Summaries from Economy and Finance Section
Agro-tourism in Turkey and in Various Countries (2019)
The combination of tourism with agricultural activities, based on fulfilling the rural longing of people who live in urban areas and want to learn about farm life, has created the agro-tourism concept. The fact that tourists can observe agricultural activities in their original form and participate directly in these activities, makes agro-tourism different from other tourism types. All agro-tourism activities are directly related to agriculture and generally carried out by farms or small family businesses whose main source of income is not tourism.
Like tourism in general, agro-tourism has also economic and social effects with positive and negative aspects. In agro-tourism, tourists recognize the real importance of agriculture more closely, and the awareness of agricultural production and the environment increases. Agro-tourism is mostly preferred by tourists interested in local handicrafts, natural agricultural products and gastronomy. Agro-tourism provides additional income to farmers besides their main agricultural activities while supporting rural development and sustainable agriculture.
Employment increases through agro-tourism enterprises, and the rural economic structure can be preserved by reducing rural depopulation. With agro-tourism, administrative and economic structure of agricultural enterprises become stronger and their competitive power increases. The rural economy diversifies and becomes more stabilized through employment creation and increased family and local income.
Along with the aforementioned positive effects, agro-tourism industry may contain some potential downsides, too. Unforeseen additional costs may arise for the sector enterprises in possible excessive demand situations. From time to time, adverse environmental and social impacts may be experienced locally. Also, in case of the excess demand, prices of goods, services and housing may increase and affect local people negatively.
Furthermore, this study includes the developments regarding agro-tourism in Turkey and applications related to agro-tourism in some other countries (such as USA, Australia, France, England, Italy, Spain, Poland, New Zealand, Greece) are also mentioned.
Cryptocurrencies (2021)
In recent years, various currencies (such as digital currencies, virtual currencies, cryptocurrencies) have emerged as an alternative to the traditional currency systems and the use of these new type of currencies especially in financial markets has increased rapidly over time. Today, in addition to their exchange and transaction functions, cryptocurrencies have created a remarkably deep money market with speculative motives. Along with the financial systems, the use of these currencies in daily transactions is also increasing. In this sense, Bitcoin is the most widely used type of cryptocurrency in the world where there are also many types of Altcoins (definition used for the cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin).
Although there are some criticisms about Bitcoin and altcoins, such as not being bound by any authority and being used in illegal transactions like money laundering, the existence of the digital currency phenomenon under current conditions is seen as a success stage of historical accumulation and it is known that some regulations are being made to keep up with this stage. There are currently some restrictions on digital currencies through regulation and monitoring in many countries. Also, many of the countries are following this technological leap closely and trying to either legitimize the status of digital currencies or to produce a cryptocurrency linked to their own currencies
Regulatory Impact Assessment in USA (2018)
Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) applications have first started in the USA, where it is only applied for the secondary regulations made by classical executive departments, independent organizations and independent regulatory boards. The rules regarding RIA are mostly regulated by presidential orders and partially by laws. Although there have been some changes in time, the Presidential Order No: 12866 issued in 1993 still contains the basic rules on which RIA practices in the USA are based. The RIA Guide (Circular A-4) prepared by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which serves the President, plays a central role in guiding agencies. The RIA process is open to the views of all citizens and relevant organizations. In the USA, not only to choose the best option in terms of cost and benefit, but also to ensure the transparency of the activities of the institutions in terms of state and citizens is seen as a very important function of RIA.
Concerning the law proposals, cost estimates are made and the burden of the proposals on the budget is calculated by the relevant Congress units. The legal framework in this regard is determined by the Congressional Budget Act and the rules of procedure of the Assemblies. The main Congress unit for this process is the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The cost estimates of CBO are a technical study regarding the burden of the law proposals on the federal budget and do not contain any recommendations. According to the Rules of the Senate, the report accompanying each bill or joint resolution of a public character reported by any committee (except the Committee on Appropriations) shall contain an evaluation, made by such committee, of the regulatory impact which would be incurred in carrying out the bill or joint resolution. In addition, according to the Rules of the House of Representatives any major legislation shall incorporate the budgetary effects of changes in economic output, employment, capital stock, and other macroeconomic variables resulting from such legislation.
