Capital issues and the minority-owned business

This article presents some of the results from an unusual survey of small business owners who differ in their ethnicity: Asians, blacks, Hispanics, and nonminorities. Contrary to the prevailing view of black and Hispanic business owners and their firms, the blacks and Hispanics in the data base—in general and on average—had the same human and financial capital as their Asian and nonminority counterparts. As a result, the black-owned and Hispanic-owned firms performed as well as the Asian-owned and nonminority-owned firms. Nevertheless, black business owners had lower success rates than nonminority men in obtaining commercial bank loans, although the terms for loans granted were similar for the two groups. In light of the apparent credit discrimination, U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) loans remain an important source of debt-type capital to black-owned firms.     

Interpreting business partnerships in late Victorian Britain†

This article gives the first large‐scale assessment of business partnerships in England and Wales using business records within the population census for 1881. It seeks to understand the variety of ways that ‘partnership’ was used: explicit partnership, ‘de facto’ partnership, ‘joint’ activity, and asset ownership together. The article confirms that partnerships were chiefly between two people. Complexity and transaction costs largely precluded larger size and squeezed the partnership into a ‘middle ground’ between the sole proprietor and the corporation. The main size contrast was between farms with small employee numbers, and larger non‐farm business partnerships. Generally differences in the gender of business owners have greater salience than sectors. Few female business partnerships employed more than four people (mean 3.4), while male partnerships ranged up to several thousand employees (mean 33.6), and 18.6 for mixed gender. While many women were involved in businesses, their opportunities remained restricted, and most were in partnership with male partners. Family structures were important, with three‐quarters of all identifiable partnerships having some form of family relationship, with a strong preponderance of single women in female‐only partnerships, married men in male‐only partnerships, and widows in mixed gender businesses.     

Land redistribution in KwaZulu‐Natal: An analysis of farmland transactions in 1997

This article presents the results of a census survey of all farmland transactions in the province of KwaZulu‐Natal during the calendar year 1997. Data recorded by the Deeds Registry were stratified and analysed by race, gender and mode of land acquisition. It was estimated that 372 995 hectares, or 7 per cent, of the area available for redistribution have been transferred to new owners. Of this, just 0,43 per cent of the available area was redistributed to disadvantaged people. Although low, the rate of redistribution appears to have increased dramatically since 1995. The quality of land varied markedly across different modes of land redistribution. Land purchased with government grants was of a much lower agricultural quality than land purchased privately. Relative to government‐assisted transactions, private market transactions accounted for a slightly smaller share of the area transferred to disadvantaged people but for a much larger share of the value of land redistributed. Inheritance and land donations accounted for the remaining redistributed land. Women were well represented in land transactions involving inheritance but were underrepresented in transactions financed with mortgage loans. In general, they acquired farms of much smaller size and land of lower quality than men.     

Towards accommodationist planning in South Africa's secondary centres: The case of hawker deregulation

International development agencies are devoting increased attention to the role of secondary or intermediate cities in national urban development strategies. In planning the development of intermediate‐sized centres, stress is placed on the need to support indigenous enterprise, including the informal sector. Against a background review of literature concerning the informal sector within secondary cities, this paper examines the extent to which a group of South Africa's intermediate‐sized cities are pursuing programmes supporting the informal sector. The question of policies towards hawking is investigated within the settings of East London, Kimberley, Bloemfontein, Pietersburg and Pietermaritzburg. It is concluded that accommodationist planning is being undertaken on only a limited scale in these secondary centres.     

