Digital Commons Network^™

Microfinance Myopia: Lessons From The Mainstream, Kim Wilson

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

This essay attempts to remove the shades that blind the microfinance sector to the value of its customers and what its customers truly value. It proposes that the social agenda and financial health of microfinance institutions would be far more sound if we understood who our customers are, why they leave, what they really want, and the real business we are all in.

Client Information Sharing In Bolivia, Campion, Anita Campion

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

As the microfinance industry becomes more competitive, microfinance institutions (MFIs) increasingly seek access to credit bureaus and credit information agencies. The growing number of microfinance providers in the market results in borrowers having more access to loans, which can lead to client overindebtedness and default. By sharing client information with each other and by using credit bureau information on client history and indebtedness, MFIs facing competition can reduce their credit risk and avoid unnecessary losses. While the growing interest in credit bureaus for microfinance is global, to date, few countries have credit unions and even fewer include microfinance clients in …

The Economic Agenda Of Catholic Social Teaching: The Framework For A Normative Social Theory, Michael D. Russell

Major Themes in Economics

The Catholic Church has developed a position on socio-economic issues during the past one hundred years as detailed in economically-minded papal encyclicals and related church documents. Included are several criteria that provide a framework for evaluating areas of economic policy. The Church’s mission has been to develop a normative social theory capable of integrating both theology and economic theory. The body of literature addressing the Church’s approach to socio-economic issues is known as Catholic Social Teaching, or CST. I will use CST to describe the Catholic platform of normative economic justice, its justification of social theory, and the potential economic …

Neighborhood Effects And The Development Of Cognitive Ability: A Re-Examination Of The Bell Curve, Amber Munday '01

Honors Projects

"The average black and white differ in IQ at every level of socioeconomic status..." state Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray in 1994's controversial book, The Bell Curve (269). Implicit in this statement is the idea that blacks are genetically less intelligent than whites, and it is because of this, that the gap in black and white median incomes persists. Herrnstein and Murray believe that the portion of IQ, as measured by the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT), that is influenced by environmental factors is virtually irrelevant. This is due to the fact that less intelligent people live in less desirable …

Review Of "Rising Wage Inequality: The 1980s Experience In Urban Labor Markets" By T. Hyclak, Frederic L. Pryor

Economics Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Rural Economic Development: Worker Cooperatives And Employment Of People With Disabilities Part One, Charles Sperry, Joyce Brusin, Tom Seekins Ph.D., University Of Montana Rural Institute

Employment

Across America, rural communities are looking for vibrant and stable local economies that will allow them to preserve the best qualities of their rural life in the face of rapid and relentless global economic change. The impacts of economic decline in rural America over the last two decades have been worsened by multiplier effects. Lost income has led to lost purchasing power, which has led to business closures; population loss has followed, resulting in downsizing of schools and hospitals and ultimately, in disintegration of communities themselves (Magdoff 1993; The Futurist, 1989).

A Game Worth Playing? The Distributional Effects Of Casino Gambling: An Emphasis On Iowa, Brad Rolling

Major Themes in Economics

This paper examines the distributional effects of casino gambling, with an emphasis on Iowa. The casino tax is found to be regressive, and regressivity increases with increased accessibility to casinos. Prevalence and costs of pathological and problem gamblers are discussed in detail. Evidence suggesting a positive correlation between casinos and bankruptcy rates is presented. Overall, it is found that casinos disproportionally harm poor individuals, non-whites (with the exception of Native Americans), and those living near casinos. Iowans must understand the equity implications of casino gambling in order to make informed policy decisions, including the county referendums in 2002.

