Non-economic Ones Research Articles

A Virtual Economics Laboratory: What Generated High Inflation? 14 Different Explanations to One Inflation Period

<p><big>A high inflation period of seven years (1978-1985) in Israel, which turned into a hyperinflation, puzzled Israeli economists, who tried to understand its causes and mechanisms. As a result, they provided fourteen different explanations. Although all of the explanations were based on the same data, the researchers’ conclusions were either different or contradictory. This situation provides a virtual laboratory for the study of the ways and methods of economic thought; it is a classical Ceteris patribus situation. This laboratory further raises other subjects and questions. Are there principal differences between the economists' explanations? Is it possible to classify these differences? How do economic explanations for inflation differ from non-economic ones? In this article, I classified thirteen economic studies and one non-economic study into five clusters. This was the methodological tool used to inquire into the economic thought in this virtual laboratory.</big></p>

LOGICAL DIMENSIONS OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC WORLD

The article addresses logical approaches to explaining the economic world. The introductory part reveals the general prerequisites for the logical analysis of large systems. The rest of the study is devoted to the logical structure of economic worlds: at micro-, macro- and mega-levels. The logical dimensions of the economic world are based mainly on deterministic logic, grounded in Antiquity, Modern era and institutional logic of the late XIX and XX centuries. The dynamics and structure of the micro level (enterprise, firm, MNE) is explained by the institutional logic based on the American school (R. Coase, O. Williamson, etc.). Institutional logic in a broad sense includes values, norms, customs that people use in their daily activities on the scale of a certain space and time. Economic institutions have a long history, accompanying socio-economic development from the Neolithic era to the modern one. Their logic was shaped by the level of social, economic, technological, cultural development of various human communities of the ecumene. The macro-level of economics, on the one hand, is defined by deterministic (Laplace’s) logic. Its essence is to take into account the whole set of possible factors (economic and non-economic ones) that affect the course of economic dynamics. Individual needs, preferences, productive capacity, interaction of individuals create the layout of neoclassical model of economy. Keynesian deterministic logic is structural in nature, when the behaviour of individuals is determined by the general state of the economy as a whole. The logic of Marxist economic analysis, also known as overdeterminism, is derived from dialectics. On the other hand, the works of T. Veblen, the old American school of institutionalism and modern representatives (D. North, R. Nelson, J. Winter) are of paramount importance. The tools of logical analysis of the mega-level are mostly reflected in the works of G. Leibniz, I. Kant, R. Carnap and in modern institutional logic. The logic of globalisation, its historical phases can be traced according to different types of globalisation in four spatio-temporal dimensions: extensiveness, intensity, velocity and reciprocity and three deterministic logics: technical (technological), economic and political.

New Approaches to the Improvement of Coordination Mechanisms

The intensity and scale of communication between people, which have grown significantly over the past three decades, have not yet led to comparable improvements in the coordination of the activities of socioeconomic agents. One of the reasons is the lack of a full-fledged digital transformation of coordination mechanisms. Therefore, an urgent scientific task is to determine methodological approaches for the full digitalization of coordination processes. Cognitive sciences offer a fundamental description of the processes of socioeconomic coordination in the form of a shared mental model of participants in joint activities. Based on this, the concept of coordinating the activity of agents, which is the basis of all coordination processes, is defined. This approach made it possible to identify and analyze the main elements of the fundamental process of coordinating activities, as well as to determine the opportunities for its digitalization. This paper discusses the opportunity to create a unified coordination mechanism based on computer technologies, which, on the one hand, could replace the traditional market and hierarchical mechanisms, and on the other hand, could be used to coordinate all types of joint activities, including non-economic ones.

Тенденції економічної трансформації промисловості АР Крим у 1991–2002 рр.

