European Journal of Economic Studies

85-95

Authors: Murat Cetin

The Armey curve suggests that there is an inverted U relationship between government size and economic growth. In order to investigate this relationship for 12 developing countries from 1990 to 2012, this study uses panel data methodology including panel unit root, cointegration and causality tests. The results show that i) the series are integrated at order of I(1), ii) there exists a long run equilibrium relationship between the variables, iii) economic growth is positively correlated with the government consumption expenditure, iv) economic growth is negatively correlated with the squares of government consumption expenditure, v) there exists a causality running from the explanotary variables to economic growth in the long run and short run. The study provides an evidence that there exists an inverted U relationship between government consumption expenditure and economic growth implying the validity of Armey curve in these countries. The study may also provide some policy implications.

104-114

Authors: Meliha Duljevic, Mersid Poturak

Client satisfaction represents a crucial factor in the development and management of the construction process, as well in the creation of professional company-client relationships. Moreover, it is one of the major determinants of project success and therefore is a fundamental issue for construction managers who must constantly seek to improve their performance in order to survive in the marketplace. Providing superior quality and keeping customers satisfied are rapidly becoming the ways that companies use to differentiate themselves from competitors. The main objective of this study is to establish a comprehensive list of factors used for measuring client satisfaction and to study their influence on client satisfaction in the construction industry. The purpose of this study is to identify main client satisfaction factors and to advance both theoretical and practical understanding of their satisfaction in construction industry. A survey conducted in this study was focused on clients of different companies from construction industry in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H). The perceptions of clients with respect to the performance of contractors were measured using five factors including timeliness, cost, quality, client orientation and safety. Through the analysis of data generated by the survey, it is concluded that all the factors identified in the client-satisfaction model do not possess the same significance when it comes to satisfying clients. The approach of this research is useful to construction firms, not only in B&H, but also in other places, for identifying and improving their weak areas and improving the service quality for their clients.

124-143

Authors: John Rigas, George Theodosiou, George Rigas, Apostolos Goulas

This study investigate the relationship between the real money market rate (RMMR) and its economic determinants (Consumer price index (CPI), industrial production index (IPI), household consumption expenditure (HCE) and exchange rate (EXRAT) by using a multivariate VAR model, and examine the existence of a causal relationships between the model variables based on a vector error correction model (VECM) in the four developed countries. The results suggest the existence of a long-run relationship between the real money market rate (RMMR) and its determinants for the four developed countries, in which none of the four determinants have a significant effect on RMMR. The results of causality analysis showed that there exists a bidirectional causality: 1. between change of RMMR and rate of change of CPI for four countries, 2. between rate of change of CPI and rate of change of IPI for one country, 3. between rate of change of IPI and change of EXRAT for one country, and 4. between rate of change of CPI and change of the ratio real HCE/real GDP (gross domestic product) for two countries. Moreover, there is unidirectional causality from the changes of RMMR determinants to the change of RMMR for many countries.