Microfinance is increasingly being touted as a miracle cure for poverty. If it is why isnt it more widespread and how can it be extended? Although microfinance has been around in various forms for thousands of years its modern incarnation is most closely tied to Mohammed Yunus the Grameen Bank founder. In his autobiography he described how as a professor in Bangladesh he came to understand the importance of finance for the poor. Horrified by the consequences of a recent famine he left the sheltered walls of the university to find out how the poor made a living. In a neighboring village he struck up a conversation with a young mother making bamboo stools. He learned that she needed 22 cents to buy the raw material for the stools. Because the young mother didnt have money she borrowed it from an intermediary to whom she was forced to sell the stools as repayment. She made a profit of only 2 cents. Yunus was appalled: finance would enable her to sell directly to customers. But the intermediary wouldnt offer her finance for then he would lose his hold over her. For want of 22 cents the womans labor was captive. In this vignette many see the worst evil of capitalism: exploitation of labor by capital. But this situation couldnt be further from the essence of free market capitalism: free access and competitive markets. Its the lack of access to a competitive financial market or to a friendly financial institution where the poor can borrow at a reasonable rate that keeps their labor captive. (excerpt)
{"title":"Separate and unequal.","authors":"R. Rajan","doi":"10.2307/j.ctvw04m79.25","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvw04m79.25","url":null,"abstract":"Microfinance is increasingly being touted as a miracle cure for poverty. If it is why isnt it more widespread and how can it be extended? Although microfinance has been around in various forms for thousands of years its modern incarnation is most closely tied to Mohammed Yunus the Grameen Bank founder. In his autobiography he described how as a professor in Bangladesh he came to understand the importance of finance for the poor. Horrified by the consequences of a recent famine he left the sheltered walls of the university to find out how the poor made a living. In a neighboring village he struck up a conversation with a young mother making bamboo stools. He learned that she needed 22 cents to buy the raw material for the stools. Because the young mother didnt have money she borrowed it from an intermediary to whom she was forced to sell the stools as repayment. She made a profit of only 2 cents. Yunus was appalled: finance would enable her to sell directly to customers. But the intermediary wouldnt offer her finance for then he would lose his hold over her. For want of 22 cents the womans labor was captive. In this vignette many see the worst evil of capitalism: exploitation of labor by capital. But this situation couldnt be further from the essence of free market capitalism: free access and competitive markets. Its the lack of access to a competitive financial market or to a friendly financial institution where the poor can borrow at a reasonable rate that keeps their labor captive. (excerpt)","PeriodicalId":39674,"journal":{"name":"Finance and Development","volume":"60 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77250695","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2001-01-01DOI: 10.5089/9781451951974.022.A010
G. Gondwe
{"title":"Globalization and Africa: Making Globalization Work in Africa","authors":"G. Gondwe","doi":"10.5089/9781451951974.022.A010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5089/9781451951974.022.A010","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":39674,"journal":{"name":"Finance and Development","volume":"2016 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2001-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73320334","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Poverty is powerlessness and voicelessness.","authors":"D. Narayan","doi":"10.4324/9781315258003-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315258003-9","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":39674,"journal":{"name":"Finance and Development","volume":"30 1","pages":"117-120"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2000-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75799970","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 1999-01-01DOI: 10.5089/9781451952797.022.A007
M. Kaser
ernment exchanged 50 billion “old” rubles for 1“new” ruble in a currency reform, ceased monetizing the budget deficit, and made the ruble convertible, Lenin’s New Economic Policy began to enjoy monetary stability. Severe inflation returned, however, when ruble convertibility was abrogated and the five-year plans began in 1928. Inflation was at first open, and, as rapidly rising consumer prices overtook state-fixed wages, household real incomes were cut to make resources available for investment and defense. Inflation was soon “repressed” by state dictation of prices, which was evident in persistent shortages and an overhang (surplus) of households’ unspent money. The demands of investment, the military, the bureaucracy, and education, health, and social welfare greatly exceeded the supply