The myths,facts, and theories of ethnic,small-scale enterprise financing

This article combines the results of three financial studies that examine capital issues affecting minority business development. The results are presented so as to explain or refute conventional wisdom regarding capital availability, cost of capital, credit market discrimination, sources of capital and differences in firm capital composition. Generally, Asian and Hispanic businesses more approximate nonminority businesses in the sources of capital, the cost of capital, total capital investment, and access to capital. Black firms, on the other hand, face credit discrimination from all sources of capital, which limits their access to capital, increases its cost, and affects firm profitability. Consequently, black firms have a smaller capital composition at startup and during operations. The only deviation from this pattern occurs where minority and nonminority financial institutions vie for black business patronage by reducing the cost of borrowing and increasing the availability of funds.     

THE RESEARCH AGENDA FOR SMALL BUSINESS ECONOMICS

Books reviewed in this article:
Acs, Z. and Audretsch, D. B. (eds.) (1990) The Economics of Small Firms: A European Challenge     

The development and evaluation of an andragogic training programme for small business retailers

One of the greatest challenges facing South Africa after apartheid is job creation and the development of people's skills. Small business, and retailing in particular, with its relatively low entry requirements, can help to meet this challenge. However, small business retailing suffers from a high failure rate.

It was felt that small business retailers would be more likely to succeed if they received proper training. A small business training model was therefore developed and implemented and the results were evaluated from several perspectives. This indicated that if small business retailers are effectively trained their knowledge and skills will improve and their businesses will be more likely to survive and grow. The article describes the model, the systematic approach to the training, the methods of evaluation and the lessons to be learnt from the exercise.     

Skill and Earnings Amongst Golfers on the Southern-African Sunshine Tour

This paper estimates the determinants of the success of golfers on the Southern-African Sunshine Tour. Using a simultaneous-quantile regression approach and real earnings per tournament as a measure of success, a higher greens-in-regulation percentage and a lower number of putts per greens-in-regulation are associated with higher earnings. Calculations of the value of the marginal product of key golfer skills suggest a dynamic human capital acquisition process for many Sunshine Tour golfers at the earliest stages of their professional golf career.     

Contesting the Indian City: Global Visions and the Politics of the Local

This symposium brings together three empirical studies and one conceptual overview examining the politics of redevelopment in contemporary Indian cities. Collectively these articles seek to redress the relative dearth of concerted attention to the institutional, economic and socio‐spatial changes that are shifting the terrain of urban politics in post‐liberalization India.     

The Ethics of the International Arms Trade

Unless one is a pacifist there is little difficulty in theory in ethically justifying a country's entitlement to produce or to purchase, or even to market, weapons for the preservation of internal order or external peace. In practice, however, the international arms industry gives considerable cause for ethical misgivings, which are here explored. "It is difficult to escape from the notion that the primary factor behind the international sale of arms is the generation of profits. If companies are left unchecked, there is considerable evidence that companies will exploit commercial opportunities to the detriment of ethical considerations."     

Marital history and home ownership: Evidence from Australia

The relative cost of owning and renting housing and housing affordability have been clearly established as important determinants of home ownership. But the roles of marital status and history have been largely ignored. In this paper we show that both current marital status and past history affect ownership. Past history matters because wealth accumulation is greater among couple households than singles owing largely to economies of scale in housing consumption. Moreover, wealth is lost upon divorce. In effect, past marital history affects the affordability of owner housing. This result is shown in the estimation of model explaining wealth, leverage and tenure choice using Australian datasets.