A small open economy New Keynesian model for a foreign exchange constrained economy

Firms in many low income countries depend entirely on imported capital and intermediate inputs. As a result, in these countries economic activity is considerably influenced by the capacity of the economy to import these inputs which, in turn, depends on the availability and cost of foreign exchange. In this study we introduce foreign exchange availability as an additional constraint faced by firms into an otherwise standard small open economy New Keynesian DSGE model. The model is then calibrated for a typical Sub Saharan African economy and the behaviour of the model in response to both domestic and external shocks is compared with the standard model. The impulse responses of the two models show that the modified model generates more variability in most of the variables considered than the standard model. This behaviour of the modified model seems to correspond to the stylized facts of low income countries.New Keynesian DSGE; Foreign exchange constraint; Low income countries; Sub-Saharan Africa

Export Performance and Determinants in Ethiopia

Abstract In this study analysis of factors affecting export supply of Ethiopia, during the period 1981 – 2004, have been made using co integration analysis. Data trend reveals that Ethiopian export performance was highly volatile during the period, on average merchandise exports have been growing at 7% per annum, while manufacturing exports were growing at 4% per annum. The trend also reveals that Ethiopia’s export sector is mainly dominated by few primary commodities, where manufacturing exports account for less than 15% of merchandise exports on average. The two models estimated depict that merchandise export volumes are significantly influenced by gross capital formation (proxy for production capacity) and share of trade in GDP (proxy for trade liberalization) while other variables; terms of trade, real effective exchange rate, foreign income, and foreign direct investment were found to be insignificant. Manufacturing exports equation reveals an interesting result, manufacturing exports supply was found to be negatively & significantly affected by foreign income. Similar to merchandise export results, manufacturing exports were also found to be positively affected by gross capital formation. Terms of trade, real effective exchange rate, share of trade in GDP, and foreign direct investment were found to be insignificant. The study concludes with recommendations to increase share of manufactured exports and diversify export base of the country.Export Growth, Merchandise Exports, Manufacturing Exports, Error-Correction (Co-Integration) Method

A hybrid filtering approach for question answering

We describe a question answering system that took part in the bilingual CLEFQA task (German-English) where German is the source language and English the target language.We used the BableFish online translation system to translate the German questions into English. The system is targeted at Factoid and Denition questions. Our focus in designing the current system is on testing our online methods which are based on information extraction and linguistic ltering methods. Our system does not make use of precompiled tables or Gazetteers but uses Web snippets to rerank candidate answers extracted from the document collections. WordNet is also used as a lexical resource in the system. Our question answering system consists of the following core components: Question Anal- ysis, Passage Retrieval, Sentence Analysis and Answer Selection. These components employ various Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning (ML) tools, a set of heuristics and dierent lexical resources. Seamless integration of the various components is one of the major challenges of QA system development. In order to facilitate our develop- ment process, we used the Unstructured Information Management Architecture (UIMA) as our underlying framework

Dublin City University at QA@CLEF 2008

We describe our participation in Multilingual Question Answering at CLEF 2008 using German and English as our source and target languages respectively. The system was built using UIMA (Unstructured Information Management Architecture) as underlying framework

Papers of the Second International Conference on Development Studies in Ethiopia

Introductory remarks of the Second International Conference on Development Studies in Ethiopia, July 11-12, 2003, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Nature of Damage and Infestation of Dominant Foliage Herbivore of Soybean at Jimma-Iluababora, Ethiopia

Leaf herbivore insects are among the most serious pests of soybean in Ethiopia. A survey was conducted on 90 farms in three main soybean growing districts in Jimma and Iluababora zones of Ethiopia. The objectives were to assess the socio demographic information of the farmers, to identify farmers’ pest management practices and to study the importance and infestation of dominant leaf herbivore insect pests of soybean. The statistical analysis showed there is highly significant (p<0001) difference among studied districts in area coverage of soybean production and the majority of the farmers (81.1%) produce soybean below a hectare. Farmers were using different pest management methods to reduce damage caused by leaf phaga insect pests which concentrated on cultural method. Crop rotation was one of the main farming systems practiced by 80% at Tiroafeta and 96.7 and 100 % at Chewaka and Darimu districts. About 16.7% farmers of Tiroafeta were not practiced any management practices for pest management where as only 3.3 % of them practiced manually hand picking method at Chewaka. At Darimu district, all surveyed farmers did not get any access to crop protection training, but at Tiroafeta and Chewaka only 3.3 % of them got training opportunity provided by research center. The study revealed that the mean infestation level of green clover worm was 29.8 % at Tiroafeta district and 47 and 50.4 % at Chewaka and Darimu. The mean infestation of soybean semilooper was 25.3 % at Tiroafeta and 14.6 and 15.6 % at Chewaka and Darimu districts. The study showed that infestation of soybean leaf roller ranged from 2.5 to 8.2 % in Jimma zone and up to 74 % in Iluababora. Generally, these insect pests, needs due attention conducting regular scouting in unaddressed areas are very important for integrated pest management. Keywords: Green cloverworm, infestation, leaf roller, semi-looper, soybean DOI: 10.7176/JEES/10-7-02 Publication date:July 31st 202

Response of Coffee Husk Biochar on Growth of Faba Bean on Nitisol and Soil Nutrients

