Using participatory rural appraisal and participatory research and extension in a post-independence environment: a case from East Timor

A participatory rural appraisal (PRA) conducted in East Timor in 2004 as part of an agricultural development project provided the basis for a number of community-based participatory extension initiatives. The PRA involved several communities throughout a watershed and also served as a training exercise for local agriculture ministry staff. Despite the poverty of many of the communities involved, and in contrast to published literature on the local agricultural situation, farmers clearly expressed their need for more marketable crops and alternative sources of livelihoods. Their desires contrasted with the project's initial assumption that the major need was for increased production of staple crops to alleviate food scarcity. The project consequently branched out from concentrating on basic agronomy of staple crops into developing marketable crops, improving livestock production and facilitating development of a local business. Farmers' groups were set up to allow farmers to develop their own agricultural enterprises. Some ministry staff who participated in the project welcomed the opportunity to move from the traditional authoritarian extension system set up under Indonesian colonial rule to a more collegial and educational system. The breakdown of institutions and lines of authority following independence may create new opportunities for participatory development in newly independent states.     

Labor skills and factor proportions trade in the gulf cooperation council

A new measure of factor intensity and abundance from trade theory is utilized to predict potential trade and income redistribution between traditional and modern economies in the Gulf Cooperation Council. Differences in labor skill intensity and abundance suggest there will be substantial trade between the modern (Bahrain, Qatar, UAE) and traditional (Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia) economies in the GCC. Due to the limited data, the UAE and Kuwait are taken to represent the modern and traditional economies.     

Kolonialfrage und Neuordnung der Weltwirtschaft

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

The domino effect of credit defaults: test of asymmetric default correlations using realised default data

Using the research framework of a domino effect in firms, we first make theoretical contributions by addressing several testable hypotheses regarding asymmetrical default correlations. We then employ Lucas’s method to provide empirical evidence based on realised historical default data in the United States from 1992 to 2013. Our empirical results are consistent with the following notions. First, default correlations increase with the time horizon. Second, firms with low credit quality, small size, illiquidity, and a high beta exhibit higher default correlations. Credit risk management without considering asymmetrical default correlations could underestimate portfolio risk due to default clustering.     

Of warnings and waiting: an examination of the path of information for two communities hit by Typhoon Haiyan

Abstract

Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines in 2013, causing billions in damage, and taking thousands of lives. Media and researchers claimed that people did not have enough information about the storm, or did not understand the information given to them, and therefore did not evacuate. This research departs from the assumption of a knowledge deficit: it asks how people understood warnings and how information flowed from the government. This research focuses on Guiuan, a municipality that sustained heavy damage and loss of life, and the entry point of many typhoons in the Philippines. Guided by Stuart Hall’s Encoding-Decoding Theory, the researcher carried out focus group discussions with citizens and interviews with local government officials from one coastal and one inland village. Through systematic qualitative analysis of interviews and discussions, the researcher found that participants from different locations in the same municipality understood warning information differently, based on unique epistemological frames. While local government framed people as deficient in knowledge, the citizens actually called upon their previous experiences with storms in order to make evacuation decisions. However, they could not project worse scenarios from previous experience and needed a phenomenon to match an experience in real time before making an evacuation decision. These findings imply that disaster imagination, disaster memory, and disaster knowledge are all distinct concepts, and future research should examine how specific contexts frame risk. Early warning systems for storms must also take into account unique epistemological frames as a means to localize communication and engage communities in the decision-making process.     

Industrial salespeople's views on motivation

Much has been written on the subject of motivation but, until now, no one has conducted a survey of industrial salespeople to ask them what motivates them. This article reports the results of such a survey and offers recommendations.     

The Impact of the Crisis on Internal Population Movement in Indonesia

One of the ways in which Indonesians have adapted to economic change over recent decades is through permanent and temporary movement within and outside the country. This paper focuses on the effects which the crisis that started in 1997 has had upon population mobility among different groups and in different areas within the country. It begins by summarising the employment effects of the crisis, as indicated by the 1997 and 1998 National Labour Force Surveys. It then uses results from a number of surveys to identify the changes that have occurred in population mobility in Indonesia during the crisis. In particular it looks at the extent and nature of urban to rural movement, and at patterns of movement between Java and the Outer Islands. Although comprehensive data are lacking, it is argued that population mobility has become an important coping mechanism for confronting the crisis.