IMF lending arrangements in emerging and developing countries – participation and prediction

The literature on determinants of International Monetary Fund (IMF) interventions in emerging and developing countries shows that the IMF’s decisions are determined by political and economic causes. This article empirically investigates economic factors, showing that a country’s probability to sign an IMF arrangement can be predicted by looking at a core group of macroeconomic variables. Using discriminant analysis we develop a score function that allows us to predict a country’s future participation in IMF programmes. The study covers 153 emerging and developing countries, over more than 30 years (1980–2011) and 654 agreements, for both non-concessional and concessional loans. The proposed tools are simple, consistent and relevant and they can be used both to monitor an IMF country and its economic development in real time and to forecast future demand for IMF aid

The road to the economics of Brexit: a new direction in economic research

Brexit became an important subject not only for academics but also for international institutions, research centers and consultancy companies, think tanks and independent experts. The aim of this article is to: (1) provide a general approach of the literature; (2) see how the effects of Brexit are explained in such short-term approach and how important are the economic issues in the debates; (3) identify directions for future research, arguing that a new field of study emerged. The estimation of economic impact of Brexit has generated a reach literature in a short period, which identifies the main issues, rather than providing strong results and conclusions. In order to fill this gap, our paper provide a systematic review of the most important contributions and group them in four research directions: overall economic implications of Brexit; Brexit and trade; migration and labour market; financial issues and Brexit

Some issues concerning sector concentration. evidence from Romania / Valdymo sistema didžiosiose madeiros salos imonėse: rezultatų apskaitos sistemos naudojimo pavyzdžiu

This paper examines the dynamics of sector concentration in Romania starting from two basic questions: how concentrated the economic activities are and what factors determine the economic concentration. The lack of availability of concentration ratio series for Romanian economy has limited the research in this field. The paper reports the concentration ratios dynamics in Romania during the period 1996–2004, looking at the differences between industries and offers some possible explanations. We use the simple concentration ratio (CR) for the largest 5 and 20 companies to measure concentration in 25 industries according to the sales figure and the number of employees. Our study has been limited to the processing industry, because the mining industry continues to have a very high level of concentration, without any significant changes in the analysed period; commerce, services and constructions are sectors with low entrance barriers and a strong geographic concentration character, thus their analysis can become irrelevant for the national level. Based on the average values of the concentration coefficients that it was determined for the period 1996–2004 we proposed the map of Romanian industry concentration, as a graphical tool for a synthetic view of the general concentration level in a national economy. Santrauka Nagrinejama tam tikru Rumunijos pramones sektoriu koncentracijos dinamika, atsakant i du pagrindinius klausimus: kokia yra ekonominiu veiklu koncentracija ir kokie veiksniai lemia ju pasiskirstym. Taèiau del kai kuriu ekonominiu apribojimu tyrimo metu nebuvo galimybes ivertinti tam tikru aspektu, nuo kuriu ir buvo atsiribota. Straipsnyje pateikiamas pramones sektoriu koncentracijos santykis, apimantis 1996–2004 metu laikotarpi, buvo nustatyti pramones šaku skirtumai ir pateikti komentarai. Autoriai daugiau demesio skiria apdirbamajai pramonei, nes kasybos pramone ir toliau išlieka viena iš labiausiai koncentruotu veiklos rušiu, dideliu pokyèiu tuose pramones sektoriuose analizuojamu laikotarpiu nebuvo pastebeta. Prekybos, aptarnavimo ir paslaugu bei statybos sektoriai turi nedidelius ribojimus, ir geografine koncentracija yra gera, todel ju analize buvo nustatyta kaip nereikšminga. Gauti tyrimo rezultatai naudoti sudarant Rumunijos pramones koncentracijos žemelapi ir nustatant lyginamji svori bendroje nacionalineje ekonomikoje. Reikšminiai žodžiai: koncentracija, koncentracijos santykis, regioninis sektorius, pramone, Rumunij

Renminbi Internationalization Process: A Quantitative Literature Review

As China’s position in the global economy has gradually improved, the importance of debates on the role of the renminbi in the international monetary system has significantly increased. This paper uses bibliometric methods—Bibliometrix R-package and its web-based graphical interface Biblioshiny—applied to data imported from Web of Science and Scopus to investigate and synthesize the renminbi literature published in English between 1995 and 2021. Science mapping offers a visual representation of different networks and clusters of authors’ keywords. The performance analysis, a quantitative evaluation of the most published sources, authors and papers on renminbi internationalization in the last 25 years, shows that the interest on the topic has grown, particularly after 2009 and 2016, respectively. There is also a high degree of concentration in the field, considering that out of the 802 analyzed papers, published in 393 sources, five authors and four journals had the highest impact. The content analysis identifies the main directions in the renminbi internationalization literature and future research questions to further explore this subject. The COVID-19 pandemic and post-Ukraine war era could generate a deeper reform of the international monetary system, in which the Chinese currency will strengthen its global position alongside the US dollar and the euro

The Challenges of Reforming the International Monetary System in the Post COVID-19 World

The paper analyzes if the international monetary system calls for reform and whether China and the renminbi will play a decisive role in the post COVID-19 world. It also evaluates the main scenarios and trends that is being discussed since the global crisis – selecting the relevant authors, journals, institutions and opinions – examines present conditions and tries to extrapolate into future trends. Opting for a nontechnical approach, the article could be a good insight into the international monetary system, for academics, non-experts and policy makers. The paper concludes that if the 2008 crisis has induced the growth of the China role in the international monetary governance and the increase of the renminbi internationalization, the COVID-19 pandemic and post crisis reconstruction could generate a deeper reform of the international monetary system, in which the Chinese currency will strengthen its global position alongside the US dollar and the euro

Bitcoin in the Scientific Literature – A Bibliometric Study

Since 2012, there has been growing interest in bitcoin scientific research from different fields, including computer science and engineering, economics, business and finance, law and regulatory. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate bitcoin literature based on the structures and networks of science, as a first step in the research of this new phenomenon. Analysing the growing scientific literature on bitcoin published between 2012 and 2019, we provided useful insights on academic research in this field regarding publication year, type and category, authors, journals and citations. The source of the 887 documents which support the study was Web of Science Core Collection. Using VOSviewer software we have designed bibliometric maps based on text and bibliographic data. Our study provides a knowledge area map that identifies and evaluates the links between authors and countries distribution, the conceptual structure of the field, the structure and connections of most cited papers and journals. Resuming our findings, we note a concentration of the interest on some keywords (bitcoin, cryptocurrency, blockchain) and on some influential authors (with more than 100 citations per article). As a pure expression of digital economy, the research on bitcoin as an economic concept counts only 33.5% from the total contributions in the field

The Crisis of Economic Theory in the Middle of the Economic Crisis

Keynesian economics has lost much of its effectiveness as a paradigm of world capitalism as a whole, or as a paradigm of individual developed capitalist economies. The decline of the United States as a hegemonic power capable of imposing its will over others has seen to the erosion of the relevance of the Keynesian doctrine on the global scale. The Philips curve and what Hicks calls the “social” pressure on wages have severely restricted the field of Keynesian policy at home – even through the ruling classes continue to use Keynesian theory as their paradigm. The most important lesson from Keynes work may be that the macroeconomist should start from the important problems of the day and should face the following questions: 1) How can we to understand what are is happening right now? 2) What can be done about it? What is the best policy to follow? 3) Do recent events force us to modify what is today widely accepted economic theory? If so, what is wrong and how might we go about arriving at a more satisfying theory? The most important economic problem of today is current financial crisis that started in the United States. What might we learn from Keynesian theory about it? The current situation is almost the opposite of the one that Keynes dealt with in the “General Theory”. Now day’s economics lacks an anchored understanding of the nature of the reality that economics is supposed to illuminate. Instability of leverage, connectivity, and potential instability of the price level have all been neglected in stable – with – fractions macro theory. Technical innovations will not bring real progress as long as “stability – with – fractions” remains the ruling paradigm. Meanwhile, governments are not prepared to face another crisis

An Interesting Image of Transmural Migration of a Levonorgestrel-Releasing Intrauterine Device (LNg-IUD)

Intrauterine devices (IUDs) are very common as a method of birth control. By adding progesterone (levonorgestrel), a decrease in the risk of complications has been documented, including the risk of perforation. Even though only a few complications have been described, adjacent organs may be involved in the case of migration—a life-threatening situation. A 45-year-old G4P2 woman was seen in our clinic for LNg-IUD removal, according to the medical instructions. Her main complaints were abdominal discomfort, low back pain, and recurrent menorrhagia. A “lost” IUD was initially suspected; the patient confirmed the detection and removal of the control strings, and a subsequent discussion related to delayed transmural migration of the IUD being followed. The ultrasonography revealed the migration of the IUD to the uterine cervix and size-decreased uterine fibroids, confirming the effectiveness of the LNg-IUD. The MRI and ultrasonography being useless, a subsequent X-ray and CT scan were requested, both confirming a myometrium-positioned IUD, adjacent to the serosa and lumbosacral plexus. Even though the IUD is considered a safe device with reversible effect, it can be associated with severe morbidity, with an ultrasound follow-up being required. For more precise detection of the IUD, we strongly recommend an X-ray or CT scan examination, followed by safe removal

Evolution of collectivity along the N=Z line: The 84Mo nucleus

The reaction 58Ni(28Si,2nγ) at 90 MeV incident energy has been used to populate the N=Z nucleus 84Mo. The GASP array was used together with the ISIS Silicon ball, which allowed a subtraction of the charged particle channels in the γ-γ coincidences. The only known transition 21+→01+ of 443.8 keV in 84Mo has been found in coincidence with a γ ray of 673.5±0.4 keV which was assigned as the second (41+→21+) yrast transition. The behavior of the resulting yrast line indicates that 84Mo is a transitional nucleus. The correlation between the excitation energies of the 21+ and 41+ levels of the N=Z nuclei reveals a systematic deviation from the average behavior defined by all collective even-even nuclei