Wider impacts of microcredit: evidence from labor and human capital in urban Mexico

This paper presents an estimation of the impacts of microcredit on labor and human capital following a quasi-experiment specifically designed to control for endogeneity and selection bias in the context of urban Mexico. We find important indirect trickle-down effects of credit through labor expenditure that benefit poor laborers; however, these effects were only observed when loan-supported enterprising households reached a level of income well above the poverty line. We also find significant, although small impacts of credit on children´s schooling that could be potentially reinforced by improvements in lending technology, school grants and additional ex-ante preventive and ex-post protective riskcoping products.microcredit; labor; children´s schooling; Mexico

THE NEEDS OF UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS TO SUCCEED SOCIALLY, EMOTIONALLY AND ECONOMICALLY

The focus of this study was to understand undocumented immigrants needs when striving to succeed socially, emotionally, and economically in the United States. Undocumented immigration is prevalent in this country and these individuals face fear of deportation, discrimination, language barriers, trauma and acculturative stress. Considering the challenges and mental health repercussions that undocumented immigrants experience; it is important to discover what can be done to improve their livelihood. A qualitative study was completed with participants that work with undocumented immigrants to better understand needs and barriers. The study found that legalization and lack of access to resources such as mental health, healthcare and legal services negatively impacted their wellbeing and livelihood. These findings can be utilized to provide culturally competent advocacy and services at the micro and macro social work practice level. Understanding what undocumented immigrants needs to succeed socially, emotionally, and economically can guide social workers to engage in macro work by advocating for changes in the law that can address social justice and human right issues affecting undocumented immigrants

Improving Financial Inclusion through the Delivery of Cash Transfer Programmes: The Case of Mexico’s Progresa-Oportunidades-Prospera Programme

This paper follows a quasi-experimental research design to assess the impact of the electronic payment system of Mexico’s Progresa-Oportunidades-Prospera (POP) programme. The switch from cash payments to electronic payments delivered via savings accounts is found to have medium-term effects on savings decisions, transaction costs, and coping strategies. Overall, the study finds that, following the intervention, a substitution effect emerged between saving portfolio choices, with the poor favouring bank accounts over informal saving arrangements. It also found that the Oportunidades savings account led to an increase in remittance reception, which in turn had important implications for household consumption smoothing and risk management decisions. The study also reveals impact heterogeneity depending on household composition and the rural-urban divide, with important implications for replicability of similar policy innovations in other countrie

Financial access and exclusion in Kenya and Uganda

Policy emphasis has recently shifted to ‘Finance for All’ given evidence that financial sectordevelopment (FSD) contributes to growth but that the primary effects on poverty do not arisefrom pro-poor provision. This paper uses data from Financial Access Surveys carried out in 2006in Kenya and Uganda to investigate the socio-economic, demographic and geographical factorscausing access to and exclusion from formal, semi-formal and informal financial services. Itapproaches this from the perspective of institutional analysis. It finds, first, that socialinstitutions do present underlying barriers to access - more so than geography - and thatinformal provision is extensive. These findings suggest that institutional theories of FSD need toaddress the role of underlying social institutions and better understand the role of informalfinance, and that policy for effective outreach must similarly consider these dimensions

Financial inclusion, vulnerability, andmental models: From physical accessto effective use of financial servicesin a low income area of Mexico City

