CREDIT UNIONS AS CONDUITS FOR MICROFINANCE DELIVERY IN CAMEROON

While financial inclusion is the buzzword now, especially in development finance studies, research on the role of credit unions in the financial inclusion debate in the global South is sparse. This study helps to fill this gap by analyzing the role credit unions play in the delivery of financial services to the ‘unbankables’. We analyze the strategies used by credit unions to reach the unbankables. We show how credit unions have been able to attract new members and offer a variety of financial services through linkages with informal savings and credit clubs, and by using domestic remittance services to build relationships.     

A Syntactic Approach to Knowledge in Finite Games of Perfect Information

In this paper I present a syntactic approach to modeling the interactive knowledge of rationality in finite games of perfect information. This approach allows for a more transparent interpretation. In particular, we have the intuitive picture of viewing knowledge as the input and decisions as the output of a player’s deliberation. This distinction is blurred in the semantic state-space approach.     

Economic Reforms in Socialist Economics: A Comment on Petr

Abstract:

The pre-WWII approaches to trade unions were mainly based on the theoretical and methodological viewpoints of early institutional economics. Trade unions were conceived of as politico-economic organizations whose members were motivated by relative comparisons, and also were concerned with issues of equity and justice. In the post-war period, there was a major theoretical and methodological shift toward the idea of unions as optimizing economic units with well-defined objective functions, which are optimized subject to purely economic constraints. This conceptual transformation took place mainly through the Dunlop -Ross debate, in which John Dunlop conceived of unions as analogous to business firms, as opposed to Arthur Ross’s institutional and political approach. However, after decades of analytical developments, the current state of trade union theory has not produced very impressive theoretical results. We trace the historical development of the economic analysis of trade unions from a methodological perspective. We also examine the methodological reasons for the dominance of Dunlop’s approach, and the current state of – and the contemporary criticism toward – the established theory. Furthermore, we discuss the contemporary efforts to build a more comprehensive approach to trade union theory and trade union objectives, also incorporating Ross’s institutional and political insights.     

Developing a cost-benefit analysis process for small-to-moderate expenditure decisions

During the Reagan administration, the federal government mandated the use of cost–benefit analysis (CBA) for regulatory decisions involving $100 million or more. While the use of CBAs has increased, less attention has been given to CBA processes involving smaller expenditures (regulatory and nonregulatory). As the federal budget tightens in the years ahead, the need to make hard decisions about these policies, programs, and technologies will increase. This paper describes a CBA process developed for the Office of Strategic Planning of the Social Security Administration; it was designed to handle small-to-moderate expenditure decisions (or for preliminary estimates of larger undertakings). A sample CBA using this process is provided, along with a discussion of the lessons that were learned from an initial application.     

An Investigation into the Link between UK Credit Union Characteristics, Location and their Success

Abstract ** :  The unique characteristics of credit unions reduces the information asymmetry that is prevalent in credit making decisions, enabling them to provide loans where other financial institutions cannot. This makes them a potential tool in the fight against financial exclusion. Yet, the UK credit union movement is not regarded as being successful, even though there is evidence of much financial exclusion. This study is cross sectional in form, and evaluates characteristics that may contribute to the success of the UK credit union movement at national and regional level, in 2000. The findings are used to consider the impact of recent regulatory changes on the movement. The key findings are that there is a significant relationship between the success of a credit union, its size and the deprivation of the ward from which it sources its members. More specifically, larger credit unions and those located in more affluent wards, are more successful. Affiliation to the Irish League of Credit Unions and having a common bond of occupation, are also found to be contributing factors to credit union success. These results are taken as providing support for the recent changes implemented by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), which is likely to result in the emergence of larger credit unions (through mergers), run by appropriately qualified persons, serving a more mixed‐income membership base. It is, however, noted that the history of the UK movement is one of missed opportunities and only time will tell whether credit unions have the wherewithal to accept current opportunities .     

Paired difference analysis of size economies in UK credit unions

This study utilizes a paired difference approach to investigate for the existence of scale economies in UK credit unions. The analysis is conducted for both credit unions in aggregate as well as a number of sub-groups with the latter defined in terms of the trade organization to which credit unions are affiliated. This decomposition was viewed as particularly important in that the respective umbrella organizations have different growth strategies. The analysis revealed that significant efficiency gains are available through credit unions adopting a policy of asset growth. This finding held good irrespective of the umbrella organization to which credit unions belong although the analysis also revealed that the opportunity for efficiency gains was not so pronounced for the members of one of the trade organizations - the National Federation of Credit Unions. This finding was due to the NFCU's much more overt emphasis on self-help and community development, particularly in areas of economic disadvantage.     

The new right and the US economy in the 1980s: an assessment of the economic record of the Reagan administration

This paper discusses the new-right ideas underlying the victory and implementation of ‘Reaganomics’ and examines the economic record of the Reagan administration. Given the preeminence of supply-side economics in the USA in the 1980s, and the supply-side leanings of the Reagan government, attention is focused mainly upon supply-side ideas, policies and claims: although some assessment of monetarist propositions is also provided. In addition to the evaluation of new-right claims, however, a broader assessment of the Reagan administration's record is also undertaken which deals, inter alia, with inflation, growth, unemployment and the ‘twin deficits’. Within this evaluation the social impact of Reaganomics is highlighted as a counterpoint to the claimed economic successes of the Reagan years.     

