Export Trade Incentive Schemes Nexus Export Performance in Ethiopia

Aims: Export trade is often considered as an engine of economic growth, and this led to attempts by governments in many countries towards promoting the export sector. The Ethiopian government has been taking measures to promote the export sector by introducing comprehensive financial and fiscal incentive schemes since 2002. Hence, this paper attempts to examine the type and trend of export incentive schemes and their effect on export growth in Ethiopia. Study Design: This is an explanatory study trying to shed light on whether and to what extent financial and fiscal incentives provided by the government have led to export growth in the country using time series data on financial incentives, fiscal incentives, export volume, export value, export diversification, GDP growth rate, and real effective exchange rate covering the period 2003 to 2011. Methodology: The data were collected from Ethiopian Revenue and Customs Authority (ERCA), Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MoFED), National Development Research Institute (NDRI) and National bank of Ethiopia (NBE). Three stage analysis has been conducted including graphical analysis of trends of export incentive schemes and export growth, examination of correlation among variables in the data set, and finally, a time series econometric analysis. Results: The study revealed that there are improvements in the export sector in terms of Original Research Article British Journal of Economics, Management & Trade, 4(1): 111-128, 2014 112 export value, destination and diversification despite that the share of manufactured exports is still marginal. The study also revealed that while the incentives are positively correlated with export value and export volume, they are negatively correlated with export concentration. In addition, the time series econometric analysis reveals that financial and fiscal incentives have a statistically significant impact on export growth both in the short run and long run. Conclusion: Incentives to the export sector have robustly improved export value and volume. However, it has been noted that manufactured export is still insignificant which implies that the incentives have played only a partial role in boosting export earnings of the country.

The purpose of this study is to examine the nexus between export incentive and Ethiopian export performance from the year 1983 to 2017. The study is conducted by quantitative research method by using time series econometrics analysis. The study employs an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bound test model to co-integration in order to investigate the long run relationship and Error Correction Model (ECM) for the short-run relationship between export and export incentive, real GDP, real exchange rate, gross capital formation, external debt stock and inflation rate. The long-run empirical result using the bound test reveals that there is a stable long-run relationship between real export and explanatory variables. The study finds out that during study period the Ethiopian export composition mainly focused on primary product and Europe was main export destination. In the econometric analysis, the study finds that export incentive has the significant positive impact on export performance both in short run and long run. Similarly, real GDP and inflation have the significant impact on export performance whereas gross capital formation, real exchange rate and external debt have the insignificant impact in short run and long run during the study period. Further, in short run one year lagged values of export and external debt have positive impact on export performance. The coefficient of equilibrating error term suggests that the speed of adjustment (feedback effects towards the long run equilibrium) takes few years for full adjustment when there is a shock in the system. Therefore, export incentive and export performance in Ethiopia have direct relationship both in the short run and in long run. Key w ords: ARDL, Ethiopia, export incentive, export performance DOI: 10.7176/JESD/12-5-02 Publication date: March 31 st 2021

Effect of financial incentives on inequalities in the delivery of primary clinical care in England: analysis of clinical activity indicators for the quality and outcomes framework

Linking families and facilities for care at birth: What works to avert intrapartum-related deaths?

BackgroundFinancial incentives appear to be effective in promoting smoking cessation in pregnancy. The mechanisms by which they might operate however, are poorly understood. The present study examines how financial incentives for smoking cessation during pregnancy may work, by exploring pregnant women's experiences of trying to stop smoking, within and outside of a financial incentives scheme.MethodsThirty-six (n = 36) UK-based pregnant smokers (n = 36), offered standard NHS Stop-Smoking Services, of whom twenty (n = 20) were enrolled in a financial incentives scheme for smoking cessation (n = 20) and sixteen (n = 16) were not, were interviewed about (i) their motivation to stop smoking, and (ii) the factors they perceived as influencing their quitting efforts. Framework Analysis was used to analyse the data.ResultsWomen in the two groups reported similar reasons for wanting to stop smoking during pregnancy. However, they described dissimilar experiences of the Stop-Smoking Services, which they perceived to have differentially influenced their quit attempts. Women who were incentivised reported using the services more than women who were not incentivised. In addition, they described the motivating experience of being monitored and receiving feedback on their progress. Non-incentivised women reported problems receiving the appropriate Nicotine Replacement Therapy, which they described as having a detrimental effect on their quitting efforts.ConclusionWomen participating in a financial incentives scheme to stop smoking reported greater engagement with the Stop-Smoking Services, from which they described receiving more help in quitting than women who were not part of the scheme. These results highlight the complexity of financial incentives schemes and the intricacies surrounding the ways in which they operate to affect smoking cessation. These might involve influencing individuals' motivation and self-regulation, changing engagement with and provision of support services, or a combination of these.

