International Economics

"It is important to establish the “Proto-dynamo” as concept that represents an entirely new paradigm of economic infrastructure. The concept alludes to the “dynamo” which is a machine that uses opposing magnetic forces to efficiently produce/convert energy. The principle behind the dynamo is to use opposing forces within the same machine to get a consolidated output of energy. If the new paradigm of “protodynamism” can be represented by an electrical generator, the old paradigm of Keynesian theory can be represented by a meat grinder in which ten pounds of product goes in one side, and six ounces of tasteless sausage comes out the funnel possibly tainted with formaldehyde or some random pesticide that is unpronounceable. "

The effects of the recent global economic crises on Nigeria’s economy have reaffirmed the urgent need for economic diversification in the country. Although no country is immune to such global crises, the over reliance on oil export revenue by Nigeria expose her economy excessively to external shocks. Therefore, this research examines the impact of aggregate non-oil sector and its determinant on economic growth. The bound test approach was explored to examine the long and short run effects of the non-oil export and its ensuing determinants. The result reveals a significant effect of non-oil export on economic growth in both the long and short run. Policies aimed at boosting the level and significance of the non-oil export were proposed.

Dear Colleagues,‎

We are proud to bring to you the latest edition of the FORTNIGHTLY, a review of Middle East ‎business, developments and news, for the period ending 2 October 2019.‎

Some highlights of this issue include the following:‎

‎2.3  Cox Automotive Begins Israel Auto-Tech Operations

‎3.3  Dubai's Retail Sector Undergoing a Major Transformation Due to e-Commerce

‎8.3  Strauss Group Reduces Sugar in Its Milk Chocolate by 30% with No Artificial Substitutes

‎9.8  US Defense Innovation Unit Selects D-Fend Solutions' Counter Drone System

‎10.1  Israel Ranked 38th in the World for Economic Freedom

‎11.4  EGYPT:  Israel to Start Exporting Natural Gas to Egypt as Last Obstacle Is Removed

In addition, if you would like to bring to our attention any relevant Middle Eastern regional ‎development of interest, please notify me at: seth.vogelman@atid-edi.com.‎

There are more types of borders today than ever before in history. Borders of all kinds define every aspect of social life in the twenty-first century. From the biometric data that divides the smallest aspects of our bodies to the aerial drones that patrol the immense expanse of our domestic and international airspace, we are defined by borders. They can no longer simply be understood as the geographical divisions between nation-states. Today, their form and function has become too complex, too hybrid. What we need now is a theory of the border that can make sense of this hybridity across multiple domains of social life.

Rather than viewing borders as the result or outcome of pre-established social entities like states, Thomas Nail reinterprets social history from the perspective of the continual and constitutive movement of the borders that organize and divide society in the first place. Societies and states are the products of bordering, Nail argues, not the other way around. Applying his original movement-oriented theoretical framework "kinopolitics" to several major historical border regimes (fences, walls, cells, and checkpoints), Theory of the Border pioneers a new methodology of "critical limology," that provides fresh tools for the analysis of contemporary border politics.

Over the past two decades capitalism and globalization have gradually changed skin. Both have undergone an acceleration that has radically changed their nature and their rules, resulting in a new scenario of the economic geography at the global and the local scale. The crisis started in 2007, first financial and then economic, has inserted in the context of these changes, even producing the emergence of new actors on the international scene and the relative decline of the traditional areas of development. This scenario is the product of a complex web of ideas, actors, networks, technologies and agreements that the volume attempts to analyze in the most significant components.

Energy plays a fundamental role in the development of any economy. It determines the quality of lives of citizens and is one of the most important drivers of economic development. Since the 1990s, the sector has undergone substantial reforms and liberalization which has now made private players to have an important role in the growth and development of this sector. Consequently, the privatization and liberalization process has led to the emergence of global players in energy services and enhanced trade in energy services. Hence, this study examines Nigeria's opportunities and constraints to trade in energy services within the GATS framework. Evidence revealed that Nigeria has the capacity and potential to take advantage of the opportunities offered by GATS. While, unilateral liberalization and privatization have created new services associated with energy production, distribution and transmission and enhanced trade in energy services, certain challenges such as regulatory and trade barriers still remains. Nigeria needs foreign investment, technical knowhow and best management practices in the energy sector to sustain the performance of the sector to take advantage of the global opportunities that exist in the sector.

