Abstract: This study examined the impact of agricultural productivity on economic growth in Nigeria between the periods of 1981 to 2015. The Johansen cointegration test was employed to determine the existence of long run relationship between agricultural productivity and economic growth. Error Correction Model (ECM) was employed to determine the short run impact of agricultural productivity on economic growth. From the results, it was found that the agricultural labour productivity and agricultural value added were the positive determinants of economic growth. The study concluded that improvement in the performance of the agricultural sector has a significant effect on economic growth in Nigeria. Therefore, the government should encourage labour force participation in the agricultural sector by increasing investment in the agricultural sector.
Every leader in the world opts for national development. National development does not merely involve economic development, but also other aspects that may interact with it, such as education, culture, health and armed forces. This paper mainly focuses on the definition of economic development and how cooperation can contribute towards national development. An introductory idea to economic development can be obtained by examining the objectives of a Government's economic development plan. Generally, the First Malaysia Plan aims at increasing the income levels and consumption per head, especially those in the rural area, and to improve the general living standard as a whole. The economic expansion is different from economic development. The ideal economic development must include the elimination of poverty, unemployment as well as under-employment and inequality in the sharing of public services, such as health, education, water and electricity. The process of national economic development is well fit into the ideals of cooperation and with cooperative principles. How to increase the farmers' or peasants' income and the consumption power? The statistics show that private sectors in Malaysia still control in the economic markets, no matter in financing sectors, paddy milling sector or agricultural sector. The impact of cooperative movement is not as big compared to other countries. The lack of united voice by the whole cooperative movement and the lack of historical evolution could be the factors that lead to this consequence. The cooperatives must take initiatives to break into the present monopolist-monopsonist system. It must coordinate its efforts with those government agencies, to concentrate on one or two specifically designated area or sector with a few limited objectives. And finally, the harmony of action and positive mindset from the highest apex level to the lowest primary cooperative are very much needed to expand the cooperative movement nationwide.
What is rural development? Why have poverty and rural development become vital topics in our world today? What are the causes of poverty and what are the effects to the community? Approximately we may say that the people living outside the towns or areas gazette as town boards are the rural people. However, there are people whose economic and social characteristics are similar to the urban people in their midst. Hence, in order to simplify the discussion, the rural people are restricted to the group neither belong to the barter system nor do they make elaborate use of money. The mining and the estate worker, as well as the government servants, are excluded from this discussion as they tend to have relatively high MV per capita. The common interpretation of poverty is always related to lower income group. In the author's interpretation, poverty always arises because of the inequality in the distribution of income and wealth. There are four aspects of poverty which can be considered. Firstly, the problem of measuring poverty, objectively. Secondly, certain measurable socio-economic characteristics that are associated with poverty. Thirdly, the aetiology of poverty and lastly, the inhibiting effects of poverty. In order to eliminate poverty in the rural area, it is necessary to understand what the underlying causes are. The problem has been rooted since the colonial period. The exploitation by the moneylenders and the agency houses, the monopoly and monopsony system, the government policy which protected the migrants and the sole distributors but neglected the rural people, have deepened the problem of poverty even though after the independence. When the development has reached its limit in a geographical area, it cannot grow any further. The income cannot be raised anymore. Hence the cooperation between the rural people and the government is very much needed to overcome the problem. What can we do for rural development? Ungku has made some proposal about the ways of rural development. The old systems of Bagi-Dua and the truck system should be abolished. He urged the Government to implement laws that will protect the rural people by improving the employee working conditions and to set a minimum wage floor. A new system is needed to replace or to break into the M-M system in the rural areas. Cooperation stands as the most suitable institution to take over the old systems, with the support from the Government. However, Ungku also stressed that the genuine competition would only exist when there are three sectors in the market, the public, private and cooperative.
This study analysis developing country' experiences of the last three decades after many of these countries had adopted neoliberal economic policies. An attempt is being made to study their achievements in terms of reducing poverty and unemployment. Also explores neoliberalism and globalisation and its impact on the process and development of democracy in developing countries in the present framework of global capitalism. I find that despite the disastrous experiences of neoliberal polices, especially in Latin American and African countries, still the international institutions are imposing these policies on the developing countries. It seems that little lesson has been learned from the past. There is a gap in the literature regarding the critical analysis of these polices. In recent years a number of Latin American countries have abandoned neoliberalism and adopted polices to be suitable to their national interests rather than foreign capital. I intend to examine these developments in details. We will briefly analyse the international financial institutions policies such as IMF and World Bank and their close co-operation with World Trade Organisation (WTO). Neoliberal versions of the 'globalisation' thesis are challenged, and it is argued that national-level economic process remains central and that the international economy is far from ungovernable. The study also examines India's recent experiences of neoliberal policies, while in contrast to that Ecuador's attempt to opt out of neoliberal policies and chart out new economic policies aimed towards more national economic control of resources and with active state intervention in favour of under privileged classes in the country.
