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1 – 10 of over 4000RajatJyoti Sarkar and Moumita Karmakar
Improving food security at the household level is very crucial in India as here many people are suffering from persistent hunger and malnutrition. In India, mounting pressure of…
Abstract
Improving food security at the household level is very crucial in India as here many people are suffering from persistent hunger and malnutrition. In India, mounting pressure of population, adverse threats of climate change, fragmented land holding, high input cost etc. are very important which prevent to ensure food security. In India, there is malnutrition in all age groups, especially among children. Problem of low birth weight due to undernutrition of mother during pregnancy and underweight of children is very common in the country. The purchasing power of certain section of the society is so low that they cannot access food at the market price. They need the safety net of food subsidy. In India, food problem in the normative sense still continues to exist as millions of poor suffer from persistent hunger and malnutrition. This is the task to which food security system must address itself in future. There are some important factors which can increase yield growth and domestic supply of food substantially. Among these factors education and knowledge regarding improving farm efficiency, provision of an improved agricultural technology to the farmers, delivery of modern farm inputs, technical know-how, institutional credit to the farmers, and crop diversification are very essential to build a huge stock of food grains in India. Educated and trained people can acquire new skills and technologies required for growing agricultural output to meet the domestic demand.
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– The purpose of this paper is to seek to elicit, in a context of economic crisis, the social preferences for the microallocation of scarce healthcare resources.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to seek to elicit, in a context of economic crisis, the social preferences for the microallocation of scarce healthcare resources.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from an online questionnaire which includes a hypothetical rationing choice scenario with four patients differentiated by their personal characteristics and health states competing for treatments and a set of statements that embodies: distributive criteria for prioritizing patients; the authorship of these types of decisions; and the likelihood of these decisions to be taken. Descriptive statistics, factor analysis and non-parametric test were used for describing and validating the data.
Findings
Findings suggest that respondents: support a pluralism of distributive principles in prioritizing patients with an incident in utilitarianism and the reducing of inequalities in health, translated in the fair-inning and in emotional arguments of fragility; trust in the health professional to make prioritization decisions; and are conscious that rationing decisions will be real in the short term.
Practical implications
The pursuit of efficiency and the equalizing of a lifetime health seem to be the criteria that should guide any rationing policy at the micro level.
Originality/value
This study addresses simultaneously several ethical principles inherent to microallocation healthcare resources in a suitable context in which Portugal is facing an economic crisis and where, consequently, rationing healthcare policies gain prominence on the political agenda.
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Ying (Jessica) Cao, Calum Turvey, Jiujie Ma, Rong Kong, Guangwen He and Jubo Yan
The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether negative incentives in the pay-for-performance mechanism would trigger loan officers to strategically reject potentially good…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether negative incentives in the pay-for-performance mechanism would trigger loan officers to strategically reject potentially good loans. If so, what is the feasible solution to alleviate the problem.
Design/methodology/approach
A framed field experiment was conducted to test loan decision behaviors using loan officers from Rural Credit Cooperatives in Shandong, China. A 2 by 2 between-subject design was adopted to generate variation in incentives and prior information about credit risks.
Findings
Results showed that loan officers did ration credit by rejecting more loans when facing risks of personal income loss. However, providing risk information about the application pool boosted the approval rate and offset the behavioral responses by a roughly same magnitude.
Research limitations/implications
Findings in this study suggest that certain institutional settings can result in credit rationing via strategic loan misclassification. Further, information sometimes generates similar effects as those costly incentives or mechanisms that are not implementable in practice.
Originality/value
This study adopted an innovative monetized experimental design that allows researchers to examine the (otherwise unobservable) trade-offs between Type I and Type II error in loan misclassification as incentives change. In addition, an anchoring prior information treatment is used to solicit the relative power of almost costless information and costly monetary incentives, and to point out a potentially feasible solution.
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14. Peppermint extract is the flavouring extract prepared from oil of peppermint, or from peppermint, or both, and contains not less than 3 per cent. by volume by oil of…
The global Covid-19 pandemic is posing considerable challenges for governments throughout the world and has and will have a significant influence on the shape of peoples social…
Abstract
The global Covid-19 pandemic is posing considerable challenges for governments throughout the world and has and will have a significant influence on the shape of peoples social and economic life and wellbeing in the short and longer term. This opinion paper discusses the current health policy response adopted in England to control or manage the epidemic and identifies the key sociological and political influences which have shaped these policies. Drawing on the theoretical approach set out in his recent book, which emphasises the interplay of powerful structural and economic interest groups, the author will consider the influence of the key players. Government policy has tied itself to scientific and medical evidence and protecting the NHS so the key roles of the medical profession, public health scientific community and NHS management and their respective and relative powerful influences will be discussed. The government needs the support of the public if their policies are to be successful, so how have the government addressed maintaining public trust in this “crisis” and how much trust do the public have in the government and what has influenced it? The strong emphasis on social distancing and social isolation in the national government policy response to Covid-19 has placed an increasing public reliance on the traditional and social media for sources of information so how the media has framed the policy will be considered. One policy aim is for an effective vaccine and the influence of the drug industry in its development is discussed. Finally, the role of the state will be discussed and what has shaped its social and economic policies.
