Reported shocks, households' resilience and local food commercialization in Thailand

PurposeThe authors examine the factors affecting households' resilience capacities and the impacts of these capacities on household consumption and crop commercialization.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use panel data of 1,648 households from Thailand collected in three years, 2010, 2013 and 2016. The authors employ an econometric model with an instrumental variable approach to address endogenous issues.FindingsThe study results show that the experience of shocks in previous years positively correlates with households' savings per capita and income diversification. Further, a better absorptive capacity in the form of better savings and a better adaptive capacity in the form of higher income diversification have a significant and positive influence on household expenditure per capita and crop commercialization.Practical implicationsDevelopment policies and programs aiming to improve income, increase savings and provide income diversification opportunities are strongly recommended.Originality/valueThe authors provide empirical evidence on the determinants of resilience strategies and their impacts on local food commercialization from a country in the middle-income group.

Analysis of the Fintech Landscape in the Philippines

Financial technology (fintech) in the Philippines has gained more attention in recent years, especially during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic when lockdowns were prevalent and cashless payments were encouraged. Thus, digital payments and engagements through various platforms have increased, resulting in more diversified financial products and services. Despite these developments, financial inclusion in the Philippines has lagged behind other Association of Southeast Asian Nations member-states. This paper analyzes the state of the fintech industry and investigates how the government can support the development of its ecosystem to ensure its contribution to the country's development goals. It concludes that the Philippines has a strong fintech industry, as indicated by a growing number of fintechs (particularly in payments, lending, and banking technology verticals) and increasing capitalization. Finally, for the fintech industry to support the country's financial inclusion goals, the availability of talent and credit for the sector must be improved.

The use of zakat in the pandemic response: the case of Islamic Relief and BAZNAS in Indonesia

This article compares two Islamic organisations, a non-governmental and a national one, in their methods of collecting and distributing zakat, and analyses how they addressed the COVID-19 crisis with these funds in the period 2020–2021. The study examines Islamic Relief as a Muslim non-governmental organisation involved in humanitarian response, and the National Board of the Zakat Republic of Indonesia (BAZNAS) as a centralised national institution. Both of them are working to improve zakat management, due to the awareness of its untapped potential, but the measure of impacts and allocation of resources diverge in strategies and efforts. Considering their different structures, a comparison based on parallel analysis of collecting methods, distributing channels and programmes financed shows the limits, potentials and best practices of these two institutions committed to zakat management and its improvement.

The unforgiving work environment of black African women domestic workers in a post-apartheid South Africa

In democratic South Africa, many Black African women are still subjugated by being employed as domestic workers. Increasing evidence emerged amid the COVID-19 pandemic revealing unmistakable signs of modern-day slavery among South African Black domestic workers. This paper proposes a clinical model which examines how gender, class, and race intersections affect the ways in which specifically identified change agents offer new, transforming interventions via clinical intervention. Adopting a clinical approach augments identification of a specific social problem from a scientifically systematic applied approach built on applied theory. We report on the conditions facing vulnerable Black African women using a bricolage research approach. The resulting model explicitly identifies systemic inequalities and indicates how to reduce exploitation and protect workers. The bricolage approach aided the secondary qualitative analysis of complex bonded-labour intersections. The problem of Black African women living as bonded domestic labour is augmented by the girl children's primary socialisation, Western patriarchal re-socialisation which sustains apartheid, and race, class, occupational, and gender inequalities.

Challenges of COVID-19 for Fair Trade enterprises in attaining Sustainable Development Goals 2030

This paper aims to explore challenges of COVID-19 in achieving sustainable development goal (SDG) 1 ‘no poverty' by Fair Trade (FT) enterprises. The authors used focus group discussion (FGD) with seven members of World Fair Trade Organisation (WFTO) – Asia, from six different countries: Thailand, Bangladesh, Nepal, India, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Findings suggest that COVID-19 has posed bigger challenges to FT enterprises in achieving the SDGs since the pandemic has created challenges not only to the economic aspect but also to the health, education, safety and security of the communities. Due to COVID-19, the progress in attaining SDGs has slowed down, as global unemployment surged, global markets collapsed with a catastrophic economic downturn, which could eventually push more people to the pit of poverty. Stronger collaboration among the stakeholders is needed to achieve the SDGs.

