Household-level Credit Constraints in Urban Ethiopia

Empirical evidence on determinants of credit constraints and the amount borrowed by urban household in Sub-Saharan Africa is almost non-existent. Using an extended direct approach by virtue of the unique data set we have (the Fourth Round Ethiopian Urban Household Survey), we analysed the determinants of credit constraints and the amount borrowed by urban households. We find a high percentage of credit-constrained households, the majority of which constitute discouraged borrowers. Discrete choice models that control for potential endogeneity and selectivity bias have been fitted to our data. Our analysis shows current household resources, number of dependants, and location as significant correlates.credit constrained households; credit rationing; endogeneity; instrumental variables; urban Ethiopia; Africa

A Wider Approach to Aid Effectiveness: Correlated Impacts on Health, Wealth, Fertility and Education

aid, health, wealth, fertility, education

Catch Efficiency in the Chilean Pelagic Fishery: Does size matter ?

This paper examines the determinants of technical efficiency for a sample of 204 industrial vessels operating in the Southern-Central pelagic fishery of Chile during the 1985-95 period. Data on vessel's annual landings and fishing effort, vessel's size, age, fishing experience and vessel's controlling firm are analysed considering a Translog stochastic frontier model à-la Battese-Coelli (1995), which includes a vessel-specific inefficiency model. Yearly averages for vessel efficiency vary from 50% to 86%. Close to 90% of the residuals' total variance is accounted by the inefficiency term, suggesting a significant disparity in vessels' catch performance. Vessel age and scale of operation are found to be significant in explaining efficiency. Larger vessels tend to be the most efficient and the ones showing least variance in their efficiency. Smaller vessels, which on average are also the oldest in the fleet, show greater dispersion and lower efficiency scores. We confirm prior results suggesting vessel-level economies of scale at this fishery, related to fishing effort intensity. Explanatory variables aggregated at the ship-owner level, which aim at controlling the firm's operating scale, are also significant as a whole when explaining vessel-level efficiency. We find positive search externalities associated to the number of vessels under control of a given firm, as well as external diseconomies related to each firm's fleet use. Overall, we report significant productive heterogeneity in the fleet under study where control variables associated to 'size effects' do indeed play a significant role.

Endogenous differential information in financial markets

We develop a two period general equilibrium model with incomplete financial markets and differential information. Making endogenous the traditional informational restriction on consumption, we allow agents to obtain information from physical and financial markets. Thus, the investment in financial promises and the trade of commodities in spot markets appear as natural channels to improve the information that an agent has about the realization of future states of nature.Incomplete Markets, Differential information, Enlightening equilibrium.

Downward Adjustments in a Cyclical Environment: The Case of Chilean Pelagic Fisheries

Often the scale of production of many industrial fisheries in the world shows rigidity vis à vis declines in fish abundance, which on occasions has generated fishing collapse. This paper studies the two fisheries with the greatest volume of landings in Chile, and which are also characterized by strong variability in their abundance. Production-side aspects that affect the incentives to adjust towards lower fishing efforts are analyzed. To do so, production functions for industrial fleets at each fishery are estimated by resorting to panel data. Two main results are obtained. First, we confirm the empirical relevance of Translog harvest technologies. This contradicts a frequent practice in bioeconomic models, which considers harvest-inputs elasticities as being constant and independent from the scale of production. Second, a set of production-side effects are identified that weaken the incentives to adjust towards lower fishing efforts: increasing returns in the use of variable inputs, which are also strengthened by external economies associated to the aggregate searching effort for fish, and catch yields sensitive to changes in abundance, but where the strength of this effect decreases as abundance declines.

Management of Common Complications in Rhinoplasty and Medical Rhinoplasty

Rhinoplasty is considered among the most challenging aesthetic operations because many variables have to be taken into consideration to achieve an optimal aesthetic and functional result. This implies that complications are always waiting around the corner. It is of prime importance to know the main minor and major complications related to the procedure to be able to prevent and treat them promptly when required. Septorhinoplasty is a delicate and difficult procedure, which requires accurate anatomical knowledge and important clinical experience. Nevertheless, complications can affect both inexperienced and expert surgeons. Thus, the most frequent complications of rhinoplasty should be known and adequately prevented when possible

Debates sobre Cuotas Individuales Transferibles:¿"Privatizando" el mar? Subsidios? ¿Muerte anunciada de la pesca extractiva en Chile?

Sectores de pesca industrial y artesanal en Chile requieren consolidar esquemas de administración pesquera que promuevan la racionalización de sus esfuerzos de pesca, ajustándolos en general hacia recursos marinos menos abundantes. Argumentamos que un sistema basado en cuotas individuales transferibles (CITs) es la mejor opción disponible, especialmente para el sector industrial. Asignaciones individuales favorecen el coordinar soluciones colectivas para racionalizar los esfuerzos de pesca. Mientras que su transferibilidad promueve soluciones económicamente eficientes al problema de capacidad de pesca excedente. Proponemos una asignación inicial de CITs con base en presencia histórica, condicionando el derecho de uso de las CITs al pago de patentes anuales que permitan financiar los costos de administrar y fiscalizar el sistema de CITs. Por otro lado, defendemos el asignar inicialmente las CITs como derechos de uso transitorios, aunque con un período de validez razonablemente largo (por ejemplo 15 o 20 años). Postulamos que esto favorece la viabilidad política de poder a futuro continuar perfeccionando este sistema de administración pesquera. También proponemos entregar a Asociaciones de Pescadores Artesanales, que consoliden una representatividad local relevante, facultades para decidir y administrar la distribución y uso (entre sus miembros) de la cuota asignada por la autoridad, incluyendo la posibilidad de transferir las asignaciones individuales. Por último, proponemos que pescadores artesanales tengan la facultad legal de realizar transacciones con intereses industriales, de forma que alguna proporción de la cuota industrial pueda ser capturada dentro de las primeras 5 millas, por ejemplo usando embarcaciones artesanales para estos efectos.