Journal de l'économie mondiale

Energy is not a traditional commodity where low prices is always good news! It might be good for some, but definitely, not the case for many. Energy resources including, fossil fuels and renewables, have a significant impact on our day to day activities and they have been prime contributors to our lives retention, advancements and upheaval of the world economy at large. As a result, oil has not only played the role of the master commodity on a financial and economical level, but has also extended its supreme impact to the social, sociopolitical and geopolitical aspects of the modern world. However, it is peculiar to note that even with this significance, the oil industry has been experiencing various economic shocks over the past decades. Such shocks have directly been reflected in oil price fluctuations within a dynamic and short timeframe. With the OPEC and non-OPEC production fluctuations against consistent economic growth, worldwide geopolitical conflicts and the ongoing competition between conventional and unconventional oil reserves, the swings in oil prices have become a phenomenon which is worth understanding and analyzing in order to prospect its future trends on the long run. The key question to examine is whether the recently experienced battle between production rate and oil prices will continue affecting the global market over the coming years. This study explores various factors formulating the volatile behavior of oil prices and links the contemporary situations to the historical oil price spikes and trends related to specific events that we know and several others hidden beneath.

One of the main key drives for the current oil crisis is presumed to be the active production of unconventional oil which poses a significant threat to conventional oil producers and has extended its impact to both political and economic levels. Furthermore, the future of conventional oil reserves is analyzed in depth based on generated empirical models prospecting the future profiles of various extractable ultimate recoverable (EUR) scenarios while considering external factors such as socio-political and economic growth. The decline rate of conventional oil reserves productivity is expected to be prominent over the next decades as depicted by this study. This further supports our conclusion that the current positive supply oil price shock and the active emergence of unconventional oil will lead to a disruption in the future reliance and usage of conventional oil.

Dark matter is a euphemistic notation stemming upon analogy with the interstellar dark matter and from its estimated role in functioning of the universe. In a certain exaggeration this is only an estimation of the author what is of course not generally accepted. There is even not any known concrete person accepting it. But it is not possible to exclude it. This dark matter – later on only DM – is a part of control evaluating dynamic of existence of the controlled (holistic) object and in a control of non-dark, normal, visible matter (NM) it proceeds on basis of its experience.

With the all-round promotion of the "Belt and Road Initiative," China's investment in the countries along the line has gradually expanded, but its investment efficiency has been relatively low. Based on this, taking the panel data of 46 countries directly under the "Belt and Road" from 2006 to 2015 in China as an example, the paper uses a stochastic frontier model to evaluate the investment efficiency and its changes comprehensively. The research shows that the overall efficiency of China's investment in the countries along the line is not high, and In the meantime, the investment efficiency of our country along the line shows a slight downward trend during the period of investigation, and the rate of technological progress is the main factor restricting the investment efficiency. To this end, we should optimize investment structure and location selection, and strengthen the investment skills. Innovate in technology, construct a transnational knowledge network system, deepen capacity cooperation between the two sides and enhance the agglomeration of investment industries.

The paper examined public electricity power failures and households adjustment strategies in Uyo urban, Akwa Ibom State using descriptive analysis. Fifty households with un-identical demographic characteristics identified through random sampling were included in the survey. Urban residents in Uyo are largely informal workers, hence their income is low. The survey reveals that urban households in Uyo metropolis use public electricity for unlimited households’ chores, but the provision and availability and public electricity declines as day-hour increases on daily basis and, as a result, urban households in Uyo spent at least 5 percent to at most 15 percent of their mostly informally generated incomes on energy adjustments strategies ranging from generator to rudimentary fire wood and charcoal to provide alternative energy supply to their families and earned for themselves the risk and inconveniences associated with such strategies. The study also found that, through the industrialization policy of the present government, public electricity infrastructures are being provided and this has reduced the hour-day loss by urban households to public electricity power failures and recommend owning the electricity infrastructures by urban households (as it were) in Uyo as a way of reducing the security risk associated with vandalism.

