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Partner Profiles, Esr Review

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

No abstract provided.

Editor's Introduction: Welcome To The New Esr Review, Paul C. Godfrey

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

No abstract provided.

Microfranchising: A New Tool For Creating Economic Self-Reliance, Jason S. Fairbourne

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

This article is developed from a presentation given by Fairbourne and Stephen W. Gibson on December 2, 2005, at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

Profitable Financial Systems, Maria Otero

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

This article is a transcription of Otero's speech entitled “The Future of Microfinance: Creating Financial Systems to Serve the Poor Majority,” given on 11 March 2005 at the Economic Self-Reliance Conference held at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
Last November I met a widow of ten years in Arusha, Tanzania. Intent on providing a better life for her children and surviving as best she could, she had started a business selling rice soon after her husband died. Sophia has little education, but with a first loan of $50 she purchased a few kilo bags of rice for on-selling to …

Creating A Dynamic Board, Paul Jansen, Andra Kilpatrick, Vishy Cvsa

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

This article is taken from a report issued in 2003 by the Nonprofit Practice at McKinsey & Company, entitled “The Dynamic Board: Lessons from High- Performing Non-Profits.”
Does a great nonprofit organization need an exemplary board of directors? If an organization has a visionary leader, a skilled staff, loyal donors, and a substantial endowment, what does the board really add? In our consulting work, we are frequently asked to help assess board performance and identify opportunities for improvement. To get a more precise view of what makes board governance effective, we interviewed the directors or board chairs of thirty-two of …

Doublures, Restes Et Rapports : Les Corps Entre Méconnaissances Et Mises, Jean-Godefroy Bidima

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

If the body finds a place in our discourse, it is only to justify what we abhor and to provide us with alibis. However, some postcolonial discourses generate misunderstanding via two major omissions: on the one hand, they steer away from a critique of the political economy of the scholar’s own body and its relationship to economic power; on the other hand, they fail to explore what can be said about the body conceived as remains and as residue. One cannot properly conceive of the body as a substance but, rather, as a relation —a relation to what it is …

The Growth Of Nonprofits, Michael L. Jones

Bridgewater Review

No abstract provided.

Enrollment Forecasts For The El Paso Community College System And Component Campuses, Mathew Mcelroy

IPED Technical Reports

No abstract provided.

Foreign Direct Investment And Intellectual Property Rights Protection: Trips Economics For Developing Economies And Their Pharmaceutical Sectors, Hanan Hamed Sileem

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Smart Subsidies, Jonathan J. Morduch

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

This essay is a reprint of Morduch's article “Smart Subsidy for Sustainable Microfinance,” published in the December 2005 issue (Vol. 6 No. 4) of Finance for the Poor, the quarterly microfinance newsletter of the Asian Development Bank.
Smart subsidy might seem like a contradiction in terms to many microfinance experts. Worries about the dangers of excessive subsidization have driven microfinance conversations since the movement first gained steam in the 1980s. From then on, the goal of serving the poor has been twined with the goal of long-term financial self-sufficiency on the part of microbanks, aiming for profitability became part …

Evaluating Inflation Targeting Using A Macroeconometric Model, Ray C. Fair

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This paper uses a structurally estimated macroeconometric model, denoted the MC model, to evaluate inflation targeting in the United States. Various interest rate rules are tried with differing weights on inflation and output, and various optimal control problems are solved using differing weights on inflation and output targets. Price-level targeting is also considered. The results show that 1) there are output costs to inflation targeting, especially for price shocks, 2) price-level targeting is dominated by inflation targeting, 3) the estimated interest rate rule of the Fed (in Table 4) is consistent with the Fed placing equal weights on inflation and …

The Contributory Pension Scheme: Instrument And Legal Frameworks, M. K. Ahmad

Bullion

This paper examines the Pension Reform Act 2004 (the Act) of Nigeria which brought into existence a Defined Contribution system that was fully funded, privately managed and based on individual accounts for both the public and private sector employees. The Act also established the National Pension Commission as the sole regulator and supervisor on all pension matters in the country. The rest of the paper is arranged as follows: in Section 2, a review was made of the literature on the Nigerian pension systems while institutional and Legal Frameworks were discussed in Section 3 and Section 4 concludes the paper.

Investments And Risk Management Under The New Pension Scheme, Atedo A. N. Peterside

Bullion

The Pension Reform Act 2004 ("the Act"), a compul sory contributory pension scheme ("the scheme ' or CPS") has been established for all the categories of workers in the Federal public service, Federal Capital Territory , and in the private sector ( 'applicable sectors'). This paper attempt to discuss and examine the issues of investment and risk management that are essential to the success of the new Scheme, and highlight some of the benefits and limitations of the contributory pension scheme and its investment and risk management framework. The study concluded that, the new CPS, it is also pertinent to …

Contributory Pension Scheme: The Case Of Brazil., Mbatomon R. Ako

Bullion

The reform of the pension industry in Nigeria was necessitated by many problems confronting both the public and private sectors pension schemes. The public sector operated largely the Defined Benefit - Pay As You Go (PAYG) scheme, which depended on budgetary provisions from various tiers of governments for funding. This paper discuss the conceptual issues of Contributory pension scheme in Brazil, the structure of the pension system and the features of the pension scheme as well as some other pension reforms in Brazil. The study concluded that. the pension systems were introduced into the country by the colonial administrators. The …

Financial Sector Outcomes In Nigeria: A Quantitative Evaluation., Abeng M. Okoi

Bullion

Prior to the adoption of the economic reforms measures of the 1980's, most African economies were predominantly characterised by extensive public ownership, management and control of productive and social infrastructures and institutions. This paper discuss the trend of investments and pension schemes with its risks and challenges in Nigeria. The study however confirmed the non applicability of the financial reform theory hypothesized by McKinnon and Shaw in Nigeria 'This Paper quantitatively examine the outcomes of financial sector reforms in Nigeria with a view to validating the applicability of the Mckinnon Shaw hypothesis of financial liberalization. The impact of reforms on …

Lumpy Investment In Dynamic General Equilibrium, Ruediger Bachmann, Ricardo J. Caballero, Eduardo Engel

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Microeconomic lumpiness matters for macroeconomics. According to our DSGE model, it explains roughly 60% of the smoothing in the investment response to aggregate shocks. The remaining 40% is explained by general equilibrium forces. The central role played by micro frictions for aggregate dynamics results in important history dependence in business cycles. In particular, booms feed into themselves. The longer an expansion, the larger the response of investment to an additional positive shock. Conversely, a slowdown after a boom can lead to a long lasting investment slump, which is unresponsive to policy stimuli. Such dynamics are consistent with US investment patterns …

Renegotiation Without Holdup: Anticipating Spending And Infrastructure Concessions, Eduardo Engel, Ronald Fischer, Alexander Galetovic

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Infrastructure concessions are frequently renegotiated after investments are sunk, resulting in better contractual terms for the franchise holders. This paper offers a political economy explanation for renegotiations that occur with no apparent holdup. We argue that they are used by political incumbents to anticipate infrastructure spending and thereby increase the probability of winning the upcoming election. Contract renegotiations allow administrations to replicate the effects of issuing debt. Yet debt issues are incorporated in the budget, must be approved by Congress and are therefore subject to the opposition’s review. By contrast, under current accounting standards the obligations created by renegotiations circumvent …

Empirical Likelihood Methods In Econometrics: Theory And Practice, Yuichi Kitamura

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Recent developments in empirical likelihood (EL) methods are reviewed. First, to put the method in perspective, two interpretations of empirical likelihood are presented, one as a nonparametric maximum likelihood estimation method (NPMLE) and the other as a generalized minimum contrast estimator (GMC). The latter interpretation provides a clear connection between EL, GMM, GEL and other related estimators. Second, EL is shown to have various advantages over other methods. The theory of large deviations demonstrates that EL emerges naturally in achieving asymptotic optimality both for estimation and testing. Interestingly, higher order asymptotic analysis also suggests that EL is generally a preferred …

Aggregate Implications Of Lumpy Investment: New Evidence And A Dsge Model, Ruediger Bachmann, Ricardo J. Caballero, Eduardo Engel

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

The sensitivity of U.S. aggregate investment to shocks is procyclical: the response upon impact increases by approximately 50% from the trough to the peak of the business cycle. This feature of the data follows naturally from a DSGE model with lumpy microeconomic capital adjustment. Beyond explaining this specific time variation, our model and evidence provide a counterexample to the claim that microeconomic investment lumpiness is inconsequential for macroeconomic analysis.

Efficient Recommender Systems, Dirk Bergemann, Deran Ozmen

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We study the efficient allocation of buyers in the presence of recommender systems. A recommender system affects the market in two ways: (i) it creates value by reducing product uncertainty for the customers and hence (ii) its recommendations can be offered as add-ons, which generates informational externalities. We investigate the impact of these factors on the efficient allocation of buyers across different products. We find that the efficient allocation requires that the seller with the recommender system has full market share. If the recommender system is sufficiently effective in reducing uncertainty, it is optimal to have some products to be …

Empirical Analysis Of Cost And Returns To Commercial Table Egg Production In Lagos State., G. O. Evbuomwan

Economic and Financial Review

The paper seek to establish that commercial table egg production in Lagos State is profitable. This was based on the fact that there was an increase in the per capita income of the populace and also increase in the awareness of the health implication of intake of protein from eggs.

Labour Market Reforms And Polarization In Korea, K. H., Raymond Chan

CAPS Working Paper Series

From the early 1990s the South Korean government launched a series of structural reforms to liberalize and deregulate the economy and labour market, in line with its globalization strategy. Particularly after the financial crisis, flexible labour market reform was one of the major initiatives to keep the Korean economy competitive in the global market. This paper describes the rationale for flexible labour market reforms in Korea from the early 1990s, evaluates their impacts on labour market polarization, and assesses the policy responses adopted by Kim Dae-jung and the current Roh Moo-hyun governments. It is argued that the flexible labour market …

The Collateral Source Rule: A Common Law Norm Under Special Interest Attack, David Schap, Andrew Feeley

Economics Department Working Papers

According to Posnerian law and economics, common law (i.e., judge-made law) tends to promote efficiency. Public choice teaches that statutory (legislated) law need have no such efficiency property because, unlike appointed judges, legislators are subject to short election cycles and are beholden to special interests for election and re-election. The collateral source rule is a common law norm that permits an injured party to recover damages from both the tortfeasor (injurer) and from private insurance. Published work in the law and economics literature indicates that despite an appearance that the rule permits unwarranted double recover, the rule is indeed generally …

(Much) More On The Collateral Source Rule, David Schap, Andrew Feeley

Economics Department Working Papers

The collateral source rule is a common law norm that permits recovery of accident-related damages from both the victim’s insurer and the injurer. Many jurisdictions have modified the rule through statutory reform during the last twenty-five years. Forensic economists in assessing damages need to be aware of the variations in the application of the rule in the jurisdictions in which they practice. The authors present a tabular summary of the statutory variations that exist in the collateral source rule across state jurisdictions and the detailed status of the statutory modifications to the rule for each state.

Investments And Risk Management Under The New Pension Scheme., Luka A. Dalang

Bullion

Pension today, has become a topical issue. one that has engaged the commitment of government, attention of employers and workers not only in Nigeria but also in many developing and emerging economies of Africa, Asia and Latin America This paper discuss the trend of investments and pension schemes with its risks and challenges in Nigeria. The study however confirmed the non applicability of the financial reform theory hypothesized by McKinnon and Shaw in Nigeria.' . The National pension Commission guidelines as mentioned earlier, are designed to ensure transparency, integrity and objectivity in the vestment process. and to ensure that the …

Manufacturing Rebounds, John Austin, Chris Decker, Tom Doering, Ernie Goss, Nick Hernandez, Bruce Johnson, Ken Lemke, Donis Petersan, Franz Schwarz, Eric Thompson, Keith Turner

Economics Faculty Publications

National economic conditions will continue to favor growth over the next three years, including sustained increases in manufacturing employment. Higher energy prices, particularly for oil, gasoline, and natural gas, will impact the economy, but probably only will moderate economic growth rather than cause a significant slowdown.

After rapid growth in 2004 and 2005, growth in real gross domestic product is expected to moderate in 2006-2008, due to higher long-term interest rates as well as higher energy prices. Real gross domestic product will grow 3 percent in 2006 and fall to 2.5 percent growth in later years. The housing market will …

Foreign Direct Investment And Technology Transfer To Nigerian Manufacturing Firms: Evidence From Empirical Data., Nasiru Musa Yauri

Economic and Financial Review

The paper investigates the vertical effects of FDI on Nigeria manufacturing firms. Specifically, the paper asks, do Nigerian manufacturing firms benefits from FDI? As an investigation into the vertical effects of FDI , the paper attempts to establish whether manufacturing firms in Nigeria that receives FDI benefit from technology flows which comes along with foreign capital. The paper employs data from the World Bank Nigerian manufacturing survey, 2001.

Determinants Of Workers' Remittances: The Case Of Turkey: A Review., Magnus O. Abeng

Economic and Financial Review

The paper is focused on the determinants of workers remittances using Turkey as a case study.

Are Immigrants Remittance Flows A Source Of Capital For Development?: A Review, Phebian N. Omanukwue

Economic and Financial Review

The paper seeks to develop a remittance model that would indicate if immigrant remittances were a source of capital flows for development.

Making Things Worse, John Yinger

Center for Policy Research

It’s Elementary is a series of essays on topics in education and education policy. The main focus is on education finance in New York State, but general research findings in education and education policy issues in several other states are also discussed. John Yinger, Professor of Economics and Public Administration at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University is the author of most of these essays, although a few are written by or co-authored with other scholars.