The 2008 Economic Crisis: Implications and Responses in the Banking Sector

This article documents and discusses the impacts of and responses to the 2008 global financial and economic crisis (GFEC). General impacts and responses are outlined with some example from some specific countries. The discussion on the general impacts and responses are followed by discussions on the impacts of and response to the crisis in the banking subsector of the broader financial sector. The major findings of the study indicate that there have been substantial impacts of the crisis in the banking sector in the more economically and financially developed and integrated part of the world such as Europe and North America than in the less developed and intergated part of it such as Africa. Within Africa, the more economically developed and financially integrated countries such as South Africa and Nigeria were more affected by the crisis in general and in their financial sector in particular. There have also been various responses to the 2008 economic crisis in general and within the banking sub-sector in particular both globally and within Africa. The model that has been developed by the author indicates among other things that some of responses to economic crisis by the banking sector can lead to yet another chain of impacts, both positive and negative. The paper is mainly informed by a desk research in form of intensive literature review and discussion of the same.Key words: 2008 economic and financial crisis, impacts, response

COVIDiSTRESS diverse dataset on psychological and behavioural outcomes one year into the COVID-19 pandemic

During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the COVIDiSTRESS Consortium launched an open-access global survey to understand and improve individuals’ experiences related to the crisis. A year later, we extended this line of research by launching a new survey to address the dynamic landscape of the pandemic. This survey was released with the goal of addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion by working with over 150 researchers across the globe who collected data in 48 languages and dialects across 137 countries. The resulting cleaned dataset described here includes 15,740 of over 20,000 responses. The dataset allows cross-cultural study of psychological wellbeing and behaviours a year into the pandemic. It includes measures of stress, resilience, vaccine attitudes, trust in government and scientists, compliance, and information acquisition and misperceptions regarding COVID-19. Open-access raw and cleaned datasets with computed scores are available. Just as our initial COVIDiSTRESS dataset has facilitated government policy decisions regarding health crises, this dataset can be used by researchers and policy makers to inform research, decisions, and policy. © 2022, The Author(s).U.S. Department of Education, ED: P031S190304; Texas A and M International University, TAMIU; National Research University Higher School of Economics, ВШЭThe COVIDiSTRESS Consortium would like to acknowledge the contributions of friends and collaborators in translating and sharing the COVIDiSTRESS survey, as well as the study participants. Data analysis was supported by Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) Research Grant, TAMIU Act on Ideas, and the TAMIU Advancing Research and Curriculum Initiative (TAMIU ARC) awarded by the US Department of Education Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program (Award # P031S190304). Data collection by Dmitrii Dubrov was supported within the framework of the Basic Research Program at HSE University, RF

Privatization and ‘Agentification’ of Public Services Delivery in Africa: Extent and Managerial Leadership Implications in Tanzania

The paper dwells on the very current and topical issue of changing patterns and practices of public service delivery in Africa. The author offers a critical analysis and discussion on the extent to which public service delivery is being undertaken by the private sector (privatization) and executive agencies (‘agentification’) in Tanzania and the related managerial leadership implications. The article evidencesthe fact that over the last decade, Tanzania has taken many and farreaching bold steps to reform its public sector and improve the performance of civil servants. Among the notable reforms is the participation of the private sector and executive agencies in the delivery of non-core public services through the private sector participation (PSP) initiative. The paper also shows that theprivatization and ‘agentification’ of the public service delivery in Tanzania has a number of managerial leadership implications on the part of the public sector, the private sector and the executive agencies involved. Finally, the paper demonstrates that good managerial leadership, in the institutions involved in service delivery, is crucial if the objectives of privatization and ‘agentification’ of public service delivery are to be achieved