World of learning is an institutionalized arrangement which equip learners to contribute positive to themselves, work place and the society at large before and after graduation, while the world of works is expected to employ and provide an individual monetary capacity to improve on his/her standard of living. In the less developed countries of Africa, there seems to exist a gap between these two worlds, this is shown in the form of inability of graduates to effectively and efficiently performs to what have been inculcated in them in the world of learning. This scenario has raise question by employer of labour in the world of work in doubting the capabilities of the world of learning in producing graduates that would contribute positively to institutionalized setup (private and public/government organization, establishment, and parastatals) and the Africa society at large. Over the years, this have given rise to government of the less developed countries in Africa, international organizations such as UNESCO, USAID and other relevant agencies to work-out modalities to bridge the gap between the two worlds, but solution insight is not often in view. It is against this background that this paper intends to provide solution in bridging the gap between the world of work and work of learning in the less developed countries of Africa.

The ultimate objectives of this paper intended to estimate the impact of remittance income on household’s welfare using the household level cross sectional data. The study controls for various household characteristics, asset-holding variables, institutional, village level infrastructural variables as well as endogeniety problems using IV estimation. The results indicate that remittances positively and significantly affect household level consumption expenditure. Household characteristics particularly family size, participation on wage employment, distance to the main market and lowland agro ecological zone affect welfare status and access to extension service affects the welfare status positively and significantly. On the other hand, oxen, land size, non-livestock asset, participation on own business, access to credit and access to extension service have positive and significant effect on the household’s welfare status.

Vietnam has 16 coastal economic zones (EZs) in operation. These economic zones have attracted more than 300 FDI projects with a total investment of over US $ 39 billion and 840 domestic investment projects with a total investment of nearly 566 trillion dong. However, the development of Vietnam's economic zones has not had the breakthrough as set out. Therefore, it is necessary to seek solutions to attract investment for the development of EZs. This paper uses a probit regression model to quantify the factors affecting the investment decision of the enterprise in the economic zone. The results of the study have described the characteristics of "target customers" who have a higher probability of investing in EZs than those of other firms. The results also show the factors that influence the initial decision. Private firms in order are (i) Competitive input costs; (Ii) Incentives (iii) local institutions; (Iv) Geographic location. Infrastructure and human resources inside and outside the EZ are not different enough so there is no basis for concluding the impact on the investment decision. Factors that have the opposite effect are communication and habitat. Based on the results of this study, the author proposes measures to attract enterprises to invest in EZ

This study focused on the assessment of economic recession coping strategies in Moro local government area in Kwara state, Nigeria. Seventy rural dwellers were randomly selected for this study. Data were obtained using a structured questionnaire to elicit information on respondents’ socioeconomics characteristics, the sources of information, the perceived effects of economic recession on rural dwellers, the economic recession coping strategies and the perceived causes of economic recession. Result reveals that the mean age of the rural dwellers 51.8 years, 61.4% were married, 27.1 % had tertiary education and 32.9 % were farmers. The average monthly income of the rural dwellers were 12204.29 Naira (equivalent to 33 US dollars per month). The highest ranked perceived effects of economic recession were increased in prices of goods and services and that economic recession has encourage many rural dwellers to go back to farming (4.60). The coping strategies were working harder (2.73), changing life style (2.51) and borrowing money from family members and friends (2.31). Neglect of agriculture (4.67) and over dependence on crude oil (4.50) were the perceived causes of economic recession by the respondents. The result of PPMC reveals that there was a significant relationship between the coping strategies of the rural dwellers and their educational level (r = 0.604; p=0.049). The study recommends that there is need for government to make palliative measures that will cushion the effects of economic recession on the rural dwellers.

The research investigated the effects of petroleum price hikes on the transportation business in Wa Municipality. Both quantitative and qualitative research design was employed in the study. Seventy –six (76) out of eighty (80) questionnaires were received. The analysis of data was aided by the use of SPSS and Microsoft Excel. Findings from the research using linear regression models indicated that petroleum price hikes result in higher transport cost. This finding is consistent with an earlier study conducted by Ocheni. The study further revealed that increases in fuel price also triggered high cost of spare parts. The researcher recommends that government should hedge the price of fuel to mitigate the risks associated with price hikes. And also the government should subsidize the cost of spare parts, either through tax-cut or any other means possible in order to reduce the cost burden.