Towards a user-centric mobile government in Jordan

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Mobile government (M-Government) is an evolving delivery channel for governments to provide timely information and services ubiquitously to residents, businesses and other government departments through mobile devices. Developing countries have a higher mobile penetration rate than the fixed-line Internet rates, which opens doors of opportunities for these countries to bridge the digital gap and gain a better reach through M-Government. Jordan has realised the potential of M-Government and launched the E-Government Mobile Portal on the 18th of April, 2011. This thesis uses a mixed-method approach comprising surveys, interviews, meta-analysis and focus groups. The findings show that the critical success factors for M-government from the users’ perspective are the following: user acceptance, security, privacy, trust, cost, mobile device limitations, usability, availability of services, broadband and content. The findings also show that there are ’high effect’ success factors in addition to the critical ones which are the following : mobile payment system, accessibility, awareness, education, reliability, legal issues and mobile penetration. Additionally, this thesis also proposes a success framework for M-Government that provides practical strategies to tackle each success factor. Furthermore, it recommends an M-Government user-centric road map with implementation stages aiming to assist the Jordanian Government and other governments in tackling each success factor in order to ensure a successful implementation of M-Government

Egyptian Revolution of 2011 and the Power of Its Slogans: A Critical Discourse Analysis Study

Egypt, the most populated country in the Arab world, erupted in mass protests in January 2011 against the oppressive rule of President Hosni Mubarak. Protesters all over Egypt in general and in Tahrir Square in Cairo wanted Mubarak to leave. Protesters used different dialects, languages, and modes to get their message across. After 18 days of angry protests and after losing the support of the military and the US, Mubarak finally understood the message and resigned on Feb. 11, ending almost 30 years of dictatorial rule. This article builds on studies in Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and its implementation of interdisciplinarity to investigate the slogans―fixed expressions, usually chosen carefully by organizers and activists, which are often chanted by political groups and protestors at demonstrations that were used during the Egyptian revolution in late January and February 2011. Moreover, the article shows how CDA―through embracing text as a dialogue and site for interaction, social goods and social languages, interpersonal relations and discourse, multimodality, and intertextuality can help to produce theoretically sound interpretation that is appropriate for the analysis of how Egyptians used the power of language through these slogans to empower themselves, challenge their government, and overthrow the former president Hosni Mubarak

The Impact of Fiscal Policy on the Economic Growth of Jordan

The present study examined the impact of fiscal policy measured by (Government expenditure, Government revenue, internal public debt, external public debt) in addition to exports and inflation factors on the Jordanian GDP growth for the period 1990-2010. The study used multiple linear regression and least squares method (ols) to test the study hypotheses. The study found that government expenditure, exports and government revenues has a positive and significant impact on the Jordanian GDP growth, and negative and significant impact on the Jordanian GDP growth. The study found that external public debt has a negative but not significant impact on the Jordanian GDP growth. Key words:  Fiscal policy, government expenditure, government revenues, internal public debt, external public debt, inflation, GDP growth, multiple linear regression, least squares metho

