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Recent studies on the welfare implications of internationally mobile capital for a country employing commercial policy have been restricted to constant‐returns‐to‐scale (CRS) production models. It is generally concluded that the pursuit of such policies is welfare‐decreasing under CRS conditions. The analysis to encompass variable‐returns‐to‐scale (VRS) is generalised and it is shown that there is an optimal (second best) combination of import tariff and foreign capital subsidy that will not be “immiserising” for an increasing‐returns‐to‐scale (IRS) industry.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the need and resources firefighters have to deal with death and dying (D&D) that they encounter whilst on duty and to present a curriculum to support D&D issues for firefighters.

A qualitative methodology involving focus groups was conducted in two fire stations in Spain. The sample was 38 male participants with a mean age of 46 y/o (range: 30-59 years) and an average tenure of employment of 18 years (range: 6-35 years). Data were subjected to a thematic analysis. Dual coding of the transcripts in addition to member checking enhanced analysis.

Nine themes emerged: witnessing D&D during rescue operations; memories about D&D and trauma; impact on firefighter’s families; decision-making process under stress; teamwork: protective and self-support; inadequate D&D preparation and training; adequate technical and physical training preparation; relationship between equipment, legal-moral obligation, and victims’ outcomes; communication issues: toward the victim and/or their relatives. These themes were subsequently framed into three basic domains: personal impact of D&D, team impact of D&D, and victim impact. Each domain, in its turn, is covered by three curriculum topics. The curriculum’s pedagogy is primarily based on experimental-reflective activities during 16 study-hours.

The absence of female participants. All fire stations were in cities with no more than 150,000 inhabitants.

Individuals who take this curriculum will: increase their ability for self-care and resilience; improve teamwork, leadership skills, and to decrease burnout; provide more effective care for victims; provide skills to cope with compassion fatigue; reduced the levels of post-traumatic stress disorders.

Understanding firefighters’ needs with relation to D&D, and assessing the resources available to mitigate these issues will provide a comprehensive approach to their education and promote health both personally and professionally. A comparable curriculum or proposal has not been previously identified.

The present chapter reviews part of the literature that focuses on dark tourism and dark consumption. The main theories were placed under the critical lens of scrutiny. With strongholds and weaknesses, dark tourism seems to be enframed in an ‘economic-based paradigm’, which prioritises the managerial perspective over other methods. Like Dark Tourist, the Netflix documentary assessed in this chapter, this academic perspective accepts that the tourist's experience is the only valid source of information to understand the phenomenon. Rather, we hold the thesis that far from being a local trend, dark tourism evinces a morbid drive which not only emerges recently but involves other facets and spheres of society. We coin the term Thana-capitalism to denote a passage from risk society to a new stage, where the Other's death is situated as the main commodity to exchange. The risk society as it was imagined by Beck, set finally the pace to thana-capitalism. Dark Tourist proffers an interesting platform to gain further understanding of this slippery matter. In sharp contrast to Seaton, Sharpley or Stone, we argue that dark tourists are unable to create empathy with the victims. Instead, they visit these types of marginal destinations in order to re-elaborate a political attachment with their institutions. They consume the Other's pain not only to feel unique and special (a word that sounds all the time in the documentary) but also to affirm their privileged role as part of the selected peoples.

This paper seeks to revisit the international reserve policies of emerging market countries; taking the case of India. Emerging market economies have lately been accumulating large foreign reserves. The paper aims to demonstrate how these reserves can be put towards effective growth by implementing better reserve and debt management policies.

The paper uses descriptive and comparative ratio analysis methods and applies these to the case of Indian international monetary reserves. These methods provided a clear view of India's international reserves and how reserve vulnerabilities can be identified.

Based on the suggested benchmarks, the findings indicate that India may be holding reserves in excess of the suggested requirements.

Data on international monetary reserves need continual updating. Continuous longitudinal data would help in showing the true effects of international monetary reserve fluctuations and vulnerabilities over time.

International finance researchers and practitioners are always seeking methods and approaches for understanding what constitutes the optimal international reserve level. The analysis and findings from this paper provide practitioners and academicians with appropriate benchmarks for the case of emerging market countries.

This paper extends and expands the discussion on how international monetary vulnerabilities can be identified, assessed and analyzed in emerging market countries from proposed benchmarks in this paper.

An analysis of domestic and foreign banks’ internal performance by investigating their financial ratios shows that banks in Bahrain, Oman, the United Arab Emirates (GCC countries) have improved their performance over the past several years. Commercial banks in these GCC economies are well capitalised and have adopted modern banking services. Most banks are found to be financially sound by international standards, measured by all key financial ratios. Their operations can be characterised by satisfactory asset quality, more than minimum BIS capital/asset ratio, and high level of profitability. External performance is measured by evaluating banks’ market shares, regulatory compliance and public confidence; and most of the banks show better progress. Harmonization of the banks’ supervisory and accounting systems towards IAS has contributed to the safety and competitiveness of the banking sector.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to understanding modern monetary arrangements from a Marxist perspective that takes into account recent developments in the Marxist theory of world money. The paper treats the US dollar as a primus inter pares quasi-world money and challenges the argument of US hegemony by exploring the behavior of major capitalist states and selected developing countries, the BRICS, in so far as their official international reserves are concerned. The findings reveal a clear pattern in the behavior of major capitalist states in terms of the size and form of their reserves with the variations in them implying a hierarchical structure of the corresponding quasi-world moneys. The analysis focuses on developed countries and treats them individually. The merit of this approach, distinctive in the literature on international reserves, is that it reveals the above-mentioned pattern which is blurred when Japan is included. The results imply that current international monetary arrangements reflect and promote multipolarity and competition on the geopolitical scene, the evolution of which is historical.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between financial development and economic growth in Indian states using annual data from 1993 to 2012.

The stationarity properties are checked by Levin-Lin-Chu and Im-Pesaran-Shin panel unit root tests. The study employed the Pedroni’s panel co-integration test to examine the existence of long-run relationship and the coefficients of co-integration are examined by fully modified ordinary least squares. The short term and long-run causality is checked by panel granger causality.

The co-integration test confirms a long-run relationship between financial development and economic growth for Indian states. The results support the supply leading hypothesis and highlight the importance of financial development in economic growth in Indian states. The findings also indicate that bank-centric financial sector of India has the potential of economic growth through credit transmission.

The present study recommends for appropriate reforms in financial market to attain economic growth in India. The findings will be useful for India’s policymakers in order to maintain the parallel expansion of financial development and economic growth.

Till date, there is no study that includes all 28 states in analyzing the role of financial development in economic growth for Indian economy by applying latest econometric techniques. Further, the study uses gross domestic state product instead of net domestic state product as proxy for economic growth because of the presence of different depreciation rates.

The purpose of this paper is to address human capital (HC) evaluation methods in service industries. As suggested by literature some services may be as different from others as they are from products. Thus there is a great need for studies clarifying the distinctions between different service‐oriented firms with respect to the role and the measurement of intellectual capital (IC) and, in particular, of human capital, which is generally considered as the most significant element of IC.

An action‐research approach has been followed. Action research attempts to combine the process of research and action based on the key assumption that one can never really understand any human system without trying to change it.

The research focused on a high‐tech service company. The paper suggests that methods to measure human capital should consider, as a key factor, the firm's project management organisation. In fact, the temporary nature of projects stands in contrast to operations which are repetitive to produce products or services. In practice, the management of these two systems is often found to be quite different, and as such requires the development of distinct technical skills.

As far as IC literature offers several IC frameworks and suggests several tools, the paper's goal is not to develop a new one but to highlight the process leading to implement IC framework in practice.