Oil Exportation and Economic Growth in Nigeria

This paper examines the economic impact of oil exportation on Nigerian economy from 1970 – 2012. The objective of the study is to look at the impact of oil exportation on the economic growth in Nigeria. Secondary data were collected based on the model used in the research work and unit root test was conducted on the data to test their stationary, after which we perform co-integration test to analyze the long run relationship among the variables and VECM and impulse response was also employed for the analysis. The result obtained from our empirical analysis shows that there exist a long run relationship between the dependent variable and the explanatory variables. The conclusion of the study is that Exports should not be promoted at all cost, but rather the utilization and allocation of the physical resources and labor complement of the country in the most advantageous combination as between production for the local and foreign markets and that diversification should be seen as an economic management strategy aimed at ensuring stability of incomes. Keywords: Exportation, Nigeria, VECM, GD

R&D and Innovation Empirical Analysis for Tunisian Firms

In the context of economic globalization and of the internationalization of R&D activity, innovation is becoming one of the most important assets for corporations in developed and emerging countries as well. The aim of this research is to analyze the main determinants of technological innovation of Tunisian firms on the basis of the innovation survey conducted by Tunisian Ministry of Scientific Research, Technology and Skills Development in 2005. Precisely, we analyze the effects of the external technological factors and In house R&D effort variables on innovation performances of Tunisian firms. We, then attempt to explore these relationships and see if they are affected by other moderator variables linked to exportation intensity and foreign capital share. In our estimation, we utilize the binomial logit model. Our preliminary results show that R&D activity is not the only explanatory factor of the innovation. In addition, Tunisian firms with high export ratio as well as firms with significant foreign capital participation are found to be not innovating since they depend primarily on the innovations conducted abroad.Technological Innovation, Technological opportunities, R&D in Developing Countries, Logit Regression with Interactive variables

Soil biochemistry and microbial activity in vineyards under conventional and organic management at Northeast Brazil.

The São Francisco Submedium Valley is located at the Brazilian semiarid region and is an important center for irrigated fruit growing. This region is responsible for 97% of the national exportation of table grapes, including seedless grapes. Based on the fact that orgThe São Francisco Submedium Valley is located at the Brazilian semiarid region and is an important center for irrigated fruit growing. This region is responsible for 97% of the national exportation of table grapes, including seedless grapes. Based on the fact that organic fertilization can improve soil quality, we compared the effects of conventional and organic soil management on microbial activity and mycorrhization of seedless grape crops. We measured glomerospores number, most probable number (MPN) of propagules, richness of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) species, AMF root colonization, EE-BRSP production, carbon microbial biomass (C-MB), microbial respiration, fluorescein diacetate hydrolytic activity (FDA) and metabolic coefficient (qCO2). The organic management led to an increase in all variables with the exception of EE-BRSP and qCO2. Mycorrhizal colonization increased from 4.7% in conventional crops to 15.9% in organic crops. Spore number ranged from 4.1 to 12.4 per 50 g-1 soil in both management systems. The most probable number of AMF propagules increased from 79 cm-3 soil in the conventional system to 110 cm-3 soil in the organic system. Microbial carbon, CO2 emission, and FDA activity were increased by 100 to 200% in the organic crop. Thirteen species of AMF were identified, the majority in the organic cultivation system. Acaulospora excavata, Entrophospora infrequens, Glomus sp.3 and Scutellospora sp. were found only in the organically managed crop. S. gregaria was found only in the conventional crop. Organically managed vineyards increased mycorrhization and general soil microbial activity

A Survey on Facilitator Factors and Barriers for Development of Export Market-Oriented (EMO) Behavior in Export Manufacturing Companies in East Azerbaijan (Iran)

To improve their business performance and acquire competitive advantage in marketing field, trading enterprises have to inevitably take market-oriented behavior. As the most frequent technique for entering into international markets, success in exportation requires a comprehensive knowledge about predicator variables of Export Market-oriented (EMO) Behavior where the past studies have indicated that some variables differed from marketing domestic setting. Nevertheless, little attention was paid to identifying these factors at international arena. Thus, by adoption of EMO behavior antecedent model in this study, it has been tried for demonstration of such factors so they led to facilitation of using EMO behavior or in some cases, to create barriers against it. The used data for testing research hypotheses were collected from the questionnaire that was given to 68 export manufacturing companies in Eastern Azerbaijan Province (Iran). The results from the multiple regression showed that variables of exportation experience and export coordination had the greatest positive effect on taking EMO behavior while export formalization have negatively and significantly affected EMO behavior under some export unstable environmental conditions as well. Variables of EMO reward system and their focus on market orientation and environment turbulence played no predictive role in this model. Eventually, it is expected that due to cultural differences among nations’ businesses, the unprecedented results and outcome highly vary

