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on MENA - Middle East and North Africa |
| By: | Yılmaz, Engin; Süslü, Bora |
| Abstract: | In this study, the assumption of “the weighted price elasticity of tax is a unit in the developing countries” suggested in the first studies which examine the impacts of the inflation on tax revenues, will be reevaluated for Turkey in the period of 1998-2013. We use Turkish tax and price index data for calculating the weighted price elasticity of tax. Via the method of dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS), the long run weighted price elasticity of tax system is guessed. The importance of this study is the fact that this is first study intended to the calculation of the weighted price elasticity of tax for Turkey. In this sense, it will be instructive study for the reconsideration of the assumption of “the weighted price elasticity of tax is a unit in the developing countries”. |
| Keywords: | Tanzi Effect, Weighted Price Elasticity of Tax, Taxation |
| JEL: | H20 H24 H30 |
| Date: | 2015–02–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:64417&r=ara |
| By: | Nilüfer Tetik (Akdeniz University); Esin Yelgen (Akdeniz University) |
| Abstract: | Culture may be defined as ‘the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another’. Each human group shares its own social norms, consisting of common characteristics, such as a value system which is adopted by the majority of constituents. Moreover accounting is determined by culture and the lack of consensus in accounting practices between countries, because the purpose of accounting is not technical but rather cultural. The culture of a country determines the choice of its accounting techniques and the perception of its various accounting phenomena. For this reason, the accounting culture is to limit the style of financial reporting by determining the principles and rules to be followed in financial reporting and by determining the principles, rules, and valuation measures that the financial reporting based on. Globalization, increase in the international movement of capital, the development of capital markets, changing conditions of competitions, legislative regulations and specialization are the factors affecting accounting culture. Another factor which affects accounting culture is the unfolding experience with the implementation of international accounting and financial reporting systems. International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) is formulated for the standardization of accounting regulations all over the world. A growing number of countries have adopted IFRS developed by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), and other countries plan to adopt or converge with IFRSs in the near future. IFRS is a set of accounting principles that is generated to support processes of principle based reporting. IFRS is very useful for making the comparability, intelligibility and transparency of the financial statements. Because accounting standards necessitate the development of one unique accounting system across the globe, this necessity leads to changes in the perceptions of accounting and thus a decline in the affect of culture on accounting. When the accounting regulations in Turkey are considered, it can be seen that accounting culture is shaped in parallel with economic and political relations. Accounting culture in Turkey has been discussed within the culture model of the Continental Europe through uniform accounting plan which has to be implemented as from 1994. On the other hand, with IFRS applications, it tends to be closer to the Anglo-American culture model. In the light of these developments, the aim of our study is to discuss the term of accounting culture theoretically; and analyze the affect of International Accounting and Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) over accounting culture in Turkey. |
| Keywords: | Development of Accounting in Turkey, Hofstede-Gray Theory, Accounting Culture, Accounting Valuations and IFRS |
| JEL: | M49 M41 M48 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:0702371&r=ara |
| By: | Armagan Tuna Aktuna-Gunes (EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics, CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS); François Gardes (EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics, CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS); Christophe Starzec (EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics, CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS) |
| Abstract: | In this article, the size of informal economy is measured by using the full price method proposed by Gardes F. (2014). As an extension of this method, price elasticities are re-estimated by integrating the underreported earning shares both for wage workers and self-employers from cross-sectional data covering 2003-2006 in Turkey. The contribution of this paper is threefold: The size of informal economy is estimated by a statistical matching of the Turkish Family Budget and Time Use surveys through a complete demand system including full prices. Second, more accurate price and income elasticities are estimated by using the monetary incomes from informal activities for an emerging economy such as Turkey. Third, extended full price estimation of demand elasticities allow us to discover for which consumption group households are more likely to engage in informal work. |
