Information needs and delivery channels: Experimental evidence from Cambodian smallholders

Despite numerous policy interventions, poverty still exists. Those most harshly affected are people living in rural areas of low-income countries, regions that are often characterized by information asymmetries leading to market failure. The widespread growth of information and communications technologies (ICTs) in remote areas across the world holds immense potential for lifting the information barriers of the rural poor. However, there is little evidence of the effectiveness of delivery channels, which might be one reason why digital advice differs in its impact. Seeking to ascertain how smallholders can best be served by ICT, the authors investigated information needs and effective ICT delivery channels. Sociodemographic and ICT-related data was collected and a framed field experiment was conducted with smallholders in Cambodia; they were asked to build an object while using various delivery channels for instruction. Employing different regression techniques and matching algorithms, the experiment reveals that multisensory instructions trump all others.

A Methodology for the Identification and Characterization of Low-Temperature Waste Heat Sources and Sinks in Industrial Processes: Application in the Italian Dairy Sector

Waste heat recovery is considered as one of the most promising options to improve the efficiency and sustainability of industrial processes. Even though industrial waste heat is abundantly available and its utilization is not a new concept, the implementation rate of waste-heat recovery interventions in industrial facilities is still low, due to several real or perceived barriers. Foremost challenges are represented by technical, economic, financial and regulatory factors. An additional prominent barrier lies in the lack or incompleteness of information concerning the material and energy flows within the factories, and the types and characteristics of waste heat sources and possible sinks for their internal or external reuse. With the aim to overcome some of the information barriers and increase the willingness of companies to approach waste heat recovery and reuse, a methodology to map waste heat sources and sinks in industrial processes is proposed in this study. The approach here presented combines information from the most relevant publications on the subject and data gathered from the analysis of energy audits carried out by large and energy-intensive enterprises. In order to demonstrate its feasibility, the methodology was applied to the Italian dairy sector, because of its large energy consumption and its enormous potential for the utilization of low-temperature waste heat sources.

Accessible Library: What is it?

Ensuring accessibility of library services is one of the most urgent tasks of modern librarianship. The concept of “accessibility” which is actively used in the regulatory framework for librarianship and in the works of library scientists, at the same time remains insufficiently substantiated and developed. The article presents the options for the disclosure of the concept of “accessibility” and correlates the concepts of “access” and “accessibility”.In the regulatory framework in dictionaries and reference books on librarianship, the term “accessibility” started to be used relatively recently. The UNESCO Information for All program, as well as organization of the Open Access Movement to scientific information, played an important role in the awareness of the world community of the need for universal access to information. The beginning of the 2000s in Russia is a period of active study of electronic libraries, for which the concepts of “access”, “accessibility” and similar are an important component. During this period, there has been increasing the importance of the issue of barrier-free environment for people with disabilities, where the concept of physical accessibility is the key one. In librarianship documents, the term “accessibility” is also used as physical opportunity to obtain information.At the moment, this concept is introduced in the State Standard of Russia GOST R 7.0.103-2018 “Library and Information Services. Terms and Definitions”. The concept reflects the general trend of using the term “accessibility” mainly in the digital environment; however, the concept of “accessibility” is much broader and is not limited only to access to electronic resources and physical accessibility of the library. The concept of “accessibility” should be considered through information barriers (physical, assortment, navigation and search, deunification), since overcoming them will allow the library to become as accessible as possible. The problem of accessibility of library services has several aspects, and it is important that the scientific community and librarians realize the complexity of this problem and focus their attention not only on ensuring the physical accessibility of the library, but also on removing other information barriers.

Making the Invisible Visible: Investment Promotion and Multinational Production in Latin America and the Caribbean

Firms seeking to invest abroad must still confront important information barriers. As a consequence, a given country may provide suitable conditions for investment but remain invisible to multinational firms. Nearly all countries in the world have established investment promotion agencies (IPAs) to address these information barriers and put themselves on investors maps. Although IPAs are ubiquitous, the existing literature on the impacts of their activities is limited and only provides a view from the top, thus leaving governments without crucial inputs for designing and guiding their policy actions. Making the Invisible Visible fills in these knowledge gaps by zooming in on the effects of investment promotion policies and the mechanisms and channels thereof. To do so, it draws on the results of a highly detailed institutional survey of more than 50 IPAs and unique firm-level data on both the worldwide location of multinational firms foreign affiliates and IPA assistance for several LAC countries. Based on the results of impact evaluations using this novel micro data, the report presents robust new evidence on whether and how investment promotion works, what works in investment promotion, and when investment promotion works. In particular, it concludes that: (i) investment promotion has been (cost-)effective in attracting multinational firms and increasing LAC countries participation in multinational production; (ii) how IPAs are organized, what they do, and how they do it all influence these effects; (iii) the impact of IPA assistance has been greater when it consisted of specialized information services and was given to firms headquartered in countries and operating in sectors in which information barriers are more prominent. These findings can help countries in the region make better, more informed policy and operational decisions to take advantage of the opportunities that the current global context could create. They may thereby create a solid basis for long-term growth and sustainable development.

