How does geographic distance affect credit market access in Niger ?

Distances involved in accessing basic services can constitute a major barrier to development. This paper analyzes the relationship between the distance separating households from microfinance institutions'offices in Niger, and the low levels of development and performance of the microfinance sector in the country. To cope with the effects of geographical distance, microfinance institutions adapt their policies through more restrictive loan conditions, higher interest rates, and more intensive screening. The authors to discuss the tension between access and sustainability in the context of financial services for the poor.

Essays on the economics of foreign aid in Niger

This thesis identifies the gaps in the literature on foreign aid, and tries to fill some of them focusing particularly on Niger, a country that has received aid since its independence in 1960, yet remains one of the world's poorest. The work contributes to the literature in three ways: First, it addresses moral hazard: the relationship between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the country is analysed through a historical case study. Niger's requests for assistance are accompanied by promises to undertake reforms; however, once aid is disbursed, these undertakings rarely materialize. Despite this record of poor (and deteriorating) compliance, IMF aid continues to flow, engendering perverse incentives and moral hazard. Secondly, it analyses whether aid is associated with poverty reduction. Aid is correlated with poverty, which is to be expected due to its pro-poor targeting nature. However, this study found increases in poverty associated with communities which were recipients of aid. To shed more light on this, households receiving aid were compared with those receiving no project assistance at all, and with households who benefited from non-aid based development projects. The results showed that changes in poverty levels among aid recipient households were not statistically different to those among households receiving no assistance. However, households benefiting from aid under-performed those who benefited from other projects. Thirdly, it explores whether aid brings utility to households through the provision of public goods. The results suggest that aid projects do help households. However, other sources of development projects are more efficient at doing so. Information is the key: it is a vital prerequisite for projects to address the needs of the population, and not all donors have the same information. Information can be obtained through co-funding projects with other donors, although there are also coordination costs. The models estimated allow the prediction of the benefits a project could provide to a household. Such predictive abilities could allow policymakers to coordinate donors' initiatives to maximize their effectiveness. However, at present Niger lacks the capacity to achieve such coordination. Furthermore, such an approach would involve having to reduce the least efficient donors to mere providers of finance (i.e. channel their resources through other donor types), a role they might not be willing to accept

The gas metallicity gradient and the star formation activity of disc galaxies

We study oxygen abundance profiles of the gaseous disc components in simulated galaxies in a hierarchical universe. We analyse the disc metallicity gradients in relation to the stellar masses and star formation rates of the simulated galaxies. We find a trend for galaxies with low stellar masses to have steeper metallicity gradients than galaxies with high stellar masses at z ~0. We also detect that the gas-phase metallicity slopes and the specific star formation rate (sSFR) of our simulated disc galaxies are consistent with recently reported observations at z ~0. Simulated galaxies with high stellar masses reproduce the observed relationship at all analysed redshifts and have an increasing contribution of discs with positive metallicity slopes with increasing redshift. Simulated galaxies with low stellar masses a have larger fraction of negative metallicity gradients with increasing redshift. Simulated galaxies with positive or very negative metallicity slopes exhibit disturbed morphologies and/or have a close neighbour. We analyse the evolution of the slope of the oxygen profile and sSFR for a gas-rich galaxy-galaxy encounter, finding that this kind of events could generate either positive and negative gas-phase oxygen profiles depending on their state of evolution. Our results support claims that the determination of reliable metallicity gradients as a function of redshift is a key piece of information to understand galaxy formation and set constrains on the subgrid physics.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, accepted MNRA

Using a spreadsheet to support e-assessment

Some of the courses of the scientific area of Mathematics at ISCAP use multiple choice questions (MCQ) tests as a fundamental part of the assessment. The assessed topics include Differential and Integral Calculus, Algebra, Statistics, and Financial Mathematics. In the undergraduate programs of Accounting, Marketing and International Commerce, these courses are taught in theoretical-practical classes and their main objective is to provide the necessary support tools to other courses of these programs. On the other hand, these undergraduate programs, in particular Accounting, have many classes and many students, so MCQ tests have been an indispensable tool for both continuous and final exam assessment. The open source MOODLE platform, used through a local network intended only for continuous assessment, has been the support software for MCQ tests. In order to integrate student classifications so as to be more easily retrieved by all teachers, and in order to obtain them more quickly, an MS ExcelTM spreadsheet was developed. This allows us to automate the whole process from collecting the students’ answers, to obtaining their final classification and calculating important statistics. This paper describes the development process of this tool, which has proved extremely important in the e-assessment method already implemented. Therefore, some of the results presented show: (i) the substantial reduction in the time elapsed between the moment the tests were carried out by the students and the moment of the publication of the grades; (ii) the existence of automatic control in case of duplication of tests by the same student, (iii) the action of complementing MOODLE in the treatment of negative grades of students; (iv) the possibility of performing several statistical analysis that can be organized by class, by subject, by attendance regime to classes (nocturnal versus diurnal), and include comparisons with previous years and tables of frequencies of grades.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Opinion mining and sentiment analysis in marketing communications: a science mapping analysis in Web of Science (1998–2018)

