Do interest rates matter? credit demand in the Dhaka Slums

If the demand for credit by the poor changes little when interest rates increase, lenders can raise fees to cost-covering levels without losing customers. This claim is at the core of sustainable microfinance strategies that aim to provide banking services to the poor while eschewing long-term subsidies, but, so far, there is little direct evidence of this. This paper uses data from SafeSave, a credit cooperative in the slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh, to examine how sensitive borrowers are to increases in the interest rate on loans. Using unanticipated between-branch variation in the interest rate we estimate interest elasticities of loan demand ranging from -0.73 to -1.04. Less wealthy accountholders are more sensitive to the interest rate than (relatively) wealthier borrowers (an elasticity of -0.86 compared to -0.26), and consequently the bank’s portfolio shifts away from its poorest borrowers when it increases the interest rate.microfinance; credit; demand

Playing Devil\u27s Advocate: The Attractive Shakespearean Villain

The characters of William Shakespeare have spawned countless words of critical interpretation inspired by the playwright\u27s aptitude for fashioning intricate and conflicted figures. As a master character craftsman, Shakespeare is consistent in creating fascinatingly deep characters, and many of them have even gone so far as to generate entire literary archetypes. From the contemplative Prince Hamlet to the despicable yet charming John Falstaff, Shakespeare\u27s characters remain eternal representatives of what any good character should be: interesting, provocative, and complicated. However, among the playwright\u27s most hypnotic figures are his villains, those characters whom audiences should by all counts detest but cannot help but find alluring. Some of these villains have attracted more critical attention than others. For instance, Iago, the scheming fiend of Othello, has forever mesmerized audiences and critics alike with his almost supernatural penchant for evil. Other villains, like the passionate firebrand of 1 Henry IV, Henry Hotspur Percy, are perhaps less discussed but still produce an equally ambivalent response from their audiences. This thesis specifically aims to answer two questions. First, what makes these villains attractive to their readers and viewers? Why do they produce such a strongly ambivalent response from their audiences--how do they manage to simultaneously repel and attract us? More importantly, however, the thesis speculates on Shakespeare\u27s reasons for creating such captivating antagonists. In other words, what was the playwright trying to do by forging villains whom we have no choice but to admire? The thesis is divided into four chapters, each of which will focus on a particular villain from Shakespeare\u27s plays: Hotspur from 1 Henry IV, Iago from Othello, Richard from Richard III, and Macbeth from Macbeth. While these are by no means the only Shakespearean villains worthy of critical assessment, nor are they the playwright\u27s only attractive villains, they do nonetheless serve as prime examples of how Shakespeare uses the archetype of the attractive villain to some dramatic end. Each chapter will first explore the ways in which that character is particularly alluring, and then it will move into a consideration of Shakespeare\u27s intent in producing the uncannily attractive villain. Additionally, each chapter will conclude by supposing the villain to be a figurehead for a hypothetical class of literary villains. For example, one villain could represent a class of villains who are attractive because of their ambition; another could represent villains who entice audiences through their mystery. To that end, the chapters will conclude by offering additional members of that class from other popular literary works, some from before Shakespeare, some from after Shakespeare, and some from his contemporary authors. The goal of this thesis is to explore the archetype of the attractive villain and to offer reasons for Shakespeare\u27s apparent fondness--and aptitude--for it. While the goal of any academic endeavor should always be discovery, it need not always find one satisfactory answer--rare is the academic pursuit that ends in certainty. However, by delving into the worlds of these villains, by playing a bit of devil\u27s advocate in analyzing Shakespeare\u27s elaborate characterization process, we can discover what makes them such effective and eternal members among the great personalities of literature

Best Practice: Bringing the Elements of Effective Practice to the College Writing Classroom