Human resource management is the strategic approach to the management of an organizations most vital asset, the people who contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the organization. Employee incentives constitute some of the high performance work practices used by organizations to improve knowledge, skills, and abilities of current and potential employees, increase motivation and enhance retention of quality employees. Kabarak University has a number of employee incentives in place. However, there is scanty empirical study, to determine the influence of these incentives on employee performance. The study examined the relationship between specific employee incentives to employee performance in private Universities in Kenya. The study population was all the employees of Kabarak University, selected as respondents; thereby a census study was carried out .The study involved use of structured questionnaire to collect the data. Secondary data was extracted from the department of Human resource. The analysis of the collected data was done by use of Mann Whitney U test, factor analysis and Chi-square, and presented using descriptive statistics in frequency tables and charts. Financial and nonfinancial incentives are applied to a great extent to motivate the employees. Financial incentives that are perceived to have significant influence on employee motivation include: salary, insurance financing, retirement benefits, performance based rewards, holiday, overtime pay, and loan entitlement. Among the non-financial incentives with significant influence on performance were: creativity at work, organizational goals, challenging tasks, opportunity for personal development, autonomy and responsibility, teamwork, job security, professionally stimulating environment, opportunity to set performance goals, predictable work life, opportunity to lead, training and development and flexible policies. Recommendations include; the need for top management of organizations to design effective incentive schemes that comprise a mix of financial and non-financial incentives, with non-financial incentives being key, supplemented by financial incentives. The findings are vital for policy makers in human capital intensive organizations such as universities.

In Kenya, free zones take the form of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and Export Processing Zones (EPZs) and are offered a myriad of fiscal and non-fiscal incentives. At the same time, Kenya, as a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), is a signatory to the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (ASCM), which prohibits subsidies that are contingent on export performance or use of domestic over imported products. Although free zones are not mentioned specifically, fiscal incentives constitute subsidies since they are financial contributions, incomes or price supports given by the government or their agencies which confer benefits. In this regard, the article examines whether the fiscal incentives offered in Kenya's free zones meet the specificity test and are therefore consistent with the provisions on prohibited and actionable subsidies under the ASCM. The conclusion is that though the fiscal incentives offered in Kenya's free zones constitute financial contributions, they meet the specificity test and are consistent with ASCM rules on subsidies contingent on export performance and use of domestic over imported products, given that Kenya is allowed to grant export subsidies and none of the subsidies offered under the EPZs Act and SEZs Act require the use of domestic over imported products.

The concept of construction productivity and the needs for incentive schemes towards improving the performance of Artisan has long been established. The choice of particular scheme either financial or non financial and to what level it contributes to the productivity of employees remain at stake. Therefore, this study set to evaluate the level of awareness, impact and contribution of the schemes with more emphasis to the non financial incentive schemes. A questionnaire survey involving management and artisans of the three tiers of NCI (Nigerian Construction Industry): large, medium and small within Kaduna and Abuja Nigeria was conducted. Three hundred (300) responses from the management and artisans were used for analysis, inferences and conclusions. The survey result revealed that non-financial incentive schemes are mostly employed in the large and medium scale construction firms. Though, preference by medium and small scale firms was based on those that do not require fund to implement and maintain. It was concluded that, construction firms operating in Nigeria ought to strive more towards implementing non-financial incentive in their organization since artisans are willing to improve their output.

American Indians (AI) have high prevalence of diabetes in youth and may benefit from increasing physical activity as a strategy to improve metabolic health. We tested whether financial incentives would elicit greater frequency and/or duration of exercise in AI youth at high risk for developing diabetes. Overweight/obese AI boys and girls, 11–20 years old, were instructed to exercise on 3 days/week for 48 weeks at a tribal wellness center. The program was divided into three, 16-week-long phases to test different financial incentive strategies. Within each phase participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups that received different payments for exercise. Phase 1 was designed to test whether the size of the incentive would affect exercise frequency. In Phase 1, the number of exercise sessions did not differ between the group receiving a modest fixed-value payment per exercise session and the group receiving enhanced incentives to exercise more frequently (26 ± 3 versus 28 ± 2 sessions, respectively, p = 0.568). In Phase 2, the provision of an enhanced financial incentive to increase exercise duration resulted longer sessions, as the incentivized and standard payment groups exercised 38 ± 2 versus 29 ± 1 minutes per session (p = 0.002), respectively. In Phase 3, the effect of reducing the incentives on maintenance of exercise behaviors was inconclusive due to high participant withdrawal. Aerobic fitness increased 10% during Phase 1 but was unchanged thereafter. Insulin sensitivity and body composition were unchanged during the study. In conclusion, enhanced financial incentives increased the duration of exercise sessions, but had minimal effects on exercise participation. These results indicate that financial incentives hold promise in motivating previously sedentary, overweight/obese adolescents to exercise longer, but motivating them to sustain an exercise program remains the major challenge.Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01848353.

