The Internationalisation of R&D and the Knowledge Production Function

This paper considers the effect of acquisition FDI on the knowledge production function. We distinguish between acquisitions by MNEs from technologically leading countries and those behind the technological frontier. We show that both acquire similarly R&D intensive domestic firms, but there are important differences post-acquisition. Acquisitions from technologically intensive countries reduce domestic R&D effort, in favour of an increase in foreign technology transfers, which suggests complementarities in the knowledge assets of the MNE and the target firm as a reason for FDI. In contrast, consistent with technology sourcing FDI, acquisitions from non-leading countries increase internal R&D efforts.MNE, knowledge production function, acquisition FDI, knowledge complementarities, technology sourcing

BANCOSOL: THE CHALLENGE OF GROWTH FOR MICROFINANCE ORGANIZATIONS

This paper focuses on the difficulties inherent in the prudent management of growth of microfinance organizations and on potential limits to the increased efficiency, profitability, and sustainability expected from growth and large size. The paper addresses both positive and negative implications of rapid growth for microfinance organizations. The experience of BancoSol in Bolivia is used to illustrate these questions. Building upon the successful experience of PRODEM, BancoSol was chartered as a private commercial bank in 1992. The paper discusses the intangible assets inherited from PRODEM that gave BancoSol a head start and the additional advantages that resulted from formalization as a bank, in particular from the authorization to mobilize deposits. BancoSol shows outstanding success in terms of breadth, depth, and quality of outreach and in terms of sustainability. It is the microfinance organization with the largest number of clients in Latin America and it reaches poor clients who could never expect to gain access to conventional financial institutions. The paper discusses the incentive structure associated with a lending technology that has resulted in low loan arrears and the cost- effective supply of small loans. Success is explained by a strong concern with financial viability, development of a lending technology appropriate for the market niche, a long learning period, and upgrading into a formal intermediary. As it grew, BancoSol had to face a reduction of revenues as a proportion of productive assets and an increase in the average cost of funds, which combined reduced its operating margin by 13 percentage points. This challenge was fully met by reducing operating expenses as a proportion of productive assets. While growth of PRODEM had been mostly constrained by too rigid access to donor funds, growth of BancoSol has been constrained by threats on asset quality and by diminishing marginal economies of size. Portfolio efficiency has grown steadily. This growth has been the net outcome, however, of reductions in transactions efficiency and of increases in average loan size after transformation into BancoSol. The paper explores the sources of increases in average loan size and it concludes that mission drift has not occurred at BancoSol, which continues to focus on small loans to microentrepreneurs. The evolution in transactions efficiency is related, in turn, to sources of extensive (installed capacity) and intensive (productivity) growth. Extensive growth has been rapid at BancoSol and it tends to dampen productivity increases. Finally, the paper reviews the pressures from growth on the original informal culture of the organization and the gradual establishment of more formal structures.Agricultural Finance,

MICROCREDIT AND THE POOREST OF THE POOR: THEORY AND EVIDENCE FROM BOLIVIA

We construct a theoretical framework that puts the social worth of a microfinance organization (MFO) in terms of the depth, worth to users, cost to users, breadth, length, and scope of its output. We then analyze evidence of depth of outreach for five MFOs in Bolivia. Most of the poor households reached by the MFOs were near the poverty line�they were the richest of the poor. Group lenders had more depth of outreach than individual lenders. The urban poorest were more likely to be borrowers, but rural borrowers were more likely to be among the poorest.Financial Economics, Food Security and Poverty,

Cardiorespiratory Responses during 2-Person CPR using Two Assisted CPR Devices Versus Manual CPR

