Current Issue : January - March Volume : 2014 Issue Number : 1 Articles : 5 Articles
The theory on microfinance reveals that continued access to credit and the process of\r\nincreased investment increases income further thereby enabling the borrower to gradually\r\nclimb out of poverty. In consonance with this, the main objective of this study was to verify if\r\nmultiple loans from microfinance institutions help the rural poor women in the Upper East\r\nRegion of Ghana to reduce household poverty, using treatment effect method of estimation.\r\nIn pursuance of this, data was collected from 500 women engaged in agro-processing of\r\nwhom 250 were beneficiaries of multiple loans and 250 non-beneficiaries.\r\nThe results showed that respondents from the Bawku West district were less likely to receive\r\nmultiple loans than their counterparts from the Bongo, Builsa and Talensi-Nabdan districts.\r\nAlso respondents with post secondary education were less likely to receive multiple loans\r\nthan those with no formal education. Again, respondents who received loans at least three and\r\nfour times, had higher weekly consumption expenditure on basic needs than those who\r\nreceived loans at most two and three times respectively. The results further showed spatial\r\ndifferences in consumption expenditures with Kasena Nankana and Bawku West districts\r\nspending more on basic needs per week than respondents from Bongo, Talensi-Nabdan and\r\nthe Builsa districts. An increase in the number of dependents also increases weekly\r\nconsumption expenditure.\r\nBy implication, multiple loans from microfinance institutions contribute positively to\r\nreducing household poverty among rural women engaged in agro-processing in the Upper\r\nEast Region.\r\nIn the light of this, it is recommended that microfinance institutions should lend out to clients\r\nas many times as possible in the Upper East Region as long as these clients are able to repay\r\nsince it has a positive impact on poverty reduction.\r\nJEL Classification: C1, D13, D14, G21...
The paper examines the evolution of income per capita for a sample of high-income transition countries in the\r\nperiod 1991-2007. The analysis focuses on the dynamics of income per capita convergence throughout the period.\r\nWe review patterns of income dispersion in Central Europe in a historical perspective and examine the dynamics\r\nof convergence over time. We present the model of beta and sigma convergence in augmented Solow model with\r\nhuman capital accumulation. Our evidence suggests that high-income transition countries experienced a period of\r\nrobust convergence as the income per capita differential, relative to the U.S level, diminished substantially over time.\r\nThe increase in the stock of human capital contributed substantially to the speed of real convergence....
This paper analyzes the reasons and effects of the Chinese exchange rate reform (Yuan\r\nappreciation), explained and assess Hu Xiaolian�s (deputy governor of the People''s Bank of\r\nChina and the former director of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange in China)\r\nclaims about the reform of China exchange rate system. The paper also explores the possibility\r\nof the Chinese Yuan becoming a regional trade currency. A summary with key point is also\r\nprovided....
The role of innovation in economic growth is perceived differently by the different schools of thought. The neoclassical theories emphasise equilibrium in the economy and cannot explain the role of innovation, because the effect of innovation is actually a disturbance of equilibrium. Schumpeter (1961) has shown that growth and development can only take place if the economy is constantly disturbed to an out-of-equilibrium phase. In some of the later neoclassical theories, innovation was considered as a factor that causes growth, but was treated as an exogenous factor. The ââ?¬Å?new growth theoriesââ?¬Â were developed later, including innovation as an endogenous factor, but these theories were still based on the equilibrium principle. In the Schumpeterian and neo-Schumpeterian theories, innovation is treated as endogenous to the economy. Schumpeter had not been acknowledged as a mainstream economist during the time that he developed and first published his theory. It was not until the 1980s that economists started paying attention to his works and to the importance of innovation in development. The aim of this article is to determine how the studies since 1980 have changed regarding their foundation in the different schools of thought. A methodological and theoretical review is conducted of post 1980 empirical studies that determined the relationship between innovation and economic development. It was found that many empirical studies still make use of neoclassical equilibrium models and that the studies that consider the complexity of the innovation system are not yet sufficiently developed to explain the relationship between innovation and economic development....
We make use of new methodological advances in quantifying oil supply and monetary policy\r\nshocks that are exogenous with respect to macroeconomic conditions to examine the response\r\nof state economies to these shocks. Our approach is parsimonious and straightforward: once\r\nexogenous oil supply shocks and monetary policy shocks have been identified, the dynamic\r\nresponse of state economies to exogenous shocks can be analyzed directly using ordinary\r\nleast squares (OLS) and other conventional methods of inference. The fact that no identifying\r\nassumptions are required makes our findings invariant to different identification schemes.\r\nResults indicate that an exogenous monetary policy shock typically causes a decrease in real\r\npersonal income. The paper also documents a fair degree of similarity in the response of real\r\npersonal income to exogenous oil supply across many states. Like the aggregate response,\r\nfollowing an exogenous oil supply shock, real personal income decreases in many states....
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