Black gold, dark realities: Unpacking the socio-economic and environmental fallout of unauthorized oil extraction (Investigation in East Aceh, Indonesia)

The stability of economies all over the world over is largely a function of inflation and interest rates. Over the past two decades, Swaziland’s economy experienced increasing inflation and interest rates with the blame leveled against the absolute Monarchy’s inability to manage the economy. In particular, the period of 2010 to 2014 was the hardest hit because of increasing poverty levels. The purpose of the study was therefore to assess the relationship between inflation and interest rates in the context of Swaziland with a view to constructing fiscal and monetary policies capable of driving an efficient economy going forward. The study employed a confirmatory and quantitative approach based on a review of secondary data over the period. The source and description of data included quarterly based data within the 2010–2014 period comprising information on interest rate, gross domestic product and inflation figures from the Central Bank of Swaziland, the national library, and the Central Statistical Department of Swaziland. A descriptive approach, using Microsoft excel, was used to analyze the data. The study findings showed that there was positive relationship between interest rates and inflation. Recommendations were that, Swaziland could craft appropriate fiscal and monetary policies towards controlling the prevailing economic challenges despite the peculiar socio-political nature where the absolute Monarchy holds executive authority and accountability.

Sustainability is a key area of concern for manufacturing firms’ long-term success. However, the manufacturing industry has not been fully conscious of the potential sustainable values across manufacturing system. There is a need to better understand how companies can improve sustainable value creation. Recent research and practices have shown that sustainable operations can be one way to create sustainable values (e.g. economic, environmental and social). This review article focuses on the available empirical studies on the impact of lean and sustainability practices on sustainable performance from 2000 to 2018 in the context of manufacturing firms. Integrating lean and sustainability practices into manufacturing system confrontы operations managers with paradoxical tensions of sustainability objectives. Theoretically having paradoxical mindset will help firms’ managers make sense of and responв to such paradoxical tensions. In the context of sustainable operations studies, the issue of paradoxical mindset has been given less emphasis. Therefore, through the lens of the paradox theory, this study has developed a new conceptual framework for future research to investigate how paradoxical mindset moderates the impact of lean and sustainability practices on the sustainable performance of manufacturing industry. This study may add to the understanding of the circumstances, under which lean and sustainability practices impact sustainable outcomes.

Inflation is an important macroeconomic issue that has continued to dominate discussions at major economic fora over time. Governments all over the world are concerned about its rising trend because of its pervasive effect on economic performance. One intriguing fact about inflation is that it is both the cause and effect of certain policy actions of government. Several studies have been conducted on the effect of inflation on economic activities in developing and developed nations, but studies on its cause, particularly in developing nations, are scant. This paper aims at identifying major factors that cause inflation in Nigeria. Based on the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) estimation method, the study shows empirical support for significant impact of external debt, exchange rate, fiscal deficits, money supply and economic growth on inflation. It further shows previous period or lagged inflation rate as a significant determinant of current inflation rate. However, the study produced no evidence of significant longrun impact of interest rate on the rate of inflation in Nigeria. The study recommends economic reforms that target foreign exchange inflow through increased export trade, as well as a paradigm shift away from deficit budgeting. There is also a need for infrastructural and institutional reforms to eliminate or, at least, minimize the impact of structural inequity on output prices.