Industry policy in Australia: debate and practice

This article analyses the debate over industry policy in Australia since the election of the Hawke Labor government in 1983. The social contract ‘Accord’ between that government and the union movement has been used by the latter to advance its own vision of industry policy. In contrast to most other parties associated with the formulation and implementation of industry policy, the unions have promoted interventionist mechanisms to lift output and investment. Much of the intellectual rationale, and some of the actual policy initiatives, are drawn from overseas, but the more singular union achievement has been the political strategy developed to convert ideas into innovative policy.     

SOME NEW EVIDENCE ON COMPETITION IN PAYDAY LENDING MARKETS

A critical question in the policy debate about payday lending is whether other financial institutions can plausibly provide attractive and lower‐priced substitutes for standard payday loans. I present several new pieces of evidence addressing the question, focusing on whether credit unions, which are often held as the strongest potential competitors to payday lenders, do (or might) viably compete in the payday loan market. National payday loan offerings by credit unions show that very few credit unions currently offer payday loans. Credit union industry reports suggest that those credit unions offering such loans seem unwilling or unable to undercut substantially the prevailing prices set by payday lenders. Those industry reports also reveal that lower‐priced credit union loans generally ration riskier borrowers out of the market by imposing greater restrictions on approval and repayment; risk‐adjusted prices for credit union payday loans may not be lower at all. Survey evidence suggests that most current payday borrowers prefer higher‐priced but less restrictive standard payday loans to lower‐priced but more restrictive alternatives offered by credit unions. The combined demand‐ and supply‐side evidence suggests that one should not expect credit unions (or by extension banks) to offer lower‐priced, higher‐quality alternatives for consumers who currently use payday loans. (JEL G2, L0, L5)     

A note concerning the proposed emasculation of the legal services corporation

In its frenzy to dismantle the New Deal and Great Society programs of past progressive administrations, the Reagan administration has taken a special interest in the emasculation of the Legal Services Corporation. This should come as no great surprise.Then Governor Reagan and thethen Legal Services Program became immediate adversaries at the time of the program's inception. The purpose in this paper is to examine the pending emasculation of this instrumentality of legal reform in the context of structural changes elsewhere in the American legal profession.     

The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister,Volume One,Minister of Housing 1964–66

While John R. Commons often referred to third sector organizations, such as associations, cooperatives, and trade unions, it is unclear how these organizations can be fitted into his transactional typology. This paper clarifies this problem by identifying two dimensions of bargaining, managerial, and rationing transactions: 1) the extent of legal equality of transactional participants, and 2) the extent of commonness of these participants' transactional interests. These dimensions enable defining the identity of the third sector in terms of a distinct variety of rationing transactions combining legal equality of transactional participants with significant commonness of their interests. The paper further explores several implications of this argument for new institutional economics, concerning the citizenship aspect of markets and hierarchies and the possibility of viewing third sector organizations as hybrids between markets and hierarchies. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for further research.     

Strategic Delegation of Multiple Tasks

This paper studies both the owner–manager relationship and the union–firm relationship in a model of unionised duopoly to analyse whether a firm's owner delegates the task of wage bargaining to a manager along with the task of output determination. We also analyse the profit and welfare effects of multiple‐task delegation. It has been shown in the literature that, when there is only one delegation task – output determination – delegation of output decisions to managers leads to lower profits for owners than non‐delegation as pure profit‐maximisation. However, when there are two delegation tasks as in our model – output determination and wage bargaining – we show that owners are better off delegating both tasks than delegating only the output decision or not delegating at all. This result provides a rationale and managerial insight for strategically delegating multiple tasks to managers. Moreover, we show that union utility, consumer surplus and social welfare are all higher when owners do not delegate the task of wage bargaining than when they do. This result suggests that governments implement union contracts that require owners, rather than managers, to negotiate wages with unions in order to benefit unions and consumers and to improve social welfare as well.     

Assessing inflation expectations anchoring for heterogeneous agents: analysts,businesses and trade unions

Forecasts of agents who are actively involved in the setting of prices and wages are less readily available than those of professional analysts but may be more relevant for understanding inflation dynamics. Here we compare inflation expectations anchoring between analysts, businesses and trade unions for one country for which comparable forecasts are available for almost two decades: South Africa. Forecasts are modelled as monotonically diverging from an estimated long-run anchor point, or ‘implicit anchor’, towards actual inflation as the forecast horizon shortens. We find that the estimated inflation anchors of analysts lie within the 3–6 percent inflation target range of the central bank. However, those for businesses and trade unions, which our evidence suggests may be the most relevant for driving the inflation process, have remained above the top end of the official target range. Our results point to challenges for central banks seeking to gain credibility with agents whose decisions directly influence inflation.     

