Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Analysis of Macroeconomic Determinants of Remittances in Southern Africa

The study analyzed macroeconomic determinants of remittances in Southern Africa and used annual data for the period ranging from 2003-2016. The macroeconomic determinants used include: remittances themselves, inflation rate, GDP growth rate, nominal exchange rate, broad money and age dependency ratio. A panel study was carried out using both the fixed and random methods of which the random method was found to be most appropriate. The countries included in the study were Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland and Zambia. It was found that of the variables used, only changes/improvements in the home countries’ economic environment and the exchange rate were statistically significant.
Do Credit Default Swaps Mitigate the Impact of Credit Rating Downgrades?*

We find that a firm’s stock price reaction to its credit rating downgrade announcement is muted by 44–52% when credit default swaps (CDSs) trade on its debt. We explore the role of the CDS markets in providing information ex ante and relieving financing frictions ex post for downgraded firms. We find that the impact of CDS trading is more pronounced for firms whose debt financing is more dependent on credit ratings (e.g., those rated around the speculative-grade boundary, those with a higher number of rating-based covenants). Reductions in debt and investment, and the increase in financing costs are less severe for CDS firms than non-CDS firms following an identical credit rating downgrade. Our results suggest that CDSs mute the stock market reaction to a credit rating downgrade by alleviating the financing frictions faced by downgraded firms.
The Sri Lankan Debt Crisis: Is there a way out?

This thesis deals with the current debt crisis is Sri Lanka, which was brought about by rapid development following the end of the civil war, and how best to prevent future debt crises by providing recommendations to policy makers. This thesis makes use of two models, the Balance-of-Payments (BOP) Constrained growth model, and the Flying Goose Model (FGM) of development which was observed in East Asian countries during their fast-paced growth period. The BOP model is used to identify industries within Sri Lanka’s economy which have a high income elasticity of demand by the rest of the world. The results of the data analysis find that Sri Lanka has a high income elasticity of demand in the machinery and chemical sectors with in the manufacturing industry. The Sri Lankan economy is also diagnosed in the context of the FGM to understand in what stage of the FGM Sri Lanka is in, by means of carrying out non-parametric analysis on the FDI per capita, the trade dependence ratio, the revealed comparative advantage index and other economic parameters. From the evidence presented by the two models, policy recommendations go in the direction of promoting selective industrial policy, in order to enhance the growth of these targeted industries identified by the BOP model through means of accelerating the Flying Goose Model of development.
Posted work, enforcement capacity and firm variation: Evidence from the Danish construction sector

This article draws on interviews, register data and a survey with 150 Polish posted workers in the Danish construction sector to analyse the challenges of enforcing the labour rights of posted workers. It argues that while posting companies are generally more ‘unruly’ vis-a-vis host country institutions, their way of engaging with these institutions varies depending on whether the company is a main contractor, subcontractor, or a private home service provider. This implies that the enforcement challenges that union and labour inspectors face differ just as the conditions of posted workers vary depending on the employer’s position. The article concludes that while recent reforms to the rules of posting may solve some legal issues, there are still major challenges on the enforcement front.
Of Safety Ropes, Nets, Ladders and Trampolines: Exploring the Politics of Implementation of the Livelihoods Empowerment against Poverty in the Central Region of Ghana

Social protection has been an important component of the development discourse in particularly underdeveloped countries in the light of failure of past policies in reducing poverty and building human capabilities. It is expected to manage risk and adversity among poor and vulnerable groups. Yet the conception, selection of recipients and disbursement of support systems have sometimes been compromised for political gains.nbsp Being an area which has received little research the key role of politics in shaping this all important social protection agenda has generally been overlooked. This study explores the role of politics in shaping Ghanarsquos Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty, a flagship social protection intervention, in the Central Region. It used the programme implementers in the region as respondents as well as some members of a beneficiary community. The study identified that International donor agencies and countries that support LEAP have influenced the size of the programme whereas local political actors have tried and failed to capture its benefits in a number of ways.
The Determinants Of Expected Returns On Higher Education In Russia: A Human Capital Theory Perspective

