement in ECtHR litigation. The combined analysis indicates broad patterns of private foundation support to litigating NGOs, but uncovers no evidence that foreign donors were “pushing” NGOs toward litigation as a strategy, but instead more evidence suggesting that NGOs convinced donors to support human rights litigation. Despite the inaccuracy of the justification underpinning Russia's foreign agent law, the law threatens the survival of human rights organizations.

The Effect of Capital Structure in The Context of Foreign Financing on The Financial Performance

This study examines the effect of capital structure in the context of foreign financing on the financial performance of energy sector companies in Indonesia from 2018 to 2021. The independent variables used in this study are the capital structure proxied by the debt-to-equity ratio (DER), debt in foreign currency (FD), and debt in the foreign currency local (DD). The dependent variable used in this study is the company's financial performance as measured by Return on Assets (ROA) and Return on Equity (ROE). The control variables used in this study are Growth and Size. The type of data used in this study is panel data with a total of 152 observations, where the number of companies used is 38 companies and the number of periods is four years. In analyzing the effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable, testing is used Feasible Generalized Least Square. They were then tested in this study using Stata 14 software. This study's test results indicate a negative effect debt to equity ratio on financial performance as measured by ROA and ROE. Then the results of this test show a positive effect of debt in foreign currency on financial performance as measured by ROA and ROE. However, in testing the effect of debt in local currency, it was found that there was no significant effect on the company's financial performance.

PENGARUH NET FOREIGN FUND, HARGA EMAS, SUKU BUNGA TERHADAP IHSG DI BEI PADA MASA PANDEMI COVID-19

The capital market in Indonesia has an important role in the country's economy. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of net foreign funds, gold prices and interest rates on the Composite Stock Price Index. This research was conducted on the value of the entire Composite Stock Price Index on the Indonesia Stock Exchange during the COVID-19 pandemic. The sample selection method used is saturated sampling for the entire population. The sample for each variable in this study was 21 data. The analysis used is multiple linear regression analysis. The results showed that net foreign funds had a positive and significant effect on the JCI. The price of gold has a negative and significant effect on the JCI. Interest rates have a negative and significant effect on the JCI. The implication of this research is that this research is expected to provide an empirical contribution to the effect of net foreign funds, gold prices and interest rates on the JCI. Investors need to pay attention to factors that can affect JCI performance during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as net foreign funds, gold prices and interest rates because these factors have a significant influence on the JCI

Research ethics in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip: between institutionalisation and the power of praxis

ABSTRACT ‘Research is a major aspect and fundamental component of many social struggles and movements for change' [Choudry, A. 2013a. “Activist Research Practice: Exploring Research and Knowledge Production for Social Action.” Socialist Studies/Études Socialistes 9 (1): 128 151. doi:10.18740/S4G01K, 128]. For Palestinians, research and knowledge production are vital for their ongoing anti-colonial struggle. However, there are various factors that restrict these processes and create an unsafe environment to produce liberatory knowledge(s) related to political and social activism. Some of these factors are the colonisers' prolonged oppression of Palestinian thought, narrative(s) and theorising, which is exacerbated by an oppressive Palestinian Authority – essentially an authoritarian body governing the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza Strip; and the imposed hyper institutionalisation of academic and intellectual spaces, by donors’ strategies which create a need to meet global academic criteria by Palestinian institutions. This article engages with research ethics as a specific aspect within the process of knowledge production and dissemination. It critically looks at procedural research ethics that frame research conduct, including data generation, data analysis and modes of dissemination. In Palestine, research is being conducted under settler colonialism, apartheid and repressive ruling authorit(ies). This poses unique conditions that challenge standardised institutional ethics procedures and existing power dynamics within academic and research institutions. Additionally, in Palestine, there is a situation of excessive research – that is almost entirely dependent on foreign funding and the avoidance of clashes with the ruling authorit(ies). Hence, research ethics could be used as a tool for objectification and violence normalisation [Abdelnour, S., and M. Abu Moghli. 2021. “Researching Violent Contexts: A Call for Political Reflexivity.” Organization, 1–24]. The article argues that within the Palestinian context, institutionalised ethics procedures in universities and research institutions are almost never sensitive to the particularities of the context and/or the knowledge production and dissemination needs of a nation struggling for liberation. It also argues that utilising research ethics beyond standardised institutional procedures could be a tool for emancipation and the building of collective anti-colonial consciousness and critical education.