北京地区居家养老型卫生间空间设施设计研究

为完善我国居家养老中面临的卫生间设计不合理的现状,基于老年心理学和人体工程学改良了老年住宅卫生间的空间设计。通过问卷调查和案例分析,以北京地区60岁以上健康及轻度失能老人为研究对象,分区域对卫生间空间的安全性和适老性进行归纳分析和优化设计,并将研究成果应用于居家养老卫生间样本中。经过改良后的居家养老型卫生间,不仅更符合老年人的使用习惯,在使用安全性方面也得到了明显加强。     

Unemployment and urban development in Gauteng

One aspect of the unemployment crisis which has not received much attention in South Africa is the spatial distribution of unemployment within cities. Concentrated unemployment within cities may be seen primarily as a product of market and non‐market housing allocation processes or of the spatial location of employment opportunities. This article examines the situation in Gauteng province using the 1991 population census and a 1995 survey of employers and using regression analysis to explain the unemployment rate in residential areas. It was found that there is no clear link between the location of employment opportunities and concentrated unemployment, suggesting that housing allocation factors play the decisive role. The findings raise some difficult questions about the appropriateness of urban development strategies which vigorously pursue the collocation of places of residence and work.     

Extending home ownership before the First World War: the case of the Co‐operative Permanent Building Society, 1884–19131

Formed in the mid‐nineteenth century, the building societies grew rapidly from their humble beginnings as localized ‘self‐help’ institutions to become the dominant players in the house mortgage market by the interwar period. Throughout their early history, the societies presented themselves as champions of home ownership among the working classes, but historians of housing have generally disputed the role that building societies played, or could have played, in extending home ownership before the First World War. The case study presented in this article shows that it was possible for a building society to lend to working‐class borrowers, and that home ownership before the First World War was not beyond the grasp of such people. While it was undoubtedly an exception within the movement, the Co‐operative Permanent Building Society showed a genuine commitment to working‐class owner‐occupation, providing the majority of its loans to both skilled and unskilled workers on easy repayment terms. How it was able to overcome the adverse selection and moral hazard risks involved in lending to such groups of people is the focus of this article.     

Black Real Estate Professionals’ Perceptions of Career Opportunities: The Economic Detour Redux

This article focuses on black professionals’ perceptions of career opportunities in the real estate industry and discrimination in housing markets. The analysis is based on a national survey of black real estate professionals administered between July and December of 2009. Findings from the article suggest that black real estate professionals adopt a business strategy scholars have referred to as the economic detour. Following this strategy, their business activities focus on a niche market confined to residential real estate transaction with black clientele in relatively segregated neighborhood contexts. The findings from this analysis suggest that this focus has emerged in response to perceptions of institutional discrimination that closes opportunities to black professionals in the broader real estate industry. Recommendations are made to address economic barriers faced by black professionals.     

Who adopts crypto assets in Japan? Evidence from the 2019 financial literacy survey

The adoption of crypto assets has been of great concern to policymakers ever since Facebook announced its proposed cryptocurrency, Libra, in mid-2019. Behind this concern lies the possibility of widespread Libra adoption for day-to-day transactions, bringing with it a set of serious risks related to money laundering, illicit financing, and consumer and investor protection. This study first investigates the variables that distinguish Japanese crypto-asset owners from nonowners, then investigates the variables that distinguish the owners belonging to each group from the rest of the owners. The second investigation focuses on four groups: owners’ level of understanding of crypto assets, the profitability of their investment in crypto assets, their holdings of conventional risky financial assets, and their adoption of noncash payment methods. In addition to the usual demographic variables, financial literacy, financial behavior, conventional risky financial asset holdings, and use of noncash payment methods are also investigated. Both probit models and multinomial logit models are estimated and two results are obtained. First, 35 variables distinguish average Japanese crypto-asset owners from nonowners. Owners are more likely to be male, aged below 30 years, have higher pretax income, work in private or public companies, or be self-employed, and be graduate-school graduates compared with nonowners. Owners tend to have higher financial literacy from two perspectives: a measure of objective financial literacy and the experience of financial education at school, and lower financial literacy from three perspectives: the experience of financial education about money management by parents at home, experience of financial troubles, and knowledge about credit cards, than average nonowners. Regarding financial behavior, owners tend to be overconfident about their financial literacy, impatient, judge based on reputation in selecting financial products, lack self-control, and less risk-averse than nonowners. Owners tend to have experience investing in conventional risky financial assets and to use noncash payment methods. Second, 40–60% of variables that statistically significantly distinguish between the average owners and nonowners also differentiate the owners belonging to three of the four groups (excluded is the group that uses noncash payment methods) from the owners not belonging to the groups. These results suggest that policies for crypto-asset owners, if ever implemented, should not only consider the average owner's characteristics, but also owners’ heterogeneity.     

