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on MENA - Middle East and North Africa |
| By: | Derya Findik (Science and Technology Policy Studies Program, Middle East Technical University 06800 Ankara, Turkey); Aysit Tansel (Cornell University, Ithaca, USA & Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the impact of firm resources on ICT adoption by the Turkish business enterprises using firm level data. ICT adoption is measured at three levels: The first level is technology ownership. The second level is the presence of enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer resource management (CRM), and the third level is the use of narrowband and broadband technologies. The effects of the three main features of each technology level, which are complementarity, specificity, and the complexity, are analyzed by using firm level data in Turkey. This study has three main conclusions. As for the complementarity, firm’s resources play an important role in the adoption of technology while advancing from single technology to the multiple ones. Further, in the use of specific technologies such as ERP and CRM, firm resources generate differential effects between those technologies. Finally, the use of simple technologies does not require the same amount of firm resources as complex technologies. |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tek:wpaper:2015/12&r=all |
| By: | Fındık, Derya; Tansel, Aysit |
| Abstract: | This chapter analyzes the effect of intangible investment on firm efficiency with an emphasis on its software component. Stochastic production frontier approach is used to simultaneously estimate the production function and the determinants of technical efficiency in the software intensive manufacturing firms in Turkey for the period 2003-2007. Firms are classified based on the technology group. High technology and low technology firms are estimated separately in order to reveal differentials in their firm efficiency. The results show that the effect of software investment on firm efficiency is larger in high technology firms which operate in areas such as chemicals, electricity, and machinery as compared to that of the low technology firms which operate in areas such as textiles, food, paper, and unclassified manufacturing. Further, among the high technology firms, the effect of the software investment is smaller than the effect of research and development personnel expenditure. This result shows that the presence of R&D personnel is more important than the software investment for software intensive manufacturing firms in Turkey. |
| Keywords: | Intangible assets, Software investment, Efficiency, Software intensive firms, Stochastic frontier analysis, Production Function, Firms, Turkey. |
| JEL: | L21 L22 L23 L25 |
| Date: | 2013–08–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:66165&r=all |
| By: | Del Carpio,Ximena Vanessa; Wagner,Mathis Christoph |
| Abstract: | Civil war in Syria has resulted in more than four million refugees fleeing the country, of which 1.8 million have found refuge in Turkey, making it the largest refugee-hosting country worldwide. This paper combines newly available data on the 2014 distribution of Syrian refugees across subregions of Turkey with the Turkish Labour Force Survey, to assess the impact on Turkish labor market conditions. Using a novel instrument, the analysis finds that the refugees, who overwhelmingly do not have work permits, result in the large-scale displacement of informal, low-educated, female Turkish workers, especially in agriculture. While there is net displacement, the inflow of refugees also creates higher-wage formal jobs, allowing for occupational upgrading of Turkish workers. Average Turkish wages have increased primarily as the composition of the employed has changed because of the inflow of refugees. |
| Keywords: | Labor Markets,Education For All,Population Policies,Street Children,Labor Policies |
| Date: | 2015–08–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7402&r=all |
| By: | Seymen, Ahmet Ferda |
| Abstract: | Qualitative research is concerned with qualitative phenomenon, i.e., phenomena relating to or involving quality or kind. For instance, when we are interested in investigating the reasons for human behavior (i.e., why people think or do certain things), we quite often talk of ‘Motivation Research’, an important type of qualitative research. This type of research aims at discovering the underlying motives and desires, using in depth interviews for the purpose. Other techniques of such research are word association tests, sentence completion tests, story completion tests and similar other projective techniques. Attitude or opinion research i.e., research designed to find out how people feel or what they think about a particular subject or institution is also qualitative research. Qualitative research is especially important in the behavioral sciences where the aim is to discover the underlying motives of human behavior. Through such research we can analyze the various factors which motivate people to behave in a particular manner or which make people like or dislike a particular thing. In this study; main issues identified by employees were: That the functions of the human resources department was none existent within the company. Recruitment, Reward and Reprimand, Career Development, Performance Evaluation System, Lack of proper orientation, on the job trainings and self-improvement courses needed to be developed and implemented in order to raise the declined motivation of employees and the deteriorating relations between the two sides. |
| Keywords: | Employee Opinion, Business Hotel, Hotel Employee |
| JEL: | J01 J08 |
