Does the Participation in the Microcredit Programs Increase Consumption of Participating Households? The Case of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh

This paper assesses empirically the impact of the participation in the microcredit program of the Grameen Bank on consumption of participating households. A household level survey was carried out for collecting data (N=521). The results of the empirical estimations indicate that the participation of a household in the microcredit program of the Grameen Bank increases consumption of participating households significantly. But there is non-linearity in the increasing trend in consumption of participating households. The consumption level goes up gradually with the increase in the membership duration up to five years of membership, but the growth rate starts declining after that period of membership.Microcredit, Consumption, Impact Assessment, Grameen Bank, Bangladesh, Agricultural Finance, Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty,

Does the Participation in the Microcredit Programs Contribute to the Development of Women Entrepreneurship at the Household Level? Experience from Bangladesh

Microcredit, Women Entrepreneurship Development, Bangladesh, Consumer/Household Economics,

Microfinance and Environment: Does the Participation in the Microcredit Based Social Forestry of Proshika in Bangladesh Improve Environmental Literacy?

The study intends to assess the impact of the participation in the microcredit based social forestry program of Proshika in Bangladesh on the environmental literacy of participating households. The analysis is based on a household-level survey of 450 households. Considering the endogeneity in program participation, the instrumental variable (IV) technique has been used to achieve the objective of the paper. The results indicate that the participation in the social forestry program of Proshika significantly enhances the environmental literacy of participating households.Microcredit, Social Forestry, Environmental Literacy, Proshika, Bangladesh,

Energy consumption, CO2 emissions and the economic growth nexus in Bangladesh: cointegration and dynamic causality analysis

The paper investigates the existence of dynamic causality between the energy consumption, environmental pollutions and economic growth using cointegration analysis for Bangladesh. First, we tested whether any long run relationship exist using Johansen bi-variate cointegration model which is complemented with auto-regressive distributed lag model introduced by Pesaron for the results robustness. Then, we tested for the short run and the long causality relationship by estimating bi-variate vector error correction modeling framework. The estimation results indicate that a unidirectional causality run from energy consumption to economic growth both in the short and the long run; a bi-directional causality from electricity consumption to economic growth in long run but no causal relationship exists in the short run. A uni-directional causality run from CO2 emissions to energy consumption in the long run but it is opposite in the short run. CO2 granger cause to economic growth both in the short and in the long run, which is conflicting to the familiar environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis. Our results are different from existing analysis for electricity consumption and economic growth, however. The result of dynamic linkage between energy consumption and economic growth significantly reject the ‘neo-classical’ assumption that energy use is neutral to economic growth. Hence clearly an important policy implication, energy can be considered as a limiting factor to the economic growth in Bangladesh and conservation of energy may harm economic spurs. Therefore, it is a challenge for the policy makers to formulate sustainable energy consumption policy to support smooth energy supply for sustainable economic growth

Gender Inequality on the Uses of the Internet: A Study of Dhaka City of Bangladesh

Nowadays, the internet is considered a basic need, and for this, many researchers and academicians are engrossed by this subject. Very few literary works have been found to show gender inequality on the internet uses. For this reason, this study has been conducted. The main objective of this study is to assess the extent of gender inequalities on the uses of the internet in terms of time spends, money spends, data download, data upload, time spends on Social Networking Sites, time spends per access, and online earnings. For conducting this study, a survey questionnaire has been used for collecting primary data. Six hypotheses are developed and tested at a 5% level of significance. Results of the study indicate that there is significant inequality that exists between males and females in terms of time spends on the internet; money spends on the internet, the volume of data download and upload, time spends on social networking sites. Besides exists, an insignificant inequality between males and females in terms of time spends on the internet per access. The study recommends that female internet users need to be more thoughtful in case of information access, online earnings, and internet-based government and semi-government services. Based on the findings, the paper recommends that women need awareness on online earnings, online-based government services, and how effectively they can use information. This study suggests ensuring proper uses of the internet for both males and females equally to make Bangladesh competent

