Determinants of international tourism: Empirical evidence from three Mediterranean countries

Purpose: This paper investigates the main factors of international tourist arrivals to three Mediterranean destinations, namely Greece, Albania and Montenegro. Methods: A gravity model for panel data was used to analyze the number of tourists from twenty of the most important origin countries during the period 2012-2021. Results: Findings show that international tourism is adversely affected by bilateral distance and large-scale crisis such as COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, the flow of international visitors is positively related to populations and incomes per capita in origin and destination countries, geographical contiguity and climate similarity. Other pull factors for tourism flows include total investments in infrastructure, and political stability and absence of violence or terrorism. Implications: The results of this research provide some important implications and recommendations for tourism industry policymakers and managers

Strategic privatisation: Its achievements and challenges

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Individual Assessment of Judges in Albania - A General Overview and Comparative Analysis of Career Advancement and Reward Systems Based on Performance Evaluation

Assessment of judges in itself is one of the criteria in relation to the establishment of specific rules for the career of judges, creation of a healthy judicial system and a proper one. Professional Assessment process of judges based on objective, clear and transparent criteria, has a great importance for the consolidation of judicial power, because on its base, transfer and promotions of judges are performed only on the basis of individual merit. Considering the fact that the approximation of the Albanian legislation with the European one, has become a task of the Albanian legislator, the draft “On the evaluation system of judicial activity in RA” deserves special attention.This article takes in a comparative analysis the current law “On the individual assessment of judges in Albania” and the draft law “On the evaluation system of judicial activity in RA”. The main attention of the analysis focuses on some basic elements for evaluation of the judges, pointing to some basic procedures relevant and necessary in relation to the performance and their role in the process of administering justice in our country. In the analysis of this draft law we will mainly focus on the establishment of procedures, principles and criteria for professional and ethical assessment of the judges of courts of first instance and courts of appeal that predicts the draftlaw. In the following the article is focused on a comparative view of the assessment criteria, according to the Italian model. Analysis of the Italian system of individual assessment of judges may highlight on some the practical aspects of the most suitable model of assessment to be implemented in Albania

Albania, financial management in the education system: Higher education

Recently, in Albania, the debate on the autonomy of higher education is growing. The debate is twofold; one is related with the problems of financing the higher education and the other in the choice of financial management system. The main resource of financing education and also higher education in Albania is the government, which means taxpayers, and a small part of the financing is coming by the tuition fees. In the case of Albania, when the GDP per capita is still low, the level of poverty is reasonable high; it is difficult for the students to afford the cost of higher education service. In the mean time the pressure from universities to increase the share of expenditures in higher education is pushing policymakers to think about the philosophy of the management of higher education in Albania. This paper is a thought-provoking paper that will try to help the stakeholders to find the best philosophy of financing and management of higher education. We agree that financial autonomy of universities is a superior system of the management of higher education but jumping to this system with the existing infrastructure, it is likely to fail. --Albania,Higher Education Management

Monetary policy, exchange rate in Albanian economy

There seems to be a general perception that the exchange rate pass-through is the most important channel in the transmission process of monetary policy in Albania. This perception is questioned here in light of the altering relationships in this developing economy. A discussion on the transmission channels in the Albanian economy is followed by a study of the macro-economic relationships and pragmatic econometrics quantifying the monetary effectiveness. The results indicate that the dollar has become less important in the monetary transmission process at the benefit of the euro. There are moreover strong signs that the exchange rate channel as such is loosing its influence at the benefit of the other transmission channels, like the credit channel and most likely the wage channel. However, economists have tested the PPP theory, pursuing criticisms on the accuracy of this paradigm vis-a-vis the long-run behaviour of the real exchange rate. Studies from Froot and Rogoff (1991) and MacDonald (1995) look at it from this perspective. Under continuous scrutiny, both theoretically and empirically, the PPP theory is generally understood to be able to, at best, determine the real exchange equilibrium only in the very long horizon, which typically overcomes relevant timeframes for economic policy and cannot provide an understanding of factors behind short and mid-term deviations from equilibrium. Keywords: Monetary policy, exchange rate, Albanian economy Proceeding of 2020-ECFBR.  The article is recommended by the committee of 2020 European Conference of Finance and Business Research (2020-ECFBR)