This paper addresses the issue of how to improve access to regulated financial services,hereafter referred to as financial inclusion. More widespread use of regulated financial servicescan enhance domestic resource mobilisation and improve allocative efficiency in the use ofcapital (World Bank 2007). However, the focus here is on financial inclusion as an instrument forpoverty reduction. This section considers why financial inclusion is of particular policy interestboth internationally and in Mexico. It then briefly reviews alternative theoretical approaches toanalysing financial inclusion and resulting welfare outcomes, particularly for relatively poor andvulnerable people.Section two presents a case study from a low income area of Mexico City. This illustrates howchoice of relevant theory for thinking about financial inclusion can be informed by empiricalresearch. We first use quantitative data to analyse the extent to which use of financial servicesvaries with education, employment, asset ownership and other indicators likely to affect personspecifictransaction costs. We then draw on complementary qualitative data to analyse otherinfluences on access to and use of financial services. Section three concludes that effective useof financial services is not only determined by individuals’ economic characteristics andexogenous transaction costs, but also by more complex cognitive and social processes. Thishighlights the dangers of relying too heavily on a narrowly economistic framework for analysis offinancial exclusion. More specifically, we argue for more research into how the diverse andchanging mental models of poor people influence their use and non-use of financial services

Estabilización de suelos y eliminación de fenol mediante subproductos de la industria avícola

Los resultados muestran que los refuerzos distribuidos al azar son útiles para restringir la tendencia a la expansión de los suelos. La reducción de la presión de expansión máxima fue de 43.99 %, la cual se consigue reduciendo la proporción de vacíos en el suelo, con la adición de 3 % de segmentos de pluma. Asimismo, se explica el mecanismo mediante el cual las fibras discretas y aleatoriamente distribuidas reducen la presión de expansión del suelo. Por último, se logró remover por adsorción de una solución acuosa fenol mediante la acción sinérgica del suelo arcilloso con los segmentos de pluma, alcanzando una remoción hasta del 12.16 % incorporando el suelo modificado con 5 % en peso de pluma. Los resultados de esta investigación tienen aportaciones significativas al cuidado del medio ambiente pues se propone una alternativa de solución ante la problemática de control de suelos expansivos utilizando agentes de modificación natural: pluma de ave rica en queratina. Éste es un material de bajo costo por ser un residuo de un proceso agropecuario, con lo cual también se contribuye a la disminución de la contaminación causada por este residuo sólido. Asimismo en el estudio exploratorio se logró obtener la remoción de fenol mediante las plumas de ave ricas en queratina incorporada al suelo arcilloso constituye una opción como un medio de tratamiento económico y sencillo para este contaminante.La estabilización de suelos es un proceso común en la ingeniería civil para mejorar su estructura, los métodos usados actualmente suelen ser costosos; por otra parte, la contaminación de suelos por fenol y sus derivados es más frecuente de lo que se piensa. El presente proyecto presenta la evaluación de la estabilización de suelos con potencial expansivo a través de su interacción con refuerzos de pluma y la eliminación de fenol por medio de adsorción en una solución acuosa mediante la combinación de segmentos de pluma de pollo ricas en queratina en suelos arcillosos. Las pruebas para la estabilización del suelo expansivo se realizaron con modificaciones en los contenidos de segmentos de pluma (también denominados refuerzos) del 0.25, 0.50, 1.00 y 3.00 % en peso. Dentro de los ensayos realizados se encuentran las pruebas de consolidación unidimensional, la determinación de la superficie específica mediante el uso del azul de metileno, también se analizó el grado de saturación del suelo mediante pruebas gravimétricas. Finalmente, la distribución aleatoria y la interacción entre las estructuras de los segmentos de las plumas y el suelo se estudiaron mediante microscopía electrónica de barrido.Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología con la beca de doctorado y número de registro: 208503

The Crooked median

Words search. There are specific points designated by written language, where one might stand for just a little while until the satisfaction of a pattern is revealed. In this collection of stories, one of the forces that serves as a catalyst for this search is the outside gaze. The gaze exerts itself onto characters. The characters may or may not be conscious of it, may or may not welcome it, but they must grapple with it. The gaze projects its needs and desires onto the characters. It seeks to control them, and it desires to be viewed with admiration, lowered eyelids, and moistened lips. Luckily, there are other invisible forces at play that bring levity. These stories seek to explore divergent places, moments, individuals, and the threads that loosely connect all of them. It is the threads that hope to bring levity. The six short stories were written over the course of three years. The novella is a working draft and an attempt to push out of the short story form