Thematic Analysis of the Dagaaba Women’s Plays Songs: Within the Ullo Traditional Area in the Jirapa Municipality of Northern Ghana

This study analyzed the themes of Dagaaba women’s plays songs. Dagaare is a Language spoken in the Upper West Region of Ghana and also Burkina Faso and Cote d’voire. Songs are mostly sung during occasions such as birth of a child, marriage and funeral ceremonies. Songs are therefore inevitable because they play a very vital role in human life. The study was conducted in Ullo Traditional area in Jirapa Municipality of Upper West Region of Ghana. The objective was to document Dagaaba women play songs and analyze the various themes that these songs contain. To achieve this objective, Purposive sampling method was employed to obtain 40 native Dagaaba women consisting of 4 lead singers and 36 chorus singers. The Dagaaba women play songs were audio recorded as the women sang the play songs while photos were taken as the women performed the songs. The audio recorded songs were Transcribed and then translated into English Language using idiomatic translation. The Dagaaba women use play songs to help address some social problems in homes and the society as a whole and also for recreational purposes. The Dagaaba women compose their play songs in lines and stanzas which are determined by the pauses made by the lead singer. The number of lines in a stanza varies from song to song. The songs also vary in rhythm depending on the type of performance. Dagaaba women play songs are composed based on themes. Some of the main themes around which the songs are composed are love, praise, caution, hardwork, jealousy, lamentation among others. Keywords: China insurance industry, foreign fund, Challenge DOI: 10.7176/JEP/14-4-03 Publication date: February 28 th 2023

‘The unofficial curriculum is where the real teaching takes place’: faculty experiences of decolonising the curriculum in Africa

This paper analyses faculty experiences tackling global knowledge asymmetries by examining the decolonisation of higher education in Africa in the aftermath of the 2015 ‘Rhodes Must Fall’ student uprising. An overview of the literature reveals a rich debate on defining ‘decolonisation’, starting from a critique of Eurocentrism to propositions of alternate epistemologies. These debates are dominated by the Global North and South Africa and their experiences of curriculum reform. Our focus is on the experiences of political scientists in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, and Zimbabwe. These countries share the same Anglophone political science traditions but represent different political trajectories that constitute a significant condition for the discipline. The 26 political scientists we interviewed acted toward increasing local content and perspectives in their teaching, as promoted in the official strategies of the universities. They noted that what was happening in lecture halls was most important. The academic decolonisation debate appeared overambitious or even as patronising to them in their own political context. National politics affected the thematic focus of the discipline both as far as research topics and students’ employment opportunities were concerned. Although university bureaucracies were slow to respond to proposed curricula changes, new programmes were approved if there was a market-based demand for them. International programs tended to be approved fastest. Political economy of higher education plays a role: dependency on foreign funding, limited national resources to conduct research and produce publications vis-à-vis international competition, and national quality assurance standards appeared to be most critical constraints for decolonising the curriculum.

Foreign exploration of immature markets and incidence of money laundering

PurposeMoney laundering (ML) is the process used to convert the proceeds of crimes into lawful form. This global problem promotes social ills, corruption and organized crimes. Various instruments are used to counter individual illicit behavior. However, in low-income countries, these regulations are not common because of weak institutions, poor governance and a lack of awareness about the negative consequences of ML. In these countries, multinational corporations take advantage of poor law and order, lower environmental regulations and corruption and shift their domestic operations into foreign countries.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a multiple mediator model to investigate the link between foreign direct investment (FDI), environmental degradation measured as CO2 emissions (CE), exports and ML for 118 countries between 2008 to 2018.FindingsResults indicate that FDI promotes exports and CE, leading to illicit financial flows.Originality/valuePolicymakers should enforce checks on foreign funds flow and adopt illicit flow mitigation measures to minimize ML globally.