Corporate Governance, Boards, Standards of Accounting and Management in Financial Institutions

Corporate governance are very important.Albania has a new economy. After the communist regime, Albania has adopt the new standard of accounting. In this period Albanian companies is focused in respecting of financial standards and applied of standards accounting. In this way all the Albanian company has adopt their standards of accounting. A lot of company has adopt their code of corporate governance in their institutions. Albania has a lot of to do about corporate governance.   Albania’s remarkable economic transformation has been affected by the global financial crisis. The country’s main challenges include maintaining macro-fiscal and financial sector sustainability, improving the investment climate and unleashing private sector growth, removing barriers to employment for job creation, and improving governance and public service delivery. This paper is contain some elements of corporate boardc, management and standards in accounting and some aspect of corporate governance. Keywords: Corporate governance, Accounting Standards etc. DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/11-24-09 Publication date: December 31st 202

IFRS, Accounting Standards in Various States

In the context of continuous globalization, it is essential to have common accounting standards that allow efficiency and transparency in the handling of information. The present article, applying a systematic mapping study, presents an analysis of the scientific production associated with the research topic. The results obtained generate new challenges in the accounting profession and contrast the need to distinguish the accountant as a key professional in the process of transition of financial information under IFRS. This paper presents a theoretical discussion about the role of IFRS and varius states Keywords: International account, IFRS, Accounting Standards Board etc. DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/11-17-06 Publication date:October 31st 202

Impact of solid state properties of sodium naproxen hydrates on their technological performance

Sodium naproxen, a member of the class of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), exists in one anhydrous form and four hydrated ones: one monohydrate, two dihydrate and one tetrahydrate. Sodium naproxen (SN) forms can be summarised as follows:\ud • the anhydrous sodium naproxen (ASN) is the commercialised form;\ud • the monohydrated sodium naproxen (MSN), is obtained by dehydration of the dihydrated sodium naproxen (DSN), according to Kim and Rousseau (2004);\ud • the dihydrated sodium naproxen (DSN) is obtained by exposing the ASN to 55% RH according to Di Martino et al. (2001);\ud • the dihydrated sodium naproxen (CSN) is obtained by crystallizing sodium naproxen from water, according to Di Martino et al. (2001) and Kim and Rousseau (2004);\ud • the tetrahydrated form (TSN) is obtained by exposing the ASN at 75% RH according to Di Martino et al. (2007).\ud The hydration state of SN may strongly influence its physico-chemical and technological properties and consequently its bioavailability. Water exposure during\ud storage or pharmaceutical processing can cause changes in the crystal lattice of the starting material. Therefore, a profound understanding and characterisation of SN solid\ud state and phase transitions throughout storage or processing are important in predicting and defining its technological performance.\ud In fact, it was observed that following wet granulation process by high-shear mixergranulator, the drug hydrated to the tetrahydrated form. Performing two different drying\ud procedures, granules of different water content and crystallographic characteristics were obtained. This means that differences in drying procedures could lead to products of different crystallographic properties. The behaviour under compression revealed that one of the batches offered the best tabletability and compressibility. These results make it possible to state that differences in the crystallographic properties and water content of\ud sodium naproxen are such that different hydration/drying processes can alter the drug crystal form and thus the tabletability of the resulting granules.\ud Next, the water uptake of ASN during storage was evaluated. A correlation between water uptake by ASN at two different relative humidities and modifications in tableting and\ud densification behaviour under hydration exists. Models for the hydration kinetics of ASN at 55% and 86%, corresponding to the formation of the dihydrated and tetrahydrated forms\ud respectively, were evaluated assuming Eyring’s dependence on temperature. Tabletability, compressibility, compactibility and densification behaviour were determined using an instrumented single punch tablet machine.\ud Kinetic data is consistent with a model where water molecules enter the crystal preferentially along hydrophilic tunnels existing in the crystal structure and corresponding to the propionate side chain. Water inclusion perturbs the crystallographic structure, causing slight structural changes according to the amount and associated to an increase in entropy. The interposition of water molecules between SN molecules weakens intermolecular bonds, and these sites can behave like sliding planes under compression.\ud Such structural changes may explain the improved compression behaviour and modified densification propensity mechanism. Kinetic data describing the water hydration\ud mechanism of ASN explains in an original way the improved tableting and densification properties under hydration.\ud Because different hydration/dehydration processes can alter the drug crystal form, the isothermal dehydration of some of SN hydrates was observed by thermogravimetry at several temperatures. The rate of water removal from the crystal was used to determine the mechanism of dehydration in the solid state, by fitting results with selected expressions\ud corresponding to the most common solid-state processes. The water loss was then evaluated according to Eyring’s equation, and both changes in activation enthalpy ( ÄH*)\ud and activation entropy ( ÄS*) were estimated from rate constant values. Experiments made it possible to distinguish different dehydration mechanisms for these hydrate forms, and in particular, to discern the dehydration behaviour of CSN and DSN dihydrate forms. These\ud results add new evidence supporting the X-ray powder diffraction study and showing different patterns for these two forms. X-ray powder diffractometry evaluation of the phase transitions occurring during dehydration of these two dihydrate forms showed that they vary according to dehydration temperature.\ud To finalize our study, the technological and mechanical properties of several solid forms of SN were investigated. Particular attention has been made in order to reduce\ud differences, among the samples, in crystal habit, particle size and distribution, amount of absorbed water, so that only the hydration degree and the crystalline structure might affect the technological behaviour of powders. Thus, the compression behaviours were determined by using an instrumented single punch tablet machine and evaluated through the tabletability, compressibility and compactibility analysis. The results showed that the\ud compression ability was influenced by the hydration degree and the crystalline form. In general, the tabletability was mainly due to the ability of particles to close up by\ud establishing numerous bonds.\u

