This article explores how a distinctive 'military' orientalism developed in response to the exposure of British soldiers to an unprecedented level of cross-cultural contact with the Mamluks, a military caste of warriors, during the campaign in Egypt in 1801. It offers a contribution towards the current understanding of 'military' orientalism, a term coined by Patrick Porter to describe how 'Western' militaries have viewed 'Eastern' modes of warfare. While Porter's analysis concentrates on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, this article returns the focus to what Edward Said identified as the foundational moment in European orientalism: the French occupation of Egypt, 1798–1801.
Dr Mehboob Ul Haq is surely an inspiration for anyone like me, who is interested in working with applied data and thinking about how that might be used to inform economic policy in useful ways. It is possibly application to usefully inform policies. Coming to the topic, it is important to consider two things. Firstly, what do the firm actually do, and secondly, what one should think about private sector as essentially fulfilling. Hence, there is a need to find out the most pressing research questions that need to be considered in this regard. I would start with the most fundamental question i.e. what does the firms do? Some would say it is a straight forward question. Firm takes different factors of production, sticks them together and then ends up with some output. As economists, we traditionally think obviously about the Cobb Douglas production function, which reflects concept of production. I am not going to talk today about the technology and capital, but I will discuss about workers role in production in a more holistic / comprehensive way. Imagine a firm in Pakistan that have a number of workers. Let us call them "N" and these workers have different abilities and qualities, so how would one calculate the total productivity, output or total contribution of the labour force. The simplest way to do this is just to add them up and say that the total labour contribution is the sum of the individual labourer"s contribution. This means that if one were to improve the productivity of the first worker, then yes, it would improve the firm"s productivity, however, it will not affect the productivity of any other worker of the firm. In practice, let us suppose in a firm in Sialkot, there are two women workers producing soccer balls, and to know their productivity we sum their output. Hence, if one out of these two women increases her production, it will be imagined as the increase in firm"s total productivity (without affecting the productivity of the other woman) and that will be imagined as a good thing.
Abstract This paper presents a summary of this issue of the Oxford Review of Economic Policy, on microfinance. The paper explores the evolving landscape of microfinance, with particular emphasis on its broadening scope. It summarizes the four parts of this journal issue, focusing on: (i) microfinance and its providers; (ii) the challenges of taking microfinance to scale; (iii) microfinance and digital credit; and (iv) microfinance and repayment flexibility.
Abstract This paper summarizes recent research in performance-based microfinance, and outlines future directions for research. We use the term 'microequity' to refer to any small-enterprise financing contract in which the repayment owed in each instalment depends positively upon the variable performance of the enterprise. We summarize research from financial economics and development economics to highlight the importance of implicit insurance in microequity contracts, and present a theoretical framework to illustrate the potential of microequity in supporting capital investment and incentivizing asset use. We conclude by highlighting directions for future research in this emerging field of microfinance.
Abstract This paper presents a summary assessment of this issue of the Oxford Review of Economic Policy, on forced migration. The issue is concerned with four important questions: (i) What are the general mechanisms by which forced migrants should be managed, and what frameworks should be used for supporting them? (ii) How can policy help refugees integrate into host economies; and what are the likely consequences of this integration? (iii) How are host communities likely to respond to the influx of refugees, and how can policy help to smooth this transition? and (iv) What role can policy play to encourage resilience among refugees and internally displaced people—and, one day, potentially support their return? Drawing from a diverse set of experiences and country case studies, the invited authors—who range from academics to policy practitioners—present and discuss current evidence and draw from their expertise to offer insights on these general themes in the economic policy response to forced migration. Among others, some of the recurring ideas for the design of policy include the need of anticipatory, systematic, and long- term approaches to the 'management' of forced displacement; the importance of building evidence, quantifying impacts, and understanding the distributional consequences of forced migration; and finally, the importance of bridging a gap in how the evidence is communicated and understood in the broader community.
Abstract This paper introduces and summarizes this issue of the Oxford Review of Economic Policy, on management practices. We outline key concepts in the empirical study of structured management practices, then summarize each of the eight papers that follows. We conclude by speculating on future directions for research and policy development in this area.
We run a novel field experiment to link managers of African manufacturing firms. The experiment resembles the many forms of interaction that business and community organizations offer to their members. The design features exogenous link formation, exogenous seeding of information, and exogenous assignment to treatment and placebo.We study the impact of the experiment on firm business practices outside of the lab. We find that the experiment successfully created new variation in social networks. We find significant diffusion of business practices in terms of VAT registration and having a bank current account. This diffusion is a combination of diffusion of innovation and simple imitation. At the time of our experiment, all three studied countries were undergoing large changes in their VAT legislation.
4: Discrete Multinomial Choice4.1 Binary Logit; 4.1.1 SIMULATING THE MODEL; 4.1.2 ESTIMATING THE MODEL; 4.1.3 ESTIMATING BY SIMULATION; 4.2 Multinomial Logit; 4.3 Multinomial Probit; 4.3.1 SIMULATING THE MODEL; 4.3.2 ESTIMATING BY SIMULATION; 4.3.3 A LOGIT-SMOOTHED AR SIMULATOR; 4.4 Review and Exercises; 4.4.1 FURTHER READING; 5: Discrete Games; 5.1 A Simple Cournot Game; 5.1.1 FINDING THE BEST-RESPONSE FUNCTION; 5.2 A Discrete Bayesian Game; 5.2.1 SIMULATING THE GAME; 5.2.2 ESTIMATION; 5.3 Review and Exercises; 5.3.1 FURTHER READING; Part III: Dynamics; 6: Dynamic Choice on a FiniteHorizon.
We run a field experiment offering graduated microcredit clients the opportunity to finance a business asset worth four times their usual borrowing limit. We implement this using a hire-purchase contract; our control group is offered a zero interest loan at the usual borrowing limit. We find large, significant, and persistent effects: treated microenterprise owners run larger businesses with higher profits; consequently, household consumption increases, particularly on food and children's education. A dynamic structural model with nonconvex capital adjustment costs rationalizes our results and allows counterfactual analysis; this highlights the potential for welfare improvements through large capital injections that are financially sustainable. (JEL C93, D22, G21, G32, L25, O14, O16)
