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92. Poverty and Microfinance: An Investigation into the Role of Microcredit in Reducing the Poverty Level of Borrowing Households in Bangladesh and the Philippines
- Author:
- M. Jahangir Alam Chowdhury
- Publication Date:
- 09-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations
- Institution:
- School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University
- Abstract:
- It is often argued that the formal and informal financial sectors in developing countries have failed to serve the poorer section of the community. Collateral, credit rationing, a preference for high income clients and large loans, and lengthy bureaucratic procedures of providing loans keep poor people outside the boundary of the formal sector financial institutions in developing countries. On the other hand, the informal financial sector has also failed to help the poor. Monopolistic power, excessively high interest rates, and exploitation through the undervaluation of collateral have restricted the informal financial sector in providing credit to poor people for income generating and poverty alleviation purposes.
- Topic:
- Poverty
- Political Geography:
- Bangladesh and Philippines
93. Does the Microfinance Lending Model Actually Work?
- Author:
- Rafael Gómez and Eric Santor
- Publication Date:
- 09-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations
- Institution:
- School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University
- Abstract:
- Microfinance institutions (MFIs) have expanded throughout the developing and developed world and now serve over 10 million households worldwide. Despite the relative poverty of their clients, MFIs have been able to extend credit to poor households, while still maintaining high repayment rates and financial sustainability. Much of this success has been attributed to MFIs innovative use of peer group lending—the practice of allocating loans to individuals with little or no collateral—but with social capital in the form of peers who are also co-applicants and who in many cases are jointly liable. Practitioners and pundits attest to the ability of group lending to increase incomes, consumption, and the stock of human capital for those households facing severe credit constraints. Recent theoretical and empirical work, however, has begun to cast doubts on many of these claims. Not surprisingly, the apparent success, or lack thereof, of peer group lending has drawn the attention of numerous development researchers.
- Topic:
- Poverty
94. Romanticizing the Poor Harms the Poor
- Author:
- Aneel Karnani
- Publication Date:
- 09-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations
- Institution:
- School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University
- Abstract:
- A libertarian movement that emphasizes free markets to reduce poverty has grown strong in recent years. The think tank World Resource Institute advocates 'development through enterprise' and emphasizes business models driven by a profit motive that engage the poor as producers and consumers. The Private Sector Development network, part of the World Bank, focuses on private sector led growth in developing countries. CK Prahalad a prolific exponent of this perspective argues that selling to the poor people at the 'bottom of the pyramid' (BOP) can be profitable and simultaneously help eradicate poverty. The BOP proposition has caught the attention of senior executives and business academics. Many multinational companies (such as Unilever and SC Johnson) have undertaken BOP initiatives; the world's top CEOs have discussed this topic at recent sessions of the World Economic Forum. Several business schools (such as University of Michigan and University of North Carolina) have set up BOP centers.
- Topic:
- Economics and Poverty
- Political Geography:
- Michigan and North Carolina
95. Sovereign Wealth Funds and the International Monetary System
- Author:
- Anthony Elson
- Publication Date:
- 09-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations
- Institution:
- School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University
- Abstract:
- Since the end of last year, much public attention has been focused on the growing importance of sovereign wealth funds (hereafter SWFs), which are large investment pools managed by national governments primarily among oil exporters and emerging market economies. Many of these governments have accumulated substantial foreign reserves because of large trade surpluses, some of which they have begun to invest in a range of financial instruments that is more diversified than is typically the case for central bank international reserves in order to improve the yield on their foreign asset positions.
