5,429 research outputs found
Know Your Borrower: The Four Need Cases of Small-Dollar Credit Consumers
Every year, an estimated 15 million people access small-dollar credit (SDC) products- like payday loans, pawn loans, auto title loans, deposit advance loans, and more. CFSI explores the reasons why consumers turn to these potentially high cost products in this latest report. The study, supported by funding from the Ford Foundation, identifies four primary consumer need cases in the SDC market, each representing a distinct borrower profile and different uses of small-dollar credit. The need cases are:Unexpected Expense borrowers tend to access credit infrequently for relatively larger expenses related to an unexpected or emergency event, such as a car repair.Misaligned Cash Flow borrowers take out smaller amounts somewhat frequently to pay bills and meet regular household expenses when their income and expenses are mistimed.Exceeding Income borrowers' expenses regularly exceed their income and these consumers tend to be among the most frequent users of credit, accessing small amounts for everyday expenses.Planned Purchase borrowers are a smaller but important niche group of users in the SDC market who make a relatively large, planned purchase, commonly related to a personal asset.These need cases were determined through analysis of a panel survey of more than 1,100 SDC borrowers and 31 in-depth interviews with SDC customers. They provide a new framework for exploring the challenge of when and how to responsibly extend small-dollar credit. The findings also suggest potential opportunities for the development of high-quality products, highlighting the importance of product differentiation and underwriting
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Costs of streamlined HIV care delivery in rural Ugandan and Kenyan clinics in the SEARCH Studys.
OBJECTIVES/DESIGN:As antiretroviral therapy (ART) rapidly expands in sub-Saharan Africa using new efficient care models, data on costs of these approaches are lacking. We examined costs of a streamlined HIV care delivery model within a large HIV test-and-treat study in Uganda and Kenya. METHODS:We calculated observed per-person-per-year (ppy) costs of streamlined care in 17 health facilities in SEARCH Study intervention communities (NCT: 01864603) via micro-costing techniques, time-and-motion studies, staff interviews, and administrative records. Cost categories included salaries, ART, viral load testing, recurring goods/services, and fixed capital/facility costs. We then modeled costs under three increasingly efficient scale-up scenarios: lowest-cost ART, centralized viral load testing, and governmental healthcare worker salaries. We assessed the relationship between community-specific ART delivery costs, retention in care, and viral suppression. RESULTS:Estimated streamlined HIV care delivery costs were 117/ppy for TDF/3TC/EFV [40%]) and viral load testing (51/ppy), recurring costs (7/ppy). Optimized ART scale-up with lowest-cost ART (24/ppy), and governmental healthcare salaries (163/ppy. We found clinic-to-clinic heterogeneity in retention and viral suppression levels versus streamlined care delivery costs, but no correlation between cost and either retention or viral suppression. CONCLUSIONS:In the SEARCH Study, streamlined HIV care delivery costs were similar to or lower than prior estimates despite including viral load testing; further optimizations could substantially reduce costs further. These data can inform global strategies for financing ART expansion to achieve UNAIDS 90-90-90 targets
Why are convertible bond announcements associated with increasingly negative issuer stock returns? An arbitrage-based explanation
While convertible offerings announced between 1984 and 1999 induce average abnormal stock returns of −1.69%, convertible announcement effects over the period 2000–2008 are more than twice as negative (−4.59%). We hypothesize that this evolution is attributable to a shift in the convertible bond investor base from long-only investors towards convertible arbitrage funds. These funds buy convertibles and short the underlying stocks, causing downward price pressure. Consistent with this hypothesis, we find that the differences in announcement returns between the Traditional Investor period (1984–1999) and the Arbitrage period (2000–September 2008) disappear when controlling for arbitrage-induced short selling associated with a range of hedging strategies. Post-issuance stock returns are also in line with the arbitrage explanation. Average announcement effects of convertibles issued during the Global Financial Crisis are even more negative (−9.12%), due to a combination of short-selling price pressure and issuer, issue, and macroeconomic characteristics associated with these offerings
A spectral deferred correction strategy for low Mach number reacting flows subject to electric fields
We propose an algorithm for low Mach number reacting flows subjected to
electric field that includes the chemical production and transport of charged
species. This work is an extension of a multi-implicit spectral deferred
correction (MISDC) algorithm designed to advance the conservation equations in
time at scales associated with advective transport. The fast and nontrivial
interactions of electrons with the electric field are treated implicitly using
a Jacobian-Free Newton Krylov approach for which a preconditioning strategy is
developed. Within the MISDC framework, this enables a close and stable coupling
of diffusion, reactions and dielectric relaxation terms with advective
transport and is shown to exhibit second-order convergence in space and time.
The algorithm is then applied to a series of steady and unsteady problems to
demonstrate its capability and stability. Although developed in a
one-dimensional case, the algorithmic ingredients are carefully designed to be
amenable to multidimensional applications
Fast fluorescence microscopy for imaging the dynamics of embryonic development
Live imaging has gained a pivotal role in developmental biology since it increasingly allows real-time observation of cell behavior in intact organisms. Microscopes that can capture the dynamics of ever-faster biological events, fluorescent markers optimal for in vivo imaging, and, finally, adapted reconstruction and analysis programs to complete data flow all contribute to this success. Focusing on temporal resolution, we discuss how fast imaging can be achieved with minimal prejudice to spatial resolution, photon count, or to reliably and automatically analyze images. In particular, we show how integrated approaches to imaging that combine bright fluorescent probes, fast microscopes, and custom post-processing techniques can address the kinetics of biological systems at multiple scales. Finally, we discuss remaining challenges and opportunities for further advances in this field
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