On relationship types, their strength, and reward crowdfunding backer behavior

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Bioenergy, food security and poverty reduction: Mitigating tradeoffs and promoting synergies along the Water-Energy-Food Security Nexus

Modern bioenergy is a core ingredient of sustainable economic development as it plays an important role in poverty reduction and green growth. This makes bioenergy innovations critical, especially in developing countries where many households and rural communities rely on traditional bioenergy. Managing the multiple tradeoffs among bioenergy use, agricultural productivity, and ecosystem functions is a major development challenge. Addressing this challenge requires the identification of the drivers, tradeoffs and impacts of bioenergy production, trade and use in the Water, Energy and Food Security Nexus. The key objective of this paper is to provide an analytical framework and assess the track record of policy actions to stimulate modern bioenergy innovation in order to achieve multiple-win outcomes in terms of poverty alleviation, improved health and gender empowerment and environmental sustainability. We begin by describing the global trends and drivers in bioenergy production, trade and use. Secondly, we review the state of the art on impacts and links of bioenergy with the other Nexus components. Thirdly, we suggest a conceptual framework for evaluating the synergies and tradeoffs of bioenergy with other bioeconomic and economic activities along the Nexus. Follow-up empirical research at household and community levels in several developing countries will be based on this framework. Finally, a discussion on the conceptual framework is enriched by insights on the relevant actors, the tools and mechanisms specific to these actors for catalyzing innovations in the bioenergy for development

Evaluation bestehender gesetzlicher Mindestlohnregelungen - Branche: Dachdeckerhandwerk (Aktenzeichen: Zb 1-04812-3/10d)

Der Geltungsbereich des Mindestlohns erstreckt sich laut Tarifvertrag auf alle gewerblichen, sozialversicherungspflichtigen und volljährigen Arbeitnehmer von Betrieben und selbstständigen Betriebsabteilungen des Dachdeckerhandwerks. Dies umfasst entgegen dem Wortlaut des Tarifvertrages auch geringfügig Beschäftigte, da es bei der Anwendung des Mindestlohns auf die Tätigkeit und nicht den Umfang der Beschäftigung ankommt. Trotz der ein oder anderen nicht intendierten Wirkung des Mindestlohns im Dachdeckerhandwerk steht die Branche einem allgemeinverbindlichen Mindestlohn weitgehend positiv gegenüber. Sowohl Arbeitnehmer- als auch Arbeitgebervertreter sind einhellig der Meinung, dass der Mindestlohn eine wichtige untere Haltelinie für den Preiswettbewerb darstellt, der somit Wettbewerbsverzerrungen zu Lasten der Arbeitnehmer/Innen reduziere. Die Durchführung von Kontrollen stellt dafür jedoch eine Grundvoraussetzung dar. Aus der Sicht der Verbände reichen die Bemühungen der Kontrollinstanzen und die Sanktionsmöglichkeiten bislang nicht aus. Angesichts der sich vor dem Hintergrund des zunehmenden Fachkräftemangels zukünftig verändernden Rahmenbedingungen ist es denkbar, dass sich auch die Wirkungen des Mindestlohns in der Branche verändern. Eine fortgesetzte wissenschaftliche Begleitung des Mindestlohns im Dachdeckerhandwerk ist daher sinnvoll und wünschenswert

The Financial Burden of Non-Communicable Chronic Diseases in Rural Nigeria: Wealth and Gender Heterogeneity in Health Care Utilization and Health Expenditures

Objectives Better insights into health care utilization and out-of-pocket expenditures for non-communicable chronic diseases (NCCD) are needed to develop accessible health care and limit the increasing financial burden of NCCDs in Sub-Saharan Africa. Methods A household survey was conducted in rural Kwara State, Nigeria, among 5,761 individuals. Data were obtained using biomedical and socio-economic questionnaires. Health care utilization, NCCD-related health expenditures and distances to health care providers were compared by sex and by wealth quintile, and a Heckman regression model was used to estimate health expenditures taking selection bias in health care utilization into account. Results The prevalence of NCCDs in our sample was 6.2%. NCCD-affected individuals from the wealthiest quintile utilized formal health care nearly twice as often as those from the lowest quintile (87.8% vs 46.2%, p = 0.002). Women reported foregone formal care more often than men (43.5% vs. 27.0%, p = 0.058). Health expenditures relative to annual consumption of the poorest quintile exceeded those of the highest quintile 2.2-fold, and the poorest quintile exhibited a higher rate of catastrophic health spending (10.8% among NCCD-affected households) than the three upper quintiles (4.2% to 6.7%). Long travel distances to the nearest provider, highest for the poorest quintile, were a significant deterrent to seeking care. Using distance to the nearest facility as instrument to account for selection into health care utilization, we estimated out-of-pocket health care expenditures for NCCDs to be significantly higher in the lowest wealth quintile compared to the three upper quintiles. Conclusions Facing potentially high health care costs and poor accessibility of health care facilities, many individuals suffering from NCCDs—particularly women and the poor—forego formal care, thereby increasing the risk of more severe illness in the future. When seeking care, the poor spend less on treatment than the rich, suggestive of lower quality care, while their expenditures represent a higher share of their annual household consumption. This calls for targeted interventions that enhance health care accessibility and provide financial protection from the consequences of NCCDs, especially for vulnerable populations

Contagious loan default

© 2018 Elsevier B.V. Applying survival analysis to a large loan-level dataset for regulatory purposes on group loans provided by Mexican banks, I find that ex-post credit risk is subject to substantial geographic spillover effects. Potential underlying mechanisms include contagious defaulting behavior, which bears the risk of proliferating into a repayment crisis in the event of an economic or political shock, as experiences from similar markets suggest.status: Published onlin

From NGOs to banks: Does institutional transformation alter the business model of microfinance institutions?

