American Journal of Trade and Policy

94-101

Authors: Henok Arega Asfaw

Despite a number of multi-country case studies utilizing comparable analytical frameworks, numerous econometric studies using large cross-country data sets, and important theoretical advances in growth theory, there is still disagreement among economists concerning how a country's international economic policies and its rate of economic growth interact. The central objective of this paper is to empirically assess the link between trade policy and economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa countries. Apart from reviewing different literatures, this study also provides empirical evidence on the relationship between economic growth and trade policies. In doing so, the study used a panel data covering 47 Sub-Saharan Africa countries over the periods 2000 – 2008. The estimation support claims that openness to international trade stimulates both economic growth and investment. Besides, trade policies such as average weighted tariff rate and real effective exchange rate have both direct and indirect impacts on economic growth. Keywords Tariffs, Real effective exchange rate, Growth, Cross country analysis

109-116

Authors: Md. Nur-E-Alam Siddique

CSR is the managerial compulsion to defend and enhance both the welfare of society as a whole and the interests of the company. So, this study is an examination of the competitive advantages of CSR practice. This study is based on two theories; stakeholder’s theory, which states that companies have essential groups that need to care of and the iron law of CSR, which states that companies that become failure to utilize their power responsibly will lose it in the long run. Reviewing prior studies it was found that a number of benefits proliferate to companies that practise CSR; numerous advantages were recognized. Among these others consist of: improved brand and reputation, decline in operation costs, attracting new customers, balances power with responsibility, discourages government regulation, improves a company’s image, promote profits, superior relations with the investment groups and easier access to capital, improved employee relations, efficiency and innovation and stronger relations with society through stakeholder involvement. This paper concludes that there is a greater chance to be benefitted initiating CSR actions. Thus, it suggests that companies should try to provide due attention to CSR and this practice needs to consider as a continuous process. Keywords CSR, Competitive Advantages, Brand Image, Social Welfare

125-134

Authors: Kidanemariam Gidey Gebrehiwot

The main objective of the study was to investigate the long run and short run impact of human capital on economic growth in Ethiopia (using real GDP per capita, as a proxy for economic growth) over the period 1974/75-2010/2011. The ARDL Approach to Co-integration and Error Correction Model are applied in order to investigate the long-run and short run impact of Human capital on Economic growth. The finding of the Bounds test shows that there is a stable long run relationship between real GDP per capita, education human capital, health human capital, labor force, gross capital formation, government expenditure and official development assistance. The estimated long run model revels that human capital in the form of health (proxied by the ratio of public expenditure on health to real GDP) is the main contributor to real GDP per capita rise followed by education human capital (proxied by secondary school enrolment). Such findings are consistent with the endogenous growth theories which argue that an improvement in human capital (skilled and healthy workers) improves productivity. In the short run, the coefficient of error correction term is -0.7366 suggesting about 73.66 percent annual adjustment towards long run equilibrium. This is another proof for the existence of a stable long run relationship among the variables. The estimated coefficients of the short-run model indicate that education is the main contributor to real GDP per capita change followed by gross capital formation (one period lagged value) and government expenditure (one period lagged value). But, unlike its long run significant impact, health has no significant short run impact on the economy. Even its one period lag has a significant negative impact on the economy. The above results have an important policy implication. The findings of this paper imply that economic performance can be improved significantly when the ratio of public expenditure on health services to GDP increases and when secondary school enrolment improves. Such improvements have a large impact on human productivity which leads to improved national output per capita. Hence policy makers and / or the government should strive to create institutional capacity that increase school enrolment and improved basic health service by strengthening the infrastructure of educational and health institutions that produce quality manpower. In addition to its effort, the government should continue its leadership role in creating enabling environment that encourage better investment in human capital (education and health) by the private sector. Keywords Ethiopia, Economic Growth, Human capital, Education, Health, ARDL method of Co-integration, ECM model

56-61

Authors: Abdul Ghafoor Awan

Introduction: Poverty and income inequality were two main problems of Brazil. In order to solve these problems Brazil has taken different policy initiatives. The economists call it an innovative anti-poverty and inequality model. Objectives: The objectives of this paper are to study different aspects of Brazilian innovative anti-poverty and inequality model and its impact on Brazilian society. Another objective to study is whether this model is specification in its applicability or it may be applied on other medium-income economies because income inequality and poverty are the common problems of almost all developing countries. Methodology of study: This is a qualitative research study in which we have studied different characteristics in general terms and policies introduced by Brazilian government during 2000-2010 periods. We have used secondary data extracted from the database of IMF, World Bank, US Federal Reserves, US Bureau of Economic Analysis and relevant journals. Results & conclusions: Our study finds hat poverty in Brazil has reduced from 17 percent in 2000 to 8 percent in 2010. The evidence also shows that the wealth of the richest 20 percent of upper class was decreased during 2000-2010 due to high tax rates payment and the income of lowest 20 percent quintile was increased from 2.6 percent to 3.5 percent in the same period. It shows that the income of lower class was increased while the wealth and income of upper class was decreased during 2000-2010. The study also reveals that about half of poor segment of Brazilian population has come out of poverty trap in a short span of just 10 years.