There is widespread concern in Europe and other refugee-receiving continents that living in an enclave of coethnics hinders refugees' economic and social integration. Several European governments have adopted policies to geographically disperse refugees. While many theoretical arguments and descriptive studies analyze the impact of spatially concentrated ethnic networks on immigrant integration, there is limited causal evidence that sheds light on the efficacy of these policies. We provide evidence by studying the economic integration of refugees in Switzerland, where some refugees are assigned to live in a specific location upon arrival and, by law, are not permitted to relocate during the first 5 y. Leveraging this exogenous placement mechanism, we find that refugees assigned to locations with many conationals are more likely to enter the labor market. This benefit is most pronounced about 3 y after arrival and weakens somewhat with longer residency. In addition, we find that, among refugees employed by the same company, a high proportion share nationality, ethnicity, or language, which suggests that ethnic residential networks transmit information about employment opportunities. Together, these findings contribute to our understanding of the importance of ethnic networks for facilitating refugee integration, and they have implications for the design of refugee allocation policies.
To what extent do regions in different member states of the European Union benefit from Cohesion Policy? A spatial regression discontinuity design approach offers distinct but fully comparable estimates of regional impacts for each individual member state. Cohesion Policy has a positive European Union-wide impact on regional growth and employment. However, a large part of the growth bonus is concentrated in Germany, while impacts on employment are confined to the UK. The picture in Southern Europe is less rosy. In Italy, positive impacts on employment do not survive the Great Recession, while in Spain economic growth benefits are limited to the recovery period.
Further integration in the European Union (EU) increasingly depends on public legitimacy. The global financial crisis and the subsequent euro area crisis have amplified both the salience and the redistributive consequences of decisions taken in Brussels, raising the question of how this has influenced public support for European integration. In this contribution, we examine how public opinion has responded to the crisis, focusing on support for monetary integration. Interestingly, our results show that support for the euro has remained high within the euro area; however, attitudes are increasingly driven by utilitarian considerations, whereas identity concerns have become less important. While the crisis has been seen to deepen divisions within Europe, our findings suggest that it has also encouraged citizens in the euro area to form opinions on the euro on the basis of a cost–benefit analysis of European economic governance, rather than relying primarily on national attachments.
The basic problem of developing countries or backward countries always lies in poverty. To improve the standard of living in the developing countries, we need to eliminate poverty. Since the western colonization period in Malaysia, the poverty problem has been rooted in the society. The disintegration of traditional villages, the uneven distribution of income, monopoly system, neglected rural development, etc. are among the main problems of poverty. What are the causes of poverty? Without lacking cheap labours and land resources, the productivity in the agriculture sector is relatively low. Better seeds for crops plantation, tools, fertilizers and education for farm techniques are very much in need to improve the productivity. However, all these need working capital. Besides, farmers are being exploited in every possible way. Heavy rents, high-interest rates on debts, monopoly and monopsony system, all the terms of trade tend to be unfavorable to the farmers. No matter public facilities or educational system, the government tends to focus on urban development, rather than the rural area. The training and textbooks in the universities tend to focus more on the developed countries rather than tropical climate and plantations. There are many factors of low productivity in production and rural development. The rural labour is underemployed and works on a seasonal basis. Since western colonization, a majority of the labours have been racially specialized in different fields. This hindered them from moving from industries to industries. They are only exposed to very basic education and in an indigenous language. Besides labour, the farmers also being threatened by the effect of subdivision, fragmentation, extensive tenancy and preference for land as a form of investment. The agglomerator owners are only interested in high rent and tea money rather than the efficiency of the land. Hence the agrarian reforms are needed to solve the problem. And the main factor is the capital. This is the basic tool for exploitation. Farmers hesitated to get the loan or mobile money in order not to get trapped in the high-interest rate from the local money lender. Government's support and assistance are very much in need to overcome this problem. We must realize that agriculture is the major occupation of the country. Other industries are practically non-existent. Government plays an important role in the backward country development. The economic development cannot be separated from agrarian reform and from revolutionary changes. The government must prioritize the phasing of the industries development and budget allocation of each industry in her national development plan.