Privatization Experience and the Jordanian Economy

DOI: 10.7176/JESD/10-1-08The wave of privatization began to sweep the world during the second half of the ninth decade of the twentieth century; England was one of the first countries that preceded it, followed by other developed countries such as France, Italy, Spain, Canada and others. Privatization has moved to developing countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Turkey, Nigeria, Egypt, Jordan and others. The former socialist countries also began to adopt privatization programs such as the Soviet Union, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and others. This trend emerged as a result of the conditions set by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in the run-up to the rescheduling of its debts "in accordance with the known rules of the Paris Club and the London Club", where the thought of these two institutions is based on the following analysis:[1] "In order for these countries to avoid the difficulties of servicing their debts and their balance of payments problems, they need to restructure their economies so that they can improve the efficiency and allocate their resources, with a structural adjustment program; privatization comes from its most important components." [2] "World Bank experts believe that the policy of privatization needs to develop a program that starts a full survey of public sector projects and its problems, and classification of these projects according to their situation, and then identify projects to be privatized, with the establishment of the basis for evaluating the assets of the sold companies, and set a schedule that sets sales payments, and the establishment of a special body responsible for the privatization program.[3] The Bank does not object to providing financial and technical support for the development and implementation of this program, the success of the program requires that the government of the state create an environment that will revive the market economy, such as:[4] Edit prices, especially exchange rate, interest rate.Liberalization of foreign trade.Changing the laws regulating public sector companies.The return and development of the stock exchange. As for Jordan, the process of privatization began in Jordan in 1992 with the implementation of the economic reform program in cooperation with the International Monetary Fund, which ended in 1998 and was extended three times until the end of the middle of 2004 but the pain of Jordan in 2009 of the impact of the global crisis and the resorting a large numbers in 2004 from Iraq and 2012 and 2013 because of the Syrian crisis made it difficult for them to continue without resorting to the World Bank and asked for loans from him and with each new loan required the lender for further reforms, including privatization, such operations will continue, including economic reform programs, within the framework of this program, a number of public companies and state-owned enterprises have been privatized or in which the State has a large share. [1] See Reham Abdelmatti, Privatization and Economic Transformation in Egypt, Al Mahrousa Research and Publishing Center, Cairo, 1997, pp. 40,39. [2] Mahmoud Sobh, Privatization to Meet Survival Requirements and Growth Challenges, Ain Shams University, Cairo, 1995, p.15 [3] Mahmoud Sobh, op. Cit., P. 15, 16. [4] Jamal Mahmoud al-Kurdi, Legal Regulation of Privatization, Dar al-Nahda al-Arabiya, Cairo, 1998, p.1

The Effect of Public Debt on the Economic Growth of Jordan

The aim of this study was to investigate the structure of public debt in Jordan and its impact on economic growth, over the period 1980-2012. The statistical techniques which were employed in this study included Johanson co-integration test, Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) to explore the association between domestic debt and external debt ratio of GDP as independent variables and the total debt relative to GDP as the dependent variable. Fully modified least squares (FMOLS) approach also employed in order to describe the impact of internal and external debt on economic growth. The co-integration test procedure reveals that there is one relationship; consequently an (VECM) was estimated revealing that 9% of the departure from equilibrium is cleared annually, and the results of Causality test showed that independent variables have Uni-directional relationship with the total debt as the dependent variable. Based on regression coefficient, it was found that external debt has a negative influence, and domestic debt has positive influence on economic growth. The study recommended that the external debt must be re-oriented toward invested in productive projects in order to the burden of debt service Keyword: Public Debt, GDP, Fully Modified Least Squares, Cointegration. DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/10-1-0

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Programs and the Jordanian Economy

DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/11-3-23 Introduction The economic crisis experienced by the Kingdom during the 1980s influenced the performance of several key economic indicators; real GDP fell by (11%) and inflation rose by (25%) in 1989, as a result of the balance of payments crisis that led to the collapse of the Jordanian dinar exchange rate. This crisis dates back to the early 1980s; the Kingdom followed several economic development plans and relied on financing for external loans and grants. With grants and foreign aid reduced in the mid-1980s, the government continued to work on structuring its expenditures and relied on foreign loans to finance the deficit recorded in the general budget. In 1987 and 1988, the government largely turned to internal borrowing to fill the budget deficit, in light of the Kingdom's inability to obtain the necessary external financing, which led to the depletion of the Central Bank's reserves of foreign currencies and the collapse of the exchange rate. In the light of these variables; Jordan has adopted several economic reform plans in cooperation with the IMF and the World Bank to restore macroeconomic stability by minimizing internal and external imbalances such as rising public budget deficits, debt ratios, current account balance of payments and restoring confidence in the Jordanian dinar. Despite many external shocks to the Kingdom during the period (1989-2004), it succeeded in achieving some of the main objectives within these programs despite the slow momentum of economic reform, especially in the area of public finance. The period following the Kingdom's exit from IMF programs has seen a marked improvement in many macroeconomic indicators; the real GDP of the Kingdom grew by an average of 9.7% during the period (2005-2008) driven by increased global demand for Jordanian goods and services, and restore confidence in the Jordanian dinar after a peg to the US dollar in the mid-nineties. However, unfavorable regional and global economic conditions adversely affected the Kingdom's economic performance, especially after the impact of the Kingdom on the global financial crisis in 2009 and the subsequent events of the "Arab Spring", which affected the political and economic stability of many countries in the region, which affected the ways of land trade linking the Kingdom with the countries of the region, in addition to cutting off the Kingdom's supply of Egyptian gas after the revolution of January 25, 2011. Faced with these challenges, the Kingdom has adopted a national reform plan, in cooperation with the International Monetary Fund, in 2012 to address the imbalances that resulted from local and regional political and economic conditions. These goals were aimed at reversing the budget deficit and the current account to sustainable levels, reducing the volume of public debt and achieving total and sustainable macroeconomic stability[1]. [1] Mashaal, Z. (2019) Jordanian Journal of Economic Sciences, Volume 6, Issue 1, 2019, The Impact of the IMF Macroeconomic Stabilization and Reform Programs: Evidence from Jordan, p.1, Amman, Jorda

