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Credit is an essential element in the production process in agriculture. There are two sources from which farm households can access credit: institutional sources and non-institutional or informal sources of credit. The informal sources of credit, such as moneylenders, charge exorbitant rates of interest, which further puts a financial burden on the farmers. Hence, to increase the flow of credit from institutional sources, a policy known as the interest subvention scheme (ISS) was introduced in the year 2006. This paper aims to find the effect of the ISS on the behaviour of farm households.

The author has used difference-in-difference analysis for estimation. In the analysis, the author has taken Madhya Pradesh as the treatment state and Andhra Pradesh as the controlled state. The author has used the Village Dynamics in South Asia (VDSA) dataset of ICRISAT for analysis. The author has used data from 2009 to 2014 for the two states.

The author has found that the difference between the average interest rate of Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh is significant for both pre-treatment and post-treatment periods and this gap has increased after the intervention period. The results suggest that the share of informal sector borrowings has reduced in the treatment group (Madhya Pradesh) as compared to the control group (Andhra Pradesh) in the post-treatment period.

This paper is particularly important because of the dearth of literature on the impact of this scheme in India and may shed light on the much-needed policy implications of this particular policy.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the impending relationship between the impact of the US–China trade war on Taiwanese firms' spending on R&D and their offshore investment in technologically advanced countries (TAC), the authors examined if changes in these firms' R&D ratios and the growing presence of skilled workers in Taiwan's labour market during the trade war have affected their offshore investments in TAC.

Using a model built on pooled cross-sectional time-series data from 2012–2019, the authors examined whether a change in R&D ratios of domestic firms in Taiwan and the growing presence of skilled workers in Taiwan's labour market have affected the offshore investment by these firms during the trade war. Using data from the Manpower Utilisation Survey, the authors applied differences–in–differences–in–differences and differences–in–differences–in–differences–in–differences estimation methods and found that the trade war indeed gave a boost to Taiwan's job market, particularly for skilled workers.

From the estimation results, the authors noticed a rise in employment opportunities alongside a decline in the earnings of skilled workers in industries where more firms have spent on R&D as well as invested in offshore operations. However, firms in Taiwan that had not heavily spent on R&D from industries where investment in foreign operations was otherwise high have also attracted skilled workers during the trade war.

An in-depth analysis of the impact of the trade war on domestic firms' spending on R&D and their investment in offshore operations in TAC should be helpful to policymakers interested in understanding the effects of the trade war and subsequent changes in firms' spending on R&D on labour market outcomes. If changes in the R&D ratios and a steady supply of skilled workers influenced the outflow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to TAC, this insight could be helpful for those devising policies and measures to curb the impact of the trade war on domestic spending on R&D.

The study findings not only provide broad lessons to policymakers in Taiwan, but the country case study can guide growing economies that are equally careful while perceiving trade war as a significant deterrent to domestic R&D spending and the outflow of FDI.

This paper aims to study the impact of CEOs' cultural background on corporate innovation. The paper constructs a measure of CEOs' cultural individualism based on their birthplaces and investigates its relationship with firms' patents and citations. The study aims to shed light on the interaction of culture and corporate decisions and focuses on the role of top managers. The paper also investigates the mechanism of how top management can affect corporate innovation output.

The paper constructs the measure of individualism using the westward expansion in US history. To do so, the paper uses the US county-level duration of exposure of the frontier territory in the 19th century and links the counties to CEOs' birthplaces. The paper argues the cultural characteristics of birthplaces can affect a person's later management styles and decisions, hence affecting corporate innovation policies. Using regression and difference-in-differences estimations, the paper explores the relation and causality between cultural individualism and innovation output.

The paper finds that CEO cultural individualism is positively related with the number of patents produced by the firm and the citations received by the firm. Difference-in-differences tests using CEO turnovers support that the relation is causal. The paper also investigates the economic mechanism of how individualistic CEOs achieve such results. It finds that individualistic CEOs tend to hire more talented employees and improve the workplace environment to attract top inventors.

