The rising public debt level in Africa and the sustainability of that debt remains an important research agenda. As such, understanding the factors that impact the rising public debt level in Africa remains an important research agenda. Our paper investigates the key determining drivers that have a direct and indirect impact on the rising level of public debt in Africa from a panel of 47 African nations for the period 2000–2018. Using the generalized method of moments (GMM) and fixed effects two-stage least squares (IV-FE) methodological approach the study confirms that a rise in the corruption level leads to an increase in the public debt in Africa. Our findings additionally indicate that government investment enhances the positive and significant association with public debt levels in the sampled countries. Our result revealed that government consumption and tax revenue have a significant negative relationship with the levels of public debt in Africa. Lastly, our results showed that military expenditure has a positive but insignificant relationship with public debt levels in Africa. In terms of policy recommendation, the study suggests African countries should intensify the fight against corruption and strengthen political and governance institutions that will help reduce public debt levels and promote economic growth and development.

Objective: This study aims to analyse the relationship between entrepreneurship and economic development. Quantified through the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, across selected developed and developing countries. The research seeks to clarify how variations in entrepreneurial activity, as measured by the Global Entrepreneurship Index (GEI), relate to GDP per capita, thereby contributing to the broader understanding of the economic impacts of entrepreneurship. Research Design & Methods: This study adopted a quantitative approach, employing a cross-sectional ordinary least squares (OLS) model to explore the relationship between entrepreneurship and GDP per capita. Spanning the 2015-2019 period, our analysis incorporated data from 98 countries. Recognising the potential endogeneity concerns associated with specific independent variables, we implemented the instrumental variables (IV) approach, employing the two-stage least squares (2SLS) method to mitigate this potential bias. Findings: Our findings suggest that differences in GDP per capita between countries are significantly associated with variations in entrepreneurship. This highlights the importance of entrepreneurship as a driving force for GDP per capita. According to the 2SLS model, we found a positive relationship between the global entrepreneurship index (GEI) and GDP per capita. On average, a one-percent increase in GEI is associated with a 3.04% increase in GDP per capita. Implications & Recommendations: This study underscores the significant potential of entrepreneurship to drive economic development across diverse nations, regardless of their development stage. The findings demonstrate a positive and statistically significant association between higher levels of GEI and increased economic development. Therefore, policymakers have the potential to create an environment conducive to both entrepreneurship and sustainable economic development by implementing supportive policies and investing in key areas. Contribution & Value Added: This study provides valuable insights into the relationship between entrepreneurship and economic development. It highlights the importance of creating an enabling environment supporting entrepreneurship through infrastructure, education, market development, and innovation investment. Further research is needed to explore the nuances of this relationship and develop effective policies to promote sustainable and competitive economic development.

Economic sanctions between the European Union and Russia have significantly changed trade relations between them, while there are controversial assessments of sanctions’ impact on both economies. Russian import ban has changed domestic producer prices in Russia, offering domestic producers a unique opportunity. There is an opinion that increasing self-sufficiency supports sustainable growth in agricultural production. At the same time, there is question of when and whether Russian import ban will be lifted? This paper offers an overview of changes in milk producer prices and support for milk producers in Russia in the period after the Russian import ban. We argue that currently the Russian Government has little incentive to lift import ban for milk and dairy products, as state support of agricultural producers has been decreased in significance for producers and was replaced by market prices support. Main findings suggest that all Russian federal regions experienced significant increases in transfers to producers from consumers; however, the pace of the increase appears to be different across regions. Paradoxically, the Western sanctions helped Russian milk and dairy industry to strengthen its position.

This paper discusses the dynamics of foreign trade in the post-Soviet space within the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) during the period from 2015 to 2021. Additionally, the paper analyzes export indicators in foreign and mutual trade of the EAEU member countries and diversification of the commodity structure as well as its dynamics based on the commodity concentration index for each member country. Our paper identifies the strengths and weaknesses of the EAEU, analyzes the opportunities and threats of development, and focuses on the trends and prospects. The main strengths include the institutional and legal structure of the EAEU single market, the historical, cultural, and economic proximity of the EAEU member countries, the transit potential of the territory, the high level of domestic trade, and the increasing share of ruble transactions in the trade turnover. The most significant weaknesses are the low efficiency of the institutional structure, the gap in the socio-economic level of development of the participating countries, unstable geopolitical situations in some member countries, the low level of recognition of the EAEU in the world market, economic and political conflicts of interests of the member countries, and the dependence on Western technologies in some key industries. Strategically important opportunities can be found in the creation and implementation of a long-term development strategy, diversification of trade with the Middle East and Asian countries, expansion in terms of the territorial composition, development of the institutional and legal structure as well as cooperation ties, as well as the cooperation in the field of technological innovation and financial security. Among the most significant threats were identified the outpacing growth in the share of EAEU members’ trade with China, the expansion of economic and political contradictions between the EAEU member countries, and the strengthening of the positions of alternative currencies in foreign trade.

Frequent price discounts have become one of the features of retail chains in the Czech Republic. Discounts are most often provided for products popular with customers. One of the products that is subject to frequent discounts is milk. Several expert opinions estimate that up to 50% of milk is sold with frequent price discounts. Price pressure on farmers and food producers owing to frequent price promotions is supported by the purchasing power of retailers and, in extreme cases, leads to sub-cost purchasing prices. These facts set up the framework to assess the impact of frequent price discounts on policymaking, including tax administration. One of the effects of selling goods at discounts is lower VAT collection from shops, and thus lower revenue to the state budget. This paper attempts to estimate one of the potential impacts of frequent price discounts, namely the loss of VAT for the state budget due to low retail prices of milk. Theoretical estimation of the effect of frequent price discounts on VAT can help to assess policy that touches on mark-ups in specific markets, such as food. The estimation is based on data obtained from Czech Statistical Office, FADN, and Orbis databases and employs Monte Carlo simulation to capture the stochastic element of retail markups. Sub-cost prices of producers of milk have a more significant negative effect on VAT revenue than prices of other supply chain participants. The theoretical effect on VAT revenue is estimated to be in the range from a negative effect of 14.9 billion CZK to a positive effect of 7.4 billion CZK. Values of zero VAT effect points (mark-ups of producers, dairies, and retailers) are shown, as well as the critical value of price elasticity of demand (−0.1715), at which the effect of frequent price discounts on VAT revenue is zero.