An important body of scholarly work has been produced over recent decades to explain variation in levels and patterns of state punishment across and within different countries around the world. Two variables that have curiously evaded systematic attention in this regard are, first, the orientation of incumbent governments along the political spectrum, and second, the experience and fiscal implications of national economic downturn. Although recent years have seen both variables receive somewhat greater consideration, there is still precious little research into the effects on state punishment that they have in interaction with one another. With a view to helping fill this gap in the literature, this article identifies the direction and assesses the extent of influence exerted by government political orientation, on the one hand, and by economic downturn alongside its fiscal repercussions, on the other hand, upon the evolution of incarceration in the context of contemporary Greece. In so doing, we offer a uniquely detailed account of carceral trends before and during the period that a coalition government led by the left-wing Syriza party was in power. With regard to carceral trends as such, the scope of our analysis extends beyond conventional imprisonment also to include immigration detention. As well as arguing that economic downturn can place crucial limits on a government's ability to execute progressive plans in carceral matters, we additionally conclude that a government's scope of action in this vein may be further restricted depending on the autonomy it can wield in defiance of foreign forces intervening in both economic and political realms.
Presidents need to craft political support to push through policy changes. But even when new policies are socially desirable, they are not always politically feasible. This article shows that in resource-rich countries, presidents can use windfall revenues to obtain support for their policy agenda. Using Ecuador as a case study, I show that oil revenues and president led policy changes have the same long-run trends (i.e. both variables are co-integrated); government expenditures link oil revenues and policy change in the short run; and more discretionary budget rules also increase president-led policy changes. In this country, presidents produced policy changes only when they benefited from high oil revenues. These findings contribute to the literature on policymaking in Latin America; they show that the fiscal context in which policymaking institutions operate shapes presidents' ability to produce policy changes and their long-run patterns. The results also present a framework to study policymaking in resource-rich countries.
This paper examines the continuities and changes in Sudan's political economy and political marketplace in the two years since the popular uprising that overthrew the regime of former president Omar alBashir, and the subsequent formation of a military-civilian transitional government. The government of Sovereignty Council Chairman Abd al-Fattah al-Burhan and Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok has the stated goals (among others) of transitioning to full civilian government, achieving peace with armed groups, and stabilizing and reforming the economy. Progress has been achieved on all these fronts. Nonetheless, key aspects of Sudan's political economy remain unchanged, especially underlying hyper-exploitation of labour and natural resources, a prominent role for businesses associated with the leaders of the security sector, and peace agreements incentivized by promises of material rewards provided through governmental office. Transactional politics continue to trump institutional and civic politics, making it harder to reform these aspects of an inequitable and predatory economy.
Reyog handicraft industry is one of the leading SMEs in Ponorogo Regency. In early 2020, the Government of Ponorogo Regency established a new building as a production and promotion center for SMEs actors, namely the Industrial Center. This research aims to analyze the feasibility of business financial aspects and development strategies of reyog craftsmen after the construction of industrial centers. Research method using quantitative descriptive approach, informant selected using purposive sampling technique as many as 9 craftsmen. The method of data retrieval through interviews combined with a list of open questionnaires and field observations. Feasibility analysis uses NPV, PBP, IRR and B/C Ratio calculations, while development strategies are analyzed with SWOT. The results of the financial feasibility analysis of 3 types of handicrafts, namely barongan head, bujangganong mask and kelonosewandono mask indicate that the development of reyog handicraft business is feasible and continued. Swot analysis results related to the development strategy used by craftsmen consists of market penetration, product development and market development, including expanding market share by utilizing social media, maintaining the quality of raw materials used production, prioritizing the production of goods that have a faster turnover, have a stock of raw materials production for several months and maintain the prevailing price standards in the market. Keywords: Feasibility, SWOT, Reyog, Industrial Center
Like the US, Canada has experienced pronounced growth in earnings inequality over the past three decades. But what is less well known is how this inequality differs between regions. In new research, Sébastien Breau finds that inequality is higher in the western provinces compared to the eastern ones, and between urban and rural regions. He writes that these geographical differences in inequality are linked to a region's industrial composition, local demographics, and the decline in unionization rates and cutbacks to government welfare programs.
The absence of a trade agreement between UK and EU will yield further depreciations of the pound relative to leading currencies, explain Michael Ellington and Costas Milas. This will then lead to a sharp cut in the Bank of England's policy rate and to another round of quantitative easing. In other words, a no-deal Brexit will push the Bank of England to the limit.
