The health national project: A progress analysis 2006–2007

The course of realization of the most important measures foreseen by the Health National Project in 2006–2007 is analyzed in this article. Key problems that appeared in the national project are shown, and approaches to their solution are formulated.     

Assessing the competitive power of a region

The paper explores theoretical approaches to estimating a region’s competitiveness and its underlying factors. The competitive power indicators of the economic complex of Mogilev oblast, Belarus, are analyzed and its regional competitiveness is estimated on the basis of statistical data.     

Assessing the Effect of Bilateral Collaborations on Learning Outcomes

Despite recent interest in the effects of student-driven collaborations on learning outcomes, little or no empirical investigations examine the potential benefits from collaboration between instructors of separate, but related, courses. This study proposes a learning intervention that explicitly accounts for interdependencies across courses and extends the traditional definition of collaborative learning to include the synthesis of teaching and learning in four courses through bilateral, group activities between instructors and among students. A student-performance measure assesses the intervention. Statistical results suggest that the collaborative learning intervention improved student-writing performance.     

REINVENTING THE WHEEL? AFRICAN COOPERATIVES IN A LIBERALIZED ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT

ABSTRACT ** :  Cooperative development in Africa can be said to have traversed two main eras: the era of state control and that of liberalization. The first era lasted up to the early 1990s and saw the origin and substantial growth of cooperatives on the continent. During that period, different models of cooperative development were introduced on the continent. We distinguish a unified cooperative model, a social economy model, a social movement model, a producers' model and an indigenous model. But in all cases, cooperatives were engulfed into state politics. However, little is known about the impact of liberalization measures on these models. Our research in 11 African countries reveals that cooperatives in Africa have survived the market forces and continued to grow in number and membership. We see a slow but sure erosion of the unified model and the adoption of a social economy model. Cooperatives in Africa are re-examining their organizational forms and diversifying their activities in response to members' interests and needs.     

A new family-community social structure

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether a new family-community social structure of accumulation (FSSA) has emerged in the Unites States to contribute to long-wave growth and development through the early decades of the 21st century. Institutions that promote system-functions or public goods are required for sustainable growth and development. Three dimensions of the potential FSSA institutions are examined in this paper, within the context of the systemic circuit of social capital: (a) stability within families, (b) trust and association in the community, and (c) the degree of relative equality. Overall, the findings are that a new FSSA does not currently operate in the US because the emerging family type is not promoting sufficient stability, trust has diminished to low levels, and structural inequality has continued to rise. These factors have negatively impacted long-term economic performance through several transmission mechanisms, which are analyzed in the paper.     

Research into the motives and factors of investment activities of enterprises (by the example of companies in the Volga Federal District)

In the paper, the results of research into the determinants of the incremental investments of companies in the Volga Federal District (based on microeconomic data) are given. The paper is a continuation of the topic raised in the theoretical article of academician A.D. Nekipelov [1] on the motives of a company’s activities in a market economy. In this publication, the applied aspects of the problem are emphasized: on the one hand, the motivations and factors of a company’s activities (growth rates of the value of its fixed assets,noncurrent and total assets) and, on the other hand, an evaluation of the impact on the investment expenditures of factors, such as profitability, financial leverage, lag value of the growth in revenues, credit risk level, age, and the size and activity type of a company. Quantitative evaluations were obtained by using tobit models as applied to a sampling of panel data for 2001–2011 from the 500 largest nonfinancial companies in the Volga Federal District.     

财富对创业的异质性影响——基于三省农户的实证分析

文章从动态视角重新考察了财富与创业的关系,并基于中国农村固定观察点的调查数据进行了实证分析,研究发现财富对创业的影响并非简单的单调关系。当农户资产处于0-98.70分位数区间(0<资产<26.84万元)时,农户资产越多越倾向于创业,这与静态模型的预测相同;但当资产处于98.70分位数之后的区间(资产≥26.84万元)时,样本自选择偏差的存在使二者呈负相关关系,即资产越多,创业概率越低,支持了动态模型的理论预测。文章还使用"人情收入"作为资产的工具变量来解决模型中可能存在的内生性问题,发现此结论依然稳健。     

Towards an economic and monetary union

One of the most important results of the Paris Summit of the nine EEC-members was the decision taken to establish a European Monetary Union until April 1, 1973. Will the Economic Union be now approached more rapidly than in the past?     

Accounting infrastructure and accountability in the management of public expenditure in developing countries: A focus on Nigeria

Accountability in the control and management of public funds is one of the most sensitive aspects of the activities of government in all democracies. Hence, the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria contains provisions relating to legislative powers and control over public funds. However, the required level of accountability in public expenditure has not been achieved in Nigeria. The situation has remained worrisome even though the country does not lack in the appropriate laws and regulation required to bring sanity into the system. Though there have been some bold steps and initiatives in the recent past by the government by strengthening existing institutions and creating new ones with responsibility for fraud and other controls, the issue of weak accounting infrastructure has not been addressed. The paper argues that accountability in public expenditure can more easily be realized within the context of a sound accounting infrastructure and a robust accounting profession and not in the multiplicity of laws and anti-corruption agencies; all of which are reactive in nature. Therefore, the paper reports on the current state of accounting infrastructure in Nigeria, and conclude with an assessment of the existing agencies and current reform initiatives in ensuring accountability in public expenditure in Nigeria.