Moina Micrura (Kurz) As A Live Food Substitute For Artemia Salina (L.) In Larval Rearing Of Macrobrachium Rosenbergii (De Man)

sebanyak empat eksperimen utarna iaitu ( i ) penggunaan A . salina dan Moina micrura , sama ada secara tunggal atau gabungan , ( ii ) kadar penelanan Artemia dan M . micrura , ( iii ) penggantian Artemia dengan M . micrura sama ada secara mendadak atau secara beransur-ansur , ( iv ) kesan minyak limpa ikan kod ( CLO ) yang diperkaya dengan kastard telur , telah dijalankan untuk menilai penggunaan M. micrura sebagai makanan hidup yang digunakan pada waktu malarn bagi menggantikan Artemia dalam penternakan larva Macrobrachium rosenbergii .Larva M . rosenbergii yang diberikan diet campuran Artemia dan Moina dan larva yang diberikan Artemia serta diikuti dengan Moina telah memberikan hasil sama ada sama atau lebih tinggi dibandingkan dengan pasca larva yang telah diberi makanan Artemia sahaja

The Challenges of Traditional Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCGs) Retailers of Sylhet in Emergence of Organized Retailing

Organized retailing in Bangladesh is growing rapidly. Though the researchers and academicians studied the retail industry of Bangladesh in different dimension, very few of them intended to explore the challenges of traditional retailers so far. In line with this problem, the objective of this study is to identify the challenges of the traditional FMCGs retailers in emergence of organized retailing in Sylhet city. The study is quantitative in nature, data were collected from 400 traditional retailers on the basis of convenience with a semi-structured questionnaire. In analyzing data, descriptive statistics and factor analysis were used with the SPSS software. The traditional retailing is male dominated, low capital and turnover, small sized business in Sylhet and are facing challenges like decrease in sales and revenue, maintaining more hygienic environment, ensure the availability of quality products, launching the use of technology etc. in emergence of organized retailing. To minimize the challenges, the traditional FMCGs retailers need to be educated to obtain knowledge on business, ensure quality products and services, establish joint venture or partnership with other retailers to create chain stores, design effective loyalty programs and arranging customized merchandize for the loyal customers etc. The present study will help the traditional retailers in identify the real challenges of their business and designing strategies to minimize those. The policy makers and stakeholders may also get insight from the study in formulating policies to protect the traditional retail business from the competition of organized retail

太陽光発電による電化と教育成果に対する含意 : 南アジアにおける実証的知見

広島大学(Hiroshima University)博士(学術)Doctor of Philosophydoctora

Preparation and characterization of suitable insulating and transparent conducting thin films for thin film electroluminescent devices by sol-gel process