| Abstract: | Dans cet article, la taille de l'économie informelle est estimée en utilisant la méthode du prix complet proposée par Gardes F. (2014). Les élasticités de prix sont estimées en intégrant les parties sous-déclarés des revenus des travailleurs indépendants et salariés en utilisant des données transversales couvrant 2003-2006 en Turquie. La contribution de cet article est triple : la taille de l'économie informelle est estimée par l'appariement statistique des enquêtes turques sur le Budget des Familles avec l'enquête sur l'Emploi du Temps en intégrant les prix complets dans le système complet de demande. Deuxièmement, les élasticités des prix et de revenu sont estimées plus justement en élargissant les ressources monétaires avec les parts des revenus provenant des activités informelles, pour une économie émergente comme la Turquie. Troisièmement, cette dernière nous permet de découvrir pour quels groupes de consommation sont les ménages plus susceptibles de s'engager dans le travail informel. |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-01149595&r=ara |
| By: | Türkcan, Kemal; Avşar, Veysel |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effect of legal and financial conditions on the payment contract choice by empirically testing the predictions of Schmidt-Eisenlohr’s (2013) model with actual bilateral industry level trade finance data (at 2-digit level) from Turkey. Our results show that an improvement in contract enforcement and an increase in the financing cost in the importing country (exporting country) increases (decreases) the share of post-shipment sales. For the share of pre-payment sales, the opposite effects are estimated. Finally we find that share of post-shipment sales (pre-payment sales) increases (decreases) in the number of products traded between partners in the past. |
| Keywords: | Method of Payments, Trade Finance, Contract Enforcement, Financial Costs, Post-Shipment, Pre-Payment, Turkey. |
| JEL: | F14 F30 |
| Date: | 2015–05–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:64680&r=ara |
| By: | Christopoulos, Dimitris; McAdam, Peter |
| Abstract: | In a stochastic frontier setting, we examine technical efficiency in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Evidence suggests that in addition to economic indicators, political and social ones play a key role in development and frontier technical efficiency profiles. The MENA have been characterized by increasing economic efficiency over time but with marked polarization. The paper analyses and nest many key hypotheses in the literature e.g., the contributions of religion, of natural resources, demographic pressures, human capital etc. The originality of our contribution is the use of a large data set (including principal components), and extensive robustness checks. The paper should set a comprehensive benchmark and cross check for related studies of development technical efficiency. JEL Classification: C33, C38, C55, D24, E23, O11 |
| Keywords: | development, frontier efficiency, MENA, stochastic frontier |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20151757&r=ara |
| By: | BEN ZAIED, YOUNES; Zouabi, Oussama |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes to model the long run impact of climate change on olive output in Tunisia, the third largest olive-oil producing country in the world, using panel cointegration techniques. The long run analysis reveals that temperature increase and inappropriate working tools reduce olive output in semi arid areas. Therefore, we propose an appropriate training for workers to develop their skills and public policy subsidizing the innovation of used capital stock at least in the south. We propose encouraging the development of drought tolerant olive trees, especially in the south of Tunisia where global warming has caused a severe drought . |
| Keywords: | Olive output, Tunisia, Panel cointegration, climate change, adaptation |
| JEL: | C1 Q1 Q54 |
| Date: | 2015–04–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:64711&r=ara |
| By: | Nadir Altinok; Abdurrahman Aydemir |
| Abstract: | The gender gap in education against females becomes smaller as the level of development increases and turns in their favor in developed countries. Through analysis of regional variation in the gender gap within Turkey, which displays a similar pattern to the crosscountry pattern, this paper studies the factors that lead to the emergence of a gender gap against females. The data for student achievement and aspirations for further education during compulsory school show that females are just as well prepared and motivated for further education as their male counterparts across regions with very different levels of development. Despite this fact, large gaps arise in high school registration and completion in less developed regions, but not in developed ones. We find that larger sibship size is the main driver of gender gaps in less developed regions. While social norms have a negative influence on female education beyond compulsory school, they play a relatively small role in the emergence of gender gaps. These results are consistent with the fact that resource-constrained families give priority to males for further education, leading to the emergence of education gender gaps. |
