The Political Business Cycles of EU Accession Countries

This paper considers whether political business cycles exist in Eastern European accession countries. Section I introduces the overall objectives of the work. Section II provides a short introduction to the political business cycle literature. It also considers the role of exchange rates, capital mobility, and central bank independence in restricting or encouraging political business cycles. Section III lays out the accession process to date as well as the exchange rate regimes accession states have used. Section IV tests empirically whether there have been political business cycles during the time period 1990 to 1999 for the 10 Eastern European accession countries, with estimations based on a Mundell-Fleming model. It finds that countries with flexible exchange rates have looser monetary policies in election years than in non-election years in countries with dependent central banks. If a country has a fixed exchange rate regime, it manipulates its economy in election years through running larger budgets instead of through looser monetary policy. Section V concludes with some policy implications for the European Union's enlargement process and EMU

Trade and Growth under Limited Liberalization

This paper studies the connection between trade and growth in the context of a partial and inconsistent liberalization process in a specific Eastern European country in transition towards market economy, namely, the Republic of Belarus. The analysis of the country trade patterns during the USSR period and the years since independence revealed that unlike its close neighbors (the Baltic States and Poland) Belarus did not succeed in changing the commodity or the geographical structure of its trade. It is almost a good representation of reality to say that Belarus trades with Russia. The assessment of the rationale for the closer integration with Russia and the impact of this process on Belarus growth led us to the conclusion that the integration in the form of a non-exclusive Free Trade Area and within the framework of a wider set of international connections rather than the move towards a Customs Union (and a Union State) with Russia would be a more optimal policy for Belarus. This conclusion is supported by the results of country-specific growth regressions and of a counterfactual "free trade experiment" via a small CGE model. This paper is partially based on the work by the Authors for the World Bank Global Development Network (GDN) Research Project "Explaining Growth in the CIS Countries"

The influence of country personality dimensions on intentions to recommend visiting: the preponderance of assiduousness and wickedness

The purpose of the current research is to investigate the relationships between country personality dimensions and consumer behavioural intentions, and to examine in detail the perceived personality of a stimulus-country. A convenience sample of 130 individuals from Brazil was surveyed and 115 usable questionnaires were analyzed. Portugal was chosen as the country for scrutiny and the questionnaire was delivered in Portuguese. Country personality was measured using the 24 items of personality traits six dimensions scale of d’Astous & Boujbel (2007). The research findings suggest that consumers ascribe personality characteristics to countries. All the items show high factorial weights, and in the proposed model the percentage of the variance of the intention to recommend explained by the perceived country personality dimensions equals around 23%. Assiduousness showed a positive significant influence on intention to recommend, whereas wickedness showed a significant negative influence. The findings suggest differences from the comparable earlier studies. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed. Complementarily, and as suggested by the personality traits frequency analysis, Portugal is seen as a traditionalist countryinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Individual actors and embeddedness in business-to-business interactions

Individual actors are hardly ever considered in business-to-business marketing literature. This paper uses Service-dominant Logic and Neo-institutional Theory as the bases for twelve case studies. These case studies provide a better understanding of how individuals who represent firms make sense of the social rules, norms, procedures, values, and beliefs of the network (i.e. institutional logics) where they are embedded and how the business interaction is shaped by those influences, through the individual behaviour. This paper makes two main contributions. First, we develop an empirical model of how individuals consider the institutional logics of the network in interactions with suppliers. Second, we present three patterns of individual behavior in interactions, different from what is often assumed by business-to-business researchers. Managerial contributions are also pointed out.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Country personality scale: is a five-dimensional model a better methodological instrument?

In this article, we investigate the Country Personality Scale and explore the use of a five-dimensional scale instead of the originally proposed six-dimensional scale and its application for evaluating consumers' behavioral intentions. The aim of this article is to evaluate the Country Personality Scale and to adapt it to the Portuguese context, proposing a model anchored in a reduced Country Personality Scale. Pretest (a sample of 115 Brazilians) and main survey data (685 responses from São Paulo and Bahia states in Brazil) are considered. Portugal is the stimulus country. The proposed research model relating the country's personality dimensions to its behavioral intentions to visit is estimated using structural equation modeling with AMOS, and the research hypotheses are tested. The results suggest that five dimensions (agreeableness, assiduousness, conformity, snobbism, and unobtrusiveness) should be considered when measuring country personality. There is a perception that this scale is a useful instrument for a quantitative approach to measuring a country personality construct and its impact on behavioral intentions, which can help researchers and marketers address international and cross-cultural marketing issues. Based on the main survey data, subjected to the personality trait frequency analysis, Portugal is classified as a conformist country.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

