Framing microfinance in Australia – gender neutral or gender blind?

In Australia, microfinance is gaining visibility as a distinct poverty alleviation strategy. Within the Australian microfinance policy and program discourses, the microfinance sector is framed as targeting both men and women equally. Yet at the practice level, the majority of loan recipients are women. Such a gender neutral framing is in stark contrast to microfinance policy and practices developed elsewhere. This paper explores how gender is represented in microfinance policy and practice in Australia, drawing on an analysis of the policy and practice statements of Australian microfinance programs. It is argued that the robust feminist assessments of the relationship between microfinance and gender equality that have emerged in developing countries could usefully inform Australian developments in this area of social policy, but that this shift requires acknowledging gender in the framing of the problem Australian microfinance seeks to address.     

Relative performance of academic departments using DEA with sensitivity analysis

The process of liberalization and globalization of Indian economy has brought new opportunities and challenges in all areas of human endeavor including education. Educational institutions have to adopt new strategies to make best use of the opportunities and counter the challenges. One of these challenges is how to assess the performance of academic programs based on multiple criteria. Keeping this in view, this paper attempts to evaluate the performance efficiencies of 19 academic departments of IIT Roorkee (India) through data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique. The technique has been used to assess the performance of academic institutions in a number of countries like USA, UK, Australia, etc. But we are using it first time in Indian context to the best of our knowledge. Applying DEA models, we calculate technical, pure technical and scale efficiencies and identify the reference sets for inefficient departments. Input and output projections are also suggested for inefficient departments to reach the frontier. Overall performance, research performance and teaching performance are assessed separately using sensitivity analysis.     

Field and remotely sensed measures of soil and vegetation carbon and nitrogen across an urbanization gradient in the Boston metropolitan area

Understanding the impact of urbanization on terrestrial biogeochemistry is critical for addressing society’s grand challenge of global environmental change. We used field observations and remotely sensed data to quantify the effects of urbanization on vegetation and soils across a 100-km urbanization gradient extending from Boston to Harvard Forest and Worcester, MA. At the field-plot scale, the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) was positively correlated with aboveground biomass (AGB) and foliar nitrogen (N) content and negatively correlated with impervious surface fraction. Unlike previous studies, we found no significant relationship between NDVI or impervious surface area (ISA) fraction and foliar N concentration. Patterns in foliar N appeared to be driven more strongly by changes in species composition rather than phenotypic plasticity across the urbanization gradient. For forest and non-residential development, soil nitrogen content increased with urban intensity. In contrast, residential land had consistently high soil N content across the gradient of urbanization. When field observations were scaled-up to the Boston Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), we found that soil and vegetation N content were negatively correlated with ISA fraction, an indicator of urban intensity. Our results demonstrated the importance of accounting for the influence of impervious surfaces when scaling field data across urban ecosystems. The combination of field data with remote sensing holds promise for disentangling the complex interactions that drive biogeochemical cycling in urbanizing landscapes. Empirical data that accurately characterize variations in urban biogeochemistry are critical to gain a mechanistic understanding of urban ecosystem function and to guide policy makers and planners in developing ecologically sensitive development strategies.     

Tests for exponentiality against new better than old in expectation and new better than some used in expectation alternatives

We present statistical procedures for testing exponentiality againt New Better than Old in Expectation (NBOE) and New Better than Some Used in Expectation (NBSUE) alternatives. The test statistics devised for the purpose are U-Statistics and hence asymptotically normally distributed. Pitman's asymptotic relative efficiency results have been obtained and Monte Carlo study presented to compare power of the test proposed with the other tests.     

Quality of Life in the City of Delhi: An Assessment Based on Access to Basic Services

The quality of life is a fundamental aspect of development and advancement of human societies. However, measuring and expressing the quality of life in any given setting has proved difficult because it includes multiple dimensions. Further, methods based on questionnaire surveys have to contend with responses that are inexact and difficult to quantify. Here I estimate the quality of life of people living in the Indian city of Delhi using fuzzy sets theory, an approach that is designed to handle inexact or ‘fuzzy’ outcomes. Using a stratified random sample set of 330 households, I compare different locations in Delhi based on their access to seven basic services that is assumed to depict the quality of life. I found that the majority of services (in particular, the overall maintenance and transport services) are poor in resettlement colonies, unauthorised colonies, and urbanised villages. The quality of services improves in colonies under the jurisdiction of the Delhi Cantonment Board, the New Delhi Municipal Council, and approved colonies of the Delhi Development Authority. The overall patterns suggest that the differences in satisfaction and access are primarily influenced by location, and within each location they are influenced by economic conditions. Over 36 % of Delhi’s households, which are classified as ‘definitely poor’ and ‘extremely vulnerable’, may be deprived of transport services, around 44 % are deprived of overall maintenance services and over 29 % lack well-maintained green spaces in their neighbourhood. The analysis should draw the attention of policymakers on spatial aspects of development planning.     

