Role of safety in declining public transport use: Empirical evidence from India

PurposeUsing primary survey data from an urban area in Global North, this study aims to examine the impact of sociodemographic factors on perception of usefulness of public transport and the importance of safety in preferring private modes of transport over public.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses stratified random sampling technique to collect data on travel behavior and socioeconomic characteristics. Descriptive statistics complemented with bivariate probit model and seemingly unrelated bivariate probit model is implemented on the data obtained.FindingsThe study finds that women, unmarried individuals, the youngest age group, least educated individuals and those who are working are expected to finding public transport more useful as compared to their respective counterparts. Despite finding the mode most useful, women are more likely to find it unsafe to travel.Research limitations/implicationsThe study calls attention to not only dealing with the infrastructural changes in system but also with those attached insecurities which limit its use.Originality/valueTo the best of our knowledge, this is the first time a comprehensive evaluation of the demands and challenges for transportation services faced by different segments of the society is carried out in this section of the developing world.

Does Information Acquisition Influence the Adoption of Sustainable Land Management Practices? Evidence From Mpumalanga Province South Africa

Agricultural information plays a vital role in adopting agricultural technology. The study explored if information acquisition is related to the adoption of sustainable land management practices (SLMP) and jointly decided in Mpumalanga Province of South Africa. Primary data were collected through face-to-face interviews, using a proportionate random sampling technique to get 250 smallholder farmers to participate in the survey. A seemingly unrelated bivariate probit (SUBP) model and a recursive bivariate probit (RBP) model were adopted to examine the objective. The statistical estimation of the SUBP showed that there is a relationship, an empirical association between information acquisition and SLMP; while RBP estimation showed that information acquisition was exogenous in the adoption model; thus, the decision to acquire information and adopt SLMP was not jointly decided. Therefore, the study presents the determinants of information acquisition alongside with the adoption of SLPM. The result from the SUBP model, indicated that the years spent in school; agricultural extension service; the number of extension visits and the years of farming, influenced both information acquisition and the adoption of SLMP. The cost attached positively influenced the adoption of SLMP; while gender, marital status and age only influenced the information acquisition.

Synchronized Agricultural Credit and Diversification Adoption to Catastrophic Risk Manage for Wheat Production in Punjab, Pakistan

Catastrophic risks caused severe affects on agricultural production particularly in developing countries due to consecutive occurrence of unfavorable climate events. Farmers adopt risk management strategies to minimize marketing, production and financial risks in agriculture. The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential association and implementing synchronized agricultural credit and diversification adoption to catastrophic risk manage for wheat production in Punjab, Pakistan. This study used stratified random sampling technique for collecting data of 480 wheat farmers’ respondents from production based categorized six districts of Punjab Pakistan. Multinomial and bivariate probit regression models were used in the study to examine the effects of farm and social feathers, disastrous risks farmers view and their attitude to sources of risk moreover potential relationship in agricultural credit and diversification as risk management strategy. Estimates of the study indicated the association in risk management strategies adoption while adopting single risk management strategy motivates farmers to adopt another strategy at same time. Furthermore, findings also indicated as farmer schooling, age, family return, ownership of land, farm size and farmer risk oppose character were highlighted the most influenced features for adopting various risk management strategies. Policy makers and state based authorities can be assisted by the accumulated information of multinomial and bivariate probit regression models in evaluating plans of risk management and willingness of farmer in accept government supported risk managing strategies in incidence of traditional practices for managing farmhouse risk.

State failure, genocide and politicide reconsidered

State failure is highly threatening to incumbent elites, providing them motive to engage in genocide or politicide. The destruction of formal institutions may also remove political barriers to employing such atrocities. Thus, previous scholars expect state failure to increase the likelihood of genocide and politicide. However, such logic overlooks that these atrocities are government policy, which require planning and implementation. Since government institutions collapse during state failure, regime elites will possess little physical ability to commit widespread and systematic killing of their enemies. Therefore, I expect state failure to be associated with a lower likelihood of genocide and politicide. Using bivariate probit regression to handle the endogeneity between state failure and these atrocities, I find strong support for my argument in all country-years since 1946.

