the employment relationship in an almost structureless labour market the case of domestic work although domestic workers are generally engaged in informal contracts with hourly and daily wages some have formally written contracts and are paid monthly hourly and daily wages suggest flexible arrangements whereas the monthly payment system may be used to develop a stable relationship using original data from a sample of domestic workers in portugal we offer empirical evidence on predictors of four types of arrangement that combine formality and stability the results from multinomial logistic regression indicate that the wage level is a crucial predictor of the type of contract households seem to make a trade off between stable contracts and high level wages however the odds of being given a formal and stable contract increase when domestic workers have specific skills or are responsible for care and there are trust related issues our findings suggest that the use of flexible and informal labour has its limitations even in an activity perceived as non skilled

post keynesianism meets feminist economics this article explores the relationships between post keynesian economics and feminist economics it distinguishes three key concepts in each tradition that recommend serious attention in the other tradition gender the household and unpaid work and caring as key concepts in feminist economics uncertainty market power and endogenous dynamics as core concepts in post keynesian economics this article will show with reference to the literature in which such cross fertilisation has been explored already how both traditions can be enriched from a stronger mutual engagement

recognition applications in aged care work detailed arguments about the importance of recognition were present in adam smith s theory of moral sentiments but received little attention in classical and neoclassical economics however recognition is re emerging as an important concept in social and economic research in this study we consider the importance of recognition and misrecognition for a nuanced understanding of the motivation to undertake paid care work we use survey and interview data from a mixed methods study of the employment intentions of australian women working in aged care to investigate links between recognition wage rates and intentions to remain working in the sector our findings suggest that low wages convey misrecognition and that both wages and misrecognition have adverse implications for the future labour supply of aged care workers we conclude by considering particular challenges faced by the aged care sector and its workers in redressing low wage rates

individual risk attitudes measurement determinants and behavioral consequences this paper studies risk attitudes using a large representative survey and a complementary experiment conducted with a representative subject pool in subjects homes using a question asking people about their willingness to take risks in general we find that gender age height and parental background have an economically significant impact on willingness to take risks the experiment confirms the behavioral validity of this measure using paid lottery choices turning to other questions about risk attitudes in specific contexts we find similar results on the determinants of risk attitudes and also shed light on the deeper question of stability of risk attitudes across contexts we conduct a horse race of the ability of different measures to explain risky behaviors such as holdings stocks occupational choice and smoking the question about risk taking in general generates the best all round predictor of risky behavior

paradoxical positions the methodological contributions of feminist scholarship the goal of this paper is to consider the contributions of feminist activism and interdisciplinary scholarship to economic institutional methodology by further extending the historical institutional analysis of key categories such as the self ownership of labour model of locke smith and marx the paradoxical position of women can be avoided a greater understanding of the reification of concepts like property and the economy and the role of gender in naturalizing them will help to expand the narrow role of economics discourse in the articulation of feasible economic policies and objectives for human development

towards a sustainable electrification in ghana a review of renewable energy deployment policies abstract ghana has been facing perennial power rationing over the years due to fuel supply challenges the country s energy system is likely to suffer additional strain from rising energy demand fueled by population growth rapid urbanization and economic development fortunately there are enormous renewable energy resources which can provide sustainable electrification as backbone to socioeconomic development while curbing global warming ghana s energy strategy targets 100 access to electricity and 10 share of sustainable power in national generation mix by 2020 despite the existence of numerous policies and a renewable energy act current contribution of non conventional renewable energy to electricity generation is less than 1 the right mix of policies to address the unique domestic conditions and achieve its specific development goals remains insufficient this study reviews the regulatory framework financing incentives and other provisions of ghana s renewable energy act it critically examines the policy s strengths weaknesses opportunities and treats based on comparative analysis and lessons drawn from failed and successful implementation of similar policies around the world the study also assesses the impact of policy on project development it was found that the performance of ghana s renewable energy policy on grid connected electricity has been poor compared to its target the fundamental reasons for this unsatisfactory performance may be attributed to partial implementation of policies lack of market driven support schemes lack of pricing policy framework weak grid network limited access to funds and inconsistencies in renewable energy development strategies this study proposes the following countermeasures i ghana should comprehensively harmonize renewable energy regulatory and fiscal policies with domestic electricity pricing regime ii market driven support schemes should be prioritized for cost effectiveness and minimum governmental influence these reforms can help eliminate some of the major barriers to sustainable electrification in ghana while the lessons provide a learning curve for other african countries