Is Leaving Home a Hardship?

The transition of young adults from their parents' homes to other living arrangements is a major life‐course milestone. Although the causes of nest‐leaving have been extensively researched, only a few studies have examined changes in young adults' well‐being that immediately precede and follow these transitions. This study uses the Household, Income, and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey to document trajectories of financial hardships, nutrition, and other outcomes among Australians who left their parents' homes between the ages of 18 and 25 years. The study estimates multivariate fixed‐effects models that compare outcomes before and after nest‐leaving transitions to mitigate the effects of confounding characteristics. Men and women report increased financial hardships in the years that they leave home and in the first few years that follow, including going without meals and needing to ask friends and family for financial help. Women additionally report missing utility and housing payments.     

The biological standard of living in early nineteenth‐century West Africa: new anthropometric evidence for northern Ghana and Burkina Faso1

West Africans are on average shorter than Europeans today. Whether this was already the case at the end of the Atlantic slave trade is an important question for the history of nutrition and physical welfare. We present the first study of changing heights for people born mostly in what are now northern Ghana and Burkina Faso during the early nineteenth century. The dataset, not used before for anthropometry, documents men born between 1800 and 1849. Mostly purchased from slave owners, they were recruited into the Dutch army to serve in the Dutch East Indies. We find that height development was stagnant between 1800 and 1830 and deteriorated strongly during the 1840s. In international comparison and after taking selectivity issues into account, these Ghanaian and Burkinabe recruits were notably shorter than north‐western Europeans but not shorter than southern Europeans during this period.     

Social capital of black business owners

Analysis of data from the 1982Characteristics of Business Owners Survey reveals that there are some differences between the social capital (social resources available from group support networks) of black business owners and those of other ethnic groups. Black owners have had less exposure to entrepreneurial role models and training in firms run by close relatives than Asian, Hispanic, or nonminority male owners. They do not rely on their relatives or friends for business loans to the same extent as Asians, and show less such reliance than the other groups as well. Black owners compare favorably with Hispanics and nonminority males in using family funds as a source of nonborrowed capital, but are behind Asians. Black firms are relatively more likely to sell to minority customers and hire minority employees. Finally, black owners are the least likely to be married, which indicates some diminished help from the family, a key institution in group support networks.     

Unequal school enrollment rights,rent yields gap,and increased inequality: The case of Shanghai

This paper first builds a simple theoretic model to explore how a special feature of enrollment policy of public primary schools in urban China, the unequal enrollment right between home owners and tenants, would produce rent-yields gap between different housings. The model also predicts that an enrollment policy featuring with tenant discrimination, accompanying with strict credit constraint, would reduce the chance of kids from middle-income families to attend better public schools while allow families with high initial wealth to access better high-quality public education at a lower cost. Using a hedonic pricing model, we find that, in Shanghai, rental yields of housings in neighborhoods associated with reputed public primary schools is on average 0.1–0.35 percentage-point lower than those associated with ordinary ones. We also explore how the rent-yields-gap varies across housing types, locations and changes over time. Nonetheless, our simulation computation suggests that the estimated opportunity cost of holding such schools in Shanghai is generally not a big amount and affordable for many families. Overall, the high entry costs of owing a housing is the major obstacle to access high-quality public primary education in urban China. These findings highlight how an education policy with features of inequality may contribute to education and residential segregation, and then reduce intergenerational mobility.     

