An Economic Framework for Understanding Micro-Credit in Developing Countries

To reduce vulnerability and food insecurity this paper investigates the economics of micro-credit. We provide a model that shows how a micro-credit market based on trust can co-exist with a commercial collateral-based market. This model is developed in detail and certain propositions are supported using dominant strategies in a trust-honour game based on the prisoners dilemma. From a policy point of view the theoretical model indicates that trust-based lending, coupled with certain incentives, can go far in supporting growth opportunities in developing countries. It is argued that development policy should be flexible enough to permit trust-based micro-lending to the poor, regardless of how counter-intuitive this must appear to the conventional wisdom.Financial Economics,

Wireless information and power transfer: from scientific hypothesis to engineering practice

Recently, there has been substantial research interest in the subject of Simultaneous Wireless Information andPower Transfer (SWIPT) owing to its cross-disciplinary appeal and its wide-ranging application potential, whichmotivates this overview. More explicitly, we provide a brief survey of the state-of-the-art and introduce severalpractical transceiver architectures that may facilitate its implementation. Moreover, the most important link-levelas well as system-level design aspects are elaborated on, along with a variety of potential solutions and researchideas. We envision that the dual interpretation of Radio Frequency (RF) signals creates new opportunities as wellas challenges requiring substantial research, innovation and engineering efforts

Vulnerability, Trust and Microcredit: The Case of China?s Rural Poor

This paper investigates the economic conditions of rural households in China. Historical survey data indicate that over 80 per cent of rural households earn less than 4,500 yuan in net disposable income each year, that for the vast majority of rural households disposable income is insufficient to meet food consumption needs, and that in terms of economic growth rural households are receiving an ever decreasing percentage of China?s growing economy with rural household incomes being only 31 per cent of urban household income in 2004. To reduce vulnerability and food insecurity, this paper investigates the role of microcredit in China. It is argued that in China the conventional wisdom is to provide credit using traditional means, but we provide a model that shows how a microcredit market based on trust can co-exist with a commercial collateral-based market. This model is developed in detail and certain propositions are supported using dominant strategies in a trust-honour game based on the prisoner?s dilemma. The theoretical model is then applied to the case of microlending in China. It explains why, in the absence of trust, rural credit corporations do not make loans to the very poor. Furthermore, the model explains how Central party policies on rural credit can actually crowd out micro finance institution (MFI) and NGO microlending in China, and also explains why moneylenders dominate in many of the poorer regions of the country. From a policy point of view, the theoretical model indicates that trust-based lending, coupled with certain incentives, can go far in supporting growth opportunities in rural China. It is argued that Chinese policy should be flexible enough to permit trust-based microlending to the poor, regardless of how counterintuitive this must appear to the conventional wisdom. Indeed, in the absence of flexible credit strategies, China?s rural poor will remain in a persistent food-insecure poverty gap.equilibrium, game theory, rural, credit, China

Effective potential for composite operators and for an auxiliary scalar field in a Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model

We derive the effective potentials for composite operators in a Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model at zero and finite temperature and show that in each case they are equivalent to the corresponding effective potentials based on an auxiliary scalar field. The both effective potentials could lead to the same possible spontaneous breaking and restoration of symmetries including chiral symmetry if the momentum cutoff in the loop integrals is large enough, and can be transformed to each other when the Schwinger-Dyson (SD) equation of the dynamical fermion mass from the fermion-antifermion vacuum (or thermal) condensates is used. The results also generally indicate that two effective potentials with the same single order parameter but rather different mathematical expressions can still be considered physically equivalent if the SD equation corresponding to the extreme value conditions of the two potentials have the same form.Comment: 7 pages, no figur

Weather Risk and the Viability of Weather Insurance In Western China

This paper presents preliminary results on the possible demand for weather insurance in China. Results from 1,564 farm households from Western and Central China between October 2007 and October 2008 suggest that the greater risk for farmers is drought followed by excessive rain. Heat is less critical as a risk but more significant than cool weather. Results suggest a strong interest in precipitation insurance with 50% and 44% of respondents indicating strong interest in the product. Supplementary results indicate that interest is equal between planting, cultivating, and harvesting. Furthermore results suggest that farmers are willing to adopt new ideas, and where possible already take action to self insure through diversification and other means, The results are encouraging. Examples and discussion of how weather insurance can be implemented is included in the text.weather insurance, rainfall insurance, China, Agricultural and Food Policy, Agricultural Finance, International Development, Risk and Uncertainty,

Determination of f+K(0)f_+^K(0) and Extraction of ∣Vcs∣|V_{cs}| from Semileptonic DD Decays

By globally analyzing all existing measured branching fractions and partial rates in different four momentum transfer-squared $q^2$ bins of $D\to Ke^+\nu_e$ decays, we obtain the product of the form factor and magnitude of CKM matrix element $V_{cs}$ to be $f_+^K(0)|V_{cs}|=0.717\pm0.004$. With this product, we determine the $D\to K$ semileptonic form factor $f_+^K(0)=0.737\pm0.004\pm0.000$ in conjunction with the value of $|V_{cs}|$ determined from the SM global fit. Alternately, with the product together with the input of the form factor $f_+^K(0)$ calculated in lattice QCD recently, we extract $|V_{cs}|^{D\to Ke^+\nu_e}=0.962\pm0.005\pm0.014$, where the error is still dominated by the uncertainty of the form factor calculated in lattice QCD. Combining the $|V_{cs}|^{D_s^+\to\ell^+\nu_\ell}=1.012\pm0.015\pm0.009$ extracted from all existing measurements of $D^+_s\to\ell^+\nu_\ell$ decays and $|V_{cs}|^{D\to Ke^+\nu_e}=0.962\pm0.005\pm0.014$ together, we find the most precisely determined $|V_{cs}|$ to be $|V_{cs}|=0.983\pm0.011$, which improves the accuracy of the PDG'2014 value $|V_{cs}|^{\rm PDG'2014}=0.986\pm0.016$ by $45\%$