Micro-Entrepreneurship in Niger: Factors Affecting the Success of Women Street Food Vendors

Micro-entrepreneurship in the informal sector plays a vital role in generating employment and income in West Africa. In this article, the authors examine business success factors for micro-entrepreneurs involved in the production and sale of street foods in Niger, drawing on the resource-based view theory. Business success was measured by size of firm and vendor's perception of enterprise growth. Their results indicate that business experience is an important success factor, while the need for cash is a constraint for business success. A rare resource, limited access to financial assets translates into limited opportunities for growth of these informal micro-enterprises into viable businesses.     

Costs associated with non-medical switching from originator to biosimilar etanercept in patients with rheumatoid arthritis in the UK

Abstract

Aims: To estimate the cost impact of non-medical switching from originator to biosimilar etanercept in stable patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in the UK.

Materials and methods: A cohort-based decision tree model was developed with a 1-year time horizon. The model population included patients with stable RA (patients who responded to originator etanercept treatment with no treatment changes in the previous 6?months). Patients could undergo a non-medical switch to a biosimilar and then switch treatment again, if medically required, after 3–6?months. Data on the proportion of patients switching therapies, baseline healthcare resource use, and impact of switching on resource use were sourced from a survey of 150 rheumatologists from EU5 markets (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK). The average impact of switching was evaluated as mean values for change in resource utilization due to switching. Also, low- and high-impact scenarios (lower and upper values of the 95% confidence intervals for change in resource utilization due to switching) were modelled as sensitivity analyses. Cost data came from published UK sources.

Results: The model assumed that 5,000 patients were treated with originator etanercept, with 1,259 (25.2%) switching to a biosimilar. Of those, 875 (69.5%) and 384 (30.5%) switched to SB4 and GP2015, respectively. After 3?months, 26.3% of patients who switched treatments did so again: 8.3% back to originator, 3.8% to the other biosimilar, and 14.2% to another biologic. Although originator etanercept was more expensive than the biosimilars, switching was more costly than continuous originator treatment across all impact scenarios. Switching treatment chains had higher overall annual per-patient costs than continuous originator treatment. Switching was associated with increased healthcare resource use.

Limitations: Results from this analysis are not transferable to other (non-RA) etanercept indications.

Conclusion: Non-medical switching can result in increased payer costs because of increased healthcare resource use following switching.     

Border effects in the enlarged EU area: evidence from imports to accession countries

By looking at imports of Eastern European countries, we provide novel insights on the importance and magnitude of border effects and on how they are linked with technical barriers to trade. All Central Eastern European Countries (CEECs) traded with themselves more than with other countries. We grouped products into three categories; depending on the importance of applicaple technical barriers. Our results show border effects are the largest for products, where we expect to have the most important technical barriers. We assess if border effects changed over the transition period and we find that for products where technical barriers are less important the magnitude of border effects was declining at the end of the 90s.     

Preference Erosion and Multilateral Trade Liberalization

Because of concern that tariff reductions in Organisation forEconomic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries willtranslate into worsening export performance for the least developedcountries, the erosion of trade preferences may become a stumblingblock for multilateral trade liberalization. An econometricanalysis of actual preference use shows that preferences areunderused because of administrative burdens—estimatedto be equivalent to an average of 4 percent of the value ofgoods traded. To quantify the maximum scope for preference erosion,the compliance cost estimates are used in a model-based assessmentof the impact of full elimination of OECD tariffs. Taking intoaccount administrative costs eliminates erosion costs in theaggregate and greatly reduces the losses for countries mostaffected by preference erosion.     

Import prices,income, and inequality

We compare three theoretical explanations for the positive empirical relationship between importer income per capita and traded goods prices. A first explanation is that consumers with higher incomes demand higher quality goods with higher prices. A second explanation is that wealthier people exhibit an increased willingness to pay for necessary goods as more goods enter the consumption set in a hierarchic demand system, and can thus be charged higher markups. A third explanation is that consumers with higher incomes are more finicky regarding their preferred variety in an ideal variety framework and can thus be charged higher markups. We discriminate between these three theories by focusing on the effect of income inequality on trade prices. Based on a large dataset with bilateral HS6 level data on 1260 final goods categories from more than 100 countries between 2000 and 2004, we find a highly significant negative effect of income inequality on unit values. This contradicts both the demand for quality and finickyness theories, while providing support for the increased willingness to pay theory linked to hierarchic demand. These findings on income inequality do not falsify the quality expansion model and the ideal variety model per se. However, the results do argue for place of importance of hierarchic demand.     

Do family resources matter? Educational attainment during transition in Poland*

We analyse the relationship between family background and children's educational attainment in the 1990s in Poland. If parental poverty affects children's educational prospects, the increase in social inequalities observed in the Polish transition process will be transmitted between generations. We apply an ordered probit model of educational attainment on longitudinal data from the Polish Labour Force Survey. Surprisingly, parents’ income and their labour market status have only a weak impact on children's education. Parents’ schooling, however, is strongly related to children's, and so are household structure, city size, and region of residence. We conclude that, if transmission of inequality takes place between generations, this seems to be primarily caused by the inheritance of human capital rather than by pure wealth effects.     

Beyond the boundaries of AsiaPacific area studies

The peculiarly American study of the ‘non-Western’ world—going under the rubric of interdisciplinary ‘area studies’—is in crisis. Its origins date back to the postwar and Cold War period and may be best understood as a political and policy-driven scholarly endeavor that flourished in the 1960s, 1970s and well into the 1980s. There have been many critiques from both within and outside the field. This article discusses the impacts of major globalizing trends on the field as well as new directions for the future. It focuses on the ‘Moving Cultures’ project of the School of Hawaiian, Asian and Pacific Studies at the University of Hawai'i¹ that was part of a larger Ford Foundation's initiative to revitalize area studies. This ongoing project utilizes computer-based and other interactive technologies to link students and classrooms across the Pacific divide as part of a pedagogy intending to decolonize area studies. The promises and perils of technology as a beacon for the future of area studies is critically assessed.     

The influence of political skill on the acceptance of foreign nationals at the home country organization: an examination of cultural stigmatization

The purpose of this article is to examine the impact of the four dimensions of political skill (i.e. social astuteness, interpersonal influence, networking ability and apparent sincerity) on the relationship between the cultural stigmatization of a foreign national and their level of acceptance by headquarter personnel as measured by the frequency of interaction. Grounded in self-congruity theory, we examine the dynamics involved in overcoming various stigmatizing marks of foreign nationals as they interact in a home country organization environment. Implications for practitioners are consequently discussed.