Significant Multiplier Effect Research Articles

Advantages and Limits for Tourism Development in Rural Area (Case Study Ampoi and Mureş Valleys)

Abstract Rural areas have been modified during centuries of agriculture practice and, in the last decades, of other economic activities like mineral extractions and processing industry, including also touristic activity. A challenge for ensuring sustainable development in rural areas is to cover the development needs of the community. Tourism has been indicated as a good development strategy for Romanian rural areas. The article is presenting the advantages and limits in supporting touristic activity in the framework of Leader approach at the level of a Local Group of Action in Romania, Alba and Hunedoara Counties. Leader approach is offering limited support for rural area in order to encourage cultural activities, architecture rehabilitation, valorizing natural landscape and rural tourism. Through its direct and indirect impacts, tourism attracts significant foreign exchange, investment and know-how and stimulates the local economy, with a significant multiplier effect on many other areas of the economy. In the same time, it has to be paid a great attention to the effects generated upon the rural communities by the tourists’ activities. Certainly, tourism development should be considered with all financial, material and human efforts that have to be done in order to support it. Tourism development in rural area should be strategically planned and its negative effects on nature and social-cultural environment of tourism areas should be limited.

Eficient Budget Oriented Scheme in Construction Technology and Management

The role the construction industry plays in socio-economic development is significant. It provides the basis upon which other sectors can grow by constructing the physical facilities required for the production and distribution of goods and services. The construction industry has a significant multiplier effect on the economy as a whole. Cost is one of the primary measures of a project’s success. This is true, especially for public projects in developing countries like India, because public construction projects in these countries are executed with scarce financial resources. In this paper we proposed an efficient budget oriented optimized cost overgrow scheme in Construction Technology and Management (CTM) system. Our proposed scheme solved the cost overgrow problem and improved the overall effect of the construction industry projects. The experimental results of our proposed scheme showed the effectiveness compared with existing works.

Do Political Protests Matter? Evidence from the Tea Party Movement*

Abstract Can protests cause political change, or are they merely symptoms of underlying shifts in policy preferences? We address this question by studying the Tea Party movement in the United States, which rose to prominence through coordinated rallies across the country on Tax Day, April 15, 2009. We exploit variation in rainfall on the day of these rallies as an exogenous source of variation in attendance. We show that good weather at this initial, coordinating event had significant consequences for the subsequent local strength of the movement, increased public support for Tea Party positions, and led to more Republican votes in the 2010 midterm elections. Policy making was also affected, as incumbents responded to large protests in their district by voting more conservatively in Congress. Our estimates suggest significant multiplier effects: an additional protester increased the number of Republican votes by a factor well above 1. Together our results show that protests can build political movements that ultimately affect policy making and that they do so by influencing political views rather than solely through the revelation of existing political preferences.

Assessment of technical efficiency of farmer teachers in the uptake and dissemination of push–pull technology in Western Kenya

Use of farmers as extension agents to disseminate new technologies to others is increasingly being adapted in smallholder farming systems. This paper examined technical efficiency (TE) of farmer teachers in the uptake and dissemination of a ‘push–pull’ technology (PPT) for control of Striga weed and stemborers in Western Kenya. A total sample of 112 farmer teachers (FTs) and 560 follower farmers (FFs) who had adopted the PPT were randomly selected and interviewed between July and August 2007. The farm production constraints significantly reduced with an overall 53% margin following PPT uptake. Overall, there were considerable benefits from training resulting in significant differences in understanding and applying of PPT. The farmers' extension strategy had a significant multiplier effect in increasing PPT uptake. The average TE by FTs was 78% while FFs had 71% suggesting room for improvement. The TE was influenced by farmers' interactions with neighbouring farmers, memberships in local groups, type of farmer, farmer's age, marital status and farmer's level of education. The efficiency can be improved by providing farmers with incentives and training, increasing field demonstrations, providing Desmodium seed and credit for other needed inputs to accelerate PPT transfer.