Village Environment, Capital Endowment, and Farmers’ Participation in E-Commerce Sales Behavior: A Demand Observable Bivariate Probit Model Approach

With the recent developments in widespread internet usage and digital technology, an ultimate worldwide transformation in information and communications technology has occurred. Especially, how people engage in the virtual market for buying and selling goods has changed dramatically, which flourished the playground of electronic commerce (EC). Interestingly, it has become crucial to create an ample opportunity for farmers to utilize a more comprehensive market range for selling their products. However, farmers participating in e-commerce sales platforms may be interrupted by various internal and external factors. Therefore, the study’s primary goal is to evaluate the impacts of various external and internal factors on shaping farmers’ behavior in participating in e-commerce sales platforms. The study utilized a demand observable bivariate Probit model to analyze the village environment and capital endowment effects to craft the findings. The study utilized micro-survey data from 686 households in the leading kiwifruit-producing area as the empirical setup. The findings illustrated that the village environment is the main factor that restricts farmers’ e-commerce sales behavior, among which the infrastructure and policy environments have a significant contribution to farmers’ e-commerce sales intention and behavior. However, the effect of capital endowment on farmers’ e-commerce selling behavior has been found as significant. The village environment significantly affects both large- and small-scale farmers, and the capital endowment has a higher binding effect on small-scale farmers. Therefore, the paper suggests that improving the village environment for e-commerce development and laying the foundation for e-commerce development should be fostered. A differentiated incentive mechanism to improve the capital endowment of farmers should be constructed. A well-structured capital endowment triggering small farmers to capture the benefits of e-commerce sales should be imposed. The government should extend the support of the agricultural demonstration zone to facilitate practical training among the smallholder farmers. The formal and informal risk-sharing and financial institutions should prioritize building infrastructure to support farmers’ short- and long-term investments. Farmers should realize the importance of e-commerce for integrating the agricultural value chain.

Analysis of Trends and Correlation in Child Restraint Use and Seating Position of Child Passengers in Motor Vehicles: Application of a Bivariate Probit Model

Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death and injury for children under 8 years. While different states are showing increases in the proportion of child restraint device use, only around half of the children aged between 4 to 7 years are being properly restrained. This study was undertaken to identify the factors contributing to the proper child restraint use and child passenger’s seating position through the direct observation surveys of more than 10,000 child passengers in 2015 and 2018 in Michigan. A bivariate probit model was developed to simultaneously identify the contributing factors for the proper restraint use and seating position of child passengers. The bivariate framework is able to account for correlation of the two dependent variables in the study. The results show that the two dependent variables are positively correlated, and this correlation is strongly significant. Also, the key factors simultaneously influencing proper child restraint use and appropriate seating position of the child passenger include the age of the child, number of the child passengers in the vehicle, driver belt use, driver gender, age, and race, vehicle type, stratum, weather, and the time of the day and week. However, factors such as county-specific population, income, and education, and the type of location did not have a significant association with either child restraint use or the seating position of the child passenger.

The Effects of Openness on Managerial Innovation in Cameroonian Companies

The objective of this study was to analyze the effects of openness on the adoption of managerial innovation by Cameroonian companies, as well as comparing the share of managerial innovation resulting from inter-organizational networks of the same group and of different groups. Noting a lack of such a study on Cameroon, this study used data from the Centre de Recherche en Economie et Gestion (CEREG) to achieve the objective. Using a binary probit model and a recursive bivariate probit model, the authors found that, first, a company that collaborates with other companies has an increased probability of 0.37 of adopting new managerial practices, compared to another company that does not collaborate. Second, a company belonging to a group that collaborates with companies of a different group has an increased probability of 0.30 of adopting new managerial practices, compared to a company that only collaborates with companies of the group to which she belongs. Business leaders should cooperate with all market players.