| Keywords: | gender gap, education, achievement, social norms. |
| JEL: | I2 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2015-13&r=ara |
| By: | Mansour, Wael |
| Abstract: | Human capital formation is a fundamental requirement for countries’ long term economic development and societal prosperity. This process can be enhanced or disrupted by internal factors such as migration and remittances, or external ones like wars. This thesis is interested in investigating both phenomena. The following questions are addressed: what is the impact of migrant remittances on human capital formation, do these private inflows induce any changes in the behavior of remittance-receivers towards education expenditure, and finally what is the short term micro-economic effect of armed conflicts on education in post war countries. In investigating these issues, focus is made on two perspectives: first youth, an active group in the society whose age matches up higher education levels and labor force entry simultaneously; second gender differentials both in terms of impact and behavior. The research explores new surveys from the Middle East, datasets that have not been analyzed previously from an education angle and that are not generally available to researchers. These datasets come from Jordan and Lebanon, two middle income non-oil producer countries. The thesis is composed of three independent essays. The first examines the impact of migrant remittances on human capital accumulation among youth in Jordan and highlights the various ways in which remittances influence education outcomes. The analysis takes a gender dimension and examines whether the effects and magnitude of such impact is different between males and females. The second essay considers remittances receipt, from both domestic and international sources, and examines their impact on Jordanian households’ education spending patterns. Following the literature on intra-household bargaining and gender expenditure preferences, the analysis examines whether such impact is potentially different between male and female headed households. The third essay tackles the impact of the 2006 war on education attendance of youth in Lebanon. The chapter captures households’ schooling responses in the aftermath of the war. By looking at the implications of a diversified array of damages sustained; reflecting physical, human, income and employment losses; the chapter examines possible linkages between the nature of the damage incurred and the manner and magnitude in which such damage affects education. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sus:susphd:0912&r=ara |
| By: | Alessia Lo Turco; Daniela Maggioni |
| Abstract: | We explore the role of firm and local product-specific capabilities in fostering the introduction of new products in the Turkish manufacturing. Firms' product space evolution is characterised by strong cognitive path dependence which, however, is relaxed by firm heterogeneity in terms of size, efficiency and international exposure. The introduction of new products in laggard Eastern regions, which is importantly related to the evolution of their industrial output, is mainly affected by firm internal product specific resources. On the contrary, product innovations in Western advanced regions hinge relatively more on the availability of suitable local competencies. |
| Keywords: | Product relatedness, Firm heterogeneity, Product Innovation |
| JEL: | D22 O53 O12 |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:1517&r=ara |
| By: | Paolo Giudici (Department of Economics and Management, University of Pavia); Shatha Hashem (Omar Ibn Al-Khattab Street, Nablus, Palestine) |
| Abstract: | The main aim of this paper is to investigate the proposition that Islamic banking services support financial stability. We examine this proposition using network modelling for stock market returns based on graphical Gaussian distributions, aimed at capturing the contagion effects that move along countries, combined with a regression modelling approach, aimed at capturing the effect of bank- specific strategies, that depend on the degree of Islamic financial services spe- cialization levels. The integration between the two models will enable us to distinguish the systemic correlations between banks due to common idiosyn- cratic characteristics, from the systemic correlation that can be attributed to country effects that are common to all banks in a given country. Our proposed models are applied to the MENA region banking sector for the period from 2007 to 2014. |
| Keywords: | Camels regression, Centrality measures, Graphical Gaussian models, Islamic bank specialisation levels |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pav:demwpp:103&r=ara |