diffusion of rural innovations some analytical issues and the case of wood burning stoves abstract the literature on the diffusion of rural innovations in third world countries reveals a spectrum of approaches to the diffusion process it is argued here that the effectiveness of a particular approach in the diffusion of particular innovations would depend on the technical the economic and the social characteristics of the innovations a typology of innovations in terms of these characteristics has been drawn up this provides the analytical framework within which the instance of wood burning stoves is concerned a priori the characteristics of this innovation are seen to be such as to necessitate the close involvement of the users in the design process itself they point to the likely inappropriateness of the usual top down approach to diffusion available evidence relating to actual experience with promoting wood burning stoves is seen to bear this out

the prospects of renewable energy technologies for rural electrification a review from nepal abstract utilization of renewable energy technologies remains one of the major energy policies throughout the world these technologies are proven to be successful for electrifying rural communities especially in developing countries realizing the benefits of renewable energy sources the government of nepal has initiated the production and distribution of renewable energy technologies in recent years mainly to electrify rural communities although these technologies are suitable for providing electricity in isolated and remote rural areas their implementation programs have not been successful as expected this review provides broad spectrum view about the energy situation in nepal and highlights the current policies and subsidies for the optimal utilization of renewable energy resources in isolated and poor rural communities in addition major promotional barriers for their implementation in nepal have been discussed

the socio technical barriers to solar home systems shs in papua new guinea choosing pigs prostitutes and poker chips over panels this study explores the socio technical barriers to solar home systems shs in papua new guinea the authors collected primary data through semi structured research interviews conducted over the course of february 2010 april 2010 respondents included government officials financiers planners commercial distributors and companies teachers and rural villagers in addition to members of civil society academics consultants and trainers these interviews were supplemented with site visits to port moresby goroka and madang and field research in the villages of akameku asaroka lufa kundiawa okifa simbu and talidig the study draws from these interviews and visits to discuss four types of barriers technical barriers relate to substandard equipment and logistical problems economic barriers include high rates of poverty misconceptions about the role of currency and lack of financing political barriers include poor institutional capacity and a government commitment to fossil fueled grid electrification social barriers encompass unrealistic expectations about what shs can provide along with jealousy theft vandalism and unfamiliarity with solar technology

direct evidence on risk attitudes and migration geographic mobility is important for the functioning of labor markets because it brings labor resources to where they can be most efficiently used it has long been hypothesized that individuals migration propensities depend on their attitudes towards risk but the empirical evidence to the extent that it exists has been indirect in this paper we use newly available data from the german socio economic panel to measure directly the relationship between migration propensities and attitudes towards risk we find that individuals who are more willing to take risks are more likely to migrate between labor markets in germany this result is robust to stratifying by age sex education national origin and a variety of other demographic characteristics as well as to the level of aggregation used to define geographic mobility the effect is substantial relative to the unconditional migration propensity and compared to the conventional determinants of migration we also find that being more willing to take risks is more important for the extensive than for the intensive margin of migration

occupational sorting of school graduates the role of economic preferences we relate risk attitudes and patience of young graduates from high school college and university measured around the time that they start their labor market career in a large representative survey to the riskiness and timing of earnings in the occupations they choose to work in we find a systematic positive and significant relation between willingness to take risks and measures of occupational earnings risks and employment risk that we derive from a large administrative data set patient individuals are significantly more likely to choose for occupations with a steep earnings profile individuals whose economic preferences are not well aligned with the riskiness and timing of earnings in their initial occupation are more likely to change to an occupation that better matches their economic preferences

