Travel Agencies: From online channel conflict to multi-channel harmony

The adoption of Internet as a distribution channel and a privileged e-commerce tool has pressed Travel Agencies (TAs) to a latent channel conflict. Our main interest is to understand how the traditional independent travel agencies in Portugal deal with the online channel. We suggest that TAs have to develop an innovative business model based on the online and offline complementary channels, in order to achieve a multi-channel harmony

The Governance of the Black Holes of the World Economy: Shadow Banking and Offshore Finance

This paper focuses on regulatory challenges posed by the two interconnected structures of the global financial system – the economy of tax havens (or offshore financial centres), and the shadow banking system. The financial crisis of 2007-09 has revealed that tax havens structures and shadow banking entities play a central role in the practise of financial institutions reliant on financial innovation. Thriving on complexity, opaque networks and driven by arbitrage, the two phenomena pose tremendous challenges to national and international regulators aiming to restore the financial cycle in the recessionary environment. In this paper, we analyse "the state of play" and the current plans for the governance of tax havens, offshore finance and the shadow banking industry. We find that although offshore financial centres and shadow banking are outside the scope of academic economics, they have attracted a lot of attention on the part of financial researchers and regulators. Along with other macro-prudential and system risk concerns, the regulation, or governance of these "black holes" of the global economy is increasingly assuming a central place on the agenda of financial regulators. In what follows, we explore the reasons behind this development

Liberalization in China's Key Service Sectors Following WTO Accession: Some Scenarios and Issues of Measurement

This paper documents and assesses the significance of the policy changes in China that WTO accession implies in 3 key service categories (banking, insurance, and telecoms), asking whether it is likely they will really be fully implemented in their entirety as undertaken at signature in 2002. While it would seem that China will have extraordinarily open markets for these services by 2007 (and for banking, perhaps in the world), the starting point for implementing these policy changes seems so highly restricted that doubts have been raised about the feasibility of implementing such changes over such a short time even if threats of eventual retaliation from WTO partners speeds things along. WTO members are monitoring the implementation of China's WTO commitments, and following dispute settlement might retaliate in the future were these agreed changes not to be implemented. I discuss what scenarios this liberalization might follow, and ask whether these commitments can really be implemented as undertaken.

Finance and economic growth - a review of theory and the available evidence.

The EU's structural reform agenda attaches a considerable weight to the establishment of efficiently working and integrated EU financial markets. While there is a firm consensus that a well-functioning financial sector is a precondition for the efficient allocation of resources and the exploitation of an economy's growth potential, the economic literature is less consensual on how and to what extent finance affects economic growth.  This paper reviews the economic theory and available evidence with particular focus on three questions:  how does financial development affect economic growth;  what are the features of a growth supportive financial structure;  how are financial structures related to structural change and technical progress? financial development, economic growth, financial structures, structural change,technical progress

Analysis of social innovation on social networking services

Social network services are allowing more social connectivity and making possible sharing information and knowledge of a different nature. This article analyses if social workers related to active social policies from Malaga province (Spain) are using social network services to share information and knowledge and if there is a mirror between online and offline relationships. Since it is an experimental model, through virtual ethnography and through social network analysis methodology, we observed the presence, connectivity and analysed the structure of relationships that keep 235 professionals from 52 organizations in Facebook®. Moreover, the model uses the statistical technique of modularity for detecting online communities, which are compared with distribution of professionals in their organizations. Results show how social network services applied to social intervention are massively and frequently used by professionals. On the other hand, the detected communities reflect existence of analogy between online and offline relationships. The online structure shows a high degree of cohesion and how certain professionals have higher capacity of influence and diffusion depending on position in the online structure. It argues about the opportunity to incorporate social network services towards social intervention as a manner of social innovation to improve cooperation and diffusion of information and knowledge

The Digitalisation of African Agriculture Report 2018-2019

An inclusive, digitally-enabled agricultural transformation could help achieve meaningful livelihood improvements for Africa’s smallholder farmers and pastoralists. It could drive greater engagement in agriculture from women and youth and create employment opportunities along the value chain. At CTA we staked a claim on this power of digitalisation to more systematically transform agriculture early on. Digitalisation, focusing on not individual ICTs but the application of these technologies to entire value chains, is a theme that cuts across all of our work. In youth entrepreneurship, we are fostering a new breed of young ICT ‘agripreneurs’. In climate-smart agriculture multiple projects provide information that can help towards building resilience for smallholder farmers. And in women empowerment we are supporting digital platforms to drive greater inclusion for women entrepreneurs in agricultural value chains

Subprime and euro crises : should we blame the economists?