Currency unions and Irish external trade

Ireland has participated in two currency unions–a bilateral union with the UK that lasted until 1979 and as a founder member of European Monetary Union (EMU) that began in 1999. This article investigates whether currency unions have influenced Irish trade patterns.     

Urban Planning,Smart Growth,and Economic Calculation: An Austrian Critique and Extension

This paper takes a critical look at the Smart Growth movement and its reliance on traditional central planning to achieve its goals. Using statewide planning in Oregon, Florida, and Washington State as examples, the paper examines the planning focus of recent efforts to manage growth through land-use planning at the state level. It then applies the Austrian critique of economic planning to the contemporary Smart Growth movement in the United States as it is reflected in statewide planning laws. The calculation debate focused primarily on the technical question of whether bureaucratic planning could, in fact, achieve market outcomes. In the current debate over Smart Growth, planning combines political and bureaucratic decisionmaking. The political context in which planning decisions are made fundamentally alters the decision making process, shifting the emphasis to articulate knowledge as the foundation for policymaking. To be relevant in the current debate over planning, the calculation debate needs to be extended to include a political dimension to its critique of planning.     

'Independence' and the founding of the Federal Reserve

The Federal Reserve is ‘independent’, but contrary to opinions often expressed, it was not intended by its creators to be free from political control, although others involved in the debate over its establishment hoped that it would be. ‘Independence’ was independence from banking interests, not government. A gradual development of independence preceded a much greater acquisition of power during the Reagan Presidency. The lessons of history include the fact that with few changes in the Federal Reserve Act, its position in the American government has been dramatically transformed. Consequently, contrary to common practice in the economics literature, the ‘independence’ (from government) of a central bank evidently cannot be measured by tabulating characteristics of its statutes.     

NEW ZEALAND CREDIT UNION MERGERS

ABSTRACT ** : Research into the benefits of mergers in small financial institutions, in particular credit unions, is sparse. This study helps to fill this gap by analyzing recent intense merger activity in New Zealand credit unions. The major driver for these mergers was not the usual reason of attempting to increase efficiency for competitive purposes but rather enforced government action. Data envelopment analysis is used to explore changes in efficiency in merged credit unions between 1996 and 2001. Those credit unions not involved in merger activity are used as a control group. Overall, credit unions have become more efficient over the period, notably in those that undertook mergers. The Malmquist index indicates significant technological progress over the period but a slight regression in terms of efficiency.     

Public Sector Banks in India: Rationale and Prerequisites for reform

This paper contributes to the debate on public sector banks by suggesting several rationales for government ownership of banks in India. The paper then proceeds to argue that due to high economic costs, the current public sector banking system is unsustainable. Although a policy of wider private ownership was introduced in the 1990s, it is suggested that there are several prerequisites to be met before such a reform can be more fully implemented. It is argued that these prerequisites arise from the rationales for government ownership, and they include a credible bank regulatory regime, and government promotion of co‐operative banks and credit unions.     

Profit Expectations and Confidence: Some unresolved issues in the Austrian/Post-Keynesian debate

Austrian and Post-Keynesian economists both continue to make important contributions to subjectivism in economics. Yet, as the ongoing debate between members of the two schools demonstrates, Austrians and Post-Keynesians have very different views about the possibility of intertemporal coordination in a market economy. This paper returns to the debate between Hayek and Keynes in order to respond to a contemporary Austrian critique of Keynes's theory of expectations. The paper shows that the fundamental difference between the two schools ultimately boils down to the nature of conventional expectations and the question of confidence. If the conventional expectation holds to assume the future will look enough like the present to give investors confidence in their decisions, Hayek's arguments about the possibility of intertemporal coordination merit attention. If, however, this convention does not hold, as Keynes thought was sometimes likely, the self-regulating potential of a market economy is called into question.     

Fertility pattern of Muslim Hausa women in northern Nigeria

This paper reports the results of a fertility survey conducted in 1980 in Malumfashi town in northern Nigeria. The study covered 302 Hausa-speaking households in 2 wards. Of the 302 married males surveyed, 168 were monogamous, 92 had 2 wives, 30 had 3 wives, and 12 and 4 wives (the maximum allowable). All 168 monogramous marriages were not monogamous at the start. The average duration of present marriage among respondents was 14.1 years for monogamous unions and 11.0 years for polygymous unions. The average number of children ever born to women over 45 years of age was 6.3 (6.7 in monogamous unions and 6.0 in polygamous unions). The average family size for all marriages was 3.6, but this value was 4.6 in monogamous unions and 3.4 in polygamous unions (age standardized values were 4.5 and 3.4, respectively). There were 80 live births in the survey sample during the 12 months preceding the study, with a mean age at childbirth of 28.7 years. The crude birth rate for the surveyed population was 48.06/1000 (46/1000 for monogamous families and 43/1000 for polygamous families). The infant mortality rate was 137.5/1000 live births. About 11% of women in the sample were sterile. The fertility rate observed in this study is lower than that in Nigeria as a whole, perhaps because of the prevalence of polygamous unions in this region. These results support the observation that women in polygamous unions have lower fertility than those in monogamous unions.