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PurposeThe paper seeks to examine the impact of social exclusion on individuals' propensity to be employed and how, if employed, social exclusion affects individuals' perceived job insecurity and the likelihood of being covered by social insurance in their jobs.Design/methodology/approachUsing the United Nations Development Program/United Nations Children Fund 2009 survey data from Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the paper employs comprehensive econometric methods that overcome challenges posed by endogeneity of social exclusion in labour market outcomes, self‐selection into employment, and the interdependency between perceptions of job security and social insurance coverage.FindingsResults suggest that socially excluded individuals face hurdles in securing jobs and exhibit higher risk of job loss. Further, results suggest that a holistic educational policy could help promote social inclusion.Practical implicationsFormulation of policies aimed at promoting social inclusion and improved labour market outcomes should not be done in isolation; rather they should be based on a holistic understanding of the multi‐faceted nature of social exclusion.Originality/valueThe originality of the analysis is that it takes into account the multi‐dimensional nature of social exclusion by treating social exclusion as an outcome of a diverse set of an individual's socio‐economic characteristics that ultimately shape the way they feel about their exclusion or inclusion in their societies. This gives an indication of the types of people that are socially excluded and form the group for which a further investigation of labour market outcomes is conducted.

ABSTRACTThe mopane worm, which is the caterpillar form of the Saturnid moth Imbrasia belina Westwood, is – like other edible insects and caterpillars – a vital source of protein in southern African countries. The worms live and graze on mopane trees, which have alternative uses. With increasing commercialization of the worm, its management, which was hitherto organized as a common property resource, has been degraded to almost open access. This paper uses a bioeconomic modelling approach to show that for some optimal allocation of the mopane forest stock, the restrictive harvest period policy advocated by community leaders may not lead to sustainable harvesting of the worm.

AbstractThere is a growing need to understand how climate change impacts not only on people's livelihoods but also on the level and cost of local government infrastructure required to provide basic commodities such as water and energy. In South Africa, few studies have examined the impact of climate change on operations of local governments. This paper examines the impact of rainfall variability on municipalities' water and energy demand. A non‐linear relationship between water and energy demand and rainfall variability was found. The results suggest that, by influencing the operations and budgets of local governments, climate change is a real threat to local governments. The local governments need to be proactively involved in the efforts to adapt to and mitigate climate change. This is particularly important in developing countries where the impact of climate change is more severe than in developed countries, yet adaptation and mitigation capabilities in these countries are weak.

Purpose
– The paper aims to examine factors that influence individuals' preferences between wages indexed on job performance or efficiency over equity-based wages.


Design/methodology/approach
– Generalized linear latent and mixed models (GLLAMM) are estimated on the 2005 wave of the World Values Survey on employed individuals from 43 countries.


Findings
– Results suggest that employees' preference for efficiency-based wages increases with education and globalization, while it decreases with unemployment rates.


Research limitations/implications
– Institutions and specifically public policies that promote education, and globalization, along with policies that reduce unemployment rates could be used to promote wage setting policies that reward performance or efficiency.


Originality/value
– The originality of the study lies in its use of both individual- and country-level data to estimate GLLAMM that take into account the multi-level nature of the dataset. This study can inform firms and policymakers on what measures to adopt to promote preferences for efficiency-based wages among individuals.

Presently, the mountain gorilla in Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo is endangered mainly by poaching and habitat loss. This paper sets out to investigate the possible resolution of poaching involving the local community by using benefit sharing schemes with local communities. Using a bioeconomic model, the paper demonstrates that the current revenue sharing scheme yields suboptimal conservation outcomes. It is, however, shown that a performance-linked benefit sharing scheme in which the Park Agency makes payment to the local community based on the growth of the gorilla stock can achieve socially optimal conservation. This scheme renders poaching effort by the local community, and therefore poaching fines and antipoaching enforcement toward the local community unnecessary. Given the huge financial outlay requirements for the ideal benefit sharing scheme, the Park Agencies in central Africa could reap more financial benefits for use in conservation if they employ an oligopolistic pricing strategy for gorilla tourism.