Economists in the public are accused of propagating highly professional, but unrealistic theories that mislead market agents and policy makers to place too much confidence in rational behaviour and market equilibrium. The paper analyses to what extent the US banking crisis and the euro crisis can be ascribed to fallacious assessments and recommendations on the part of economic theory. In the first case, myopic financial market theory and practice had neglected systemic repercussions of micro bank trading patterns. The euro crisis emerged from the neglect of undergraduate economic wisdom of necessary adjustment mechanisms in a currency union. Economists hopefully misinterpreted current account deficits as a sign of structural change

Framework for linking the informal savings sub-sector with the formal stock investment market

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfillment of the requirements for the PhD. degree. March 2017Global markets, especially emerging markets, reveal a presence of generally two types of financial saving and investment system, namely the informal financial system and the formal financial sub-sector. Often, the two systems of financial management are alienated from each other. However, informal savings practices (parts of the informal financial sub-sector) are widespread particularly in developing economies, including those of Sub-Saharan Africa where the popular indigenous financial saving practices are the rotating credit and savings associations, an umbrella concept that incorporates various practices such as door-to-door deposit collections, Christmas grocery and savings clubs, burial societies, Chilimba, Motshelo, Susu, Etoto, Nyangi, round tables, and stokvels, amongst others. The informal financial savings system is criticised for poor asset security, emphasis on social capital, poor financial returns, and high propensity for consumption. Indeed, wealth accumulated in these thrift funds are seldom invested in formal, financial investment market instruments that generate more than average returns, specifically equities (common stocks). The formal common stock investment sector offers numerous benefits, and these include risk management, diversification, capital appreciation, opportunity for dividend receipts, a liquid market, professional stock investment management, and asset security amongst others. Therefore, in contrast to the constraints and investment drawbacks associated with the informal financial savings system, the formal financial stock investment platform offers prudent investors opportunities to reap relatively higher returns, and grow wealth. Notwithstanding the apparent benefits of investing in the formal stock investment system, the majority of members of the informal savings market are estranged from the formal equity investment sub-sector. This study investigated these two, contrasting financial savings and equity investment services platforms, with the objective of constructing a framework for linking the informal savings system with the formal stock investment market. The study used both qualitative (interviews and grounded theory) and quantitative research methods to gather and analyze primary data. The questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data, which was analyzed using various structural equation modelling tools, including descriptive statistics, correlations, and path modelling. This study found that the alienation of the financial savings and stock investment platforms results in the exclusion of informal savings groups from equity investing opportunities. The framework for linking the two systems is anchored on several variables, namely a conscientious adoption of strategy to reach out to the informal savings groups, provision of equity investment education, an introduction of unorthodox marketing strategy. Further, the extension of financial investment products to traditional African savings communities constitutes a credible investment vehicle that improves their saving and financial investment performance. Moreover, a dignified treatment of indigenous savers by the formal financial sector and provision of asset security, positively influence and encourage informal savings groups to invest in the formal stock investment sector. Overall, all these variables converge to form a path that links these hitherto separate financial systems, namely the informal savings market and the formal stock investment system.MT 201

A Glance at Tourism Economics over the last decade

The objective is to carry out a freeze frame of the English-written literature in tourism economics from 2008 to 2019. This period is not trivial since the two crises at both ends of the spectrum are breakpoints in the continuous growth of the tourism industry. Using a disciplinary classification of reference journals and focusing on the most influential contributions for this literature, a synoptic table of the diversity of research fields in economics identifies: the main issues; the scales of analysis; the disciplinary interactions; and the methodological progress. From there, future research perspectives are outlined for the coming decade.L'objectif est de réaliser un arrêt sur image sur la littérature anglaise en économie du tourisme de 2008 à 2019. Cette période n'est pas anodine puisque les deux crises se situant aux deux extrémités du spectre sont des points de rupture dans la croissance continue de l'industrie du tourisme. À partir d'une classification disciplinaire des revues de référence et se focalisant sur les contributions les plus influentes de cette littérature, un tableau synoptique de la diversité des domaines de la recherche en économie du tourisme identifie : les principaux enjeux, les échelles d'analyse, les interactions disciplinaires et les progrès méthodologiques. De là, des perspectives de recherches futures sont esquissées pour la prochaine décennie

Finance and growth: a macroeconomic assessment of the evidence from a European angle

This paper reviews the literature on the finance-growth nexus within a neoclassical growth framework, placing an emphasis on the policy implications in the current European environment, that has placed financial reforms high on the policy Agenda. While more research is needed to establish causality and verify the theoretical channels linking access to finance and growth, firm-level, industry-level, macro, and country-specific studies all tend to show a significant correlation between financial efficiency and economic performance. The empirical evidence hint that in underdeveloped and emerging countries financial development fosters aggregate growth mainly by lowering the cost of capital, while in advanced economies by raising total-factor-productivity. JEL Classification: G00, O00Development, Europe, finance, Financial Institutions, Financial Intermediation, Growth Decomposition, productivity