IFRS as an Important Part in Commercial Companies

IFRS are important for all the companies. The first priority of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is to improve financial reporting for the benefit of investors and other users of financial information in U.S. capital markets. We do that by striving to set the highest-quality standards, which collectively are known as Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). By highest quality, we mean standards that provide users of financial statements with information that is clear, useful, and relevant to their needs, while considering whether the expected benefits of that information justify the costss of providing and using it.The FASB believes that seeking more comparable global accounting standards—improving the quality of accounting standards used around the world while reducing differences among those standards—is consistent with its core mission. Investors, companies, auditors, and other participants in the U.S. financial reporting system benefit from the increased comparability that can result from the closer alignment of standards used internationally. More comparable standards have the potential to reduce costs for both users and preparers of financial statements and make worldwide capital markets more efficient. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) expects the FASB to consider, in developing standards, the extent to which international comparability is necessary or appropriate in the public interest and for the protection of investors. DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/12-8-02 Publication date: April 30th 202

International Accounting Harmonization Process of IASB in Financial Organization

The international harmonization of Accounting Standards is a process, which brings international Accounting Standards into some sort of agreement, in order to achieve a common set of Accounting principles. 7000 European companies have to use the International Accounting Standards (IAS) in the European Union (EU), beginning 2005. The IAS are developed from the IASB. Furthermore, the long existing rejection of IAS of the U.S. seems to change. Co-ordination of agendas of the American standard-setting board (Financial Accounting Standard Board (FASB) and the IASB have been announced. We conclude, that the IASB plays a major role in the field of international harmonization. Keywords: Harmonization, International Accounting Standard Board (IASB), International Accounting Standards (IAS), Accounting Standards, International Accounting. Keywords: Harmonization, International Accounting Standard Board (IASB), International Accounting Standards (IAS), Accounting Standards, International Accounting DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/11-17-05 Publication date:October 31st 202