Intergenerational equity and the social discount rate

Recent modelling of the costs and benefits of climate change has renewed debate regarding assumptions for the social discount rate in analysing the impacts of environmental change. Previous literature suggests two key factors influence estimates of the social discount rate: the rate of pure time preference and the elasticity of marginal utility of future consumption. These components of the social discount rate reinforce the linkages between the choice of social discount rate and intergenerational distribution. This paper addresses the question of the relationship between intergenerational equity and the social discount rate and promotes the application of intergenerational distributional weights as a means of incorporating intergenerational equity preferences in policy analysis. Intergenerational equity‐adjusted social discount rates are derived as a means of decomposing the intergenerational equity aspect of the social discount rate. The work has significant policy implications for projects with long time frames given the sensitivity of Cost Benefit Analysis outcomes to decisions regarding the social discount rate.     

From voice to choice: lessons from a regional capacity development initiative to strengthen social and gender analysis in participatory natural resource management research

Doing practical biodiversity and natural resources management research that is socially and gender sensitive remains a challenge. Most of the relevant literature is primarily at the conceptual level. There are few learning programmes that focus on systematic capacity development for gender and social analysis in applied research in this field. Efforts that systematically document and analyse this kind of capacity development process are also hard to find. This paper summarizes the main research and capacity development achievements and challenges of a novel, Asian-regional initiative that aimed to address these gaps. It is suggested that the success of capacity-building strategies for the integration of social and gender analysis can be enhanced by combining a mix of elements, including a ‘learning by doing’ approach, participatory (action) research methodologies, a diverse group of participants, regular peer review, flexible networking and strong personal and organizational commitment. These kinds of strategies will require a long(er) time horizon and sufficient resources.     

Focal area approach: a participatory community planning approach to agricultural extension and market development in Kenya

The focal area approach has been developed and applied by the public agricultural extension service in Kenya to harness the comparative advantages of various players for the overall development of rural areas. Participatory processes have been institutionalized in public extension and have brought new meaning to both extension and understanding rural development. The interactive engagement of smallholder farmers by public extension and the conducive environment created by the approach for other service providers to interact with communities has brought many advantages. The participation of women and youth, the poor and vulnerable groups in generating information and solutions to address food security and other rural needs has been impressive. The knowledge gained from the interaction has contributed in influencing policy change and research priorities. Smallholder farmers have formed common interest groups, which has enabled them to move from subsistence to business farming associated with increased knowledge, increased productivity and increased demand for produce. The approach has enabled extension service providers to reach more farmers per year than they did previously. The partnerships created between public extension with other institutions contributed to enhancement of knowledge and skills that has enabled the approach to spread to more areas in the country. Further capacity development among the extension providers and formulation of supportive policies that encourage demand-driven extension will lead to further improvement of the approach and scaling up.     

Women groups formed in response to public video screenings on rice processing in Benin

When the Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice)¹ introduced improved parboiling technology in Benin in 2006 through farmer-to-farmer video, it enhanced women's creativity and motivation to parboil more and better the quality of rice. Their rice attracted more buyers and fetched a higher price which increased their profits and strengthened the women's social cohesion. The video motivated women to start parboiling as a group and to express group-based requests for credit and training. However, newly established women's groups in villages with strong negative experiences from the cotton sector did not last because of fear and mistrust. The video helped local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to improve their training methods and strengthened their relations with rural communities and between the women rice processors and input and output markets. Although these NGOs responded by facilitating access to micro-finance institutions, they were unwilling to provide credit to the groups because of past bad experiences. Instead, informal credit suppliers proved more responsive. Rice producers who attended the open-air video shows at the same time as the women rice processors became more willing to sell them rice on credit. We discuss the conditions and challenges of farmer-to-farmer video in creating organizational and institutional changes among service providers and rural entrepreneurs.     

