100 key research questions for the post‐2015 development agenda

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) herald a new phase for international development. This article presents the results of a consultative exercise to collaboratively identify 100 research questions of critical importance for the post‐2015 international development agenda. The final shortlist is grouped into nine thematic areas and was selected by 21 representatives of international and non‐governmental organisations and consultancies, and 14 academics with diverse disciplinary expertise from an initial pool of 704 questions submitted by 110 organisations based in 34 countries. The shortlist includes questions addressing long‐standing problems, new challenges and broader issues related to development policies, practices and institutions. Collectively, these questions are relevant for future development‐related research priorities of governmental and non‐governmental organisations worldwide and could act as focal points for transdisciplinary research collaborations.     

Feminized cultural capital at work in the moral economy: Home credit and working-class women

One of the defining features of the home credit sector is the role played by its agents—workers who act as intermediaries between lending companies and borrowers to facilitate lending and collect repayments. There is a prevailing and pervasive narrative in the sector that women make superior agents, largely based on the belief that female agents can manage relationships with borrowers more successfully than their male counterparts. This article analyzes data from 349,078 home credit accounts (loans), as well as 71 interviews with home credit agents and lending company managers, to evaluate both the myths and realities of women's roles in home credit. The data is also used to explore the opportunities for—and potential constraints on—women's career progression in home credit work, based on an understanding of the moral economy in which they operate. By exploring the moral economy of low-income communities, the article highlights the role of working-class women's cultural capital within the labor market. Despite women forming the majority of the agent workforce in home credit, women's capital is undervalued in comparison with their male counterparts' capital. The analysis within this article allows a greater understanding of the highly classed and gendered nature of the moral economy of low-income communities and the exchange value of women's capital within the labor market.     

KNOWLEDGE SPILLOVERS AND OUTPUT PER WORKER: AN INDUSTRY‐LEVEL ANALYSIS FOR OECD COUNTRIES

This study analyzes the impact of knowledge spillovers on output per worker at the industry level using a primal production function approach. The article makes three different contributions to the international spillovers literature: (1) it identifies trade‐related spillovers under alternative assumptions regarding the information transferred through imports; (2) it explores the importance of horizontal and vertical foreign direct investment (FDI) in knowledge spillovers; and (3) it looks at how institutional factors determine the impact of FDI‐related spillovers on productivity. The main findings of the study are: (1) international knowledge spillover is an important driver of industry output per worker, and the magnitude of this spillover effect varies with alternative assumptions about the information content embodied in imports, while high technology industries benefit significantly more from import‐related knowledge spillovers; and (2) the gains from FDI spillovers are primarily horizontal, but when institutional factors are considered, countries with stronger protection of intellectual property rights and a high “ease of doing business” tend to experience a substantial increase in the effectiveness of both horizontal and vertical FDI‐related spillovers. (JEL E24, F1, F6, O3, O4)     

Paying for no reason? (Mis-)perceptions of product attributes in separate vs. joint product evaluation

Consumer decision-making involves the evaluation of options either in isolation or in relation to other alternatives present at the environment. According to Hsee’s evaluability hypothesis, it is easier to evaluate product attributes when they are juxtaposed (i.e., presented jointly) than when they are presented in isolation from each other. Recent research has provided some support to the evaluability hypothesis for the attribute of perceived product quantity. The present research tests the hypothesis in relation to the attribute of perceived fairness. In two experiments, we show that when participants evaluate products in isolation from each other, they err in their judgment of product quantity, and, consequently, they mis-attribute fairness to the seller. In a third experiment, we further show that the inclusion of constant yet unfair price information does not affect the fairness and price judgments. These findings provide evidence for the psychological plausibility of the evaluability hypothesis for the attributes of fairness and product quantity. Moreover, they suggest that isolated product evaluation may be systematically suboptimal for consumers, even when pricing information is included. Therefore, effective consumer decision-making will benefit by allowing the joint evaluation of alternatives.     

Efficiency of the Greek banking system in view of the EMU: a heteroscedastic stochastic frontier approach

The paper estimates empirically cost efficiency of the Greek banking system for the period 1993–1998. The beginning of the examination period coincides with the acceleration of liberalization and deregulation of the Greek financial system, in view of the country joining the EMU. The study uses a multi-input, multi-output technology and adopts a heteroscedastic frontier model instead of a commonly used homoscedastic one to measure cost efficiency in the banking system. The empirical results show that larger banks are less efficient than smaller ones. Also, it is found that economic performance, bank loans and investments are positive related to the cost efficiency of the Greek commercial banking sector.     

The Durham Family Initiative: a preventive system of care

This article describes the Durham Family Initiative (DFI), an innovative effort to bring together child welfare and juvenile justice systems to reach DFI's goal of reducing the child abuse rate in Durham, North Carolina, by 50% within the next 10 years. DFI will follow principles of a preventive system of care (PSoC), which focuses on nurturing the healthy parent-child relationship. A community collaborative of government agency directors has signed a memorandum of agreement to implement the PSoC principles. The researchers will use multiple methods to evaluate DFI's efficacy.