Authors:Gerald Nsorlemna Aperegdina Abstract: Despite the prominence of trade liberalization or openness as an economic topic over last decades, the debate among economists and experts on the relationship between trade openness and economic growth is still open. This study purposed to examine, as the main objective, the impact of trade openness on economic growth in Ghana from 1990 to 2019. The study sought to investigate the relationship between trade openness and economic growth in Ghana. The study incorporated trade openness, investment, inflation, industrial value and labour force as the additional variables. In view of this, the Granger causality test was applied to ascertain the flow of information between time series which helped to make authentic forecasts of the data and model. To test for stationarity of the data, the augments Dickey-Fuller (ADF) (Dickey and Fuller, 1981) was applied. The findings of the evaluation suggest that trade openness has a negative impact on the Ghanaian economy and the degree of influence on Economic Growth is at a 1% level of significance and not statistically strong. This result is consistent with other studies including (Pickson et al, 2018; Kwegyir-Aggrey, 2019). Also, the study was aimed towards advocating some substantial policies for Ghana’s policymakers to help develop trade and economic growth. PubDate: Mon, 18 Apr 2022 03:10:06 -070
Authors:Yasuhito Tanaka Abstract: It is said that public finance must be balanced at least in the long run. According to the so-called MMT (Modern Money Theory or Modern Monetary Theory) approach, however, this is not true. It is often pointed out that MMT lacks the mathematical analysis used in ordinary economic discussions. The purpose of this paper is to present a brief theoretical and mathematical basis to the backbone of the MMT argument, while maintaining the basics of the neoclassical microeconomic framework, such as maximizing consumer utility through utility functions and budget constraints, and equilibrium between demand and supply of goods under perfect competition with constant returns to scale technology. Using a simple overlapping generations (OLG) model that includes economic growth due to technological progress, we present the following results. The budget deficit equals the increase in people's savings, and the accumulated budget deficit equals people's savings. The budget deficit is a cause and the savings is a consequence, not the other way around. Deficits are created by the government, which determines income, which determines savings. Deficits create savings, not savings finance deficits. Reducing the budget deficit will reduce savings, income, and consumption. PubDate: Fri, 15 Apr 2022 00:00:00 -070
Authors:Mihail Diakomihalis Abstract: GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is an index that has been used by all free economy countries for almost a century. However, it has been criticized by many researchers and politicians for its misleading messages about the real wealth of people, its inability to evaluate the effect of environmentally harmful activities, the well-being of societies, the exclusion of non-market activities which exist in all economies, and the non-transactional services provided by the natural environment. This study aims to analyze and evaluate GDP and ten more alternative indicators as to their Simplicity, Comprehensibility, Completeness and Reliability, using a questionnaire addressed to experts, i.e., university professors. SWB (Subjective Well-Being) has been assessed as the preferred index for an overall evaluation, while the FSI (Failed States Index) ranks in the last position. GDP received its highest ranking as second in Reliability, with Gross National Income (GNI) ranking first. SWB refers to and evokes the direct democracy of 5th century Athens with its Simplicity, Comprehensibility, and Completeness, but not for its Reliability, due to the difficulty of its measurement. A combination of SWB with GNI might produce a reliable GDP alternative. PubDate: Thu, 17 Mar 2022 00:00:00 -070
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