Consumer Views On Genetically Modified Crops, Levente Timar

Major Themes in Economics

Differences in consumer views about genetically modified crops have recently lead to trade disputes between the United States and the countries of the European Union. This paper uses a simple cost-benefit model to examine what factors influence consumer views on modified crops, and analyses them in an attempt to explain the observed difference between the American and European perspectives. Potential socio-economic, health and environmental effects interact with personal beliefs to shape consumer views. It is argued that most of the difference in opinions can be traced back to the lack of accurate information. There is a difference in the perceived …

The Myth Of Sports-Led Economic Development, Brad R. Humphreys

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Public subsidization of professional sports facilities has been prevalent for the past 40 years in the United States. These subsidies are allegedly justified by economic benefits owing from sports facilities, including the creation of new jobs, new tax revenues and higher income. Recent research suggests that cities have not benefited economically from the boom in professional stadium and arena construction; cities that built new sports facilities over the period 1969-1997 have experienced lower inflation adjusted income per person than those where no new facilities were built. This research calls into question the justification for public subsidization of professional sports facilities.

Validation Of Tissue Microarrays For Immunohistochemical Profiling Of Cancer Specimens Using The Example Of Human Fibroblastic Tumors, Axel Hoos, M. J. Urist, A. Stojadinovic, S. Mastorides, M. Dudas, Denis H. Y. Leung

Research Collection School Of Economics

Tissue microarrays allow high-throughput molecular profiling of cancer specimens by immunohistochemistry. Phenotype information of sections from arrayed biopsies on a multitissue block needs to be representative of full sections, as protein expression varies throughout the entire tumor specimen. To validate the use of tissue microarrays for immunophenotyping, we studied a group of 59 fibroblastic tumors with variable protein expression patterns by immunohistochemistry for Ki-67, p53, and the retinoblastoma protein (pRB). Data on full tissue sections were compared to the results of one, two, and three 0.6-mm core biopsies per tumor on a tissue array. Ki-67 and p53 staining was read …

Poorer European Countries Are Less Concerned About Biotechnology Than Richer Countries, Michael Siegrist

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

The author examines the relationship between GNP, media coverage, and public perceptions of the utility, risk, and acceptability of medical and food-related applications of biotechnology.

Social Work And Labor: A Look At The North American Agreement On Labor Cooperation, Constance Phelps

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC), a side agreement to NAFTA, provides an instructive example of an attempt to link global trade to labor standards. While this side agreement was created in order to bolster the internationalization of trade, it has brought Labor, human rights groups and governments together to scrutinize and challenge the ways that each NAFTA member country ensures the provision of basic health, safety, and human rights on the job. Effective enforcement of the Agreement will come only with political pressure from a wide variety of groups interested in improving quality of life for workers …

Intergenerational Labor Market And Welfare Consequences Of Poor Health, Thomas J. Kniesner, Anthony T. Losasso

Center for Policy Research

Our research provides new econometric evidence concerning partial economic risk sharing between a frail elderly parent and an adult child. We estimate a jointly determined limited dependent variables system explaining the parent’s entry into a nursing home, the adult child’s visits to the parent, and the adult child’s labor supplied. The time allocation of adult sons is unaffected by a parent’s frail health. Adult daughters who visit a frail elderly parent daily decrease their annual labor supplied by about 1,000 hours annually, largely through labor force non-participation. The implied welfare loss to the daughter from a frail elderly parent in …

Intergenerational Labor Market And Welfare Consequences Of Poor Health, Thomas J. Kniesner, Anthony T. Losasso

Center for Policy Research

Our research provides new econometric evidence concerning partial economic risk sharing between a frail elderly parent and an adult child. We estimate a jointly determined limited dependent variables system explaining the parent’s entry into a nursing home, the adult child’s visits to the parent, and the adult child’s labor supplied. The time allocation of adult sons is unaffected by a parent’s frail health. Adult daughters who visit a frail elderly parent daily decrease their annual labor supplied by about 1,000 hours annually, largely through labor force non-participation. The implied welfare loss to the daughter from a frail elderly parent in …

Unfinished Business: Inadequate Health Coverage For Privately Insured, Seriously Ill Children, Nancy Swigonski, Eleanor D. Kinney, Deborah A. Freund, Thomas J. Kniesner

Center for Policy Research

During the 1980s and 1990s there were great increases of health insurance coverage for poor children through the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and extended Medicaid eligibility. Problems remain for the small number of children with serious medical conditions whose care is a high proportion of total health care expenditures on children. We report on the adequacy of health insurance coverage for a sample of children with serious and rare illnesses treated at the single tertiary care pediatric hospital in Indiana. One-third of privately insured children in our data had inadequate insurance. Compared to families with inadequate health insurance families …

Determinants Of Medical Costs Following A Diagnosis Of Depression, Regina H. Powers, Thomas J. Kniesner, Thomas W. Croghan

Center for Policy Research

Objective: Assess the determinants of medical costs for depressed individuals.

