Political crisis and suspension of duty-free access in Madagascar : assessment of impacts on the garment industry

The export-oriented garment industry in Madagascar has displayed robust growth, thus both contributing to the economy and creating formal employment opportunities. However, it experienced a critical situation after the political turmoil that occurred in 2009. Our investigation using the trade data demonstrates that suspension of duty-free access to the US market (AGOA) resulting from the turmoil had a greater impact on exports, 64%–78% reduction, than the turmoil itself. Our original factory-level data demonstrates that AGOA suspension increased the probability of closure by 57.8% for the factories supplying exclusively to US market, and reduced 6405 jobs for low-skilled positions during the post turmoil period. The factory-level adverse impacts are much less than those on export value at the industry level because of the maintained duty-free access to EU, which has provided an alternative market. It suggests that if EU also had cancelled duty-free access, adverse impacts would have been enormous. Given the general pattern of comparative advantage in low-income countries, unplanned cancellation of duty-free access for them hurts labor-intensive industries and low-skilled workers

Streaming across industries: Streaming logics and streaming lore across the music, fi lm, television, and book industries

This article explores streaming across the cultural industries, drawing on 39 interviews with CEO/top-level industry executives working in the Norwegian music, film, television, and book industries. We examine two broad questions: What dokey industry players see as the main opportunities and challenges of streaming?To what extent do industry players compare with and learn from other industries when making sense of, and seeking solutions to, the main challenges? Drawing on theories of media industry logics and industry lore, the article identifi es a collective understanding of turmoil and uncertainty. While informants across industries formsimilar notions about the impact of streaming and emphasise the need to learn from other industries, solutions to challenges are typically sought within industryspecific frames. Our findings suggest that even if streaming is a cross-industrial trend, strategies are based on industry-specific logics and notions

Simulation of speed control brushless DC motor using gaussian fuzzy logic controller

This paper presents a control scheme of a Fuzzy Logic for the brushless direct current (BLDC) motor drives. The BLDC motor has some advantages compare to others type of motors. However, the nonlinearity of this motor drive characteristics cause it is difficult to handle using conventional proportional-integral-differential (PID) controller. In order to overcome this main problem, Fuzzy Logic controller with a Gaussian membership function is developed. The mathematical model of BLDC motor is derived. The controller is designed to tracks variations of speed references and stabilizes the output speed during load variations. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by develop simulation model in Matlab Simulink software. The simulation results show that the proposed Fuzzy Logic controller (FLC) produce significant improvement control performance compare to the PID controller for both condition controlling speed reference variations and load disturbance variations

CONSEQUENCES OF FINANCIAL CRISIS ON LOAN PROVIDING FUNDS FOR SMALL & MEDIUM ENTERPRISES FORMER PREFECTURE OF SERRES -GREECE

It is common knowledge that Small and Medium enterprises make up the backbone of the Greek economy. Nowadays during the greatest post war financial crisis, the fund availability critically determines the survival and the development of almost every enterprise. In the first part of this presentation we will refer to the financial crisis in Greece. Apparently one of the major economic problems in our country is the widely extended corruption throughout all the economic activities including corruption 0n banks. In the second part we will present the impact of the recession on the banking sector in local and national level and the consequences of the great reduction of loan providing funds to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). We will present the fact that nowadays, entrepreneurs can not obtain loans based on personal guarantee, and they have to offer their own house as collateral. In the third part we will refer to Serres, former prefecture of Greece, where the economic inability and underdevelopment to all the levels of local economy is obvious. We will also refer to the fact that while on turmoil governments schedule programs using the criterion of efficiency instead of the criterion of equity. Under these circumstances, the area of Serres will never be developed. In the forth part we will present the results of the questionnaire-based research from the local entrepreneurs in the Prefecture of Serres. We will focus on the consequences of a economical crisis. It is worth referring to the fact that their answers are similar to those deduced from the results of the researches that have been referred to in bibliography. Finally we will end this presentation with the main conclusions. KEYWORDS -Financial crisis -Loan providing funds -Local entrepreneurship -Former Prefecture of Serres

The Development of Halal Food Market in Japan: An Exploratory Study

AbstractAgeing population, changes in social structure, coupled with the recent disaster have added to economic turmoil of Japan. The long-depended industries such as automotive and electronics manufacturing have been negatively affected while the import of food and natural resources such as oil and gas have substantially increased. Therefore, Japan needs to identify other segments or industries that can re-energize the economy of the country. This paper discusses the overlooked halal food segment in Japan as a catalyst in developing other potential sectors, in line with rapid globalization and internationalization. Using content analysis from various literatures, this exploratory study focuses on the past and current situation of halal food segment, and how its development can potentially affect growing sectors such as tourism and education in Japan

Ahead of snap elections, Greenland’s independence ambitions could open a window for closer co-operation with the EU