Studies of college writing students suggest that many students associate writing ability with innate talent rather than sustained, deliberate practice. As a result, these students may lack the motivation to improve their writing abilities, leading to a vicious cycle in which they come to increasingly resent writing as a curricular and extracurricular activity. This dissertation argues that the elements of effective practice as outlined by cognitive psychology are equally applicable to writing as they are to skills such as music and that convincing students of the “practice-ability” of writing may improve their motivation to improve their writing abilities. The dissertation discusses the methodology and results of a study to determine how well the five “elements” of effective practice could be incorporated into a first-year college writing curriculum. More specifically, it examines the author’s design and teaching of “Perfect Practice and Writing,” a course centered on the five elements: setting effective goals, maintaining appropriate challenge, appreciating error and failure, evaluating feedback, and thinking metacognitively. Course discussions and assignments were designed to engage students with all five of these essential components of effective practice, ideally leading students to conceive of writing as a skill that could be practiced and improved upon like any other. The results suggest that a first-year writing course premised on the elements of effective practice can successfully reorient students’ attitudes about writing as a practice-able skill; however, some elements are more difficult to incorporate into the typical first-year writing classroom than others. The more difficult elements are those which require an especially individualistic approach, which may be logistically problematic for larger classes. The dissertation concludes with potential strategies for overcoming these obstacles, as well as implications for further research

The Third Place: the library as collaborative and community space in a time of fiscal restraint

In a period of fiscal constraint, when assumptions about the library as place are being challenged, administrators question the contribution of every expense to student success. Libraries have been successful in migrating resources and services to a digital environment accessible beyond the library. What is the role of the library as place when users do not need to visit the building to utilize library services and resources? We argue that the college library building’s core role is as a space for collaborative learning and community interaction which cannot be jettisoned in the new normal

Common Intellectual Experiences and Academic Libraries

As discussed throughout this volume, colleges and universities have explored ways to integrate high-impact practices into their campus learning. At Rollins College, a small liberal arts college with a graduate business school in Winter Park, Florida, faculty members have been essential in fostering initiatives that center on creating a common learning experience for their students. As library faculty members at Rollins, we have been heavily involved with the rFLA (Rollins Foundations in the Liberal Arts) curriculum for undergraduates. This chapter presents our work as a case study

The variance of the number of prime polynomials in short intervals and in residue classes

We resolve a function field version of two conjectures concerning the variance of the number of primes in short intervals (Goldston and Montgomery) and in arithmetic progressions (Hooley). A crucial ingredient in our work are recent equidistribution results of N. Katz.Comment: Revised according to referees' comment

Squarefree polynomials and Mobius values in short intervals and arithmetic progressions

We calculate the mean and variance of sums of the M\"obius function and the indicator function of the squarefrees, in both short intervals and arithmetic progressions, in the context of the ring of polynomials over a finite field of $q$ elements, in the limit $q\to \infty$. We do this by relating the sums in question to certain matrix integrals over the unitary group, using recent equidistribution results due to N. Katz, and then by evaluating these integrals. In many cases our results mirror what is either known or conjectured for the corresponding problems involving sums over the integers, which have a long history. In some cases there are subtle and surprising differences. The ranges over which our results hold is significantly greater than those established for the corresponding problems in the number field setting.Comment: Added references and corrected misprint

Thinking, Talking and Acting about Public Health Ethics in the COVID-19 Pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the discipline of public ethics has struggled to find a consensus on how best to conceptualise the challenges. The transactional nature of clinical ethics is too limited to capture the range of ethically relevant concerns. Although public health ethics is broader, it fails to provide a convincing framework for the deeply political implications of the response to the pandemic. They go beyond health issues and raise questions of justice. We consider the demands of fairness for all, corrective justice for past structural wrongs, and utopian approaches that draw on our ideas about the ideal society. The lack of an agreed framework for ethical analysis is exacerbated by dwindling faith in expertise and a degradation of trust in media sources to present reliable, accurate information. These matters have undermined the quality of public reason. Although both the USA and UK had well-established anticipatory governance for pandemic influenza, it was not followed when COVID-19 took hold. The pandemic has exposed the weaknesses of our collective thinking, our readiness to discuss the issues rationally and effectively, and our ability to act effectively in the public good. Rebuilding effective public ethics in its wake will present a monumental challenge