71-73

Authors: Cheng Luo

With the rapid development of our social economy, the speeding up of urbanization and the rapid increase of people's living standard, the production and living garbage also increases rapidly and have more obvious bad influence on people's health. Such problems as environmental pollution gradually led to the attention of the society from all walks of life. The work of living garbage prevention and control has made great progress. But the level of Living garbage classification and recovery and the processing capacity are relatively lag. So the applicability of the life garbage disposal technology to solve the living garbage is a very important problem.

79-84

Authors: Taposh Kumar Neogy

In the evaluation of the operating results of the selected mobile telecommunication companies, it is evident that the Company # 1 could earn good profit during the study period but the performance of Company # 2 is not satisfactory because it has been continuously facing loss for the last several years with the exception of 2011. The operating performance of Company # 1 is better than that of Company # 2 during the period under study. In addition, some hypotheses have developed regarding the operating results and all hypotheses are rejected which indicate that there is significant difference in operating results of the selected mobile telecommunication companies during the period under study.

7-15

Authors: Abdul Ghafoor Awan, Rana Ejaz Ali Khan

Introduction:The economy of the United States is the number one economy of the world on the basis of its GDP size.Many economies of the world depend upon the working upon it. However, US economy has been facing the phenomena of labour productivity slowdown since 1973. The productivity grow was witnessed during 1990s decade due to revolution of information technology but it was proved transitory. To investigate this phenomena the economists have been actively working and using different theoretical and empirical approaches. But it is still an enigma and its real cause has so far not been detected. Objective of the study: The objective of this research study is to investigate why US economy has been facing productivity growth slowdown since long, what are its causes and what is its possible solution? Methodology:The author has used qualitative research approach in which real economy sector and technology economy sector have been studied on the basis of secondary data collected from OECD, IMF, World Bank,etc. The individual share of these sectors in the US GDP has been determined to analyze their effects on productivity growth. The author has also compared goods and services sectors and their contribution into the US GDP. Findings:The results of study shows that no breakthrough or major innovation has been occurred in major sector of US economy. Information technology is a small sector and growth in this sector during 1990s has not brought any significant impact on US economy. The evidence shows that quality of patents is falling despite increasing number of researchers during the period of 1990-2010 and it reflects diminishing return on R&D investment in technology sector. The ratio of input/output is 40/100 which is totally against the concept of constant return to scale.

23-31

Authors: Love M. Chile, Dayal Talukder

This paper examines some of the contradictions and theoretical ambiguities of agricultural trade liberalizationon the welfare of smallholder farmers. Using production, consumption and price data for pre-and post-liberalization periods for two main agricultural crops from Bangladesh (rice) and Tanzania (maize) we critically analyse the correlation between domestic and international prices of rice in Bangladesh and maize in Tanzania to estimate impact of agricultural trade liberalization on price stability/volatility and food security to measure economic benefits of trade liberalization on smallholder farmers. Using coefficient of variation of the level of prices (CV) and corrected coefficient of variation (CCV) as measured by Huchet-Bourdon (2011) we found that the values of both CV and CCV for consumer price in the post-liberalisation were quite large suggesting greater volatility of consumer price of rice in Bangladesh and maize in Tanzania in the post‑liberalization period. We conclude that price volatility diminishes the potential benefits of agricultural trade liberalization forsmallholder farmers who are net-deficit producers, net-deficit sellers and recommend supplementary policy interventions to achieve enhanced welfare from trade liberalization.

42-50

Authors: Md. Abu Bokar Siddique, Taposh Kumar Neogy, Md. Rabiul Islam

The study is an attempt to examine empirically the perceptions of a sample of users of reported information regarding the use of annual reports for decision making, adequacy, reliability, consistency, comparability, relevance, satisfaction and compliance of BASs (IASs) in preparing annual report. Results of the study demonstrated that there is a lack of disclosure in the annual reports of insurance companies. The study also found insignificant variations in opinions towards adequacy, consistency, relevance, satisfaction and compliance of provisions of Bangladesh Accounting Standards in disclosure policy of the companies while there are significant variations in responses regarding reliability and comparability of accounting information disclosed in the annual reports. Insurance companies should develop their reporting policy to satisfy their users through compliance the disclosure requirements of international standards.