Land reform and rural development in the Transvaal

This paper considers and contrasts agriculture on the white‐owned farms and in the black‐occupied areas of the Transvaal. It outlines the limitations of the existing tribal tenure system in the black areas, and argues that the various development initiatives that have taken place there have not left the people either financially better off, or with a greater degree of control over their land than before. The whole Transvaal should be seen as a single unit for agricultural planning purposes. This would mean that natural resources, as well as agricultural services, could be spread more equitably among the entire population of the area, which would boost agricultural production, as well as lessen the gross inequalities currently pertaining between black and white agriculture in the area.     

城市住宅适老改造需求的关键影响因素研究

城市住宅适老改造服务体系作为支持居家养老的重要领域在我国尚未形成。文章通过访谈和文本分析,识别出影响城市住宅适老改造需求的18个一般因素;运用主成分分析法提取了3个关键因素,发现居住环境的适老程度与住宅适老改造技术和服务水平是首要的影响因素,住宅适老改造的消费水平和政策支持力度也是影响适老改造需求的关键因素。文章认为,建立并逐步完善住宅适老改造技术服务与质量监管体系、开展适老改造示范工程、探索适老改造市场化服务模式、加强适老改造资金的支持力度等,是形成我国城市住宅适老改造服务体系的有效途径。     

对我国中小民营企业管理模式的一项实证研究

本文在回顾国内外学术界对企业管理模式相关研究成果的基础上,结合理论和调查问卷的统计分析结果,实证了我国中小民营企业的治理模式、经理人管理模式现状和特征以及治理结构现状。结论显示我国绝大多数中小企业管理模式仍停留在"雇主的企业"和"企业家的企业"这两个阶段上,但存在向"经理人的企业"转变的动力和趋势。并且,在中小民营企业管理模式转变以及建立良好的经理人机制问题上,本文的研究提供了有益的启示。     

The demand for residential domestic service in the London of 1901†

This article concerns the effect of income and other variables on the demand for residential domestic service in London in 1901 and presents the first estimated model of the demand for residential service known to the author. It uses previously unexploited data consisting of the incomes and household details of some 500 civil servants. An extension of Becker's model of household production is set out and an ordered probit statistical model of servant demand is estimated. The results confirm the importance of income but also show that the demographic composition of the household was of significance. These results are interpreted in terms of age‐ and gender‐related differences in the supply of labour and the demand for market goods. The results are consistent with the view that middle‐class Edwardian households should be understood as sites of production as well as consumption. A comparison of the statistical results with contemporary recommendations in manuals of household management suggests that those recommendations were typically over‐optimistic. The article presents a ‘ready reckoner’ whereby household income may be estimated from the number of resident servants, but caution in its use is urged.     

Solar (photovoltaic) systems,energy use and business activities in Maphephethe,KwaZulu‐Natal

Literature suggests that energy is both a prerequisite for and essential to development (both social and economic). In order to establish the ability of an alternative energy source —photovoltaic systems ‐ to meet daily requirements, an investigation into current energy usage, expenditure patterns and business applications was conducted. Maphephethe, an area north of Durban in KwaZulu‐Natal, was selected for a formal survey, with locally based, trained interviewers interviewing 200 households and businesses. The findings indicated that income levels were slightly above national (rural) norms but displayed a wide variability. Eleven energy sources were used, including candles for illumination, car batteries for television sets, dry batteries for radios and wood for cooking. Paraffin and gas were used for refrigeration. The general attitude towards solar home systems was favourable but the interviewees perceived grid electricity as being better. There did not appear to be any difference between those households that had solar home systems and those that did not. Expenditure saved on traditional energy sources matched that spent on solar syst‐ems. Business energy‐related potential was present but not developed     

中日两国私营企业主的诞生与成长比较

企业主的诞生与成长对一国经济的发展具有非常重要的意义。比较中国私营企业主与日本企业主，虽然在年龄分布、性别与文化构成等方面两国的私营企业主存在较大的差异，但在创业时必须面对资金来源有限、市场拓展难、人才缺乏等方面的困难上又具有共同性。表明中小企业融资难不是我国独有的问题。