This paper provides firm-level evidence of culture and innovation. Prior studies in this area focus on cross-country evidence and suffer the limitation of confounding factors. Using a county-level measure of individualism and a sample of firms in USA, the paper alleviates the concern and provides evidence with better granularity. This paper also provides a novel mechanism for attracting top inventors, while existing literature tend to focus on risk-taking activities.

This paper analyzes the differential experiences of women in the Canadian labour market who hold lower-skilled jobs and have school-age children during two waves of Covid compared with more typical conditions pre-pandemic. The article seeks to test the hypothesis that workers at the intersection of womanhood, motherhood and precarious employment would endure even more disadvantageous labour market outcomes during the Covid pandemic than they did prior to it.

We employ a Gender-Based Plus (GBA+) and intersectionality lens to examine the differential effect of Covid on the effect of the trifecta of being a woman in a lower-skilled job and facing a motherhood penalty from school-age children. We use a Difference-in-Difference framework with Canadian Labour Force Survey (LFS) data to examine the differential effect of two waves of Covid on three labour market outcomes: employment, hours worked and hourly wages.

We find that being a woman in a lower-skilled job with school-age children is associated with lower employment, hours worked and wages in normal times compared to males in those same situations. Such women also face the most severe adjustment consequence from the Covid shock, with that adjustment concentrated on the margin of employment and restricted to the First Wave and not the subsequent Omicron Wave.

The paper studies a specific intersectional group, assesses pre-pandemic, peak-pandemic and late-pandemic differences in labour market outcomes and runs separate estimations for different job skill levels. We also study a more comprehensive list of labour market outcomes than most studies of a similar nature.

Using the Shanghai pilot free trade zone (SPFTZ) as the testing ground for further reform and opening up,the links between global value chain (GVC) and pilot free trade zone (PFTZ) programs are mutually reinforcing. GVC creates opportunities for companies to use PFTZ to reduce their costs and increase their competitiveness, while PFTZ can facilitate the movement of goods within GVC and promote the development of GVC by attracting foreign investment. Overall, in SPFTZ, the industrial structure is promoted due to trade and investment facilitation, innovation promotion, and comprehensive service platform inside SPFTZ.

This study examined industrial upgrading in GVC (IUGVC) using five indicators under three quantitative dimensions: product, process, and skill upgrading. Difference-in-Differences (DID) model is employed for the impact assessment of SPFTZ. Parallel trend analysis and Granger causality analysis are performed to check the reliability of DID outcome. Finally, robustness test using exogenous control variables are carried out.

A positive impact of SPFTZ is found on IUGVC, which is due to promoting effect of SPFTZ on foreign direct investment and technological innovation. Based on the study's findings, policy recommendations are given, such as providing business support to enterprises operating inside a PFTZ.

From a GVC perspective, the impact of theSPFTZ establishment on IUGVC cannot be ignored, and is so far missing in the literature.

Education researchers have been urged to utilize causal inference methods to estimate the policy effect more rigorously. While randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are the gold standard for assessing causality, RCTs are infeasible in some educational settings, particularly when ethical concerns or high cost are involved. Quasi-experimental research designs are the best alternative approach to study educational topics not amenable to RCTs, as they mimic experimental conditions and use statistical techniques to reduce bias from variables omitted in the empirical models. In this chapter, we introduce and discuss the core concepts, applicability, and limitations of three quasi-experimental methods in higher education research (i.e., difference-in-differences, instrumental variables, and regression discontinuity). By introducing each of these techniques, we aim to expand the higher education researcher's toolbox and encourage the use of these quasi-experimental methods to evaluate educational interventions.

This quasi-experimental study examined the effectiveness of audio-visual and written feedback (AVF + WF) on undergraduate students versus only receiving WF in the context of an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) online classroom during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown.

The study used the estimator Difference in Difference (DID) to compare a treated and control group in a pre-and post-test under the application of six treatment sessions, plus a student's perception survey at the end of the treatment. The treated group that received the multimodal feedback showed higher improvement rates in the paragraph content between the first and final drafts than students in the control group.

Results indicated that receiving a combination of AVF + WF had a statistically significant effect on mechanics (p < 0.001) and the use of transition words (p = 0.003).

