Risk and ambiguity aversion behavior in index-based insurance uptake decisions:Experimental evidence from Ethiopia

Index-based insurance (IBI) is an innovative pro-poor climate risk management strategy that suffers from low uptake. Evidence on the role of behavioral impediments in adoption of IBI is scant. We conducted lab-in-the-field experiments with 1139 smallholders out of whom 596 have adopted IBI in Ethiopia to elicit their risk and ambiguity aversion behavior, and examine whether risk and/or ambiguity aversion can explain actual IBI uptake decisions. Our study suggests that an increase in risk-aversion increases uptake, but an increase in ambiguity-aversion lowers uptake of IBI. We also find evidence that an increase in risk aversion speeds-up the uptake of IBI, while an increase in ambiguity aversion delays the adoption of IBI

Lack of Helios during neural development induces adult schizophrenia-like behaviors associated with aberrant levels of the TRIF-recruiter protein WDFY1

The role of the WDFY1 protein has been studied as a TLR3/4 scaffold/recruiting protein in the immune system and in different oncogenic conditions. However, its function in brain remains poorly understood. We have found that in mice devoid of Helios (He−/− mice), a transcription factor specifically expressed during the development of the immune cells and the central nervous system, there is a permanent and sustained increase of Wdfy1 gene expression in the striatum and hippocampus. Interestingly, we observed that WDFY1 protein levels were also increased in the hippocampus and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of schizophrenic patients, but not in the hippocampus of Alzheimer's disease patients with an associated psychotic disorder. Accordingly, young He−/− mice displayed several schizophrenic-like behaviors related to dysfunctions in the striatum and hippocampus. These changes were associated with an increase in spine density in medium spiny neurons (MSNs) and with a decrease in the number and size of PSD-95-positive clusters in the stratum radiatum of the CA1. Moreover, these alterations in structural synaptic plasticity were associated with a strong reduction of neuronal NF-κB in the pyramidal layer of the CA1 in He−/− mice. Altogether, our data indicate that alterations involving the molecular axis Helios-WDFY1 in neurons during the development of core brain regions could be relevant for the pathophysiology of neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia

Risk and ambiguity aversion behaviour in index-based insurance uptake decisions: Experimental evidence from Ethiopia 2016-2017

We conducted lab-in-the-field experiments with 1139 smallholders out of whom 596 have adopted IBI in Ethiopia to elicit their risk and ambiguity aversion behaviour, and examine whether risk and/or ambiguity aversion can explain actual IBI uptake decisions. Index-based insurance (IBI) is an innovative pro-poor climate risk management strategy that suffers from low uptake. Evidence on the role of behavioural impediments in adoption of IBI is scant. Our study suggests that an increase in risk- aversion increases uptake, but an increase in ambiguity-aversion lowers uptake of IBI. We also find evidence that an increase in risk aversion speeds-up the uptake of IBI, while an increase in ambiguity aversion delays the adoption of IBI.Farm households in Africa must cope with bad conditions as to soil quality, weather and infrastructure. The variability of rainfall causes yields to vary strongly from one year to the next. With yields already low (due to poor soil condition) these variations can be life threatening. Meanwhile, inadequate infrastructure makes it difficult to help the households with access to financial services, insurance and inputs that could stabilize their access to resources, and enhance yields. Solving a single aspect, say bringing inputs to the farm, will not be sufficient as credit is also needed. But credit can only be provided if sufficient likelihood exists that loans will be repaid. Here, insurance can help. If insurance of the loan makes it attractive enough for the lender, a package can be composed of inputs, with credit and insurance, that solves all these problems with one bundle. Yet, the households will remain exposed to some risks as insuring against all is prohibitively expensive. What is the appropriate degree of insurance in such bundles? That is the core question addressed in this research. It aims at supplying inputs to farmers on credit, with insurance, in such a way that a good balance is found between the benefits and risks to the farmers and the profits and risks to the credit provider. We investigate the possibilities for such a balanced approach in Kenya and Ethiopia in collaboration with a large insurance provider and a farmers organisation. Together with them we collect information on the costs, benefits and risks involved in using the inputs, the alternatives open to them, and the costs and benefits involved in providing credit to finance the purchase of inputs, with and without an insurance against crop failure. With all this information, we go and talk to the stakeholders concerned to find out how they would respond if more or less insurance would be provided. Will credit suppliers lower their prices, if repayment of loan is more likely because the crop is insured? Will households decide to take higher yielding (but more risky) crops if part of the downside risk is insured? We establish this for the parties concerned in Kenya and Ethiopia, but also in other African countries. Having established how these stakeholders respond to changes in insurance, we can proceed to derive what the best degree of insurance might be. And this is then finally tested in a field experiment. With this knowledge we can help other suppliers of insurance and credit, and farm organisations to establish similar packages that are adapted to the local conditions for input supply, and financial services.</p