of labor and natural resources, which were, in any event, used inefficiently. The Soviet Union was transformed, through forced collectivization, from being a food exporter to being unable to feed itself. The command economy limited the competitive gains that could be made from international trade. Within the former Soviet Union, price relativities bore little or no relation to the balance between the supply of and the demand for goods or services. An operational price mechanism is essential to a market system, and the governments of the successor states to the Soviet Union accepted an immediate price liberalization, designed to switch inflation from “repressed” to “open,” eliminate the money overhang, and allow foreign prices to correct domestic relativities. The Baltic countries went straight for sound and stable currencies, backed by a continuing tight monetary policy. Benefiting from a shorter experience under the command economy, as well as a thoroughgoing switch to a market system and democratic government, these countries were rewarded by proportionately more foreign support. The remaining 12 countries that were to participate in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) continued to use the Soviet ruble, and had to follow Russia’s lead in January 1992 in decontrolling most retail and wholesale prices. They could not have anticipated the extent, or the persistence, of the ensuing price rise: in Russia, consumer prices rose 16-fold and producer prices rose 20-fold in 1992 alone. The following year, consumer prices in the CIS increased by 875 percent in Russia, 4,085 percent in Georgia, and 4,735 percent in Ukraine. Inflation spread through each of the 12 states and slackened only after the establishment of separate currencies.
{"title":"Escape Routes from Post-Soviet Inflation and Recession","authors":"M. Kaser","doi":"10.5089/9781451952797.022.A007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5089/9781451952797.022.A007","url":null,"abstract":"ernment exchanged 50 billion “old” rubles for 1“new” ruble in a currency reform, ceased monetizing the budget deficit, and made the ruble convertible, Lenin’s New Economic Policy began to enjoy monetary stability. Severe inflation returned, however, when ruble convertibility was abrogated and the five-year plans began in 1928. Inflation was at first open, and, as rapidly rising consumer prices overtook state-fixed wages, household real incomes were cut to make resources available for investment and defense. Inflation was soon “repressed” by state dictation of prices, which was evident in persistent shortages and an overhang (surplus) of households’ unspent money. The demands of investment, the military, the bureaucracy, and education, health, and social welfare greatly exceeded the supply of labor and natural resources, which were, in any event, used inefficiently. The Soviet Union was transformed, through forced collectivization, from being a food exporter to being unable to feed itself. The command economy limited the competitive gains that could be made from international trade. Within the former Soviet Union, price relativities bore little or no relation to the balance between the supply of and the demand for goods or services. An operational price mechanism is essential to a market system, and the governments of the successor states to the Soviet Union accepted an immediate price liberalization, designed to switch inflation from “repressed” to “open,” eliminate the money overhang, and allow foreign prices to correct domestic relativities. The Baltic countries went straight for sound and stable currencies, backed by a continuing tight monetary policy. Benefiting from a shorter experience under the command economy, as well as a thoroughgoing switch to a market system and democratic government, these countries were rewarded by proportionately more foreign support. The remaining 12 countries that were to participate in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) continued to use the Soviet ruble, and had to follow Russia’s lead in January 1992 in decontrolling most retail and wholesale prices. They could not have anticipated the extent, or the persistence, of the ensuing price rise: in Russia, consumer prices rose 16-fold and producer prices rose 20-fold in 1992 alone. The following year, consumer prices in the CIS increased by 875 percent in Russia, 4,085 percent in Georgia, and 4,735 percent in Ukraine. Inflation spread through each of the 12 states and slackened only after the establishment of separate currencies.","PeriodicalId":39674,"journal":{"name":"Finance and Development","volume":"10 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1999-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87777081","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 1999-01-01DOI: 10.5089/9781451952292.022
Imf. External Relations Dept.
Well, someone can decide by themselves what they want to do and need to do but sometimes, that kind of person will need some finance development september 1992 references. People with open minded will always try to seek for the new things and information from many sources. On the contrary, people with closed mind will always think that they can do it by their principals. So, what kind of person are you?
