Growth constraints on small-scale manufacturing in developing countries: a critical review

The question raised in this review is whether small-scale producers in developing countries can expand or whether they are up against constraints which stunt their growth. Most of the literature has been optimistic on this score; while internal constraints (e.g. lack of managerial ability) or external constraints (e.g. discrimination from government) are identified, expansion is seen as an open-ended process. In other contributions this view has been severely criticized; some allege that the small producers are exploited through various mechanisms, others suggest that their road to expansion is blocked as a result of factors such as the pre-existence of very advanced technology, the control of large firms over product markets, or difficulties in access to raw materials. In discussing the arguments put forward in the debate, an attempt is made to assess their theoretical bases and examine the extent to which they are supported empirically. While most studies express explicitly or implicitly a definite view on the growth potential of small producers, such judgement is rarely based on a comprehensive examination of the context which determines this potential.     

The development of accounting machines in French banks from the 1920s to the 1960s

French banks faced severe organisational problems in the 1910s and 1920s when the scale of their operations grew dramatically as a result of the broadening of the customer base among personal investors and of the boom in discount activities, both of which required increased levels of bookkeeping. In the meanwhile, due to inflation and trade-union pressure, wages had increased. This led to French banks adopting a strategy of sharing information with German banks, which already seem to have developed the process of mechanising bookkeeping operations. Knowledge exchanges were set up with German (and Belgian) bankers so as to accelerate the transfer of organisation (re-engineering) skills and data-processing. Banks in the Alsace region were pioneers in this movement; but several big banks did not wait long before introducing a policy of investing in machines and new platforms for tackling dataprocessing. The 1920s and the 1930s thus represent a key stage in the transformation of French banks into actual service 'organisations'.     

Organizational Learning and New Product Introductions

Organizational learning widely is believed to be important to competitive performance of companies. The purpose of this article is to examine how organizations learn from their experiences in new product introductions. Theory suggests that organizations will display a “competency trap” that reduces their ability to learn from organizational experience. Often initial success can cause a firm to rely on a single or a few experiences to develop routines, discounting later experiences. Therefore it is expected that organizations will have trouble learning from experience. The theory was tested by examining all new product introductions in the U.S. shampoo industry from 1974–1987. The dynamic nature of the business—the average brand survives about two years—made this an attractive research venue. Using the econometric technique of survival time modeling, a model was fitted of survival of brands as a function of organizational experience and organizational experience squared. The model also included controls for financial resources available to the firm and the level of first year's advertising. The model confirmed the general hypothesis that firms' brands are less successful the more experience they have. This study interprets this as evidence of a competency trap in new product introductions. The results broadly are supportive of the hypothesis that organizations find it harder to learn from experience as experience grows. Untangling the source of this problem is a goal of further research. For practice, the article suggests caution to brand managers in experienced companies. There is no guarantee that firms grow in their ability to build brands; results here suggest the opposite. Formal reviews of the new product, its process, and its performance by senior managers for lessons learned is desirable. Management of individuals and organizations may facilitate learning from experience. For managing individuals, often product success brings about a reassignment of successful personnel; care should be taken to insure that individuals' learning is captured by the new product organization before reassignment. On the organizational level, formal brand management may be a highly effective method for managing an ongoing stable of long‐lived brands but may be a poor choice in a dynamic market like shampoo. Companies may explore new organizational structures and departments to conceive and to develop new products since the skills required for managing ongoing brands may be different from creating new ones.     

Franz Redl † (1921–1965)

Ohne Zusammenfassung

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Franz Redl (1921–1965)

     

农民工：未完成的无产阶级化

农民工是改革的产物,也是改革的创造者。30年改革尘埃未定,中国俨然已经成为“世界工厂”,农民工是这一历史过程的新兴主体,它承栽了中国走向全球化伴生的所有矛盾与苦难,也必然承担着书写中国社会转型历史的伟大使命。中国未来与这一多达两亿的打工阶级息息相关,农村问题、城市发展、城乡关系、改革走向,几乎一切有关中国现状和未来的重要探讨都离不开对这一新兴阶级的认识。在改革开放30年之际,为更全面、更深刻地思考农民工以及农民工所承载的历史,2009年1月11日至18日,中山大学华南农村研究中心与香港理工大学—北京大学中国社会工作研究中心联合主办了第一期“中国城乡协调发展研究高级讲习班”,此次主题为“农民工与农民工社区”。来自中山大学、香港理工大学、香港科技大学、香港中文大学、香港大学、北京大学、中国社会科学院、北京师范大学、云南大学、上海大学、西南大学、西北工业大学、中国青年政治学院、南京师范大学、江汉大学、汕头大学、澳大利亚国立大学、广东工业大学、加州大学伯克利分校、加州大学洛杉矾分校、香港“女工关怀”志愿者组织、云南连心社区照顾服务中心等单位的师生逾60人在中山大学华南农村研究中心就此主题展开热烈讨论。本刊作为此次讲习班的协办单位,将分两期刊发部分发言者的发言内容。以下文字根据录音整理,部分标题为编者另拟。     

The power of remittances on the international prevalence of child labor

This paper examines the relationship between remittance inflows and the prevalence of child labor. It investigates whether remittance inflows offset the effects of financial constraints and income shocks on the prevalence of child labor in receiving economies. Based on a sample of 82 developing countries and after factoring in the endogeneity of remittances, migration, and financial development, econometric results highlight that remittance inflows significantly reduce the prevalence of child labor in developing countries characterized by weak financial systems and high income growth volatility.     

Regional debt in monetary unions: Is it inflationary?

This paper studies the inflationary implications of interest bearing regional debt in a monetary union. Is this debt simply backed by future taxation with no inflationary consequences? Or will the circulation of region debt induce monetization by a central bank?We argue here that both outcomes can arise in equilibrium. In the model economy, there are multiple equilibria which reflect the perceptions of agents regarding the manner in which the debt obligations will be met. In one equilibrium, termed Ricardian, the future obligations are met with taxation by a regional government while in the other, termed Monetization, the central bank is induced to print money to finance the region's obligations. The multiplicity of equilibria reflects a commitment problem of the central bank. A key indicator of the selected equilibrium is the distribution of regional debt holdings. We show that regional governments, anticipating central bank financing of their debt obligations, have an incentive to create excessively large deficits. We use the model to assess the impact of some policy measures within a monetary union as well as dollarization.     

Is there a difference in performance by the legal status of microfinance institutions?

Based on some cases of notable successes in Latin America, some microfinance practitioners advocate a transformation of non-profit microfinance organizations into private and regulated companies. The performance of the latter is supposed to be higher than those of non-profit organizations. From this point of view, there is a relationship between the legal status of MFIs and their performance. This article's main objective is to test this relationship from the comparison of performance of 202 MFIs in the period from 2001 to 2006. Rather than restricting the comparison to NGOs and private companies, cooperatives have also been taken into account to compare the performance by the dominant legal forms of MFIs. The results show that the performance of private corporations is better than that of NGOs only when portfolio quality is used as an indicator for measuring performance. Also, our results show that for profit MFIs are more socially efficient than not-for-profit MFIs. The commercial approach of microfinance does not seem inconsistent with the social mission of MFIs.