| Date: | 2015–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:65909&r=all |
| By: | Kostas Ifantis; Dimitrios Triantaphyllou; Andreas Kotelis |
| Abstract: | This study is based on the findings of a National Bank of Greece research funding awarded to Kostas Ifantis and Dimitris Triantaphyllou by the Hellenic Observatory of the London School of Economics and Political Science (Research Tender 3-NBG3-2013). The full report including the survey questions and their evaluation can be found on the Hellenic Observatory’s website at this link: http://www.lse.ac.uk/europeanInstitute/r esearch/hellenicObservatory/pdf/Ifantis- Triantafylloy-(PROJECT-REPORT).pdf. |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hel:greese:94&r=all |
| By: | James Alm (Department of Economics, Tulane University) |
| Abstract: | Tunisia's tax system has undergone significant structural reforms over the last several decades. Even so, its structure exhibits some major flaws, shortcomings that spill over to and affect the performance of the overall Tunisian economy. Further, the tax system continues to underperform in some fundamental ways, ways that also affect the rest of the economy. Finally, the structure of the Tunisian tax system has some notable shortcomings. This paper discusses these issues. It presents details of the main taxes, it analyzes several main features of this tax system, and it suggests various specific tax reforms that can be introduced both in the short term and in the longer term. |
| Keywords: | Tunisia, tax reform |
| JEL: | H20 H24 H25 H87 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tul:wpaper:1515&r=all |
| By: | Mamipour, Siab; Vaezi Jezeie, Fereshteh |
| Abstract: | Iran Stock Exchange is the most important component of Iran capital market and more attention has been paid to it in recent years. Many factors affect the Iran stock exchange. In this paper, the effects of oil price and gold price on stock market index are investigated and a three regime Markov Switching Vector Error Correction model is used to examine the nonlinear properties model during the period January 2003 to December 2014. The results of the study shows that the relationships between variables can be analyzed in three different status, so that the three regimes, respectively, represents the “great depression”, “mild depression” and “expansion” period. The results of the model show that the impact of oil price on stock returns is negative and significant in all three regimes; this means that with rising oil price, stock market returns are reduced. But the relationship between gold price and stock market returns varies during the period, according to market conditions. It means that positive shock inflicted on the price of gold in the short-run (10 months) leads to reduce the stock returns and in the medium-term and long-run, it leads to increase the stock returns. |
| Keywords: | Stock Market Price, Oil Price, Gold Price, Markov Switching-Vector Error Correction Model (MS-VECM) |
| JEL: | C32 E32 E37 G17 |
| Date: | 2015–06–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:66202&r=all |
| By: | Cécile Perret (IREGE - Institut de Recherche en Gestion et en Economie - Université de Savoie) |
| Abstract: | Using a decomposition of social capital nature, this research performs an original analysis of the interactions between the social, the environmental, the governance and the economic sphere and their impact on a viable development in Kabylia (Algeria). In this region, the "art of association” is the expression of territoriality. When the governance is weak and/or when there is distrust in institutions, populations, according to their culture and to their territory, get organized to find solutions to the missing public goods. In Kabylia, the survival of an ancestral social organization (tajmaat) which has anchored in tradition and rooted values sometimes allows the local populations to overcome their difficulties. This paper demonstrates that the respect for deeply rooted regional identity as a cultural heritage, is necessary to perpetuate viable territorial development. |
| Date: | 2014–12–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01094761&r=all |
| By: | Céline Antonin (OFCE - OFCE - Sciences Po) |
| Abstract: | Le deuxième semestre 2013 est marqué par la stabilité des prix autour de 110 dollars le baril de Brent. Ce maintien à des niveaux élevés s'explique par la faiblesse de l'offre par rapport à la demande, sous l'effet de ruptures d'approvisionnement (Libye, Nigéria) et d'un climat politique tendu au Proche-Orient, dans un marché surtout déterminé par les fondamentaux. Dans notre scénario central, nous faisons l'hypothèse d'une reprise progressive de la production en Libye dès 2014, de la levée des sanctions en Iran à partir de fin 2014/début 2015, et excluons une baisse de l'offre de la Russie malgré le bras de fer autour de l'Ukraine. Les prix du Brent baisseraient au cours de l'année 2014 avec la baisse des tensions sur l'offre pour atteindre 100 dollars en fin d'année. En 2015, les prix se maintiendraient autour de 100 dollars le baril, car le retour d'une croissance plus dynamique dans les pays développés devrait être compensé par une hausse de la production des pays non-membres de l'OPEP et par la présence de stocks abondants. La persistance de tensions politiques en Afrique et au Proche-Orient, la volonté de l'Arabie Saoudite de maintenir les cours entre 100 et 110 dollars, la demande toujours dynamique en provenance des pays non OCDE et le coût d'extraction des nouveaux gisements non conventionnels devraient néanmoins entraîner la résistance des cours en les maintenant au-dessus des 100 dollars. |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00994098&r=all |