Dr Milton Yago

This paper provides a review of empirical & theoretical methodologies used in recent partnership studies as collected from several different authors on partnerships. The paper describes in detail how each of the methods can be used in practice

The literature suggests that investment and economic growth respond very slowly to economic reform due to uncertainty about the permanence of reform. Despite clear theoretical underpinnings for the idea that policy reversal significantly impedes economic performance, there is limited empirical evidence on this topic. This paper derives empirical proxies for the probabilities of different types of policy reversal and investigates their impact on investment and growth in Sub-Saharan African countries. The results show that trade, fiscal, savings and financial policy reversals have been very damaging to investment and economic growth. The paper also finds that it is the prediction or expectation that reversal will occur that hurts performance. There is no evidence that exchange rate policy reversal has damaged performance.

Background: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is, at least in part, associated with high antimicrobial usage and causes increased morbidity, mortality and healthcare costs. However, policies to contain AMR focus on `micro' interventions - typically in one institution (usually a hospital). Furthermore, in evaluating these interventions, economists tend to concentrate on the economic impact to the healthcare sector alone, which may give an incorrect estimation of the social costs and benefits of a disease or intervention. Methods: This study outlines and illustrates a macroeconomic approach to tackling AMR through the evaluation of three `macro' policies: regulation, permits and taxes/charges. In addition to effects on the healthcare sector, the effect of AMR (and these three policies to contain it) on labour productivity, GDP, household income, government transfers, tax revenues, unemployment, inflation and social services are estimated for the UK using the specific context of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Results: AMR is likely to have a far greater impact on the national economy than would be estimated by concentrating on the healthcare sector alone. Conclusion: The permit system appears to offer the most efficient `solution' to optimising antimicrobial consumption and, hence, reducing the development of resistance.

There is a positive relationship between the health of a nation and its economic prosperity. However, in evaluating health care, economists typically concentrate on the economic impact only to the health (care) sector, which may mis-specify the social costs and benefits of a disease or intervention. This paper demonstrates the value of using a macroeconomic approach to modelling a major health problem, using the context of antimicrobial resistance and the application of the computable general equilibrium technique. This approach is described in detail and its ‘added value’ demonstrated in the case of AMR.

This book therefore provides an empirical contribution to the understanding of the most important factors including the effects of policy reversal in explaining the persistent economic malaise in sub-Saharan Africa.

The electricity industry is a major source of CO2 emissions when it generates power using fossil fuel, contributing 30 percent or more of total emissions in the United Kingdom and other western countries. Reducing these emissions is technically feasible but is likely to have a significant impact on electricity prices. This paper explores the impact of higher electricity prices on the wider economy, based on four low-carbon scenarios for 2020 and one high-carbon alternative. We show that the cost of power rises significantly as emissions are cut, but that these costs should be affordable for most UK consumers and firms. The direct cost increase with comparable levels of generation is around £2-3 billion, relatively small when compared with GDP. We estimate that the cost of global action up to 2050 would be of the order of 1 per cent of Gross World Product – a figure that compares favourably with the likely costs of climate change. This work forms part of the Supergen project, the EPSRC’s flagship initiative on sustainable energy.

Purpose: This study examines the degree, contents and trend development of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) performance indicators disclosed in Sustainability Reports of large mining companies in Ghana. Design/methodology/approach: Content analysis methods used to analyse 50 sustainability reports of 10 large scale mining companies in Ghana covering the period 2008-2012. Findings: The study finds that there has been a widening and increasing trend in the disclosure of performance indicators in sustainability reports for the large mining companies in Ghana in accordance with GRI guidelines. The findings suggest that good progress in the strategic sector has been made in the voluntary adoption of the GRI guidelines to increase transparency, credibility and comparability in sustainability reporting. The findings also indicate areas to be improved. Research limitations/implications: Practical implications: The Government of Ghana and the Ghana Chamber of Mines could learn from the findings about the current status of this matter in order for them to formulate policies and regulations which encourage the mining sector moving forward in the adoption of international reporting standards. Social implications: Originality/value: This paper initialises investigating into the degree, contents and trends of performance indicators in sustainability reports of large mining companies in Ghana using content analysis.

This paper presents results from a quantitative analysis of the contribution of nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) and smallholder farmer groups as sample rural institutions in addressing four main rural developmental objectives via improving health, education, agriculture and industry. The study involved 87 respondents from 40 organizations including19 NGOs and 21 smallholder farmer groups from central region of Uganda. Data from questionnaires, focus group discussions, interviews, key informants and literature reviews were used in the study. The results suggest that improving health, hence rural development is strongly related to investing in increased awareness and access and sharing of healthcare information, effective health policy formulation and effective delivery of health service. However, and seemingly surprisingly health financing subsidies is found to impact rural development through its negative effect on health improvement. On achieving rural prosperity through better education, this study suggests that the larger the operational reach of the organisations involved as well as spending on R&D are not positive contributors and therefore hurt rural development objective. On the other hand, the larger the personnel number of the rural organisations are, utilization of information technology, more financing and appropriate public education policy are consistent with a priori expectation to improve education and rural development. To increase agricultural contribution to achieving rural prosperity, agricultural resource availability and the larger the geographic operational reach of the rural organisations are found to have strong positive effects. Basic training, access to information and research and extension services and access to factors of production are found to be inimical to agricultural improvement. Appropriate rural policies are found to support rural industry but the larger the operational reach of the organisation are not favourable to rural industrial improvement.

