Regionalisation trends in Russia: Between the Soviet Legacy and the Forces of Globalisation

Regionalisation in Russia is to be understood as part of the overall transformation process. It is argued that while the form of regionalisation during the Yeltsin era after 1991 presented an image of democratic legitimacy, it was still largely based on the same structures and characteristics as the ‘regionalism’ that took shape during the Soviet era. In this context, the real significance of Putin's federal reforms is to be seen in the fact that a number of the faults in this essentially Soviet system have been laid bare and challenged. Thus, Putin's reforms are not to be dismissed as a purely administrative measure to strengthen central state power and control. Instead, they constitute an attempt to eliminate this form of regionalism in order to build a more favourable basis for Russia's integration into global economic contexts and structures. The fact that Russia is moving in this direction is not, however, solely attributable to Putin's federal reforms. There is a wide and diverse range of other factors propitious to this course.     

Emotionally Based Strategic Communications in the Process of Societal Deradicalization

Pervasiveness of extreme negative emotions, especially anger, hatred and humiliation, as well as negative appraisal style, has a significant impact on the process of societal radicalization. Dominance of such emotions, and the corresponding appraisal style, very often threaten societal security. Emotionally Based Strategic Communications (EBSC), proposed in this article, can be used as a communications strategy for mitigating negative and promoting positive emotions within societal groups exposed to radicalization processes. Essentially, EBSC as mechanisms of positive emotional regulation strategy are based on reshaping the (re)appraisal style of radicalized groups. Grounded in the appraisal theories of emotions, EBSC are entirely non-coercive, and applicable to a wide variety of groups. Such communications strategies are also extendible to Internet-based social media networks, opening new possibilities in deradicalization processes using sentiment analysis, cognitive computing, botnets and other ICT-based methods and techniques.     

FINANCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND INCOME IN AFRICAN COUNTRIES

This paper presents an empirical analysis of the relationship between financial system development and economic development. Using cointegration and vector autoregressive estimations on annual data from Africa, we examine the nature of the relationship between financial development and income. We find mixed results on both the short‐ and the long‐run relationships between the two variables. We find finance causing income, income causing finance, and bidirectional causality. The results indicate that neither the short‐run effects nor the long‐run relationship seem to linearly depend on the level of financial development or the stage of development. (JEL E44, O16, G20)     

Input–Output Models with Stochastic Matrices and Time Lags

In this paper, the random balanced growth factor to forward-lag-type and mixed-lag-type input–output (IO) models is considered. The instability of IO and capital matrices is taken into account by stochastic methods. Exact and approximate characteris-tics of stochastic solutions are given.     

Delayed Adjustment and Persistence in Macroeconomic Models

Estimated impulse responses of investment and hiring typically peak well after the impact of a shock. Standard models with adjustment costs in capital and labor do not exhibit such delayed adjustment, but we argue that it arises naturally when we relax the assumption that the production technology is separable over time. This result, which holds for both convex and nonconvex cost functions, is strong enough to match the persistence observed in the data for reasonable parameter values. We discuss some evidence for our explanation and ways to test it.