Suchergebnisse

[Abstract] We tested the Political Business Cycle theory in Sub-Sahara Africa. To provide an empirical explanation for this nexus, this paper used unbalanced panel data from thirty-six (36) Sub-Saharan African countries between 1990 and 2018. The system Generalized Method of Moment (GMM) developed by Arrelano-Bover/Blundell-Bond was employed to analyze the collected data. The results of the system GMM revealed that the fiscal deficit is significantly large in election years and the deficit spending spills into the year after the election, though not as high as in the election year. We could not, however, find a significant effect in the pre-election year. In addition, we found evidence suggesting that though democracy significantly lowers the fiscal deficit, it promotes higher deficit spending in the election year and the year after the election. Hence, the study established the existence of a political business cycle in Sub-Saharan African countries. The study thus recommends that sound economic policies should be put in place to reduce the persistent deficit in SSA so as to maintain sustainable fiscal health, as well as the sustainability of macroeconomics, particularly enhanced industrialization, as the study found that countries' fiscal deficits are lower in more industrialized countries in the region.

We tested the Political Business Cycle theory in Sub-Sahara Africa. To provide an empirical explanation for this nexus, this paper used unbalanced panel data from thirty-six (36) Sub-Saharan African countries between 1990 and 2018. The system Generalized Method of Moment (GMM) developed by Arrelano-Bover/Blundell-Bond was employed to analyze the collected data. The results of the system GMM revealed that the fiscal deficit is significantly large in election years and the deficit spending spills into the year after the election, though not as high as in the election year. We could not, however, find a significant effect in the pre-election year. In addition, we found evidence suggesting that though democracy significantly lowers the fiscal deficit, it promotes higher deficit spending in the election year and the year after the election. Hence, the study established the existence of a political business cycle in Sub-Saharan African countries. The study thus recommends that sound economic policies should be put in place to reduce the persistent deficit in SSA so as to maintain sustainable fiscal health, as well as the sustainability of macroeconomics, particularly enhanced industrialization, as the study found that countries' fiscal deficits are lower in more industrialized countries in the region.

AbstractDeveloping countries are often thought to be particularly exposed to the constraints of global markets. Facing scrutiny from foreign investors, why do developing-country governments enter international bond markets, especially when they can access cheaper finance from international financial institutions? I argue that borrowing governments' perception of market constraints depends on global liquidity. When bond markets are highly liquid, investors become more risk acceptant and governments perceive the political costs of borrowing to be lower, especially compared to the conditionality of concessional loans. I use data on the timing of bond issues and three case studies—Ethiopia, Ghana, and Kenya—to demonstrate that choices to issue debt were shaped by global liquidity. These findings nuance debates about how markets constrain governments, emphasizing that market constraints are conditional on systemic factors, including, global liquidity.

We tested the Political Business Cycle theory in Sub-Sahara Africa. To provide an empirical explanation for this nexus, this paper used unbalanced panel data from thirty-six (36) Sub-Saharan African countries between 1990 and 2018. The system Generalized Method of Moment (GMM) developed by Arrelano-Bover/Blundell-Bond was employed to analyze the collected data. The results of the system GMM revealed that the fiscal deficit is significantly large in election years and the deficit spending spills into the year after the election, though not as high as in the election year. We could not, however, find a significant effect in the pre-election year. In addition, we found evidence suggesting that though democracy significantly lowers the fiscal deficit, it promotes higher deficit spending in the election year and the year after the election. Hence, the study established the existence of a political business cycle in Sub-Saharan African countries. The study thus recommends that sound economic policies should be put in place to reduce the persistent deficit in SSA so as to maintain sustainable fiscal health, as well as the sustainability of macroeconomics, particularly enhanced industrialization, as the study found that countries' fiscal deficits are lower in more industrialized countries in the region.

International audience ; We study the impact of expenditure rules on the propensity for governments to deviate from their expenditure plans in response to surprising cyclical developments. Theoretical considerations suggest that due to political fragmentation in the budgetary process expenditure policy might be prone to a pro-cyclical bias. However, this tendency may be mitigated by strictly enforced expenditure rules. These hypotheses are tested against data from a panel of European Union (EU) Member States. Our key findings are that (i) deviations between actual and planned government expenditure tend to be positively related to output gap surprises, and (ii) expenditure rules reduce this pro-cyclical bias. These results are particularly pronounced when the analysis is confined to spending items with a high degree of budgetary flexibility.

We study the impact of numerical expenditure rules on the propensity of governments to deviate from expenditure targets in response to surprises in cyclical conditions. Theoretical considerations suggest that due to political fragmentation in the budgetary process expenditure policy might be prone to a pro-cyclical bias. However, this tendency may be mitigated by numerical expenditure rules. These hypotheses are tested against data from a panel of EU Member States. Our key findings are that (i) deviations between actual and planned government expenditure are positively related to unanticipated changes in the output gap, and (ii) numerical expenditure rules reduce this pro-cyclical bias. Moreover, the pro-cyclical spending bias is found to be particularly pronounced for spending items with a high degree of budgetary flexibility.