Urban high-resolution fossil fuel CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> emissions quantification and exploration of emission drivers for potential policy applications

Fossil fuel carbon dioxide (FFCO₂) emissions are the largest driver of anthropogenic climate change. Approximately three-quarters of the world’s fossil fuels carbon dioxide emissions are generated in urban areas. We used the Hestia high resolution approach to quantify FFCO₂ for Salt Lake County, Utah, USA and demonstrate the importance of high resolution quantification to urban emissions mitigation policymaking. We focus on the residential and onroad sectors across both urbanized and urbanizing parts of the valley. Stochastic Impact by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology (STIRPAT) regression models using sociodemographic data at the census block group level shows that population, per capita income, and building age exhibit positive relationships while household size shows a negative relationship with FFCO₂ emissions. Compact development shows little effect on FFCO₂ emissions in this domain. FFCO₂ emissions in high income block groups is twice as sensitive to income than low income block groups. Emissions are four times as sensitive to household size in low-income versus high-income block groups. These results suggest that policy options targeting personal responsibility or knowledge feedback loops may be the most effective strategies. Examples include utility bill performance comparison or publicly available energy maps identifying high-emitting areas. Within the onroad sector, high emissions density (FFCO₂/km) is associated with primary roads, while high emissions intensity (FFCO₂/VMT) is associated with secondary roads. Opportunities exist for alignment of public transportation extension with remaining high emission road segments, offering a prioritization of new onroad transportation policy in Salt Lake County.     

Investing: the case for recognition as an independent capacity

In this article, we provide support for the need to recognize investing as an independent capacity. A comparison of the definitions and models of financial and investing capacities revealed significant differences between them. A review of the status of investing capacity assessment revealed that there are currently no investing capacity specific assessment instruments (ICSAIs). Implications for researchers and clinicians resulting from the lack of recognition of investing as an independent capacity are discussed and used as a rational for the need to develop ICSAIs. The benefits of ICSAI development for financial, legal, and clinical professionals as well as for investors are discussed, and a direction for future investing capacity research is proposed.     

Risk and Protective Factors for Educational Achievement Among Serious Offending Girls

Using longitudinal data, this analysis: (1) documented educational outcomes for serious offending girls, and (2) identified risk and protective factors associated with academic achievement in mid‐adolescence and degree attainment by early adulthood. In mid‐adolescence, girls performed nearly one standard deviation below the population mean on academic achievement tests. Low IQ and special education needs were strong correlates of poor academic achievement, but living in a highly educated neighborhood was associated with higher academic achievement scores. By early adulthood, 62.7% of girls had received a General Educational Development (GED) or high school degree, and mid‐adolescent academic achievement was the strongest predictor of degree attainment. Results suggest a need for early academic intervention targeting individual and neighborhood factors among offending girls.     

An Exploratory Study of Variations in Exposure to Environmental Tobacco Smoke in the United States

There is considerable interest in assessing exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) and in understanding the factors that affect exposure at various venues. The impact of these complex factors can be researched only if monitoring studies are carefully designed. Prior work by Jenkins et al. gathered personal monitor and diary data from 1,564 nonsmokers in 16 metropolitan areas of the United States and compared workplace exposures to ETS with exposures away from work. In this study, these data were probed further to examine (1) the correspondence between work and away-from-work exposure concentrations of ETS; (2) the variability in exposure concentration levels across cities; and (3) the association of ETS exposure concentrations with select socioeconomic, occupation, and lifestyle variables. The results indicate (1) at the population level, there was a positive association between ETS concentrations at the work and away-from-work environments; (2) exposure concentration levels across the 16 cities under consideration were highly variable; and (3) exposure concentration levels were significantly associated with occupation, education, household income, age, and dietary factors. Workplace smoking restrictions were associated with low ETS concentration levels at work as well as away from work. Generally, the same cities that exhibited either lower or higher away-from-work exposure concentration levels also showed lower or higher work exposure concentration levels. The observations suggest that similar avoidance characteristics as well as socioeconomic and other lifestyle factors that affect exposure to ETS may have been in operation in both away-from-work and work settings.