Economic Aspects of a Resource Sharing Manufacturing Network under Turbulences

Nowadays, manufacturing companies face more difficulties than ever. Unrest in global supply chains triggered by fluctuating customer demand, raw material shortages and crises (Covid pandemic, global warming, wars) complicate the utilization of production resources necessary for economic success. Also, the rapidly changing environment causes existing production plans to be adapted, which results in order changes, causing additional costs for manufacturers. One solution to cope with these problems is cooperation and sharing resources: requesting capacity from partners when having shortages and offering them temporarily in case of excess capacity. In this paper, a platform-based resource sharing mechanism is investigated from the economic perspective. In the mechanism, requests and offers are matched by a central platform applying a complex matching logic. The platform provides valid alternatives based on the incoming ordersthat the requesting company can choose from. Companies are rating each other's performance after each interaction based on delivery accuracy;choosing between resource offers is made based on the cumulated rating about the offeror and the price of the offer. Within this paper, the aim is to investigate the resource sharing mechanism from the economic point of view based on an approach to the responsiveness of a supply chain structure to turbulence, to support decision-makers trying to cope with unexpected changes. For this purpose, here the mechanism is briefly introduced, and basic concepts about turbulences in supply chains are also presented. Cost types related to resource sharing manufacturing companies are distinguished, and the model is validated with agent-based simulation. A simulation experiment is performed to investigate the use-case of outsourced jobs having different price levels. Based on the experiment, it can be concluded that there is a price level limit in such a resource sharing federation, under which it is worth it to collaborate with partners by outsourcing certain jobs to them. © 2022 Authors. All rights reserved.

The impact of the built environment, price level, and service quality on customer satisfaction under the effect of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way business is handled. Besides, people's purchasing habits have been impacted by new safety, social, and health restrictions. Thus, the purpose of this research was to analyze the COVID-19 pandemic impact in the relationships between the built environment, price level, and service quality on supermarket customers' satisfaction. For this purpose, a survey of 245 supermarket customers in southern Brazil was conducted at two different times: before and during the pandemic. The results point out that the price level, toilets, and location are essential to explain satisfaction at all times. Comfort presented importance before the pandemic, configuration, and service quality in pandemic times. These features are essential for supermarket management to prioritize efforts on attributes and dimensions relevant to customers.

Testing the Validity of the Quantity Theory of Money on Sectoral Data: Non-Linear Evidence from South Africa

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to test the validity of the quantity theory of money (QTM) on South African sectoral data. The rationale of this study and its necessity for South Africa as the case study is that, although aggregate inflation may lie within the target range, inflation at a sectoral level, particularly in the food and transport sector, is still a matter of concern in South Africa. Methodology/approach: This study employed the Non-linear Autoregressive Distributed Lagged model (NARDL) to assess potential asymmetries in the effect of money supply to differentiate between the effects of contractional and expansional episodes on inflation at the sectoral level. Quarterly time series data spanning from 2002Q2 to 2021Q2 was utilised for the estimation. Ultimately, the causal effect amongst the variables is examined by employing the Pairwise Granger Causality test. Findings: The results suggest that in the short run, the effect of monetary policy shocks is very weak. On the other hand, in the long run, both negative and positive shocks in the money supply push inflation at the sectoral level in the opposite directions, and positive shocks (expansionary monetary policy) have a greater effect than negative shocks, which renders the QTM invalid in South Africa. The sectoral response was found to be heterogeneous in the long run, and this was also backed by the results of the Granger Causality test and the dynamic multipliers. Asymmetry in the effect of the money supply is assessed in some of the sectors only in the long run. Practical implications: Based on the results, this study confirms great discrepancies in sectoral responses. Therefore, aggregate inflation may not be a good indicator of the inflation path in South Africa, as it may underestimate sectoral variations. Originality/value: The originality of this study lies on testing the validity of the QTM on inflation at the sectoral level in the South African context using a non-linear approach to assess potential asymmetry between the effects of expansionary and contractionary episodes of monetary policy shocks.

Fiscal Deficit and Money Issuance in Czech Republic during COVID-19 Pandemic

The public finances of the Czech Republic fell into deep deficits during the pandemic, while the money supply growth rate accelerated. We make a basic comparison of monetary acceleration during the first two years of the pandemic with other countries. We verify that this acceleration in the Czech Republic was partly due to commercial banks increasing credit to the government. We argue that purchases of government bonds by non-residents have a similar effect. This is particularly true when non-residents use existing koruna deposits held by them, partly as a result of past foreign exchange interventions, to purchase government bonds. While there was an acceleration in monetary growth during the pandemic, there was a decline in monetary growth during the Great Financial Crisis (GFC). However, our analysis suggests that this was due mainly to a decline in private credit growth during the GFC. We see no fundamental reasons for a structural change in money demand as a result of the pandemic. We therefore believe that unless the observed monetary acceleration is offset by slower-than-trend monetary growth in the near term, it will translate into an increase in the price level.

