Internațional business and economics

This paper examines the sources of China’s economic growth, emphasizing the role of factor endowment. After evaluating the determinants of gross domestic product growth, it goes further to  decompose the total export with Cobb–Douglas production function, which revealed increasing return to scale of 0.75 for labor intensive exports and 0.31 capital intensive exports. Revealed comparative advantage  results reported that labor intensive export exerts a major impact on China’s  development. They claim that  margins for these goods are large. Thus, a drop in export arising from decrease in labor intensive export will cause a gap in China’s gross domestic product.

Gravity model of international trade states that trade interaction between two countries is in direct proportion to their size measured by Gross Domestic Product and in inverse proportion to the geographic distance. Conley and Ligon (2001) argued that the relevant economic distance between countries is often
not the geographic distance. Thus, this study uses original data sets on economic distance to structure observed variations, to decompose the multidimensional CAGE distance framework of globalization derived from the Newton’s Law of gravitation as it applies to China’s international interaction, to evaluate bilateral trade patterns in identifying and prioritizing the importance of cross-border flows and differences that accounted for the development of China’s global strategies. This study confirms that distance must be accounted for in the decision making of any country’s globalization process or any firm’s global expansion as the effects on cross-border economic activities are enormous.

Forgone output resulting from unemployment is a real concern for many countries including the United Kingdom
which managed to keep its unemployment rate at an average of 7% over the last 43 years. This paper provides an assessment of the unemployment-output relationship by examining the validity of Okun’s law, using quarterly time series data from 1971- 2013. The empirical evidences show negative correlation, implying that Okun’s law interpretation is applicable to United Kingdom, with economic growth rate of 1.8% required to keep unemployment constant. Meanwhile, the evolution of the unemployment rate is also influenced by other unforeseen variables like productivity, severe winter weather condition and the Diamond Jubilee in 2012.

The largest single cost of unemployment is lost production. People who cannot work do not produce – high unemployment makes the social pie smaller. Since short-run trade-offs exist between unemployment, inflation and Gross Domestic Product growth, it is also important to get a better understanding of the relative economic costs that is involve. This study provides some input for policymakers’ evaluation of the trade-offs. For the reason that the dynamic of output-unemployment link in Nigeria are somewhat more complicated and defile some economic theories. Thus, this paper present a ballpark methods from Okun’s law, Philips curve to Ball’s sacrifice ratio, that bear directly on measuring the short-run and long-run trade-offs. With a sacrifice ratio of 4, that is found by this study, policymakers will have to frequently decide how hard to fight an inflationary shock, knowing that the less they accommodate, the more unemployment and less output they will achieve.

The decision to have children nowadays is largely a matter of choice; this has led researchers to model fertility in economic terms. This paper links the demographic effects to the labor market characteristics and consequently to the national economy. It shows that the situation in the Romanian economy is characterized by a steadily declining share of the working age  population, a rising share of the elderly and a decreasing share of the young. Therefore if the downward demographic trend should continue, there will only be 15.6 million people left in Romania in 2060 with only 2 million labor force participants. The burden of financing 8 dependents will fall on one labor force participant, thus, the rising old-age dependency ratios will translate into growing tax burdens. The generous pension and health care benefits will crowd out public investment in infrastructure or education, with negative effects on capital accumulation and productivity growth

With millions of square miles of lush arable land and abundant supply of water, Nigeria has the potential to become Africa’s leading bread baskets. And has no business in the importation of food produce. However, as economic development occurred due to crude oil discovery, the relative size of agriculture took a nose dive, and Nigeria began to depend on importation for staples food. This paper traces the development of Nigeria’s economic policy regarding agriculture and the resulting changes. It discusses the impact of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda on employment creation and economic development. As a result of the active government promotion of the ATA, Nigeria has recorded impressive results – food production expended by additional 21 million MT, food import declined by 38% from $7.4 billion in 2009 to $4.04 billion in 2013 and 3 million farm jobs were created. Thus, millions of farmers have now recognized that the status quo has changed, the shackle of fertilizer theft and corruption in the sector has been broken, the future is bright, and there is no reason why agriculture cannot overtake crude oil export, and become Nigeria’s new black gold.