Of how streaming platforms are changing the audiovisual space in Latin America

ABSTRACT This essay focuses on the way streaming services participate in the production and distribution of films and series in Argentina. It is part of a more general attempt to comprehend ways in which multinational media corporations are altering the Latin American audiovisual space, given that global/local interactions have become ever more integrated. Thus, the series El marginal and El reino offer evidence to analyse the interfaces between public and private, foreign and domestic organizations that negotiated the creation and distribution of both series. They also illuminate certain aspects of the narratives (genre tropes, universalized content) that may have contributed to their international success. Substantial foreign funding and ease of availability through streaming platforms have placed otherwise obscure series at the centre of global attention. But there are foreign corporations that come to Latin America just to take advantage of inexpensive production opportunities. While they create job alternatives for local audiovisual workers, some critics are asking whether there is an audiovisual sovereignty that needs to be reclaimed, in view of the foreign intervention. Reframing such question, this work proposes that constructing a national culture through the audiovisual industry does not entail being alienated from global currents – development may depend on negotiation and integration.

Construction of Research Framework on Legal Issues of Foreign Private Equity Fund Supervision

Earlier, the United States was the first country to set up private equity funds. By setting up investment institutions to raise funds from the rich for investment in high-tech small and medium-sized enterprises, with the gradual development, private equity funds became one of the financing channels for small and medium-sized enterprises, and gradually became an important part of the American financial system. The introduction of private equity funds in China was in the early stage of reform and opening up. With decades of changes, the private equity fund industry has gradually developed in China. However, there are still some legal problems to be solved in the supervision of foreign private equity funds. At present, the loss of foreign private equity fund institutions and irresponsible fund managers still occur from time to time, which is not conducive to promoting China’s economic reform and enterprise innovation and management. It will even have a certain impact on China's economic development order. The supervision of foreign private equity funds is an important way to raise funds in China. It is necessary to strengthen the effective supervision of foreign private equity funds and increase legal research.

Place of Ukrainian producers in the world market of agricultural products

The article is devoted to the analysis of the positions of Ukrainian producers on the world market of agricultural products. The article examines the potential of the Ukrainian agricultural industry, as well as the main challenges and prospects facing Ukrainian producers. The article analyzes the main branches of the agricultural sector of Ukraine, such as grain crops, vegetables and fruits, dairy and meat products, as well as fishing and forestry. Ukraine has great potential for the development of these industries, especially due to the increase in demand for health and environmentally friendly products. The article pays special attention to Ukraine's foreign economic relations in the agricultural sector. The main importing and exporting countries of agricultural products with which Ukraine cooperates are considered. The author of the article notes that Ukraine has a significant potential to increase the volume of exports of its agricultural products, but for this, a number of internal problems must be solved, such as poor infrastructure and low quality of products. The article also examines the issue of competitiveness of Ukrainian agricultural products on the world market. The author of the article claims that in order to increase the competitiveness of Ukrainian agricultural products, it is necessary to maintain transparent conditions of competition, attract new investors and support the existing and implementation of international standards in the production of products. An analysis of changes in the agricultural sector of the economy after the full-scale russian invasion of Ukraine and the consequences for the whole of Europe was also carried out. The main problems of the Ukrainian agricultural sector during the war are: the occupation of the territory of Ukraine, the breakdown of the internal and external logistics chain, a decrease in the capacity of the internal market and a drop in purchasing power, a decrease in the population of Ukraine, insufficient resources for agricultural production, problems with the workforce, theft of Ukrainian agricultural machinery and products. The domestic agricultural sector needs the support of national and foreign funds, organizations and countries. The prospects of the agricultural sector in the post-war economy are considered. In particular, the key factor in the development of the agricultural sector is human capital. The development of agricultural education and science, the creation of sustainable logistics chains, the development of regional small and medium-sized enterprises, the integration of competitive products on world markets, adaptation to the climate, sustainable and ecological agriculture, technological development and the restoration of the agricultural sector.