The study of behavior differs fundamentally from the study of the psyche and logically cannot share the same discipline. However, while disciplines might be defined through technical exercises, they function through exercises of political power. The evolution of a discipline, though based on field and laboratory data interpreted within a specific paradigm and justified publicity by its utility to solve personal and social problems, follows a course of development in the political arenas of the academies and the professions. We happen to have a discipline, roughly connoted by the label "behavior analysis," without an academic home (the present ones haphazardly tolerate our activities), without a professional organization (the present one lobbies only "for behavior analysis"), and without a true professional name (the present one implies an approach not a discipline). No scientific community lasts long without a supporting professional infrastructure. In explicitly asserting ourselves as a discipline, we confront a number of difficult issues such as continuing to work in departments antithetical to behaviorism and a number of problems such as what we call ourselves to identify our professional and scientific concerns. (For example, we need a term descriptive of our science in its broad sense. That term is not psychology. Too many people persist in maintaining its commitment to cognitivism. On whatever term we agree, "behavior" should constitute its stem, for our efforts focus there, not in the putative underlying psyche or its current cognitive update.) The focus of our concerns and the solutions of our problems rest on one issue: Will our discipline prosper most as a branch of psychology or as an independent discipline? Slowly, but surely, our actions demonstrate that the latter is the preferred option, but these actions, though fortuitous, occur almost by accident. By specifically programming to achieve an independent professional status we increase the probability of doing so.

Confronted with the manyfold deviations & fluctuations of social development that cannot be explained by linear-evolutionary, let alone equilibrium, theory, cyclical concepts claim to improve theory building. These concepts are based on the assumption that empirical deviations from a trend should not be handled as a random error but can be interpreted substantially. Correspondingly, the change from equilibrium to cyclical theory demarcates the changed perception of social systems from static to dynamic stability. The newer concepts, however, no longer thematize holistic changes of a social system but componential changes within a system. The problems arising from this changed perspective are discussed, in terms of definition & statistical assessment of cycles. 44 References. Modified HA

European countries are developing or implementing policies that promote or require the use of information modelling in the architecture, engineering, construction and manufacture sectors. The integration of Building Information Modelling (BIM) to these sectors includes social, economic, political, legal and other aspects. This is why the implementation of BIM requires an integrated and broad approach that includes not only the BIM implementation and development strategy in designing companies but also in the field of education and professional training. The article discusses the potential of integrating BIM in different study programs and the possibilities of international cooperation in interdisciplinary BIM projects. The different levels of BIM will be explored in connection to different curricula. Particular attention is paid to the compatibility and applicability of design and innovative technology solutions using BIM methodology and the development of co-operation between higher education institutions in the Nordic region [1]. The aim of this paper is to carry out a comparative analysis and present the integration model of Building Information Modeling (BIM) into the Architecture programmes in different study cycles based on the example of Nordic countries. Objectives: To provide BIM use opportunities in 3 years Bachelor level based on Engineeering architecture study programme of VIA University College; To provide BIM use opportunities in 5 years Integrated studies based on Architecture studies pro­gramme of Kaunas University of Technology; To provide BIM use opportunities in the 2 years Master of Science program in Sustainable Architecture at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology; To perform comparative analysis between different countries and different study cycles; To provide a possible model for integration of the international BIM project in different study cycles.

European countries are developing or implementing policies that promote or require the use of information modelling in the architecture, engineering, construction and manufacture sectors. The integration of Building Information Modelling (BIM) to these sectors includes social, economic, political, legal and other aspects. This is why the implementation of BIM requires an integrated and broad approach that includes not only the BIM implementation and development strategy in designing companies but also in the field of education and professional training. The article discusses the potential of integrating BIM in different study programs and the possibilities of international cooperation in interdisciplinary BIM projects. The different levels of BIM will be explored in connection to different curricula. Particular attention is paid to the compatibility and applicability of design and innovative technology solutions using BIM methodology and the development of co-operation between higher education institutions in the Nordic region [1]. The aim of this paper is to carry out a comparative analysis and present the integration model of Building Information Modeling (BIM) into the Architecture programmes in different study cycles based on the example of Nordic countries. Objectives: To provide BIM use opportunities in 3 years Bachelor level based on Engineeering architecture study programme of VIA University College; To provide BIM use opportunities in 5 years Integrated studies based on Architecture studies pro­gramme of Kaunas University of Technology; To provide BIM use opportunities in the 2 years Master of Science program in Sustainable Architecture at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology; To perform comparative analysis between different countries and different study cycles; To provide a possible model for integration of the international BIM project in different study cycles.

European countries are developing or implementing policies that promote or require the use of information modelling in the architecture, engineering, construction and manufacture sectors. The integration of Building Information Modelling (BIM) to these sectors includes social, economic, political, legal and other aspects. This is why the implementation of BIM requires an integrated and broad approach that includes not only the BIM implementation and development strategy in designing companies but also in the field of education and professional training. The article discusses the potential of integrating BIM in different study programs and the possibilities of international cooperation in interdisciplinary BIM projects. The different levels of BIM will be explored in connection to different curricula. Particular attention is paid to the compatibility and applicability of design and innovative technology solutions using BIM methodology and the development of co-operation between higher education institutions in the Nordic region [1]. The aim of this paper is to carry out a comparative analysis and present the integration model of Building Information Modeling (BIM) into the Architecture programmes in different study cycles based on the example of Nordic countries. Objectives: To provide BIM use opportunities in 3 years Bachelor level based on Engineeering architecture study programme of VIA University College; To provide BIM use opportunities in 5 years Integrated studies based on Architecture studies programme of Kaunas University of Technology; To provide BIM use opportunities in the 2 years Master of Science program in Sustainable Architecture at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology; To perform comparative analysis between different countries and different study cycles; To provide a possible model for integration of the international BIM project in different study cycles.