Метою статті є дослідження та визначенні основних тенденцій трансформації економіки АР Крим у 1991–2002 рр. для усвідомлення досвіду реформування економіки та її відбудови в майбутньому. Методологія дослідження ґрунтується на принципах науковості, об’єктивності, системності, історизму, а також включає методи аналізу, синтезу та класифікації. Використання наукової методології забезпечило об’єктивне висвітлення зазначеної проблематики. Наукова новизна роботи полягає у тому, що авторкою на основі статистичних матеріалів розкрито основні тенденції економічної трансформації промисловості АР Крим у пострадянський період у 1991–2002 рр., проаналізовано особливості змін промисловості регіону, розкрито основні проблеми економіки АР Крим у пострадянський період, визначено закономірності та регіональні особливості реформування радянської економіки. Також у статті окреслено фундаментальні соціально-економічні проблеми, які отримала АР Крим у спадщину від СРСР, та шляхи їх усунення. Висновки. В означений період 1991–2002 рр. відбулася еволюція економіки у напрямку лібералізації ринкового господарства. Щодо промисловості, то вона втратила домінанті позиції на користь сільського господарства, торгівлі та курортно-санаторного господарства. Економіка перехідного періоду зіткнулася з низкою нових проблем. Відбувся повний занепад деяких галузей важкої промисловості та повне зникнення окремих із них, наприклад, залізорудної та чорної металургії. Інші галузі виробництва змогли дещо пристосуватися до нових умов, що стосується насамперед підприємств легкої промисловості. До найбільших проблем перехідного періоду відносяться як суто економічні (брак власної валюти та тонізація), так і позаекономічні – передусім вплив кримінального світу на процеси господарювання.

ОБЕСПЕЧЕНИЕ БЕЗОПАСНОСТИ РЫНКОВ РЕСУРСОВ С ИСПОЛЬЗОВАНИЕМ «ЗЕЛЕНЫХ» ТЕХНОЛОГИЙ

The current global energy crisis has given new urgency to accelerating the transition to clean energy and re-emphasized the key role of "green" technologies. This paper examines the opportunities and challenges of scaling up and accelerating the deployment of clean energy technologies to secure energy markets and increase gas supplies. An analysis based on a dynamic model makes it possible to draw conclusions about the prospects for increasing supplies only through the introduction of new technologies for processing raw materials without increasing production. The article raises questions that are of interest to a wide range of the scientific community and are quite relevant today, since the topic related to ensuring the security of energy markets, gas supplies, energy prices, requirements for reducing emissions in adverse conditions of climate change can be solved using modern "green" technologies. The International Energy Agency has proposed an action plan to introduce environmentally friendly technologies without burning associated gas and preventing methane leaks. As a result of the introduction of these technologies, measures to reduce methane leaks, discharges and flaring, according to experts, can increase the supply of gas in world markets by 210 billion cubic meters. At the same time, not only energy security and a reduction in the resource market deficit will be ensured, but environmental pollution will also decrease, the greenhouse effect and other associated negative effects will decrease. In terms of economic indicators, the use of "green" technologies will bring high net profit at a meager cost. However, how quickly green technologies can stabilize resource markets depends on many uncertain factors, and non-economic ones at that. When constructing a dynamic model, empirical data were used, given in all areas of issues raised in the work over the past decades, which makes it possible to build forecasts in today's rather turbulent resource market.

DEA model and efficiency of universities - case study in Slovak Republic

Measuring the efficiency of organizations relates not only to economic parameters but also to non-economic ones at present, for example in organizations providing education. However, in the case of educational institutions in the form of public universities, we cannot consider profit as the main goal, but the quality of education. We do not find a lot of work on this issue in domestic and foreign literature from the point of view of universities. Universities report only data that are set by current legislation, and for this reason, measuring efficiency is a relatively challenging matter with ambiguous quantification. Measuring the efficiency of an educational institution cannot be carried out as unambiguously as in the case of companies whose mission is to produce products and services for the purpose of selling them. The aim of the presented study is to clarify the optimal way of evaluating and measuring the efficiency of higher education institutions through DEA analysis. To achieve this goal, we used the methods of descriptive statistics, mathematical-statistical calculations, DEA analysis of indicators and the method of comparison, induction, deduction and synthesis. The result is a model that will allow the comparison and evaluation of universities.

