Exploring Strategies and Implications of an Opportunistic Alliance: A Case Study of Pakistan and China

This article seeks to test the validity of ‘balance of threat’ theory as propounded by Stephen Walt that states react to imbalances of threat. It takes into account the factors enumerated by Walt to explore threat perceptions of Pakistan and the strategy they developed to cope with security threats. It attempts to take an overview of Pakistan's security dilemma its responses in twin time frames: the Cold War period (1980–1989) and the post-Cold War period (1990–2000) with relevance to the contemporary period. Pakistan's arms acquisition, upgradation in sophistication of arsenals, increase in fund allocation in defence have all been its tangible tactics to neutralize India's military superiority. Pakistan explored Pan-Islamism to bring the support of the Islamic states. Pakistan also resorted to an active alliance with China, to increase its competency. From a theoretical angle, this article adopts a realist viewpoint, focuses on security concerns of state actors.     

Assessing Small and Medium Forest Enterprises' Access to Microfinance: Case Studies from The Gambia

Small and medium forest enterprises (SMFEs) are commonplace in many developing economies. SMFEs often face several challenges, with access to finance frequently being cited as a key hurdle. This study aimed to evaluate the access that SMFEs in The Gambia have to microfinance, and to determine strategies for improving the delivery of these services. Data show that most SMFEs have decent access to deposit accounts, but limited access to credit. While cooperative credit unions and other non-financial institutions have been providing microloans to SMFEs, access to such financial services could be improved. Six strategies to do so are proposed.     

Exploring Millennial Generation in Task Values and Sector Choice: A Case of Employment in Planning

This study investigates task values and motivations of “millennial” generation of planners and identifies important factors affecting their public sector choices. Multinomial logistic regression comparing the task values and specializations in private and nonprofit sectors with public sector was performed. Millennial generations in public sector value communication and implementation tasks where at young workers in private and nonprofit sector place importance on tasks related to administration and plan and policy development. The finding indicates private companies give favorable opportunities to the young workers to take leadership role in projects and appreciate their management skills to operate the programs and plans.     

Measuring the Impact of Microfinance on Women Empowerment: A Cross Country Analysis with Special Reference to India

The outreach of microfinance program is considered to be a means to enhance the economic opportunities among the women section of the population and thus have its far reaching implications to the empowerment of women. In this respect, a wide variation in the outreach of microfinance program to the women poor households is observed across countries of the world. In India, the states having higher level of microfinance outreach are also the states with a relatively high level of women empowerment. It is, thus, predicted that an all-inclusive microfinance system would strengthen the process of financial inclusion in India and thereby would promote women’s empowerment.     

Indigenous Migration Dynamics in the Ecuadorian Amazon: A Longitudinal and Hierarchical Analysis

Amazonian indigenous populations are approaching a critical stage in their history in which increasing education and market integration, rapid population growth and degradation of natural resources threaten the survival of their traditions and livelihoods. A topic that has hardly been touched upon in this context is migration and population mobility. We address this by analysing a unique longitudinal dataset from the Ecuadorian Amazon on the spatial mobility of five indigenous groups and mestizo co-residents. Analyses reveal traditional and new forms of population mobility and migrant selectivity, including gendered forms of marriage migration and rural-urban moves driven by education. These results illustrate a dynamic present and an uncertain future for indigenous populations in which rural, natural-resource-based lifeways may well be sustained but with increasing links to urban areas.     

The Effects of a Calamity on Income and Wellbeing of Poor Microfinance Borrowers: The Case of the 2004 Tsunami Shock

We investigate the effects of the 2004 Tsunami on a sample of microfinance borrowers. Our findings show that the severe loss of income of damaged borrowers only partially explains the dip in wellbeing. This is because the latter is also related to economic losses not measured by current income (that is, loss in wealth or in permanent income) and by psychological or emotional effects. Finally, we find that the role of risk on the Tsunami impact is partially captured by the interaction of the damage dummy with borrowers' productive activity.     

Assessing the Impact of Microcredit: A Zambian Case Study

Expectations are high, but evidence of the impact of microcredit remains in short supply. This article estimates the impact of an urban credit programme in Zambia on business performance and on a range of indicators of wellbeing. Borrowers who obtained a second loan experienced significantly higher average growth in business profits and household income. Inflexible group enforcement of loan obligations resulted in some borrowers, especially amongst those who had taken only one loan, being made worse off. Our methodological investigations suggest that the supply of rigorous impact studies can be increased by basing them on data collection that serves a wider range of purposes, including market research.     

The Benefits and Costs of Microfinance: Evidence from Bangladesh

Using the latest developments from the evaluation literature, namely the technique of matching, this paper shows a positive, but lower than previously thought, effect of microfinance on expenditure per capita, supply of labour, and level of school enrolment for boys and girls. For instance, participants spend 3 per cent more on average than non-participants in control villages. This paper also takes into account repayment delays to calculate the cost of credit provision. It shows how a better investigation at the individual level of the benefits brought and the cost borne could help microfinance institutions to better select their customers.