Active Compression-decompression-CPR (ACD-CPR) requires rescuers to perform work during both phases of CPR. ACD-CPR provides active pre-loading of a patient’s heart with venous return as well as enhanced stroke volume during resuscitation. Prolonged, one-person CPR is exhausting and associated with decayed CPR quality over time. Active compression-decompression-CPR (ACD-CPR) requires the rescuer to actively work during both phases of CPR. We evaluated the metabolic cost of manual CPR (M-CPR), ACD-CPR1, and ACD-CPR2 (with adhesive pad) during a 10-min resuscitation period. We hypothesized that the metabolic cost for the devices would be similar to M-CPR. Twenty (10 female) participants (23.5±3.5y, 165.8±25.6cm, 72.5±12.2kg) completed 3 randomized trials with performance feedback by investigators. Expired air was analyzed for estimations of metabolic cost via indirect calorimetry. Participants rested for 10 minutes before the baseline data collection followed by 10 min of CPR to simulate one-person CPR. Treatment effects were observed for VO2, METS, VCO2, RR, RQ, blood lactate, SBP, and RPE. No such effects were observed with HR and DBP as the observed condition differences for HR and DBP were not significantly different from each other. Blood lactate and SBP were significantly higher using ACD-CPR1 compared to MCPR and ACD-CPR2. Although a trend for elevated DBP was observed with ACD-CPR1, this was not significantly different. RQ values for the ACD-CPR1 device (1.0 ± 0.0) were significantly higher than the RQ values for M-CPR (0.9 ± 0.0) and ACD-CPR2 (0.9 ± 0.0). Assisted CPR using the ACD-CPR1 device is more stressful to the cardiorespiratory system as reflected by the higher SBP compared to the ACD-CPR1 or standard MCPR. Metabolically, the ACD-CPR1 required more VO2 and elicited higher RQ, RPE, and lactate values during 10-min simulated one-person resuscitation compared to M-CPR and ACD-CPR1. However, the ACD-CPR2 cardiorespiratory results were similar to that of M-CPR, despite the latter method’s higher rate of compressions (110/min) and passive decompressions

Microfinance Market Niches and Client Profiles in Bolivia

This paper presents and interprets descriptive statistics generated from data obtained in a survey of clients of five microfinance organizations believed to be among the best in Bolivia. These lenders represent different combinations of organizational design, lending technology, and market area of operations. Two are regulated financial intermediaries and three are NGOs. Two operate in rural areas (PRODEM and Sartawi) and three operate in urban areas (BancoSol, FIE, and Caja Los Andes). Two offer individual loans and three grant loans through joint liability groups. The paper discusses household-enterprise profiles of a sample of 622 clients and identifies terms and conditions of loan contracts with these organizations to evaluate the depth and quality of their outreach.Marketing,segmentation,Bolivia,competition,microfinance

Finanzas a Corto Plazo : Análisis del presupuesto de flujo de efectivo operativo de la empresa metalurgica de Nicaragua,S.A. para el año 2015

El presente trabajo de seminario de graduación titulado “Planificación Financiera” se desarrolló con el fin de proporcionar un entendimiento más claro sobre la elaboración de un presupuesto de efectivo y estados financieros proforma en la empresa Metalúrgica de Nicaragua S,A. El objetivo general planteado es realizar un presupuesto de efectivo y los estados financieros proforma del periodo 2015. Para dar cumplimiento al primer objetivo se expusieron los fundamentos de las finanzas, tales como el marco teórico, historia y evolución de las finanzas. Enmarcando su importancia en la toma de decisiones e interacción ante los fenómenos económicos externos. El segundo objetivo trata de los elementos de la planificación financiera tales como el estado de situación financiera, Estado de resultado integral, estado de flujo de efectivo y notas a los estados financieros además de información adicional proporcionada por el departamento de ventas y cobranzas de la empresa Metalúrgica de Nicaragua S,A. El tercer objetivo es evaluar las cifras obtenidas mediante la elaboración de un pronóstico de ingresos y gastos para conocer las necesidades de adquisición, los costos y la utilidad que se pueden obtener a través de los servicios; y con ello realizar una planificación del efectivo que permita el desarrollo de un Presupuesto de Caja, para lo cual se debe elaborar un programa de entradas de efectivo con el objeto de conocer los ingresos que obtendrá la empresa y un programa de salidas de efectivo para conocer los gastos que tendrá que efectuar en un período especifico, con los resultados obtenidos la empresa necesita de financiamiento externo requerido para poder apoyar el crecimiento de sus activos proyectados. El cuarto objetivo es el desarrollo del caso práctico de la empresa Metalúrgica de Nicaragua partiendo de los estados financieros 2013 y 2014 tomando en cuenta el comportamiento histórico de las operaciones de la empresa