Method: Using medical insurance claims for a population of depressed individuals with employer provided insurance, we estimated multivariate models of the costs for general medical care, exclusive of costs for mental health services, following diagnosis. Explanatory variables included provider choice (psychiatrist or non-physician mental health specialist), treatment choice (medication, psychotherapy, or combination treatment); treatment adequacy as defined by APA guidelines; characteristics of depression symptoms and severity; and other demographic characteristics.

Results: On average, there were increases in the costs for general medical services in the year following diagnosis of a …

The Effect Of Child Care Costs On The Labor Force Participation And Welfare Recipiency Of Single Mothers: Implications For Welfare Reform, Rachel Connelly, Jean Kimmel

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

This paper considers the effect of child care costs on two labor market outcomes for single mothers - whether to participate in the labor market and whether to receive welfare. Hourly child care expenditures are estimated for all women in the sample (using data drawn from the 1992 and 1993 panels of the SIPP), whether or not they are currently using nonmaternal child care. These expenditures are then included as an independent variable predicting the probability of welfare recipiency and the probability of labor force participation. Results show a substantial positive effect of child care costs on welfare recipiency, with …

Residential Mobility And Youth Well-Being: Research, Policy, And Practice Issues, Edward Scanlon, Kevin Devine

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Despite an extensive body of sociological work suggesting that residential mobility reduces child well-being, the subject of relocation has been largely overlooked in social work and social welfare literature. Recent social policies threaten to increase the incidence of moving among low-income families in the United States. This paper reviews theoretical and empirical literature in this area and finds evidence that residential mobility reduces children's academic functioning, and may negatively affect other aspects of child well-being. These effects are especially strong for poor children from single parent families, making this issue of particular relevance for social work. The authors suggest implications …

The Transformation Of Russian Social Policy In The Transition Toward A Market Economy, Isabel Pla Julian

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The last few years have witnessed truly extraordinary events in the formerly communist societies. These countries were characterized by the great importance attached to social policy as opposed to market economy countries with a similar level of economic growth. However, the transition process toward a market economy has set new conditions for the functioning of governing levels and companies, which has affected social policies altogether. On the one hand, economic liberalization has brought about a reduction of the Russian Government's intervention in the economy, particularly in social policy. On the other hand, the privatization of the state company in a …

Optimal Designs For Evaluating A Series Of Treatments, Denis H. Y. Leung, You Gan Wang

Research Collection School Of Economics

Several articles in this journal have studied optimal designs for testing a series of treatments to identify promising ones for further study. These designs formulate testing as an ongoing process until a promising treatment is identified. This formulation is considered to be more realistic but substantially increases the computational complexity. In this article, we show that these new designs, which control the error rates for a series of treatments, can be reformulated as conventional designs that control the error rates for each individual treatment. This reformulation leads to a more meaningful interpretation of the error rates and hence easier specification …

New Mexico Traffic Crash Info_1999, University Of New Mexico Division Of Government Research, New Mexico State Highway And Transportation Department

BBER Publications

This report analyzes traffic crashes occurring in New Mexico during 1999, presenting statewide and county-level data on fatalities, injuries, crash causes, alcohol involvement, seatbelt use, pedestrians, motorcycles, and roadway safety trends. Produced for the New Mexico Traffic Safety Bureau, the report serves as a comprehensive reference source for transportation planning, public safety policy, and traffic crash research.

Trends. Double Bind In Quebec And In The World, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article discusses the desire for Quebec to become an independent nation-state but there are dynamics that affect that process. The Separatist Movement faces roadblocks no matter the state of the national economy in Canada.

