Central Bank Transparency: Where, Why, and with What Effects?

Greater transparency in central bank operations is the most dramatic change in the conduct of monetary policy in recent years. In this paper we present new information on its extent and effects. We show that the trend is general: a large number of central banks have moved in the direction of greater transparency since the late 1990s. We then analyze the determinants and effects of central bank transparency in an integrated empirical framework. Transparency is greater in countries with more stable and developed political systems and deeper and more developed financial markets. Our preliminary analysis suggests broadly favorable if relatively weak impacts on inflation and output variability.

Measuring the Quality of Bank Regulation and Supervision, with an Application to Transition Economies

This study develops a method to evaluate the quality of a legal framework for bank regulation and supervision (RS) by developing an extensive set of criteria and a coding system. Using this method, we generate an original set of measurements for RS by evaluating the letter of banking laws of 23 transition economies. In doing so, we also utilize the Basle guidelines on banking supervision and the related literature. The indices of RS indicate that legal banking reforms in Poland, Hungary and Estonia have been more ambitious than the rest of the countries in transition. In general, however, banking laws in transition economies indicate a lower regulatory and supervisory quality than indicated by the German banking law, if one is willing to choose the latter as a benchmark. This data set permits an empirical analysis of the relationship between legal RS and macroeconomic performance. The empirical evidence in the paper shows a significant positive relationship between RS and real GDP growth in transition economies.Bank regulation and supervision, growth, transition economies

Low/hard state of microquasars at low luminosities

Galactic black hole transients (GBHTs) spend most of their time in the low/hard spectral state during the outburst decay. This state exhibits a hard X-ray spectrum with X-ray flux correlating with both the radio and the infrared flux. As the luminosity declines, the spectra of the GBHTs got harder. However, for a few sources at very low luminosity levels a softening of the spectrum has been observed. In this work we discuss the evolution of GBHTs at the very lowest luminosity levels using RXTE data and discuss the behavior of the X-ray spectrum, as well as the reported correlations

ECONOMIC SIGNIFICANCE OF TOURISM SECTOR IN BALKAN COUNTRIES AND AN ANALYSIS OF THE TOURISM RELATIONS BETWEEN TURKEY AND BALKAN COUNTRIES

The Balkan region which has been unstable up to 2000s now host leading markets that make progress and attract attention in global economy from an economic,political, geographical, historical and cultural perspective. Particularly the newreforms and legal arrangements introduced in the Balkan countries within the framework of harmonization efforts with the European Union contributed to the emergence of a new environment of stability and peace. Positive development is observed if the general economic performance of the Balkan countries is analyzed by sectors. According to the tourism data of the World Tourism Organization in2011, tourism has become popular in recent yearsin Western Balkans; however, cross-border tourism has been in decline in many parts of the region due to the decrease in the spendable income. In addition, the tourists prefer developing countries; the change in this preference and the impact ofthe global economic crisis contributed to the rise of domestic and international tourism in the Balkan countries. Turkey's relations with the Balkans which appear to be extension of Turkey in the European continent have improved in a wide range of fields including economy, social affairs, culture and tourism. After introduction of project by Turkish Airlines, "Visa-Free Balkans," in 2011, the Turkish citizens became more interested in having vacation in the Balkans. It is also visible that Balkan countries have diversified their tourism options and that in addition, seasand and sun, they have other alternatives to offer including health tourism andfaith tourism.In this study, the necessary business enterprises on accommodation, traveling,transportation, food and catering in order to improve this potential and make it tourism supply in Balkan tourism and other relevant countries in international tourism market will be examined first. Subsequent to the examination of the tourism supply, the demand for tourism in these countries will be evaluated in the second part and the profile of the visitors by foreign active-foreign passive and domestic tourism will be drawn. The purpose in these two sections is to examine the tourism sector which contributes extensively to the economic and social development of these countries by focusing on its economic dimension. In the third section, the tourism relations between Balkan states and Turkey which is a remarkable destination in global market and ranked among the first ten countries by number of visitors and international tourism revenues as evidenced by the World TourismOrganization's data through economic, social and cultural dimensions. In the concluding section, some recommendations will be made on how to improvetourism relations between Turkey and Balkan states which already enjoy close tiesin economic and cultural spheres

Corruption, Income Inequality, and Poverty in the United States

In this study we analyze the effects of corruption on income inequality and poverty. Our analysis advances the existing literature in four ways. First, instead of using corruption indices assembled by various investment risk services, we use an objective measure of corruption: the number of public officials convicted in a state for crimes related to corruption. Second, we use all commonly used inequality and poverty measures including various Atkinson indexes, Gini index, standard deviation of the logarithms, relative mean deviation, coefficient of variation, and the poverty rate defined by the U.S. Census Bureau. Third, we minimize the problems which are likely to arise due to data incomparability by examining the differences in income inequality, and poverty across U.S. states. Finally, we exploit both time series and cross sectional variation in the data. We find robust evidence that an increase in corruption increases income inequality and poverty.Corruption, Income Inequality, Poverty

EFFECTS OF GLOBAL SEA LEVEL RISE ON THE ADRIATIC COASTS OF ALBANIA

Global climate change causes sea level rise, and especially is affecting low lyingcoastal areas of the world. In the next century, it is estimated that climate change will raise the sea level approximately 1 meter. Gradually increasing impact of this event will cause especially the lower coastlines to retreat back to the land.Meanwhile, many coastal settlements will be invaded by the waves and beaches will face erosion. Residential areas of the western coasts of the Albania, is usually on low coast areas. A probable sea level rise scenario will have serious impacts oncoasts of Adriatic Sea of Albania. This paper focuses on sea level rise and its impacts on the coastal areas and coastline of the western coasts of the Albania. For this purpose, satellite images for the years 1985 and 2011 the coastal lines were obtained using Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing Techniques and change is determined for a period of 27 years

Trust and Growth

Using data from US states, we find a positive relationship between trust and growth. According to our results, a 10 percentage point increase in trust increases the growth rate of per capita income by 0.5 percentage point, growth rate of housing prices by 1.25 percentage points, and the growth rate of employment by 2.5 percentage points over a decade