LIVING STANDARD - HIPC

The paper presents some aspects about indicators related to the standard of living in the European Union in general. The indicators took into consideration were government deficit/surplus, debt and associated data, percentage of gross domestic product, harmonised indices of consumer prices, annual average index, harmonised indices consumer prices-monthly data, annual rate of change, and food price monitoring tool. The results showed an increase of government deficit in almost all European Union countries as well as an increase of the inflation rate especially for commodity products like food.

Can Covid-19 Change The Open Economy Model And Economic Stability In 7H-Countries?

This study discusses changes in the open economy model in supporting economic stability after the COVID-19 7H-countries, where the countries are Turkey, Uruguay, Belarus, Kenya, Mongolia, Indonesia, and Mexico. This research uses the simultaneous regression analysis method and ARDL Panel. The study results show that consumption, investment, government spending, and Inflation are open economic models that can support financial stability during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the leading indicators on the panel only affect the Long Run, namely GDP, consumption, and exports. At the same time, for the Short Run, the open economy variables have not been able to become leading indicators of economic stability.

Time-Varying Causalities in Prices and Volatilities between the Cross-Listed Stocks in Chinese Mainland and Hong Kong Stock Markets

Due to the heterogeneity of investor structure between the Chinese mainland stock market (A-share market) and the Hong Kong stock market (H-share market) as well as the limitations on arbitrage activities, most cross-listed stocks in the two markets (AH stocks) have the characteristics of “one asset, two prices”, in which AH stocks with the same vote rights and dividend streams are traded at different prices in different markets. Based on the VAR (LA-VAR as well) model and a four-variable system including AH stock indices (AHXA, AHXH), the China Securities Index 300 (CSI 300), and the Hang Seng Index (HSI), this paper applies a new time-varying causality test to examine the causalities in prices and volatilities for two pairings (AXHA-AHXH pairing and CSI 300-HSI pairing) during the sample period spanning from 4 January 2010 to 21 May 2021. The empirical results exhibit statistically significant time-varying causalities of the two pairings. Specifically, at the price level, AHXH has a significant negative causal effect on AHXA from October 2017 to February 2020 except for several months in 2018, while AHXA merely has a negative impact on AHXA during a short period from March 2017 to May 2017. Of note, the direction of causalities in volatilities between AHXA and AHXH reverses. A positive causality is found from AHXA to AHXH at the 5% significance level during the period of April 2014 through May 2021, while no causality is detected in the opposite direction during the whole sample period. Meanwhile, the volatilities of CSI 300 significantly Granger cause those of HSI over the whole sample period, but not vice versa. Implications of our results are discussed.

The interdependence of Fiscal and Monetary Policies in an Emerging economy: The case of Uruguay

This article's main goal is to evaluate the degree of fiscal dominance in Uruguay in 1999-2019 to improve the understanding of economic policy for theoretical reasons and applied needs related to good practices and accountability. Two strategies are followed: one, to quantify the fraction of fiscal expenditures that are financed by monetary liabilities and, the other one, to analyze the effects of fiscal deficit on the price level and inflation because inflationary financing may prevent the central bank from reaching its inflation target. Both situations may subordinate the monetary policy to the fiscal policy, signaling fiscal dominance. In addition, through the analysis performed to assess the degree of fiscal dominance, it is possible to detect the main determining factors of the Uruguayan price level (inflation) formation during the last two decades. So far, preliminary results suggest that inflation is not exclusively a monetary phenomenon and point to some inflationary financing with a mild degree of fiscal dominance.

On Monetary Growth and Inflation in Leading Economies, 2021‐2022: Relative Prices and the Overall Price Level

In the United States and numerous other economies, we are witnessing a flood of ad hoc explanations for inflation. These deal primarily with supply chain issues that have arisen since the COVID‐19 pandemic and the reopening of economies. There is a widespread view among officials at the Federal Reserve System, economists in the Biden administration, academics, and even large parts of the business community that the current bout of U.S. inflation is largely the result of supply chain disruptions that will turn out to be “transitory,” and that the inflationary pressures will dissipate in 2022 as the supply chain issues are resolved.The authors argue that this consensus will prove to be wrong because of its failure to distinguish between relative price changes and changes in the overall price level. The movement of any single set of relative prices fails to convey information about the overall inflation rate. And as asserted by the Quantity Theory of Money, the overall inflation rate and price level are determined by changes in the money supply broadly measured. Changes in relative prices, on the other hand, result from changes in demand and supply in the real economy, making them independent of changes in the money supply. So, while a doubling of the money supply will result in a doubling of all nominal prices, relative prices remain unaffected by monetary policy.According to the authors, political pressure and a misguided faith in the benefits of monetary stimulus have led many governments and their central banks to produce excess money since the COVID‐19 pandemic started in early 2020. As a consequence, the authors anticipate that the U.S. and Israel are likely to see increases in their overall price levels of approximately 28% and 20%, respectively, over the next few years, whereas the U.K. will likely see an increase of about 11% in the overall price level. Meanwhile, for countries like China, Japan, Switzerland, and New Zealand that resisted the temptation to create excess money, the authors anticipate negligible increases in the rate of overall inflation.