using survey questions to measure preferences lessons from an experimental validation in kenya can a short survey instrument reliably measure a range of fundamental economic preferences across diverse settings we focus on survey questions that systematically predict behavior in incentivized experimental tasks among german university students becker et al 2016 and were implemented among representative samples across the globe falk et al 2018 this paper presents results of an experimental validation conducted among low income individuals in nairobi kenya we find that quantitative survey measures hypothetical versions of experimental tasks of time preference attitude to risk and altruism are good predictors of choices in incentivized experiments suggesting these measures are broadly experimentally valid at the same time we find that qualitative questions self assessments do not correlate with the experimental measures of preferences in the kenyan sample thus caution is needed before treating self assessments as proxies of preferences in new contexts

solar electricity development and policy support in ghana abstract limited fossil resources the continuous increment in fuel prices and severe environmental problems require new sustainable electricity generation options which utilize renewable energies solar photovoltaic generation is a proven renewable energy technology and has the potential to become cost effective in the future for it produces electricity from the solar radiation in ghana the electricity demand is rapidly increasing at a rate of 10 annually in the attempt to change the conventional energy intensive economical development and its negative impact on the environment the government has begun to support the development of the solar photovoltaic technology strongly in this paper the state of solar photovoltaic the challenges facing the industry the potential of the technology the policies and strategies to promote development of the technology have been presented

resource scarcity and antisocial behavior abstract this paper examines whether exposure to persistent resource scarcity on the commons affects pastoralists readiness to engage in antisocial behavior towards their fellow commons users the region under study is divided into two areas according to exogenous variations in biomass production stemming from geological peculiarities we conducted a joy of destruction game with pastoralists from both areas and provide evidence for a positive relationship between antisocial behavior and long term exposure to scarcity antisocial behavior among villagers occurs twice as often in an area where resources are scarcer and competitive pressure is higher our results remain robust to the inclusion of various controls including beliefs socio demographics absolute and relative income and within group inequality if one interprets decreasing another participant s payoff below one s own as a tendency towards conflict behavior our results suggest a higher risk of conflict among resource users in areas of greater scarcity

one swallow doesn t make a summer new evidence on anchoring effects some researchers have argued that anchoring in economic valuations casts doubt on the assumption of consistent and stable preferences we present new evidence that explores the strength of certain anchoring results we then present a theoretical framework that provides insights into why we should be cautious of initial empirical findings in general the model importantly highlights that the rate of false positives depends not only on the observed significance level but also on statistical power research priors and the number of scholars exploring the question importantly a few independent replications dramatically increase the chances that the original finding is true

financial crises theory history and policy 1 introduction charles p kindleberger and jean pierre laffargue part i theory 2 the financial instability hypothesis capitalist processes and the behaviour of the economy hyman p minsky part ii history 3 the 1907 financial crisis in italy a peculiar case of the lender of last resort in action franco bonelli 4 central banking and foreign trade the anglo american cycle in the 1830s maurice levy leboyer 5 domestic and foreign expectations and the demand for money during the german inflation 1920 1923 carl l holtfrerich 6 the sterling system and financial crises before 1914 l s pressnell part iii policy 7 policy in the crises of 1920 and 1929 d e moggridge 8 central banks and foreign exchange crises today paul coulbois 9 less developed countries rising indebtedness and the lender of last resort in international context joel metais 10 on the lender of last resort robert m soloit 11 financial fragility and instability monetary authorities as borrowers and lenders of the last resort warren d mcclam

establishing new markets for mature energy equipment in developing countries experience with windmills hydro powered mills and solar water heaters abstract this paper reviews some of the success stories in the diffusion of mature low technology energy equipment drawing on the experience of windmills in argentina hydro powered mills in nepal and solar water heaters in several countries the different stages of a diffusion framework are discussed these include demand management the different types of manufacturer and their access to design information and the distribution system of equipment from producers to consumers the paper concludes with a summary of government policy interventions and their implications

innovation diffusion in the presence of supply restrictions innovation diffusion models are developed to represent the spread of a new product from its manufacturers to its ultimate users in the marketplace however the growth of a new product can be retarded by supply restrictions such as the unavailability of the product due to limitations on the production capacity or difficulties encountered in setting up distribution systems in the presence of supply restrictions diffusion models must be developed to capture the dynamics of supply restrictions and to allow management to evaluate the impact of such supply restrictions on the growth of a new product in the market place based on the bass innovation diffusion model the objective of this paper is to suggest a parsimonious diffusion model that integrates the demand side dynamics with the supply side restrictions the sensitivity of innovation diffusion patterns in the presence of supply restrictions is examined an application examining the diffusion of new telephones in israel is documented to illustrate the usefulness of the proposed model