JEL Classification : C14, D10, G21, I38, O12, O16     

Compensatory Aid and Debt Relief: A Case Study of Uganda

We propose a contingency financing framework to assist low-income countries in the achievement of debt sustainability. The framework relies on an accounting method to quantify external shocks to the balance of payments and provides compensatory financing to offset their impact. We apply the framework to the case of Uganda during the period 1988–2002 and find that it would have been highly effective in identifying and offsetting the adverse liquidity implications of shocks to the country's trade balance.     

Resource Management under Climatic Risk: A Case Study from Niger

In this article, we develop an empirical model of an agro-pastoral system subject to high climatic risk in order to test the impact of rainfall variability on livestock densities, land allocation patterns and herd mobility observed at the community level. Also, because grazing land is a common-pool resource, we determine the impact of cooperation on these decision variables. To capture different abilities of communities to cooperate in managing these externalities, we construct indices comprised of factors considered to affect the costliness of achieving successful cooperation. We then test hypotheses regarding the impact of rainfall variability and cooperation, using data collected in a semi-arid region of Niger. Results indicate that rainfall variability initially leads to higher densities, but the impact becomes negative as variability increases still further. This result indicates that the benefits of accumulating large herds in variable environments are eventually offset by the increasing probability of large losses. Mobility in the current period is strongly related to current rainfall, and is also positively related to long-term rainfall variability. Communities with characteristics hypothesised to favour cooperation have lower stock densities and greater herd mobility. Neither cooperation nor rainfall variability has a significant impact on the proportion of land allocated to crops or common pastures.     

Curbing Corruption in Public Administration: A Case Study from Italy

The aim of this article is to verify whether the historic sentence, no. 500/1999 of the Italian Legitimacy Court (Corte di Cassazione) in Plenary Session, may have contributed to diminishing bribery in Italy, by increasing the area of liability for both civil servants and the public administration. The empirical analysis is based on a case study conducted in Sicily, in the province of Catania, using a unique data set. The main results of the article are: paying bureaucrats by means of an incentive wage regimes may not be effective in reducing corruption; an extension of the liability rule for the public administration and civil servants may discourage the phenomenon of bribery; and, the perfect specification of property rights helps to reduce corruption.     

Online Participation Chaos: A Case Study of Chinese Government-Initiated E-Polity Square

The research examines a government-initiated online engagement program in China, mainly including its history, mechanism, and how netizens participated in it. To clearly address the participation scenario, a framework is proposed to further explore the quality of participation. The result shows that participation chaos is prevalent with poor-quality proposals. A government censorship exists all the time and changes with the popularity of the forum. It also implies that the purpose of a Chinese government-initiated online engagement forum may be varied, one for engagement and the other for maintaining stability, which partly attributes to the online participation chaos.     

Assessing Operational and Collaborative Performance Management: A Case Study of PhillyStat

Many cities and agencies in the U.S. have adopted the “-Stat” approach, which is called “PerformanceStat” in general. Philadelphia has created PhillyStat as its performance management and tracking tool, of which unique feature is its twofold review process involving both operational and outcome level. This study assesses the capacities of PhillyStat. The assessment suggests four implications for jurisdictional governments and agencies employing the “-Stat” approach. First, the “-Stat” approach should evolve toward strategic review beyond day-to-day operational review. Second, the “-Stat” approach should close the gap in diverse views on government performance. Third, the “-Stat” approach should be used as an effective tool for public management and leadership. Last, the “-Stat” approach should develop capabilities for cross-organizational collaboration.     

Convergence of Counterterrorism Policies: A Case Study of Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia

This article distinguishes the demand from the supply of counterterrorism following either a large-scale terrorist attack or campaign. On the demand side, terrorism shocks increase the willingness of civilians to sacrifice their liberties for security, thereby giving the government a mandate to augment defensive and proactive measures against the terrorists. The supply side differs greatly between domestic and transnational terrorism. Supply problems may plague countermeasures against transnational terrorism as at-risk nations act strategically. In particular, there is a strong proclivity for nations to overspend on defense and to underspend on proactive measures. These tendencies are explored using simple game theory. A country's sovereignty also bolsters the ability of targeted nations to address domestic terrorism with an appropriate mix of counter- terrorism measures.     

Ecocertification of Ecuadorian Bananas: Prospects for Progressive North–South Linkages

Results of our 2003 survey of Ecuadorian banana producers’ farming practices indicate that firms engaged in labeling schemes generate lower environmental risks than uncertified firms. Certified firms exhibit relatively comprehensive environmental management systems, while noncertified farms exhibited limited, uneven, and unstructured adoption of best management practices. We explore the specific circumstances that differentiate the more environmentally friendly firms from their conventional counterparts, and we identify the sustainability pathways available to differently situated firms engaged in banana production. We find that small certified operations mobilize social capital to engage alternative markets and add value to their products, while large certified firms rely on financial backing of international organizations to modernize their operations. For both large and small firms producing bananas in Ecuador, the sustainability gains we observe are premised on mobilization of external resources from actors in the industrialized world. We demonstrate that improved environmental performance of commodity production cannot be attributed to local resources, local dynamics, and local institutions. Our analysis also points to the limits of export of sustainability from rich nations to developing nation firms. Only a fraction of the industry participates in certification programs, and large segments of the population of firms are likely to remain unattractive and inaccessible to external resource providers. In this context, it appears that the state must define and enforce minimum environmental standards to progressively raise performance.