<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Even more than eight decades since the publication of Keynes’ “General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money” modern macroeconomists disagree on the notion of “underemployment equilibrium” with so-called “involuntary unemployment”. While the majority of macro theorists trace involuntary unemployment back to frictions and rigidities in the adaptation of wages and output prices to market imbalances, a minority position holds that even under perfectly flexible output prices and wage rates involuntary unemployment might occur. Morishima in “Walras’ Economics” and more recently Magnani presume that contrary to the majority view aggregate investment is not perfectly flexible but governed by “animal spirits” of investors. The aim of the present paper is to integrate the Morishima-Magnani approach into a Diamond-type overlapping generations’ (OLG) model with internal public debt subsequently extended by human capital accumulation. It turns out that in spite of perfectly flexible real wage and interest rate involuntary unemployment occurs in intertemporal general equilibrium when aggregate investor sentiments are too pessimistic regarding the rentability of investment in real capital. In the model extended by human capital a higher public debt to output ratio decreases unambiguously involuntary unemployment, if initially the endogenous output growth rate is higher than the real interest rate.</abstract>

Involuntary Unemployment in a Neoclassical Growth Model with Public Debt and Human Capital

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">We empirically investigates the factors that affect Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows in five BRICS countries for the period 1990–2015. We address the selection bias and unobserved heterogeneity by estimating a panel Heckman selection method and attempts to account for both selection and endogeneity within the new two-stage method. After addressing the above mentioned econometric issues, the infrastructure and GDP per capita variables under the new two-stage method remain positive and significantly similar to the coefficient of infrastructure and GDP per capita under the panel Heckman selection model. In addition, the inverse Mills ratio maintain its level of statistical significance, confirming the presence of both sample selection bias and endogeneity.</abstract>

Determinants of FDI in BRICS Countries: Panel Data Approach

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Shoes are probably one of the most difficult products to sell online due to the high need-for-touch (NFT) displayed: people need to experiment the product before buying it, more than in any other item. On another hand, women are more prone than men to buy fashion and apparel products through the web channel. This paper investigates the factors driving women consumers to shop footwear products online. A qualitative research method was used grounded on semi-structured, in-depth interviews that were conducted to corroborate the constructs defined in the proposed conceptual model namely: convenience, recreation, NFT and social e-shopping. The interviews were focused on the demand side to understand the female consumers’ perspective and on the top managers of women’s shoes companies representing the suppliers’ viewpoint. The results show that women highly appreciate the convenience that shopping shoes online provides as well as its recreational nature. The NFT also stands out in the shoe market context mainly due to the particularities related to shoe size. Additionally, social e-shopping was found not be as important for women as anticipated as they see social networks more as a communication platform for brands, and less as a factor that influences their predisposition to shop shoes online. On the suppliers’ side, the interviews revealed that managers believe in bloggers and social media influence and its consideration as part of the overall marketing strategy.</abstract>

Insights on Consumer Online Purchase Decisions of Women’s Footwear

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The study builds on previous studies of the consequences of non-performing loans on an economy. Using a seven-by-seven matrix in the impulse response function (IRF) of the structural autoregressive model, we find a long-run impact of an impulse to non-performing loans on the banking system and the macroeconomy in Nigeria. Conversely, non-performing loans also respond to the innovation of all macro-banking variables aside from the exchange rate and the growth rate to GDP. Also, the level of non-performing loans grows in influence in relation to the changes to the exchange rate using the variance decomposition tool of Structural VAR. Hence, a prominent role is assigned to the level of NPLs in linking the friction in the credit market to the susceptibility of both the banking system and the macroeconomy. This study passes the serial correlation tests and the three tests of normality.</abstract>

Non-Performing Loans, Banking System and Macroeconomy

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">This paper provides new evidence to contribute to the current debate on the relative impact of public and private investment on economic growth and the crowding effect between the two components of investment in South Africa. Using annual data from 1970 to 2017, the study applies the recently developed Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL)-bounds testing approach to cointegration. The study finds that private investment has a positive impact on economic growth both in the long run and short run, while public investment has a negative effect on economic growth in the long run. Further, in the long run, gross public investment is found to crowd out private investment, while its infrastructural component is found to crowd in private investment. The results of the study also reveal that both gross public investment and non-infrastructural public investment crowd out private investment in the short run. Overall, the study finds private investment to be more important than public investment in the South African economic growth process and that the importance of infrastructural public investment in stimulating private investment in the long run cannot be over-emphasized.</abstract>

Public and Private Investment and Economic Growth: An Empirical Investigation

AHEAD OF PRINT

Volume 68 (2023): Issue 3 (December 2023)

Volume 68 (2023): Issue 2 (August 2023)

Volume 68 (2023): Issue 1 (April 2023)

Volume 67 (2022): Issue 3 (December 2022)

Volume 67 (2022): Issue 2 (August 2022)

Volume 67 (2022): Issue 1 (April 2022)

Volume 66 (2021): Issue 3 (December 2021)

Volume 66 (2021): Issue 2 (August 2021)

Volume 66 (2021): Issue 1 (April 2021)

Volume 65 (2020): Issue 3 (December 2020)

Volume 65 (2020): Issue 2 (August 2020)

Volume 65 (2020): Issue 1 (April 2020)

Volume 64 (2019): Issue 3 (December 2019)

Volume 64 (2019): Issue 2 (August 2019)

Volume 64 (2019): Issue 1 (April 2019)

Volume 63 (2018): Issue 3 (December 2018)

Volume 63 (2018): Issue 2 (August 2018)

Volume 63 (2018): Issue 1 (April 2018)

Volume 62 (2017): Issue 3 (December 2017)

Volume 62 (2017): Issue 2 (August 2017)

Volume 62 (2017): Issue 1 (April 2017)

Volume 61 (2016): Issue 3 (December 2016)

Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai Oeconomica

 The journal is an official publication of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Babeș-Bolyai University, from Cluj Napoca. It is focused on scientific research of general interest in a broad range of disciplines, including:   macro- and microeconomics  economic policy  international and public economics  urban, rural and regional economics  finance and banking  accounting and audit  marketing  management and business  statistics, econometrics, and other quantitative methods  mathematics, game and decision theories  The journal is edited by an international board of editors, which ensures access to an international pool of referees and guarantees a high standard of contributions. The journal maintains a balance between theoretical and empirical work.  Rejection Rate   40%   Archiving  Sciendo archives the contents of this journal in Portico - digital long-term preservation service of scholarly books, journals and collections.  Plagiarism Policy  The editorial board is participating in a growing community of Similarity Check System's users in order to ensure that the content published is original and trustworthy. Similarity Check is a medium that allows for comprehensive manuscripts screening, aimed to eliminate plagiarism and provide a high standard and quality peer-review process. 