Pay-for-performance (P4P) programs have been implemented in various forms to reduce emergency department (ED) patient length of stay (LOS). This retrospective study investigated to what extent the timing of patient disposition in Metro Vancouver EDs was influenced by a LOS-based P4P program. We analyzed ED visit records of four major hospitals in Metro Vancouver, Canada. For each ED, we individually tested whether LOS was distributed discontinuously at the LOS target before and after the P4P program was terminated. For the P4P effective period, we examined whether patients discharged just prior to the LOS target had a higher 7-day return-and-admission (RA) rate-the probability that a patient, after being discharged home, returned to any ED within 7 days and was admitted to an inpatient unit-than patients discharged just after the target. Prior to the termination of the P4P program, in all four EDs, the LOS density of admitted patients was discontinuous and had a significant drop at the P4P 10-hours admission LOS target; a similar phenomenon was observed among discharged patients at the 4-hours discharge LOS target, but only in the two lower-volume EDs. Furthermore, in a lower-volume ED, patients who were discharged right before the 4-hours P4P LOS target had a higher 7-day RA rate than patients discharged right after the LOS target. After the termination of the discharge incentive, the discontinuity at the discharge LOS target became less evident, but patients were still more frequently admitted just before 10 hours in three of the four EDs as the local health authority continued to support the admission incentive scheme after the government terminated the P4P program. The LOS-based financial incentive scheme appears to have influenced the timing of ED patient dispositions. The results suggest mixed consequences of the P4P program-it can reduce access block for admitted patients but may also lead to discharges associated with return visits and admissions.

: The Effect of Financial Incentives Scheme toward Intention to Disclose Fraud. The purposes of this research is to examine the effect of financial incentive scheme toward intention to disclose fraud. This research is an experimental research using experimental factorial design 1x1 between subject. The population of this study was 81 Undergraduate Accounting Students of the Faculty of Economics, Yogyakarta State University, year 2016. Validity test using Face Validity. The research hypothesis was processed using a One-Way ANOVA statistical test.The result of this research showed that there is an effect of financial incentives scheme on the intention to disclose fraud with a significance value of 0.000. Keywords : Financial Incentives Scheme, Disclosing Fraud, Whistleblowing

Today around 80% of smokers worldwide live in low- and middle-income countries, and in most countries, regardless of country income group, tobacco use is more concentrated in low socioeconomic status (SES) populations. This meta-analysis was conducted to review current available evidences to determine the effectiveness of financial incentive strategies on smoking cessation among low-SES smokers. Database search using PubMed, Science Direct and Cochrane Library were used to search financial incentive intervention prior to October 2018. Appraisal of methodological quality was assessed using Cochrane Collaboration’s tool. Six identified randomized control trials with 2450 and 2437 participants in intervention and control group respectively were included in the analysis. The random-effect model was used to combine results from individual studies. The pooled odds ratio (OR) was 2.16 (95% CI: 1.66-2.82) comparing financial incentive intervention with control. Heterogeneity was not significant across studies (Chi 2 = 8.17, p = 0.15, I 2 = 39%). Current evidences from the RCT researches suggest that financial incentives are promising potential strategy to encourage smoking cessation among low-SES smokers. Keyword: financial incentive, smoking cessation, low socioeconomic status, meta-analysis

Designing Incentives for Inexpert Human Raters

Does strict environmental regulation lead to incentive contradiction? — Evidence from China

The study investigates the causal relationship between Value added tax and inflation in Ethiopia using quarterly time-series data from 2004 to 2014. Data for this study was sourced from the National bank of Ethiopia (NBE) and the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA). The data is verified for unit root using the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test and the Philips-Perron (PP) unit root test, and the result confirms that variables of the study are stationary in their first differences. The Pairwise Granger causality analysis revealed that VAT Granger causes inflation. The result from the VECM has shown that the speed of adjustment is negative 0.4790. This result infers that 47.9 percent of disturbances are corrected each quarter in the inflation (LOGCPI) equation. The sign of error correction term when VAT is dependent variable is negative but not significant at 5% level of significance ( -1.67359 and 0.1058, error correction term and t-probability respectively) showing only unidirectional causality running from Value added tax(VAT) to the price level in Ethiopia in long run. The coefficient of VAT from Wald coefficient restriction tests is different from zero indicating the causality from VAT to inflation in Ethiopia in the short run. This also indicates that causality running from lagged variables of Value added tax to the lagged level of price. The study concluded that there is a casual relationship between VAT and inflation in Ethiopia in both the short run and the long run during the period under investigation. The policy implication is that a very comprehensive post VAT cost-benefit analysis needs to be carried out in the process of public revenue generation. It follows that attention should be given to social welfare and communal desire alongside public income generation. Keywords: VAT, Inflation, Granger Causality Analysis, Ethiopia DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/11-21-03 Publication date: November 30 th 2020