This research aimed at assessing how international trade and expansion of SMEs play a greater role on economic growth of Rwanda. The idea that international trade is an engine of economic growth dates from long back, and even now an overwhelming body of literature affirms a strong and positive link between international trade and economic growth. The finding reveals the major challenges confronting SMEs in Rwanda and the study thus suggests recommendations for running successful small businesses in Rwanda. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are essential to economic growth and significantly indispensable to generate profit, augment sales and provide return on investment to the owners of SMEs. Therefore the SMEs growth depends to a great degree on the way entrepreneurship skills have been developed in SMEs. To achieve them, we collected primary data from 140 different SMEs and 10 employer’s officers of ministries, government’s boards which have international trade and SMEs in their attribution. Data were collected using structured and unstructured questionnaires. The responses of the participants were analyzed by the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) that generated the frequency distributions, means, standard deviations, etc. The major findings of this study include the following: SMEs have played and continue to play significant roles in the growth, development and industrialization of many economies of the world. In looking at programs and policy options to strengthen and expand the SME sector in Rwanda, the Policy identifies similarities, to stimulate growth of sustainable SMEs through enhanced business support service provision, access to finance by improving productivity, efficiency and by stimulating and enabling innovation, facilitating commercialization, new business formation, increasing research and development in the same case of marketing and advertisement. The stationary properties and order of integration of the data are tested using both Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test and Phillip-Perron (PP) test on all the time series data. The variables are stationary at first differences, and so Johansen co-integration tests are then employed to determine whether the variables are co-integrated. The VECM enables not only the analysis of the long run and short run relationships, but also the examination of any causal relationships between international trade and economic growth. This framework, through which the dynamics feedbacks are captured, also permits the detection of any indirect effects among the variables. Finally, the direction of causality between openness and economic growth is determined by applying Granger-Causality tests.

This paper examined the co-movement and causality between oil price and inflation using monthly data spanning between January 2007 and March 2020. The study employed the wavelet coherence techniques which are a new technique in economics and finance to verify the co-movement and causality simultaneously. Additionally, Granger and Toda Yamamoto's causality tests were deployed as a robustness check for the wavelet coherence techniques. Findings from the wavelet coherence technique reveal; (a) positive co-movement between the inflation and oil price between 2014M2 and 2017M1 at scale 4-8; (b) there is evidence of causality from oil price to inflation. Wavelet coherence technique revealed unidirectional causality running from oil price to inflation which is also confirmed by the Granger and Toda Yamamoto causality tests. To the author's understanding, no studies concerning oil price and inflation nexus in the case of Nigeria have deployed this technique. Based on these findings, recommendations were put forward.

Since fiscal rules are not a panacea, and all of the economic, political, and financial forces that impact on sovereign creditworthiness cannot possibly be controlled, chances are that some governments will encounter debt-servicing difficulties when they least expect it. Certainly, to the extent that nations adhere to market-friendly policies that foster investor confidence and prosperity, and generate the budgetary revenues, export earnings, and capital inflows necessary to keep servicing debt obligations, their fiscal resilience will be enhanced. Sound liability-management practices can also make a major contribution to creditworthiness, because when the public debt exhibits a risk-averse currency, interest rate, and maturity structure, it should be able to withstand the temporary harm done by a natural disaster, or a sudden deterioration in financial market conditions or the terms of foreign trade. And last, but not least, prudential regulations, and sensible monetary and exchange rate policies, can make a major difference in terms of minimizing contingent liabilities arising out of the banking system, state-owned enterprises, and other risk pockets in the economy, thereby preventing a destabilizing jump in the public debt. These are the lessons from painful experience.

The idea that free trade leads to prosperity is neoliberal propaganda. The idea is based on Ricardo’s theory of comparative advantage, which was already shown to be wrong by Frank Graham in 1923. This refutation didn’t lead to the theory’s demise, however, because it is an ideology rather than a scientific theory. It is an ideological tool in neocolonial efforts to further exploit the developing world and in neoliberal efforts to dismantle democracy and empower the financial elite.

Dear Colleagues,‎

We are proud to bring to you the latest edition of the FORTNIGHTLY, a review of Middle East ‎business, developments and news, for the period ending 5 February 2020.‎

Some highlights of this issue include the following:‎

‎2.7  Comtech to Acquire Gilat Satellite Networks for $532.5 Million in a Strategic Transaction

‎3.4  The UAE’s First WeWork Officially Opens

‎5.3  GCC Medical Costs Set to Outpace Inflation by Over 300%‎

‎5.9  Positive Macro-Economic Indicators gave Egypt’s Economy a Boost in 2019‎

‎8.1  ELSE Nutrition Receives Notice of Allowance from U.S. Patent Office

‎11.7  GREECE:  Fitch Upgrades Greece to 'BB'; Outlook Positive‎

In addition, if you would like to bring to our attention any relevant Middle Eastern regional ‎development of interest, please notify me at: seth.vogelman@atid-edi.com.‎

12th Annual Green Economics Institute Conference  10-12th June 2017
3 Days St Hugh's College, University of Oxford, Keeping Social and Environmental Justice Alive in an age of Tyranny..
Reforming Economics.
Green Finance, Green Investment & Green Economics
Reclaiming The Economy from Privatisers, Fossil Fuellers, Xenophobes and Divide and Rulers.
Keeping social and environmental justice alive in this new age of Barbarism- Post Truth and Post Science

Global supply chain integration is not only a rapidly growing feature of international trade, it is responsible for fundamentally changing trade policy at international and domestic levels. Given that final goods are produced with both domestic and foreign suppliers, Ka Zeng and Xiaojun Li argue that global supply chain integration pits firms and industries that are more heavily dependent on foreign supply chains against those that are less dependent on intermediate goods for domestic production. Hence, businesses whose supply chain would be disrupted as a result of increased trade barriers should lobby for preferential trade liberalization to maintain access to those foreign markets. Moreover, businesses whose products are used in the production of goods in foreign countries should also support preferential trade liberalization to compete with suppliers from other parts of the world.
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Fragmenting Globalization uses multiple methods, including time series, cross-sectional analysis of the pattern of Preferential Trade Alliance formation by existing World Trade Organization members, a firm-level survey, and case studies of the pattern of corporate support for regional trade liberalization in both China and the United States. Zeng and Li show that the growing fragmentation of global production, trade, and investment is altering trade policy away from the traditional divide between export-oriented and import-competing industries.

How to be an international lawyer? Basic requirements

The globalization process has made relations between actors from different countries more and more common, putting the regulations that regulate these links at the forefront and the need for expert professionals capable of resolving any conflict that may arise.Here, Ari Afilalo, a specialist in international trade law, explains the basic requirements for becoming an international lawyer.
Mr. Afilalo is a law professor at the Rutgers Law School. He specializes in international trade law, business transactions and contracts.

An international lawyer is a professional who has specialized in International Law, either in its public aspect (the one that regulates relations between States and other subjects with international legal personality), or private (legal relations between individuals and that have an international character) .
What are the functions of an international lawyer?
Lawyer of Public International Law
A lawyer specialized in Public International Law knows the international norms, principles, customs and international treaties that address relations between States and international Organizations in matters such as Human Rights and the use of common resources at a global level, such as the environment. , international waters, airspace and outer space.
Lawyers
He is an expert with knowledge of the means of peaceful settlement of disputes, as well as the regulation of the prohibition of the use of force and its exceptions, specifically, the legitimate defense and the collective security system.
This professional may work for specialized law firms or as part of the legal teams of embassies, consulates or other public bodies.
Private International Law Lawyer
For his part, an international lawyer focused on the private branch will be the ideal professional to advise on issues such as international marriages, international divorces, international successions, international adoptions, extra-contractual obligations with a foreign element, international contracts or the trade of cross-border goods and services, etc.
This professional may work in both law firms and legal departments of companies operating in various markets
Likewise, this professional will be able to work in both law firms and legal departments of companies that operate in various markets. Their work will be key in advising on possible conflicts of international judicial competence, applicable law and the extraterritorial effectiveness of foreign judicial decisions.
Requirements to be an international lawyer
To become an international lawyer the first step is to study the Degree in Law. It is the career that gives access to the master's degree in the Law Practice that allows preparing and passing the official entrance exam to this profession and getting a college degree to practice.
After completing compulsory training to practice as a lawyer, it is possible to dedicate yourself to this specialty; even so, if you want to stand out as a professional, specialization in some of the areas of International Law will be key given the breadth of subjects it covers.

The 21st century consumers are mindful of problems that impact social and environmental sustainability, fast fashion’s main emphasis is faster turnaround from factories to stay competitive thus some retail companies aren’t paying keen attention on the ethics in apparel production factories (Bhasin, 2014, June 04; Tan, 2016). According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) forced labor is a worldwide concern affecting 21 million people; simply put there are 3 out of every 1,000 victims who are part of forced labor within Asia-Pacific with 11.7 million and other regions as shown in Appendix A (Mcclelland, 2017). 260 million children partake in employment with an estimate of 170 million children engaged in apparel making; ILO estimated that 6 million children are in forced labor with 14 to 16 working hour days in poor working conditions with reported cases in Bangladesh apparel factories; yarn spinning in India; cotton seeds production in Benin; and harvesting cotton in Uzbekistan (Moulds, 2017; Peiris, 2005). Ashridge Centre for Business and Sustainability, and Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) confirmed that 71% of companies admitted to cases of modern slavery in their supply chain; with 168 million child labor cases in 2017 and a proven improvement from 246 million cases in 2000 (Mcclelland, 2017). Can apparel suppliers and retailers tackle the unethical practices that are impacting humanity and integrate practices that would ensure social sustainability? The focus of this research was for an opportunity to acquire and understand millennials perspectives on the unethical conduct and fashion industry with relevance to apparel sourcing, manufacturing, industry sustainability.

JEL: L60, L67, M14, D29, K20

This study estimates the magnitude of trade misinvoicing in Pakistan with 21 of its developed trading partners in 52 major traded commodities during 1972– 2013. We find that the total volume of trade misinvoicing for this period exceeds US$92.7 billion. The gross revenue loss borne by the national exchequer due to trade misinvoicing is estimated at US$21.2 billion. Moreover, the total net revenue loss is an estimated US$11 billion in the form of evasion of customs duties and export withholding tax. The annual average net revenue loss due to trade misinvoicing is almost equivalent to 11.2 percent of the total revenue generated from customs tariffs. We also find that customs tariffs and the interest rate are positively associated with import under-invoicing, while improvements in the current account balance and political stability reduce the extent of import over-invoicing. Capital account openness is found to be insignificant in determining trade misinvoicing.

Many scholars have contributed to ongoing debates about the competition between the dollar and the euro for global monetary dominance. Few have added as much value as Miguel Otero-Iglesias with his systematic and original survey of the views of financial elites in major emerging market economies. Where conventional interpretations emphasize material "reality," Otero-Iglesias's ideational analysis clearly demonstrates how important it is to consider as well how "reality" is perceived and framed by key actors. The euro may be structurally weak, limiting its "hard" power. But at the cognitive level of "soft" power, Otero-Iglesias suggests, Europe's money poses a significant challenge to America's greenback. This is an argument to be taken seriously.

Benjamin J. Cohen, Louis G. Lancaster Professor of International Political Economy University of California, Santa Barbara, USA.

Housing is a major industry where price mechanisms or market regulations are applied for efficiency, and house provision is controlled by governments. Malaysia is one of the countries that are facing an upward trend in demand for housing, and the increase in housing prices has become worrying. This paper investigated the impact of macroeconomic variables in the house price index in Malaysia from the period 1988 until 2017 by annually. The selected macroeconomics variables for this study are gross domestic product, consumer price index, base lending rate, and money supply. Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) estimation was used to investigate the short-run and long-run elasticities of the proposed econometric model based on the selected macroeconomic variable mention above. The results from the Augmented Dickey-Fuller and Phillips-Perron tests of stationarity indicated that all the variables were non-stationary at the level I (o) but stationary at the first difference I (1). The long-run elasticities showed that gross domestic product and base lending rate is significant and positively influenced house price index in Malaysia. Consumer price index and money supply have a negative impact on house price index in the long run.

This article examined the influence of different exchange rate regimes on the Nigeria’s inflation performance between 1970 and 2012. The combined use of the de jure and the de facto classification regimes in this paper allowed us to test the relative value of announcements- words (de jure classification) as opposed to actual behavior-deeds (de facto classification). In this regard, while we find deeds to be the relevant dimension for inflation in the context of crawling pegs, only hard pegs seem to be important in the context of words. These results hold even after controlling for the growth in money supply and interest rate. The hollowing out hypothesis in the case of Nigeria is therefore not confirmed.

The main purpose of this study is to examine the effects of the exchange rates, international prices, and the demand shocks on inflation in Fiji Island. The study covered the annual data from 1975 to 2010.The variables are found to be following unit root process at the level form and stationary at the difference form, and the multi variate cointegration tests showed that there is one cointegratng vector between the Fiji consumer price index, Australian consumer price index, domestic demand shocks, Exchange rate Australian dollars /unit Fiji dollar, and devaluation years dummies. Further, Vector Error Correction (VEC)model shows that the changes in Fiji consumer price index is Granger caused by the long term trends in all other variables afore mentioned, especially when the Consumer Price Index in Australia , and devaluation dummy years are ,put as exogenous variables in the VEC model, with the with the changes in exchange rate, and changes in demand shocks as independent variables but endogenous in the VEC model. The impulse response function also shows that due to the exchange rate depreciation, inflation increases for many years in Fiji. Due to one standard deviation shock in demand shocks, though Fiji inflation declines initially, it subsequently increases for many years. One standard deviation shock in inflation also increases demand shocks in Fiji for many years. Impulse response function appears to show that the devaluation is contractionary in the long run for Fiji. The Variance Decomposition results also that a major part of the variations in inflation is explained by the Fiji dollar exchange rate movements. The Policy implication of our study is that as a monetary policy instrument the flexibility of the exchange rate policy is indispensable for Fiji to absorb appropriately the international supply and price shocks