- Topic:
- Economics and Government
96. The Cultural Impact on China's New Diplomacy
- Author:
- Wilfried Bolewski and Candy M. Rietig
- Publication Date:
- 09-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations
- Institution:
- School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University
- Abstract:
- China is in a state of universal change—economically, culturally, politically and diplomatically—and the international community is taking note of the Chinese posture as an ascending global power. As a nation, China has economically liberalized and opened up to the world while retaining a government that by some definitions would be considered authoritarian. Previously an aloof international actor, increased participation in international organizations like the United Nations and dramatic increases in contributions to peacekeeping missions are just two examples of the larger soft power network Beijing is establishing. These activities in public diplomacy are aimed at raising international popularity and acceptance of an ascending China through cooperative behavior and international engagement. As Jamie Roth puts it, “China's new public diplomacy seems to have taken careful note of how to strengthen the country's image abroad through cultural relations.”Because the Chinese want to be able to deal with the challenges of a globalized world, they have adopted a strategy of learning from other participants.
- Topic:
- Diplomacy, Economics, Government, and United Nations
- Political Geography:
- China and Beijing
97. Microinsurance for Brazil: The GILR-Bond
- Author:
- Bernardo Weaver
- Publication Date:
- 09-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations
- Institution:
- School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University
- Abstract:
- Microfinance, in general, worries about alleviating poverty in the developing world. But, how do the poorest people avoid falling into poverty traps on their way to the middle class? What recourse do people have from becoming poor due to illness, natural disaster, or the loss of assets like livestock? Microinsurance is insurance that caters to the lowest income groups in a country and serves those who are not usually served by private insurance. The microinsurance enterprise is comprised of several components and issues. First, microinsurance relies on massive market penetration. For microinsurance to work effectively, insurance contracts must be sold to vast numbers of people at very low rates and provide coverage against losses that are usually not large. Thus, microinsurers sell millions of contracts to turn a very small profit, with even total revenue volumes being small.
- Topic:
- Poverty
- Political Geography:
- Brazil
98. Brazil: Keeping the Lights On
- Author:
- Susana Moreira
- Publication Date:
- 09-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations
- Institution:
- School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University
- Abstract:
- In 2001, Brazil endured severe power shortages that resulted in mandatory rationing and ultimately, in a significant reduction of GDP growth. Worse than the personal inconvenience and economic contraction was the embarrassment all Brazilians felt for what had happened. The “country blessed by God” had shown the world, once again, that it was unable to put its vast natural resources to good use. Brazil barely escaped forced electricity rationing; however, there is widespread belief among energy experts that rationing may yet occur within the next four years.
- Topic:
- Economics
- Political Geography:
- Brazil
99. Law Markets: A model for Predicting Laws, Governments, and Institutions
- Author:
- Graham Lawlor
- Publication Date:
- 09-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations
- Institution:
- School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University
- Abstract:
- Law Markets is a positive economic model, which treats laws as tradable goods, citizens as consumers of laws, and governments as producers of laws. This model borrows heavily from the fields of Public Choice, which models political actors as economic agents, and from New Institutional Economics, which analyzes social contracts in the presence of transaction costs. The financial fields of Efficient Markets Theory and Behavioral Finance provide tools to measure transaction costs and empirical studies to demonstrate long-term trends.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, and Law
100. Identity and the Bomb
- Author:
- Michael Busch
- Publication Date:
- 09-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations
- Institution:
- School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University
- Abstract:
- Given the increasingly grim forecast of a “nuclear renaissance,” and renewed concerns of uncontrollable atomic weapons proliferation, Jacques E.C. Hymans's The Psychology of Nuclear Proliferation provides a refreshingly positive antidote to the glum literature on international security. Traditional security studies generally seek to explain why so few countries have acquired nuclear arsenals, despite widespread desire and technical capacity in the international arena. In stark contrast, Hymans asks why any nation-state has the bomb at all. Rejecting conventional realist, institutionalist, and constructivist approaches to understanding foreign policy decision-making, Hymans crafts a new theoretical model for shedding light on why certain countries make the “revolutionary” decision to go nuclear. Drawing deeply from social psychology perspectives on human behavior, Hymans counter-intuitively argues that most decision makers are not naturally inclined to want nuclear weapons, nor are they willing to assume the grave responsibilities of having them.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy and Nuclear Weapons