Access to credit and informality among micro and small enterprises in Ethiopia

This paper examines the determinants of Micro and Small and Enterprises (MSEs) access to credit in Ethiopia using detailed firm‐level data collected in 2003. Its basic purpose is to identify the various attributes of a firm that determine its access to credit with an emphasis on the role of firm formality. We find that informal firms are more credit constrained compared to formal firms. A firm’s location, membership of a business association and maintaining an accounting record are found to be important determinants of access to credit. Further, we find firms whose owners have vocational training are more credit constrained than those who are not, as are firms that are exclusively male owned. There is no systematic relation between access to credit and a firm’s age, size and the sector in which it operates. The paper concludes with possible policy interventions designed to improve access to credit for MSEs in Ethiopia.     

俄罗斯环贝加尔湖滑雪旅游区竞争力评价研究

俄罗斯是冰雪运动大国,滑雪旅游活动在俄罗斯拥有悠久的历史。俄罗斯的环贝加尔湖地域区位优势明显,自然资源丰富多样,地貌类型独特,滑雪旅游已经成为该区域冬季最具吸引力的旅游项目。本文以俄罗斯环贝加尔湖五大滑雪旅游区为研究对象,建立冰雪旅游区综合竞争力评价指标体系及定量评估模型,科学评估环贝加尔湖冰雪旅游区综合竞争力水平。研究发现：（1）索博利纳亚（Соболиная）滑雪旅游区的竞争力优良,比奇亚（Бычья）和伊斯特兰（Истлэнд）滑雪旅游区竞争力中等,达万（Даван）和马迈（Мамай）滑雪旅游区竞争力薄弱,区域自然资源和基础设施建设是影响综合竞争力评价水平的关键要素;（2）根据评估结果提出以索博利纳亚滑雪旅游区为核心,打造国际绿色、低碳冰雪旅游示范区及中蒙俄经济走廊国际冰雪旅游特区等发展对策。研究结论可为环贝加尔湖冰雪旅游产业综合竞争力提升和区域冰雪旅游高质量发展提供决策依据,为中国冰雪旅游发展模式完善和中俄冰雪旅游产业跨境国际合作提供借鉴参考和科技支撑。     

The effect of job resourcefulness on role stress,emotional exhaustion and overall performance: A study of frontline bank employees

This article develops and tests a conceptual model that examines the effects of co-worker support and job resourcefulness on role stress, emotional exhaustion and job performance. The data obtained from frontline bank employees with a time lag of two weeks in Northern Cyprus were used to test these relationships. The results of structural equation modelling suggest that the partially mediated model seems to have a better fit than the fully mediated model. The results further suggest that job resourcefulness partially mediates the effect of co-worker support on role ambiguity and emotional exhaustion. However, there is no empirical support for job resourcefulness as a mediator of the impact of co-worker support on role conflict and job performance. The implications of the results are discussed and their future research directions are offered.     

中国滑雪旅游网络关注度评估及后疫情时期复苏对策——以四大滑雪区域为例

2022年冬奥会的成功申办,以及推进三亿人参与冰雪运动系列政策的相继出台,中国冰雪旅游迎来快速发展的时代契机,冰雪运动在全国广泛普及,冰雪旅游大众关注度迅速提升。本文以中国四大滑雪场集聚区为研究对象,基于新浪微博2015—2021年滑雪旅游网络数据,构建滑雪旅游网络关注度评估系统,定量评估疫情前后中国滑雪旅游网络关注度的时空演变特征。研究发现：（1）全国滑雪旅游网络关注度自2017年迅速提升、季节性特征明显、崇礼-北京领先全国,关注度空间结构由“局部多中心”转变为“组团式”集群化发展,高关注度滑雪场在崇礼-北京与吉林聚集;（2）疫情前后中国滑雪旅游网络关注度表现出滑雪旺季时长缩短、关注度迅速下降、新疆和吉林复苏显著、滑雪大区率先关注等特点;（3）后疫情时期叠加冬奥效应将成为影响滑雪旅游关注度复苏的热点事件,崇礼-北京、东北、西北将成为滑雪旅游率先复苏的热点区域,短期接待服务将成为助力产业复苏的投资热点,提供针对性的配套服务将成为滑雪场服务水平优化提升的热点方向;（4）提出开创全国冰雪旅游大发展新局面,构建以崇礼-北京为中心、以东北和西北为两翼的中国滑雪旅游“雁阵”发展格局,优先推出新疆、河北、黑龙江的定向政策,增强滑雪旅游短期接待能力,提供针对性配套服务等复苏对策。研究结论将为后疫情时期,促进滑雪旅游快速复苏提供科技支撑及决策依据,并为中国冰雪产业的绿色可持续发展,提供借鉴参考。     

As the market churns: productivity and firm exit in developing countries

This paper uses a unique dataset from the World Bank’s Enterprise Surveys in 47 economies to analyze the conditions under which firms leave heterogeneous markets. Consistent with expectations, we show that firm productivity (and age) are significant determinants of firm exit. Cross-country analysis shows, however, that the relationship between productivity as well as age and exit is mitigated by some country-level factors. In particular, we show either’s effect is substantially weakened in low-income economies, economies with limited openness to international trade, and in economies with cumbersome bankruptcy procedures. To address issues of sample attrition and selection bias presented by survey-based estimates, corrections are applied using information when a firm’s operating status is uncertain. The expected negative relationship between firm labor productivity and the likelihood of exit is robust to these corrections, as is the negative relationship between firm exit and age.     

The Psychology of Impulse Buying: An Integrative Self-Regulation Approach

Impulsive buying grossly violates the assumptions of homo economicus. A variety of perspectives on impulse buying are presented, which have been put forward in consumer, economic, social, and clinical psychology. These include heuristic information processing, time-inconsistent preferences, personality traits and values, self-identity, emotions, conscious self-control, and compulsive buying. These perspectives may sometimes lead to contradictory or paradoxical findings. For instance, impulse buying is often associated with joy and pleasure but has also been found related to negative emotions and low self-esteem. Our argument is that impulsive buying can be understood in terms of psychological functioning, in particular as a form of self-regulation. Regulatory focus theory is then used to bring the various perspectives together by classifying each as a promotion focus strategy (e.g., seeking pleasure) or a prevention focus strategy (e.g., avoiding feelings of low self-esteem). Finally, the question is discussed whether consumers can and should be protected against impulsivity. Our assertion is that regulation against misleading practices that play on the vulnerabilities of impulsive buyers could be sharpened and that information provision to consumers and retailers aimed at strengthening consumers’ self-regulatory capacities may mitigate adverse consequences of impulse buying.     

Merchants of knowledge: Petty retail and differentiation without consolidation among farmers in Maharashtra,India

This article focuses on the intermediary figure of the village‐level petty retailer of chemical inputs, providing an account of the everyday relationships of farmers with transnational and domestic agribusiness capital. Retailers are figures from whom farmers purchase seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and other chemicals. The article traces the rise of village‐level retailers in western Maharashtra, India, since the 1990s, and finds that Maratha (a dominant landholding cultivator caste) households have ventured into retailing. Further, farmers depend on retailers for credit, technical knowledge, and for the sale of their harvest. By analysing the pressures and risks of petty retail, visible in interactions with farmers, the article argues that even as retailing provides avenues for upward mobility to petty agricultural commodity producers, the trade is too volatile for the gains to sustain. Thus, the entry of Marathas into petty retail is akin to an attempt at class differentiation but without consolidation.