post keynesianism without modernity a robust and critical post keynesianism can be specified on the basis of time uncertainty and the investigation of the institutions that structure material life without presupposing what those institutions are this paper criticises the inclusion in influential presentations of the axiomatic foundation of post keynesianism of propositions about government and money that presuppose a particular ensemble of institutions that ensemble corresponds to the ideal type called modernity without modernity post keynesianism gains logical parsimony and breadth of application the paper discusses non modernist writers in the tradition that includes j m keynes k n raj celso furtado and juan noyola

connective power solar electrification and social change in kenya summary market based rural electrification with solar energy is increasingly common in developing countries this article revolves around three main claims about solar electrification in kenya s unsubsidized market 1 the benefits of solar electrification are captured primarily by the rural middle class 2 solar electricity plays a modest role in supporting economically productive and education related activities but connective applications such as television radio and cellular telephone charging often receive a higher priority 3 solar electrification is more closely tied to increased television use the expansion of markets more rural urban communication and other processes that increase rural urban connectivity than to poverty alleviation sustainable development or the appropriate technology movement

are new institutional economics enough promoting photovoltaics in india s agricultural sector solar photovoltaic pv technology can bring emissions free electricity to rural areas without access to the grid currently policymakers are seeking ways to expand markets for off grid pv from solar home systems to productive uses in order to enhance income generation and contribute to social development this paper explores the role of the state in promoting such market growth as a start the state must improve institutions thus echoing popular recommendations based in new institutional economic theory nie that are currently touted by the world bank and other large development agencies yet nie s framework may be insufficient because it fails to offer viable solutions to overcoming political barriers that contribute to technological path dependency a case study in punjab india where an agricultural pv water pumping program showed promising signs of successful market penetration in its first 3 years of operation illustrates how the nie s shortcomings manifest themselves in practice the program was beginning to penetrate market entry for pv pumps via competition between pv providers however the government of india achieved this feat by providing subsidies to wealthy farmers a move that is frowned upon by the nie school based on findings from the case study states should look beyond nie s framework to expand and improve pv markets in productive uses by accounting for political constraints assessing how pv technology can improve development goals and cultivating locally appropriate service delivery models

roles and potentials of renewable energy in less developed economies the case of nepal increasing the share of renewable energy in the national energy mix remains one of the major energy policy goals across many economies this paper assesses the roles and potentials of renewable energy sources in less developed economies while citing nepal as an example renewable energy has a significant role to play in the electrification of rural areas in developing economies and contribute towards sustainable development realizing full potentials of renewable however requires addressing both the associated demand side and supply side constraints innovative subsidies and tax incentives adequate entrepreneurial support strengthening institutional arrangement and promoting local community based organizations such as the cooperatives are the necessary factors in promoting the green technologies in countries like nepal international factors such as large scale investment and adequate technology transfer are equally crucial to create a rapid spread and increase affordability of decentralized renewable energy technologies in less developed economies

global policy of rural electrification energy poverty and lack of electricity in the rural area exacerbate the poverty of the developing countries the sustainable renewable technologies can be considered as efficient tools to reduce energy poverty whenever they are conducted based on an appropriate policy electricity can improve the human s lifestyle by increasing the level of health education welfare and technology currently sub sahara africa with only 14 2 of rural electrification has the first rank in the world with lowest access to electricity in that region around 585 million citizens has almost no access to electricity the present study focuses on the general global policies to electrify the rural areas in this regard variety of plans and programs conducted by governmental and private institutes are investigated in the year 2011 the international energy agency iea has developed three global strategies based on the world energy market that defines the overall world energy approach in the present work different technologies for rural electrification are taken into account in two major categories of grid connected and off grid systems furthermore based on sustainable development with emphasis on environmental consideration the feasibility of electrification by using different types of renewable energies such as solar biomass hydro wind and wave have been studied despite reliability of grid connection results indicate that renewable energy sources are the best choice especially in areas far from grid connections challenges between financial institutes and executive agencies result in resource management and technology development in order to overcome existing barriers and issues

