FOREIGN AID, GROWTH, POLICY AND REFORM

Whether good macroeconomic policy facilitates aid effectiveness in generating growth is a highly debated topic. In this paper we investigate if economic reform has a favorable effect on the aid-growth relation—specifically, if reform enhances the effect of aid on growth. In doing so, we also construct a new policy index and examine the robustness of the Burnside and Dollar (2000) ‘policy view'. The results indicate that although our new policy index and reform are both growth enhancing, they do not increase aid-effectiveness and aid seem to play no positive role in the picture.

Effects Of Fiber And Lithium On Mechanical Properties Of Concrete Made Fromrecycled Concrete Aggregate

The growing demand of construction aggregates has raised concern about the availability of natural aggregates. Over two billion tons of natural aggregate are produced each year in the United States and that number is expected to increase to 2.5 billion tons by 2020. This has raised concern about the availability of natural aggregate. Discarding demolished concrete into landfills is a costly solution from an economical and environmental point of view. Many U.S. highway agencies are re-using Recycled Concrete Aggregates (RCA) as construction material. The use of fiber reinforcement in Portland Cement Concrete (PCC) has recently become a popular option in concrete construction because of its influence on preventing segregation, reducing early shrinkage cracks and increasing residual load capacity. Alkali-Silica Reaction (ASR) is a major problem in concrete, especially when using RCA, causing concrete expansion and cracks. Recently lithium has been found to reduce expansion due to ASR. This thesis will investigate the effect, of fibers soaked in lithium nitrate on the mechanical properties of RCA

Sin, Sacrifice and Sanctity: The Biblical Pursuit of Salvation in The Power and the Glory

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Enhanced RSA Cryptosystem based on Multiplicity of Public and Private Keys

Security is one of the most important concern to the information and data sharing for companies, banks, organizations and government facilities. RSA is a public cryptographic algorithm that is designed specifically for authentication and data encryption. One of the most powerful reasons makes RSA more secure is that the avoidance of key exchange in the encryption and decryption processes. Standard RSA algorithm depends on the key length only to protect systems. However, RSA key is broken from time to another due to the development of computers hardware such as high speed processors and advanced technology. RSA developers have increased a key length or size of a key periodically to maintain a high security and privacy to systems that are protected by the RSA. In this paper, a method has been designed and implemented to strengthen the RSA algorithm by using multiple public and private keys. Therefore, in this method the security of RSA not only depends on the key size, but also relies on the multiplicity of public and private keys

Confronting Policy Challenges of the Great Recession: Lessons for Macroeconomic Policy

This book presents several notable economists who describe the perils the economy faced during the Great Recession and the policies—some successful, others not so much—that were implemented and why. By now, economists have had nearly a decade to examine the causes and consequences of the damage wrought by the Great Recession, and to assess the ensuing efforts to right the economy. The unprecedented losses, which spread across the global economy, posed extraordinary challenges for central bankers and policymakers alike, who were forced to throw out the playbook and create new, untested means for restoring growth.https://research.upjohn.org/up_press/1264/thumbnail.jp

The Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment in Brazil

Brazil has been one of the significant recipients of foreign direct investment (FDI) among the newly emerging markets of global economy over the last 20 years, and has recorded rapid and sustained growth rates in a number of different industrial sectors. Indeed, FDI plays a significant role in the Brazilian economy. Brazil has been pursuing different foreign investment policies at different times depending on the development objectives and economic situation in the country. The present study has focussed on to empirically examine the influence of macroeconomic variables on Foreign Direct Investment in the Brazilian economy. The chosen macroeconomic variables are Gross Domestic Product (GDP), GDP per Capita (GDPPC), GDP growth rate(GDPGR), Trade ratio(TR), Exchange rate(ER), Inflation (INF) and rate of interest (Ri) as major determining factors. Regression method is applied to assess the functional relationship among these variables. The study is confined to the period of 20 years over 1990-2009 in Brazil. The findings of this study show that there is a strong positive relationship between Ex Rate, GDP, GDPPC and TR to the flow of FDI in the Brazilian economy.However, negative association between GDPGR, INF and Ri to FDI

The Use of Drones and Autonomous Vehicles in Logistics and Delivery

The logistics and delivery industry is facing challenges such as high transportation costs, difficulty in meeting customer demands, and environmental concerns. However, the integration of drone and autonomous vehicle technology can address these challenges by reducing transportation costs, increasing speed and reliability of delivery, and improving efficiency. The use of drones and autonomous vehicles can bring significant benefits such as increased efficiency, cost savings, improved safety, increased accessibility, and real-time tracking. Despite the potential benefits, there are still regulatory, technical, and financial barriers to overcome before a widespread adoption of these technologies. The use of drones and autonomous vehicles in the logistics and delivery industry is rapidly growing, with companies like Amazon, UPS, DHL actively experimenting with the use of these technologies. However, there are several challenges and limitations that must be overcome before they can be widely adopted, such as safety and regulatory requirements, weather and environmental conditions, battery life and range, navigation, and public perception

Private Transfers, Informal Loans and Risk Sharing among Poor Urban Households

This paper contributes to a growing literature that investigates the mechanisms of risk-sharing among poor households. There are two aspects of the paper that are particularly relevant in the context of the literature. First, it focuses on poor urban areas. The disproportionate focus in the literature on rural households has meant that we know relatively little about the risk-sharing practices of poor urban households. Given that formal insurance is largely absent even in urban areas of most developing economies, it is apparent that these households may be no less vulnerable to income risk than their rural counterparts. Furthermore, because of lack of survey data, the little we know about risk sharing between poor urban households has come from small, targeted surveys. The use of a nationally representative urban survey data in this study is particularly appealing in this regard.1 Second, the study uses information on both private transfer and informal loan activities to assess whether each mechanism serves risk sharing purposes. The simultaneous treatment of both potential instruments sheds light on relative performance, and also highlights idiosyncrasies that affect household participation in either (or both) mechanisms. It has been argued in the literature that if households are motivated by altruism, private transfers in the form of pure gifts are the primary means through which risk-sharing occurs. However, if enforcement problems are pronounced, informal credit with contingent repayment may be used to realize self-enforcing risk-sharing contracts (Fafchamps, 1999). Fafchamps and Lund (2003) argue that such enforcement problems are the reason behind their finding that informal loans (quasi-credit), and not gifts and transfers, perform risk-sharing functions in rural Filipino networks