Estimating the link between trade uncertainty, pandemic uncertainty and food price stability in Togo: New evidence for an asymmetric analysis

Globally, the outbreak of COVID‐19 and the associated containment measures adopted by governments are causing disruptions that sow uncertainty in several sectors of the economy. In this study, we explore the asymmetric impact of pandemic uncertainty and global trade policy on food prices in Togo. The study uses a nonlinear autoregressive distributive lag (NARDL) framework and causality tests for the period 2000 M1–2021 M5. The results show that the different types of uncertainty affect food price stability in the short and long run, but the shock is more pronounced in the case of pandemic uncertainty, as they are sudden and disrupt food price stability. The main findings remain significant when we use various alternative methods and estimation techniques. However, our results suggest that the Togolese food market is facing pandemic uncertainty and trade policy, which should lead policymakers and stakeholders to take corrective measures to control losses.

The governance shock doctrine: Civic space in the pandemic

MotivationEmergencies heighten societies' need to be governed. Accordingly, the COVID‐19 pandemic put systems of public governance under severe pressure across the globe. Civic freedoms were widely curtailed for public health reasons. Scarce resources needed to be allocated swiftly, with little opportunity for debate.PurposeIn settings characterized by authoritarianism, violent conflict, and restricted civic space, relations between governments, civil society, and citizens at best tend to be fragile and fraught even in "normal” times. What happens when these settings are rocked by a profound shock such as the onset of a global pandemic?Methods and approachThis article is based on research on civic space and civic action shortly after the onset of the pandemic in three such settings—Mozambique, Nigeria, and Pakistan. Civil society advocates in each country tracked and interpreted events in real time, debated their responses, supplemented their own knowledge through key informant interviews, and compared experiences across countries.FindingsI argue that the three governments' responses to the COVID‐19 pandemic constitute a "governance shock doctrine,” based on the premise that shocks bring responses from the powerful that advance certain agendas. This patterned phenomenon, visible across the three countries, consists of "securitization” of the public health emergency, suppression of dissent, extension and centralization of executive powers, curtailment of press freedoms, and tightened regulation of civic space, including online space. Civic activism navigated or combated these attacks in various ways.Policy implicationsMeasures adopted in emergency situations tend to persist, threatening to lock civil society into living with pandemic‐era restrictions. Preventing this should be a global priority, and especially important where authoritarianism already looms. An energetic mobilization among national and international actors to reassert and protect civic space is needed if the erosion of civil liberties and normalization of autocratic governance wrought by the political‐military apparatus in so many countries during the COVID‐19 pandemic is not to become permanent, and if the inspired and progressive innovations in organic civic activism over the 2020–2021 crisis period are to survive and flourish.

Issues of gender in sport leadership: reflections from Sub-Saharan Africa

Globally, a gender gap in sport leadership exists despite global reforms, leadership and key strategic actions. This paper reports on the leadership dimension of the 2021 follow-up study to the 2014 baseline study on gender leadership and participation in sport within southern Africa. It reports on changes over time in selected sports (athletics, basketball, boxing, football, and judo as recorded in the 2014 study, with the addition of netball in the 2021 research) and within five countries (Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe). A purposively selected sample group completed an online survey (N = 41), followed by structured interviews conducted with 45 decision makers from relevant government entities and national sport organisations. Findings indicate that Covid-19 had little effect on leadership composition across organisational types. Government entities spearheaded ‘gender reform' with 47.7% female representation at the executive level. National Olympic Committees had 24.1% women in leadership and national sport federations 27.7% with the latter showing an increase of 6.7% since 2014. Men dominated in sub-committees (62.2%) and emerged as leaders in netball – a sport featuring 98% female participation. Key recommendations address the gender gap in sport leadership from the regional level.

The environment, social and governance (ESG) activities and profitability under COVID-19: evidence from the global banking sector

Purpose>This study investigated the impacts of the environment, social and governance (ESG) and its components on global bank profitability considering the COVID-19 outbreak.Design/methodology/approach>This study used a system generalized method of moments (GMM) proposed by Arellano and Bover (1995) to investigate the relationship between ESG and bank profitability using an unbalanced sample of 487 banks from 51 countries from 2006 to 2021.Findings>The findings generally found that ESG activities may reduce bank profitability, thus supporting the trade-off hypothesis that adopting ESG standards could increase bank costs while lowering profitability. In addition, there is a U-shaped relationship between ESG and bank profitability, suggesting that ESG activities can help improve bank performance in the long term. Such an effect is the first time observed in the global banking sector. This study’s results are robust across different models and settings (e.g., developed vs. developing countries, different levels of profitability, and samples with vs without US banks).Practical implications>This study provides empirical evidence to support many countries' sustainable development policies. It also provides empirical incentives for bank managers to be more ESG-oriented.Originality/value>This study provides a better understanding of the roles of ESG activity and its components in the global banking system, considering the recent crises.

