Do Prices Influence Economic Growth? Estimating the Inflation Threshold of the Ethiopian Economy

The study empirically examines the relationship between changes in the general price and economic growth in Ethiopia. The relevant macroeconomic variables are used in a quarterly dataset from 1992Q1 to 2015Q4 obtained from the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE), Central Statistics Agency (CSA) , Ministry of Finance and Economic Corporation (MoFEC) and an international data sources including World penn Table and World Development Indictors (WDI). In assessing the relationship between prices and economic growth, an interesting policy issue arises. What is the threshold level of inflation for the Ethiopian economy? Real GDP growth used as a proxy for economic growth and general prices measured using the consumer price index (CPI), the study uses the Conditional Least Square (CLS) technique employed by Khan and Senhadji (2000). The estimation result suggests that 10% as the optimal level of inflation that facilitates economic growth. An inflation level higher than the estimated threshold level will affect the growth of the real GDP negatively. Likewise, if inflation rate is below the threshold level, it hurts the economy as real GDP could have grown more since inflation is positively related below the threshold point. Therefore, fiscal and monetary policy coordination is vital to keep inflation at its threshold level. This finding is useful for macroeconomic policy makers at the central bank as a guide for inflation targeting monetary policy. Keywords: Economic Growth, consumer price index, Conditional Least Squar

In the spirit of Bayanihan: Disaster Recovery from Typhoon Yolanda in Eastern Visayas

Canadian humanitarian interventions have been used to consolidate the country's imperialist interests in the times of humanitarian crises (Razack, 2007; Barry-Shaw and Jay, 2012; Albo, 2014). On the aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda (english name: Haiyan) in the Philippines, the strongest typhoon ever recorded to hit landfall on November 8, 2013, Canada was one of the countries to respond through the deployment of troops, disbursing aid through iNGOs, and temporarily expediting immigration applications from typhoon-struck areas. Canadian humanitarian interventions in post-Yolanda disaster recovery and rehabilitation signal attempts to strengthen its pre-existing geohistorical connections in the Philippines, namely labour migration, resource extraction and militarization. However, local Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and People's Organizations (POs) in Eastern Visayas have found ways to assert agency over their own disaster recovery. Drawing from interviews, institutional mapping and review of news articles and reports, this paper documents how local organizations navigate the contradictions in the humanitarian aid industry by exercising prudence when selecting which iNGOs to partner with, specifically only collaborating with ones that respect their autonomy and working on joint projects that complement the priorities of the POs they work with. The POs, mainly in the form of peasant associations, and local NGOs, the Leyte Centre for Development (LCDE) and Eastern Visayas Rural Assistance Program (EVRAP), aim to foster local development through disaster recovery and rehabilitation projects, ultimately undermining neoliberal approaches to development. The spirit of bayanihan, meaning community unity, is evoked as a consistent motif in this paper: first, as the name of the counterinsurgency program that subjects POs and NGOs to military violence; second, as an Indigenous practice of labour exchange and communal farming that peasants return to, as a form of disaster recovery; third, as a virtue evoked through the humanitarian cooperation of iNGOs, local NGOs and POs in disaster recovery. This very unity with iNGOs that LCDE and its partner POs are able to establish, is what undermines the consolidation of Canadian imperialism in their region in the aftermath of typhoon Yolanda. The research reveals how disaster survivors can act as active actors in recovering from not only from disasters caused by natural hazards, but from poverty and inequity that have made their communities vulnerable to disasters in the first place

Diabetes and medical devices: which device for which patient

IntroductionDiabetes is a chronic disease that occurs when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin. Insulin therapy is a pharmaceutical treatment used to lower blood glucose in all patients with diabetes type 1 (T1D) and type 2 (T2D). Insulin therapy can be managed by different medical devices technologies such as insulin pumps and insulin pens.AimTo draw the profile of patients in insulin therapy with insulin pumps and insulin pens by identifying the variables that influence the choice of two different medical devices.Tools and MethodsWe developed a questionnaire to rate the lifestyles of these patients. Explorative Factor Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis was performed to define and to confirm the factors that describe the profiles of these patients. Regression Models were performed to estimate the effects of observed variables on the choice of medical device and its cost.ResultGeneral Characteristics, Employment Information and Eating Habit are resulted the factors that define the characteristics of people with T1D and T2D, independently by medical devices used.ConclusionsThe results provide supporting evidence that are useful to the appropriate choice of medical device for insulin treatment.Therefore, next development is to make the results more generalizable in order that they can be used by policy makers in healthcare for a better management of resources and the best appropriateness of the choice of two different medical devices

Language and sexuality: euphemism, dysphemism and discourse in Italian comedies

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Mediterranee:pour une lecture geopolitique del’agriculture

La sécurité alimentaire doit redevenir un sujet prioritaire dans l'action multilatérale de la communauté internationale. C'est une problématique multidimensionnelle et intersectorielle qui conditionne à la fois le développement, la stabilité et le futur du Monde. Ce constat est particulièrement significatif en Méditerranée, zone où se polarisent toutes les tensions agricoles et alimentaires observables à l'échelle planétaire. Analyser ces enjeux et ces dynamiques requiert donc de croiser inévitablement les questions agricoles avec la géopolitique et la stratégie des acteurs qui s’opère dans la région.MOTS-CLEFS: Sécurité alimentaire, géopolitique, Méditerranée, stratégies, Brési