This paper evaluates the determinants of the expected returns on higher education among students of Russian universities accounting for the variation of the socio-economic development of Russian regions. Based on the longitudinal study, ‘Trajectories in Education and Careers’, it is shown that the average salary in a region is positively related to the individual estimates of expected salary after graduation, but does not affect the relative returns on higher education, i.e. the expected percentage increase in wages, compared to the salary in the absence of a higher education degree. In general, the results correspond to human capital theory, and confirm the rationality of students’ salary expectations. The expected salary shortly after graduation from university is positively related to the academic achievement expressed in the university entrance exam (the Unified State Exam, USE), full-time study and prior work experience. Male students expect to receive higher salaries compared to female students. Students who study for free, expect lower salaries compared to those students who cover their tuition costs. An indirect influence (through USE results) of school characteristics and parental education on expected salary was found. In addition, we discovered a direct and indirect relationship between family income and expected salaries after university graduation.
Credit Default Swap Regulation in Experimental Bond Markets

Credit default swaps (CDS) played an important role in the financial crisis of 2008. While CDS can be used to hedge risks, they can also be used for speculative purposes (as occurred during the financial crisis) and regulations have been proposed to limit such speculative use. Here, we provide the first controlled experiment analyzing the pricing of credit default swaps in a bond market subject to default risk. We further use the laboratory as a testbed to analyze CDS regulation. Our results show that the regulation achieves the goal of increasing the use of CDS for hedging purposes while reducing the use of CDS for speculation. This success does not come at the expense of lower bond IPO revenues and does not negatively affect CDS prices or bond prices in the secondary market.
The influence of prescriptive norms and negative externalities on bribery decisions in the lab

In most bribery games in the literature, there is no mention of rights and duties associated to participants’ roles. Authors have hitherto relied on loaded frames, negative externalities, and the possibility of sanctions to implicitly signal prescriptive norms. We argue that participants’ interpretation of these factors may not be univocal. In this study, a participant in the role of a common citizen either did or did not acquire the right to obtain a monetary benefit and could offer a bribe to an associated participant in the role of public official. This participant, in turn, had an explicit duty of providing the benefit only if the citizen acquired the right to it. Conditions with/without the acquisition of the right were crossed with the presence/absence of negative externalities associated with transgressions of the official’s duty. One last (fifth) condition mimicked other bribery games in the literature which rely on loaded frames and negative externalities but no information on rights and duties. We found that both the presence of externalities and information about rights were effective bribery deterrents, and that bribe offers and acceptances were most discouraged with their synergic effect. Interestingly, officials followed prescriptive information even when it was inefficient to do so (when there were no externalities), and implied choosing against their material self-interest (by rejecting a bribe), and not reciprocating bribe offers. We conclude by highlighting the limits of making generalizations from results without explicit normative information and the relevance of present findings as anti-corruption behavioral insights.
Parasitism, oddity and the mechanism of shoal choice

When choosing between shoals diVering in Schistocephalus solidus infection status, uninfected test sticklebacks Gasterosteus aculeatus showed a preference for joining uninfected conspecifics when shoal sizes were equal, but reversed this preference when the relative size of the infected shoal was increased by a factor of 3. When given a choice between a shoal composed of size-matched minnows Phoxinus phoxinus and a shoal composed of the same number of all uninfected or all S. solidus-infected sticklebacks, test fish always preferred the sticklebacks, regardless of their infection status, over the minnow shoal. These observations suggest that species, parasite status and shoal size are all of importance when fish decide which shoal to join. 1998 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles
The financial and market consequences of environmental, social and governance ratings