{"title":"Finance & Development, September 1999","authors":"Imf. External Relations Dept.","doi":"10.5089/9781451952292.022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5089/9781451952292.022","url":null,"abstract":"Well, someone can decide by themselves what they want to do and need to do but sometimes, that kind of person will need some finance development september 1992 references. People with open minded will always try to seek for the new things and information from many sources. On the contrary, people with closed mind will always think that they can do it by their principals. So, what kind of person are you?","PeriodicalId":39674,"journal":{"name":"Finance and Development","volume":"49 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1999-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81735413","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 1998-01-01DOI: 10.5089/9781451952780.022.A008
F. Vogl
ruption, the news media and most international institutions (whether official or nongovernmental) focus on the demand side of the equation: on public officials who abuse their office for private gain. Frequently, the supply side is given less attention. Those who pay bribes are sometimes depicted as innocent parties, forced by ruthless officials to provide kickbacks and do special favors in return for business. The reality is that both parties to corrupt practices conspire to defraud the public, to undermine fair trade, to waste resources, to frustrate development, and often to increase human suffering. For example, suppose a European supplier of pharmaceuticals does a deal with a minister of health from a developing country that has received emergency funds from an aid agency to purchase urgently required medicines. Instead of agreeing on a purchase of new drugs, the minister and the supplier conspire to use the aid funds to purchase out-of-date drugs, which are far cheaper. The supplier consequently makes a handsome profit and places a portion of it in an offshore bank account set up by the minister. Many of those in the minister’s country who are sick receive the old, less effective drugs and die.
{"title":"The Supply Side of Global Bribery","authors":"F. Vogl","doi":"10.5089/9781451952780.022.A008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5089/9781451952780.022.A008","url":null,"abstract":"ruption, the news media and most international institutions (whether official or nongovernmental) focus on the demand side of the equation: on public officials who abuse their office for private gain. Frequently, the supply side is given less attention. Those who pay bribes are sometimes depicted as innocent parties, forced by ruthless officials to provide kickbacks and do special favors in return for business. The reality is that both parties to corrupt practices conspire to defraud the public, to undermine fair trade, to waste resources, to frustrate development, and often to increase human suffering. For example, suppose a European supplier of pharmaceuticals does a deal with a minister of health from a developing country that has received emergency funds from an aid agency to purchase urgently required medicines. Instead of agreeing on a purchase of new drugs, the minister and the supplier conspire to use the aid funds to purchase out-of-date drugs, which are far cheaper. The supplier consequently makes a handsome profit and places a portion of it in an offshore bank account set up by the minister. Many of those in the minister’s country who are sick receive the old, less effective drugs and die.","PeriodicalId":39674,"journal":{"name":"Finance and Development","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1998-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79152034","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Markets and institutions in large-scale privatization - an approach to economic and social transformation in Eastern Europe privatization and corporate governance - can a market economy be designed? evolution and design in the East European transition mechanisms for corporate governance and finance insiders and the state - overview of responses to agency problems in East European privatization privatization in Eastern Europe - is the state withering away? ambiguity of privatization and the paths of transition to a private property regime.
{"title":"Privatization in Eastern Europe. Is the State Withering Away","authors":"R. Frydman, Andrzej Rapaczyński","doi":"10.5860/choice.32-1636","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.32-1636","url":null,"abstract":"Markets and institutions in large-scale privatization - an approach to economic and social transformation in Eastern Europe privatization and corporate governance - can a market economy be designed? evolution and design in the East European transition mechanisms for corporate governance and finance insiders and the state - overview of responses to agency problems in East European privatization privatization in Eastern Europe - is the state withering away? ambiguity of privatization and the paths of transition to a private property regime.","PeriodicalId":39674,"journal":{"name":"Finance and Development","volume":"04 1","pages":"10-13"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1994-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86099081","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 1993-01-01DOI: 10.5089/9781451981605.022
Imf. External Relations Dept.
{"title":"F & D June 1993 (Russian)","authors":"Imf. External Relations Dept.","doi":"10.5089/9781451981605.022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5089/9781451981605.022","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":39674,"journal":{"name":"Finance and Development","volume":"90 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1993-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74713317","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}