ROSCAs in Urban Ethiopia: Are the Characteristics of the Institutions More Important than those of Members?

Using household data from urban Ethiopia, we provide an empirical test of the economic theory of Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs) and identify the impact of ROSCAs and member characteristics on participation and volume of saving. Unlike other studies, we account for the endogeneity of all ROSCA variables. Muslims, individuals who live in richer households, the self-employed, private sector employees and households with large numbers of women are more likely to join ROSCAs. A robust finding is that the savings are significantly affected by the characteristics of the members but not that of the informal saving institution. Some policy implications are discussed.     

The modern ordinary: changing culture of urban living in Egypt's traditional quarters at the turn of the twentieth century

Having experienced social and political structures of the nineteenth century Europe, western-educated Egyptian elite used public institutions to force new legislative structures and procedures that ruled out traditional housing forms and spatial systems. This essay detects direct and indirect impact of these changes that informed the spatial change of modern living in Egypt in the first quarter of the twentieth century. It offers analysis of socio-spatial practices and change in ordinary Cairenes’ modes of everyday living, using social routine and interaction to explain spatial systems and changing house forms during the first quarter of the twentieth century. In doing so, the essay utilized archival documents, accounts, formal decrees and novels of the time as well as conducting survey of house forms and spatial organizations in Old Cairo.