| By: | Mohaddes, Kamiar (University of Cambridge); Pesaran, M. Hashem (University of Southern California) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the global macroeconomic consequences of country-specific oilsupply shocks. Our contribution is both theoretical and empirical. On the theoretical side, we develop a model for the global oil market and integrate this within a compact quarterly model of the global economy to illustrate how our multi-country approach to modelling oil markets can be used to identify country-specific oil-supply shocks. On the empirical side, estimating the GVAR-Oil model for 27 countries/regions over the period 1979Q2 to 2013Q1, we show that the global economic implications of oil-supply shocks (due to, for instance, sanctions, wars, or natural disasters) vary considerably depending on which country is subject to the shock. In particular, we find that adverse shocks to Iranian oil output are neutralized in terms of their effects on the global economy (real outputs and financial markets) mainly due to an increase in Saudi Arabian oil production. In contrast, a negative shock to oil supply in Saudi Arabia leads to an immediate and permanent increase in oil prices, given that the loss in Saudi Arabian production is not compensated for by the other oil producers. As a result, a Saudi Arabian oil supply shock has significant adverse effects for the global economy with real GDP falling in both advanced and emerging economies, and large losses in real equity prices worldwide. |
| JEL: | C32 E17 F44 F47 O53 Q43 |
| Date: | 2015–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:feddgw:242&r=ara |
| By: | Tausch, Arno |
| Abstract: | Background: A positive assessment of the role of globalization as a driver of a good public health performance has been the result of major new studies in the field. But the present re-analysis shows that neo-liberal globalisation has resulted in increasing inequality, which in turn negatively affects global health performance. This conclusion is valid on a global level but it also holds for the majority of the Arab countries, which are currently undergoing very dramatic political and social transformations, which have fundamental repercussions for the Western world. Methods: Standard IBM/SPSS OLS regressions and partial correlations with cross-national and time series aggregate, freely available data. The article also re-analysed the data, provided by Mukherjee N. and Krieckhaus J. Globalization and Human Well-Being. International Political Science Review, March 2012; vol. 33, 2: pp. 150-170. Results: We can show that different types of globalization processes affect public health performance differently. The absence of restrictions (direct effects on the availability of pharmaceuticals) and the free flow of information (direct effects on the availability of scientific information in medicine and the free movement for members of the medical profession) have the biggest impact on infant mortality reduction, while actual foreign capital flows and personal contacts have less influence on reducing infant mortality rates. The “de-composition” of the available data suggests that for most of the time period of the last four decades, globalization inflows even implied an aggregate deterioration of public health, quite in line with recent prominent public health research studies by Cornia, de Vogli, and other studies, referred to in this article. Conclusions: Globalization leads to increased inequality, and this, in turn, to a deteriorating public health performance. This is relevant for the health planners in the Middle Eastern region as well. The region witnessed a sharp increase in globalization in recent years. We show the validity of our conclusion also with an annual time series data analysis for 99 countries. In only 19 of 99 nations (i.e. 19.1%) globalization actually preceded an improvement in the public health performance. Far from falsifying the globalization critical research, our essay shows the basic weaknesses of the new “pro-globalization” literature in the public health profession. |
| Keywords: | Globalization, Infant Mortality, Inequality, Arab countries |
| JEL: | F5 I3 |
| Date: | 2015–05–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:64516&r=ara |
| By: | Zouabi, Oussama |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the direct and indirect effect of precipitation and temperature on the citrus production of governorate i and neighboring governorates by using a spatial modeling to allow for spatial effects, as well as individual and temporal effects of spatial autocorrelation. Results from Spatial Autoregressive Model (SAR) and Spatial Durbin Model (SDM) prove that the groundwater of the governorate i can be an effective solution for the farmer as long as the means are implemented so that he can exploit. Results also show that the effect of temperature through the hydric resources of governorate i and the neighboring governorates represent a negative spillover effect. |
| Keywords: | Climate change, spatial Econometrics, Agriculture, Tunisia. |
| JEL: | C21 Q1 Q54 |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:64715&r=ara |