Thin film electroluminescent (TFEL) displays are attractive because they are light, have low power consumption, wide viewing angle and long lifetime, are extremely rugged and can be used in hostile environments. Recently, there has been a renewed interest in thin film electroluminescent devices because of their promising application to head mounted displays for use in automobiles, aircraft, microsurgery and virtual reality applications. Both conventional and inverted thin film electroluminescent device structures consist of insulating film, transparent conducting film and luminescent layer. In a thin film electroluminescent device, the luminescent layer is sandwiched between two insulating layers. Electrodes outside both insulating layers are used to apply an electric field, with one electrode being transparent. These thin films are found to be sensitive to preparation conditions and can be prepared by a variety of methods, such as, magnetron sputtering, chemical vapour deposition, reactive electron beam evaporation, reactive thermal deposition, spray pyrolysis, laser ablation and more recently by sol-gel process. Nowadays, the sol-gel process is a wellaccepted technology for the preparation of thin films, monoliths, fibers and monosized powders. Compared to conventional thin film forming processes such as CVD, evaporation or sputtering, sol-gel film formation requires considerably less equipment and is potentially less expensive; however the most important advantage of sol-gel processing over conventional coating methods is the ability to control precisely the microstructure of the deposited film, i.e., the pore volume, pore size and surface area. The sol-gel process is a method where the substrate to be coated is dipped into a liquid solution containing the active material. When the substrate is removed from the solution a thin layer remains. On exposure to the atmosphere a hydrolysis reaction takes place which solidifies the liquid film. In this work, all the thin films have been prepared by using sol-gel process. Insulating films of titanium dioxide and tantalum oxide were prepared from titanium and tantalum alkoxides respectively and their characteristics have been investigated. The most important requirements for the insulating layers are high dielectric constant and high electric field strength. The dielectric constants of the films were calculated from the maximum capacitance of the Al/film/Si structure. The maximum dielectric constants for Ti02 and Ta20 5 films were approximately 50 and 82 respectively annealed at 700°C in oxygen. These results suggest that the Ti02 and Ta2Os thin film can be used as a high dielectric constant insulating layer in thin film electroluminescent devices. Highly conductive and transparent aluminum-doped zinc oxide thin films have been prepared from the solution of zinc acetate and aluminum nitrate in ethanol by the sol-gel process. The effect of changing the aluminum-to-zinc ratio from 0 to 5 at. % and annealing temperature from 0 to 700°C in air, oxygen and nitrogen has been investigated. The resistivities of thin films were measured as a function of annealing temperature and also as a function of aluminum dopant concentration in the solution. As-deposited films have high resistivity and high optical transmission. Annealing of the as-deposited films in atmosphere leads to a substantial reduction in resistivity. The films have a minimum value of resistivity of 1.3xl0'4 Q-cm for 0.8 at. % aluminum-doped zinc oxide annealed at 500°C in nitrogen and a maximum transmission of about 88% when deposited on glass substrates. X-ray diffraction measurements employing CuKa radiation were performed to determine the crystallinity of the ZnO:Al films which showed that the films were polycrystalline with a hexagonal structure when annealed at higher temperatures in air, oxygen and nitrogen. Transparent conductive indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films have been prepared by a solgel process. The starting solution was prepared by mixing indium chloride dissolved in acetylacetone and tin chloride dissolved in ethanol. 0-20 % by weight Sn-doped indium oxide (ITO) films were prepared by heat-treatment at above 400°C. The electrical, optical and structural properties of ITO thin films were investigated. The electrical resistivity was measured by using four-point probe method. The ITO thin films containing 10 wt.% Sn showed the minimum resistivity of p = 8.0xl0'4 Q-cm annealed at 500°C in nitrogen. The films have an optical transparency up to 89% at 900 nm. X-ray diffraction measurements employing CuKa radiation were performed to determine the crystallinity of the ITO films which showed that the ITO films were polycrystalline with a cubic bixbyite structure annealed in air, oxygen and nitrogen. Aluminum doped zinc oxide thin films have been deposited on titanium dioxide and tantalum oxide films on glass by sol-gel process. The resistivity of ZnO:Al thin films deposited on titanium dioxide and tantalum oxide films on glass have a minimum value of 2.5xl0'3 Q-cm and 9.6xl0'4 Q-cm respectively annealed at 500°C in nitrogen. ZnO:Al thin films deposited on titanium dioxide film on glass have a higher resistivity than that deposited on glass. This increase in resistivity on titanium dioxide film is due to the diffusion of titanium into the zinc oxide layer. Indium tin oxide thin films have been deposited on titanium dioxide and tantalum oxide films on glass for thin film electroluminescent devices. The resistivity of ITO films deposited on titanium dioxide and tantalum oxide films has a minimum value of 9.5x1 O'4 Q-cm and 9.0x10'4 Q-cm respectively annealed at 500°C in nitrogen which are as low as the resistivity of ITO films deposited on glass. This combination of transparent conductive ITO thin films and titanium dioxide or tantalum oxide insulating layer can be used for thin film electroluminescent devices