book reniewstabilizing an unstable economy hyman p minsky a twentieth century fund report yale university press new haven and london pp xiv 353 35 00 cloth 14 95 paper

worms at work long run impacts of a child health investment this study estimates long run impacts of a child health investment exploiting community wide experimental variation in school based deworming the program increased labor supply among men and education among women with accompanying shifts in labor market specialization ten years after deworming treatment men who were eligible as boys stay enrolled for more years of primary school work 17 more hours each week spend more time in nonagricultural self employment are more likely to hold manufacturing jobs and miss one fewer meal per week women who were in treatment schools as girls are approximately one quarter more likely to have attended secondary school halving the gender gap they reallocate time from traditional agriculture into cash crops and nonagricultural self employment we estimate a conservative annualized financial internal rate of return to deworming of 32 and show that mass deworming may generate more in future government revenue than it costs in subsidies

using contingent behavior analysis to measure benefits from rural electrification in developing countries an example from rwanda hundreds of millions of people in sub saharan africa do not have access to electricity and will not receive it from national grids in the next few decades electricity makes up an important component of rural development and so increasing access can have positive socioeconomic benefits in this study we use contingent behavior analysis to quantify the potential benefits of electricity in rural rwandan villages which currently do not have electricity the proposed method allows for calculation of net benefits as well as electricity bills we find that even relatively poor isolated households would pay for electricity though amounts vary across households and this affects the financial viability of electrification common uses for electricity include lighting battery charging and agricultural processing despite heterogeneity opportunities exist to improve rural economic welfare through increased electricity access

learning to lend for off grid solar power policy lessons from world bank loans to india indonesia and sri lanka abstract the world bank has sought to advance the diffusion of solar photovoltaic pv technology for off grid applications in the developing world as these systems are fundamentally different to centralised power stations and conventional rural electrification the world bank has been learning how best to lend for such technology this study seeks to highlight the lessons learnt from the world bank s first loans for off grid pv to india indonesia and sri lanka it uses lifetime cost analysis to justify continued intervention in this sector and it draws on theories of innovation diffusion to guide analysis and ultimately policy recommendations because of the special role of entrepreneurial start up companies in the rural pv sector the paper also uses a company cash flow model to demonstrate the efficacy of various supply side policies finally the study concludes with a checklist of policy lessons and a consideration of the role of the international finance corporation in this sector

financing energy access and off grid electrification a review of status options and challenges abstract this paper provides a review of funding needs and financing mechanisms for energy access in general and off grid electrification in particular to find whether the funding for these activities has been adequate whether sufficient funding is likely to be available to meet the needs of universal energy access whether innovative approaches can be used in funding it finds that in all successful cases the state has played an important role in funding infrastructure investments but many developing countries have neglected the energy access issue for a long time international donor agencies have provided selective and limited support while the innovative mechanisms are also unfriendly towards small scale projects weak governance limited organisational capacity and unfavourable policy environment militate against large scale mobilisation of financial resources in the poorest countries of the world where energy access is a chronic problem the challenge of mobilising finance and ensuring its appropriate delivery and use remains a major issue and would require a co ordinated effort of all relevant stakeholders

photovoltaic technology markets economics and rural development abstract photovoltaic pv electricity has been widely supported as a remote energy source for developing countries in response the production and shipment of pv modules in developed nations has steadily increased through the past decade often marketed through the auspices of technology transfer and financed by international development aid this paper investigates the motives economics and development implications of pvs in rural electrification drawing on field research in the dominican republic the implications of subsidizing a pv market rather than investing in further pv research and development are explored

the prospects for caring economic theory and policy analysis this paper examines three distinguishing features of caring that it involves the development of a relationship that caring responsibilities and needs are unequally distributed and that social norms influence the allocation of care and caring responsibilities to draw out their implications for analysing caring and its movement between unpaid and paid economies rising opportunity costs of caring are found to produce pressures experienced in different ways across different sectors of the economy these coupled with inequalities in care responsibilities and labour market opportunities influence the movement of care between paid and unpaid economies this analysis is then used to examine the likely evolution of caring norms and practices and how policy might intervene to avoid an uncaring future