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SELF-EFFICIENCY AND DEPRESSION AMONG EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES STUDENTS AT AL-ALBAYT UNIVERSITY

The aim of this study is to find out the relationship between selfefficiency and depression among educational sciences students at Al-albayt University, in the light of two variables: academic level and sex. The study was conducted on a sample of 193 students. Data was collected using general self-efficiency scale and Back depression checklist. ANOVA and correlation coefficient were used to find out the relationship between study variables. Results showed a high level of self-efficiency among subjects, as well as a negative relationship between self-efficiency and depression. However, results also showed that there is no statistically significant difference in the respondent’s responses due to their academic level or sex

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SELF-EFFICIENCY AND DEPRESSION AMONG EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES STUDENTS AT AL-ALBAYT UNIVERSITY

The aim of this study is to find out the relationship between selfefficiency and depression among educational sciences students at Al-albayt University, in the light of two variables: academic level and sex. The study was conducted on a sample of 193 students. Data was collected using general self-efficiency scale and Back depression checklist. ANOVA and correlation coefficient were used to find out the relationship between study variables. Results showed a high level of self-efficiency among subjects, as well as a negative relationship between self-efficiency and depression. However, results also showed that there is no statistically significant difference in the respondent’s responses due to their academic level or sex

Multidialectal and multilingual translanguaging in L2 Arabic classrooms: teachers’ beliefs vs. actual practices

This study adopts a multidialectal and multilingual translanguaging perspective to explore the relationship between beliefs and actual linguistic practices concerning multilingual and multidialectal practices among L2 Arabic teachers in Islamic independent schools in Sydney, NSW, Australia. To this end, the study draws on class observations and individual interviews. The findings show a clear mismatch between teachers’ beliefs about the use of English and their actual employment of it in the classroom. The majority of the teachers indicated that English should be either limited or totally avoided in the L2 Arabic classroom, but class observations showed that (a) English was utilized in all 11 classes, and (b) it was used significantly more than Arabic in nine of these classes. As for multidialectal practices, although most of the teachers believed that the use of non-standard varieties along with Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) should be limited, findings were inconclusive due to the fact that English was found to be the main medium of communication in the majority of the observed classes. Therefore, the study underscores the need for providing teacher training that demonstrates how to purposefully deploy multilingual and multidialectal translanguaging to help learners enrich their linguistic repertoire in their desired L2

Solving conformable Gegenbauer differential equation and exploring its generating function

In this manuscript, we address the resolution of conformable Gegenbauer differential equations. We demonstrate that our solution aligns precisely with the results obtained through the power series approach. Furthermore, we delve into the investigation and validation of various properties and recursive relationships associated with Gegenbauer functions. Additionally, we introduce and substantiate the conformable Rodriguez's formula and generating functio