Spinal cystic echinococcosis - a systematic analysis and review of the literature : part 1. Epidemiology and anatomy

Bone involvement in human cystic echinococcosis (CE) is rare, but affects the spine in approximately 50% of cases. Despite significant advances in diagnostic imaging techniques as well as surgical and medical treatment of spinal CE, our basic understanding of the parasite's predilection for the spine remains incomplete. To fill this gap, we systematically reviewed the published literature of the last five decades to summarize and analyze the currently existing data on epidemiological and anatomical aspects of spinal CE

Money supply endogeneity and bank stock returns

This article presents results of tests on two related hypotheses on money supply. The first relates to an unresolved issue of money endogeneity while the second centres on the yet-explored relationship between money supply and bank stock returns if money is found to be endogenous. Our results, using long-horizon data of Group of Seven (G-7) economies, supports causality in money supply as running from bank lending to bank deposits, a result that is predicted by the post-Keynesian money supply endogeneity (bank-credit-driven) theory. Thus, the result is not consistent with exogeneity proposition. A new evidence of positive relationship between endogenous money supply and aggregate bank stock return is statistically significant on this hitherto unexplored topic. These findings are consistent with the post-Keynesian money supply theory and the dividend valuation theory, which predicts money supply changes to induce changes in bank earnings, so bank share prices change.money supply endogeneity, bank stock returns, credit market, liquidity provision, post-Keynesian theory, dividend valuation theory, G-7 countries,

THE TRANSMISSION OF MONETARY POLICY UNDER THE REPO SYSTEM IN SOUTH AFRICA: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS

The study examines the influence of the repo rate on the interbank rate and analyses whether the transmission channels of interest rates have changed since the adjustment to the repo system in September 2001. The paper employs the Granger causality test using the ECM framework. The results suggest that the influence of the repo rate on the interbank rate was stronger before the adjustments to the system were made. The interbank rate and the repo rate were found to "reverse" roles in the period after the adjustments to the system. Our results show that the changes to the repo system in 2001 did not lead to the achievement of the intended transmission channel; instead it was found that the system in place before the changes were made was in fact already achieving the transmission path that the authorities hoped to accomplish by changing the system. Copyright 2005 Economic Society of South Africa.

Saving and investment causality : implications for financial integration in transition countries of Eastern Europe

Numerous studies have been devoted to the Feldstein-Horioka puzzle.However, no consensus has been reached in the literature. This paper examines the causal relationship between domestic saving and investment rates in six transition economies (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus, and Russian Federation). Theoretically, the presence of any type of causal structure between these two series in a country implies that national capital markets are not open; hence capital flows are impeded. Therefore, the paper employs the bootstrap panel Granger causality approach that accounts for both cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity across countries to determine the causal  structure. The findings show that there is a causality between the series, thereby implying that capital is not perfectly mobile internationally in any of the countries under review, but it is more mobile in Estonia, Russian  Federation, and Latvia than Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine. The underdevelopment of financial markets in these countries as well as the demand for foreign capital to finance domestic investment projects and the lack of adequate economic and financial reforms might have driven  these results