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Abstract
One of the many consequences of financialization in the past decades has been the significant appreciation of the importance of financial markets' liquidity. In order to maintain financial stability, one must have a clear understanding of the sources of market liquidity (ML). A finer comprehension of liquidity and its direction would help policy makers in fine-tuning the current regulations while also identifying each of the elements that compose it. In this paper, a recursive vector autoregressive model is utilized to empirically analyze how to detect the causality relations between funding and ML in four post-communist countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland). For the analyses freely accessible data on the balance sheets of aggregated banking sectors was utilized with the overall aim of finding a proxy for funding liquidity (FL) in every examined country. As a proxy for ML, government bonds' bid-ask spreads were utilized in the model. The paper provides an empirical evidence that FL drives ML in each economy. The results are clear, statistically significant and robust. They can be understood as evidence for the importance of the role of the trader's FL for the liquidity of financial assets' markets. The results of the paper have important implications for monetary policy, as well as micro- and macro-prudential regulation.
Abstract
Entrepreneurial innovation is a complex phenomenon. Experimenting with research designs that could claim some degree of generalizable linking between the individual and external influencing factors is challenging. However, progress even in research niches can contribute to a more structured understanding of the process. This article focuses on the first stages of entrepreneurial innovation, using a novel questionnaire design. Responses were collected from two Hungarian universities (147 and 127 responses, respectively) and analysed using Structural Equation Modelling. The results confirm that entrepreneurial innovation success in the early stage is shaped by macro-level factors, which have an influence on risk perception through locus of control. The paper makes two contributions, demonstrating (1) the possibility of using questionnaire survey for analysing multiple levels if the narrative is under control, and (2) how individual entrepreneurs approach the start of their innovation-based business, upon which personality and environmental factors both have significant impact.
Abstract
This paper investigates the role of extra-regional capabilities in regional economic development in a Central and Eastern European context. This is done by analysing the association between the related variety of manufacturing import and export of domestic- and foreign-owned firms on the one hand, and regional employment in manufacturing export on the other. By means of a panel regression framework applied to the Hungarian microregions between 2000 and 2011, we find that domestic firms, in particular, benefit from the related variety of export activities in the regions, while import related to existing export activities is beneficial amongst both foreign and domestic firms. Furthermore, bridging the technological gap between foreign companies and the host economy requires stronger technological relatedness, unless domestic firms have experience in importing.
Abstract
Both the level and composition of public expenditures and revenues have implications for economic development, as argued by the ‘fiscal multiplier’ and the ‘quality of public finance’ literature. Public finance decisions also influence the distribution of income. By reviewing the literature, I argue for a fair distribution of income as reflected in low income inequality, not particularly because of the impact of income inequality on long-term growth (which is a controversial issue), but primarily because income inequality typically implies inequality of opportunity. European Union countries have very diverse public finance structures and different levels of effectiveness, and there is room for improvement in growth and equality impacts in all countries. A general guideline would be that the most effective approach comprises progressive taxes and inheritance taxes, spending on education, health and public infrastructure, and better government effectiveness. At the height of the 2008 global and the subsequent European financial and economic crises, the fiscal consolidation strategies of EU countries largely relied on cutting public investment and social spending (except pensions), which is the opposite of what is suggested in the literature. Better fiscal rules and good fiscal institutions are needed to safeguard growth- and distribution friendly expenditures in a crisis.
Abstract
Kosovo is one of the poorest countries in Europe, despite the various poverty alleviation programs implemented by the authorities and the international funding community. This study aims to analyze income distribution inequality and factors behind rural households' poverty in Kosovo. Data on farm income, nonfarm income, unearned income, and socio-economic characteristics were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire from 203 randomly selected households in Kosovo. Linear regression, one-way ANOVA, and different versions of poverty indexes were used to examine the data. One-quarter of households' income comes from nonfarm activities. The middle-income households had the highest potential to find alternative employment in the nonfarm sector. Years of education, household size, number of family members above the age of 18, and total income had a positive impact on nonfarm revenues. The poorest rural households had the highest share of income from farm activities (77.52%). Nonfarm revenues have a positive impact on poverty alleviation; thus, the study suggests adopting suitable rural policies to enhance nonfarm employment for vulnerable rural households. The agro-tourism sector and circular economy approaches in agriculture with the focus on renewable energy can be considered as potential sources of nonfarm income, which could lead to sustainable poverty reduction.
Abstract
The hegemony of the Western higher education institutions in the global university market is being challenged by China. The top Chinese universities have significantly improved their international ranking positions. When it comes, however, to the ability of universities to attract foreign students and faculty, the Chinese higher education institutions' performance raises questions. The International Outlook scores of these universities, although showing an increasing trend, are still lacking behind the U.S. or Western European top universities. China is primarily a student ‘exporter.’ It also became a leading destination country for students from Asia or Africa, but it is still far from reaching the ‘international openness’ level of the U.S. or the UK universities. The publication networks of the top Chinese higher education institutions indicate that these universities prefer to publish with other Chinese institutions or the U.S. universities.
Abstract
This essay joins in the international controversy about the nature and sustainability of the economic system in China. While official ideology continues to stick to the concept of ‘socialist market economy,’ albeit with changing contents, international observers are split. One group considers China as a de facto market economy, which is in line with the top-down tradition of ruling in the region. Others consider it as a sui generis system. And a third line takes it as yet another case of hybrid regime which proliferated globally in the new millennium. I try to create a link between these readings and the empirics of Chinese growth. This may help interpret the slowdown, exacerbated by the COVID-19 epidemics on Chinese output.
Abstract
The paper examines the importance of the ‘Chinese factor’ in today's world from the perspective of current phenomena such as particular political and economic uncertainty and also examines them against the background of processes of global cooperation and parallel unprecedented competition at the same level. Complex phenomena occurring in this area have recently been additionally disrupted by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Will the world be different?
Globalization processes have taken place over the centuries but have gained particular importance in our present times, because we left ‘the golden age’ of globalization (1990–2010) already behind us. China, ever louder, talks about the need for a ‘new’ globalization, in line with its new aspirations as a pretender to the leadership position in the global economy. The Belt and Road Initiative, launched in 2013, has been in the centre of its vision. It has become the foundation for China's foreign policy in the horizon of at least the middle of XXI century. It was designed to re-confirm China's unprecedented economic success of the past four decades, which to a great extent could be derived from a skilful use of the ‘traditional’ mechanisms of globalization.