spite and development in a wide variety of settings spiteful preferences would constitute an obstacle to cooperation trade and thus economic development this paper shows that spiteful preferences the desire to reduce another s material payoff for the mere purpose of increasing one s relative payoff are surprisingly widespread in experiments conducted in one of the least developed regions in india uttar pradesh in a one shot trust game the authors find that a large majority of subjects punish cooperative behavior although such punishment clearly increases inequality and decreases the payoffs of both subjects in experiments to study coordination and to measure social preferences the findings reveal empirical patterns suggesting that the willingness to reduce another s material payoff either for the sake of achieving more equality or for the sake of being ahead is stronger among individuals belonging to high castes than among those belonging to low castes because extreme social hierarchies are typically accompanied by a culture that stresses status seeking it is plausible that the observed social preference patterns are at least partly shaped by this culture thus an exciting question for future research is the extent to which different institutions and cultures produce preferences that are conducive or detrimental to economic development

tying odysseus to the mast evidence from a commitment savings product in the philippines we designed a commitment savings product for a philippine bank and implemented it using a randomized control methodology the savings product was intended for individuals who want to commit now to restrict access to their savings and who were sophisticated enough to engage in such a mechanism we conducted a baseline survey on 1777 existing or former clients of a bank one month later we offered the commitment product to a randomly chosen subset of 710 clients 202 28 4 percent accepted the offer and opened the account in the baseline survey we asked hypothetical time discounting questions women who exhibited a lower discount rate for future relative to current trade offs and hence potentially have a preference for commitment were indeed significantly more likely to open the commitment savings account after twelve months average savings balances increased by 81 percentage points for those clients assigned to the treatment group relative to those assigned to the control group we conclude that the savings response represents a lasting change in savings and not merely a short term response to a new product

an integrated framework for rural electrification adopting a user centric approach to business model development rural electrification re has gained prominence over the past two decades as an effective means for improving living conditions this growth has largely been driven by socio economic and political imperatives to improve rural livelihood and by technological innovation based on a content analysis of 232 scholarly articles the literature is categorized into four focal lenses technology institutional viability and user centric we find that the first two dominate the re debate the viability lens has been used less frequently whilst the user centric lens began to engage scholars as late as 2007 we provide an overview of the technological institutional and viability lenses and elaborate upon the user centric lens in greater detail for energy policy and practice we combine the four lenses to develop a business model framework that policy makers practitioners and investors could use to assess re projects or to design future rural electrification strategies

enabling mini grid development in rural india summary rural electrification rates in india lag behind government goals in part due to the inability of distribution companies discoms to fund central grid expansion in the absence of central grid electrification mini grids offer significant potential for an immediate pathway toward rural electrification and the attendant gains in economic growth and productivity yet private investment in mini grids has been virtually absent in india using a comprehensive life cycle cost analysis we find that mini grids based on solar pv power and storage are more economical than incumbent energy services available to households without central grid connection under current law a prospective entrepreneur in india does not require a license or certification in order to build a mini grid and subsequently provide electricity services in the area covered by said installation conversely there is no legal or regulatory framework that specifies what is to happen if the central grid were to be extended to an area that is already covered by a mini grid we report detailed survey evidence from interviews with entrepreneurs analysts and policymakers whose assessments converge on the same point mini grid investments would be jeopardized in the event of central grid extension precisely because discoms would by regulatory order provide electricity services at highly subsidized rates well below their full economic cost our fieldwork suggests that the threat of central grid extension is a gateway barrier preventing mini grid development in india the issues associated with the gateway barrier have common elements with the so called holdup problem as identified in the economics of organizations there have been two recent federal policy guidelines and one actual state level policy addressing the regulatory status of mini grids we examine the effectiveness of these policies proposals in terms of an entrepreneur s willingness to develop mini grids in the future

interdependence through time relationships in post keynesian thought and the care literature does hyman minsky s general interdependence through time have anything to do with carol gilligan s narrative of relationships that extends over time both post keynesian theory and the feminist care literature embrace calendar time and fundamental uncertainty both investigate the properties of networks of wittingly formed forward commitments between actors if some prominent writers in the care literature are right these networks merit their own social ontological status because they are reducible neither to individual behaviour nor structure