Farmer Health Insurance Cooperatives: An Innovative Solution for Other Americans?

Health Economics and Policy, Labor and Human Capital,

Fostering growth of the rural non-farm sector in Africa: The Case of Tanzania

We use a survey of small rural enterprises from Tanzania to demonstrate quantitatively the economic importance of this sector and to identify participants' characteristics and obstacles to the sector's expansion and productivity. In stark contrast to most of the findings for the formal sector where taxation and other regulatory constraints were identified as key constraints in most of the countries, infrastructure constraints (but not regulatory obstacles) pose a formidable barrier to rural households' participation in rural non-farm and to investment and increased productivity by existing ones. The fact that such constraints emerge as particularly harmful for small enterprises suggests that policies to improve delivery of the public services in question will be important to provide a basis for a flourishing rural non-farm sector which in turn will have an important role for poverty reduction.Community/Rural/Urban Development,

Mobility in Rural Credit Markets: A Honduran Case Study

In this paper I analyze mobility in rural credit markets. A panel data set of rural Honduran households is used to study credit market transitions; specifically, the dynamic evolution of formal and informal sector participation. Mobility patterns among four different credit market states are analyzed, namely those who have formal sector participation, informal sector participation, participation in both sectors and nonparticipation in rural credit markets. I use a random effects dynamic multinomial logit model which can accommodate unobserved heterogeneity. The main findings are that state dependence plays a significant role in ones ability to borrow

An Empirical Investigation of Reputation Loan Size Dynamics in Rural Credit Markets in Honduras

This paper examines the role of two types of reputation - borrower credit history and productivity - in disequilibrium supply and demand models of loan size dynamics in formal and informal credit markets. Using panel data on Honduran households, full- and partial-information regime switching econometric models yield four principal findings: (1) credit contracts in the formal sector are largely collateral driven and not reputation driven; (2) the informal sector credit contracts are borrower reputation based; (3) the informal sector utilizes positive/negative credit histories in both markets to credibly reward/punish borrowers; and (4) technical efficiency has a positive impact in determining loan size in both sectors on the demand and supply side of the market

Fostering growth of the rural non-farm sector in Africa: The Case of Tanzania

We use a survey of small rural enterprises from Tanzania to demonstrate quantitatively the economic importance of this sector and to identify participants' characteristics and obstacles to the sector's expansion and productivity. In stark contrast to most of the findings for the formal sector where taxation and other regulatory constraints were identified as key constraints in most of the countries, infrastructure constraints (but not regulatory obstacles) pose a formidable barrier to rural households' participation in rural non-farm and to investment and increased productivity by existing ones. The fact that such constraints emerge as particularly harmful for small enterprises suggests that policies to improve delivery of the public services in question will be important to provide a basis for a flourishing rural non-farm sector which in turn will have an important role for poverty reduction