The Case for Global Fiscal Stimulus

This paper presents simulations with a multicountry structural model to show that worldwide expansionary fiscal policy combined with accommodative monetary policy can have significant multiplier effects on the world economy. It also provides a framework for assessing the effects of fiscal actions needed to help counter the projected contractionary pressures in the world economy. In an ideal scenario where fiscal stimulus is both global and supported by monetary accommodation, and where financial sectors that are under pressure are being supported by governments, every dollar spent on government investment can increase GDP by about $3, while every dollar of targeted transfers can increase GDP by about $1. In countries in which fiscal space is limited, it will be especially important to focus fiscal stimulus actions on those measures that will have the largest effect on aggregate demand. It is particularly important for fiscal policy to take on an increased share of the burden during the period in which the financial sector is recovering and is not yet able or willing to extend credit to households and businesses to the extent that it normally does.

Motivating rice farmers in the Mekong Delta to modify pest management and related practices through mass media

A participatory planning process was applied to develop a media campaign to motivate rice farmers in the Mekong Delta to modify pest management practices together with seed and fertilizer inputs. Locally named ‘Ba Giam Ba Tang’ or ‘Three Reductions, Three Gains’, campaigns were launched in two provinces, Can Tho and Tien Giang. In both provinces, farmers' practices changed significantly. Their insecticide sprays reduced by 13–33% while their seed rates dropped ∼10% and nitrogen rates, ∼7% and proportion of farmers using insecticides declined by ∼11%. These practices were supported by modifications in belief attitudes that favored high inputs. Farmers who reported significant reductions in the three inputs also changed their perception of yield loss. The campaigns in Can Tho and Tien Giang had significant multiplier effects. They stimulated several provincial governments as well as the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to provide additional resources to reproduce the materials and campaign process for local use which eventually reached more than 3 million farmers in south and central Vietnam.

Tourism's Impact on Long-Run Mexican Economic Growth

Tourism is one of the most important factors in the productivity of the Mexican economy with significant multiplier effects on economic activity. This paper investigates possible causal relationships between tourism expenditure, real exchange rate and economic growth by using quarterly data. Johansen co-integration analysis shows the existence of one cointegrated vector among real GDP, tourism expenditure, and real exchange rate where the corresponding elasticities are positive. The tourism-led growth hypothesis is confirmed through cointegration and causality testing. Expenditure is weakly exogenous to real GDP producing a more than proportional effect in growth (it means real GDP increases 60% more when expenditure in tourism is increased). Short-run Granger causality shows that causality goes from expenditure to GDP, and there is a bidirectional short-run causality between real exchange rate and real GDP. Impulse response analysis shows that a shock in expenditure produce a continuous positive effect on growth while a shock in real exchange rate produces first a negative effect and then a positive one.

Shifting cultivation and “deforestation”: A study from Indonesia

About half of tropical deforestation is commonly explained by the expansion of traditional agriculture (shifting cultivation). This article first questions the share of responsibility assigned to traditional agriculture — it may well be overestimated because of unclear definitions, uncertain estimates, and potential political biases. Second, a simple framework based on a theory of land rent capture is developed to explain agricultural expansion. The framework is applied in the study of recent changes in shifting cultivators' adaptations in a lowland rainforest area in Sumatra, Indonesia. Increased rubber planting and expansion into primary forest are seen as a response to increased rubber profitability and (expected) land scarcity, and as a race for property rights. Government land claims have had significant multiplier effects on forest clearing through changes in farmers' expectations and in initiating a self-reinforcing land race.

Impact on academic medical center of reduction in reimbursement of indirect research costs.

Debate over the level of indirect cost reimbursement associated with federally funded research projects continues to grow. With the increasing federal budget restraints, one recurring proposal arising from federal legislators, the executive branch, and the National Institutes of Health to cut costs and sustain direct project support has been to reduce indirect cost reimbursement. Using a system dynamics simulation model, the authors in this paper analyze the long-term economic impacts of such cutbacks on an academic medical center. The significant negative multiplier effects, due to the required diversion of institutional funds, are indicative of those that any research oriented university would experience.

New Tendencies in the Multinational Project in Educational Technology of the OAS

Abstract This article describes recent developments in the Multinational Project in Educational Technology of the OAS, the most important major project in this field in Latin America. The results of the follow‐up study of over 300 graduates of postgraduate courses are presented and show a significant multiplier effect from the project. Aspects of the results of project efforts in institutional development and stimulation of new techniques and knowledge are discussed and some of the efforts in the area of information diffusion are highlighted, particularly the extension of the Journal of Educational Technology which is published by the project. *The opinions expressed in this article are those of the. authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinions of the Organization.