Foreign Aid and Political Support: How Politicians' Aid Oversight Capacity and Voter Information Condition Credit-Giving

Prominent scholarship on foreign aid argues that aid can interfere with citizens' ability to hold politicians accountable. One particular concern is that politicians receive undeserved credit for aid projects due to misattribution by voters with low information. But in some cases, politicians exert effort to ensure the success of projects and thus may deserve any credit they receive from voters. The authors show that the credit politicians receive depends both on voter information and on the capacity of politicians' offices to provide oversight. Drawing on original surveys of politicians and nongovernmental organizations (ngos) in Uganda, the authors describe circumstances in which politicians support the realization and administration of aid projects. The authors then use an experiment to show that information about foreign financing and ngo implementation of these projects reduces support for incumbent politicians only when their offices have low aid oversight capacity. The authors also provide evidence from other African countries that shows that credit-giving for aid depends on both information and state capacity. Their results suggest that voters think realistically about what politicians might have contributed to aid projects and update their assessments accordingly.

ЛЕСНАЯ ПРОМЫШЛЕННОСТЬ И РЕГИОНАЛЬНОЕ РАЗВИТИЕ СОВЕТСКОГО СЕВЕРА В ГОДЫ ПЕРВЫХ ПЯТИЛЕТОК

The purpose of the article aims at studying the timber industry in the conditions of the formation of regional administrative-territorial and economic structures in the north of the Soviet Union during the first five-year plans. The forestry industry had to ensure the export of forest resources and materials to obtain foreign exchange funds and meet the domestic needs of the country. Plans for the development of the industry and their implementation turned out to be closely related to the administrative and territorial transformations in the 1920s and 1930s, the creation and functioning of economic organizations. In the poorly developed northern and eastern regions of the country, they became a significant trump card in the actions of party-state and economic figures. This led to a number of contradictions and conflicts, which is shown by the examples of Northern Krai and the Igarka district. The potential of the decisions taken turned out to be short-lived — to achieve specific, narrow goals, but at the same time affected large territories. The result of the regional and economic — in relation to the forest industry — policy of the Soviet government was, in addition to the unbundling of the regions, the gradual reorientation of the industry to meet domestic needs. This process was based on the production and transport infrastructure created in the late 1920s — early 1930s for the export of wood. The projects of enterprises designed for meeting the domestic needs of the country, for the most part, have not been implemented.

FINANCING INNOVATIVE ACTIVITIES OF INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISES OF UKRAINE

Ensuring the competitiveness of Ukrainian goods and technologies is an important problem, the solution of which is connected with the improvement of their development, production, sale and maintenance, that is, with the implementation of targeted financing of innovative activities. The purpose of the study is to determine the state and establish trends in the financing of innovative activities of industrial enterprises of Ukraine for the period 2000-2020 based on actual data provided by the State Statistics Service of Ukraine as of the date of publication of the article. Analytical method, methods of data grouping, graphic methods, methods of deduction, comparison, systematization and logical generalization were used in the research process. The article examines the dynamics of sources of financing innovative activities of Ukrainian enterprises over a certain period of time; considered internal and external sources of financing innovative processes, problems and prospects of their involvement by domestic industrial enterprises. It was established that in the period before the announcement of quarantine measures due to COVID-19 and the subsequent start of Russia's aggressive war against Ukraine, the main sources of financing innovative activities in Ukraine were: companies' own funds; funds from the state budget of the country; funds from foreign investors and funds from other funding sources (funds from domestic investors, grants, etc.). The conducted research shows that the state policy of Ukraine regarding the implementation of innovative activities is unstable and fragmented. Adopted state acts are not supported by financial and other instruments that would allow domestic enterprises to carry out and finance innovative activities at an accelerated pace. In such a situation, the leadership of our country should pay more attention to the improvement of the legislative framework and the creation of real financial instruments of forced assistance to Ukrainian enterprises in the implementation of innovative activities.

