Suchergebnisse

The aim of the study was to examine the impact of the official development aid (ODA) on productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa. As development policies embrace different types of aid interventions, we decomposed aid by type of flows and analysed their relations with 24 African states' productivity (measured by total factor productivity) over the period 1995-2014. Results of the dynamic panel model estimation reveal important implications for the development cooperation policy agenda. It appears that although total value of ODA does not support productivity, technical aid disbursements are associated with higher total factor productivity. This implies that the implementation of technical cooperation enables absorption of technology and contributes to the increase of technology development in recipient Sub-Saharan African countries. The results are fairly robust. Moreover, in this study we confirm that low infrastructure development and shortages in primary education are associated with lower productivity, while trade openness, development of financial market, and political stability - with higher productivity values.

The paper analyses the official development assistance provided by France to African countries within 2001—2012. The term official development assistance is understood as financial flows directed by the institutions of donor countries to a certain group of countries and multilateral institutions in order to support the progress and prosperity of developing countries. The aim of the study is to verify whether the criteria for granting financial support declared by the donors (in here: France) and determined by the Millennium Development Goals (defined by the UN General Assembly in 2000), are covered by actual financial flows.
Data concerning the volume of the development assistance within 2001—2012 were analysed in the following subgroups of countries: the ones which were and were not historical colonies as well as countries with and without natural resources. For each subgroup, a panel model with fixed effects was estimated. It was stated that although mainly the development issues and anti-poverty campaign are postulated by the French foreign policy, the recipients structure of development assistance provided by France is largely dependent on the common colonial past, energy sources potential (oil, gas, uranium), migration level as well as bilateral trade exchange.

Development cooperation is an important element of international relations because it influences the power balance between major players on the world markets and in the political debate. The aim of the article was to analyze the French development assistance model based upon the amount of help sent to Africa over the period 2001-2012. The motivation of donor country is a crucial factor of development assistance, which influence not only the relations between donors and recipients, but also the effectiveness of aid. We estimated a series of dynamic panel models to assess whether the poverty-related factors play a dominant role in the distribution of help. On the contrary, we found that the most important variables appeared to be the political and economic dependencies, among others: colonial history and oil/gas reserves.

Development cooperation is an important element of international relations because it influences the power balance between major players on the world markets and in the political debate. The aim of the article was to analyze the French development assistance model based upon the amount of help sent to Africa over the period 2001-2012. The motivation of donor country is a crucial factor of development assistance, which influence not only the relations between donors and recipients, but also the effectiveness of aid. We estimated a series of dynamic panel models to assess whether the poverty-related factors play a dominant role in the distribution of help. On the contrary, we found that the most important variables appeared to be the political and economic dependencies, among others: colonial history and oil/gas reserves.

Purpose
This paper aims to find, which of the assets: gold, oil or bitcoin can be considered a safe-haven for investors in a crisis-driven Venezuela. The authors look also at the governmental change of approach towards the use and mining of cryptocurrencies being one of the assets and potential applications of bitcoin as (quasi) money.


Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected the daily data (a period from 01 May 2014 to 31 July 2018) on the development of the following magnitudes: Caracas Stock Exchange main index: Índice Bursátil de Capitalisación (IBC) index; gold price in US dollars, the oil price in US dollars and Bitcoin price in bolivar fuerte (VEF) (LocalBitcoins). The authors estimated a threshold VAR model between IBC and each of the possible safe-haven assets, where the trigger variable was the IBC; then the authors modelled the residuals from the TVAR model using MGARCH model with dynamic conditional correlation.


Findings
The results show that that gold is a better safe-haven than oil for Venezuelan investors, while bitcoin can be considered a weak safe haven. Still, bitcoin can perform (to a certain extent) money functions in a crisis-driven country.


Research limitations/implications
Further research after the change of local currency from VEF into bolivar soberano might be looked at on the later stage.


Practical implications
The authors provide evidence on which of analysed asset is the best safe-haven for the investors acting in the time of the crisis. The evidence goes in line with other authors' findings, thus, the results might bring implications for investors of more universal character. Additionally, the result might be helpful for governments and/or monetary authorities while projecting institutional frameworks and conducting monetary policy.


Social implications
The unprecedented economic crisis in Venezuela was one of the factors that fuelled the mining and use of cryptocurrencies in the daily life of its citizens. Nowadays, the country is a leader in terms of the use of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in Latin America. The results show a potential application of bitcoin as a store of value or even means of payments in Venezuelan (or in other countries affected by the crisis).


Originality/value
The paper builds on the original data set collected by the authors and brings evidence from the models the authors constructed to verify, which asset is the best option for investors in hard times of the crisis. The authors add to the existing literature on financial assets, cryptocurrencies and behaviour of investors under different economic conditions.