Meiktila University of Economics

The tourism sector plays a critical role in driving economic development. Within this domain, transportation systems are of paramount importance, facilitating connectivity between tourist attractions and shaping destination preferences. Consequently, the optimization of an efficient and integrated transportation infrastructure has the potential to substantially enhance tourism growth. This study seeks to examine the potential for strengthening the public transportation network to support and promote tourism development in Bangkok. Employing physical analysis tools that incorporate considerations of density, centrality, and accessibility within the public transportation network and its intersection with tourist attractions, geographic information systems are deployed. These systems facilitate the examination of spatial information pertaining to diverse facets of the public transportation system, employing methodologies such as kernel density estimation and network analysis, subsequently subject to statistical significance testing. The analysis unveils that locales characterized by a heightened concentration of tourist attractions occupy a central role within the public transport system, owing to their proximity to various transportation modalities, encompassing water and bus transport. However, in light of the dispersed distribution of tourist attractions across varied areas, the overall centrality of the public transport system emerges as suboptimal. This poses a substantive challenge in advancing alternative transportation systems tailored for tourism. Consequently, in regions distanced from economic hubs, vehicular reliance persists as predominant across multiple travel modes. Mitigating this challenge assumes paramount importance in fostering sustainable tourism development.

The article analyzes customs payments as a significant source of formation of the revenue side of the state budget of the Kyrgyz Republic and tax revenues. A detailed analysis of the dynamics and structure of customs duties was carried out.

The credit frictions encountered by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been widely examined in the entrepreneurship literature. Although theory suggests that asset tangibility helps increase firms’ borrowing capacity because it allows creditors to take possession of a firm’s assets more easily, this paper provides new evidence about the role of intangible assets in reducing credit frictions for SMEs. Using an extensive dataset of more than 155,852 SMEs in Vietnam and a multivariate probit model, we find that identifiable intangible assets improve firm access to debt and equity finance. Interestingly, it is found that the friction-reducing effect of intangibles is stronger on debt finance than on equity finance, suggesting non-equivalent distributional effects of intangible assets on firm capital structure. Moreover, firm age and size can moderate the association between intangibles and access to the two sources of external finance.

Hybrid ownership—sharing partial business ownership with the state—is a new form of political connections that entrepreneurs in developing countries may employ to improve their access to key resources. This study investigates hybrid ownership as a strategic decision of entrepreneurs running small businesses in Vietnam—a transition economy. Utilising the resource dependence theory and legitimacy viewpoint, we propose and evidently show that increased state ownership in hybrid firms leads to improved performance. However, increasing state ownership beyond a minority share threshold harms firm performance due to the presence of agency costs. Also, the involvement of the state in firm governance reduces the benefits gained from having state ownership. Plain English Summary Is the more the better? How much state ownership really matters for hybrid firms to enhance their performance? More state ownership means more access to resources and privileges; but too much state ownership may reduce firm efficiency due to its poor governance. Analysing more than one million observations of small businesses in Vietnam, this study offers three insightful implications. First, for academics, institutional conditions should be considered when investigating political connections, especially in an emerging market context. Second, for practitioners, political connections in the form of hybrid ownership when being held at an adequate level can boost firm performance. However, an exceeding level of state ownership in hybrid firms may become harmful. Third, for policymakers, we suggest that forming hybrid business ownership with the private sector helps firms make use of state-owned resources. This collaboration is a win-win solution as long as the state ownership remains at an adequate level.

Background:Migration is at an all-time high worldwide, and despite increased focus on international migrants, there is little evidence about internal migrants' exposures to socioeconomic, occupational, and environmental risk factors in low-and middle-income countries. Objective:The aim of this study was to examine differences in occupational health and access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) between internal migrants and non-migrants. Methods:A face-to-face survey (n = 937) was conducted in Mandalay, Myanmar. Bivariate and multivariate analysis included traditional social determinants such as education, income, occupation, gender, age, and location in addition to internal migration status. Findings:The majority of internal migrants (23% of the total sample) were labor migrants (67.3%), and while common social determinants (e.g., household income, education, and gender) were not statistically different between migrants and non-migrants, these groups reported different occupational profiles (p < 0.001). Migrants had higher odds of being street vendors (AOR = 2.26; 95% CI 1.33-3.85; p = 0.003) and were less likely to work labor jobs such as in factories or construction (AOR = 0.44; 95% CI 0.19-1.00; p = 0.051) when controlling for age, gender, education, and location. Internal migrants had significantly greater probabilities of experiencing some injuries and illness symptoms, such as cuts, vomiting, coughing, heatstroke, and diarrhea at work (p < 0.001). Compared to non-migrants, migrants' households were approximately three times more likely (AOR = 3.45; 95% CI 2.17-5.62; p < 0.001) to have an unimproved source of drinking water and twice as likely (AOR = 1.98; 95% CI 1.10-3.58; p < 0.05) to have unimproved sanitation facilities in their homes. Conclusions:The results underscore the importance of considering internal migration as an aspect of social determinants analyses, and the need for targeting appropriate WASH interventions to address inequities.