Suchergebnisse

AbstractIt is widely accepted that incumbents in democratic societies may use various economic policies to increase their chances of re-election. But incumbents in the most advanced democracies may be restrained in overtly manipulating economic policy instruments before elections, because more experienced voters could penalize them for such opportunistic behavior. Incumbents may embrace indirect and more 'camouflaged' means such as opportunistically relaxing the stance of tax revenue performance before elections, either by laxer collection efforts, additional tax exemptions or preferential treatments, or a combination of these. In this article, we present evidence of election-related cycles in the tax revenue performance of 25 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development advanced democracies. We empirically analyze the collection effectiveness of Value Added Tax (VAT) around elections. The findings reveal significant deterioration of VAT revenue performance before elections.

Hungary has had a remarkably high public debt throughout the transition, and it has continued to increase during recent years, exceeding 80% of the GDP. Its debt and fiscal deficit were the highest among the Visegrád countries during the transition. One factor triggering the debt increase may be elections-related fiscal policies. By analyzing quarterly data for Hungary, we found clear empirical evidence of fiscal expansion before elections and contractions afterwards. These events are widely known as political fiscal cycles. We observed statistically significant incremental increases in fiscal deficits as elections approach, both in nominal and in GDP ratios, followed by contractions after elections. Thus, it can be concluded that incumbents in Hungary are engaged in opportunistic political fiscal cycles by embracing expansionary fiscal policy before parliamentary elections. Our findings also suggest that political fiscal cycles in Hungary may be an underlying factor contributing to the accumulation of public debt.

In our search for Political Business Cycles in Albania, we found clear evidence of the attempts made by the incumbent to manipulate the economy. There is a statistically significant increase of public expenditures before elections aiming at reducing unemployment and increasing output, in order to please the voters. Regarding the macroeconomic outputs, we have found, evidence of PBC in GDP and unemployment but not in inflation. The fiscal expansionary policy before elections, leads to higher GDP and lower unemployment before/during elections. However, the inflation does not significantly increase as expected. That might be attributed to the mature monetary policy conducted by the Central Bank which enjoys a relatively high level of independence.

Summary This paper aims to analyze urban consumer preferences for Albanian honey, focusing on key product attributes such as origin, type, location and price, using a conjoint choice experiment and latent class approach. Origin and location-landscape were found to be the most important factors for most surveyed consumers. Albanian consumers prefer honey produced in mountainous forests and on pastures. Moreover, multi-flower honey is preferred compared to chestnuts honey. These results can be used to producers' advantage when local branding and well-perceived certification (e.g., producer associations' brands) would be applied in order to increase the consumer awareness and strengthen the intrinsic features of the product especially for small producers. Labeling should be clear and emphasize the origin as well as the natural landscape where beehives are kept. Furthermore, in its regionalization economic development policy, the government may consider supporting honey produced from the mountainous areas.

AbstractDisasters can be good for incumbent governments. Amidst an emergency, budgets can be revised and reallocated in a hurry, framing the government as a 'saviour,' issuing contracts to the government's business clientele and/or prioritising the electoral base more than the victims. Thus elected officials can curry favour with voters and increase their chances of retaining their seats. We examine this claim in the context of Albania, a middle-income country with weak public institutions. We show that the relief for two calamities, a destructive earthquake in 2019 and the Covid-19 pandemic, was used by the government to mobilise votes, thereby increasing the likelihood of electoral success in 2021. Both earthquake relief funding and Covid-19 vaccination rates spiked right before the elections only to drop soon afterwards. This phenomenon, known as the Electoral Politics of Disaster (EPD), poses a risk for the national economy, public health, spatial planning and democracy.

Purpose: This paper aims to contribute to understanding of the effects of active political engagement in port-of-entry jobs and employment pathways for graduate students. The data are derived from a structured survey of a small local labour market where political clientelism is pronounced due to the strong network ties. Controlling for both demand and supply factors we identify a profile for those who are more prone to engage politically in exchange for public sector jobs, which are in turn vulnerable to regime changes. Design/methodology/approach: We use data from a sample of 191 participants that records month-tomonth employment states for three consecutive years (2012-2014). The method attempts to replicate an experimental design with repeated measures before and after the June 2013 government elections. The data is analysed using sequence analysis with optimal matching and difference-in-difference methods. Note: This is the final submitted version of the manuscript accepted for publication by the International Journal of Manpower, on the 5th of February 2022. Findings: The analysis provides evidence of links between political engagement and selection onto different employment pathways. The pathways themselves are also shown to be differentially impacted by the 2013 election (positively or negatively). Together, these results are supportive of claims that jobs in Albania, particularly those in the public sector, are linked to the short-term presence of vote-buying and the political business cycle. This is shown to be the case even for this sample of educated members of the labour force (i.e. university graduates). The analysis also finds evidence of accumulative disadvantages over time, in relation to subjective perceptions of life satisfaction, migration intentions, employability and success in life, as a result of active political engagement. Originality: The study uses a unique data set and a novel methodology, sequence analysis. Occupational history calendars were used to capture quantitative information ...

AbstractResearch on gender equality for several decades has observed gender roles as related to decisions, asset availability, and bargaining power. Literature examining the influence of intra‐family bargaining power and rights on farm structures is scarce. This article builds on the feminisation thesis for exploring how feminisation in agriculture has been changing women's agency in family farms. It analyses the effect of farming decision‐making in farm structures in Albania, a post‐communist transition country undergoing rural depopulation and migration. Based on data collected from structured farm surveys, an instrumental variable regression is used for exploring the relationship between women's farming decision power and production structures. The analysis finds a positive influence of women's decision‐making power on farms oriented to orchards, and a negative influence on farms oriented to forage (livestock‐oriented farms) and farms with uncultivated (abandoned) land. Women's farming decision‐making power is highly influenced by their education, perception of land rights equality, and access to advisory services. The article provides evidence for interventions including institutional support to strengthen land rights, empowering women farmers through training, awareness campaigns, and advocacy activities.