Inflation and economic growth in Pacific Basin developing economies

Inflation (Finance) - Pacific Basin ; Interest rates - Pacific Basin ; Pacific Area ; Economic development - Pacific Basin

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Foreign direct investment in a macroeconomic framework : finance, efficiency, incentives, and distortions

Does foreign direct investment (FDI) increase domestic investment, or does it provide additional foreign exchange for a pre-existing current account deficit, or some linear combination of the two? The author investigates this question for a group of five Pacific Basin countries and a control group of 11 other developing countries. For the sample of all 16 developing countries, the author finds that FDI does not provide additional balance of payments financing for a pre-existing current account deficit. In the control group of 11 developing countries, FDI is associated with reduced domestic investment - implying that FDI to those countries is simply a close substitute for other capital inflows. For the five Pacific Basin market economies, however, FDI raises domestic investment by the full extent of the FDI inflow. The author finds that FDI has a significantly negative impact on national saving in the sample of all 16 developing countries. For the control group, this negative effect is similar in magnitude to FDI's negative effect on domestic investment - implying a zero effect on the current account. But FDI's negative effect on national saving in the five Pacific Basin developing market economies implies that FDI could have more of a negative effect on the current account than through increased domestic investment alone. The author also investigates the impact of FDI on economic growth in these 16 countries, taking into account distortions in the economies. He estimates reduced-form current account equations, and presents an analytical framework for estimating FDI's effect on economic growth in the presence of incentive-disincentive packages and other economic distortions. He illustrates his framework using indicators of foreign trade and financial distortions. His main conclusion: the effect of FDI differs markedly from one group of countries to another. FDI has a negative effect on economic growth in the control group. It has the same positive effect on growth as domestically financed investment does in the Pacific Basin countries. The main cause for the different effect is the low level of distortion in the Pacific Basin countries.Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Foreign Direct Investment,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Macroeconomic Management

Causas, Consecuencias y Soluciones para la Inflación en los Países en Desarrollo

Worldwide inflation averaged annually 3.5 per cent in the 1950s, 4.2 per cent in the 1960s, and 10.4 per cent in the 1970s. The secular acceleration m inflation, which has been more pronounced in the developing than in the industrial countries, is the foc

The effect of timing and frequency of push notifications on usage of a smartphone-based stress management intervention: An exploratory trial

Push notifications offer a promising strategy for enhancing engagement with smartphone-based health interventions. Intelligent sensor-driven machine learning models may improve the timeliness of notifications by adapting delivery to a user's current context (e.g. location). This exploratory mixed-methods study examined the potential impact of timing and frequency on notification response and usage of Healthy Mind, a smartphone-based stress management intervention. 77 participants were randomised to use one of three versions of Healthy Mind that provided: intelligent notifications; daily notifications within pre-defined time frames; or occasional notifications within pre-defined time frames. Notification response and Healthy Mind usage were automatically recorded. Telephone interviews explored participants' experiences of using Healthy Mind. Participants in the intelligent and daily conditions viewed (d = .47, .44 respectively) and actioned (d = .50, .43 respectively) more notifications compared to the occasional group. Notification group had no meaningful effects on percentage of notifications viewed or usage of Healthy Mind. No meaningful differences were indicated between the intelligent and non-intelligent groups. Our findings suggest that frequent notifications may encourage greater exposure to intervention content without deterring engagement, but adaptive tailoring of notification timing does not always enhance their use. Hypotheses generated from this study require testing in future work. Trial registration number: ISRCTN67177737 © 2017 Morrison et al

Seasonal acclimatization to temperature in cardueline finches

1. Seasonal variation in body constituents and utilization of lipid, protein, and carbohydrate during cold stress in American goldfinches were studied to determine relations of these functions to the pronounced seasonal shift in thermogenic capacity documented in a previous study (Dawson and Carey, 1976).Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/47119/1/360_2004_Article_BF00686746.pd