Nigeria's high level dependence on crude oil for its foreign exchange earnings makes its capital account vulnerable to the crude oil price fluctuations. In addition to this, are the high import bills which also contributed to the fluctuations in the total external reserves level over the years. This Paper focus on the interaction among selected monetary variables-crude oil price, exchange rate and external reserves over the period of 1970-2014, using long-run VECM and the short run Granger Causality/Block Exogeneity Wald tests. VEC test indicates a self-adjusting mechanism for correcting any deviation of the variables from equilibrium. It insinuated that external reserves will converge back to steady state in 5 years, Crude oil price in approximately 4 years, while foreign exchange rate will return to its steady state in 96 years. This is due to Nigeria's over-dependent on imported products, foreign medical tourism, and the effect of declining oil price, stock market speculation and capital flight. In order to correct the disequilibrium of the external reserves, cointegrating long run equation shows that a 1% increase in crude oil price will lead to 1.8% increase in external reserves.

What is the motive behind your choice of university? Why do you buy that new product? Where is your preferred shopping mall and when would you rather go shopping? Do your friends shop at the same place or in different locations? Marketing professionals always desire to have answers to these questions. Once they have these answers, they will have a much better chance of creating and communicating products that you and others that share the same preference will want to buy. This is what makes the study of consumer behavior important. This paper is set out to understand what influences consumer behavior in the refrigerator market. It is made of quantitative research, having a sample of 264 household consumers from 12 Counties of Romania. It reveals that in order for manufacturers to know consumers preference, they need to first understanding the customers' need, having in mind the current family size, the eating habit, the ease of acquiring such product, total family income and available credit facility. The study shows that among other factors, price and promotions are the first important factors considered in the acquisition process, according to 94% of the respondents; this is followed by energy consumption (89%), while fridge and freezer capacity (88%) are then considered. Surprisingly, respondents would rather buy a refrigeration appliance on the basis of warranty (87%) than brand name (78%).

Subsidy has been defined as any government intervention, in cash or kind, to private sector producers or consumers for which the government receives no equivalent compensation in return. Fuel subsidy has been a growing liability to Nigeria's budgets, in a systematic fashion for almost four decades, hence creating vested interest. The exponential growth of cost of fuel subsidy is due to the rising cost of crude oil in the international market, exchange rate volatility and the population growth of Nigeria which resulted in increased petroleum consumption; the combination of these three variables therefore made the cost of the fuel subsidy unsustainable. Understanding the current fuel subsidies magnitude is critical for advancing reform because it underscores the potential socioeconomic benefits to be realized. In addition to the burden that fuel subsidy is placing on the national budget, keeping petroleum below the market value has discouraged additional investment in Nigeria's oil sector, because the visibility of recovering the investment under the artificially low price structure is uncertain.

Economic growth, with all of its downsides, is clearly unsustainable in the 21st century. The positive, sustainable alternative is a Steady-State Economy. This study empirically analyze show far the Nigerian economy has converged towards or diverged from steady-state. Unit root, co integration, vector error correction, and Granger causality/block exogeneity Wald tests procedures are applied on annual data set from 1970-2013. The model reveals having a self-adjusting apparatus for rectifying any deviance of the variables from equilibrium. The implication is that Gross Domestic Product will reach its steady-state in approximately 1.5 years, interest rate in 20 years, depreciation of capital and population will be converging back to their equilibrium in 27-28 years, and in 63 years respectively. The sluggish rate of the variables convergence can be explained by complex administrative and political processes, therefore, in avoiding a failed state situation, it is expected of government to build strong institutions and processes, while applying some transformative economic and social policies.

Diverting public resources or the use of public office for private gain, benefits a powerful few while imposes costs on the large majority of the society. In 2014, Romania, along with Bulgaria, Greece, and Italy were ranked the most corrupt nations out of 31 EU and Western European states in the Corruption Perceptions Index, a position Romania has remained in the last 3 years, scoring 43 out of 100 points. Transparency International relies on the perception of experts rather than measuring actual corruption experiences. Thus, this study is set out to capture the experience and perception of the general citizenry. This study finds robust evidence that corruption reacts to standard economic incentive, while the effects of anti-corruption policies often weaken as public officials, politicians and businessmen often find alternate strategies for rent seeking.