In the microfinance industry an increasing number of providers are undergoing an institutional transformation from NGO to a shareholder-owned and typically regulated financial entity. Little is known about the extent to which this transformation affects the way microfinance institutions (MFIs) conduct their business. Our results obtained by applying an event study methodology to 66 transformed MFIs suggest that portfolio yield is driven down by 3.9 percentage points due to transformation, indicating that clients get more favorable interest rates. MFIs are able to significantly cut down their operational expenses, of which 1.1 percentage points can be attributed to transformation. Other findings include a steep increase in commercial debt leverage and deposits, a significant decrease in the fluctuation of funding costs and a sharp rise in average loan size, often taken as an indicator for mission drift. Profitability in terms of ROA drops in the short term, while ROE is driven up in the medium to long run, suggesting a more shareholder-oriented attitude.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Why do financial inclusion policies fail in mobilizing savings from the poor ? Lessons from rural South India *

International audienceCombining multivariate and qualitative analyses, this micro-level study suggests anexplanation for the persistence of informal savings in rural South India despite publicly runlarge-scale programs to promote bank savings. Notably gold, but also ROSCAs and privatelending, remain dominant forms of saving. We argue that cultural norms and social institutionssuch as social class and caste shape the nature, the propensity but also the opportunities to save.Gold serves multiple purposes, which are financial, economical, socio-cultural, and political.Furthermore, we find that Dalits’ (the lowest caste) preference for gold illustrates a relativeemancipation of Dalits combined with the maintenance of prohibition related to caste whichprevents them to invest in other assets such as land

Global Drivers of Land Degradation and Improvement

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016. Identification of factors catalyzing sustainable land management (SLM) could provide insights for national policies and international efforts to address land degradation. Building on previous studies, and using novel datasets, this chapter identifies major drivers of land degradation at global and regional levels. The findings of this study confirm the earlier insights in the literature on the context-specific nature of the drivers of land degradation. This context-dependence explains the previous contradictions in the literature on the effects of various socio-economic and institutional factors on land degradation. It also calls for the localized diagnostic of the drivers of land degradation. The drivers of land degradation are predominantly local, so actions to address them should be based on the understanding of the local interplay of various factors and how they affect land degradation.status: publishe

Economics of Land Degradation in Central Asia

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016. Land degradation is a major development challenge in Central Asia, with negative implications on rural livelihoods and food security. We estimate the annual cost of land degradation in the region due to land use and cover change between 2001 and 2009 to be about 6 billion USD, most of which due to rangeland degradation (4.6 billion USD), followed by desertification (0.8 billion USD), deforestation (0.3 billion USD) and abandonment of croplands (0.1 billion USD). The costs of action against land degradation are found to be lower than the costs of inaction in Central Asia by 5 times over a 30-year horizon, meaning that each dollar spent on addressing land degradation is likely to have about 5 dollars of returns. This is a very strong economic justification favoring action versus inaction against land degradation. Specifically, the costs of action were found to equal about 53 billion USD over a 30-year horizon, whereas if nothing is done, the resulting losses may equal almost 288 billion USD during the same period. Better access to markets, extension services, secure land tenure, and livestock ownership among smallholder crop producers are found to be major drivers of SLM adoptions.status: publishe

Bioenergy, Food Security and Poverty Reduction: Mitigating tradeoffs and promoting synergies along the Water- Energy-Food Security Nexus

Modern bioenergy is a core ingredient of sustainable economic development as it plays an important role in poverty reduction and green growth. This makes bioenergy innovations critical, especially in developing countries where many households and rural communities rely on traditional bioenergy. Managing the multiple tradeoffs among bioenergy use, agricultural productivity, and ecosystem functions is a major development challenge. Addressing this challenge requires the identification of the drivers, tradeoffs and impacts of bioenergy production, trade and use in the Water, Energy and Food Security Nexus. The key objective of this paper is to provide an analytical framework and assess the track record of policy actions to stimulate modern bioenergy innovation in order to achieve multiple-win outcomes in terms of poverty alleviation, improved health and gender empowerment and environmental sustainability. We begin by describing the global trends and drivers in bioenergy production, trade and use. Secondly, we review the state of the art on impacts and links of bioenergy with the other Nexus components. Thirdly, we suggest a conceptual framework for evaluating the synergies and tradeoffs of bioenergy with other bioeconomic and economic activities along the Nexus. Follow-up empirical research at household and community levels in several developing countries will be based on this framework. Finally, a discussion on the conceptual framework is enriched by insights on the relevant actors, the tools and mechanisms specific to these actors for catalyzing innovations in the bioenergy for development