A Scheme of Sustainable Trajectory Optimization for Aircraft Cruise Based on Comprehensive Social Benefit

The increasing demand for environmentally friendly and passenger-favored flight operation requires a systematic scheme of sustainable trajectory optimization for the aircraft cruise. This paper achieves it by proposing an innovative performance framework based on the comprehensive benefit to the society considering both economic and noneconomic ones, following which the sustainable trajectory optimization problem is modeled by discretization. A method combining forward recurrence and memoization operation, called memoization dynamic programming, is developed to solve the model with computational efficiency. Working with real-world operational data of a typical flight route, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme at different levels and explore the difference in its performance due to meteorological conditions, aircraft type, and time horizon. The scheme is proved to perform robustly in comprehensive performance with a stable benefit rate of about 8% through sensitivity analysis, by which we find that it is relatively better for the flights cruising on business route with a load factor of 85%. Tradeoff results suggest that the systematic consideration of both the economic and noneconomic performance contributes to improved integrated sustainability. In particular, the optimal comprehensive performance at a monthly level can be obtained when accepting an additional $26,500 economic cost.

Barriers to the Development of Organic Farming: A Polish Case Study

The main purpose of this paper is to explore farmers’ opinions on the barriers to the development of organic farming. A survey was carried out with 262 Polish organic farmers in order to classify the barriers to organic farming development into production, and economic aspects, market aspects and institutional and regulatory aspects. As a next step, a detailed analysis was performed of how the farmers view these barriers. According to this study, Polish organic farmers attach greater importance to economic factors than to non-economic ones. Low yields and production volumes are the reason why many farmers see organic farming as being risky. More than 80% and nearly 60% of farmers covered by this study found the production risk to be very high or high, respectively, during and after the conversion period. Most farmers say they intend to continue their organic production activity only if financial support is provided. Nearly one in five farms (18.3%) want to discontinue organic production in future. This is especially true for two types of farming: specialized grazing livestock farms and mixed holdings. The farmers believe that market aspects and institutional and regulatory factors are the key barriers to the development of organic farming. The findings regarding the role of institutional barriers and communications from regulatory institutions, which affect the farmers’ decision-making processes, are of particular importance. In Poland, the main institutional problem is the instability of laws applicable to organic farming, which adds to the farmers’ uncertainty and decision-making risks. The case study of Poland, which is among the emerging markets for organic food, shows that a stable and coherent support policy is a condition for organic-farming development.

Tourism as a Factor of Regional Development: Community Perceptions and Potential Bank Support in the Kopaonik National Park (Serbia)

This paper represents a case study examining perceptions about tourism and reactions of the local community and bank decision makers to its development. The survey method was applied to establish the community’s attitude towards the impact of tourism in different spheres of life in the Kopaonik National Park (Serbia). The sample of 195 adult respondents covered inhabitants of 16 communities located within the wider area of the national park. In parallel, the potential support of banks for tourism development was examined on a sample of 21 banks. The survey results identified strong positive attitudes towards tourism and the presence of tourists among the local population. Compared to other categories, the community’s members employed in tourism had more favorable perceptions of tourism. The findings of the study also revealed that younger and better educated members of the population had more positive attitudes towards tourism impacts. Certain independent economic variables (the impact of tourism on job creation) and non-economic ones (the impact of tourism on activities of the community, reactions to the presence of tourists) significantly predicted the community´s support for tourism. An analysis of potential bank support showed that future community involvement in the tourism industry should be initiated by an adequate approach and credit policy instruments in the wider area of the Kopaonik National park.

Mixed Bayesian implementation in general environments

A social choice rule is said to be mixed Bayesian implementable if one can design a mechanism (or institution) in which the set of all mixed Bayesian Nash equilibrium outcomes coincides with that specified by the rule. The objective of this paper is to generalize the results of mixed Bayesian implementation. By means of example, I first assess the implication of common priors in Bayesian implementation. Second, I identify a mild condition that fills the gap between the necessity and sufficiency for mixed Bayesian implementation in general environments including non-economic ones. Third, I establish some new results to unify the literature of Bayesian implementation and Nash implementation.

