Three essays in development economics

To find a route on the map to reach the destination, one starts by looking for the current location. Development economics studies underdevelopment. The primary matter of interest are the individuals, groups and societies that have lagged behind and the reasons for the same. It is imperative to look for solutions that would help bridge the gap. The 20th century’s debate of market orientation or intervention is stark in 21st century development strategies for the underdeveloped. But there is also growing consensus on making the choices based on strong empirical evidence. The supporters of market oriented strategies put great emphasis on the efficacy of the efficient capital markets to solve the problem of poverty. Microfinance is seen as the magic bullet that can eradicate poverty through the market by being innovative enough to reach out to the poor. It does that while achieving women empowerment. How exactly it achieves the transformation of lives of the underserved is inevitably a question of interest for a development economist. Chapter One of this thesis seeks to explore the development of microfinance in India by looking at the experience of the Mann Deshi Bank, which established in 1997 as the first microfinance women bank in India. The qualitative and quantitative methods are employed to analyse the contribution of the bank. The narratives of the borrowers of the bank highlighting the role of credit are analyzed. Subsequently, the descriptive statistics of the joint liability loans is reported and their growth and financial performance are discussed. This chapter further argues that the innovative financial products introduced by Mann Deshi to address the cash flow needs of clients can serve as a potential template for greater financial inclusion around the world. The conclusion is on how the work of Mann Deshi Bank can serve as a new benchmark in the microfinance industry in India. It follows also to explore the strategy employed by the microfinance institutions to enhance their performance. Most microfinance banks, which have become a key provider of credit in developing countries use agents to acquire new borrowers, manage the account and collect repayments. Chapter Two of this thesis studies the incentives provided to such financial agents and the effect such incentives had on the outcome desired by the microfinance bank. Mann Deshi Bank, a microfinance bank operating in western India, changed its remuneration scheme from pure commission to a mix scheme with a combination of a base salary and other incentives. This chapter examines the effect it had on the effort and the output of the agents by using a panel data of 39 agents working on the bank's joint liability lending product for five years. The results show that although the bank was able to reduce its wage bills for the loan product, it came with the poorer performance by the agents. The supply of credit to new borrowers reduced, both in terms of the rate of reaching out to new borrowers as well as the loan amount disbursed to them. However, interestingly, borrowers delay their repayments less with the new agents on the mixed contract. On the other hand not just for the supporters of the interventionism but also for all for the sake of curbing the market failure arising due to public goods, the efficiency of the government to deliver remains of great interest. Enabling the citizens to monitor their government through a right to information is hoped to improve the public goods distribution. To what extent it indeed happens, if it does and does it particularly show any potential in achieving the developmental goals quicker is currently a burning question. Chapter three of this thesis considers the efficacy of Right to Information Act (RTI) in India for achieving developmental goals for poor Indian citizens. Nations worldwide have enacted freedom to information to provide greater transparency to government operations and to allow citizens to monitor their governments more effectively. Does this lead to better public services? The efficacy of the RTI since its inception in 1997 is analyzed. Also, the kind of public goods which can be improved is identified. Lastly, whether these public goods are beneficial for the poor population is examined. Two indicators are applied; electrification and health. Electrification is used to understand how much attention a state pays to its rural voter- since electrification is nearly complete in urban India but many rural areas either do not have electricity connections or do not receive any electricity the whole week. For health, an analysis of effect of RTI is employed on infant mortality. Infant mortality is a key health outcome and a good indicator of the quality of health care provision in a society. So a more accountable government due to RTI will provide better health care and therefore the state or country is likely to have lower infant mortality. The key explanatory variable in the study is RTI implementation

From travellers to activist global citizens? Practitioner reflections on an activist/volunteer tourist project

Where their parents sought an essentially passive observation of the exotic while "roughing it‟ on foot and in sleeper class, a new generation of young travellers from the global North seek authentic experience in the global South through opportunities to actively engage with the realities of poverty-stricken slums as volunteer tourists. Free of their conventional social ties and uninhibited in their attempts to carve out new global citizen roles for themselves, the youths experience a bonding „communitas‟ with each other, and when they return home their social status is raised in the eyes of employers and peers. This paper focuses on the Development and Human Rights Institute (DHRI), one of many youth travel organisations that have sprung up to meet this new market, an organisation both authors have been involved in establishing and running since 2006. One of the primary motivations for the small team that set up the organisation was to capitalise on the liminal moment experienced by travellers in order to provoke them into fresh, critical and politicised reflections on the relationships between North and South and the place of their volunteerism within those relationships. The paper discusses our observations of the preconceptions of our participants, their experiences in India, and the attempts of the team to encourage the participants to reflect critically. The paper aims at polyvocality, resisting the temptation to hide the dissensus between the two authors‟ positions vis- à-vis the success, failure and potential of the project. While Brendan‟s analysis leads him to a comparison of DHRI with Paulo Freire‟s ideas of critical pedagogy, Sameena provides an analysis of how structures of racism and global capitalism shape the practices of volunteer tourists from the global North working for development in the South