Milton Friedman's permanent income hypothesis suggests that frictionless open economies with depletable natural resources should increase its external reserves with most of the resource windfalls. Nigeria like any other country endowed with natural resources such as crude oil and liquefied natural gas are often faced by the Dutch disease. The evolution of the Nigeria's foreign exchange market has been influenced by the changing pattern of international trade, institutional changes in the economy and structural shifts in production. The increased export of crude oil followed by the sharp fall in its prices, and enhanced official foreign exchange receipts should give the government a wakeup call. This study focuses on macroeconomic behavior in the presence of crude oil price volatility. The dataset covered the period of 1970-2014, using OLS model. Given the high degree of dependency and contribution crude oil has on Nigeria's revenue generation, this analysis reveals crude oil price to be having a positive impact on Nigeria's economic wellbeing. A 1% increase in its price has an impact of 0.67% increase in GDP. Adding-up all other analyzed variable, crude oil still stand as the mean influential factor to the Nigerian economic development. Therefore, it is of optimum important to quickly diversify the economy, to prevent the repercussion of crude oil price shock, and also heavily invest in the development of infrastructural facilities to create the enabling environment for a non-oil economy.

In 2014, a new paradigm shift occurred in Nigeria which defiled the expectation of many social and political analysts. This paradigm was later titled 'Stomach Infrastructure' – a concept of inducing potential voters to support a particular candidate in an election, creating thus a new barometer for measuring good governance. To understand the concept of stomach infrastructure, this study makes a graphical comparison between stomach infrastructure and physical infrastructure, as they are both dividends of democracy. But to sum it up, stomach infrastructure is, first and foremost about the people's survival. It is a living and stress-free man that can enjoy the benefit of a modern city or world class physical infrastructures. Thus, building stomach infrastructure is about following the natural sequence of actions in governance. It is about understanding the bottom-top, gradual approaches in developmental strides. It is about carrying everybody along, everyone at his own pace.

There is a price to pay for any and every country to develop. This price can be said to have been duly paid by migrant workers in China. The benefit of such price is the stamping out of extreme poverty by 94% from 1990 – 2015. This study is embodied by the Lewis Structural Change Model and looks at China's population control programs – the restriction on internal labor mobility, its income inequality implication and economy development. The research reveals how the sacrifices of the migrant workers payoff in reforming the economic conditions in the rural areas; this points to the reasons why the rural income and development are highly dependent on migrant remittance and why China's economy development would not have been possible without labor migration.

Judging from every economic parameter, Nigeria will suggest being a failed nation. Not so long ago international investors identified Nigeria as one of the world’s most promising investment opportunities, but things have changed drastically in the meantime. The slump in the price of crude oil has hit Nigerian economy hard, the twin curses of insecurity and corruption have not gone away either. The Nigerian currency - naira has also lost its value by 170% from its value in 2015. The question most analysts and citizens are now asking is if Nigeria will ever fulfil its potential. This study empirically analyses the current economic situation of Nigeria, and gives recommendations on what government should do in getting the country out of recession.

If we are to go by two consecutive quarters of negative growth to declare a country of plumping into recession, then at five consecutive quarters, Nigeria can be considered to be in depression. Meanwhile, the Q2 2017 GDP result reported by the National Bureau of Statistics is like a beautifully wrapped Christmas gift. The true value can only be revealed and appreciated after the unwrapping of the gift. Thus, this empirical analysis is aimed at dissecting the Nigerian economic performance. It is meant to prove whether the economy has truly exited recession. This study concludes by giving recommendations on what government should be doing to truly improve the wellbeing of the citizens and truly get the country out of recession.

Leadership is influence, while influence is quality and substance. Looking at the age reduction bill, and how that will reshape Nigeria’s political space, Nigerians would need to ask themselves, is the plan to kick out the old people because they are outdated, and replace them with the young ones because they are perceived to have the capacity to do better?

The recently released World Bank “Ease of doing business 2018” report put Nigeria at 145 out of 190 countries surveyed, just behind Niger. This ranking represents a significant improvement over that of last year, when the country was ranked 169th. Therefore, there are several questions that need to be asked: Are these statistics enough? Is Nigeria’s business environment now friendly with entrepreneurs and investors? What do these figures mean to the ordinary Nigerian?

If young people are not too young to get married, to serve in the military or to choose those who represent them in different government capacity, then they are “Not Too Young to Run”.

Diversity is needed to create a great team and, if we do not bring women and youth aboard, then we are limiting the country’s competitiveness.

Following the revelations of Senator Shehu Sani on BBC, Nigerian senators are entitled to monthly expenses of N13.5 million ($37,500), in addition to their monthly salaries of N750,000 ($2,088). With a minimum wage of N18,000 ($50), it would take the average Nigerian worker 792 years to earn the annual salary of a Nigerian senator.