The weird governance of fact-checking: from watchdogs to content moderators

In this work, we chart the multiple conflicts between stakeholders in the pursuit of a common standard for fact-checking outside Western Industrialized Educated Rich and Educated (WEIRD) countries, a problem that sits at the center of the institutional mission of fact-checkers as watchdogs of politicians and enforcers of content moderation. We apply reflexive thematic analysis to a set of interviews with 37 fact-checking experts from 35 organizations in 27 countries to catalogue the methods employed by fact-checkers and the pressures they contend with in non-WEIRD countries. In contrast to the one-size-fits-all approach to community guidelines implemented by social platforms worldwide, our results show that the asymmetric relationship with platform companies compels fact-checkers to adjust their methods and strategies to account for the political and cultural dimensions driving mis- and disinformation in their local contexts. Our findings detail three ways through which social platforms impinge on the scope, values, and institutional mission of non-WEIRD fact-checking organizations. As we argue, the platformization of non-WEIRD fact-checkers entails a convoluted process in which social media platforms gradually nudge fact-checkers into becoming part of the content moderation industry, a shift that runs counter to the democracy-building values underpinning the fact-checking movement. We conclude with a discussion of our findings and recommendations for content moderation both in WEIRD and non-WEIRD contexts

When fact-checking is not weird: challenges in fact-checking beyond the western world

Fact-checking has rapidly achieved a pivotal role in regulating the public debate globally. Reports show that the fact-checking industry is becoming more diverse, operating across more cultures and languages of recent. However, literature on fact-checking beyond the West is still forthcoming, as empirical research is disproportionally focused on the US. In this paper, we seek to catalog the many different forms of organizing and implementing fact-checks beyond the de facto standard found in Western industrialized countries, where fact-checking streams from journalistic verification practices. We analyzed 37 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with fact-checkers from 35 organizations operating in 27 non-WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. The interviews were conducted in three different languages (English, Portuguese, and Spanish) between March and November of 2021. Interview data was transcribed and translated for downstream analyses using thematic clustering in N-Vivo. Findings show that non-WEIRD fact-checkers endure similar challenges to those reported in Western fact-checking organizations. These challenges are identified through an analysis of seven types of challenges common to non-WEIRD fact-checking organizations, which are associated with and speak to institutional, infrastructural, political, methodological, social, cultural, and linguistic dimensions. We concluded that while fact-checkers are relentless in promoting democratic values worldwide, the standards that support the industry may vary substantially around the world, particularly where truth-seeking practices evolved detached from notions of democracy, truth, and journalistic integrity

When fact-checking is not WEIRD: Negotiating consensus outside Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) countries

This study unpacks the emerging framework of detection, verification, and correction of falsehoods developed by fact-checkers outside Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) countries. We explore a series of semi-structured interviews carried out in several languages with 37 fact-checking experts from 35 organizations in 27 countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. Our findings emphasize the contextual nature of the falsehoods that these professionals deal with on a daily basis, and the many strategies they employ to navigate cultural and political obstacles while strengthening social cohesion locally. We review these findings against the literature in the area and argue that the prevailing framework of fact-checking, where mis- and disinformation are reduced to individual and behavioral problems, underplays the social and historical dimensions driving disinformation and propaganda

Leigos para o Desenvolvimento: donations optimization through private segmentation

Leigos para o Desenvolvimento (LD) are a NGOD (Non-Governmental Organization for Development) whose financing derives from donations obtained in the wider community. In this context and with the purpose of optimizing resource allocation in donations collection and the maximization of revenue thereof, the current study aims to assess the relative effectiveness of segmentation tools in donations with that purpose in mind. In informing the process and strategy of donations and thus optimizing organizational revenue, we aim to confront the merits of intuitive and experiential solutions with those that result from empirical data gathered and statistical techniques applied to segmentation tools and techniques. We conclude that there exists no one segmentation solution for sorting out the problem, opting instead for claiming that each case should be treated as unique and evaluated on its own.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio