Download or read book Returns to capital in microenterprises evidence from a field experiment written by Christopher Woodruff, David McKenzie, Suresh de Mel and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2007 with total page 37 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: Small and informal firms account for a large share of employment in developing countries. The rapid expansion of microfinance services is based on the belief that these firms have productive investment opportunities and can enjoy high returns to capital if given the opportunity. However, measuring the return to capital is complicated by unobserved factors such as entrepreneurial ability and demand shocks, which are likely to be correlated with capital stock. The authors use a randomized experiment to overcome this problem and to measure the return to capital for the average microenterprise in their sample, regardless of whether they apply for credit. They accomplish this by providing cash and equipment grants to small firms in Sri Lanka, and measuring the increase in profits arising from this exogenous (positive) shock to capital stock. After controlling for possible spillover effects, the authors find the average real return to capital to be 5.7 percent a month, substantially higher than the market interest rate. They then examine the heterogeneity of treatment effects to explore whether missing credit markets or missing insurance markets are the most likely cause of the high returns. Returns are found to vary with entrepreneurial ability and with measures of other sources of cash within the household, but not to vary with risk aversion or uncertainty.

Download or read book International Differences in Entrepreneurship written by Josh Lerner and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2010-06-15 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Often considered one of the major forces behind economic growth and development, the entrepreneurial firm can accelerate the speed of innovation and dissemination of new technologies, thus increasing a country's competitive edge in the global market. As a result, cultivating a strong culture of entrepreneurial thinking has become a primary goal throughout the world. Surprisingly, there has been little systematic research or comparative analysis to show how the growth of entrepreneurship differs among countries in various stages of development. International Differences in Entrepreneurship fills this void by explaining how a country's institutional differences, cultural considerations, and personal characteristics can affect the role that entrepreneurs play in its economy. Developing an understanding of the origins of entrepreneurs as well as the choices they make and the complexity of their activities across countries and industries are of central importance to this volume. In addition, contributors consider how environmental factors of individual economies, such as market regulation, government subsidies for banks, and support for entrepreneurial culture affect the industry and the impact that entrepreneurs have on growth in developing nations.

Download or read book Global Financial Development Report 2014 written by World Bank Group and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2013-11-07 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second issue in a new series, Global Financial Development Report 2014 takes a step back and re-examines financial inclusion from the perspective of new global datasets and new evidence. It builds on a critical mass of new research and operational work produced by World Bank Group staff as well as outside researchers and contributors.

Download or read book Evolving Approaches to the Economics of Public Policy written by Jean Kimmel and published by W.E. Upjohn Institute. This book was released on 2016-11-15 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For policymakers, economics is a useful tool in the development and evaluation of public policy. And like many sciences, economics is evolving to become more interdisciplinary in its approach. Today, economic theory is often used in conjunction with insights gleaned from psychology and sociology to create a more inclusive, real-world approach to implementing public policy. In this book, five award-winning economists tackle a diverse range of topics and show how applied economics has evolved to give policymakers a more nuanced approach to policy development. The award-winning economists included in this volume are Erica Field, Nancy Folbre, Avner Grief, David M. Kreps, and Michael J. Piore, and the topics they discuss include microfinance, human capital, societal institutions, worker motivation, and workplace regulation.

Download or read book African Successes Volume III written by Sebastian Edwards and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2016-09-23 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Studies of African economic development frequently focus on the daunting challenges the continent faces. From recurrent crises to ethnic conflicts and long-standing corruption, a raft of deep-rooted problems has led many to regard the continent as facing many hurdles to raise living standards. Yet Africa has made considerable progress in the past decade, with a GDP growth rate exceeding five percent in some regions. The African Successes series looks at recent improvements in living standards and other measures of development in many African countries with an eye toward identifying what shaped them and the extent to which lessons learned are transferable and can guide policy in other nations and at the international level. The third volume in the series, African Successes: Modernization and Development looks at the rise in private production in spite of difficult institutional and physical environments. The volume emphasizes the ways that technologies, including mobile phones, have made growth in some areas especially dynamic.

Download or read book Economic transformation in Africa from the bottom up Evidence from Tanzania written by Diao, Xinshen and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2017-02-03 with total page 41 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At roughly 4 percent per year, labor productivity in Tanzania has grown more rapidly over the past 14 years than at any other time in recent history. Employment growth has also been strong, keeping up with population growth at roughly 2.5 percent per year; the bulk of employment growth (90 percent) has been in the nonagricultural sector. However, the vast majority of this nonagricultural employment growth has occurred in informal sector. Using Tanzania’s first nationally representative survey of micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises, this paper shows that firms in the informal sector contributed roughly half a percentage point to economywide labor productivity growth in Tanzania between 2002 and 2012. However, virtually all of the labor productivity growth contributed by informal firms came from a small subset of firms called the “in-between firms.” This paper considers attributes of the in-between firms that could be used for targeting financial and business services to firms with the potential to grow. This paper finds two salient characteristics of in-between firms that might lend themselves to targeting—their owners are more likely to keep written accounts and more likely to keep their savings in formal bank accounts.

Download or read book Who are the Microenterprise Owners Evidence from Sri Lanka on Tokman V de Soto written by Christopher Woodruff, David McKenzie, Suresh de Mel and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2008 with total page 35 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: Is the vast army of the self-employed in low income countries a source of employment generation? This paper uses data from surveys in Sri Lanka to compare the characteristics of own account workers (non-employers) with wage workers and with owners of larger firms. The authors use a rich set of measures of background, ability, and attitudes, including lottery experiments measuring risk attitudes. Consistent with the International Labor Organization's views of the self employed (represented by Tokman), the analysis finds that two-thirds to three-quarters of the own account workers have characteristics which are more like wage workers than larger firm owners. This suggests the majority of the own account workers are unlikely to become employers. Using a two and a half year panel of enterprises, the authors show that the minority of own account workers who are more like larger firm owners are more likely to expand by adding paid employees. The results suggest that finance is not the sole constraint to growth of microenterprises, and provides an explanation for the low rates of growth of enterprises supported by microlending.

Download or read book The Economics of Poverty Traps written by Christopher B. Barrett and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2018-12-07 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What circumstances or behaviors turn poverty into a cycle that perpetuates across generations? The answer to this question carries especially important implications for the design and evaluation of policies and projects intended to reduce poverty. Yet a major challenge analysts and policymakers face in understanding poverty traps is the sheer number of mechanisms—not just financial, but also environmental, physical, and psychological—that may contribute to the persistence of poverty all over the world. The research in this volume explores the hypothesis that poverty is self-reinforcing because the equilibrium behaviors of the poor perpetuate low standards of living. Contributions explore the dynamic, complex processes by which households accumulate assets and increase their productivity and earnings potential, as well as the conditions under which some individuals, groups, and economies struggle to escape poverty. Investigating the full range of phenomena that combine to generate poverty traps—gleaned from behavioral, health, and resource economics as well as the sociology, psychology, and environmental literatures—chapters in this volume also present new evidence that highlights both the insights and the limits of a poverty trap lens. The framework introduced in this volume provides a robust platform for studying well-being dynamics in developing economies.

Download or read book The Handbook of Economic Development and Institutions written by Jean-Marie Baland and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-01-21 with total page 786 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive reference on the most current economics of development and institutions The essential role that institutions play in understanding economic development has long been recognized across the social sciences, including in economics. Academic and policy interest in this subject has never been higher. The Handbook of Economic Development and Institutions is the first to bring together in one single volume the most cutting-edge work in this area by the best-known international economists. The volume’s editors, themselves leading scholars in the discipline, provide a comprehensive introduction, and the stellar contributors offer up-to-date analysis into institutional change and its interactions with the dynamics of economic development. This book focuses on three critical issues: the definitions of institutions in order to argue for a causal link to development, the complex interplay between formal and informal institutions, and the evolution and coevolution of institutions and their interactions with the political economy of development. Topics examined include the relationship between institutions and growth, educational systems, the role of the media, and the intersection between traditional systems of patronage and political institutions. Each chapter—covering the frontier research in its area and pointing to new areas of research—is the product of extensive workshopping on the part of the contributors. The definitive reference work on this topic, The Handbook of Economic Development and Institutions will be essential for academics, researchers, and professionals working in the field.

Download or read book Microfinance in Developing Countries written by J. Gueyie and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-01-17 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Microfinance in developing countries is a collection of studies by leading researchers in the field of microfinance. It discusses key issues that the rapidly growing microfinance industry currently faces, and offers interesting views and analysis of topical matters concerning the microfinance realm.

Download or read book Experimental Conversations written by Timothy N. Ogden and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2024-03-19 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discussions of the use and limits of randomized control trials, considering the power of theory, external validity, gaps in knowledge, and what issues matter. The practice of development economics has undergone something of a revolution as many economists have adopted new methods to answer perennial questions about the effectiveness of anti-poverty programs. In this book, prominent development economists discuss the use and impact of one of the most significant of these new methods, randomized control trials (RCTs) and field experiments. In extended interviews conducted over a period of several years, they explain their work and their thinking and consider the broader issues of how we learn about the world and how we can change it for the better. These conversations offer specialists and nonspecialists alike a unique opportunity to hear economists speak in their own words, free of the confines of a particular study or econometric esoterica. The economists describe how they apply research findings in the way they think about the world, revealing their ideas about the power of theory, external validity, gaps in knowledge, and what issues matter. Also included are interviews with RCT observers, critics, sponsors, consumers, and others. Each interview provides a brief biography of the interviewee. Thorough annotations offer background and explanations for key ideas and studies referred to in the conversations. Contributors Abhijit Banerjee, Nancy Birdsall, Chris Blattman, Alex Counts, Tyler Cowen, Angus Deaton, Frank DeGiovanni, Esther Duflo, Pascaline Dupas, Xavi Gine, Rachel Glennerster, Judy Gueron, Elie Hassenfeld, Dean Karlan, Michael Kremer, David McKenzie, Jonathan Morduch, Lant Pritchett, Jonathan Robinson, Antoinette Schoar, Dean Yang

Download or read book A Research Agenda for Financial Inclusion and Microfinance written by Marek Hudon and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2019 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How can financial services, such as credit, deposit accounts, financial transfers, and insurance be provided to people in need? This challenging and complex issue has been a topic of interest for the international aid community for decades. Drawing on renowned experts in microfinance and financial inclusion, this Research Agenda sheds much-needed light on this multifaceted challenge and points the way ahead for future research.

Download or read book The Future of Microfinance written by Ira W. Lieberman and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2020-06-30 with total page 493 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A major source of financing for the poor and no longer a niche industry Over the past four decades, microfinance—the provision of loans, savings, and insurance to small businesses and entrepreneurs shut out of traditional capital markets—has grown from a niche service in Bangladesh and a few other countries to a significant global source of financing. Some 200 million people globally now receive support from microfinance institutions, with most of the recipients in the developing world. In the beginning, much of the microfinance industry was managed by non-governmental organizations, but today the majority of these institutions are commercial and regulated by governments, and they provide safe places for the poor to save, as well as offering much-needed capital and other financial services. Now out of infancy, the microfinance industry faces major challenges, including its ability to deal with mobile banking and other technology and concerns that some markets are now over-saturated with microfinance. How the industry deals with these and other challenges will determine whether it will continue to grow or will be subsumed within the larger global financial sector. This book is based on the results of a workshop at Lehigh University among thirty-four leaders in the industry. The editors, working with contributions from more than a dozen leading authorities in the field, tell the important story of how microfinance developed, how it has met the needs of hundreds of millions of people, and they address key questions about how it can continue to meet those needs in the future.

Download or read book Service Leadership written by A. Reza Hoshmand and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-08-15 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Service Leadership offers students, researchers, and leaders a leadership model originating in the service economy – but which is gaining ground in all sectors and industries – explained by experts that were key actors in that origination at DHL International. Designed for undergraduates and graduates but also useful for professionals in leadership positions, Hoshmand and Chung structure the book around the 3Cs of leadership in the service economy: Competence, Character, and Care. It shows how the integration of the 3Cs when applied in combination with each other creates an environment of trust within and outside the organization. Most importantly, it allows the reader to understand how a move from the manufacturing mindset (hierarchical decision making) to a service mindset (collective, qualitative, culturally sensitive) creates an ethical habitat and ecosystem that contributes to a firm’s competitiveness and adds value to its brand image. Incorporating elements of leadership literature, philosophy, psychology, sociology, economics, and political science, including cases, and supported by a teaching manual and a full set of slides, this book is ideal core reading for students of service leadership and leadership in the service economy, and valuable to those learning about leadership more broadly.

Download or read book Micro Small and Medium Enterprises in Vietnam written by John Rand and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises in Vietnam provides a comprehensive analytic contribution to a crucial topic within development economics. Based on fifteen years of continued data collection and research efforts it brings together nine up-to-date studies on micro, small, and medium enterprise (SME) development in a coherent framework to help persuade national and international policymakers of the need to take the international call for a data revolution seriously. This edited volume provides an in-depth evaluation of the development of private sector formal and informal manufacturing SMEs in Vietnam over the past decade, combining a unique primary data source with the best panel data and analytical tools available. It generates a comprehensive understanding of the impact of business risks, credit access, institutional characteristics, and government policies, and makes available a set of materials and studies of use to academics, students, and development practitioners interested in an integrated approach to the study of growth, private sector development, and the microeconomic analysis of SME development in a fascinating developing country. Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises in Vietnam serves as a lense through which other countries, and the international development community at large, may wish to approach the massive task of pursuing a meaningful data revolution as an integral element of the Sustainable Development Goals agenda.

Download or read book Alleviating Global Poverty written by Lewis D. Solomon and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2014-12-05 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the book, Lewis D. Solomon develops the theme that the profit motive can serve as a powerful force for social good in developing nations, making a difference in the lives of those trapped in misery and helping millions out of poverty. After focusing on three US-based venture capital-like firms, the book presents evidence that for-profit corporations, many indigenous, funded in part by these capital providers have alleviated global poverty. These investee firms, which seek both financial and social returns, serve the impoverished by delivering critically needed but affordable goods and services, including quality education, preventive healthcare, light and power, and enhanced agricultural productivity.

Download or read book The Capability Approach and the Sustainable Development Goals written by Brian Vincent Ikejiaku and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-07-26 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book demonstrates how the capability approach to human development can contribute to the realisation of the 2015 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The capability approach dictates that success should not be measured by economic indicators but by people leading meaningful, free, fulfilled, happy, or satisfied lives. Drawing from a range of disciplinary perspectives, this book argues that it is vital that the focus for the SDGs should shift to benefiting the most vulnerable. Case studies from across Asia, Africa, Latin America (Global South), and the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia (Global North) consider how the capability approach can contribute as a practical framework to achieving the SDGs’ ambitions for social, economic, political, and legal progress. Drawing on insights from a range of disciplines, this book will be of interest to researchers and practitioners from the fields of law, politics, international relations, criminology, international development, sociology, public policy, area studies, and others.