Local Financial Development and Household Welfare: Microevidence from Thai Households

We provide new micro evidence on the discussion about the relationship between financial development and welfare. Relying on the concept of local financial development our analysis focuses on three dimensions of household welfare: vulnerability to poverty, investment, and consumption smoothing. Even though we cannot find a significant effect on vulnerability, we provide evidence that financial development is correlated with higher investment and better possibilities to smooth consumption. The extent of both effects is also economically significant. Our results hold for alternative specifications and variations in the measurement of financial development. --credit rationing,investment,consumption,consumption smoothing,growth

Risk attitude and risk behavior: Comparing Thailand and Vietnam

Are responses to a simple survey item sufficiently reliable in eliciting risk attitudes? Our angle in examining reliability is to conduct comparative research across Thailand and Vietnam. We find, first, that the survey item is informative about individual risk attitude because it is plausibly related to socio-demographic characteristics (including vulnerability), it is experimentally validated and has some predictive power. Second, however, we find major differences between both countries: whereas explained variances of regressions are tentatively higher in Vietnam, the predictive value of the survey item is much lower than in Thailand. Therefore, the survey item cannot be implemented across countries in an unreflected way. --risk attitude,socio-economic survey,household behavior,field experiment

Obtaining of patinas on the surface of brass with using of gel electrolyte with adding gold nanoparticles

In work results of influence of concentration methacrylic copolymer in solution with gold nanoparticles on the morphology and phase composition of the brass surface are presented. It was found that increasing concentration of polymer from 10 to 20% by weight. leads to an decrease in the thickness of the coating formed on the brass and to an decrease in the corrosion resistance of the coating. It is shown that surface of brass in contact with the gel is enriched copper atoms. The resulting coatings are predominantly amorphous structure

Essays on the economics of foreign exchange and development finance

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The influence of book club conversations on reluctant or struggling readers

This qualitative case study reports the TL impact on reluctant readers’ sustained engagement in conversations about reading, and the impact the participation in the book club has on a student’s motivation to read. This study from a small, rural area in Northwest Iowa consisted of six fourth grade students and their teacher librarian who met in a book club over a four week time period during summer school. The students were taught different reading roles and utilized them throughout the discussion of the book. The researcher discovered five main themes in response to the research questions. Theme one is Diverse Perspectives Deepened Understandings. Theme two is Building Relationships Provide Safety. Theme three is Aesthetic and Efferent Responses Were Evident, and Theme four is Community Accountability Was Necessary. The students were able to build relationships that deepened their understandings, shared both aesthetic and efferent responses, and enjoyed the community accountability aspect. Students were excited to read the next chapter and take on a different role each day. They also became very interested in the other books in the series and couldn’t wait to read the second book. Theme five is a need for student voice. Students shared their own stories, often with sensitive topics, that relate to the book. By listening carefully to students’ own stories, the professional TL was essential to provide needed sensitivity and to recommend other books based upon their interest level and ability level, meeting the students’ need to have a professional to hear their voice to help make these important connections to books

When is Foreign Exchange Intervention Effective? Evidence from 33 Countries

This paper examines foreign exchange intervention based on novel daily data covering 33 countries from 1995 to 2011. We find that intervention is widely used and an effective policy tool, with a success rate in excess of 80 percent under some criteria. The policy works well in terms of smoothing the path of exchange rates, and in stabilizing the exchange rate in countries with narrow band regimes. Moving the level of the exchange rate in flexible regimes requires that some conditions are met, including the use of large volumes and that intervention is made public and supported via communication

Die griechisch-europäische Krise: Ungleichgewichte, Finanzmärkte und die Stabilität des Euroraums.

The external imbalances in Europe have led the Europzone into a crisis. Out of three goals in international monetary policy, only two can be realized at the same time. By joining a monetary union a country has implicitly decided about these two goals. In order to stay competitive, wages and prices have to adjust to the targeted inflation rate of the common currency. This failed largely in Greek and other Southern-European countries. Thus, ending the Greek-European crisis requires a solution for this structural problem. According to the monetary union's present arrangements, full adjustment has to be taken by the Southern-European memeber states