A study on the incentive mechanism of rural health workers and its influence on their work enthusiasm

Objective To provide a scientific basis for the formulation of effective incentive measures for rural health workers, by analyzing the factors influencing their work enthusiasm and constructing an incentive mechanism framework. Methods A field questionnaire survey and personal in-depth interview were conducted on 803 health technicians from 45 township health centers in Shandong, Anhui and Shanxi provinces. The study covered economic, management, education and career supports aspects, and the data were analyzed in descriptive, multi-level model and correlation analyses. Results The work enthusiasm scoring of rural health workers was 89.83±9.54. Workload, doctor-patient relationship, work competence and income index were the four influencing factors, with the differences showing statistical significance(P<0.05). The income index(income expectancy/real income affects work) influences the enthusiasm negatively, while the rest of the factors were positive. Work enthusiasm was positively correlated with three dimensions of job performance. The satisfaction of interpersonal relationship, workload and competence were positively correlated with work enthusiasm. The correlation indexes are respectively 0.35, 0.33 and 0.21(P<0.01). Conclusions To motivate primary health institutions and their health workers, the authorities should focus on the economic factors, and take into account non-economic ones, while improving the performance-based wage system and creating a fair workplace culture. Key words: Rural health services; Health manpower; Incentive mechanism; Work enthusiasm; Influencing factors

Well-being and the Great Recession in Spain

ABSTRACTThis letter assesses the impact of the Great Recession on well-being in Spanish provinces using two alternative composite indicators of objective well-being that include somewhat different dimensions. Whereas the crisis notably eroded economic well-being, its impact on overall well-being – which in addition to economic dimensions also includes non-economic ones – was imperceptible. This result points to the need to carefully define and assess well-being in empirical analyses.

EFFECT OF PARTICIPATIVE GOVERNANCE AND HUMAN CAPITAL ON THE ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE OF DAIRY CO-OPERATIVES IN KENYA

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of participative governance and human capital on the organizational performance of dairy co-operatives in Kenya.Methodology: The study adopted the positivist research philosophy and descriptive correlational research design. The population of the study consisted of 198 executive directors/managers of active dairy co-operatives in eight counties in the Mt. Kenya region. A sample size of 184 was drawn using stratified random sampling, and data was collected using self-administered questionnaires. The data was then analyzed using descriptive statistics of frequency, mean, and standard deviation. Additionally, inferential data analysis methods of Pearson’s correlation, ANOVA, and multiple linear regression were used to test the hypotheses.Results: The results of multiple regression showed that market orientation significantly predicted revenue per customer, b = 1.64, t(141) = 7.66, p &lt; .05; ROA, b = 2.14, t(141) = 5.9, p &lt; .05; and product innovation, b =1.89, t(141) = 5.77, p &lt; .05. Participative governance was not significant in explaining revenue per customer, return on assets, and product innovation. Although the results of multiple regression analysis showed that human capital was not significant in explaining revenue per customer or ROA, it significantly affected product innovation, b = .94, t(141) = 2.01, p &lt;.05. In addition, the regression indicated that revenue per customer explained 49.7% of the variance, (R2 = .497, F(5, 125) = 20.10, p &lt; .05, while ROA explained 29.4 %, (R2 = .294, F(5, 123) = 9.06, p &lt; .05, and product innovation explained 41.2%, (R2 = 0.412, F(5, 124) = 15.18, p &lt; .05.Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: This study contributes to theory of corporate governance by using stewardship theory to underpin research into organizational performance of a member-based agricultural enterprise. The study contributes to practice by suggesting that participation of members and shareholders in organizations may have other benefits, including non-economic ones, but enhancing organizational performance may not be one of them. In terms of policy, the study suggests that dairy co-operatives should put emphasis on acquiring employees with requisite knowledge and skills or their performance may be hamstrung by inadequate intellectual capital to facilitate their innovation and performance.

