Corruption, political instability and growth: Evidence from the Arab Spring

This paper empirically investigates the relationship between corruption, political instability and economic growth. We first show how these variables interact by allowing for bidirectional causality between each two of the three variables for which we employ a panel VAR model on a dataset of 140 countries over the period of 1990-2017. Then, we exploit the incidence of the Arab Spring, as an exogenous shock, to measure the short-term effects of political shocks on corruption levels, political stability and economic growth using the differencesin-differences (DiD) framework

Global financial crisis, credit access and children: Evidence from Tanzania

This paper investigates the relationship between the recent global financial crisis and child labour in Tanzania. Using the difference-in-difference methodological framework, we identify households' access to credit as a possible transmission channel of the financial crisis to child labour. Unlike most of the existing studies that employ self-reported shocks, we exploit the incidence of the global crisis as an exogenous shock to compare households that were credit recipients before the crisis with households that were not recipients of credit either prior to the crisis or in its immediate aftermath. To deal with possible bias from the endogeneity of access to credit, this study proposes a new instrument that considers the regional concentration of available micro finance institutions and the number of households' assets. Unlike instruments suggested by the existing literature, our proposed instrument incorporates information on both demand and supply sides of credit access irrespective of whether a household has actually received credit. To avoid the wealth effect which would violate the exogeniety condition, we suggest to count the number of the household's assets no matter how much value they possess. By doing so, our instrument utilizes information on how risk averse a household is and therefore their chances of making a successful loan application. The empirical results reveal that a negative shock on credit-recipient households is associated with a significant increase in child labour in Tanzania

Global financial crisis, credit access and children: Evidence from Tanzania

This paper investigates the relationship between the recent global financial crisis and child labour in Tanzania. Using the difference-in-difference methodological framework, we identify households' access to credit as a possible transmission channel of the financial crisis to child labour. Unlike most of the existing studies that employ self-reported shocks, we exploit the incidence of the global crisis as an exogenous shock to compare households that were credit recipients before the crisis with households that were not recipients of credit either prior to the crisis or in its immediate aftermath. To deal with possible bias from the endogeneity of access to credit, this study proposes a new instrument that considers the regional concentration of available micro finance institutions and the number of households' assets. Unlike instruments suggested by the existing literature, our proposed instrument incorporates information on both demand and supply sides of credit access irrespective of whether a household has actually received credit. To avoid the wealth effect which would violate the exogeniety condition, we suggest to count the number of the household's assets no matter how much value they possess. By doing so, our instrument utilizes information on how risk averse a household is and therefore their chances of making a successful loan application. The empirical results reveal that a negative shock on credit-recipient households is associated with a significant increase in child labour in Tanzania

Catching the mirage: The shadow impact of financial crises

This paper examines the dynamics of the shadow economy in times of financial crises. First, we estimate the size of the shadow economy in nine developing countries using energy consumption as a proxy for total economic activity. We show that our proposed proxy performs better than the conventional proxy of electricity consumption. In addition, given that financial crises usually overlap; a fact that is overlooked by existing literature, we construct a zero-one index to measure the intensity of a given shock. To explain the shadow economy impact of financial crises, we employ a set of country-specific VAR models and exploit their impulse responses. To this end, the paper finds empirical evidence of the countercyclical behaviour of the shadow economy, which suggests its buffering role in time financial crises. We show that our results are not sensitive to the method used to measure the size of the shadow economy. Finally, we build on these results to draw some policy recommendations

Asymmetric impacts of oil price shocks on government expenditures: Evidence from Saudi Arabia

This paper investigates the effect of oil price shocks on government expenditures on the health and education sectors in Saudi Arabia. Using a quarterly dataset 1990Q1–2017Q2 and employing a non-linear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) model, our research shows evidence of a non-linear relationship between oil prices and government expenditures in Saudi Arabia, where a negative oil price shock would have a statistically significant different impact in the long run compared to a positive shock. We build upon our empirical findings and draw some policy recommendations for Vision 2030 of Saudi Arabia

Dietary Supplementation of Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) With Panax ginseng Essential Oil: Positive Impact on Animal Health and Productive Performance, and Mitigating Effects on Atrazine-Induced Toxicity