Opinion mining and sentiment analysis has become ubiquitous in our society, with applications in online searching, computer vision, image understanding, artificial intelligence and marketing communications (MarCom). Within this context, opinion mining and sentiment analysis in marketing communications (OMSAMC) has a strong role in the development of the field by allowing us to understand whether people are satisfied or dissatisfied with our service or product in order to subsequently analyze the strengths and weaknesses of those consumer experiences. To the best of our knowledge, there is no science mapping analysis covering the research about opinion mining and sentiment analysis in the MarCom ecosystem. In this study, we perform a science mapping analysis on the OMSAMC research, in order to provide an overview of the scientific work during the last two decades in this interdisciplinary area and to show trends that could be the basis for future developments in the field. This study was carried out using VOSviewer, CitNetExplorer and InCites based on results from Web of Science (WoS). The results of this analysis show the evolution of the field, by highlighting the most notable authors, institutions, keywords, publications, countries, categories and journals.The research was funded by Programa Operativo FEDER Andalucía 2014‐2020, grant number “La reputación de las organizaciones en una sociedad digital. Elaboración de una Plataforma Inteligente para la Localización, Identificación y Clasificación de Influenciadores en los Medios Sociales Digitales (UMA18‐ FEDERJA‐148)” and The APC was funded by the same research gran

La comunicación online de Zara y Mango: análisis de perfiles de Twitter e Instagram durante la campaña de primavera 2018

La presente investigación tiene como objeto de estudio analizar exhaustivamente la comunicación online de ambas marcas Zara y Mango a través de sus redes sociales durante su campaña de primavera 2018. Por consiguiente, este trabajo persigue, por un lado, analizar la comunicación online de Zara y Mango a través de las redes sociales Twitter e Instagram. Por otro, realizar una comparativa entre ambas marcas en sus respectivas redes. Para esta finalidad, se ha realizado un análisis de contenido de los perfiles, y una posterior confrontación entre ambas marcas en las redes sociales estudiadas.La presente investigación tiene como objeto de estudio analizar exhaustivamente la comunicación online de ambas marcas Zara y Mango a través de sus redes sociales durante su campaña de primavera 2018.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

High-protein diet for body weight loss

A proporção ideal dos macronutrientes em dietas de emagrecimento é atualmente bastante discutida. Existem evidências de que dietas com maior proporção de proteína aumentam a perda de peso e de gordura corporal e diminuem a perda de massa corporal magra durante o emagrecimento. Todavia, os mecanismos responsáveis por estes efeitos não estão totalmente esclarecidos. Além disso, existem poucas conclusões a respeito dos possíveis efeitos colaterais dessas dietas na função renal e no estado nutricional relativo ao cálcio. Assim, este artigo objetiva trazer informações atuais sobre os efeitos de dietas ricas em proteína na perda de peso e na composição corporal e dos mecanismos envolvidos, bem como seus efeitos na função renal e no estado nutricional relativo ao cálcio.The ideal proportion of macronutrients in weight loss diets is currently under debate. There are evidences indicating that a higher proportion of protein during weight loss diets enhances the loss of body weight and fat mass, and reduces the loss of lean body mass. Nevertheless, the responsible mechanisms for these effects have not yet been fully elucidated. Furthermore, studies that evaluated the possible side effects of these diets on the renal function and on the nutritional state of calcium have shown inconclusive results. Therefore, this article has the objective to convey recent information about the effects of high-protein diets in the regulation of the body weight and body composition, besides its involved mechanisms, and its effects on the renal function and on the calcium nutritional status

Does Foreign Aid Reduce Poverty? Evidence from Niger

This paper analyses empirically whether foreign aid is associated with poverty reduction at household level in Niger. Evidence suggests that aid is correlated with poverty, to be expected when the poor are targeted. However, the study finds increases in poverty in communities that received aid projects. Further exploration reveals that poverty changes among aid-recipient households are not different to those among households receiving no projects at all. However, households benefiting from aid underperformed those who benefited from development projects by other donor types. Knowledge of local conditions seems to be the reason: when projects are funded by foreign aid only, poverty does not change, but when aid co-funds projects with other types of donor, poverty decreases. The implications are important: first, foreign aid requires coordination with other providers of public goods, which is always difficult, especially in a context of poor institutional capacity such as Niger’s. Second, the models estimated allow the prediction of the benefits a specific project would bring to a given household, which would allow Niger’s policymakers to coordinate donors’ initiatives to maximize their effectiveness – although such coordination may involve having to reduce the least efficient donors to mere providers of finance, a role they might not be willing to accept. And finally, poverty can be reduced, but for that, there is a minimum number of home-grown interventions which households should benefit from

Trends and Features of Research on Foreign Aid: A Literature Review

This paper reviews the economics literature on foreign aid. Aid supporters tend to emphasize results, while its detractors tend to highlight the incentives it provides (although they may still acknowledge some of aid’s positive results, particularly on public health). Like the modes to deliver it, research on foreign aid has evolved over the years. From the traditional aid-growth regressions research has refocused towards micro issues, including institutional inefficiencies or sector-specific bottlenecks. This tendency is positive, in so far as it can lead to useful policy advice that improves the way aid is given. Great gaps in knowledge remain, though. Notably, the aid market is poorly understood in aspects such as donors’ interaction with the recipient government or donors’ coordination. In terms of political economy, recipient countries’ decision making with regards to aid fungibility or the incentives provided by new types of aid (notably China’s) have been largely unexplored. Moreover, the types of public goods that improve households’ living standards are little understood. The scarcity of research on these questions is greatly due to lack of data – or even data opacity; if aid is to be better understood and improved, far greater efforts must be made in terms of collecting and sharing data