COVID-19, clean energy stock market, interest rate, oil prices, volatility index, geopolitical risk nexus: evidence from quantile regression

Purpose>The outbreak and the spreading of the COVID-19 pandemic have impacted the global financial sector, including the alternative clean and renewable energy sector. This paper aims to assess the impact of the pandemic, COVID-19 on the stock market indices of the clean energy sector using quantile regression methods.Design/methodology/approach>This study utilized daily data sets on the four major categories of stocks: (1) Morgan Stanley Capital International Global Alternative Energy Index, (2) WilderHill Clean Energy Index, (3) Renewable Energy Industrial Index (RENIXX) and (4) the S&P 500 Global Clean Index. The study adopts a multifactor capital asset pricing model.Findings>Clean and alternative energy stocks are powerful instruments for diversification. However, the impact of the volatility index induced by infectious disease is negative and significant across quantiles.Practical implications>For investors and policymakers, considering how the uncertainty caused by COVID-19 and the geopolitical index influences renewable energy markets is of great practical importance. For investors, it throws insights into portfolio diversification. For policy makers, it helps to devise strategies to reboot the economy along the lines of the deployment of renewables. This study sheds light on a global green-energy transition and has practical implications for renewable energy resilience in post-pandemic times.Originality/value>This paper can be considered as a pioneer that explores the nexus between oil prices, interest rates, volatility index, and geopolitical risk upon the stock indices of clean and alternative sources of (renewable) energy in the COVID-19 pandemic situation. The results have important insights into the area of energy and policy decision-making. Additionally, the paper's novelty lies in using the explanatory variables associated with the Covid 19 pandemic.

Remittances, Household Welfare, and the COVID-19 Pandemic in Tajikistan

Remittance inflows are now the largest source of external financing to developing countries, but little research has yet firmly established the effect of remittances on household welfare. We investigate the case of Tajikistan, one of the most heavily remittance-dependent countries in the world. We use a panel dataset collected nationwide and employ an instrumental variable estimation to confirm a positive relationship between receiving remittances and household welfare after correcting for endogeneity. Moreover, we find that the effect of remittances on household spending is more pronounced in households whose head is male, older, and/or less educated. Then, we combine our estimated coefficients with the projected decline of remittance inflows as a result of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak and show the pandemic's adverse effect on household spending per capita.

No One Left Behind? Assessing the Global Financial Safety Net Performance During COVID-19

The global financial safety net (GFSN) has become increasingly voluminous and complex. The ever-increasing capacity for crisis prevention and liquidity support of emergency financing institutions and arrangements at the bilateral, regional, and global level sums up to a total lending capacity of at least US$ 3.5 trillion (Mühlich, L., B. Fritz, W. N. Kring, and K. P. Gallagher. 2020. The Global Financial Safety Net Tracker: Lessons for the COVID-19 Crisis from a New Interactive Dataset. GEGI Policy Brief 10. Boston: Global Development Policy Center. Also available at:www.bu.edu/gdp/files/2020/04/GEGI-GDP_PolicyBrief_FInal.pdf). This represents a more than tenfold increase to available short-term liquidity compared to before the global financial crisis of 2008/09. Yet despite this tremendous increase in resources, the GFSN remains scarcely utilized throughout the COVID-19 crisis. This article develops a framework, that builds upon concepts in economics and international political economy, to analyze GFSN inefficiencies and to evaluate the utilization of the GFSN. Combining balance of payments models with the concept of regime complexity, we analyze and compare patterns of GFSN utilization in response to COVID-19 with past usage. We ask if the current GFSN is adequately built to efficiently respond to such a crisis. We are especially interested in examining the role that the six existing RFAs between EMDEs play in the GFSN.