The paper examines the effect of FDI and its interaction with trade openness on income inequality in Nigeria. In doing this, the DOLS estimator is employed to analyse annual time series data covering the period from 1981 to 2015. The study finds that FDI inflows positively affect income inequality. However, the interaction between FDI and trade openness negatively affects income inequality suggesting that greater openness of the economy to international trade would engender reduction of income inequality caused by FDI in the country. Further evidence from the study are that financial system development and economic development are crucial for reduction of income inequality in the country. Based on these, it is recommended that barrier to flow of trade should be cautiously relaxed, the financial system should be developed and effort should be made by the government to set the economy on the path of sustainable development.

The most controversial and the most recently discussed matter between the country’s professionals and the government of Sri Lanka is the ETCA agreement, which will be signed with INDIA. As per the government sources the framework of this agreement will be signed in the December, 2016. Amidst the situation that a proper draft has not been issued to the public, many do concern about the conditions and the sentences which may include in the agreement.

According to the common idea, " the economic power determines the political power." By this general principle, when we look at the powerful states, we see that these states (countries) have, at the same time, the powerful political effect on the other actors. In this paper, some trade and economic data of Turkey are shown in order to localize its place in the World rankings. By this purpose, this paper argues the fact that Turkey which, being one of the countries belonging G-20, has tried since 1991 to play a big role in its bilateral relations in Caucasia, Central Asia and Middle East (CCAME). However, when the data of international business of Turkey and those of each one of the countries of Central Asia treated in the contents of research are studied, it is seen very clearly that the influence of Turkey in Central Asia is not very dominant or does not create a dominating effect over the economic plan in spite of the existence of the diplomatic effects, visa facilities and the visits based upon the cultural level and mutually testified. Without any doubt, although nobody can deny the existence and the probability of the gradual growth of Turkey's relations in CCAME's countries, Turkey, whose face is turned mainly towards the occident and the large majority of trade made within the European countries, tries to be an influential actor in the determined areas. Naturally, in spite of the celebration of Nawruz with the Turkic World, acting as a Muslim country in Middle East, and accepting the norms of European Union as a European democratic and laicized country in Eu-rope, Turkey presents several identities and makes it a multi-colored actor who can be used in favor of Turkey's interests.

of the Proposal: In this project, I propose to collect internet links of web sites as well as to develop our own interactive (e.g., simulation games) and multimedia (e.g., animated slide shows) materials for teaching and learning of International Economics. These materials will be housed in a web server. The collection of internet links, after careful evaluation and classification, helps teachers and students quickly find the most updated materials they need for teaching and studying. Because of these, there is a lack of instructional materials on International Economics with a regional focus in Ghana and Africa, we will develop them. These interactive and multimedia materials would supplements teaching and help to arouse students' interest in studying the subject, as well as raise students' consciousness about the economic relations between the region and the rest of the world. We target the university students and teachers of International Economics in Ghana. However, the web-based nature of our project makes our project easily accessible by all teachers and students of universities in Ghana and abroad, as well as by the general public. The relevancy of the project is guaranteed through continuous adoption of the comments and suggestions from our target users (i.e., students and teachers of International Economics) collected through questionnaires and interviews. ▲ B. Details of the Project Proposal: 1. The project objectives and significance For the subject of International Economics, providing instructional materials through the internet is appropriate because quality teaching and learning of the subject require up-to-date knowledge of ever-changing economic environment, such as the development of the African Financial Crisis and Sustainable Quality Financial Management. Reliance on published and printed information is ineffective and information may have already been outdated upon publication. Our project collects and develops web-based instructional and learning materials and thus fills this gap. We emphasize "web-based" because this type of web-based project has the advantage of self-updating when it is linked to sites of up-to-date information. Our project will contain teaching tips or ideas to link current economic issues with Economics concepts (or teaching topics). This up-to-date or even on-line information helps teachers enrich their teaching with real life examples and data, as well as arouse students' interest in the subject and enhance their awareness of current affairs. We also develop interactive and multimedia instructional materials with a regional focus in Ghana, West Africa, Africa and the rest of the World. Examples are a foreign exchange trading simulation game and slide shows about Ghanaian Economy and International Donor Community. An indigenous focus helps arouse students' interests in studying the subject, as