A system study on the Production Department of Jardis Printing Corporation

Jardis Printing Company was founded in year 1983 and is situated at Boni Avenue, Mandaluyong City. It provides printing services such as official receipts, brochures, and creation of packaging materials for various companies. The study covers the production department of the company from June 2014 to May 2015. It is focused on the production of the job orders and the processes followed therein. A detailed present system was obtained using PRIMEU and all processes included in the study are the cutting section, offset section, varnishing, UV/matt/plastic lamination, die cutting, folding/gluing, stitching, perfect binding, and bindery. A situation appraisal was conducted based on the present system to determine the problems that are occurring in the system. The top problems are that the bindery section of the system exceeded the allowable lost man-hours of 2% by 0.79%, the total rejects incurred is 6.11%, which is above the 3% standard as well. Through the WOT-SURG analysis, it was deduced that the main problem of the system is the quantity of total rejects, which goes beyond the allowable limit. It is defined as the number of non-conforming finished goods in pieces that the system produces. This problem happens on all the months in the study period, and covers 2,084,695 pieces of rejects amounting to Php4,815,624. Those numbers are based from the job orders that exceeded the 3% standard. Meanwhile, the identity of the problem is that it can happen regardless of the defect type such as out of specs, off color, and scum/smear. In addition, the problem on rejects can come from the production of any job order of the customers or from any product category, specifically commercial, packaging, and promotional. The problem was studied further to identify the root causes that increase total rejects. From the cause analysis and validation, the root causes include too much outflow of ink, trial and error adjustment, loose blanket, unclean machine parts, inconsistent monitoring, overlooked other defects, and wrong mixing of special ink. The first three root causes were grouped together because they all belong to the set-up process and they can all be solved using the same solution. To solve the problem on rejects, the solutions presented for the proposed system are assigning a supervisor for the setup process, use of ink blotter pads, continuous and acceptance sampling, and performing ink drawdown test. All except the drawdown test incurs an annual cost and all of them can help the system gain an annual benefit. Based from the cost benefit analysis on all of the solutions, the annual benefit amounts to Php1,532,607, the investment cost amount to Php15,134, and the annual cost is Php130,429. The system can greatly benefit from implementing these solutions given that the annual benefit value is far grater than the annual cost value, and it is expected that after 18 days the investment will be profitable. Extensions of the study can be focused on expanding the system scope to encompass other business operations such as purchasing, and logistics. Data can be collected prior to the system being studied to further broaden the analysis of the problem

Depressive symptoms and carotid intima-media thickness in South American Hispanics: results from the PREVENCION study

This study aimed to: (1) examine the relationship between depressive symptoms and subclinical atherosclerosis, measured by carotid intima-media thickness (IMT); and, (2) Determine the moderating effect of gender in this relationship among South American Hispanics. We studied 496 adults enrolled in the population-based PREVENCION study. Carotid IMT was measured with high-resolution ultrasonography. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Mean carotid IMT was 0.66 mm. (SD = 0.17) and mean depression score was 5.6 (SD = 3.5). Depressive symptoms were not associated with carotid IMT (β = 0.04, p = 0.222) in multivariate analyses. A significant moderating effect of gender was found (β for interaction = 0.10, p = 0.030), resulting from a significant association between depressive symptoms and carotid IMT in men but not women. Depressive symptoms were associated with subclinical atherosclerosis in South American Hispanic men but not women after controlling for demographic characteristics and traditional cardiovascular risk factors