Impact of financial literacy on savings behavior: the moderation role of risk aversion and financial confidence

This research examines the impact of financial literacy on the savings behavior of investors residing in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. It also investigates the moderating impact of financial confidence and risk aversion in the relationship between financial literacy and savings behavior. The primary data were collected from 357 respondents through a structured questionnaire using the snowball sampling method. The findings of this study suggest that financial literacy has a positive impact on investors' savings behavior. Further, the study also found that risk aversion significantly moderates the relationship between financial literacy and savings behavior. The three-way interaction between financial literacy, risk aversion, and financial confidence significantly affects the investors’ savings behavior. The study suggests that policymakers should emphasize training programs for investors on financial literacy, financial confidence, and risk aversion

Risks and regulation of cryptocurrency during pandemic: a systematic literature review

Cryptocurrencies differ from traditional financial assets as they are not governed by any higher authority, have no physical representation, are indefinitely divisible, and are not based on any tangible assets or country. While their popularity and use have surged over the years, they are still subject to an underlying risk. The purpose of this research is to investigate the regulatory approach for cryptocurrencies adopted around the world. To achieve the purpose of this research, extant literature is examined using a systematic literature review. Using a total of 49 Scopus indexed shortlisted articles, the extant literature on the various risks related to cryptocurrency and the regulatory approach adopted for the same was explored. The prior literature was classified into four thematic clusters of the regulatory approach to risks: pandemic, volatility, money laundering and cyber security. The findings suggest the regulations governing cryptocurrency are still at an infancy stage, and it still suffers from the challenge of limited transparency. The pandemic did not have a drastic impact on cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrencies are volatile in reaction to economic policy uncertainty and macroeconomic variables. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this review paper is one of the few contributing to the gaps in the literature on the various risks and their associated regulatory approach to managing cryptocurrency

Assessing the reliability and accuracy of nurse triage ratings when using the South African Triage Scale in the Emergency Department of District Headquarter Hospital of Timergara, Pakistan

ObjectiveTo assess inter and intra-rater reliability, as well as accuracy of nurse triage ratings when using the South African Triage Scale (SATS) in the Emergency Department (ED) of District Headquarter (DHQ) Hospital of Timergara, Pakistan.MethodsThis is a cross-sectional study using 42 previously validated paper based vignettes. Fifteen ED nurses assigned triage ratings to each of the 42 vignettes under classroom conditions. Validation of the SATS was done using the vignettes as a reference standard. Graphical displays portrayed rating distribution and validation measures of sensitivity, specificity, overtriage and undertriage across different acuity levels.ResultsThe estimated Quadratically weighted Kappa (QWK) and Interclass Correlation was found to be substantial at 0.77(CI 0.69–0.85). Intra-rater reliability with exact agreement was shown to be 87% (CI 67–100) with one category discrepancy showing 100% agreement. An average sensitivity, 70%; specificity, 97%; overtriage, 14.7% and undertriage, 21.6% was shown. The Graphical displayed showed that Very Urgent, Urgent and routine acuity levels had acceptable levels of overtriage and undertriage.ConclusionThe SATS has been shown to be a reliable triage scale for a developing country such as Pakistan. With accuracy being acceptable in the context of Timergara, we would suggest further validation studies looking at simple ways of validating the triage scale bearing in mind the challenges facing a developing country ED

Comparative evaluation of INNO-LiPA HBV assay, direct DNA sequencing and subtractive PCR-RFLP for genotyping of clinical HBV isolates

Genotypes (A to H) of hepatitis B virus (HBV) influence liver disease progression and response to antiviral therapy in HBV-infected patients. Several methods have been developed for rapid genotyping of HBV strains. However, some of these methods may not be suitable for developing countries. The performance of INNO-LiPA HBV Genotyping assay (LiPA), direct DNA sequencing and subtractive PCR-RFLP of genotype-specific HBV genome regions were evaluated for accurately determining the HBV genotypes by analyzing sera (n = 80) samples from chronic HBV patients. Both, LiPA and DNA sequencing identified 63, 4 and 13 HBV strains as belonging to genotype D, genotype A and mixed genotype A and D, respectively. On the contrary, the PCR-RFLP-based method correctly identified all 4 genotype A but only 56 of 63 genotype D strains. Seven genotype D strains yielded indeterminate results. DNA sequence comparisons showed that a single nucleotide change in the target region generated an additional restriction site for Nla IV that compromised the accuracy of this method. Furthermore, all the mixed genotype A and D strains were identified only as genotype A strains. The data show that the PCR-RFLP-based method incorrectly identified some genotype D strains and failed to identify mixed genotype infections while LiPA and DNA sequencing yielded accurate results