Farming under constrained budgets: Practices of agricultural credit users in central Lombok, Indonesia

There has been a long dependency on credit by Indonesian farmers as a result of the lack of capital to apply proper farming practices. This paper describes the farming activities applied by agricultural credit users in Central Lombok, Indonesia. A survey was conducted during July 2001- March 2002 of 65 farmers making use of government or private credit in three villages within the Regency. Data from the farmers were collected using face-to-face, semi-structured interviews. Survey results indicated that on average, farmers had some 20 years experience of farming, were aged 40 years, but lacked of formal education. Their main asset was cropping land with average landholding of 0.69 ha. As a consequence of their capital constraints, farmers were commonly making use of credit to finance their farming activities, including both production of rice as the main crop and secondary crops. Farmers generally applied less than recommended amount of inputs in their farming practices, since the amount of credit they obtained was limited. As a result, their farms become less productive and their repayment capability of loans diminished. Of 65 farmers interviewed, 54 could earn extra income by engaging in a variety of non-farm activities, which contributed on average some 36% to family incomes of over Rp 5 million (A$ 1 thousand). The average credit repayment rate made by agricultural producers was 60%. The repayment made did not always reflect farm production capacity, being sometimes supported by other borrowings. The greater role of credit is not in increasing agricultural production or improving farmers’ income, but in helping them to sustain farm production and their living. Farmers need a bigger amount of credit to make an impact on their livelihood. This should be accompanied by extension services for farmers to enable better use of credit and to change their attitude towards it. As well, farmers require to be equipped with technical and market skills to run a business. Interdisciplinarity, holistic analysis, and an expansion of traditional ‘agricultural’ interests to embrace the span of interests included in rural livelihood, are each critical features of revision of the existing system.

The moving targets algorithm for difficult temporal credit assignment problems

The 'moving targets' algorithm for training recurrent networks is reviewed and applied to a task which demonstrates the ability of this algorithm to use distant contextual information. Some practical difficulties are discussed, especially with regard to the minimization process. Results on performance and computational requirements of several different 2nd-order minimization algorithms are presented for moving target problems.

I don't see me like you see me, but is that a problem? Cultural influences on rating discrepancy in 360-degree feedback instruments

360-degree feedback from a variety of rater sources yields important information about leaders' styles, strengths and weaknesses for development. Results where observer ratings are discrepant (i.e., different) from self-ratings are often seen as indicators of problematic leadership relationships, skills, or lack of self-awareness. Yet research into the antecedents of such self-observer rating discrepancy suggests the presence of systematic influences, such as cultural values. The present study investigates the variation of rating discrepancies on three leadership skills (decision making, leading employees, and composure) in dependence of one exemplary culture dimension (power distance) on data from 31 countries using multilevel structural equation modelling. Results show that cultural values indeed predict self-observer rating discrepancies. Thus, systemic and contextual influences such as culture need to be taken into consideration when interpreting the importance and meaning of self-observer rating discrepancies in 360-degree instruments.

Credit and collateral

Collateral - generally defined as an asset used to provide security for a lender's loan - is an important feature of credit contracts and all the available evidence suggests that its use is getting more pervasive. This informative book builds upon recent research into this topic. Sena analyses three case-studies that revolve around the impact that financial constraints have on economic outcomes. In the first case-study, the relationship between firms' technical efficiency and increasing financial pressure is explored. The author then goes on to show, in the second case study, that under specific circumstances, increasing financial pressure and increasing product market competition can jointly have a positive impact on firms' technical efficiency, while not being true for all types of firms. In the third case, she analyses the impact that finance constraints have on women's start-ups. Unique and revealing, this is the first book to deal so extensively with the topic of collateral, and as such, is a valuable reference to postgraduates and professionals in the fields of macroeconomics, monetary and business economics. © 2008 Vania Sena. All rights reserved.

