Knowledge diffusion and financial development thresholds

Foreign direct investment (FDI) has grown strongly as a major form of international capital transfer over the past decades. Countries all over the world compete for direct investment flows, as they are considered less volatile than portfolio investment and are expected to spur long-term growth. The attraction of FDI flows depends inter alia on a number of host country attributes, including macroeconomic, geographical, and institutional variables. Additionally, the extent to which FDI inflows contribute to domestic productivity and long-term growth is conditional on characteristics that shape a country’s absorptive capacity. This paper uses country-level data from OECD economies over the 2005-2016 period to empirically gauge the effect that FDI inflows have on recipient country productivity and innovative performance. Furthermore, it examines the potential of threshold effects regarding the development of the host economy financial system insofar as the latter is considered a conducive force for spillover effects. In the vein of the trade-growth literature we measure the effect of the foreign R&D stock weighted by bilateral capital goods imports and FDI flows looking at Total Factor Productivity and Patents per population at the economy-level. The results indicate that the depth and efficiency of the destination country financial system provides a mediation mechanism for the realization of positive externalities associated with MNC presence. Most of the financial variables appear to facilitate knowledge spillovers above a certain threshold value irrespective of that being exogenously or endogenously determined. Finally, this exercise yields fruitful policy lessons for Greek economy. More specifically, the ongoing process of restructuring the stressed domestic financial system combined with the incremental completion of the Banking and Capital Markets Union at the EU level could serve as a conduit for speeding the catch-up process to the technological frontier

Scientific Article Writing Mentoring for the English Subject Teacher Association in Palangka Raya

This community service aimed to address the professional development needs of teachers to enhance their career prospects. Teachers must compile portfolios to accumulate credit points for career advancement, thus necessitating their proficiency as teacher-writers. Hence, this sustainable community service sought to assist English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers in secondary high schools throughout Palangka Raya in comprehending the fundamentals of scientific writing, producing scientific articles, conducting research, and drafting research reports. The Participatory Action Research (PAR) methodology, which focuses on community empowerment, was employed for this endeavor. The activities were carried out over 12 workshop sessions involving 30 EFL teachers from the English Subject Teachers Association (MGMP) for junior and senior high schools in Palangka Raya. Before and after the workshops, KWL worksheets and WhatsApp Group discussions were utilized to facilitate the teachers' learning process. The results demonstrated that: (1) mentoring activities were executed effectively, with 80% of the planned materials successfully delivered to the participants; (2) participants expressed a positive perception of the activities, including satisfaction, relevance to their needs, comprehension, and overall significance

An efficient chemoenzymatic route to dihydroxyacetone phosphate from glycidol for the in situ aldoalse-mediated synthesis of monosaccharides

We report a new two-step procedure that uses inexpensive rac-glycidol to obtain valuable dihydroxyacetone phosphate (DHAP), a building block for the synthesis of monosaccharide analogues

Session 3-3-C: The National Longitudinal Study of Gambling Behaviour (NLSGB): Preliminary Results

Introduction The NLSGB tracked 300 gamblers over a 15-month period. A comprehensive survey instrument was compiled to analyse factors that might influence changes in risk of gambling problems over time. The study was conducted in the four major metropolitan areas of South Africa: Johannesburg, Tshwane, Durban and Cape Town. We will discuss the study’s design and implementation and some preliminary results