This study examines the extent of Global Reporting Initiative performance indicators disclosed in Sustainability Reports of mining companies in Ghana to see the content and trend development. Case study approach to 20 reports (in 2008 and 2012) of 10 large scale mining companies in Ghana was used and analysed using content analysis methods. The findings suggest there has been a wider and increasing trend in the disclosure of performance indicators in sustainability report in accordance with Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines. The findings suggest that mining companies in Ghana have made good progress in voluntary adoption of the GRI guidelines to increase transparency, credibility and comparability in sustainability reporting.

© 2015, Econjournals. All rights reserved. This paper investigates the factors which determinate internet banking (IB) decisions among UK IB customers based on a survey which resulted into 191 usable questionnaire respondents randomly collected from a UK city. A linear regression technique is used to analyse data. It is found that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use consistently have significant positive impacts on the decisions of IB adoption while these IB users are specifically concerned about security risk, privacy risk and financial risk related to using IB services. However, social risk has no significant impact on their decision to adopt IB. The findings indicate that traditional technology related factors are still relevant but psychological barriers, especially risk concerns have significant negative impacts on consumers’ attitudes towards IB.

This study stemmed from the lack of evidence and uncertainties regarding the economic and political effects of a strategic alliance between leading oil companies like Petrobras and Galp on their host economies. This paper investigates whether public and private corporations in the energy sector can influence the economic growth of their respective countries. A Panel data analysis was performed by employing quarterly data from (2006-2013). We also used Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach to measure the technical efficiency (TE) effect of the alliance on the performance of both companies from 1999 to 2012. It was found the exploration and export of oil and gas do not play a significant role in output growth of the home economy and that exploration activities were inflationary, destabilising and inimical to growth, at least in the short-run. On another positive side, both companies showed increased technical efficiencies in the chosen time period. Petrobras enjoyed TE on average of 90% in the variables studied whereas Galp showed an average TE of 70%. These results reflect the corporate strategies of both firms, which focussed on achieving profitable and sustained growth and enhancing their efficiencies in their collective and individual activities.

This study derives an optimal macroeconomic policy combination for financial sector stability in the United Kingdom by employing a New Keynesian Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (NK-DSGE) framework. The empirical results obtained show that disciplined fiscal and accommodative monetary policies stance is optimal for financial sector stability. Furthermore, fiscal indiscipline countered by contractionary monetary stance adversely affects financial sector stability. Financial markets, e.g. stocks and Gilts show a short-term asymmetric response to macroeconomic policy interaction and to each other. The asymmetry is a reflection of portfolio adjustment. However in the long-run, the responses to suggested optimal policy combination had homogenous effects and there was evidence of co-movement in the stock and Gilt markets.

This concise study analyses the symmetry of financial markets` responses to macroeconomic policy interaction in the United Kingdom. Employing the Vector Auto-regression (VAR) model on monthly data of the British financial sector and macroeconomic policies from January 1985 to August 2008, this study found that the equity and sovereign debt markets showed identical symmetry in response to macroeconomic policy interaction.

The association between economic and financial stabilities and influence of macroeconomic policies on the financial sector creates scope of active policy role in financial stability. As a contribution to the existing body of knowledge, this study has analysed the implications of macroeconomic policy interaction/coordination for financial stability, proxied by financial assets, i.e. equity and bonds price oscillation. The critical review and analysis of the existing literature on the subject suggests that there is also ample evidence of interdependence between monetary and fiscal policies and this interrelation necessitates coordination between them for the sake of financial stability. There is also a case for analysing the symmetry of financial markets responses to macroeconomic policy interaction. On methodological and empirical grounds, it is vital to test the robustness of policy recommendations to overcome the limitation of a single empirical approach (Jeffrey–Lindley’s paradox). Hence, the Frequentist and Bayesian approaches should be used in commentary manner. The policy interaction and optimal policy combination should also be analysed in the context of institutional design and major financial events to gain insight into the implications of policy interaction in the periods of stable economic and financial environments as well as period of financial and economic distress.

© 2017 Central Bank of Montenegro. This study has analysed the implications of institutional design of macroeconomic policy making institutions for the macroeconomic policy interaction and financial sector in the United Kingdom. Employing a Vector Error Correction (VEC) model and using monthly data from January 1985 to August 2008 we found that the changes in institutional arrangement and design of policy making authorities appeared to be a major contributing factor in dynamics of association between policy coordination/combination and financial sector. It was also found that the independence of the Bank of England (BoE) and withdrawal from the Exchange Rate Mechanism led to the increase in macroeconomic policy maker's ability to coordinate and restore financial stability. The results imply that although institutional autonomy in the form of instrument independence (monetary policy decisions) could bring financial stability, there is a strong necessity for coordination, even in Post-MPC (Monetary Policy Committee) and the BoE independence.