Les finances solidaires et l'économie sociale en roumanie: une réponse de «proximités» à la régionalisation d'une économie en transition?

La Roumanie apparaît en Europe centrale et orientale comme un territoire d'expérimentation d'une forme particulière d'économie sociale liant coopératives et organisations «not‐for‐profit». En transition économique et sociale, la Roumanie est également un pays en transition territoriale dont les systèmes de financements locaux ont quitté leur approche centralement planifiée, pour rejoindre un secteur financier solidaire dont les Instituts de Microfinance (IMFs) sont les principaux acteurs. La question à laquelle cet article tente d'apporter quelques éléments de réponse est celle du rôle de la finance solidaire locale dans la soutenabilité des transitions socio‐économiques territoriales en cours. Il s'agit d'envisager une économie humaine au sein de laquelle les conditions dignes de vie, nous amène à envisager un modèle particulier d'économie conviviale située à partir des outils conviviaux des finances solidaires locales.     

Agricultural trade in North America: Trade creation, regionalism and regionalisation

Trade creation in agricultural products is defined as a statistically significant positive break in the trend function of the growth in exports and imports between member countries. The present study attempts to determine the time of any break in the trend of real exports and imports between the Canada–USA Free Trade Agreement (CUSTA) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) member countries for the years 1980:I through 1999:II, and document the scale of the phenomenon. The present study finds trade creation only occurs in USA agricultural exports to Canada because of CUSTA. The results confirm the theory that the regionalism of NAFTA did not lead to regionalisation or an increasing share of intraregional international trade.     

Tourism and urban revitalization a case study of Pore , Yugoslavia

This article emphasizes the necessity of a multidisciplinary approach to revitalization of old urban areas through tourism. Historical urban values require special multidisciplinary care when transformed to suit the needs of both tourists and local population. The case study of the old urban area in Pore illustrates how this can be done. The study was aimed at identifying reasons for which tourists and local population visit Pore 's old urban core. It also intended to analyze the visitors' reactions to and expectations of old urban areas. The findings were to help make revitalization decisions and introduce new measures into the revitalization process itself, which in turn aimed at contributing to both future tourism developments and preservation of the area's historical and cultural heritage.     

Destabilizing role of futures markets on North American hard red spring wheat spot prices

The objective of the paper is to determine if the futures prices of hard red spring wheat (HRSW) have stabilizing or destabilizing impact on spot HRSW price in North America. Several important results emerge from thorough empirical analysis. First, both Granger causality tests and directed acyclic graph algorithms (DAGs) point to two-way causality between futures and spot HRSW prices and thus endogeneity in both prices formation. To the contrary, both procedures suggest that ending stocks are exogenous to spot and futures HRSW prices. Both vector error correction model and impulse response functions point to a large and long-lasting impact of a shock to futures price on spot price level. Finally, variance decomposition analysis indicates that futures prices are responsible for the bulk of spot price volatility in both short and long run. Our result is consistent with those of theoretical models suggesting that when production (supply side) is the dominant disturbance, spot price is destabilized in both the short and the long run by futures prices. An important implication of this research is the need for alternative market mechanisms or alternative farm policy measures that would mitigate price risk and ensure sustainable farming of American HRSW farmers.     

Inflation Tax and Substitution Between Domestic and Foreign Assets: Evidence from Central-Eastern Europe

Dominant factors in determining real money holdings in Poland, Hungary, and Slovenia during a transition period characterized by high inflation are analyzed. Two hypotheses are tested. Cagan's model suggests that inflation-adjusted money balances are influenced almost exclusively by inflationary expectations. A competing model suggests that under highly inflationary conditions there is an incentive for agents to substitute foreign for domestic assets in their portfolios because of the higher expected return. Inflation expectation is a dominant factor in Poland. The expected return to holding foreign assets dominates in Hungary. Both factors have played important roles in Slovenia.     

Measuring and causes of inequality in farm sizes in the United States

This article examines the notion of farm size inequality expressed as sales inequality in the United States. The farm size index (FSI) is developed as a measure of farm size inequality. FSIs are calculated for the farming sector in all 50 states and large variation in farm size across the states and over time is determined. The largest FSIs are calculated for a number of Southern, Southwestern, and Pacific states. Increasing FSIs over time are observed in all states as well. The spatial and temporal (between 1987 and 1997) differences in FSIs are explained by running a pooled, cross‐sectional time‐series model. The most influential variables accounting for the differences have to do with the ownership structure, where a larger presence of individual and family farms relative to corporate farms and cooperatives leads to a lower degree of farm size inequality. Also, states and regions having relatively larger number of farms owned by minorities have higher FSIs. Shrinking opportunities in the agricultural sector relative to the rest of the economy, primarily services, are reflected in a declining share of agricultural sector state income in total gross state product (GSP). This in turn leads to an increase in the farming sector's FSI suggesting that only larger, more profitable operations are the likely candidates to pursue farming activities. Finally, grains farming regions have all lower degree of farm size inequality than livestock or fruits and vegetables regions. Profitable grains farming requires relatively large farm size and equipment investments, which leads to a relatively homogeneous structure of grains farms. A larger variation in the size of profitable farm operations is possible in fruits and vegetables and livestock. This leads to the existence of a large number of very small but still sustainable farms, and a relatively small number of large farms that capture most of market sales share.     

Constitutions as self-enforcing redistributive schemes

We present a model of a fiscal constitution (i.e., a transfer scheme between income classes) that is self-enforcing against a background in which predatory activities (‘revolutions’) are feasible. In this environment, a constitution self-enforces by structuring society’s interests in such a way that non- compliance necessarily results in a revolution which society would rather avoid.      

A study on the competitive strategy of the universal postal service provider

We analysed how the universal postal service providers could employ their specificities to achieve an advantage over the growing competition. The basic input for the model is expert opinions. We interviewed 18 experts in five stages. As a multiple criteria decision support method, we used an analytic hierarchy process. Further, we proposed a geometric method for determining the business area where a company should focus its biggest attention to achieve the best result. By implementing the proposed model, a company should obtain two types of business directions, the first related to the proposed activities and the second to the business areas. To demonstrate the applicability of the proposed methodology, we tested and verified it in the case of the Serbian universal postal service provider which is a state-owned company called the Post of Serbia.     

On measuring skewness and kurtosis

The paper considers some properties of measures of asymmetry and peakedness of one dimensional distributions. It points to some misconceptions of the first and the second Pearson coefficients, the measures of asymetry and shape, that frequently occur in introductory textbooks. Also it presents different ways for obtaining the estimated values for the coefficients of skewness and kurtosis and statistical tests which include them.     

Financial Market of Montenegro： Evidence of Crisis and Beyond

The financial sector has played a small role in the restructuring of the manufacturing sector in transition economies, and in some cases, financial liberalization may have undermined real sector development. However, stable and stimulating business environment is crucial for economic development. The aim of this paper is to show the main changes that have been implemented in Montenegro so far, and guidelines for changes in the financial market in Montenegro, for further harmonization in accordance with the requirements of European Union （EU） accession. Also, the ability of governments of transition economies to enforce contracts and to achieve fiscal and monetary responsibility is of great importance for economic and financial development. By adopting the new Constitution of Montenegro, in the field of regulation of the financial system, there have been significant changes, recognizing the Central Bank as an institution responsible for financial stability. The authors will give a review of the actual state of the financial market in Montenegro, as well as recommendations for further changes in order to create a favorable climate for entrepreneurship and to strengthen the overall financial system.