Umkhonto We Sizwe : A critical analysis of the armed struggle of the African National Congress

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The Economic Viability of Cocoa Crop Insurance in Ghana

This study was motivated by the fact that Ghanaian cocoa producers face lower yields than other main cocoa producing counties which in turn increases food insecurity for smallholder producers. In addition, low yields experienced by Ghanaian producers is a driving factor for forest degradation and deforestation as cocoa producers encroach further into previously undisturbed forests in efforts to increase their incomes. There are currently production methods to achieve higher yields readily available in Ghana; however, many producers choose not to adopt these methods because they are seen as too risky, or simply cannot adopt them due to financial/credit constraints. A common rationale for producers not adopting new technologies is that smallholder producers are risk averse and find it difficult to risk the little capital they may have. Smallholder producers frequently forego opportunities because they are vulnerable to adverse shocks such as crop failure that can move them into or deeper into poverty. Crop insurance could mitigate these risks but there is currently no crop insurance available for cocoa in Ghana. The Climate-Smart Cocoa (CSC) Working Group has proposed offering crop insurance for producers who follow the practices of CSC. This study estimated the average yields and yield variation (risk) between two groups of producers: (1) those who followed CSC practices: have training for efficient agrochemical input usage, used inorganic fertilizer, and practiced shade management (appendix 5) and (2) those who did not use CSC practices: no input-use training, no shade management, but did use inorganic fertilizer. The objectives of this study were: (1) to estimate yield differences among producers who follow CSC and non-CSC practices (2) estimate the impact of CSC practices on risk (i.e. yield variation) using percent chance of indemnity payments to producers and relative standard deviation of yield as measurements, and (3) estimate potential revenue gains through following CSC practices. To investigate these objectives, a regression model was estimated to predict cocoa yields using historical yield for 19 districts in Ghana for the copping seasons of 2010-2011 and 2011-2012. Regression results were then used to identify average yields at the district level, yield variance, and fair-market premiums for producers who followed CSC practices and those who did not in 19 districts of Ghana. The results of the study show that producers who followed the CSC recommended practices had higher yields, less risk, and higher gross revenue in every district of the study. Meaning, producers can obtain higher incomes by following CSC on lands that are already under cocoa cultivation as well as income stability through crop insurance. By obtaining these benefits, producers are not allowed to encroach into undisturbed forests and remain in the CSC program. Therefore, CSC can not only increase farm income but also reduce deforestation

The Effect of Minimum Wages on Wages and Employment: County-Level Estimates for the United States

We use county-level data on employment and earnings in the restaurant-and-bar sector to evaluate the impact of minimum wage changes on low-wage labor markets. Our empirical approach is similar to the literature that has used state-level panel data to estimate minimum-wage impacts, with the difference that we focus on a particular sector rather than demographic group. Our estimated models are consistent with a simple competitive model of the restaurant-and-bar labor market in which supply-and-demand factors affect both the equilibrium outcome and the probability that a minimum wage will be binding in any given time period. Our evidence does not suggest that minimum wages reduce employment in the overall restaurant-and-bar sector, after controls for trends in sector employment at the county level are incorporated in the model. Employment in this sector appears to exhibit a downward long-term trend in states that have increased their minimum wages relative to states that have not, thereby predisposing fixed-effects estimates towards finding negative employment effects.county-level data, wages and employment, minimum wages, spatial trends

The Effect of Minimum Wages on Labor Market Outcomes: County-Level Estimates from the Restaurant-and-Bar Sector

We use county-level data on employment and earnings in the restaurant-and-bar sector to evaluate the impact of minimum wage changes on low-wage labor markets. Our empirical approach is similar to the literature that has used state-level panel data to estimate minimum-wage impacts, with the difference that we focus on a particular sector rather than demographic group. Our estimated models are consistent with a simple competitive model of the restaurant-and-bar labor market in which supply-and-demand factors affect both the equilibrium outcome and the probability that a minimum wage will be binding in any given time period. Our evidence does not suggest that minimum wages reduce employment in the overall restaurant-and-bar sector, after controls for trends in sector employment at the county level are incorporated in the model. Employment in this sector appears to exhibit a downward long-term trend in states that have increased their minimum wages relative to states that have not, thereby predisposing fixed-effects estimates towards finding negative employment effects.

New Estimates of the Effects of Minimum Wages in the U.S. Retail Trade Sector

This paper examines the impact of minimum wages on earnings and employment in selected branches of the retail-trade sector, 1990-2005, using county-level data on employment and a panel regression framework that allows for county-specific trends in sectoral outcomes. We focus on particular subsectors within retail trade that are identified as particularly low-wage. We find little evidence of disemployment effects once we allow for geographic-specific trends. Rather, in many sectors the evidence suggests modest (but robust) positive employment effects. One explanation we consider for these ‘perverse’ effects is that minimum wages may have significant influences on product demand shifts.border county analysis, spatial trends, county-level data, wages and employment, minimum wages, unions, right-to-work states

Minimum Wage Increases in a Soft U.S. Economy

Do apparently large minimum wage increases in an environment of straightened economic circumstances produce clearer evidence of disemployment effects than is typically reported in the new economics of the minimum wage? The present paper augments the sparse literature covering the very latest increases in the U.S. minimum wage, using three different data sets and the principal estimation strategies for handling geographically-disparate trends. Despite the seemingly more favorable milieu for identifying displacement effects, and although our treatment calls into question one well-received estimation strategy, our preferred specification generally fails to support a finding of negative employment effects. That is to say, minimum-wage workers are apparently concentrated in sectors of the economy for which the labor demand response to statutory wage hikes is minimal. Popular concern with a “recessionary multiplier” thus seems overdone.Minimum wages, Disemployment, Earnings, Low-wage sectors, Geographically-disparate employment trends, Recession

Doing TESOL Postgraduate Studies Overseas: Teacher Training, Studying Abroad, (and/) or a Master’s Degree?

TESOL postgraduate studies in Anglophone countries are finding international students increasingly in the majority, especially in one-year master’s programs such as those in the UK. These programs are especially desirable for such students as they expect to not only get an advanced degree, but also to gain some English teacher training, and to hone their own English language skills by treating the year overseas as a study abroad experience. In this preliminary study, we examine the data collected in semi-structured interviews with 20 TESOL postgraduate students from China in their first month in the same program at a UK university. We discovered disparate interpretations of the program. The most common expectation was developing language skills in what they saw as the start of their study abroad year, expressing frustration with the lack of diversity in the student cohort, and wishing to make friends with “foreigners” (i.e., non-Chinese). This study has implications for TESOL postgraduate studies curriculum developers to consider ways of addressing students’ different interpretations

Teachers' beliefs and practices about oral corrective feedback in university EFL classes

This study examined (in)congruences between beliefs and practices of EFL university teachers on in‐class oral corrective feedback (OCF). The participants were 20 university English language teachers from a private university in Turkey. Data were collected via video‐recorded non‐participant detached observation, a task about OCF to determine the beliefs of the teachers, and a stimulated recall interview. The results showed incongruence between what the teachers said they believed and what they did. However, teachers’ beliefs and practices were similar regarding whether the errors should be corrected, when errors should be corrected, and who should correct them. Particularly notable in this study was the finding that those teachers with the greatest incongruence almost always stood by their decisions, even after they watched their unsuccessful OCF practices