Strengthening housing finance in emerging markets: the savings and credit cooperative organisation (SACCO) model in Kenya

Abstract

Savings have long been an essential source of funding for credit. Whether in Europe, North America, Africa, Asia or Latin America, community-based financial institutions have relied on deposits to make financial services accessible to moderate-income borrowers. Despite the foundational role savings and loans have had in financial sector development, emerging markets have largely overlooked the important role these institutions can have in providing shelter credit in their own contexts. Savings and Credit Cooperative Organisations (SACCOs) in the Republic of Kenya illustrate the potential model for deposit-based lending to deliver housing finance for many of the country’s underserved prospective borrowers. This study draws upon the experiences of several savings and loan associations in the industrialized world with applications towards improving the Kenyan SACCO model that provides the most extensive credit union loans on the African continent. The article concludes community finance institutions merit strong consideration towards helping overcome the housing finance sector underdevelopment too often experienced in the developing world.     

Discrete Working Time Choice in an Applied General Equilibrium Model

We present a model that integrates the discrete working time choice of heterogenous households into a general equilibrium setting where wages are determined by sectoral bargaining between firms and trade unions. The model is calibrated to German micro and macro data. We then use it to analyse a stylised policy reform designed to stimulate labour supply. JEL Code: D58, J22, J51 An erratum to this article can be found at     

K_(1.3)—Free图成为哈米顿的一个邻域并条件

在本文中,我们给出下列定理:设G为阶是n≥3的2—连通,K_(13)—free图且满足NC(G)≥n—δ—2。则G为哈米顿的,这里NC(G)=min{|N(u)N(v)|E}。     

Some Help for Economic Developers

Economic Development practitioners everywhere are struggling to figure out if and how they should change what they're doing, and how to communicate with those who don't want them to change or want them to change more or faster. Edward Blakely's comments will give them some help.     

Craft Jurisdiction Impact on Construction

Construction craft jurisdiction, normally exercised by unions, includes both territorial and technological claims to certain categories of work. Jurisdiction is important to unions in maintaining membership, negotiating wages and benefits, defining apprenticeship programs, and establishing work rules. This paper reports on a research project that had three main objectives: (1) Collect and analyze statistics on the incidence of jurisdictional disputes; (2) evaluate existing jurisdictional dispute settlement mechanisms; and (3) survey contractors and owners to determine the impact of craft jurisdictional practices (not only disputes) on costs and schedules. The paper concludes that there is inadequate statistical information at present to support informed decision‐making on jurisdictional problems. Most dispute settlement mechanisms are antiquated and ineffective, but there are good plans in some local areas. The survey revealed that there are serious cost and schedule impacts on construction projects from observing craft jurisdictional practices.     

工会参与企业绩效考核研究与探讨

从企业的绩效考评现状,对企业工会绩效考评存在的问题进行分析,阐明工会参与绩效考评的重要性,通过参与活动的分析,对参与的形式、途径、方法作了一些探讨,提出参与绩效考核一些思路和办法,希望能在绩效考核工作和提升工会在推进民主管理、维护职工合法权益,构建和谐稳定劳动关系服务职工群众中起到“连心桥”作用。     

基层工会经费管理探讨

随着企业的不断深入发展,工会经费收缴、管理、使用的难度和风险也越来越大,如何进一步收好、管好、用好工会经费,是当前摆在工会组织面前的一项重要任务。根据调研情况对基层工会收好、管好、用好工会经费提出一些认识。     

Matching and Interpolation of Shapes using Unions of Circles

While the notion of shape of an object is very intuitive, its precise definition is very elusive, and defining a useful metric for the shape distance between objects is a difficult endeavor. At the same time many successful techniques have been developed which interpolate between two objects, so in essence interpolate between shapes. W e present here work which uses a representation of objects as union of circles to define a distance between two objects and to base a method to interpolate between the two. This method can be used in a totally automatic fashion (that is, without any user intervention), or users can guide a pre-registration phase as well as a segmentation phase, after which the matched segments are interpolated pair-wise. The union of circles representation of the two objects is obtained from the Delaunay triangulation of their boundary points. The circles can be simplified to obtain smaller data sets. The circles are then optimally matched according to a distance metric between circles which is a function of their position, size, and feature, that is, a local configuration of circles. The interpolation between the two objects is then obtained by interpolating between the matched pairs of circles (the interpolations can be affine or non -affine). Examples with simple and more complex objects show how the technique can give results which correspond closely to the human notion of shape interpolation. The interpolations shown include some between a calf and a cow and between a cow and a giraffe. The examples given are in two dimensions, but all the steps except the segmentation have been implemented as well for three dimensional objects. W e also show the results of computation of distances between the objects used in our examples.     

Labor‐Management Cooperation: Operation MOST

Unionized contractors and construction unions are in difficulty today because of their apparent increasing lack of competitiveness with the non‐union sector of the industry. Probiems contributing to this are examined, as are efforts by labor, management, and others to remedy the problems. In Columbus, Ohio, labor and management established Operation MOST as a cooperative program to regain the share of the construction market lost to non‐union firms. This program encompasses a variety of activities and has been very successful. It is now being copied in various locations throughout the country. Several recommendations are made as to activities that should be undertaken by the parties to continue their cooperative spirit and to allow the unionized contractors to improve their cost competitiveness.