Analyzing the Peculiarities of the Development of IT Companies in the Wartime and Regarding the Post-War Conditions

Economic models of world development are characterized by circularity, digitalization and smartization, the active use of scientific and technological achievements in products and technologies, the focus of entrepreneurs’ attention on the creation of strategic knowledge, the formation of unique competencies, the development of new business ideas and their application to obtain competitive advantages in the market. For IT companies, solving these issues is the most urgent, since the IT industry is the most dynamic, it is developing very rapidly, changing and significantly affecting other industries. Also, it should be noted that for domestic IT companies, the conditions for their development are complicated due to hostilities on the territory of Ukraine, the need to relocate businesses, the risks of losing customers and highly qualified personnel, reduced investment in startups. Despite the fact that in 2022 the IT industry provided foreign exchange earnings to the Ukrainian economy (an increase of 5.8% compared to pre-war 2021), there is a significant slowdown in the growth rate of the IT industry compared, for example, with the period 2015-2021, when exports of computer services grew by an average of 26.8% annually. Therefore, the task of analyzing the features of the development of IT companies in the wartime and regarding the post-war conditions is important and relevant for creating security conditions and substantiating the directions of their sustainable development. The article analyzes changes at the global and international levels of the IT industry; the experience of strengthening and consolidating the largest digital IT companies in the market is considered; the negative impact of the decrease in the activity of foreign venture funds to support startups is studied; the level of the State support for enterprises of high-tech industries is characterized.

Do fund managers in the Chinese mutual fund market deliver positive risk-adjusted returns? Yes, but it is mainly observed for local fund managers

<abstract> <p>A bootstrap and a subsequent injected alpha analysis were conducted on 1,221 Chinese mutual funds that were active at some point between July 2001 and July 2021. The results show that most active managers achieve a positive risk-adjusted return. Additionally, we find that this phenomenon is primarily attributable to local (i.e., Chinese) fund managers. We argue that one explanation for the different levels of risk-adjusted returns observed is the information asymmetry between foreign and local fund managers. Additional results support this view, as fund managers primarily investing in small- to mid-cap and value stocks provide a superior performance, which inherently exhibit greater information asymmetry. The findings are contrary to those from similar studies in developed markets, where only a few active managers demonstrate actual skill in their performance.</p> </abstract>

Changes to Financial Reporting when Domestic Funding Substitutes Foreign Funding: Evidence from International Sanctions to Russia

Changes to Financial Reporting when Domestic Funding Substitutes Foreign Funding: Evidence from International Sanctions to Russia

Legal status of public scientific organizations as subjects of scientific activity in Ukraine

The article is the result of a study of the issues of legal status, normative and legal regulation, and peculiarities of the functioning of public scientific organizations in Ukraine as subjects of scientific activity. It has been established that public scientific organizations are defined as full-fledged subjects of scientific activity. The legislation provides a list of their types. A developed network of public scientific organizations based on the areas of research and the interests of scientists makes it possible to balance the monopoly of state structures, attract foreign funds, work on obtaining new and implementation of current scientific programs, projects, grants, preparing complex scientific works of scientific teams and individual scientists, implementing the results of scientific research , to present them to specialists and eventually to the general public. However, at the legislative level, it is necessary to additionally prescribe the characteristics and capabilities of each of the main types of public scientific organizations, which have their own differences, to increase their role in interaction with state authorities, institutions and organizations in order to strengthen the influence on socio-economic processes, trends of socio-cultural development society and the state. The main lever for the growth of the influence of these creative associations should be the development of financial support for the encouragement of their creation and activity, the formation of appropriate conditions for the introduction of scientific innovations into industrial practice.