Purpose This study aims to examine the combined impact of environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings on the market and financial performance of Egyptian companies during the period from 2007 to 2016 and, thereby, determines the influence of the recent political revolutions –that broke out in the MENA region in early 2011 – on the association between ESG practices and corporate performance. Design/methodology/approach The present work uses data from the S&P/EGX ESG index, which is the first of its kind in the MENA region. The ESG index is designed to increase the profile of companies listed on the Egyptian Exchange and is expected to boost the level and quality of ESG practices in the Egyptian context. The sample includes the 100 most active Egyptian companies in the Egyptian Stock Exchange as measured by the EGX 100 index in the financial year that ended in 2016. The sample begins in 2007, concurrent with the start of the ESG index, and ends in 2016. The period from 2007 to 2010 represents the pre-revolution period, and the period from 2012 to 2016 is the post-revolution period. Findings Firms with high ESG ratings are found to enjoy a better financial and market performance. The authors found some evidence that the influence of ESG ratings on financial performance is more obvious after the revolutions than before the revolutions. Practical implications This study provides insights regarding the impact of political events on the market in the Middle East region. Despite its increasing economic and political importance, this region still suffers from inadequate attention in the literature. The present work investigates the variances that evolved out of the events that started in early 2011 and the implications of these events on the market. The results of this study have implications for regulators and investors in the Egyptian stock market. The authors believe that the relatively new S&P/EGX ESG index provides a way to enhance ESG ratings in Egypt. Social implications The results of the present study provide insights for policymakers regarding the usefulness of the sustainability indices. Originality/value The present results contribute to the growing literature on the economic consequences of ESG ratings, especially in relation to a context characterized by intense political/revolutionary changes. In particular, this study contributes to the few works that have addressed the economic implications of ESG ratings in emerging markets.
Data Journalism Projects Based on User-Generated Content. How La Nacion Data Transforms Active Audience into Staff

Abstract This article aims to contribute to the debate on audience participation in the media from three points of view: (1) demonstrating how data journalism enables an effective participation by the public in news production, (2) establishing a typology of the forms of contribution, and (3) performing an in-depth study of La Nación (Argentina), as an example of success in collaborative data projects carried out in Latin America. In order to achieve these objectives, firstly, all the Global Editors Network Data Journalism Awards were analysed with the purpose of detecting projects involving user-generated content. Secondly, La Nación was studied from an ethnographic perspective, as it is the medium with the most prizes in which citizen participation was detected. The results show that collaboration between media and audience can make large-scale journalism projects a reality, and also that citizens in Argentina are recruited by LN Data specially to boost political accountability.
Who refers most? Institutional incentives and judicial participation in the preliminary ruling system

ABSTRACT By enabling the Court of Justice to engage domestic judges, the preliminary ruling mechanism is widely recognised to have played a major role in European integration. Yet both the incentives and motivation to cooperate with the Court of Justice are believed to vary significantly across domestic courts. We explore how domestic courts differ in their referral behaviour depending on the position they occupy in the juridical hierarchy using a novel dataset, which extends, complements and corrects data initially collected by Stone Sweet and Brunell (1998. ‘The European Court and the national courts: a statistical analysis of preliminary references, 1961–95’, Journal of European Public Policy 5 (1): 66–97). We find that first instance courts pioneered the use of the preliminary ruling procedure, but that appellate and peak courts subsequently overtook them. We explain these shifts by the combined effect of institutional consolidation, organisational design and legal rules. We argue that resort to Article 267 TFEU was initially ‘accidental’ but became institutionalised as more courts submitted references. This, in turn, allowed the division of labour underpinning the organisation of national judiciaries to reshape referral dynamics.
A Case Study of Compact Core French Models: A Pedagogic Perspective

The overriding objective of core French (CF) teaching in Canada since the National Core French Study (NCFS) is that of communicative competence (R. Leblanc, 1990). Results from the traditional form of CF, though, suggest that students are not developing desired levels of communicative competence in the drip-feed (short daily periods) model (Lapkin, Harley, & Taylor, 1993). The present study aims to investigate the role of compacted second language program formats in promoting higher levels of language proficiency and achievement among elementary core French students; in particular, the study investigates the pedagogic approach, based on the principle that longer class periods should facilitate a more communicative/ experiential teaching approach. Students in three Grade 7 classes served as participants. Two of the classes served as the compacted experimental classes, and the other as a comparison class. Pre-tests, immediate posttests and delayed post-tests recorded differences in student achievement. A multi-dimensional, project-based curriculum approach was implemented in all three classes, and was recorded by teacher observations in her daybook and daily journal. Student attitudes toward their CF program format and their self-assessed language proficiency were measured during recorded focus group sessions and on student questionnaires. Parental and teacher perceptions of student attitudes were measured using a short survey.
Designing Efficient Memory for Future Computing Systems