These findings will benefit educational agents, professors and stakeholders for social and economic development.

While previous studies have only used student perceptions of the feedback, this study contributes with empirical data through quasi-experimental analysis and measures the effectiveness of feedback in online learning environments.

The liberalization initiative commenced in India from 1991 onwards, replacing the four-decade long import substitution policy. The primary objective was to enhance the role of foreign and private investment, in line with the newly embraced outward-oriented growth model. The government had undertaken several policy initiatives since then, especially to strengthen the manufacturing sector which plays an important role in the economic development of any country. The current study evaluates the effects of the liberalization policy in India on industrial outcomes. Recent studies have found that when firm heterogeneity is present in trade models, reforms will lead to a decrease in the number of firms and a rise in their average size (Melitz, 2003). A dataset of 24 manufacturing industries had been used in the current study. We test empirically whether liberalization had led to a rise in the average size of establishments as stated in the literature. We also attempt to analyze the magnitude of trade costs in terms of the impact of reforms on wages and prices. The empirical analysis based on the difference-in-difference (DID) estimation method shows that on average, trade reforms do not lead to an increase in the real wages and average size of establishments. In addition, prices appear to increase in the long run due to liberalization, with potential ramifications.

This paper aims to evaluate the impact of the “Postliteracy” program on the qualification of beneficiaries for socioeconomic integration. This qualification is achieved first through the consolidation of the achievements of individuals freed from illiteracy, and then through their support in creating income-generating activities by providing them with technical, economic, legal and institutional knowledge to ensure their conscious and responsible participation in local and regional development efforts.

To evaluate the impact of the “Postliteracy” program, this paper uses quasi-experimental methods with a control group (participants of the “Literacy” program 2020 / 2021) and a treatment group (participants of the “Postliteracy” program 2021 / 2022). Skill acquisition is measured through pretest and posttest evaluations using a questionnaire aligned with the National Agency for the Fight Against Illiteracy (ANLCA)-adopted curriculum. The survey occurred at the beginning and at the end of the program, providing sufficient time for skill development. The questionnaire includes three sections covering socioprofessional characteristics, technical and economic domains and legal and institutional aspects. These sections contribute to a score reflecting the acquired skills for successful socioeconomic integration.

The results of the study demonstrate that the “Postliteracy” program has a positive impact on the acquisition of competences necessary for improved socioeconomic integration of the beneficiaries. The various matching techniques reveal a score difference ranging from 12 to 14 points in favor of program participants compared to those who did not participate. The Difference-in-Differences method confirms the positive and significant impact of the program.

The findings highlight the importance of the “Postliteracy” program in national literacy policy, underlining the need to further strengthen its presence within the programs deployed by ANLCA, notably by increasing the number of beneficiaries targeted by this program. To achieve this, it would be advisable to increase the funds allocated to it within ANLCA's budget.

The originality of this work is a unique research of the case of Morocco based on a microeconometric study for which the authors evaluate the impact of adult education by applying impact evaluation methods in the field of adult literacy.

The article aims to describe the role of training and examines the impact on the wages of university and college graduates.

We use nationwide administrative data on university and college graduates in 2019. The population includes 1.3 million observations, of which 222,000 (∼16%) received training after graduation from an educational institution (from July 2019 to 2022). We used OLS and the “difference-in-differences” methods to estimate the returns to training. Estimates obtained using the DID method turned out to be several times smaller because they consider unobserved characteristics (abilities).

We obtained several key findings. First, the participation of graduates in training is high, despite their recent education. Second, undergoing training is conditional on the existence of wage returns. The results show a wage premium of 17.8% (OLS method) and 2.0% (DID method). Third, graduates from nonselective universities (with low state exam score) try to participate more actively in training to acquire missing knowledge and skills. The wage premium for graduates from nonselective universities is 19.1% (OLS method) and 5.1% (DID method). Fourth, there is a high return to training for graduates from socially relevant fields (education and healthcare), where training is regular and mandatory.

This paper is one of the first to estimate the involvement and returns to training for graduates using nationwide administrative data in Russia.