The present study assessed the impact of Panax ginseng essential oil (GEO) supplementation on physiological parameters related to productive performance and health status in Nile tilapia reared under standard conditions and exposed to a sub-lethal atrazine (ATZ) concentration. Fish were allocated into 6 groups: the control group was reared in clean water and fed with a commercial basal diet (CNT), two groups were fed with the basal diet supplemented with two different levels of GEO (GEO1 and GEO2, respectively), one group was intoxicated with 1/5 of ATZ 96-h lethal concentration 50 (1.39 mg/L) (ATZ group), and the remaining two groups were fed with the GEO-supplemented diets and concurrently exposed to 1.39 mg ATZ/L (GEO1+ATZ and GEO2+ATZ, respectively). The experiment lasted for 60 days. GEO supplementation exerted a significantly positive influence on fish growth, feed utilization, and hepatic antioxidant defense systems at both levels of supplementation. ATZ exposure significantly reduced fish survival rates and impaired fish growth and feed utilization, with the lowest final weights, weight gain, total feed intake, and the highest feed conversion ratio being recorded in the ATZ-intoxicated group. ATZ exposure caused significant changes in intestinal digestive enzyme activity (decreased lipase activity), hematological indices (decreased hemoglobin, packed cell volume, erythrocytes, and leukocytes), blood biochemical variables (decreased total proteins, albumin, globulins, and immunoglobulin M; increased total cholesterol, triglycerides, and cortisol), and hepatic oxidative/antioxidant indices (decreased glutathione level, superoxide dismutase and catalase enzyme activity and mRNA expression levels, and increased malondialdehyde content). Moreover, in the hepatic tissue of ATZ-intoxicated Nile tilapia, histopathological alterations and upregulated mRNA expression levels of stress- and apoptosis-related genes (Hsp70, caspase 3, and p53) were observed. GEO supplementation in ATZ-treated groups significantly attenuated the aforementioned negative effects, though some parameters did not reach the CNT values. These findings provide further and partly new evidence that sub-lethal ATZ toxicity induces reduced survivability, growth retardation, impaired digestive function, anemia, immunosuppression, hepatic oxidative stress damage, and overall increased stress level in Nile tilapia, and suggest that GEO supplementation may be useful for mitigating this toxicity and provide more general support to the productive performance and health status of this fish species

Immunosuppressive Effects of Thallium Toxicity in Nile Tilapia Fingerlings: Elucidating the Rescue Role of Astragalus membranaceus Polysaccharides

This study evaluated the immunotoxic effects of thallium (Tl) in Nile tilapia fingerlings and the recovery role of dietary Astragalus membranaceus polysaccharides (ASs). An 8-week experiment was designed where 180 fishes were randomly and equally assigned in triplicates into the six groups: the control group (CNT) was reared in unpolluted water and fed a commercial diet, two groups were fed a well-balanced commercial diet plus 1.5 and 3.0 g AS/kg diet (AS0.15 and AS0.30), respectively, the fourth group was exposed to a sublethal dose of Tl (41.9 μg l−1) [equal to 1/10 of 96-h lethal concentration 50 (LC50)], and the last two groups were fed 0.15 and 0.3% AS, respectively, and concurrently exposed to Tl (41.9 μg l−1) (AS0.15+Tl and AS0.30+Tl). Fish hematobiochemical parameters, serum immunity [nitric oxide, total immunoglobulin M (IgM) levels, and lysozyme activity], transcription of hepatic interferon-g (IFN-g), interleukin-1b (IL-1b), and tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-a), and resistance to Aeromonas hydrophila (A. hydrophila) were assessed. Hematobiochemical parameters and serum immune indices were significantly decreased in the fish group exposed to sublethal Tl concentration compared to the CNT group. Furthermore, Tl exposure significantly induced overexpression of IL-1b, TNF-a, and IFN-g genes (4.22-, 5.45-, and 4.57-fold higher, respectively) compared to CNT values. Tl exposure also increased the cumulative mortality (%) in Nile tilapia challenged with A. hydrophila. Remarkably, the groups fed AS0.15+Tl and AS0.30+Tl significantly ameliorated all the aforementioned parameters, but did not reach CNT values. Our findings suggest the possible immunomodulating roles of dietary AS in recovering the immunotoxic effects of Tl in Nile tilapia. We can conclude that dietary AS would be useful for maintaining the immunity of Nile tilapia fingerlings

Global Financial Crisis, Credit Access and Children: Evidence from Tanzania

We employ the difference-in-differences framework to examine households' access to credit as a possible transmission channel of the global financial crisis to child labor in Tanzania. To deal with the endogeneity of access to credit, we propose a new instrument that considers the regional concentration of available micro-finance institutions and the number of households' assets. Our instrument incorporates information on both demand and supply sides of credit access irrespective of whether a household has received credit. The empirical results reveal that a negative shock on credit-recipient households is associated with a significant increase in child labor in Tanzania