Payments for Watershed Services: An Application to Irrigation Pricing in the El Angel Watershed, Carchi, Ecuador

Water scarcity is increasingly viewed as the principal constraint limiting agricultural production and human livelihood improvement in the rural areas of many developing countries. Policies that encourage more efficient and equitable water use - including the introduction of incentive-based water pricing systems - are an important challenge. This paper reports the results of a mathematical programming model which was constructed for the El Angel watershed in northern Ecuador with the goal of exploring the effects of several water pricing alternatives. The model incorporates farmers' crop and pasture planting and resource allocation decisions, based on maximizing regional gross margin subject to land, water, labor, seasonal, food security and other constraints. Four water pricing scenarios are examined. The results show that adequate water resources currently exist to permit a reallocation of water within the watershed, which would generate higher regional production and incomes. Several water pricing alternatives are explored which would discipline water use in those parts of the watershed where water is currently overused and unregulated. Incomes could be significantly increased in currently waterscarce parts of the watershed while generating only small reductions in production and incomes in water-abundant zones. While tradeoffs exist among economic, environmental and employment goals, significant net gains are achievable. If a differentiated system of water prices is considered to be unrealistic, a system of single seasonal prices would likely generate reduced, though significant, benefits. Introducing a system of comprehensive water charges would likely create similar benefits in other developing country watersheds facing similar resource constraints.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

MICROFINANCE MARKET NICHES AND CLIENT PROFILES IN BOLIVIA

This paper presents and interprets descriptive statistics generated from data obtained in a survey of clients of five microfinance organizations believed to be among the best in Bolivia. These lenders represent different combinations of organizational design, lending technology, and market area of operations. Two are regulated financial intermediaries and three are NGOs. Two operate in rural areas (PRODEM and Sartawi) and three operate in urban areas (BancoSol, FIE, and Caja Los Andes). Two offer individual loans and three grant loans through joint liability groups. The paper discusses household-enterprise profiles of a sample of 622 clients and identifies terms and conditions of loan contracts with these organizations to evaluate the depth and quality of their outreach. The interpretation seeks to establish connections between key characteristics of the clients and features of the lending technologies that lead to the matching of classes of borrowers with particular organizations and that influence the choice of market niches. Data on loan sizes suggest the existence of different but broadly overlapping market niches associated with three tiers of clients. The sharpest distinction is between urban and rural clients. The matching between clients and organizations also reflects a weak but positive correlation between levels of poverty and loan sizes. According to an index of basic needs fulfillment of their clients, these organizations can be ranked as: FIE and Caja Los Andes (first tier), BancoSol (second tier), and PRODEM and Sartawi (third tier). The same ranking is obtained when clients are ordered according to loan size, the ratio of loan size to the value of sales, and the value of monthly sales. The three tiers of clients are associated with different socio-economic features of their household-enterprises: sex, education, household size, access to electricity, water supplies, and sewage facilities, employment-generating capacity of the enterprise, informality and separation of household and enterprise, occupations and the like. The development of lending technologies that do not rely on standard financial statements and collateralizable assets is a formidable innovation that explains the outreach and sustainability of these organizations. Differences in the guarantees required for loans dominate distinctions in lending technology. Trade-offs between loan size, interest rates, and guarantee requirements attract different subsets of the clientele. Joint liability seems to be appropriate for very poor people, but group borrowers eventually outgrow this relationship. Caja Los Andes and FIE have shown that it is possible to supply individual loans to poor people and be profitable. Most clients are satisfied with the services received. The lowest satisfaction concerns loan sizes and loan-size rationing may be widespread. At least in urban areas, increasing competition will force these organizations to improve their services and adjust loan sizes. All of these organizations are expanding the frontier of microfinance by developing lending technologies for a much poorer clientele than is reached by collateral-based lenders. This is a formidable achievement.Financial Economics,