”枷锁“还是“激励”？社会保险与创业

基于最新发布的中国家庭追踪调查数据（2016CFPS）,运用Logit 模型分析了社会保险对创业的影响。研究发现,不同社会保险项目对居民创业存在显著差异,养老保险对创业具有显著的“枷锁效应”,医疗保险则具有显著的“激励效应”。通过运用工具变量法和倾向得分匹配法控制了样本选择性偏误和内生性后,依然支持研究结果。机制分析表明医疗保险通过缓解医疗费用支出来促进创业,养老保险则是通过降低金融风险投资概率对创业产生负向影响。文章进一步指出,医疗保险对创业的“激励效应”主要在40 岁以下的农村居民;养老保险的“枷锁效应” 则主要在40 以下的城镇居民。     

International dimensions of management: The trans-national efficacy of a venture development model

Entrepreneurship is commonly held to be a vital force in the US and other economies. Yet, little is known regarding the efficacy of entrepreneurial efforts developed in one country but attempted elsewhere. In response to calls for testable theoretical models, scholars have begun to investigate empirically the attendant phenomena associated with the venture development process. This article describes efforts to test in another nation a nine-stage entrepreneurial process model of venture development derived and validated in the USA. While some development stages appear to exist similarly across borders, others may not be present. Further, the sequence of stages in the US-derived model may differ when compared internationally.     

For the greater good: business networks and business social responsibility to communities

Business networks (co-operative arrangements between independent business organizations) may be the signature organizational form of the contemporary global economy. Many policy-makers and local leaders advocate business network membership as an alternative development strategy for regional economic vitality. The extant literature on business networks has focused on their association with business success. However, little is known about their impact on other aspects of community life. The purpose of this paper is to elaborate the role of network membership on one non-economic dimension of the business community interface. We examined the relationship between business network membership and business social responsibility to communities, defined as the provision of leadership and support for community betterment projects. Data were gathered from telephone interviews with a random sample of 460 non-metro small business operators in the USA. Independent t-tests and ordinary least squares regression analyses controlling for theoretically important variables were conducted. Findings show that networked businesses provide more leadership and support for their communities than non-networked businesses. However, networked businesses were no more likely than non-networked businesses to use local suppliers of goods and services.     

Encouraging employees to co-operate: the effects of sponsored training and promotion practices on employees' willingness to work overtime

The ‘mutual-investment’ model argues that when employers invest more in the social exchange relationship between them and their employees, their employees will show more effort. In this paper we relate the ‘mutual-investment’ model to training and promotion (possibilities) and examine if these kinds of career-enhancing measures influence the willingness of employees within organizations to work overtime. To test this hypothesis, a vignette experiment was conducted in five organizations (N = 388; 1,531 vignettes). Multilevel analyses show that employees are more willing to work overtime when their employer has provided for training, when the employee recently was promoted, when the supervisor was supportive in the past and when co-workers approve of working overtime and behave similarly. But we did not find that future promotion chances affect willingness to work overtime.     

Gender,family ties,and international mobility: Cultural distance matters

This study empirically tests a model of associations between family-domain variables and willingness to accept an international assignment, and applies the general model to sub-samples of men and women to examine gender differences in the pattern of relationships. We further explore these patterns in culturally similar and culturally distant country destinations. Analyses conducted with a sample of 148 men and 79 women employed MBA graduates from dual-earner couples revealed that perceived spouse willingness to relocate, beliefs regarding spouse and couple mobility, relative income, and the presence of children are associated with willingness to accept an international assignment. Moreover, consistent with social role theory, significant gender differences in willingness were found across low and high cultural distance country destinations.     

Pyrrhic victories – anticipating the closedown effect

Previous studies with empirical evidence on social responsible driven closedowns have identified a productivity increase effect that occurs during the process of organizational closedowns, known as the closedown effect. Our proposition is that this effect can be anticipated as a consequence of a closedown decision. Encountering four different non social responsible closedown cases, of various durations, we statistically test this proposition. Further, we identify a need for an analytical distinction of the phases of the closedown process, in terms of the primary ‘advanced notice period’ and the secondary ‘countdown period’. Based on the analysis, and with this distinction, we are able to conclude that the productivity increase effect can be anticipated during the countdown period. The comparably longer time frame in the Studding case provides the strongest support for our proposition. From the analysis we suggest hypotheses for further research.