Soil fertility depletion and the associated soil acidity has become a serious problem to crop production in most highlands of Ethiopia Fortunately, such problems can be reclaimed by the application of biochar as soil amendments which can be sequestered in the soil for several years.A pot experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of biochar on soil properties, growth response and nutrient uptake of faba bean. The design employed was a randomized complete block with four replications.  The parameters analyzed includes: Trace Metals using DTPA extraction, macronutrient using 1 N ammonium acetate (pH =7) extraction. Dry ashing method was used to determine nutrient uptake of plant samples. The studied soil and plant data were collected and subjected to analysis of variance and treatment means were compared at the 0.05 probability level using list significant difference test. The results revealed that application of biochar significantly improved growth of faba bean and soil nutrient content. The highest values for soil chemical parameters such as available phosphorus and exchangeable cations were obtained from the application of 20 t/ha CHB. Similarly, the highest growth performance of faba bean including plant height, leaf number, chlorophyll content, nodulation number, root and shoot biomass, uptake of N, P and K were recorded from biochar-amended  soil. From this study, it can be suggested that the application of biochar could be an alternative promising amendment to lime for acid soil management and sustainable crop production. But, further investigations need to be continued under field conditions across different soil and crop types. Keywords: Amelioration, coffee husk biochar, faba bean, Nitisols DOI: 10.7176/JBAH/11-10-02 Publication date:May 31st 202

Papers of International Conference on Contemporary Development Issues in Ethiopia, August 16-18, 2001

Introductory remarks of the First International Conference on Contemporary Development Issues in Ethiopia held in Kalamazoo, Michigan August 16-18, 2001

Response of Coffee Husk Biochar on Growth of Faba Bean on Nitisol and Soil Nutrients

Soil fertility depletion and the associated soil acidity has become a serious problem to crop production in most highlands of Ethiopia. Fortunately, such problems can be reclaimed by the application of biochar as soil amendments which can be sequestered in the soil for several years. A pot experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of biochar on growth response and nutrient uptake of faba bean and soil nutrients. The design employed was a randomized complete block with four replications. Collected Composite soil from (0-20 cm) depths at different distance in the zigzag pattern and prepared, analyzed before conducting the pot experiment and after harvesting following the standard laboratory procedures. Prepared biochar samples were collected from Jimma University collage of agricultural and veterinary medicine.  The parameters analyzed includes: Trace Metals using DTPA extraction, macronutrient using 1 N ammonium acetate (pH =7) extraction. Dry ashing method was used to determine nutrient uptake of plant samples. The treatments included control, recommended inorganic phosphorus fertilizer (RPF), 10 t h-1 coffee husk biochar (CHB) + RPF ,20 t h- CHB+ RPF,10 t h-1 CHB+50% RPF,20 t h- CHB+50% RPF, lime+ RPF, lime+50% RPF,50% lime+RPF+10 t h-1 CHB and 50% lime+50% RPF+10 t h-1 CHB. The studied soil and plant data were collected and subjected to analysis of variance and treatment means were compared at the 0.05 probability level using list significant difference test. The results revealed that application of biochar significantly improved growth of faba bean and soil nutrient content. The highest values for soil chemical parameters such as total nitrogen, available phosphorus and exchangeable cations were obtained from the application of 20 t/ha CHB. Likewise, the highest growth performance of faba bean including plant height, leaf number, chlorophyll content, nodulation number, root and shoot biomass, uptake of N, P and K were recorded from biochar-amended  soil. Keywords: Amelioration, coffee husk biochar, faba bean, Nitisols DOI: 10.7176/JNSR/13-13-04 Publication date:July 31st 202

A Phenomenological Study of EFL Teachers’ Perceptions, Practices, and Challenges of Speaking Skills Instruction: Tewodros General Secondary School Grade Ten in Focus

The study aimed at investigating EFL teachers’ perceptions, practices, and challenges of speaking skills instruction. A phenomenological research design was employed. A total of six (6) English language teachers who were teaching grade 10 students at Tewodros General Secondary School, Debre Tabor were comprehensively selected. Semi-structured interview and classroom observation were used to collect data. The data were analyzed qualitatively through thematic analysis. The findings revealed that teachers’ perceptions towards speaking skills instruction were positive. Hence, most teachers viewed that the purpose of speaking skills instruction is to enhance students’ speaking performance that incorporates fluency, lexical resources, grammatical range and accuracy, and pronunciation.The results discovered that the practice of speaking skills instruction was not adequately accompanied with active learning methods. Hence, most of the teachers were using the lecture method than various active learning methods such as group works, find the different activities, role play, information gap activity, brainstorming, storytelling, and picture description. The findings uncovered that the speaking skills instruction was affected by various challenges including inability to use various active learning methods, lack of conducive learning environment, lack of students’ learning motivation, and unsuitable curriculum and textbook. As a result, students’ speaking performance that incorporates fluency, lexical resources, grammatical range and accuracy, and pronunciation was inadequately developed. It is, therefore, recommended that teachers, school directors, curriculum and textbook designers, and students should work together in various regards such as using various active learning methods, increasing students learning motivation, creating conducive learning environment, and revising the curriculum and the textbook to minimize the challenges that hinder the effective implementation of speaking skills. Keywords: Perception, practice and challenges DOI: 10.7176/JCSD/69-01 Publication date: January 31st 2023