title: Firm bribery and credit access: Evidence from Indian SMEs

authors: Wellalage, Nirosha Hewa

subjects: Social Sciences

abstract: This study investigates the effect of paying bribes on access to credit for small, and medium enterprises (SMEs). Bribery is variously portrayed in the literature as greasing the wheel (helping) or sand in the wheel (impeding) when applying for credit leaves the issue unresolved. Using The World Bank Enterprise Surveys of SME data, an answer for India emerges using an instrumental variable probit model. SME bribery is detrimental to accessing credit and more so for firms that have been in business for many years and operating on a small scale. There are supply and demand side forces involved, culminating in differing size effect reactions. From a supply side perspective, when corruption is high, financial institutions find it harder to control borrower risk and recover loans. In that case, financial institutions reduce their lending to SMEs, which mostly belong to a high-risk category. Unlike large firms, SMEs paying bribes to grease the wheel are drawn to the informal sector, avoiding attention from officials. Where SMEs pay bribes in the formal sector it is noticed and is likely to increase the probability that other parties will also demand payments. The demand side argument regards bribes as a tax, increasing the cost of loans to the SMEs. Consequently, making significant bribes decreases these SMEs’ profitability. Less profitable SMEs may not obtain access to credit. From a policy perspective, anti-corruption measures are vital for developing SMEs. Generalising these findings to other emerging economies suggests potentially significant welfare gains.

text: Firm bribery and credit access: Evidence from Indian SMEs This study investigates the effect of paying bribes on access to credit for small, and medium enterprises (SMEs). Bribery is variously portrayed in the literature as greasing the wheel (helping) or sand in the wheel (impeding) when applying for credit leaves the issue unresolved. Using The World Bank Enterprise Surveys of SME data, an answer for India emerges using an instrumental variable probit model. SME bribery is detrimental to accessing credit and more so for firms that have been in business for many years and operating on a small scale. There are supply and demand side forces involved, culminating in differing size effect reactions. From a supply side perspective, when corruption is high, financial institutions find it harder to control borrower risk and recover loans. In that case, financial institutions reduce their lending to SMEs, which mostly belong to a high-risk category. Unlike large firms, SMEs paying bribes to grease the wheel are drawn to the informal sector, avoiding attention from officials. Where SMEs pay bribes in the formal sector it is noticed and is likely to increase the probability that other parties will also demand payments. The demand side argument regards bribes as a tax, increasing the cost of loans to the SMEs. Consequently, making significant bribes decreases these SMEs’ profitability. Less profitable SMEs may not obtain access to credit. From a policy perspective, anti-corruption measures are vital for developing SMEs. Generalising these findings to other emerging economies suggests potentially significant welfare gains.

year: 2020-06-01

title: Towards transforming OpenFlow rulesets to fit fixed-function pipelines

authors: Sanger, Richard

subjects: computer science

abstract: OpenFlow feature support differs between devices due to devicespecific hardware constraints. OpenFlow places the burden of addressing these differences on the controller, which increases development cost and restricts device interoperability. This paper investigates reducing this burden by algorithmically transforming an existing ruleset to fit an incompatible fixed-function pipeline to improve device interoperability. Existing rule-fitting schemes in the literature require metadata to link rules between tables into a path through the pipeline, but not all pipelines support metadata. We developed a novel approach that does not rely on any particular pipeline features, like metadata, and considers the pipeline's constraints, including both the matches and actions available. This paper presents our implementation, including ruleset preprocessing techniques, methods of transforming rules, and how we use a partially constrained boolean satisfiability problem to select from these transformations and build the final ruleset. While future work remains towards real-world deployment, our approach demonstrates fitting rulesets to fixed-function pipelines without metadata is feasible, and our techniques to reduce the size of the problem are beneficial.

text: Towards transforming OpenFlow rulesets to fit fixed-function pipelines OpenFlow feature support differs between devices due to devicespecific hardware constraints. OpenFlow places the burden of addressing these differences on the controller, which increases development cost and restricts device interoperability. This paper investigates reducing this burden by algorithmically transforming an existing ruleset to fit an incompatible fixed-function pipeline to improve device interoperability. Existing rule-fitting schemes in the literature require metadata to link rules between tables into a path through the pipeline, but not all pipelines support metadata. We developed a novel approach that does not rely on any particular pipeline features, like metadata, and considers the pipeline's constraints, including both the matches and actions available. This paper presents our implementation, including ruleset preprocessing techniques, methods of transforming rules, and how we use a partially constrained boolean satisfiability problem to select from these transformations and build the final ruleset. While future work remains towards real-world deployment, our approach demonstrates fitting rulesets to fixed-function pipelines without metadata is feasible, and our techniques to reduce the size of the problem are beneficial.

year: 2020

title: DrownBaseTM – Identifying at risk factors: Strategies and issues around Māori practices and activities towards water safety

authors: Karapu, Rolinda

subjects: Maori

abstract: Aotearoa has some of the most extensive and beautiful waterways in the world. The seas, rivers, beaches, and lakes provide endless opportunities for Māori to enjoy water activities, such as gathering kai, swimming, hoe waka, diving and fishing (Haimona & Takurua, 2003). For Māori, water is one of the greatest taonga (treasures) of this land – both physically and spiritually. Māori have always been acknowledged as possessing expertise in swimming and aquatic activities pre-European times (Haimona & Takurua, 2003). Early writers such as Best (1976) wrote extensively about Māori games and pastimes while in, on or near the water. These early descriptions illustrate the practice that Māori children were taught to swim at a very early age. The gathering of seafood and the consistent use of waterways as a mode of transport were also customary activities for Māori. The traditional beliefs and practices of Māori, demonstrate a great awareness and understanding of water, its dangers and its life-giving properties.

text: DrownBaseTM – Identifying at risk factors: Strategies and issues around Māori practices and activities towards water safety Aotearoa has some of the most extensive and beautiful waterways in the world. The seas, rivers, beaches, and lakes provide endless opportunities for Māori to enjoy water activities, such as gathering kai, swimming, hoe waka, diving and fishing (Haimona & Takurua, 2003). For Māori, water is one of the greatest taonga (treasures) of this land – both physically and spiritually. Māori have always been acknowledged as possessing expertise in swimming and aquatic activities pre-European times (Haimona & Takurua, 2003). Early writers such as Best (1976) wrote extensively about Māori games and pastimes while in, on or near the water. These early descriptions illustrate the practice that Māori children were taught to swim at a very early age. The gathering of seafood and the consistent use of waterways as a mode of transport were also customary activities for Māori. The traditional beliefs and practices of Māori, demonstrate a great awareness and understanding of water, its dangers and its life-giving properties.

year: 2008