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The purpose of this paper is to test major web search engines on their performance on navigational queries, i.e. searches for homepages.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to test major web search engines on their performance on navigational queries, i.e. searches for homepages.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 100 user queries are posed to six search engines (Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Ask, Seekport, and Exalead). Users described the desired pages, and the results position of these was recorded. Measured success and mean reciprocal rank are calculated.
Findings
The performance of the major search engines Google, Yahoo!, and MSN was found to be the best, with around 90 per cent of queries answered correctly. Ask and Exalead performed worse but received good scores as well.
Research limitations/implications
All queries were in German, and the German‐language interfaces of the search engines were used. Therefore, the results are only valid for German queries.
Practical implications
When designing a search engine to compete with the major search engines, care should be taken on the performance on navigational queries. Users can be influenced easily in their quality ratings of search engines based on this performance.
Originality/value
This study systematically compares the major search engines on navigational queries and compares the findings with studies on the retrieval effectiveness of the engines on informational queries.
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Steven Haggblade, Agnes Andersson Djurfeldt, Drinah Banda Nyirenda, Johanna Bergman Lodin, Leon Brimer, Martin Chiona, Maureen Chitundu, Linley Chiwona‐Karltun, Constantino Cuambe, Michael Dolislager, Cynthia Donovan, Klaus Droppelmann, Magnus Jirström, Emma Kambewa, Patrick Kambewa, Nzola Meso Mahungu, Jonathan Mkumbira, João Mudema, Hunter Nielson, Mishek Nyembe, Venâncio Alexandre Salegua, Alda Tomo and Michael Weber
Cassava production surged noticeably in Southeastern Africa beginning in the 1990s. The purpose of this paper is to examine the commercial responses and food security consequences…
Abstract
Purpose
Cassava production surged noticeably in Southeastern Africa beginning in the 1990s. The purpose of this paper is to examine the commercial responses and food security consequences of cassava production growth in the region.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper incorporates a mix of quantitative analysis, based primarily on original analysis of national farm household survey data, together with key informant interviews with value chain participants in the three neighboring countries of Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia.
Findings
In the cassava production zones, cassava's high productivity translates into per kilogram carbohydrate costs 60 per cent to 70 per cent of the cost of cereals such as maize and wheat, thereby opening up a range of profitable opportunities for commercialization of cassava‐based foods, feeds and industrial products. Despite this potential, cassava commercialization in Southeastern Africa remains in its formative stages, with only 10 per cent to 30 per cent of production currently marketed. Unlike West Africa, where cassava commercialization has centered on marketing prepared cassava‐based convenience foods, the emerging cassava markets in Southeastern Africa have centered on fresh cassava, low value‐added cassava flour, and experiments in industrial processing of cassava‐based starches, biofuels and feeds. Strategic investment in a set of key public goods (breeding, training in food sciences and food safety, and research on in‐ground cassava storage) can help to shape this transition in ways that benefit both commercial interests and the food security of vulnerable households.
Originality/value
The paper compares cassava commercialization across differing agro‐climatic zones, policy environments and food staple zones.
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Muhammad Shoaib and Hazir Ullah
This paper attempts to explore possible contributing factors of females' outperformance and males' underperformance in the higher education in Pakistan from teachers' perspective…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper attempts to explore possible contributing factors of females' outperformance and males' underperformance in the higher education in Pakistan from teachers' perspective. The central question of the study is what are the key factors that affect female and male students' educational performance at the university level? Using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) as a framework, we attempted to predict differentials of the perceived “female outperformance” and “male underperformance” in higher education. We carried out the study by employing quantitative research methods.
Design/methodology/approach
The data for the study come from 253 teachers from University of the Punjab-largest and oldest University in Pakistan. We used a structured questionnaire for data collection. The analysis was carried out with the help of ANN model. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyze the data.
Findings
The testing results of ANN indicated 85.3% of teachers' perception was correctly predicted on various dimensions of performance differentials across female and male students in higher education.
Research limitations/implications
The study banks on primary data collected from teachers of the University of University of the Punjab, Pakistan. Thus, the study's universe was limited to one university – University of Punjab. It is purely based on a quantitative approach employing ANN.
Practical implications
The findings of this study have several significant implications, i.e. it makes a significant contribution to the existing body of scholarly texts on the issue of gender reverse change in academic performance in higher education.
Originality/value
The findings of this research, derived from primary data in Pakistan context, qualify this research as an original one. We also claim that this study is one of the first studies on gender reverse change in academic performance among graduate students in a public sector university of Pakistan employing ANN.
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