Greenland will hold elections on 28 November following an expenses scandal involving Prime Minister Aleqa Hammond, which led to the collapse of the government. Ulrik Pram Gad writes that while there is strong support within Greenland for establishing independence from Denmark, the recent political turmoil has undermined plans to use investment in extractive industries such as mining as the basis for an independent economy. He argues that the situation could present an opportunity for the EU to engage in closer bilateral co-operation with the country, particularly given Greenland’s natural resources and renewable energy potential

The Eurozone debt crisis and the role of China. EU Centre Policy Brief Number 3, November 2011

In early November 2011, the President of the European Commission (EC) José Manuel Barroso warned of a crash that would instantly wipe out half of the value of Europe’s economy, plunging the continent into a depression as deep as the 1930s slump. The result of such an economic shock would be the emergence of extremism and divisions within Europe, the former Portuguese prime minister told his German audience. “Just as the founding fathers had a vision of Europe after two devastating world wars, we must also now act with resilience and with vision towards a Europe that is strong but open,” he said. “Now is Germany’s time to show that it is fighting the cause of a strong, integrated and competitive Europe”.1 It was a serious warning, though designed and targeted at the German audience. The problem is that it may also have been too little too late. For two years, systemic and pervasive eurozone problems have been deferred or treated with partial solutions, and time is running out. What specifically led to these very serious warnings in mid-autumn of 2011? And what would be the role of China in the rescue operations of the eurozone? This brief examines these issues by taking a broader look into the retreat of globalization in the aftermath of the global crisis of 2008 before turning its attention to the eurozone crisis. The brief then provides an overview of the evolution of the EU-China relations and considers the role and responses of China to the unfolding eurozone crisis

How Economic Policy Uncertainty Drives Long-term Industry Beta: Evidence from North America

Purpose: This study aims to evaluate the nature of the relationship between economic policy uncertainty and industry beta and the cross-sectional heterogeneity between them.   Theoretical Framework: Industry Return is derived from the annual market capitalization of each industry by taking a summation of all firms' market capitalization values to find out the industry beta variable. The categorization of 48 industries according to the Fama-French model has been defined as the industry in this study. The main explanatory variable for this research strategy is the Economic Policy Uncertainty or the EPU. Economic policy uncertainty is measured based on the given index by Baker, Bloom, and David index. Baker, Bloom, and Davis, or BBD, perceive that there are different manners by which the economic policy uncertainty can be evolved. For instance, economic policy uncertainty can be influenced by what different types of discussions related to economic policies are going to be undertaken. BBD has tried looking into the landscape regarding the economic policy uncertainty overall through the eyes of newspapers based in the USA. In addition, there has been textual analysis by Baker, Bloom, and Davis or BBD over different types of digital archives for the top 10 U.S. newspapers for obtaining the count of articles on a monthly basis for every newspaper so that they can be able to focus on the specific economic policy uncertainty.   Methodology: Positivist research philosophy has been implicated in conducting this research study. From the research approach perspective, the deductive research approach has been implemented. In addition, a quantitative research strategy has been used for modeling purposes and explanation. Furthermore, an experimental research design has been incorporated into this research strategy. The required data set has been gathered from secondary sources, including the WRDS and BBD databases. Industry return has been calculated based on industry market capitalization. From a modeling perspective, a baseline time series regression model has been incorporated. In this research conduction, there has been an analysis of 10 U.S. industries. The time span is from 2000 to 2020. In addition, there has been an analysis of different policy uncertainties based on the decomposition of EPU.   Results & Conclusion: First, the impact of the economic policy uncertainty in the combined form on the industry-level betas has been analyzed. In this case, the entire time scale of 19 years has been divided into three classes: the financial turmoil period from 2001 to 2006, the financial turmoil period from 2007 to 2010, and finally, the financial turmoil period from 2011 to 2020. It has been pointed out that overall, there has been a statistically significant positive impact of economic policy uncertainty on industry level-betas mostly on all industries. In addition, when there has been a decomposition of the economic policy uncertainty index, a statistically significant positive association has been found regarding monetary policy uncertainty and fiscal policy uncertainty.   Originality: The significance of this research is that there has been a one-to-one relationship finding on the impact of EPU on industry-level beta. Very few literatures have covered this issue broadly. One notable literature on this topic was conducted by Yu et al. in 2017. However, this research study has analyzed another ten industries in North America that have not been previously analyzed. In addition, for deep insight, the research framework has been divided into three parts: overall period analysis, pre-financial crisis turmoil, and post-financial crisis turmoil periods. In addition, there has been an analysis of the impact of component-wise seven policy uncertainty index on industry-level beta.   Contribution: Different factors, including macroeconomic phenomena, can influence industry-level beta or systematic risk. In recent times, economic policy uncertainty analysis has become inevitable for measuring the policy implications and their impacts on industry-level risk to determine their dynamics. The relationship between the economic policy uncertainty index and the industrial structural model of risk dynamics has been established by this research study

Regional update

Economic indicators ; Labor market ; Louisiana ; New Mexico ; Texas