The computing landscape is undergoing a major change, primarily enabled by ubiquitous wireless networks and the rapid increase in the use of mobile devices which access a web-based information infrastructure. It is expected that most intensive computing may either happen in servers housed in large datacenters (warehousescale computers), e.g., cloud computing and other web services, or in many-core high-performance computing (HPC) platforms in scientific labs. It is clear that the primary challenge to scaling such computing systems into the exascale realm is the efficient supply of large amounts of data to hundreds or thousands of compute cores, i.e., building an efficient memory system. Main memory systems are at an inflection point, due to the convergence of several major application and technology trends. Examples include the increasing importance of energy consumption, reduced access stream locality, increasing failure rates, limited pin counts, increasing heterogeneity and complexity, and the diminished importance of cost-per-bit. In light of these trends, the memory system requires a major overhaul. The key to architecting the next generation of memory systems is a combination of the prudent incorporation of novel technologies, and a fundamental rethinking of certain conventional design decisions. In this dissertation, we study every major element of the memory system – the memory chip, the processor-memory channel, the memory access mechanism, and memory reliability, and identify the key bottlenecks to efficiency. Based on this, we propose a novel main memory system with the following innovative features: (i) overfetch-aware re-organized chips, (ii) low-cost silicon photonic memory channels, (iii) largely autonomous memory modules with a packet-based interface to the processor, and (iv) a RAID-based reliability mechanism. Such a system is energy-efficient, high-performance, low-complexity, reliable, and cost-effective, making it ideally suited to meet the requirements of future large-scale computing systems.
Innovation and growth: evidence from Latin American countries

ABSTRACT This paper aims to analyze the relationship between innovation and per capita economic growth over the long-run for 12 Latin American countries for the period 1996–2015. This study uses six different indicators of innovation. Using Granger causality test, the study finds the presence of unidirectional and bidirectional causalities between innovation and per capita economic growth. These results vary. Latin America is a diverse region, depending upon the types of innovation indicators that we use in the empirical investigation process. It is important to note that all these innovation indicators are considerably linked with per capita economic growth.
The policymaking process of transformative innovation policy: a systematic review

There is an emerging literature discussing the limits and boundaries to governing socio-technical change for addressing grand challenges through innovation policy. While there are differences within this literature with regard to the researchers' points of departure, there seems to be an agreement on two points: that there is a need for knowledge on how innovation policy can be used to address grand challenges and that practices and associated changes in administrative and organizational capacities of public organizations will be key for delivering such transformative policies. In the literature, important steps have also been made towards formulating a new transformative innovation policy agenda and supporting the re-organization of the innovation policy process. In this paper, we address the fact that the current understanding of what characterizes the transformative innovation policy paradigm, its roots and branches, and the actual contributions of the proposed frameworks on practical aspects of the policymaking process is rather unclear. One of many remaining questions is to which extent current writings contribute to our basic understanding of the policymaking process in terms of agenda setting, policy design, legitimation, implementation, evaluation and policy learning. The purpose of this paper is therefore to take stock of the current understanding of the specificities and challenges of transformative innovation policy throughout the policymaking process and examine the actual contributions for practical policymaking. This is achieved through a systematic review of the received literature on transformative innovation policy (and related concepts). We synthesize the contributions of the current literature to our understanding of how policymakers – in the context of transformative innovation policy – should set agendas; design, legitimate, implement, monitor and evaluate policies; and learn from their experiences. This allows for identifying important aspects and challenges related to different stylized stages of the process, as described by the transformative innovation literature, as well as avenues for further research.
Household Debt Overhang and Unemployment

We use a labor‐search model to explain why the worst employment slumps often follow expansions of household debt. We find that households protected by limited liability suffer from a household‐debt‐overhang problem that leads them to require high wages to work. Firms respond by posting high wages but few vacancies. This vacancy posting effect implies that high household debt leads to high unemployment. Even though households borrow from banks via bilaterally optimal contracts, the equilibrium level of household debt is inefficiently high due to a household‐debt externality. We analyze the role that a financial regulator can play in mitigating this externality.