Credit Constraints and Distress Sales in Rural India: Evidence from Kalahandi District,Orissa

The literature on the rural credit market in India (and elsewhere) has generally assumed that peasant farm households are rationed in their access to subsidized formal credit. Because of a lack of infrastructure and poor access to institutional credit, such farmers are exploited by means of an interlocked market connecting informal credit to the sale of paddy. The resulting gap, between the sale by a borrower of paddy at a predetermined low price, and the price of this commodity on the open market, constitutes the amount of what is termed a distress sale. The latter is itself influenced by the bargaining capacity (or lack thereof) of the peasant farmer who borrows on the informal market. Also of importance in determining whether or not a cultivator is compelled to resort to the informal credit market – and thus into an interlocked arrangement – is the need for additional liquidity to meet production costs and/or household consumption, as well as the monopsony nature of the paddy market. Data from Kalahandi district in Orissa suggest that access to formal credit is limited in rural areas although there exists a high demand for it, that a high degree of credit rationing by the formal lender occurs, and that poor implementation by the state of minimum support price policy all contribute to the need for informal loans and its attendant interlinkage.     

Klagebefugnis aus dem allgemeinen Willkürverbot bei einem Verstoß gegen die Staatszielbestimmung Umweltschutz

Zusammenfassung Nach einer Entscheidung des Bayerischen Verfassungsgerichtshofs kann ein Bauleitplan wegen Versto? gegen das Willkürverbot aus Gründen des Umweltschutzes nichtig sein. Diese auf eine Popularklage ergangene Entscheidung er?ffnet die Frage, ob der Verfassungsgrundsatz des Willkürverbots auch im Rahmen von Verwaltungsakten herangezogen werden kann. Der Beitrag bejaht diese M?glichkeit.     

Treasury Department regulatory material under the tax code

The legislative process in the tax field and the administrative process for the issuance of regulatory and interpretative material by the Treasury Department are closely coordinated. The same persons and interests both inside and outside of Government are involved in both processes. There is thus continuity of expertise, understanding of what is at stake, adversary viewpoints, and Washington knowhow. The preparation of administrative material within the Treasury is a task for those technical personnel and policy officials who in varying degrees also have a voice in the preparation of the Treasury's legislative position and the legislative development of statutory language. The outside forces who watch legislative activity also closely watch administrative activity and seek to shape the latter just so they do the former. The response of the Treasury is much the same in both situations, and governed by the policies, attitudes and predilections of tax policy officials and career personnel.