Online Vacancies and its Role in Labor Market Performance

This paper assesses whether the expansion of online job vacancies leads to a more efficient labor market. We provide compelling evidence that the increase in online job vacancy penetration in Colombia has had an enhancing effect on the labor market's efficiency by making it easier for firms to find workers to fill their job openings. An estimation of the Beveridge Curve (unemployment to vacancies relationship), a well-established theoretical development from search models, concludes that policies that increase online vacancy posting enhance efficiency. We implement a differences in differences design to take advantage of a regulation, which mandates that all authorized online vacancy providers report any online vacancy to the Public Employment Service in Colombia. We find that sub-segments of the labor market with a relevant fraction of their vacancies posted online, presented on average nearly 15% lower vacancy rate for a given unemployment rate. Therefore, for these sub-segments, the Beveridge curve shifted inwards due to efficiency enhancements. These findings support active search policies to reduce information barriers, which reduce the odds of firms and workers finding one other in the labor market. Policies as those implemented by the Public Employment Service in Colombia seem to be beneficial.

The Impact of High-Speed Railway Accession on Agricultural Exports: Evidence from Chinese Agriculture-Related Enterprises

Although many studies have analyzed the transportation infrastructure effects on economic and trade development, little is known about the relationship between transportation infrastructure and trade in the agricultural sector. We take the opening of China’s high-speed railway (HSR) as a quasi-natural experiment and use multiperiod DID model to explore the impact and mechanism of HSR on agriculture-related enterprises’ exports. The results show that HSR can promote export growth of agriculture-related enterprises by 6.9%, and it will reach 10% in 5 years. However, the effect of HSR on the export of agriculture-related enterprises only exists within 45 km around HSR stations. HSR can reduce information barriers and costs for enterprises to enter the international market by providing transportation convenience and improving market access levels. HSR also offers local areas more transportation advantage compared to other surrounding areas, which in turn makes a siphon effect on export activities. Both these mechanisms are significant within 45 km, and it is extremely obvious for poor transportation areas and enterprises with higher productivity, and the siphon effect is even stronger than market access. Heterogeneity analysis results demonstrate that HSR has different effects for different types of enterprises.

Status of Nutritional Literacy in Adolescents in The Semi-Rural Area in Turkey and Related Factors

Objective: To determine the status of nutritional literacy and its affecting factors among the adolescents who are in the 9th grade in Çivril, in Denizli province, in Turkey. Design: This is a cross-sectional study that determines the sociodemographic characteristics, nutritional habits, nutritional behavior, nutritional literacy status of adolescents, and affecting factors. Setting: Denizli, Turkey. Participants: We included 523 adolescents in ninth grade in this study. Results: Half (49.7%) of the participants were female; 47%, in normal body mass index; and 68.1%, non-smokers. The mean (±SD) Adolescent Nutrition Literacy Scale score was 67.6±7.9. Nutrition literacy status was related to mothers’ education level (p: 0.021); health perceptions (p: 0.008); positive body perception (p: 0.032); unhealthy food consumption status (p:0.017); information barriers [undecided about effort for information gathering (p: 0.026), undecided about the difficulty of understanding information (p: 0.042), and thinking it’s difficult to understand (p:0.003)], trust in nutrition, diet information sources [nutrition and diet expert, dietitian trusting (according to others) (p: 0.001), nutrition and diet expert, dietitian neutral to trust (compared to others) (p: 0.011) and trust in textbooks (p: 0.023)]. Conclusions: The level of nutrition literacy status of participants was moderate. It is important to carry out interventions to increase the education level of women, positive body perceptions, and general health perceptions of adolescents and to remove information barriers related to nutrition.

A Qualitative Study to Explore the Barriers for Nonadherence to Referral to Hospital Births by Women with High-Risk Pregnancies in Nepal

Maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality tend to decrease if referral advice during pregnancy is utilized appropriately. This study explores the reasons for nonadherence to referral advice among high-risk pregnant women. A qualitative study was conducted in Morang District, Nepal. A phenomenological inquiry was used. Fourteen participants were interviewed in-depth. High-risk women who did not comply with the referral to have a hospital birth were the study participants. Participants were chosen purposively until data saturation was achieved. The data were generated using thematic analysis. Preference of homebirth, women’s diminished autonomy and financial dependence, conditional factors, and sociocultural factors were the four major themes that hindered hospital births. Women used antenatal check-ups to reaffirm normalcy in their current pregnancies to practice homebirth. For newly-wed young women, information barriers such as not knowing where to seek healthcare existed. The poorest segments and marginalized women did not adhere to referral hospital birth advice even when present with high-risk factors in pregnancy. Multiple factors, including socioeconomic and sociocultural factors, affect women’s decision to give birth in the referral hospital. Targeted interventions for underprivileged communities and policies to increase facility-based birth rates are recommended.