Foreign Direct Investment, Absorptive Capacity and Growth in the Arab World

Arab countries have been performing very poorly in attracting FDI inflows relative to other developing countries since the early 1990s. Arab countries might hence be missing out on growth and development, if FDI is associated with positive externalities. The recent empirical literature on FDI and growth shows, however, that the latter is not always the case, and that FDI is more likely to have positive externalities in countries with a certain level of absorptive capacity for FDI. This paper looks at FDI and growth through absorptive capacity in the Arab world, given the available data on four different aspects of absorptive capacity: the technology gap, the level of workforce education, financial development and institutional quality. The results turn out to be highly sensitive to the specific measure of absorptive capacity used, but one conclusion is unambiguous. It is unlikely that the average Arab country currently stands to gain from FDI. As a consequence, costly financial incentives to attract more FDI might hence be wasteful, if not welfare reducing in Arab countries.Foreign Direct Investment; Growth; Regional Integration; Middle East; Arab Countries

Ulu Boyar

Set during the Russian Civil War (1918-1922), ULU BOYAR traces the uprising of the Drinsk Cossacks against the tyranny of the Kiev Bolsheviks, who have taken residence in the sacristy of the holy of holies, the Cathedral of Saint Sophia. An homage to Nikolai Gogol\u27s paean of the ancestral Cossacks, the historical satire ULU BOYAR utilizes the steampunk furniture of the Russian Civil War to weave a hilarious and hyperbolic epic of Ukrainian patriotism and resistance for an era of renewed Ukrainian-Russian antagonism

Sample Size Calculation for Studying Transportation Modes from GPS Data

The many advantageous features of GPS-based longitudinal surveys associated with prompt recall surveys make such surveys very attractive for travel behaviour studies. However, the sample size calculation procedure for GPS-based surveys is more complicated compared to well-known and widely applied conventional household one/two-day travel surveys. The higher cost of GPS surveys requires scrutiny at the sample size planning stage to ensure cost effectiveness. The essence of sample size calculations problem is of a trade-off between cost/time taking the precision of the survey into account. Different machine learning-based techniques have been developed to infer the transportation mode based upon speed and acceleration calculated from GPS data. However, none of these studies calculate the sample size required for validating these techniques. Calculating the most effective sample size for this inference mainly depends on the variability of these variables which are normally used. To perform this calculation, we develop an understanding of inter-modal (variation between different transportation modes) and intra-modal variability (variation within each transportation mode). The study demonstrates that the motorised modes reflect the highest variability. We use traffic count data to study this variability across different seasonal divisions. The hourly and daily seasonal divisions are proved to be of the highest variability. Extending the survey length also decreases the sample size significantly. This reduction is applied to the calculated sample sizes defining the survey length to be 2 weeks, taking the weekly-seasonality into account

Inflation Dynamics and Its Sources in The Ottoman Empire: 1586-1913

This study examines the dynamics and determinants of inflation in the Ottoman Empire during the 1586-1913 period. There might be two main reasons for inflation: fiscal expansion and monetary expansion where the monetary expansion could be generated through the debasement of local currency (Akçe). We used a set of political and structural variables in order to explain the change in the inflation dynamics. In particular, we considered the war years, periods of Ottoman history which show different characteristics (the slow down period, the recession period and the break up period) and the period of constitutional monarchy. Moreover, we tested if the inflation process was the same for each sultan and all of the sultan behaved differently from the rest of their reign during their first year. Accordingly, the empirical evidence reported here suggests that war accelerated inflation as expected and fiscal expansion rather than the debasement of the Akçe was a main reason for inflation. Moreover, the slow down, the recession and the break up periods affected inflation positively; both fiscal expansion and the debasement of the Akçe were seen in these three periods as sources of inflation. In addition, each sultan had different inflationary policies during his period. However, each sultan accelerated inflation in the first year of his reign by the debasement of the Akçe or by fiscal expansion. Last, the constitutional monarch period had a significant positive effect on inflation; however, fiscal expansion rather than the debasement of the Akçe was the source of inflation in this period.Inflation, Debasement, Fiscal Expansion and Ottoman Empire

The Mulberry Tree, the Birds and the Divine in the Music of the Dotār in Khorāssān (Iran)

The relationship between music and environment plays an important role both in musical compositions and in research on music. The paper is about an anthropological study on the relationship between music of the long-necked lute dotār and the environment, in the region of Khorāssān in Iran. By examining the close relationship between the mulberry tree, birds, metaphor and music of dotār, we will try to show how the environmental factors, data or aspects can be directly or indirectly related to the music, particularly through the symbolism of Sufi beliefs in the region. These relationships to the nature are strongly linked to the perception and the discourse that a culture holds about its surrounding world

Endogenizing Total Factor Productivity: The Foreign Direct Investment channel in the case of Bulgaria (2004-2013)

This paper estimates the contribution of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to the Total Factor Productivity (TFP) of Bulgaria for the period 2004-2013. As predicted by theory, a positive relationship between TFP and FDI is documented. The standard Ramsey (optimal) growth model, augmented with the FDI channel is used to compare the speed of convergence to an identical setup without FDI. Convergence simulations prove that ignoring the implications of this model leads to a distorted view of the growth path of the economy. The results of the study can serve as justification for development of governmental strategies for attracting FDI inflows

Evaluation of WHO’s partogram alert line for prediction of the APGAR score at the first minute after birth

Background and aim: The early diagnosis of abnormal progress of labour and prevention of long term delivery are the main keys to reduce fetal mortality rate due to hypoxia and tissue ischemia. One of the WHO’s proposed methods for prevention of abnormal delivery is using partogram. Therefore, this survey was conducted to evaluate WHO’s partogram alert line for APGAR score at the first minute after birth. Methods: This descriptive–analytical study was performed on 140 pregnant women under partogram in Shahrood Fatemieh hospital. Using the partogram alert line, the progress of labour, mother’s and infants condition started to be controled from 3 cm dilation of the cervix. Decision for resuscitation was made based on respiration, heart rate and skin color of the infant 20 to 30 seconds after the birth. Tools of this research were a questionare, inspection form consisted of WHO’s partogram and step by step resuscitation form. χ2, t–test and analytical methods of sensitivity, specificity and negative and positive values were used for data analysis. Results: The results showed that 68.8% of the subjects cervical dilatation remained on or to the left side of the alert line and 28.6% was on the right side and 2.9% was on or to the right side of the active line. According to χ2 test, there was a significant relationship between the first minute APGAR score after delivery and the location of cervical dilation. The value of alert line for surveying of APGAR score at the first minute after birth had a sensitivity of 25%, specificity of 96.87% , negative and positive predictive value of 75.6% and 76.92%, respectively. Conclusion: Our results showed that using WHO’s partogram prevents long term delivery, helps for on time diagnosis of fetal distress and reduction in stillbirth and fetal mortality. So, partogram should be a part and parcel of fetal and maternal health care