To switch or not to switch - Can individual lending do better in microfinance than group lending?

These days it has been witnessed, that banks other individual loans instead of group loans and develop products based on individual liability in developing coun- tries. In order to study this surprising turn, we expand the conventional approach on decision making of individuals. A social prestige function is introduced that re- ‡ects the non-monetary impacts of group membership on the individual and on her decisions. If a borrower possesses more than a critical level of wealth, it is optimal for her to switch to individual borrowing. From a welfare perspective, a mixture of individual and group loans is desirable. However, the average borrower switches from group to individual lending too soon.

The safe are rationed, the risky not – an extension of the Stiglitz-Weiss model

Using only two risk types in the Stiglitz-Weiss model it turns out that the return function for banks has to be double hump-shaped. We derive the demand for loans and the supply of loans and find that loans are provided at two interest rates in equilibrium. The safe borrowers are rationed at the lower interest rate, whereas the risky borrowers are not rationed at all. Compared to the existing literature this suggests that the more heterogenous the risk types are, the less credit is rationed. However, credit-rationing persists in equilibrium as long as we consider a discrete number of types.

A Reconsideration of the Stiglitz-Weiss Model with a Discrete Number of Borrower Types

In this paper we show that the equilibrium in the Stiglitz-Weiss model (Stiglitz and Weiss, 1981) is a two-interest rate equilibrium. For this we use the true return-function for banks shown by Arnold (2005), the assumption of Bertrand competition and make a consideration for a discrete number of borrowers. Rationing only affects one group of the borrowers, i.e. the borrowers with a safe project. The risky group always receives the funds it demands.credit rationing, asymmetric information, adverse selection

On Conditionals

A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Department of philosophy, National University of Singapore and Yale-Nus Colleg

Ägedad mürgistused lastel Tallinna lastehaigla andmetel

Ägedad mürgistused lapseeas on oluline rahvatervise probleem, kuid nende täpne esinemissagedus Eestis ei ole teada. Artiklis on analüüsitud valitud 7 aasta jooksul Tallinna lastehaiglasse hospitaliseeritud patsientide ägedate mürgistuste põhjuseid ja struktuuri. Ägedad mürgistused moodustavad aastate jooksul 0,9–2,8% kõigist hospitaliseerimise põhjustest. Alla 5aastastel lastel on peamiseks põhjuseks ravimimürgistused ning noorukitel äge alkoholiintoksikatsioon. Mürgistuste struktuuris domineerisid 1980ndatel ravimi- ning 21. sajandil alkoholimürgistused. Eesti Arst 2009; 88(Lisa4):53−5

Internationales Recht und Verständigungs-Internationalismus unter Druck: Politische Profile der Carnegie Men im Umfeld des Balkanberichts von 1914

International Law and Conciliarist Internationalism under Pressure: Political Profiles of the Carnegie Men framing the Carnegie Report on the Balkan Wars c. 1914 and Beyond The Carnegie Report on the Balkan Wars could neither pacify the regional conflicts nor ban future ethnic violence. Yet it signifies a highly symptomatic moment in early 20th-century US Big Philanthropy. In order to assess its historical relevance, this article traces the report’s historical setting in contemporary US American political and legal debates from 1910 to the early 1920s. Two major features stand out: First, the report testifies to the contemporary programmatic creed and political leanings of its most renowned trustees – such as Elihu Root, James T. Shotwell, James Brown Scott and Nicholas Murray Butler – who envisioned an international world order based on increasingly professionalized international law. Most of them judicial experts, some of them staunch republican foreign policy elites, others more progressive intellectuals, they felt authorized to scientifically analyse and advise international diplomacy. Second, however, the Carnegie Men’s emphasis on law-based internationalism was no static endeavour. It rather succumbed to the turmoils of their time. Under the unfavourable auspices of World War I since 1914 and, even more so with the United States entering the war in 1917 and during the complicated peace negotiations in 1918/19, the philanthropic experiment of propagating a law-based vision of the world order was gradually transformed into a new version of conciliarist internationalism based on close cooperation with the new League of Nations in the early 1920s

Die Welt der Gründe Hiob und die Theodizee: Warum gibt es Leid auf Erden?

Das Buch Hiob ist eine einzigartige theologische und philosophische Reflexion auf die Frage nach Gerechtigkeit und die Begründung von Leid. Im Unglück Hiobs verdichten sich überzeitliche, allgemeinmenschliche Erfahrungen der Gottessuche und der Möglichkeit von Sinngebung angesichts von Schicksalsschlägen, die sich dem Gerechtigkeitsempfinden und dem Verstehensanspruch widersetzen. Das Buch Hiob beantwortet und problematisiert die Theodizee, die Frage nach der Rechtfertigung Gottes in Anbetracht des menschlichen Leids, mit konkurrierenden Begründungskonzepten. Der Vortrag zeigt, wie die philosophische und theologische Substanz des Textes an ausgewählten Textstellen im Schulunterricht erarbeitet werden kann. Dazu wird ein Konzept vorgestellt, das die philosophischen Methoden nach Martens und Rohbeck mit den Verfahren der sogenannten Handlungs- und Produktionsorientierung kombiniert. In ganzheitlicher Ausrichtung eröffnen sie nicht nur kognitive, sondern auch affektive, soziale und motorische Lernwege. Mit ihrer Hilfe werden, wie die Ausführungen darlegen, den Lernenden Sinn- und Identitätsangebote ermöglicht, die Muster zur Krisenbewältigung bieten und verdeutlichen, dass die Erfahrung von vermeintlich unbegründetem Leid aufs Engste mit dem Leben zusammenhäng

The postcranium of the carnivorous cynodont Chiniquodon from the Middle Triassic of Namibia and the palaeo-environment of the Upper Omingonde Formation

A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science Johannesburg, 2015The Chiniquodontidae is a family of Triassic carnivorous cynodonts well represented in the Middle-Upper Triassic of Argentina and Brazil. Chiniquodontids were more recently discovered in Madagascar and central Namibia, representing the only record of the family outside South America. The Namibian specimen was discovered in the Upper Omingonde Formation and is represented by the skull and a partial skeleton. The new chiniquodontid was identified as Chiniquodon and is diagnosed by the postcranial characteristics identified; a strong bend in the proximal portion of thoracic ribs, reduced curvature of the clavicle, although this may be due to deformation, robustness of the neck of the ilium, differences in the angulation between the edge of the posterior lamina of the ilium and the margin of the neck, and a large ischium, which is more than twice the size of the pubic plate. The postcranial material of the chiniquodontid from Namibia is described and compared with that of South American chiniquodontids. Chiniquodontids lack costal plates on ribs, show a tall and slender scapular blade, a large acromion process positioned well above the scapular neck and absence of disc-like phalanges in the autopodium. The Namibian Chiniquodon provides the first evidence of elements from the pes in chiniquodontids, and one of the few for non-mammaliaform cynodonts. Sedimentological studies confirm that the Upper Omingonde Formation of Namibia represents fluvial deposits of braided and meandering rivers formed in a predominately arid climatic regime during the Middle Triassic

Synchrony and diachrony in Ket incorporation

Non peer reviewe