Shahin Yaqub - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Shahin Yaqub

Practical Action Publishing eBooks, 2003

ABSTRACT This article investigates whether the acquisition of greater skills, resources, confiden... more ABSTRACT This article investigates whether the acquisition of greater skills, resources, confidence and social position through repeated micro-credit borrowing might reduce the effectiveness of mechanisms which promote repayment. The idea is motivated by new data from BRAC's (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee) Rural Development Programme, in which repayment appears to decline with repeated borrowing. In lending without physical collateral, group-based finance (GBF) uses alternative 'collateral', such as obligation to peers, which is socially based. GBF relies partly on high administrative inputs (for group formation, and for weekly visits by fieldworkers), and substantially on the borrowers' lack of alternative sources of credit and social powerlessness. If so, repayments will be undermined if repeated borrowing empowers by enriching and individualizing borrowers (through 'individual empowerment'), or improving access to alternative credit (through 'social transformation'). This is particularly important where groups have been formed simply to supply cheaper credit. The BRAC experience suggests that a micro-credit intervention, based strongly on incentives for individual self-enrichment alone, eventually undermines the social forces inducing repayment by changing the incentives and costs associated with honouring the financial contract.

This paper focuses on independent migrant children, defined as below 18 years old, who choose to ... more This paper focuses on independent migrant children, defined as below 18 years old, who choose to move from home and live at destinations without a parent or adult guardian. It summarises quantitative and qualitative research, and uses this to reflect on research agendas and global debates towards linking migration and development. The paper surveys historical evidence on linkages between children’s migration and societal development in earlier periods of modernisation, and identifies parallels to contemporary developing countries. The contemporary situation in developing countries is described in terms of: (1) numerical scale; (2) individual and family characteristics of the children involved; (3) decision-makers and decision-making processes in children’s movements; (4) why it happens, including from children’s viewpoints; (5) modes of movements; and (6) situations of children at destinations. The paper considers the extent to which children may demand migration opportunities, and ...

Much has been written during the 1990s about poverty. The main argument however, is that particul... more Much has been written during the 1990s about poverty. The main argument however, is that particularly in Africa, there is a dearth of information and that governments and donor agencies pay too little attention to this issue of poverty. This crucially limits effective and timely action against poverty. This paper analyzes the information that lies at the base of these debates. However, it is now recognized that knowledge of poverty in Africa and the Middle East has increased during the last decade. To illustrate this, the paper discusses information on trends and profiles of poverty. Nevertheless, the process has just begun for providing decision makers with sufficient and timely poverty information. At this time, information is still inadequate to rigorously cross-check, evaluate and answer significant questions which exist. Specifically two critical questions are raised regarding the available poverty information: (a) data availability, timeliness and quality; and (b) usefulness o...

Innocenti Discussion Papers, 2009

South-South Migration, 2010

Concepts, Measures and Applications, 2008

Journal of International Development, 2002

Journal of Human Development, 2006

... Nigel Dower. Nancy Folbre. Haishan Fu. Ricardo Fuentes. Sakiko Fukuda Parr. Arunabha Ghosh. I... more ... Nigel Dower. Nancy Folbre. Haishan Fu. Ricardo Fuentes. Sakiko Fukuda Parr. Arunabha Ghosh. Indira Hirway. Vanus James. Richard Jolly. Hans Keiding. Asmeen Khan. Geoffrey Kirkman. Stephan Klasen. David Kucera. Timo Kuosmanen. ...

IDS Bulletin, 1998

instability, etc.). In many countries financial development has been severely repressed. For exam... more instability, etc.). In many countries financial development has been severely repressed. For example, financial deepening in sub-Saharan Africa in 1980 was the same as in East Asia 20 years earlier, as indicated by estimates of M2IGDP (Cole and Duesenberry 1994). Thus, there remains a strong case for less meddling in financial sectors, especially to eliminate crude macroeconomic instruments like interest-rate ceilings. The purpose of the article is to examine how the poor might best be served when current approaches to financial sector development are applied to micro-finance. The article concludes that in spite of predictions by financial liberalisalion theory the poor are likely to remain underserved by the financial markets.

Small Enterprise Development, 1995

... Peers undertake monitoring and enforcement roles to avoid the choice arising from a default b... more ... Peers undertake monitoring and enforcement roles to avoid the choice arising from a default by a ... 1993), due to a variety of factors such as organizational com-mitment and methodology. ...Avoiding the social costs of peer pressure in solidarity group micro-credit schemes, CDS ...

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2002

1 The authors are grateful to the WDR team for useful comments on an earlier draft, and in partic... more 1 The authors are grateful to the WDR team for useful comments on an earlier draft, and in particular to Chris Grooatert for his constant support and patience towards the end. 12 'Asymmetric information' arises when some parties to an arrangement know details relevant to its effects, but others do not, and this affects the decision whether to enter into an arrangement (adverse selection) or how to behave afterwards (moral hazard). Asymmetric information is very important in insurance, credit, and many other treatments for various sorts of risk. 13 The policy papers of the World Bank's Social Protection Division show intent to do this. To achieve it, the Division may need (a) to shift its portfolio towards low-income countries, and away from formal social insurance and adjustment compensation that seldom affects the poorest people; (b) to oversee the risk/DF Impacts on the poor of choices (e.g. in irrigation, or sequencing of liberalisation) throughout the Bank and borrowing countries. 14 The two main mitigating strategies are insurance and diversification. The latter is based on the distinction between partial and total DFs, and exploits the fact that not all types of item within an individual's portfolio are subject to DFs at similar times. Insurance also exploits that (in the case of risks), among persons or households exposed to a particular risk (normally idiosyncratic risks are much more insurable than highly covariate ones).

Journal of Asian and African Studies, 2002

Abstract Recent panel data sets suggest that in some places perhaps half of the poor are not poor... more Abstract Recent panel data sets suggest that in some places perhaps half of the poor are not poor all the time, and also as much as 80 percent of&amp;amp;quot; poverty severity&amp;amp;quot; may be due to large fluctuations through time. Some of these dynamics are due to life-cycle events, but much ...

... the other. A strand of this literature identifies particular ages when various human function... more ... the other. A strand of this literature identifies particular ages when various human functionings are sensitive to development (Bornstein 1989). For ... up. Page 11. 11 5 REFERENCES Ben-Shlomo, Yoav and Diana Kuh (2002). A life ...