Savings Groups Reduce Vulnerability, but Have Mixed Effects on Financial Inclusion

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Verónica Frisancho ◽  
Martín Valdivia
Keyword(s):  
Financial Inclusion ◽  
Access To Credit ◽  
Administrative Records ◽  
Labor Allocation ◽  
Percentage Point Increase ◽  
Cluster Randomized Control Trial ◽  
Point Increase ◽  
Idiosyncratic Shocks ◽  
Cluster Randomized ◽  
The Impact

This paper evaluates the impact of the introduction of savings groups on poverty, vulnerability, and financial inclusion outcomes in rural Peru. Using a cluster randomized control trial and relying on both survey and administrative records, we investigate the impact of savings groups after more than two years of exposure. We find t hat savings groups channel expensive investments such as housing improvements and reduce households' vulnerability to idiosyncratic shocks, particularly among households in poorer districts. The treatment also induces changes in households labor allocation choices: access to savings groups increases female labor market participation and, in poorer areas, it fosters greater specialization in agricultural activities. Access to savings groups also leads to a four-percentage point increase in access to credit among women, mainly driven by access to the groups loans. However, the introduction of savings groups has no impact on the likelihood of using formal financial services.On the contrary, it discourages access to loans from formal financial institutions and microfinance lenders among the unbanked.

The Effect of Taxation and Corruption on Firm Growth: An Empirical Investigation for Vietnam

2016 ◽  
pp. 5-29
Author(s):  
Bich Le Thi Ngoc
Keyword(s):  
International Development ◽  
Firm Growth ◽  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
Manufacturing Firms ◽  
Economic Management ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
Percentage Point Increase ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
Point Increase ◽  
The Impact

The aim of this study is to analyze empirically the impact of taxation and corruption on the growth of manufacturing firms in Vietnam. The study employed pooled OLS estimation and then instrument variables with fixed effect for the panel data of 1377 firms in Vietnam from 2005 to 2011. These data were obtained from the survey of the Central Institute for Economic Management and the Danish International Development Agency. The results show that both taxation and corruption are negatively associated with firm growth measured by firm sales adjusted according to the GDP deflator. A one-percentage point increase in the bribery rate is linked with a reduction of 16,883 percentage points in firm revenue, over four and a half times bigger than the effect of a one-percentage point increase in the tax rate. From the findings of this research, the author recommends the Vietnam government to lessen taxation on firms and that there should be an urgent revolution in anti-corruption policies as well as bureaucratic improvement in Vietnam.

scholarly journals Planning prompts to promote uptake of HIV services among men: a randomised trial in rural Uganda

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (11) ◽  
pp. e003390
Author(s):  
Nolan M Kavanagh ◽  
Elisabeth M Schaffer ◽  
Alex Ndyabakira ◽  
Kara Marson ◽  
Diane V Havlir ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hiv Testing ◽  
Community Health ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Health Campaign ◽  
Percentage Point Increase ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
Point Increase ◽  
Cost Planning ◽  
Testing Uptake ◽  
The Impact

IntroductionInterventions informed by behavioural economics, such as planning prompts, have the potential to increase HIV testing at minimal or no cost. Planning prompts have not been previously evaluated for HIV testing uptake. We conducted a randomised clinical trial to evaluate the effectiveness of low-cost planning prompts to promote HIV testing among men.MethodsWe randomised adult men in rural Ugandan parishes to receive a calendar planning prompt that gave them the opportunity to make a plan to get tested for HIV at health campaigns held in their communities. Participants received either a calendar showing the dates when the community health campaign would be held (control group) or a calendar showing the dates and prompting them to select a date and time when they planned to attend (planning prompt group). Participants were not required to select a date and time or to share their selection with study staff. The primary outcome was HIV testing uptake at the community health campaign.ResultsAmong 2362 participants, 1796 (76%) participants tested for HIV. Men who received a planning prompt were 2.2 percentage points more likely to test than the control group, although the difference was not statistically significant (77.1% vs 74.9%; 95% CI –1.2 to 5.7 percentage points, p=0.20). The planning prompt was more effective among men enrolled ≤40 days before the campaigns (3.6 percentage-point increase in testing; 95% CI –2.9 to 10.1, p=0.27) than among men enrolled >40 days before the campaigns (1.8 percentage-point increase; 95% CI –2.3 to 5.8, p=0.39), although the effects within the subgroups were not significant.ConclusionThese findings suggest that planning prompts may be an effective behavioural intervention to promote HIV testing at minimal or no cost. Large-scale studies should further assess the impact and cost-effectiveness of such interventions.

