مطالب

Motivated by Nigeria’s persistent pursuit of rice self-sufficiency, this paper projects the country's future rice self-sufficiency levels. These projections could guide policy decisions in areas of the rice market that show potential for growth, aiding in the achievement of Nigeria's goal through improved planning strategies. Using time series data covering the period from 1980 to 2018, this study adopted an econometric technique to model Nigeria's rice market which was estimated using a dynamic Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach. The results revealed that paddy producer price elasticity was 0.206 and had no influence on paddy area harvested. On the other hand, the national policy of rice credit guarantee scheme variable displayed a positive relationship with paddy area harvested. Lagged yield and lagged area harvested had positive influences on yield and area harvested, respectively. This could mean that paddy producers were motivated by previous year’s yield levels and area harvested. The demand own-price elasticity of rice was -0.321 and its cross-price elasticity was 0.193, with wheat revealed to be a substitute. The obtained elasticities were then used to make a ten-year projection. Results suggested that by 2028, increasing rice production relative to dwindling imports will boost rice self-sufficiency level to 71%. However, the average yearly rice self-sufficiency level was 53%, requiring 3.85 million Mt of rice imports. The projections revealed that Nigeria will not achieve rice self-sufficiency by 2028 unless intensive yield enhancing policy-supporting efforts are pursued.

Herd behavior, the tendency of individuals to mimic the actions of a larger group, significantly impacts capital markets by influencing stock prices, market liquidity, and overall market stability. This phenomenon has garnered significant attention in financial studies due to its implications for both institutional and individual investors, contributing to increased market volatility and potential crashes. Various methodologies have been developed to assess herd behavior, revealing its presence across diverse market conditions, including periods of high distress and volatility. This study examines macro herding in the Tehran Stock Exchange from March 2016 to February 2024, using weekly asset returns to measure herd behavior among listed companies. For the first time in Iran, we employ the TV method to calculate herding. The TV method offers two primary advantages: it is adept at identifying macro herding because it captures the collective trading direction of investors, and it operates independently of asset pricing models, minimizing biases associated with those models. Focusing on the collective trading direction, we aim to detect significant deviations in stock price movements indicative of herd behavior. Our findings indicate that herd behavior is more pronounced during extreme market conditions, both positive and negative, with a particularly notable increase during periods of negative market returns. This study provides insights into the dynamics of investor behavior in the Tehran Stock Exchange, highlighting the importance of monitoring such behavior to mitigate its potential adverse effects on market stability.

In June 2014, Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani issued a fatwa mandating Iraqis to volunteer in the security forces to fight against ISIS. Consequently, the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), otherwise called Alhashd Alshabi, were formed primarily from these volunteers, most of whom were Shias. In December 2016, the Iraqi Parliament issued a law that granted full legal status to the PMF. However, the PMF continued to face accusations of disobedience to the laws of the Iraqi state and the orders of the Commander-in-Chief of the Iraqi Armed Forces, raising concerns about its impact on the state's stability. This article aims to examine the nature of some PMF violations of the rule of law, explore the root causes of this phenomenon, and assess the possibility of eliminating or mitigating it. It argues that this phenomenon has social, historical, and religious origins tied to the relationship between the Shia in Iraq and the state. In particular, the internal divisions within the PMF stem from differences in perspectives regarding the rule of law. Thus, the article suggests that addressing this problem requires a long-term strategy beyond mere legal transformations. The article adopts a qualitative approach, which relies on the collection and analysis of data from the literature.

The purpose of this research is to design a model for evaluating the policies of proportionalization of administrative system formations in Iranian National Oil Company. In this regard, the research method was a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods and tools with an applied orientation along with survey strategy and inductive approach. The qualitative part of the research included a review of the records and background of the research and conducting library studies based on the content analysis and meta-composition methods and the Delphi technique, and in the quantitative part, several techniques and tools were used, including interpretive structural modeling and structural equations, factor analysis, pairwise comparison matrix, and questionnaire tools. By carrying out the qualitative stage and refining and screening and verifying the achievements in the quantitative stage, finally 89 indicators in the form of 11 dimensions and 35 components, under the four main concepts of "policy evaluation", "proportionalization", "administrative system formations" and "macro environment" were counted and classified. In the next step, by identifying the relationship and mutual effect of the identified factors, the evaluation model of the design policy and finally the validity and reliability of the model was put into the test and approved. The issue of the optimal size of the government and the public policies related to it has been discussed and debated among political and economic experts for about three decades in the documents of the government and the ruling space of the country with different expressions such as "downsizing", "privatization" and "rationalization". Following the studies conducted in this research, with the premise that on one hand, the correct and scientific evaluation of public policies has an undeniable role in the successful implementation of policies, and on the other hand, in our country, the issue of evaluating public policies has always been like a missing link in the space that governs this territory and better management of resources in Iranian National Oil Company.

This article investigates Deirdre Madden’s Time Present and Time Past through the lens of Marianne Hirsch’s theory of postmemory, focusing on the role of photographs in bridging gaps between generations and constructing narratives about traumatic events. Despite a societal inclination towards anti-nostalgia and a desire to forget past concerns in favor of newfound prosperity, the main characters deal with a past that intrudes into the present in a quasi-traumatic form. To assay such fractured identity formation in characters, characteristic of post Celtic Tiger Ireland, this article explores memories as one’s inseparable source of identity. As such, Marianne Hirsch’s notion of Postmemory will be used to understand the connection between traumatic memory-formation and identity formation shared among the survivors of catastrophic events. Such an abstract connection invites an examination of photography as a means to transfer meaning, memory, and identity from one generation to another, meditating the relationship between the past and the present. This article concludes by paying special attention to how postmemory works as a healthy means of grappling with unresolved traumas, leading the characters towards an ethical form of remembering the past.

Disability has an omnipresence in our daily lives, from our encounters with people with disabilities in real-life experiences to encountering them in novels, movies, and video games. After the Vietnam War was pursued by movements like Civil Rights and social discourses revolving around race, gender, and sexuality gained momentum in the 1970s, there was an urge for a civil rights-based model for disability. Previously, disability was considered a physical or mental deviance in the individual, an affliction to be cured or eliminated. This medical model gave its place to a social model, in which the social, political, and cultural environment rendered people with impairments disabled. Recently, some theorists have denounced drawing lines between the social and medical models and instead propose a liminal cultural model, believing that this mixed paradigm is the only model that does justice to the lived experiences of people with disabilities. The present study aims at analyzing John Steinbeck’s novella, Of Mice and Men. It investigates how Lennie, a person with a cognitive disability, is treated and the challenges he faces, grounded on Garland-Thomson’s cultural theorization of disability through three concepts of feminism, otherness, and disability.