Participatory appraisal approaches versus sample survey data collection: a case of smallholder farmers well-being ranking in Njombe District, Tanzania

Social scientists and rural development interventionists inTanzania and in Sub-Saharan Africa depend mainly on conventionalsample surveys; in part this is a legacy of their basic training.Participatory rural appraisal and intervention approaches offera varied range of methods. We ask ourselves whether the resultsfrom participatory, rapid appraisals are conflicting and differentto those from sample surveys? This paper compares results ofa Rapid Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) with a conventionalsample survey. These surveys were conducted at the end of 1995and mid-1996 respectively, to establish socio-economic well-beingranks in Njombe district. A comparison of results shows thatthe well-being ranks established using PRA are valid and theapproach is reliable. The three qualitatively established well-beingranks differed empirically in many socio-economic indicators.These include resource endowment, labour force size, agriculturalland, livestock ownership, forest woodlot management, perceptionof food insecurity, technological advances in agricultural productionand natural resource management systems. Results show that thelow well-being group and female-headed households are disadvantaged.The goal of the Hifadhi Ya Mazingira-Njombe project is to developenvironmentally sustainable crop and livestock husbandry practicesin the district. The well-being ranking exercise has strongimplications for the project's strategy. We discuss the adoptedmethodology and implications. The paper recommends that developmentprogrammes and workers in Tanzania and Sub-Saharan Africa oughtto extend their approaches. It is time to include more of theparticipatory, relatively rapid rural appraisal and interventiontechniques. Benefits that they may accrue are time saving, lowercosts, quality information and stakeholder involvement.     

Education and the natural rate of unemployment

We show how changes in the educational composition of the labourforce affect both the level and the behaviour over time of aggregateunemployment series. We also demonstrate that if it had notbeen for such changes, the US unemployment series would look'European' since the within-group unemployment series all havethat same appearance. We derive a natural-rate model of unemploymentfor two education groups, providing microfoundations for inter-groupdifferences in wages and unemployment, and evaluate its plausibilityin light of microeconomic evidence.     

Welfare policy and the transformation of social security in South Africa

Social security is based on the belief that all citizens should be protected by the state against the main vicissitudes of life: old age, unemployment, disability and sickness. The success of welfare programmes internationally in improving poverty, income distribution and unemployment is appraised. Income maintenance in South Africa, which is discriminatory and ineffective in meeting real human needs, is examined. Although welfare should not promote dependence, neither should it be so hard to come by as to punish the poor.     

On the efficiency of stock-based compensation

When the market can observe the profitability of all projectswith equal precision, then with stock compensation (i) the weighton any given project in managerial compensation is independentof the marginal productivity of effort in the project; (ii)the projects that are the noisiest indicators of managerialeffort receive the most weight in compensation; and (iii) investorshave the greatest incentive to collect information about projectsthat are the noisiest indicators of managerial effort.     

Suicide as an indicator of quality of life: evidence from dialysis patients

Quality of life has been measured in many different ways for patients with chronic medical conditions. What is unique about the approach used here is that it uses suicide rates as a relatively objective measure of quality of life within the population of dialysis patients. Using a Heckman selection model, we estimate the relative suicide rates across patients undergoing both hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. Our empirical results show that patients on hemodialysis have relatively lower suicide rates after controlling for other factors. Specifically, our results indicate that 141 fewer suicides will occur for every 1,000 patients shifted from peritoneal to hemodialysis. Prior estimates of the higher costs of the latter modality yield an estimated expenditure of $42,043 per suicide avoided.     

Beyond public management

The Netherlands are often considered an excellent example of ‘new public management’ reforms. Especially the ‘Tilburg model’ of management reform that took place in Dutch local government in the mid-1980s has become internationally renowned. In this review of public management reforms that took place in Dutch local and national government during the 1980s and 1990s we will show that managerial reforms were not the only dominant story in the The Netherlands. Dutch administration experienced a shift in frame of reference beyond public management. This review will not concentrate on ‘factual reforms’ but rather on reform ideas. This study departs from the empirical positivist approach where ‘objective facts’ play the central role. There is no one and single ‘objective truth’ about reforms. Managerial reform seemed the dominant story. In ‘reality’ there was a variety of reform ideas.     

Punch out the time clocks

Today's work environment is full of contradictions. On the one hand there aren't enough jobs to go around and on the other some people who have jobs would trade pay for time off. Some managers, at least managers of one-fifth of the labor force, are resolving this contradiction with an elegantly simple solution. They are installing some version of alternative work schedules: flexitime, permanent part-time jobs, job sharing, compressed workweeks, and work sharing, which give employees more control over their professional and personal lives and give employers, for instance in an economic downturn, a way, a way to keep experienced workers on the job without straining budgets. The authors of this article, both of whom have helped develop alternative work schedules, describe the five forms and how numerous employers across the country are adapting them to their purposes. They predict that eventually most U.S. employees will be working under some form of the new schedules.     

International competition and exchange rate shocks: a cross-country industry analysis of stock returns

This article systematically examines the importance of exchangerate movements and industry competition for stock returns. Commonshocks to industries across countries are more important thancompetitive shocks due to changes in exchange rates. Weeklyexchange rate shocks explain almost nothing of the relativeperformance of industries. Using returns measured over longerhorizons, the importance of exchange rate shocks increases slightlyand the importance of industry common shocks increases moresubstantially. Both industry and exchange rate shocks are moreimportant for industries that produce internationally tradedgoods, but the importance of these shocks is economically smallfor these industries as well.     

Competition in NHS quasi-markets

Recent reforms of the National Health Service have focused attentionon both contracts for health services and competition amongstthe providers of those services as means of ensuring that qualityis maintained at an acceptable standard whilst costs are contained.This paper considers the particular roles that competition maybe expected to play in both health authority and GP fundholderquasi-markets.