scholarly journals Inflation Expectations and Readiness to Spend: Cross-Sectional Evidence

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rüdiger Bachmann ◽  
Tim O. Berg ◽  
Eric R. Sims
Keyword(s):  
Lower Bound ◽  
Inflation Expectations ◽  
Zero Lower Bound ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Percentage Point Increase ◽  
Expected Inflation ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
Point Increase ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

There have been suggestions for monetary policy to engineer higher inflation expectations to stimulate spending. We examine the relationship between expected inflation and spending attitudes using the microdata from the Michigan Survey of Consumers. The impact of higher inflation expectations on the reported readiness to spend on durables is generally small, outside the zero lower bound, often statistically insignificant, and inside of it typically significantly negative. In our baseline specification, a one percentage point increase in expected inflation during the recent zero lower bound period reduces households' probability of having a positive attitude towards spending by about 0.5 percentage points. (JEL D12, D84, E21, E31, E52)

scholarly journals Research on the Trade Effects of China’s Direct Investment in ASEAN

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. p175
Author(s):  
Shuang-lin LUO ◽  
Min ZHOU ◽  
Yu-feng Huang
Keyword(s):  
Direct Investment ◽  
Variable Parameter ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Mechanical Equipment ◽  
Percentage Point Increase ◽  
Point Increase ◽  
Import And Export ◽  
Asean Countries ◽  
Investment In China ◽  
The Impact

Based on the data of China’s direct investment and trade in ASEAN countries from 2004 to 2018, this paper established a variable parameter model, variable intercept model and constant coefficient model with panel data, and investigated the heterogeneous impact of China’s direct investment in ASEAN countries on their import and export trade and the impact mechanism. It is found that China’s direct investment in ASEAN will be deposited in the trade between China and 10 ASEAN countries, creating effects for trade, and the size of the effect varies with the host country. On average, when other factors remain unchanged, every 1 percentage point increase in China’s direct investment flows to ASEAN countries will increase exports to ASEAN countries by 0.54%, imports will increase by 0.44%. Further studies have found that our country to Brunei, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand’s export create effect is greater than the imported create effect, on the whole, China’s investment in the five countries promoted the net exports, mainly on its investment in China, led to many mechanical equipment and other related products exports, and imports mainly import countries have their comparative advantages of products, variety is less.

scholarly journals An Evaluation of the Service Intensity Add-On Payment Policy Reform in the Medicare Hospice Benefit

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 62-62
Author(s):  
Thomas Christian ◽  
Pedro Gozalo ◽  
Joan Teno ◽  
Michael Plotzke
Keyword(s):  
End Of Life Care ◽  
Average Rate ◽  
Care Service ◽  
Service Intensity ◽  
Payment Policy ◽  
Percentage Point Increase ◽  
Medical Social Worker ◽  
Point Increase ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Impact

Abstract In 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented the Service Intensity Add-On (SIA) payment, which incentivized skilled nurse and medical social worker (SN/MSW) visits in the last seven days of life. Little is known about the impact of this initiative. Using 100% Medicare hospice claims, we identified a 10% random sample of Medicare hospice beneficiaries utilizing routine home care service during calendar years 2012-2018. We compared the provision of SN/MSW visits on service dates before and after the SIA’s implementation relative to beneficiaries’ date of death. We also determined hospice providers’ success in providing SN/MSW visits in the last days of life and categorized all providers into quintiles according to the average rate of these visits in the period prior to the SIA’s implementation. Cumulative over the last seven days of life, we calculated an increase of 15.7 SN/MSW minutes (95% confidence internal [CI] 14.9-16.5 minutes) per beneficiary after the SIA was implemented. The per-minute increase was greatest on days nearer to death (4.0 minutes day of death, 95% CI 3.6-4.2). There was no detectable visit increase on days which were ineligible for the SIA. Additionally, those providers in the quintile providing the lowest rate of SN/MSW visits pre-SIA exhibited a 14-percentage point increase in rates of these visits, the third, fourth, and fifth quintiles exhibited little change over time. Further monitoring is needed to ensure beneficiaries receive adequate end-of-life care.

