Impact of Agricultural Transition on Soil Protection in Ukraine: The Role of Institutional Change

At the time of post-socialist agricultural transition in Ukraine the focus was on privatisation of land resources, decentralisation and restructuring of the sector. While its impact on agricultural productivity has been thoroughly analysed, there have been few studies addressing the environmental effects of the process. Using the method of document analysis, this paper examines in detail the change in institutions regulating soil protection in agriculture and discusses its implications for the behaviour of agricultural producers and specific soil protection measures applied. The results of analysis suggest that having destroyed the elaborate Soviet soil protection system, Ukraine did not manage to develop a new set of legal rules, nor their enforcement mechanisms, to enable soil protection in the new political and economic setting. This paper discusses the reasons for this institutional failure and provides insights that can be applied to assess the impact of agricultural transition on soils in other countries in Europe and beyond.     

Transition Ethics: A Comparison of Ukrainian and United States Business Professionals

This article compares the ethical attitudes of Ukrainian business professionals with those of United States business professionals. A widely used survey instrument consisting of 16 hypothetical situations involving ethical dilemmas was employed to gather information on ethical attitudes in the two countries. On 13 of 16 vignettes, Ukrainian respondents demonstrated less stringent ethical attitudes than did their United States counterparts. Possible reasons for these differences are discussed, with primary emphasis on the transition from one economic system to another that is underway in Ukraine. Comments from Ukrainian respondents are presented so as to give an indication of the thought processes behind the questionnaire responses. Olena Vynoslavska is Head of Psychology and Pedagogics Chair at the National Technical University of Ukraine, Kyiv. She has been a research scholar under the sponsorship of the International Research and Educational Exchange program of the United States Department of State at Baylor University. Her research has included international comparative studies of entrepreneurship and management techniques. Joseph A. McKinney is Ben H. Williams Professor of International Economics at Baylor University. He was previously on the faculty of the University of Virginia, and has served as visiting professor or research scholar to universities in Japan, France, the United Kingdom and Canada. His research interests include business ethics, international trade policy, and regional economic integration. Carlos W. Moore is the Edwin W. Streetman Professor of Marketing at Baylor University, where he has been on the faculty for more than 30 years. His research interests include business ethics, marketing and advertising evaluation, and small business strategies. He has done consulting on bank marketing and new product development. Justin G. Longenecker is Emeritus Professor of Management at Baylor University. His research interests include business ethics, entrepreneurship, and family business. He is co-author of the leading text on small business management, and is the author of scholarly articles on various aspects of business management.     

Inflation volatility: A Bayesian approach

The ongoing trend of high inflation across much of the world has reignited interest in inflation volatility with varying foci and methods. In this paper, we employ a Bayesian framework to estimate inflation volatility using a sample of G20 countries. Estimation results suggest persistent heterogeneity in price volatility across time and countries. Furthermore, we use the Bayesian estimates of volatility to conduct several empirical analyses on the implications of interdependence of economies, development status for uncertainty. Further analyses on the determinants of price volatility suggest that trade openness, COVID-19, and the Ukraine crisis have positive impacts on volatility. Additionally, the nature of the political institutions and the share of manufacturing in total national output are also found to affect volatility to some extent.     

政治惯性、经济考量？——从天然气争端看俄经济外交

21世纪头10年,昔日的斯拉夫三兄弟——俄罗斯、乌克兰和白俄罗斯相继发生了天然气争端,＂断气＂威胁与切断管道运输威胁此起彼伏。这是俄罗斯对传统势力范围进行控制的政治惯性,还是在全球化背景下的经济考量？本文认为：这是俄罗斯推行经济外交,追求国家经济利益最大化的必然结果。这类事件对于崛起中的中国具有重要的启示意义,推行经济外交必须遵循双赢和适度原则,为了维护国家的经济安全,必须实现能源战略多元化。     

乌克兰危机背后折射的大国博弈及教训启迪

乌克兰危机的起因、演变已历时近一年,其发展趋势存在多种可能性。危机内因虽涉及其国内矛盾,但同时折射出背后的大国博弈,牵涉到俄罗斯、美欧、中国大三角关系的国际战略格局。观察乌克兰危机,人们更重要的是应从中吸取深刻的教训启迪。其一,走中国自己的路,稳定压倒一切;其二,实力彰显国际地位;其三,国家意识形态安全的极端重要性;其四,关键是立足国内,把自己的事办好。     

An institution-stakeholder framework for examining business relationship dynamics in a transforming Eastern Europe

Since the collapse of the USSR, most Central and East European countries have been integrated into global economic institutions through membership in the WTO and EU significantly changing the regional business climate. Through an in-depth analysis of a petroleum pipeline project initiated in Ukraine, a country on the EU's periphery, this research presents a framework based on institutional climate and stakeholder levers of influence for explaining the type of existing and evolving business relationships in the region. A relational matrix for Eastern Europe is developed with a set of guidelines for global firms and investors seeking markets in the region.     

Regional Price Effects of Extreme Weather Events and Wheat Export Controls in Russia and Ukraine

We build on the price transmission framework to identify domestic wheat price effects of wheat export controls. We explicitly take into account that a harvest failure causes domestic price effects. Moreover, the analysis at the regional level provides further evidence of the functioning of export controls in a large country. Results suggest a pronounced regional heterogeneity in the strength of domestic price effects of the 2010/11 export ban in Russia. The wheat price dampening effects amount to up to 67% and are strongest in the major wheat exporting region with direct access to the world market. This effect is transmitted to other regions by increased and reversed interregional trade flows. In contrast, we find that regional variation of export controls’ domestic price effects in Ukraine is rather small.     

Export Restrictions and Smooth Transition Cointegration: Export Quotas for Wheat in Ukraine

We extend previous modelling approaches to identify domestic price effects of export controls. We allow for smooth transition between free‐trade price transmission regimes and those under export restricting regimes, using a smooth transition cointegration (STC) approach, rather than the more common assumption that regime changes are abrupt. Our approach has the advantage that the switch in the price transmission regime may be induced not only by an actual but also by an expected policy change. Results confirm the gradual nature of the transition between the regimes, which reflect trader heterogeneity and wheat storage decisions. We find that the STC approach outperforms alternative model approaches in terms of both regime classification and goodness of fit, when explaining Ukrainian domestic wheat prices under export controls. In particular, application of the Markov‐switching error correction model (MSECM) to the same data generates results which do not reflect any identifiable economic reality (in contrast to Götz et al., 2013 ).     

Comparing EthicalIdeologies AcrossCultures

Using measures developed by Singhapakdi et al. (1996, Journal of Business ethics 15, 1131–1140) the perceived importance of ethics and social responsibility (PRESOR) is measured among MBA students in the United States, Malaysia and Ukraine revealing a stockholder view and two stakeholder views. Relativism and Idealism are also measured. The scores of MBA students are compared among each other and with those of the U.S. managers who were part of the original study. Managers' scores tend to be significantly higher on the Stockholder and Stakeholder II views, and much lower on Relativism than the MBA students. The Malaysian MBA students scored higher than did the American MBA students on Relativism, Idealism and the Stockholder view. The Ukrainian MBA students' scores on the three PRESOR factors are generally similar to those of the American MBAs, while they had the highest scores of any group on the Relativism scale. Overall, the patterns of responses, as much as the significant differences on specific scales, support the notion that culture, however defined, affects both values and ethics. Several directions for future research are identified.'