What Influences Rice Farmers’ Choices of Credit Sources in Côte d’Ivoire? An Econometric Analysis using the Multinomial Conditional Logit Model

In Côte d’Ivoire, the low participation of smallholder farmers in the credit market remains a matter of concern. This study examines the key determinants of rice farmers’ participation in the credit market. We use a Multinomial Conditional Logit model to consider the characteristics related to the use of different credit sources. A total of 588 rice farmers were randomly sampled from seven rice areas. Our findings reveal that gender, age, education level, experience in rice farming, rice plot size, lowland rice farming, extension contact, membership of a farmer-based organization, marketing of paddy rice, and off-farm income significantly influence the use of different credit sources. While credit requirements such as saving plus collateral, kinship/friendship, membership, favoured client, loan maturity, and the distance between borrowers and lenders are credit source-specific variables that significantly determine rice farmers’ choices between different credit sources. These empirical results show that in addition to farmer-specific variables, policymakers should consider the characteristics of credit sources for developing a credit market suitable for smallholder farmers.

The Impacts of Extreme Weather Events on Inflation and the Implications for Monetary Policy in Africa

Economic debates around mitigating climate change and weather-related events have long centred on fiscal policy tools than those of monetary policy. However, recent discussions point out that monetary policy formulation could also be affected and hence the need to deploy monetary policy tools as well. Our article seeks to investigate the impacts of climate change, particularly extreme weather events, on headline inflation and food price inflation and their apparent implications for monetary policy in Africa over the period 1990–2017. Using a two-step dynamic system Generalized Method of Moments estimation strategy with robust standard errors, we find that weather-related events may need to be large and consequential to cause a significant price hike in Africa. We also find the incidence of droughts and floods to have a bearing on food price inflation. Furthermore, our empirical evidence using mediation analysis, reveals agricultural production to be the critical mechanism whereby extreme weather events affect headline inflation. As central banks are charged with the mandate of ensuring a stable monetary environment, we suggest that monetary policy authorities consider the short and long run impacts of supply shocks caused by extreme weather events on general price levels in their policy formulation.

Book review: Kaur, Ravinder. 2020: Brand New Nation: Capitalist Dream and Nationalist Designs in Twenty-First-Century India

Kaur, Ravinder. 2020: Brand New Nation: Capitalist Dream and Nationalist Designs in Twenty-First-Century India. Stanford (CA): Stanford University Press. x + 346 pp., $90.00 (Hardcover), $28.00 (Paperback), $25.50 (eBook). ISBN: 9781503612242 (Hardcover), 9781503612594 (Paperback), 9781503612600 (eBook).

Book review: Berberoglu, B. editor. 2019: The Palgrave Handbook of Social Movements, Revolution, and Social Transformation

Berberoglu, B. editor. 2019: The Palgrave Handbook of Social Movements, Revolution, and Social Transformation. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. 479 pp. £133.99 (hardcover), £99.99 (paperback), £79.50 (eBook). ISBN: 978-3-319-92353-6 (hardcover), 978-3-030-06414 3 (paperback), 978-3-319-92354-3 (eBook).

Is Group Lending a Collateral for Informal Credit?

This article explores how participation in microfinance programs affects informal credit conditions. Using data on the rural credit market of Andhra Pradesh, I provide evidence that group lending participants obtain lower interest rates from the informal credit market. This result can be explained by two main factors. On the one hand, due to joint liability, group lending clients have high incentives to monitor each other, which implies a reduction in the agency costs for moneylenders. On the other hand, as microfinance borrowers are required to invest the credit in income generating activities, they face a lower default risk. Taken together, these two mechanisms may explain why microcredit borrowers are perceived as less risky by informal lenders. Overall, the findings suggest that moneylenders benefit from the duality in the market, thus providing empirical support to recent theoretical research hypothesizing that there is a complementarity relationship between formal and informal credit suppliers.

Development Studies in the World System of Global Knowledge Production: A Critical Empirical Analysis

In this article, I present the results of an analysis of the geopolitical diversity of 61,781 papers that have been published in 17 leading international journals in development studies, and the results of another analysis in which I analysed the career trajectories of 260 faculty members working at 10 highly valued development studies departments. Regarding geopolitical diversity, I found a systemic inequality in terms of both research output and education trajectories. I argue that these imbalances contradict the expressed goals and values of development studies as a discipline that aims to reduce geopolitical inequalities. Policy implications are also discussed, in which I propose to reconsider academic recruitment standards and to raise the visibility of different epistemologies of published research in development studies.

Book review: Sandya Hewamanne, Restitching Identities in Rural Sri Lanka: Gender, Neoliberalism, and the Politics of Contentment

Sandya Hewamanne, Restitching Identities in Rural Sri Lanka: Gender, Neoliberalism, and the Politics of Contentment (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020), 224 pp. $55, £44, ISBN 978-0-812-25240-8 (Hardback)

Book review: Brown, D.L. and Schafft, K. A. 2019: Rural people and communities in the 21st century: Resilience and transformation

Brown, D.L. and Schafft, K. A. 2019: Rural people and communities in the 21st century: Resilience and transformation (2nd edition). Cambridge: Polity Press. ix +342 pp. £65.00 (cloth), £19.99 (paper). ISBN: 978 1 509 52985 8 (cloth), 978 1 509 52986 5 (paper).

Book review: Kum-Kum Bhavnani, John Foran, Priya A. Kurian and Debashish Munshi, Climate Futures: Reimagining Global Climate Justice

Kum-Kum Bhavnani, John Foran, Priya A. Kurian and Debashish Munshi, Climate Futures: Reimagining Global Climate Justice (London: Zed Books Ltd, 2019), 400 pp. £54.15 (hardcover), £21.04 (paperback). ISBN: 9781786997821 (paperback), 9781786997814 (hardcover)