Capital Access In El Paso: A Multivariate Analysis Of Factors Influencing Loan Approval, David A. Schauer, Dennis L. Soden

IPED Technical Reports

During the spring of 2000, The University of Texas at El Paso was commissioned by the El Paso Leadership and Research Council to explore a broad set of issues surrounding supply and demand factors with respect to commercial banks, small business firms and debt financing. The study revealed among other things that small, relatively young and minority owned firms experience high loan denial rates compared to their counterparts. The present study has the purpose of providing a more comprehensive statistical analysis concerning the factors which influence or predict loan approval probabilities.

The Role Of Microsimulation In Longitudinal Data Analysis, Douglas A. Wolf

Center for Policy Research

The term “microsimulation” has been linked to a range of tools and techniques that are finding growing use in empirical social science applications. This paper considers one such area, namely the potential for microsimulation to serve the needs of the data analyst, in contrast to the more common use of microsimulation by the model user. Furthermore, the focus is on longitudinal rather than cross-sectional data analysis. The paper identifies several types of longitudinal data modeling approaches in which microsimulation is particularly relevant, suggesting algorithms with which to conduct such microsimulations. Microsimulation can be used to extend the range of inferences …

Pay And Productivity In A Corporatist Economy: Evidence From Austria, Scott M. Fuess Jr., Meghan Millea

Department of Economics: Faculty Publications

Conventional theory predicts that productivity gains lead to hikes in real pay. Efficiency wage theory hypothesizes that pay increases can lead to productivity improvements. But would such results be observed in a corporatist economy with centralized bargaining? For the case of Austria, a corporatist archetype, this study uses an innovative technique developed by Geweke to disentangle the relationship between pay and productivity. There already has been empirical evidence that pay demands in corporatist economies are relatively modest. Moreover, it has been claimed that corporatist coordination enhances the efficiency of labor contracts, by providing a mechanism to adjust to aggregate shocks. …

Tax Reform And Automatic Stabilization, Thomas J. Kniesner, James P. Ziliak

Economics - All Scholarship

A fundamental property of a progressive income tax is that it provides implicit insurance against shocks to income by dampening the variability of disposable income and consumption. The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 (ERTA) in combination with the Tax Reform Act of 1986 (TRA86) greatly reduced the number of marginal tax brackets and the maximum marginal rate, which limits the stabilizing effect of the tax system on household consumption when pre-tax income fluctuates. We examine the effect of the federal income tax reforms of the 1980s on the associated degree of automatic stabilization of consumption. The empirical framework derives …

The Lingnan Commentary - January 2001 (No.1), Hong Kong Institute Of Business Studies, Lingnan University

The Lingnan Commentary 嶺南評論 : A Quarterly Review of Economic, Business and Social Issues by Lingnan University

No abstract provided.

New Anti-Merger Theories: A Critique, Edward J. Lopez

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate these new anti-merger instruments on the basis of economic theory and evidence. I first discuss how the economics of antitrust has developed over the years, with the intention of characterizing the intellectual inheritance of 1990s' antitrust regulators. Within this context, I then discuss each anti-merger instrument, how it has been applied in specific cases, and how it accords with underlying economic science. On the basis of these arguments, antitrust regulators should pause and reconsider the theoretical and empirical bases of applying unilateral effects and innovation markets to merger investigations.

Poverty In Thailand: Causes And Solutions, Nuntaporn Artontammakun

Theses Digitization Project

Poverty has been reduced substantially, but most poverty reducing programs have raised other problems out of poverty. This paper outlines the principal causes of poverty in an emerging nation-Thailand. It presents strategies for reducing the level of poverty.

Gambling With The Future: Economic And Social Perspectives On The Casinos In America 2001-02, Department Of Economics

Werner Sichel Lecture Series

"The Economics of Risk" is the 38th annual Public Lecture-Seminar Series organized by the Department of Economics at Western Michigan University. This year's series focuses on the occurrence of risk in our economy and the attitudes and responses of decision makers to the risk that is encountered. The series is directed by Dr. Donald J. Meyer of the WMU Economics Department, and is co-sponsored by the WE. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. The public is cordially invited to attend the lectures and no admission is charged. In addition to a public lecture, each guest scholar will also present an academic …