Determinants of efficiency of vegetable production in smallholder farms: The case of Ethiopia

Improving production efficiency remains as a plausible means of increasing productivity when resource reallocation, and the creation and adoption of new technologies are limited. Technical, allocative and economic efficiencies are derived from a sample of smallholder vegetable farmers in Ethiopia using parametric and non-parametric methods. The results reveal that the two methods yield similar estimates and the existence of substantial inefficiencies in production as well as efficiency differentials among farmers. The analysis of the determinants of efficiency of vegetable production using regression models show that low asset ownership, illiteracy, large family size, inadequate extension contacts, small farm size, age, low off/non-farm income and high consumer spending are the major socio-economic factors causing inefficiency of vegetable production in the study areas. A comparison of the market-driven (vegetables) with the whole-farm (crops and livestock) production efficiency indicates that lower economic efficiency scores for the former might be related to the limited access to capital markets, high consumer spending, and large family size.     

Understanding the town centre customer experience (TCCE)

This research enhances the understanding of consumer behaviour and customer experience in the context of town centres. First, it defines town centre customer experience (TCCE) as a multifaceted journey that combines interactions with a diverse range of public and private organisations, including retailers and social and community elements; this results in a unique experience co-created with the consumer across a series of functional and experiential touchpoints. Second, combining qualitative and quantitative insights, this research reveals a series of specific functional and experiential TCCE touchpoints, which underpin the consumer internal response (motivation to visit) and outward behaviour (desire to stay and revisit intentions) in the town centre. In addition to enhancing town centre and customer experience knowledge, these findings offer important new insights to those managing town centres and seeking to retain customer loyalty in the high street. Above all, these findings can help identify the touchpoints that need to be reinforced and/or improved to differentiate a town from its competing centres and to create tailored marketing strategies. Taken together, such initiatives have the potential to positively impact the revitalisation of the high street and the town centre economy.     

Malaysian Reverse Investments: Trends and Strategies

Available data indicate that Malaysian investments abroad (MIA) rose significantly in the 1990s. Singapore, Hong Kong and the U.S. are the major recipients of MIA. In order to understand why Malaysian companies invest abroad, as well as their business strategies, seven companies were interviewed. Finding new markets was cited as the main reason for locating overseas. Unlike most mature multinational corporations from developed countries, most MIA takes the form of standalone affiliates. Moreover, most respondents decentralize their decision making regarding the management of these subsidiaries. While Malaysian companies do plan to expand their overseas investments, they advise new entrants to form strategic alliances with other companies, be cautious, patient, and sensitive to the hosts' cultures in executing their ventures.     

Earnings Differentials Determinants Between Skills in the Malaysian Manufacturing Sector

The Malaysian manufacturing sector has been experiencing a gradual change in its production process as it shifts from labor-intensive to more capital-intensive techniques. This has led to a change in the skills required by the industries where skilled workers are in greater demand and where the wage ratio between skills favors the skilled workers. There are many factors that can influence an indi-vidual's earnings. These include educational attainment, job location, types of industries and sex. This paper attempts to measure the determinants of earnings differentials among skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers in the Malaysian manufacturing sector. The analysis is based on a survey of 2065 workers in six major industries conducted in 1999. These are the electrical and electronics, textile, wood-based, transport equipment, food and chemical industries. The determin-ants of earnings differentials are obtained by using the coefficients of the earnings functions. These factors are decomposed into several categories, namely human capital, individual characteristics and the residual. The results reveal that human capital variables, which comprise education, training and experience, play a significant role in determining the earnings differentials, particularly between skilled and semi-skilled workers and between semi-skilled and unskilled workers.     

Excess Capacity and Asymmetric Information in Developing Country Fisheries: The Malaysian Purse Seine Fishery

Excess capacity poses a problem in many developing country fisheries. These countries often pursue a development strategy aimed at expanding capacity under open access. Sustainable development, however, requires management. Principal-agent issues from asymmetric information between the regulator and fishers, which potentially form serious obstacles to fisheries management, arise in the likely forms of management. This article discusses principal-agent issues and examines the principal-agent moral hazard issue, which is due to divorce of ownership and vessel operations. The article also illustrates a method for estimating capacity when information is limited. The Peninsular Malaysian purse seine fishery forms a case study.     

Income Distribution in East Asian Developing Countries: recent trends

This paper updates estimates of the trends in income distribution in the eight countries of the developing East and Southeast Asian region. In the last update by Krongkaew (1994 ), inequality was found to be increasing in the newly industrialising economies of Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan, while in the ASEAN−4 (with the exception of Thailand) it was declining. Since then, the region has undergone the East Asian financial crisis of 1997–98. Recent data indicate that income distribution in Hong Kong and Taiwan continues to improve. Income inequality in South Korea declined until 1993 but began to increase slowly until the crisis sharply widened the disparity. The evidence for Singapore is mixed, with one set of estimates showing a dip in inequality while another indicates a widening of income disparity during the crisis. The crisis had the immediate impact of improving income distribution in all the ASEAN–4 countries, mainly because of reductions in the income shares of the top income groups. Later data show that inequality has since risen in all of them, except for Malaysia (for which no recent data are available).     

Small is beautiful,but growth is inevitable: experiences of apex institutions in Senegal and Tanzania

This article examines the experiences of two national apex institutions in two sub-Saharan African countries, Senegal and Tanzania, which channel funds to retail microfinance institutions (MFIs). These two national apexes are the Dyna-Enterprises Project and the Small Entrepreneurs Loan Facility (SELF) project, which are functioning in Senegal and Tanzania respectively. Both Dyna and SELF initially started as small-scale apex MFIs and had been conceived with the same vision in mind – facilitation of access to financial services for the poor. The initial implementation focused on provision of credit through MFIs as well as capacity building. The targeted groups of clients are similar, i.e. the disadvantaged, and mostly are women groups in urban or peri-urban areas carrying out general petty trade activities. Like many apex institutions in sub-Saharan Africa, both SELF and Dyna have stimulated demand for more financial support to the poor and have shown potential to be transformed into viable commercial MFIs. This entails expansion in terms of increased number of staff, branches, cost-effective microfinance services, the number and quality of financial products, capacity building, outreach and information services. The current vision of these national apex institutions is to transform into effective, transparent and efficient corporate entities for addressing poverty issues through harnessing and targeting funds to needy areas, while incorporating microfinance best practices.     

Income Inequality in Malaysia*

The objective of this paper is to examine the changes in Malaysian income distribution during the last three and a half decades and the reasons for the changes. It was found that the Gini ratio for Malaysia peaked in 1976 and fell thereafter to 1990. However, inequality seems to reverse its direction since then. Policies that could explain the changes in income distribution include the promotion of export‐oriented industrialization, education, and training, and the restructuring of equity ownership and assistance in asset accumulation. While the various other redistributive measures in the form of rural development helped in poverty eradication, their effectiveness in redistribution needs to be improved. Several hypotheses have been forwarded to explain the widening of income inequality after 1990. These include the difference in the growth rates of incomes of the rural and urban areas, trade and globalization, and impediments to the process of internal migration.