Marketing strategy and new product development in the UK credit card industry

The development of new products in today's marketing environment is generally accepted as a requirement for the continual growth and prosperity of organisations. The literature is consequently rich with information on the development of various aspects of good products. In the case of service industries, it can be argued that new service product development is of as least equal importance as it is to organisations that produce tangible goods products. Unlike the new goods product literature, the literature on service marketing practices, and in particular, new service product development, is relatively sparse. The main purpose of this thesis is to examine a number of aspects of new service product development practice with respect to financial services and specifically, credit card financial services. The empirical investigation utilises both a case study and a survey approach, to examine aspects of new service product development industry practice relating specifically to gaps and deficiencies in the literature with respect to the financial service industry. The findings of the empirical work are subsequently examined in the context in which they provide guidance and support for a new normative new service product development model. The study examines the UK credit card financial service product sector as an industry case study and perspective. The findings of the field work reveal that the new service product development process is still evolving, and that in the case of credit card financial services can be seen as a well-structured and well-documented process. New product development can also be seen as an incremental, complex, interactive and continuous process which has been applied in a variety of ways. A number of inferences are subsequently presented.

Export credit finance with special reference to EEC countries

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Quality performance rating

This Thesis reports on the principles and usefulness of Performance Rating as developed by the writer over a number of years. In Part one a brief analysis is made of the Quality scene and its development up to the present. The need is exposed for Performance Rating as a tool for all areas of management*. At the same time a system of Quality Control is described which the writer has further developed under the title of 'Operator Control'. This system is based on the integration of all Quality control functions with the creative functions required for Quality achievement. The discussions are mainly focussed on the general philosophy of Quality, its creation and control and that part of Operator Control which affects Performance Rating. Whereas it is shown that the combination of Operator Control and Performance Rating is both economically and technically advantageous, Performance Rating can also usefully be applied under inspection control conditions. Part two describes the principles of Area Performance Rating. *The need for, and the advantages of, Performance Rating are particularly demonstrated in Case study No.1. From this a summation expression is derived which gives the key for grouping of areas with similar Performance Rating (P). A model is devised on which the theory is demonstrated. Relevant case studies, carried out in practice in factories are quoted in Part two, Chapter 4, one written by the Quality manager of that particular factory. Particular stress is laid in the final conclusions on management's function in the Quality field and how greatly this function is eased and improved through the introduction of Area Performance Rating.

Implications of bank ownership for the credit channel of monetary policy transmission:evidence from India

Using bank-level data from India, we examine the impact of ownership on the reaction of banks to monetary policy, and also test whether the reaction of different types of banks to monetary policy changes is different in easy and tight policy regimes. Our results suggest that there are considerable differences in the reactions of different types of banks to monetary policy initiatives of the central bank, and that the bank lending channel of monetary policy is likely to be much more effective in a tight money period than in an easy money period. We also find differences in impact of monetary policy changes on less risky short-term and more risky medium-term lending. We discuss the policy implications of the findings.

Interaction between formal and informal sector credit:new evidence from India

Using a new pan-Indian data set, we examine the factors that potentially influence joint access to formal and informal credit markets. Our results are consistent with the literature and bring some new factors influencing access to credit to the fore.

Sticky credit spreads, macroeconomic activity and equity market volatility

We uncover high persistence in credit spread series that can obscure the relationship between the theoretical determinants of credit risk and observed credit spreads. We use a Markovswitching model, which also captures the stability (low frequency changes) of credit ratings, to show why credit spreads may continue to respond to past levels of credit risk, even though the state of the economy has changed. A bivariate model of credit spreads and either macroeconomic activity or equity market volatility detects large and significant correlations that are consistent with theory but have not been observed in previous studies. © 2010 Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

Wealth shocks, credit-supply shocks, and asset allocation:evidence from household and firm portfolios

We use a unique dataset with bank clients’ security holdings for all German banks to examine how macroeconomic shocks affect asset allocation preferences of households and non-financial firms. Our analysis focuses on two alternative mechanisms which can influence portfolio choice: wealth shocks, which are represented by the sovereign debt crisis in the Euro area, and credit-supply shocks which arise from reductions in borrowing abilities during bank distress. While households with large holdings of securities from stressed Euro area countries (Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and Spain) de-crease the degree of concentration in their security portfolio as a result of the Euro area crisis, non-financial firms with similar levels of holdings from stressed Euro area countries do not. Credit-supply shocks at the bank level result in lower concentration, for both households and non-financial corporations. Only shocks to corporate credit bear ramifications on bank clients’ portfolio concentration. Our results are robust to falsification tests, and instrumental variables estimation.