IMPACT of Cash Transfer Programs on School Attendance and Child Poverty: An Ex-ante Simulation for Sri Lanka

For countries assessing whether to implement a cash transfer program, an ex-ante evaluation is vital to assess its potential impacts. This study simulates the impact of alternative cash transfer programs on school attendance and poverty among Sri Lankan children. We find that cash transfer programs targeting poor children would be the most cost-effective way to reduce child poverty and encourage school attendance. If means-testing is not feasible, then programs targeting the children in households with at least three school-age children would provide a suitable second-best solution. Our findings suggest that even a limited program budget can provide significant impacts.Cash Transfers; Poverty; School Attendance; Sri Lanka

From silence to voice: Examining the empowerment potential of mobile phones to women in Sri Lanka The case of dependent housewives

Over the past few decades, at an unprecedented rate, mobile phone has penetrated Sri Lanka, triggering much hype and investment as well as multiple socioeconomic implications. Yet, examining the developmental impact of mobile phones has, however, drawn surprisingly little attention in Sri Lanka with no studies focusing primarily on the impact of mobile phones on the empowerment of women. Therefore, this paper, applying primarily qualitative methodology, attempts an investigation of the empowering effect of mobile phones to dependent housewives in poor households in Sri Lanka. The study found that access to mobile phones was certainly empowering for the women: mobile phones unequivocally strengthened and expanded their social circle and support networks as an instrument of sociability; it led them domesticate technology, thus challenging negative societal attitudes towards women as technophobic luddites; it reduced their information poverty, enabling and facilitating access to information; and, opened them up a “newer”, non-traditional space of fun, something which demonstrated a clear manifestation of choice and power. However, the study unveiled that the women’s use of mobile phones was largely controlled within the household, mainly because they did not have their own income to maintain their phones, but to rely on the spouse, the conventional family provider, thus calling for the need for women’s financial autonomy. Those women who legally owned their mobile phones had control over them relative to those who lacked legal ownership. In conclusion, mobile phones can play a significant role in empowering women and thus, recommends considering it as a tool in the policy agenda for women’s empowerment in Sri Lanka

IS POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT A BREEDING GROUND FOR PUBLIC SECTOR CORRUPTION? EVIDENCE FROM A CROSS-COUNTRY ANALYSIS

This study employs the instrumental variable two-stage least squares regression approach for the data for 121 countries to explore the impact of a country’s political environment on its level of corruption. The study provides strong evidence that a higher degree of rule of law, press freedom, readiness and capacity to handle e-governance practices, and urbanization are associated with a lower level of public sector corruption across all 121 countries. The colonial dummies and having a presidential government are found to be valid instruments for rule of law in addressing the issue of endogeniety embedded in it. Further, to a certain degree, landlocked countries are relatively more corrupt than coastal countries. Finally, policy implications are discussed based on the findings of the study.Keywords: Corruption, Political Environment, Endogeniety, Public Secto

Researching with Secondary Data: A brief overview of possibilities and limitations from the viewpoint of social research

The objective of this paper is to provide information on reliable sources of secondary data available for applied social researchers, feasible studies, and Econometric Modelling techniques that can be applied in those studies. Using secondary data for research projects has now become popular with the availability of nation-wide survey data from reliable sources. The Econometrics methods ranging from multiple regression analysis to dynamic panel analysis can be applied with secondary data to generate nationally representative empirical evidence on the subject of interest. However, the researchers need to be careful of reading secondary data using documentation provided along with datasets. There are limitations and challenges of using secondary data for researching as well

Life Cycle and Fixed Portfolio Allocation Strategies: A Performance Comparison for Emerging Market Pension Funds

This study compares the performance of various fixed and lifecycle portfolio strategies for the accumulation phase of retirement planning in emerging market countries. With an expected utility framework and abootstrapped Monte Carlo procedure, we find that the majority of emerging market investors with varying attitudes toward risk can maximize their expected utility by using lifecycle strategies instead of fixedallocation strategies. Most commonly, emerging market investors maximize expected utility with a lifecycle strategy using a 30 percent average equity exposure, though the results vary among countries.KEYWORDS: Pension funds, portfolio strategies, emerging market

Wage Differentials in Sri Lanka: The case of a post-conflict country with a free education policy