Relevance of the Pattern of Labor Disputes and the Transformation of Manufacturing Industry - Based on the Case Analysis of Labor Disputes in Yangtze River Delta Region

The incidents of collective labor disputes resonantly occur under some conditions in manufacturing industry of Yangtze River Delta Region (2011-2015). Trigger factors include the transformation and upgrading of industrial structure, the high liquidity of light industry asset, the exploitation of private and foreign companies, the participation of a large number of labors and the depriving of economic interests of the workers. Study found that the labor conflicts occur more often in abnormal production changes of manufacturing than in normal one, more in light industry than heavy one, more in private enterprises than other ones, more in large-scale enterprises than small-scale ones and more for economic requests of participants than for noneconomic ones.

Wybrane determinanty przedsiębiorczości indywidualnej – zarys stanu badań

Przedsiębiorczość indywidualna jest jednym z ważniejszych czynników rozwoju społeczno- gospodarczego regionów w rożnej skali układów przestrzennych oraz istotnym sposobem uelastyczniania rynku pracy. Studia specjalistycznej literatury jednoznacznie wskazują na istnienie wielu determinant wpływających na skłonność jednostki do samo zatrudnienia. Są to zarówno kwestie ekonomiczne (np. poziom rozwoju gospodarczego, sytuacja na rynku pracy, polityka fiskalna), jak i pozaekonomiczne (np. płeć, wiek, wykształcenie, stan cywilny, posiadanie dzieci, wcześniejsze doświadczenie na rynku pracy). Celem autorki artykułu jest dokonanie przeglądu krajowych i zagranicznych prac teoretycznych, poświęconych determinantom przedsiębiorczości indywidualnej, a także syntezy wyników badań, weryfikujących wpływ czynników pozaekonomicznych na poziom samozatrudnienia. Przeprowadzone badania literaturowe, dotyczące roli czynników ekonomicznych w podejmowaniu samozatrudnienia wskazują, że w ujęciu międzynarodowym jego poziom pozostaje przede wszystkim w ścisłym związku z wartością PKB. W grupie czynników pozaekonomicznych dowiedziono zaś znaczącego wpływu płci, wieku, stanu cywilnego oraz poziomu wykształcenia na skłonność do rozpoczęcia działalności gospodarczej.

Labour Migration Trends in the Slovak Republic

IntroductionThe origins of scientific research which can be traced back to second half of 19th century mark beginning of exploring other sciences, both social and economic ones. In this period of time, empirical science research was developed, such as ethnography, geography, political science and many others that laid foundations for exploration of a number of theories of international human migration and made them interdisciplinary in character. In 1885, E. G. Ravenstein published a paper entitled Laws of Migration. Having utilized statistical data on British migration, he inferred laws of migration, such as for instance distance, types of migrants, gender-specific motives for migration, etc. (Ravenstein, 1885; Gress, 2014).Ageing population, in particular in EU countries made investigation of labour migration, as well as its causes and effects for individual labour markets of primary concern (Cajka et al., 2014). There are various reasons for labour migration. Generally, there are two reasons for international migration, i.e. economic and non-economic ones. Economic reasons include differences between wages, searching for farmland and striving to acquire new skills in labour market. Non-economic reasons include political, religious, racial or ethnic motives (Muchova et al., 2011, p. 102; Kumpikaite, Zickute, 2012).Approaches of countries to migration (Czaika, de Haas, 2013; Sadova, 2010) will depend on whether or not there is a need for migrants in a given country. Presently, need is mainly associated with maintaining economic performance of country and demand for workforce from either quantitative or qualitative perspective.Effective management of migration processes has become a political priority in most countries. There has been an overwhelming consensus on migration - if managed effectively, it can be greatly beneficial to countries of both and destination (Lipkova et al., 2011, p. 331; Bilan, 2014; Streimikiene et al., 2016).Migration is a relatively complex concept which refers to several different types of human movements, such as for instance change of residence, labour migration, seasonal migration, circular migration, etc. The most common categorization takes into account geographical aspect of human mobility, and thus international migration, internal migration and cross-border migration are distinguished. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) defines international migration as the movement of a person or a group of persons from one geographical unit to another across an administrative or political border, for temporary or permanent settlement, in a place other than their place of origin (IOM, 2003; Divinský, 2009; Vojtovic, 2013; Thomas, 2016).Therefore, term international migration will be used throughout paper. In paper, motivating factors of Slovak citizens to move abroad for employment purposes were examined. The issue of migration of Slovak workers to other EU countries seems to be a problem for Slovak economy. That is why Slovak government are preparing measures to tackle it. Apparently, there are no exact and real data on number of labour migrants, so extent and seriousness of problem cannot be judged objectively. Surveys conducted on migration of Slovak citizens for employment purposes abroad provide only a vague picture of development of problematic issue. There are several reasons why there is a lack of clear and unambiguous data: plurality of migration channels (through which Slovak citizens seek and find employment abroad - EURES, agencies offering jobs abroad, temporary employment agencies, individual job search etc.), variety and incompatibility of methodological approaches (immigration cards, personal identification numbers, residence permits, work permits - changing jobs often requires a new registration in register of immigrant workers, when quitting jobs, leaving labour market or country, there is no need to get unregistered), periodicity of statistical data and their nature (terms of processing and publishing data on migrant workers differ across EU). …