Export learning process in local supplier networks

The objective of this study is to analyze the influence of a multinational corporation on the productive network of the host territory and the proliferation of entrepreneurs. In particular, an attempt has been made to analyze the influence on the exporting activities of local SMEs, both suppliers and non-suppliers. The study has shown that strategic integrated suppliers show greater exporting tendencies than those which are not considered to be strategic suppliers for the MNC. Similarly, those companies whose founder and/or part of the executive team have worked previously in the MNC show greater levels of export activity, compared to those companies founded by local entrepreneurs

Does China's Trade Expansion Help African Development? - A South-South Trade Model Approach

With the aim to explain the explosive growth of trade between China and Africa, especially the impacts of China's exportation on African countries, a simple South-South trade model is constructed to formulate the idea that for a technologically backward country to improve its production capability, when there exists nontrivial substitution effects, it is better to import from a South country which has superior technology, than from a North country with enormous technological advance. Then the Comtrade panel data are used to assess the impacts of imports from China (in comparison with those from the USA and France) on Sub-Saharan African manufactured exports (as proxies of their production performances). The results confirm the inference drawn from the model.South-South trade;impact of Chinese exportation on Africa;technology spillover effects;intermediate goods;substitution effects.

Occurrence of metolachlor and trifluralin losses in the Save river agricultural catchment during floods

Rising pesticide levels in streams draining intensively managed agricultural land have a detrimental effect on aquatic ecosystems and render water unfit for human consumption. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was applied to simulate daily pesticide transfer at the outlet from an agriculturally intensive catchment of 1110 km2 (Save river, south-western France). SWAT reliably simulated both dissolved and sorbed metolachlor and trifluralin loads and concentrations at the catchment outlet from 1998 to 2009. On average, 17 kg of metolachlor and 1 kg of trifluralin were exported at outlet each year, with annual rainfall variations considered. Surface runoff was identified as the preferred pathway for pesticide transfer, related to the good correlation between suspended sediment exportation and pesticide, in both soluble and sorbed phases. Pesticide exportation rates at catchment outlet were less than 0.1% of the applied amount. At outlet, SWAT hindcasted that (i) 61% of metolachlor and 52% of trifluralin were exported during high flows and (ii) metolachlor and trifluralin concentrations exceeded European drinking water standards of 0.1 µg L−1 for individual pesticides during 149 (3.6%) and 17 (0.4%) days of the 1998–2009 period respectively. SWAT was shown to be a promising tool for assessing large catchment river network pesticide contamination in the event of floods but further useful developments of pesticide transfers and partition coefficient processes would need to be investigated

What a Tangled Web: Local Property, Income and Sales Taxes

While local option sales taxes (LOST) have become an important revenue source for local governments, there has been concern about the distribution of LOST revenues: the uneven distribution of sales tax bases may have introduced a new source of fiscal inequality and exacerbated existing fiscal disparity. Using Georgia county data (N5159, 1970-2000), this study examines whether and how LOST have affected local fiscal disparity. Our findings suggest that the effects of LOST on fiscal disparity vary with the approach to measure revenueraising capacity; thus the issue of LOST distribution is sensitive to the underlying conceptualization of '"fiscal equity.

Effects of political-economic integration and trade liberalization on exports of Italian Quality Wines Produced in Determined Regions (QWPDR)

The aim of this work is to explain the magnitude of the trade flows for high quality wine from Italy to its main importing countries. This objective has been reached by establishing an appropriate econometric model derived from an extended form of the “Gravity Model”. This model has been broadly applied to the analysis of international trade because it provides robust estimates. The results obtained and the model itself are useful in forecasting potential trends in the exportation of high quality Italian wines. In particular, these estimates give a quantitative evaluation of the export gains that could result from the enlargement of the EU and from an increasing liberalization in international trade. Moreover, it is possible to identify the growing markets where Italian ventures could exploit certain promotional and communication strategies.Italy, Exports, QWPDR, Integration, Gravity Model