scholarly journals The impact of a personalized, community-based counselling and referral programme on modern contraceptive use in urban Ghana: a retrospective evaluation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth G Henry ◽  
Kristy M Hackett ◽  
Ayaga Bawah ◽  
Patrick O Asuming ◽  
Caesar Agula ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Family Planning ◽  
Contraceptive Use ◽  
Modern Contraceptive ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Percentage Point Increase ◽  
Point Increase ◽  
Intervention Area ◽  
Matched Comparison ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Community-based demand-generation family planning programmes have been associated with increased contraceptive use in rural areas of Ghana. However, rigorous evaluations of such programmes in urban contexts are lacking. We used a retrospective, cross-sectional with comparison group design to estimate the immediate and sustained impact of the Willows intervention on modern contraceptive use in Kumasi, Ghana. The Willows intervention is a home-based counselling and referral programme for women in low-income urban settlements. We analysed data from a cross-sectional representative survey of 1205 women of reproductive age in the intervention area and 1108 women in a matched comparison site. The main outcome was women’s reported contraceptive use at: (1) baseline (January 2013); (2) programme close (December 2016); and (3) follow-up (August to October 2018). We estimated the programme effect at the community level and for women who reported receiving a family planning counselling visit. We used coarsened exact matching to assess the impact of the intervention relative to outcomes for matched comparison women. Comparing those who reported a family planning visit in the intervention area with matched comparison area women who reported no visit, we estimated a 10.5 percentage point increase in use of modern contraceptives from baseline to close (95%CI : 6.2, 14.8; P < 0.001) and a 7.6 percentage point increase from baseline to follow-up (95%CI : 3.3, 11.9; P < 0.001). However, only 20.2% of women in the Willows intervention area reported a visit. The Willows intervention, therefore, did not achieve its aim to reach all reproductive-aged women in the community. At the community level, we found no significant effect of the intervention at either programme close or 2 years later. We recommend that similar community-based interventions strive for greater outreach and simultaneously launch robust prospective impact evaluations.

scholarly journals Health Reform and Utilization of High-Volume Hospitals for Complex Cancer Operations

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. e42-e50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew P. Loehrer ◽  
David C. Chang ◽  
Zirui Song ◽  
George J. Chang
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Private Insurance ◽  
Insurance Coverage ◽  
High Volume ◽  
Percentage Point Increase ◽  
Point Increase ◽  
Coverage Expansion ◽  
Incident Rate ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Impact

Purpose: Underinsured patients are less likely to receive complex cancer operations at hospitals with high surgical volumes (high-volume hospitals, or HVHs), which contributes to disparities in care. To date, the impact of insurance coverage expansion on site of complex cancer surgery remains unknown. Methods: Using the 2006 Massachusetts coverage expansion as a natural experiment, we searched the Hospital Cost and Utilization Project state inpatient databases for Massachusetts and control states (New York, New Jersey, and Florida) between 2001 and 2011 to evaluate changes in the utilization of HVHs for resections of bladder, esophageal, stomach, pancreatic, rectal, or lung cancer after the expansion of insurance coverage. We studied nonelderly, adult patients with private insurance and those with government-subsidized or self-pay (GSSP) coverage with a difference-in-differences framework. Results: We studied 11,687 patients in Massachusetts and 56,300 patients in control states. Compared with control states, the 2006 Massachusetts insurance expansion was associated with a 14% increased rate of surgical intervention for GSSP patients (incident rate ratio, 1.14; P = .015), but there was no significant change in the probability of GSSP patients undergoing surgery at an HVH (1.0 percentage-point increase; P = .710). The reform was associated with no change in the uninsured payer-mix at HVHs (0.6 percentage-point increase; P = .244) and with a 5.1 percentage-point decrease for the uninsured payer mix at low-volume hospitals ( P < .001). Conclusion: The 2006 Massachusetts insurance expansion, a model for the Affordable Care Act, was associated with increased rates of complex cancer operations and increased insurance coverage but with no change in utilization of HVH for complex cancer operations.

scholarly journals Measuring the impact of trade finance on country trade flows: a South African perspective

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 466-478 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel Kohler ◽  
Adrian Saville
Keyword(s):  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Trade Flows ◽  
Trade Finance ◽  
Percentage Point Increase ◽  
Credit Risks ◽  
Point Increase ◽  
African Perspective ◽  
Interbank Lending ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis ◽  
The Impact

Trade finance (or short-term credit) plays a crucial role in facilitating international trade yet is particularly vulnerable to financial crises as banks increase the pricing on all trade finance transactions to cover increased funding costs and higher credit risks. Whereas South Africa’s financial institutions largely managed to strengthen their capital positions during the global financial crisis, the country’s trade flows and access to capital (in particular trade finance & its costs) were hard hit by the crisis. Little is known about the extent of shortages or ‘gaps’ in trade finance and the impact of this on South Africa’s recent trade performance. Whilst our research recognises that access to trade finance is not the main cause of South Africa’s trade contraction, our research suggests that a one percentage point increase in the interbank lending rate of our trade partner could reduce exports by approximately ten percent, all else equal. 

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