https://mt.osce-academy.kg/handle/123456789/515 2025-11-07T08:51:36Z https://mt.osce-academy.kg/handle/123456789/555 Title: The Impact of Covid-19 and Trade Openness on Government Debt: Case of Low and Lower-Middle Income Countries (2010-2020) Authors: Sahebzada, Munib Abstract: Drawing on the vast literature on trade openness impact on government debt, the research project is aimed to investigate the relationship between trade openness and external debt in countries with commodity exports and service exports. Thereafter, ways through which COVID 19 and trade openness aggravates the debt. The study analyzed a panel of 72 low- and lower-middle-income countries over the period from 2010-2020. The main research question is “What Effect does trade openness have on external debt in countries with commodity export and service export?” And sub- questions are: Does Trade openness effect external debt positively in countries where trade is more oriented toward Commodity exports? Does Trade Openness effect external debt negatively in countries where trade is more oriented toward Service exports? And lastly whether Covid-19 aggravates the effect on the external debt? A key observation highlighted in the literature review is the absence of studies of whether opening up trade has a similar impact on countries dependent on services exports compared with countries dependent on commodities exports. This gap in the empirical literature, together with the impacts of COVID-19 on government debt of low- and lower-middle-income countries, was a major motivating factor in initiating this study. Ordinary least square is used for conducting a variance inflation factor (VIF) test in order to make sure that data is free of multicollinearity. To address the endogeneity of regressor and heterogeneity, the Fixed Effect Method dynamic panel data estimator was employed. The results of the analysis found that economic growth, investment, trade openness, foreign direct investment, remittances, and dependency ratio all had a significant impact on external debt. The direction of the relationship between these variables and external debt was consistent with previous literature, with positive relationships found between trade openness in commodity export countries, remittances, and external debt, and negative relationships found between economic growth, investment, FDI, trade openness in service export countries, and dependency ratio and external debt. The study also found that COVID-19 has exacerbated the effects of trade openness on external debt, particularly in low- and lower-middle-income countries. These findings have important implications for policymakers seeking to understand the trade-related determinants of external debt and to mitigate the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on government debt. 2023-01-01T00:00:00Z https://mt.osce-academy.kg/handle/123456789/524 Title: The impact of female conservatism on labor force participation in Afghanistan Authors: Sarwari, Nargis Abstract: In this paper, the Afghan women’s conservativeness effect has been investigated in their participation on the labor force using the secondary dataset of the Asia Foundation for 2015. Afghanistan is known as a radical traditional and religious country the foundation of that was mainly made in the 1980s and the 1990s as a result of two regimes of the Mujahideen and the Taliban. The study uses the linear probability model (LPM), probit, and logit models to look for evidence of the effect of conservatism in the country on the economic participation of Afghan women by introducing a conservatism index as a total sum to a number of socio- political participation of women out of the Asia Foundation questionnaire. These methods are used in order to achieve efficient and applicable results. In the findings of the paper, the coefficient for the variable conservatism did not appear as statistically significant but the findings have indicated that religiosity, being in the southern part of the country, belonging to a family with a monthly income of (5001-10000, 10001-15000, and 15001-20000 Afghani), has a statistically negative significance on the probability of a woman being in the labor force, keeping all other variables fixed. On the other hand, coming from other ethnicities of Afghanistan apart from Pashtuns, Uzbek, Tajik, and Hazara ethnicities, knowing Dari, and having a high school and university level of education has a statistically positive effect on a woman being in the labor market, ceteris paribus. 2023-01-01T00:00:00Z https://mt.osce-academy.kg/handle/123456789/522 Title: Impact of Women’s Education Level on Fertility Rate: Evidence from Authors: Syidalieva, Kunduz Abstract: The paper examines the nexus between the women’s education level and fertility rate in Kyrgyzstan from 2010 until 2012. The main theory on which this paper bases is Demographic Transition Theory. We assume that Central Asian countries are on the third stage of their demographic transition. Consequently, on this stage, we have low mortality rate and slightly decreasing fertility rate. One of the reasons could be the strengthening the role of females in society. Consequently, we decided to check weather this relationship between fertility rate and women’s education level corresponds to the theory. We observe that in Kyrgyzstan fertility rate and women’s education level for 2010 until 2012 have negative relationship, which means that increasing in years of education decreases the number of children. The research uses secondary data from Life in Kyrgyzstan Survey for 2010, 2011 and 2012. The estimation method is Instrumental Variable. 2023-01-01T00:00:00Z https://mt.osce-academy.kg/handle/123456789/521 Title: Determinants of Households’ Investment on Education in Afghanistan Authors: Soltani, Kobra Abstract: The Afghanistan’s education development has been one of top priorities of government and international organizations in the last two decades. Despite the efforts and huge amount of budgets which were consumed in this sector still the rate of literacy is very low and more than half of adults in Afghanistan cannot read and write. Public investments in education provide the necessary facilities and would grantee equal access to education for all citizens, however, the utilizing these facilities would be based on the household’s investment. This study pursued to investigate the factors which determine the level of educational investment by Afghan households. In general, the findings show that the income level, residential area and the household head’s age, gender, and educational awareness have positive and significant impact household’s investment on education. The Tobit regression analysis for Income and Expenditure & Labor Force Survey data of 2020 estimates that there is a considerable disparity in demand of education between urban, rural and Kuchi (nomadic tribes) areas. In addition, the findings estimate that educated people are more willing to pay for education than illiterate and less educated ones. The lower spending on female children’s education indicates that more awareness programs should be implemented in order to decrease gender inequality in Afghanistan specially education sector. Since, there is a lack of researches and studies about the demand side of education market in Afghanistan and such studies provide the information and evidences which would be beneficial for policy maker and international organization which work for education development in Afghanistan. 2023-01-01T00:00:00Z