FACTORS INFLUENCING ON PARTICIPATION TO AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES IN ARMENIA

Lilit GYULGYULYAN

Assistant Professor, Chair of Management, Armenian State University of Economics, Yerevan, Armenia

lilit.gyulgyulyan@gmail.com

(corresponding author)

Ihtiyor BOBOJONOV

Dr., Research Associate, Department of Agricultural Markets, Marketing and World Agricultural Trade, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), Halle (Saale), Germany

bobojonov@iamo.de

Abstract

The creation of agricultural cooperatives has become one of the major priorities in the sector of agriculture in Armenia. Being a post-Soviet country, Armenia greatly depends on agriculture. According to the data of National Statistical Service of Armenia 20.5 percent of Armenian GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is generated from the agricultural sector of the economy, and hence it is one of the priorities of development of Armenian economy (Armstat, 2016). Nowadays people leaving in rural municipalities of Armenia do not have necessary funding to acquire consumer services, such as housing, education, social benefits, telecommunication, credit, and other financial services (Movsisyan, 2013). In this context, agricultural cooperatives, as a major component of the food and agriculture industry, can help them to market their products and enable them to supply at competitive price levels. The continuous creation of agricultural cooperatives in rural communities is distinguished among priorities of the government. So, one of the main goals of government in this sector must be the enhancing of participation of households to agricultural cooperatives. This paper examines the main factors that influence participation of households to cooperatives. It finds out that there is a need to enhance people’s awareness about the benefits of agricultural cooperatives. The paper also examines the impact of agricultural cooperatives on household’s income and welfare.

Keywords: agricultural cooperative, cooperative movement, voluntary association, cooperative participation, cooperative identity

JEL classification: M10, O20, Q13, P32
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LONG RUN RELATIONSHIPS AND SHORT RUN DYNAMICS AMONG UNEMPLOYMENT AND DEMAND COMPONENTS: A STUDY ON SRI LANKA, INDIA AND BANGLADESH

Ramesh CHANDRA DAS

Associate Professor of Economics, Katwa College, WB, India

ramesh051073@gmail.com

Kamal RAY

(Retd), Associate Professor of Economics, Katwa College, WB, India

kamal420ray@yahoo.co.in

Abstract

Unemployment of an economy should have some associations with its aggregate demand components. With time series data for 1996-2015 on three aggregate demand components, namely, consumption expenditure (CON), capital formation (GCF) and public spending (GOV), we did econometric exercises such as cointegration, VECM and Wald test to test whether there are long run equilibrium relationships among unemployment (UN) and the three demand components and directions of their interplays in long run and short run frameworks. Doing appropriate diagnostic checking for the residuals of all the estimations, the results show that all the four series are cointegrated that justifies long run associationships among them. Further, the long run causality analysis through VECM reveals that UN, CON and GCF make a cause to GOV for Sri Lanka.  For India, UN is caused by all three components of aggregate demand and its CON is caused by UN, GCF and GOV. Bangladesh does not produce any such long run causal relationships among the variables. Further for short run causality results, CON is caused by UN, GCF and GOV in Sri Lanka and India, and for Bangladesh and India, there are short run causalities running from CON, GCF and GOV to unemployment. This means, aggregate demand components in India and Bangladesh influence the unemployment rates of these two countries

Keywords: Unemployment, aggregate consumption, government expenses, gross capital formation, cointegration, VECM, Wald test

JEL classification: J64, E21, E22, E24, H5, C32
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GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURES COMPOSITION AND GROWTH IN EU15: A DYNAMIC HETEROGENEOUS APPROACH

Lena MALEŠEVIĆ PEROVIĆ

Associate professor University of Split, Faculty of Economics, Business and Tourism, CERGE EI Teaching Fellow Cvite Fiskovića 5, 21000 Split, Croatia, Tel: + 385 21 430 683, Fax: + 385 21 430 701

lena@efst.hr

Silvia GOLEM

Associate professor University of Split, Faculty of Economics, Business and Tourism, Cvite Fiskovića 5, 21000 Split, Croatia, Tel: + 385 21 430 673, Fax: + 385 21 430 701

sgolem@efst.hr

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to investigate the long-run effect of government size and composition on growth in EU15 countries during 1995-2014. Unlike previous studies, this paper employs a more adequate and sophisticated econometric technique which allows the joint occurrence of dynamics and parameter heterogeneity as well as addresses the problem of unobserved common factors. The obtained results indicate that high aggregate spending levels are an impediment for growth in developed economies, while the single most important government expenditure item is education. In quantitative terms the impact of education expenditures is, however, significantly lower than that found by other papers.

Keywords: government size, expenditures composition, GDP growth, heterogeneity, unobserved common effects, EU15

JEL classification: C23, H1, H50, O4
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