Uluslararasi ekonomi politik çerçevesi ile kalkinmaci devlet kurumlarinin kökenleri: Neden, nasil ve hangi sartlar altinda ortaya çik(m)iyor? *1

Japonya, Güney Kore, Tayvan ve Singapur başta olmak üzere bir grup Asya ülkesinin sıra dışı yirminci yüzyıl kalkınma başarısı nasıl açıklanabilir? 1950'li yıllarda birçok Afrika ülkesinden daha az gelişmiş olan Güney Kore 1980'li yıllara gelindiğinde Hindistan ve Brezilya gibi ülkeleri nasıl geride bırakabilmiştir? Birçok araştırmacıya göre bu ve benzeri sorulara en doyurucu cevabı kalkınmacı devlet yaklaşımı vermektedir. Asya'yı diğerlerinden ayıran temel özellik kalkınmacı devlet kurumları ve bu kurumlar sayesinde piyasaya stratejik müdahalelerde bulunabilen ve kalkınmayı yönlendirebilen bir "görünür elin" varlığıdır. Fakat kalkınmacı devlet kurumları nereden gelmektedir? Neden Asya'da ortaya çıkmışken diğer bölgelerde ortaya çıkmamıştır? Bu çalışma yazında görece daha az çalışılan bu sorulara odaklanmaktadır. Özellikle 2008 küresel ekonomik krizinden, uluslararası ekonomi politik dinamiklerindeki değişimlerden ve KOVÍD-19 salgınından sonra devletlerin ekonomilerde daha etkin rol oynadıkları bir dönemde kalkınmacı devlet kurumlarının kökeni üzerine bir değerlendirme yapmaktadır.Alternate :How can one explain the extraordinary twentieth century development success of a group of Asian countries, notably Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore? How did South Korea, which was less developed than many African countries in the 1950s, perform better than countries such as India and Brazil? According to many researchers, the most satisfactory answer to these and similar questions is offered by the developmental state approach. The main feature that distinguishes Asia from the others is developmental state institutions and the existence of a "visible hand" that can make strategic interventions in the market and direct development thanks to these institutions. But where do developmental state institutions come from? Why did they appear in Asia but not in other regions? This study focuses on these questions that have been relatively less studied in the literature. Especially after the 2008 global economic crisis, the changes in international political economy dynamics, and the COVID-19 pandemic, it makes an assessment on the origins of developmental state institutions in a period when states play a more active role in economies.

Korona salgini petrol fiyatlarini nasil eksi yapti? *

Bu makale, petrol fiyatlarının, vadeli işlemler borsasında nasıl eksi olduğunu açıklamaktadır. Nisan 2020 yılında oluşan eksi fiyat üç nedenle açıklanmıştır. Bunlar, vadeli işlemler borsasında petrolün vade sonunda fiziki teslimat şartı, korona nedeniyle petrol depolama kiralarının yükselmesi ve bilgili yatırımcıların, diğer yatırımcıların bilgisizliğinden faydalanarak kar etmek için açığa satış yapmalarıdır.Alternate :This paper explains how the oil prices in the future markets became negative. It cites three reasons for the negative prices observed in April 2020. These include the physical settlement (delivery) condition in the oil future markets, the increase in the price of oil storage due to the corona pandemic, and the short selling of the informed investors to exploit the uninformed investors

