The National Minimum Wage and Hours of Work:Implications for Low Paid Women

The largest group of beneficiaries from the introduction of the National Minimum Wage in the UK were women working part-time. A potential threat to these wage gains is a reduction in the working hours available, with part-time (flexible) jobs particularly vulnerable. This paper reports a range of difference-in-difference estimates using individual-level data from the New Earnings Survey and the British Household Panel Survey. No significant changes in hours worked by either full- or part-time women are found 1, 2 and 3 years after the NMW, and no change in the probabilities of remaining in full- or part-time work or transiting between the two

Lending Groups and Different Social Capitals in Developed and Developing Countries

Lending groups (LGs) and social capital are two central elements to the many microfinance solutions operating around the world. However, LG effectiveness in reducing transaction costs and lending risks for microfinance institutions (MFIs) is mediated by institutional environments. Starting from this assumption, we discuss the existent interactions between the institutional environments of developed (Anglo-Saxon and communitarian) and developing countries with different stocks of social capital (individual, network and institutional) and the influences of this interaction on LG effectiveness. In order to do so, we applied the institutional perspective of O. Williamson to build a theoretical framework to examine the interaction of all these conditions, allowing for analysis of their main relations within the microfinance context. Based on this framework, we propose on the one hand that in developing and Anglo-Saxon developed nations, stocks of both individual and network social capital are the most important for an LG’s effectiveness. However, in Anglo-Saxon countries, these two stocks of social capital are complemented by formal contracting devices. In communitarian developed countries, on the other hand, the stocks of institutional social capital have a stronger positive impact on LG dynamics