MONETARY POLICY AND DEFICITS FINANCING IN JAMAICA

A vector error-correction model (VECM) is estimated to examine the relationship among interest rates, monetary base, credit claims to the private sector, real income, prices, government spending, budget deficits and exchange rate in Jamaica. Cointegration is used to identify the VECM. The empirical results show that fiscal deficits are monetized in the long-run; the roles of financial services are weak, and inverse price-real output relationship exists in both the short-run and the long-run. Monetary disciplines, reduction in fiscal spending and sound regulatory actions are crucial to reduce the national debt, the inflation and interest rates, crowd in private investments, avert financial crisis and promote economic growth.Vector Error-correction Model, Fiscal Spending, Financial Services, Deficit Finance, and Jamaica

Household and market survey on availability of adequately iodized salt in the Volta region, Ghana

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal of Health Promotion and Education on 27/10/2016, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14635240.2016.1250658Consumption of adequately iodized salt (AIS) ≥15ppm is one of the criteria for measuring progress towards universal salt iodization (USI) and sustainable elimination of iodine deficiency disorders. After series of health promotion activities, this survey was conducted to evaluate the extent to which USI was achieved. Cross-sectional survey was conducted in 1,961 households and 350 markets to estimate the iodine levels of salt consumed or sold. Three degrees of iodization were estimated from fine, coarse and granular texture salt using MBI rapid field test kits. Differences in iodization levels were determined using Bonferroni test in STATA. Determinants for household utilization of AIS were identified using regression analysis and reported as odds ratio (OR). Availability of AIS in households (24.5%) and markets (30.9%) was far below the 90% recommendation. No differences where observed in urban (26.8%) and rural (24.1%) households. Households that used fine-texture salt (OR: 40.13; CI: 30.1-53.4) or stored salt in original packs (OR: 8.02; CI: 6.01-10.70) were more likely to consume AIS. Across districts, highest household availability of AIS was 51.7% while the least was 7.5%. The district with the highest market availability of AIS was 85.7% while the least was 8.3%. Almost 32% of the traders were aware that selling non-iodized salt was unauthorized but out of this, only 12% sold AIS. Public education should emphasis appropriate handling and storage of salt throughout the supply chain. To ensure adequate salt fortification with iodine, improved surveillance of factories and mining sites is recommended

The budgetary process and economic growth: Empirical evidence of the Jamaican economy

Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) Wagner's law Government expenditures Taxes Granger causality

GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURES AND REVENUES CAUSATION: SOME CARIBBEAN EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE

Error-correction model and stepwise Granger causality technique are used to examine the long-run and short-term causal relationships between taxes and spending to determine the effective way of reducing deficit and debt problems in four Caribbean countries with bicameral legislatures. Granger's temporal causality test confirms that taxes cause spending for only Belize, and independent for the rest of the countries. Estimates of the error correction model show long-run bi-directional causation in The Bahamas, Barbados and Belize, and independent in Jamaica. Tax limitation is the optimal policy for controlling deficit and debt problems over the short-term for only Belize, although in the long-run the Bahamas, Barbados and Belize have flexibility in balancing their budget because their ruling parties closely control budgetary and tax initiatives. In Jamaica taxes and spending are independent even though the minister of finance controls both; so eliminating inter party rivalry will assist in balancing the country’s national budget.Government spending, tax revenues, Granger causality, error correction model, Caribbean.

The Mid 1990s Peso Crisis in Mexico: An Application of the Girton-Roper Model

The Peso crisis is examined by using the exchange market pressure model (EMP) over the period 1971:1 - 1995:4. Different estimators are used to obtain robust results. Empirical findings indicate that an incrase in domestic credit, crisis dummy and inflation rates leads to outflows of foreign reserves and/or depreciation of the peso, while an incrase in foreign inflation and domestic income results in inflow of foreign reserves and appreciation of the peso. Sensitivity tests of the EMP to its composition between changes in exchange rate and foreign reserves, confirms that the Mexican economy absorbs the EMP through the loss of foreign reserves instead of the depreciation of the peso. This suggests that a fixed exchange rate regime is optimal for Mexico, and that timely external loans assistance from international institutions could have avoided the crisis. The later explains why Mexico recovered swiftly from the peso crisis after receiving external assistance.Mexico, exchange market pressure and peso crisis