Yükselen güç Çin'in Bati Balkanlar'da dogrudan yabanci yatirimlari *1

Bu çalışma Çin'in Batı Balkanlar'daki enerji ve altyapı yatırımlarının hegemonik yükselişindeki rolüne ve bu yükselişin küresel iklim gündemine etkisine odaklanmıştır. Bu baǧlamda, kuramsal çerçevesini Giovanni Arrighi'nin Adam Smith Pekin 'de eserinden ilham alarak çizen bu makalede, Çin'in dünya sistemindeki gücünü yaymaya yönelik bir refleks olarak deǧerlendirilebilecek doǧrudan yabancı yatırımları (DYY) ve özellikle Batı Balkanlar'daki DYY'lerinin etkileri incelenmiştir. Avrupa'daki en yüksek hava kirliliǧi oranına sahip bölge olan Batı Balkanlar'daki Sırbistan ve Bosna-Hersek örneklerine odaklanan çalışmamız, Çin'in bu analiz edilen vakalarda yakın zamana kadar nasıl bir yol izlediǧine deǧinerek, pandemi başladıktan sonra ivme kazanan DYY alanındaki pragmatik strateji deǧişikliklerini analiz etmiştir. Çin'in iklim liderliǧi ve yeşil yatırımları, COVÍD-19 pandemisinin beraberinde getirdiǧi koşullar da dikkate alınarak, Çin'in bu deǧişen küresel düzende alacaǧı konumla ilgili olasılıklar ortaya konmuştur.Alternate :This study focuses on the role played by China's energy and infrastructure investments in the Western Balkans in its hegemonic rise, and the impact of this rise on the global climate agenda. In this context, in this article, which draws its theoretical framework inspired by Giovanni Arrighi's Adam Smith in Beijing, the effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) and especially FDI in the Western Balkans that can be considered as a reflex to expand China's power in the world system are examined. Focusing on the examples of Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Western Balkans - the region with the highest air pollution rate in Europe - our study highlights the pragmatic strategy changes in the field of FDI, which gained momentum after the start of the pandemic, by analyzing the path China had taken in these countries until recently. Considering China's climate leadership and green investments, as well as the conditions brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, the possibilities for China's position in this changing global order are discussed.

Policy Space for Building Production Capabilities in the Pharmaceuticals Sector in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Evidence from Bangladesh

Over the past four decades Bangladesh has built enough domestic productive capacity in the pharmaceuticals and related industries to generate manufacturing capacity and employment to provide access to medicines in the country and to become a modest exporter of medicines as well. This paper traces the role played by government policy in fostering Bangladesh’s burgeoning pharmaceuticals sector and then examines the extent to which such policies would have been permissible under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules and the rules of recent trade and investment treaties. Bangladesh has not had to adhere to such rules given its status as a Least Developed Country (LDC) but will face those rules as it may graduate from LDC status in the coming years. We find that a significant amount of Bangladesh’s policies would not have been permitted under the WTO, and even more policy space would be constrained under other regional and bilateral trade and investment treaties. These findings reveal that Bangladesh will face a series of challenges as it graduates from LDC status in its efforts to build its domestic pharmaceutical industry moving forward. Our findings also pinpoint challenges for current WTO and other trade and investment treaty members who now seek to build domestic productive capacity in this sector in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Do foreign direct investments and bank credits affect employment in Uzbekistan?

Purpose>The paper investigates the relationship between credit to the economy, foreign direct investment (FDI) and the unemployment rate in Uzbekistan using macroeconomic time series over 2004–2019.Design/methodology/approach>The study estimates the relationship by applying a vector autoregression model, which is considered a “workhorse” model for policy analysis to capture dynamic relationships in economic time series.Findings>The results suggest both growth in credit to the economy and FDI Granger cause a change in the unemployment rate. The authors found 1% increase in bank credits to the economy growth decreases the unemployment rate by 0.096 pp. over eight years. On the contrary, 1% positive shock to FDI growth increases the unemployment rate by 0.0036% in the context of Uzbekistan.Practical implications>Uzbekistan should improve FDI absorptive capacity, particularly human capital and financial market development, through growth-enhancing structural reforms in the financial sector to stimulate economic growth and employment. The attracted FDI funds should focus on productive and economic sectors with high labor-absorptive capacity, such as financial and professional services, healthcare and biomedicine, creative industries and media, software sector.Originality/value>The study contributes to the empirical literature on employment effects of FDIs and credit to the economy of Uzbekistan.

How Does the Philippines Fare in Meeting the ASEAN Economic Community Vision 2025?

To develop a cohesive, economically integrated, socially responsible, people-oriented, people-centered, and rules-based region, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Community was established in November 2015. It is composed of three pillars: the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community, and the ASEAN Political-Security Community. Each pillar corresponds to a blueprint and is a part of the general master plan ASEAN Community Vision 2025 with the theme "ASEAN 2025: Forging Ahead Together". This study focuses on the AEC Blueprint 2025 and its characteristics and elements. More than five years since its establishment, there is a need to assess the performance of the Philippines in the AEC key result areas. By comparing the baseline with the most recent data, this study found that the Philippines is in the middle of the pack (ranking from 4th to 6th) among ASEAN countries. In terms of AEC vision and goals, the country's performance suggests that it is generally on track and progressing in the right direction.