This study analyses wage differentials in Sri Lanka by the individuals’ educational attainment. The wage returns to education are estimated by using a combination of the techniques of ordinary least-square, two-stage least-square, sample-selection, and quantile regression on micro-data of the Sri Lanka Labour Force Survey-2013. Therefore, the estimates provided by this study are representative of the entire country and corrected for both the endogeniety and the sample-selection biases. The study concludes that education generates a positive impact on private earning. The results show that one additional year of schooling increases hourly wage rate by 9% approximately. Also, according to the results, the primary and secondary education reduces income inequality among people whereas the bachelor’s-degree University education is a contributor to the income inequality. Further, the results relating to the additional controls reveal that the male, urban, and the public sector employees earn relatively higher wage returns

Wage Differentials in Sri Lanka: The case of a post-conflict country with a free education policy

This study analyses wage differentials in Sri Lanka by the individuals’ educational attainment. The wage returns to education are estimated by using a combination of the techniques of ordinary least-square, two-stage least-square, sample-selection, and quantile regression on micro-data of the Sri Lanka Labour Force Survey-2013. Therefore, the estimates provided by this study are representative of the entire country and corrected for both the endogeniety and the sample-selection biases. The study concludes that education generates a positive impact on private earning. The results show that one additional year of schooling increases hourly wage rate by 9% approximately. Also, according to the results, the primary and secondary education reduces income inequality among people whereas the bachelor’s-degree University education is a contributor to the income inequality. Further, the results relating to the additional controls reveal that the male, urban, and the public sector employees earn relatively higher wage returns

Finding Benefits of Utilizing RFID Technology in Skanska Maskin AB

In this paper, we discuss benefits of RFID technology that Skanska Maskin AB at Linnarhult Gothenburg in Sweden has planed to utilize in the future. We used case study methodology in this research to find benefits of RFID at Skanska Maskin AB. We gathered qualitative data from the present system by using mediating tools such as observation and interviews. We compared present barcode system with proposed future RFID system to see the benefits and effects of the RFID technology. The store environment of Skanska Maskin AB is more complex and difficult to manage. We used Soft System Methodology (SSM) to analyze and identify both present barcode and future RFID systems in such a complex and messy situation. SSM uses “systems thinking” in learning and reflection to help understand the various perceptions come from minds of different people who involved in the problem situation. The SSM considers the importance of cultural, social and political attributes in the present system. We discussed the results of system comparison illustrating the benefit of future RFID system

社会保障システムに関する研究: スリランカと他の新興市場国における事例

政策分析プログラム / Policy Analysis Program政策研究大学院大学 / National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies論文審査委員: Wade Pfau（主査）, 大山 達雄, Minchung Hsu, Alistair Munro, 高橋 新吾（IUJ

The long term investment decision : a case study of the rubber smallholders of Sri Lanka

Millions of smallholder farmers in many of the less developed coiontries engage in the cultivation of perennial cash crops. The productivity of such crops declines with age necessitating periodic asset renewal. Since planting and replanting is a long term investment, planning and policy formulation requires an understanding of the decision-making process of smallholder farmers. This study examines the case of the rubber smallholders of Sri Lanka and attempts to draw out the important theoretical and policy implications of their behaviour. The historical development of cash cropping and the establishment of the rubber smallholding sector is analysed in some detail and the major phases of this process are described. It is shown that the decision-making environment and the decision problem it self that farmers face has changed substantially in different periods. In particular, attention is drawn to the differences between new planting and replanting. The latter problem is substantially more complex than the former. Using a conventional approach of investment theory, a model of asset replacement appropriate to the decision problem facing a rubber smallholder is developed. The model is extended to the case where uncertainty is explicitly included. The implications of changes in such parameters as long and short run price expectations, different types of technological change, subsidies and taxes, etc. for the optimal replacement time and the optimal replacement crop are discussed. On the basis of a f i e l d survey carried out among a sample of rubber smallholders in 1975, the model i s tested with empirical data. Results suggest that there is a significant difference in the decision-making patterns of the better - off farmers, who mainly use hired labour, and the poorer farmers who use family labour. The former group can be broadly considered to maximise (expected) profits as predicted by conventional investment theory. The existence of a replanting subsidy allows the poorer farmers to meet most of the unavoidable cash costs of replanting; for them the investment decision then reduces to one of 'labour investment' now, in expectation of future cash incomes, rather than primarily a choice between present and future cash incomes. Under the present set of circumstances the farmers in the two groups often come to the same decisions, but the underlying decision-making processes are different. However, the role of the replanting subsidy is crucial. Future changes in circumstances may lead to quite different decisions