FINANCIAL GLOBALIZATION AND GROWTH REVISITED – INTERNATIONAL AND REGIONAL EVIDENCE

Vladimir ŠIMIĆ

Faculty of Economics, Business and Tourism Split, University of Split; Croatia, Associate professor, and CERGE-EI Teaching Fellow

vsimic@efst.hr

Abstract

The effects of financial globalization on economic growth have been put in focus by a more recent branch of globalization literature. In academic circles and international policy arena a strong push towards capital openness and free movement of capital across borders had been seen during the 1990s. While the early arguments suggested positive effects of financial globalization on economic growth, more recently, both theoretical and empirical studies have started seriously questioning this benign view of financial globalization calling for additional evidence. This paper revisits the link between financial globalization and growth using the KOF index of globalization in a sample of 134 world economies in the period 1970-2015. With a large number of countries and application of the panel data estimations techniques this paper provides strong evidence on the link between financial globalization and economic growth. In the broad sample of world economies financial globalization exerts a negative and statistically significant effects on economic growth. The paper also investigates this relationship in the regions of East Asia and Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe and Central Asia and the negative effects are also predominant in the regional grouping of countries.

Keywords: Financial globalization, Growth, International evidence

JEL classification: F4, F6, O4

pp. 43-55

read more

ENERGY CROPS: ASSESSMENTS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION AGRICULTURAL REGIONS THROUGH MACHINE LEARNING APPROACHES

Vítor João Pereira Domingues MARTINHO

Coordinator Professor with Habilitation, Agricultural School (ESAV) and CERNAS-IPV Research Centre, Polytechnic Institute of Viseu (IPV), Portugal

vdmartinho@esav.ipv.pt

Abstract

There is an enormous potential to produce bioenergy from agriculture, forestry and other land use in the European Union (EU) farms. The agricultural sector in the EU member-states has conditions to increase the contributions of renewable energies through better use of the residues and the production of energy crops. Nonetheless, the profitability of these alternative agricultural outputs, in some circumstances, and the need for land for food production, for example, have been obstacles to effective positioning of the EU farms as sources of bioenergy. From this perspective, this study intends to assess the current context of the energy crops in the farms of the EU agricultural regions and identify a model that supports the prediction of these frameworks. For that, data from the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) were considered for the year 2020. This statistical information was analysed through machine learning approaches, namely those associated with multilayer perceptron (MLP) algorithms from the artificial neural networks (ANN) methodologies. The results from these data show that energy crops do have not relevant importance in the European Union farms. On the other hand, when these crops appear, they are produced by larger farms, with greater competitiveness and which receive more subsidies.

Keywords: Agriculture 4.0, Artificial Neural Networks, Multilayer Perceptron

JEL classification: C45, Q12, Q42

pp. 29-42

read more

WELL-BEING AND QUALITY OF LIFE: DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES IN RURAL AND PERI-URBAN AREAS IN THE NORTH OF PORTUGAL

Teresa SEQUEIRA

Assistant Professor, University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD) & CETRAD

tsequeir@utad.pt

Herminia GONÇALVES

Assistant Professor, University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD) & CETRAD

hgoncalves@utad.pt

Bruno SANTOS FRANCISCO

Federal University of São Carlos and Ruralidade Verde, Lda

brunofrancisco@estudante.ufscar.br

António PIRRA

Assistant Professor, University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD)

apirra@utad.pt

Veronika JOUKES

Assistant Professor, University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD) & CETRAD

veronika@utad.pt

Abstract

Quality of life is a multidimensional concept that has been gaining prominence in works intending to study the level of development of a territory, mainly based on secondary data treated statistically. Other approaches have emerged based on primary data, which is the case of this work.

This study captures the perception of residents in Vila Marim, a small parish in Portugal, about their quality of life by a survey technique based on the WHOQOL-BREF instrument.

The results obtained point to different weightings in the several domains of quality of life. In particular, we would like to point out that peri-urban areas have better indexes in the domains of general quality of life, social relations and the physical domain, while rural areas have better ones in the psychological and environment domains.

Additionally, it was added one open question to the original survey, which made possible to understand that issues related to income and physical security are common to all age groups. Health concerns increase with age as well as governance and basic rights are issues with improved importance. 

These results show different sensitivities about how quality of life is experienced and, therefore, the importance of the methodology and territorial scale used.

This work was done in partnership with local government agents, and its results may serve as a basis for a more direct and immediate action, providing greater effectiveness and efficiency of policies to support the quality of life of residents in Vila Marim, Portugal and in other rural and peri-urban areas.

Keywords: Quality of Life, Low density territories, WHOQOL-BREF methodology, Regional sustainable development, Cohesion policies

JEL classification: I31, O18, R10

 pp. 13-28

read more