Technology replaces culture in microcredit markets: the case of Italian MAGs

We collect data from three Italian microcredit institutions which operate in urban areas by granting individual loans to two categories of wealthless borrowers: single entrepreneurs and organizations (cooperatives and associations).Evidence shows that organizations repay with higher probability and are charged a lower average interest rate than individuals. We use these findings to construct a lending scheme which consists of granting loans provided that borrowers form production teams (i.e. organizations). We consider a microcredit market with adverse selection à la De Meza- Webb and we verify that repayment rate increases, while interest rate falls with respect to individual lending if the above scheme, which we refer to as production team lending, is implemented. Our instrument, like joint liability implemented in rural economies, extracts information from borrowers through a peer selection mechanism but, differently from joint liability, fits to urban contexts where borrowers are less likely to know each other and social sanctions are weak.Microcredit, Urban areas, Production Team Lending, Adverse Selection

Efficiency in Marriage

Economists usually assume that bargaining in marriage leads to efficient outcomes. The most convincing rationale for this assumption is the belief that efficient allocations are likely to emerge from repeated interactions in stationary environments, and that marriage provides such an environment. This paper argues that when a current decision affects future bargaining power, inefficient outcomes are plausible. If the spouses could make binding commitments -- in effect, commitments to refrain from exploiting the future bargaining advantage -- then the inefficiency would disappear. But spouses seldom can make binding commitments regarding allocation within marriage. To investigate the efficiency of bargaining within marriage when choices affect future bargaining power, we consider the location decisions of two-earner couples. These location decisions are transparent and analytically tractable examples of choices likely to affect future bargaining power, but the logic of our analysis applies to many other decisions. For example, decisions about education, fertility, and labor force participation are also potential sources of inefficiency.

A theoretical investigation of the aerodynamics of slender wing-body combinations exhibiting leading-edge separation

Theoretical investigation of aerodynamics of slender wing-body combinations exhibiting leading edge separatio

Global discourses and power/knowledge: theoretical reflections on futures of higher education during the rise of Asia

This paper re-reads a selection of critical interdisciplinary theories in an attempt to open a space in higher education for cross-cultural dialogue during the rise of Asia. Theories of globalization, deterritorialization, power/knowledge and postcolonialism indicate that students and academics have the ability to re-imagine and influence globalization processes in higher education. The current power effects of global discourses restrict the imaginaries and territories of globalization – leading to specific enactments in ways that prioritize western understandings of higher education. The paper argues for the need to explore hegemonic discursive formations of globalization to uncover processes of "othering" and the subjugation of knowledges. In this regard, a postcolonial perspective can help by opening up scenarios for the future of higher education in the Asian Century

The Evolution of Manpower Management : A Historial Overview

Ce travail a pour but de montrer l'évolution de la direction du personnel en prenant soin de souligner les facteurs qui affectent la nature et l'étendue de cette fonction.Cette évolution s'échelonne sur trois grandes périodes.1.—LA PÉRIODE «  EOTECHNIQUE »L'utilisation du bois, de la pierre, de l'eau, du vent et de l'animal comme matières premières et sources de pouvoir caractérise cette première phase de l'évolution. Le type d'organisation sociale qui prévalait à ce moment-là était l'artisanat. C'était une société bien établie, enracinée dans la tradition offrant peu d'avenues à la mobilité occupationnelle. En empruntant les types de caractères sociaux élaborés par Riesman, on peut considérer cette période comme étant « tradition-directed ».Le besoin de se préoccuper d'une façon consciente et rationnelle de la conduite des hommes ne se faisait pas sentir. L'assimilation des valeurs culturelles et l'apprentissage des rôles assuraient un minimum de discipline.2.—LA PÉRIODE « PALÉOTECHNIQUE  »Elle se situe entre les années 1750 et 1850. L'utilisation du fer et de la machine à vapeur permet alors un accroissement des possibilités de production et ouvrent la voie à la naissance des usines. Un début d'aliénation au travail et dans la vie hors-travail se manifeste au cours de cette seconde phase. Le caractère social qui prévaut alors est celui de l'intra-détermination. Aux yeux des dirigeants de l'entreprise, le travail apparaît comme un processus rationnel et technique. Le surplus de main-d'oeuvre causé par l'exode moral, les méthodes complexes d'administration, l'orientation autoritaire des dirigeants sont autant de facteurs qui pointaient le besoin d'une direction systématique du personnel.3.—LA PÉRIODE « NÉOTECHNIQUE »Cette dernière phase date depuis 1850 jusqu'à nos jours. L'utilisation de l'acier, l'aluminium, l'électricité et l'énergie nucléaire contribue d'une manière significative à la révolution technique. C'est l'avènement du gigantisme tant industriel que syndical ouvrant les avenues à l'urbanisation et la possibilité d'ascension sociale. Cette période est celle de l'extra-détermination, caractérisée par une tendance à chercher à travers autrui une identité personnelle et des modes de comportement qui ont reçu une approbation sociale.Un besoin d'une direction efficace du personnel devient alors urgent au sein des grandes bureaucraties. Ce besoin est satisfait dans la mesure où l'on retrouve au sein des organisations des dirigeants qui s'acquittent de la fonction « personnel » et des spécialistes qui mettent sur pied des services du personnel.The purpose of this paper is to show the evolution of manpower management by taking into accounts the socio-cultural context from which the need of conscious and rational personnel administration has originated

Post-speleogenetic Biogenic Modification of Gomantong Caves, Sabah, Borneo

The Gomantong cave system of eastern Sabah, Malaysia, is well-known as an important site for harvesting edible bird-nests and, more recently, as a tourist attraction. Although the biology of the Gomantong system has been repeatedly studied, very little attention has been given to the geomorphology. Here, we report on the impact of geobiological modification in the development of the modern aspect of the cave, an important but little recognized feature of tropical caves. Basic modeling of the metabolic outputs from bats and birds (CO2, H2O, heat) reveals that post-speleogenetic biogenic corrosion can erode bedrock by between ~ 3.0 mm/ka (1 m/~300 ka) and ~ 4.6 mm/ka (1 m/~200 ka). Modeling at high densities of bats yields rates of corrosion of ~ 34 mm/ka (or 1 m/~30 ka). Sub-aerial corrosion creates a previously undescribed speleological feature, the apse-flute, which is semicircular in cross-section and ~ 80 cm wide. It is vertical regardless of rock properties, developing in parallel but apparently completely independently, and often unbroken from roof to floor. They end at a blind hemi-spherical top with no extraneous water source. Half-dome ceiling conch pockets are remnants of previous apse-fluting. Sub-cutaneous corrosion creates the floor-level guano notch formed by organic acid dissolution of bedrock in contact with guano. Speleogenetic assessment suggests that as much as 70–95% of the total volume of the modern cave may have been opened by direct subaerial biogenic dissolution and biogenically-induced collapse, and by sub-cutaneous removal of limestone, over a timescale of 1–2 Ma