Biodiversity and functioning of a subtropical coastal ecosystem: a contribution to an integrated managment

Biodiversity and functioning of a subtropical coastal ecosystem: a contribution to an integrated managment

Detection of gas-bearing intervals using S-transform and AVO analysis

In geophysical studies, attributes are the main tools for hydrocarbon identification and can be applied either pre- or post-stack. The amplitude versus offset (AVO), on the other hand, lies within the inversion methods applicable to pre-stack seismic data specifically tailored to recognize fluid content. A recent method useful for detecting hydrocarbon-bearing intervals in a reservoir is the spectral decomposition and is applied on post-stack data. For any frequency in a time–frequency setting, a single-frequency seismic section can be drawn and the low-frequency shadows related to the hydrocarbon accumulation can be differentiated. In this study, the spectral decomposition and the AVO analysis methods are applied on synthetic and real data, the latter being an example from a gaseous sandstone reservoir. The synthetic data based on the nearby well-logs and the fluid substituted synthetic well-logs were constructed. Results indicate the superiority of spectral decomposition method in detecting gas-bearing intervals (gas saturation above 80 %) in comparison to the AVO method. While the AVO method successfully differentiates the hydrocarbon and water-bearing intervals, its sensitivity in detecting an interval of 80 and 35 % gas is indifferent. We empirically know that the dominant frequency for detecting shadows of low-frequency features is between 10 and 20 Hz. In this study, such shadows are only observed below high gas saturation intervals by which the economical gas-bearing zones could be discriminated from the non-economic ones.

The Economics of Pakistan–Afghanistan Relations: Implications for the Region

Pakistan and Afghanistan are partners in the War against Terrorism that has tremendous repercussions on their economies. Bilateral relations have been difficult, as Afghanistan blames Pakistan of interfering in their internal affairs, while the war in Afghanistan has spilled over to Pakistan. Plans to tap the natural resources in both the countries, to link the gas and oil fields of Central Asia to the Sea and to exploit the opportunities of the emerging markets in Central Asia cannot materialise as long as the disturbances in Afghanistan and western Pakistan go on. Economic factors are intertwined with non-economic ones, mutually determining each other. As the USA and their allies have started to pull out their troops from Afghanistan, the neighbours have to find a new modus vivendi. In August 2013 their leaders begun to sort out problems of the transit trade that is vital for Afghanistan and that Pakistan has to make sure not to lose.

Socio-economic aspects of commuting

This paper contemplates on relevant socio-economic factors which have influence on variability of the scope and directions of commuting flows, with special emphasis on situation in Serbia. Due to the need for balance between work and family life, this specific form of population?s mobility often represents alternative for migration. It also has numerous implications on both commuters and their households, places of residence and work and society in general. Effects of sex, marital status, education, occupation, size and structure of a household, as well as local community onto participation in commuting and time/distance of traveling to work have been discussed. The results revealed that, apart from economic factors, non-economic ones also have important role in commuting.