All Papers

Kashif Abbass, Muhammad Qasim, Huaming Song, Muntasir Murshed et al.

Climate change is a long-lasting change in the weather arrays across tropics to polls. It is a global threat that has embarked on to put stress on various sectors. This study is aimed to conceptually engineer how climate variability is deteriorating the sustainability of diverse sectors worldwide. Specifically, the agricultural sector’s vulnerability is a globally concerning scenario, as sufficient production and food supplies are threatened due to irreversible weather fluctuations. In turn, it is challenging the global feeding patterns, particularly in countries with agriculture as an integral part of their economy and total productivity. Climate change has also put the integrity and survival of many species at stake due to shifts in optimum temperature ranges, thereby accelerating biodiversity loss by progressively changing the ecosystem structures. Climate variations increase the likelihood of particular food and waterborne and vector-borne diseases, and a recent example is a coronavirus pandemic. Climate change also accelerates the enigma of antimicrobial resistance, another threat to human health due to the increasing incidence of resistant pathogenic infections. Besides, the global tourism industry is devastated as climate change impacts unfavorable tourism spots. The methodology investigates hypothetical scenarios of climate variability and attempts to describe the quality of evidence to facilitate readers’ careful, critical engagement. Secondary data is used to identify sustainability issues such as environmental, social, and economic viability. To better understand the problem, gathered the information in this report from various media outlets, research agencies, policy papers, newspapers, and other sources. This review is a sectorial assessment of climate change mitigation and adaptation approaches worldwide in the aforementioned sectors and the associated economic costs. According to the findings, government involvement is necessary for the country’s long-term development through strict accountability of resources and regulations implemented in the past to generate cutting-edge climate policy. Therefore, mitigating the impacts of climate change must be of the utmost importance, and hence, this global threat requires global commitment to address its dreadful implications to ensure global sustenance.

Cynthia Enloe

In this brand new radical analysis of globalization, Cynthia Enloe examines recent events—Bangladeshi garment factory deaths, domestic workers in the Persian Gulf, Chinese global tourists, and the UN gender politics of guns—to reveal the crucial role of women in international politics today. With all new and updated chapters, Enloe describes how many women's seemingly personal strategies—in their marriages, in their housework, in their coping with ideals of beauty—are, in reality, the stuff of global politics. Enloe offers a feminist gender analysis of the global politics of both masculinities and femininities, dismantles an apparently overwhelming world system, and reveals that system to be much more fragile and open to change than we think.

Kevin D. Haggerty, Richard V. Ericson

George Orwell's 'Big Brother' and Michel Foucault's 'panopticon' have dominated discussion of contemporary developments in surveillance. While such metaphors draw our attention to important attributes of surveillance, they also miss some recent dynamics in its operation. The work of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari is used to analyse the convergence of once discrete surveillance systems. The resultant 'surveillant assemblage' operates by abstracting human bodies from their territorial settings, and separating them into a series of discrete flows. These flows are then reassembled in different locations as discrete and virtual 'data doubles'. The surveillant assemblage transforms the purposes of surveillance and the hierarchies of surveillance, as well as the institution of privacy.

Christopher J L Murray, Ryan M Barber, Kyle J Foreman, Ayşe Abbasoğlu Özgören et al.

Background The Global Burden of Disease Study 2013 (GBD 2013) aims to bring together all available epidemiological data using a coherent measurement framework, standardised estimation methods, and transparent data sources to enable comparisons of health loss over time and across causes, age–sex groups, and countries. The GBD can be used to generate summary measures such as disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) and healthy life expectancy (HALE) that make possible comparative assessments of broad epidemiological patterns across countries and time. These summary measures can also be used to quantify the component of variation in epidemiology that is related to sociodemographic development. Methods We used the published GBD 2013 data for age-specific mortality, years of life lost due to premature mortality (YLLs), and years lived with disability (YLDs) to calculate DALYs and HALE for 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2013 for 188 countries. We calculated HALE using the Sullivan method; 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs) represent uncertainty in age-specific death rates and YLDs per person for each country, age, sex, and year. We estimated DALYs for 306 causes for each country as the sum of YLLs and YLDs; 95% UIs represent uncertainty in YLL and YLD rates. We quantified patterns of the epidemiological transition with a composite indicator of sociodemographic status, which we constructed from income per person, average years of schooling after age 15 years, and the total fertility rate and mean age of the population. We applied hierarchical regression to DALY rates by cause across countries to decompose variance related to the sociodemographic status variable, country, and time. Findings Worldwide, from 1990 to 2013, life expectancy at birth rose by 6·2 years (95% UI 5·6–6·6), from 65·3 years (65·0–65·6) in 1990 to 71·5 years (71·0–71·9) in 2013, HALE at birth rose by 5·4 years (4·9–5·8), from 56·9 years (54·5–59·1) to 62·3 years (59·7–64·8), total DALYs fell by 3·6% (0·3–7·4), and age-standardised DALY rates per 100 000 people fell by 26·7% (24·6–29·1). For communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional disorders, global DALY numbers, crude rates, and age-standardised rates have all declined between 1990 and 2013, whereas for non–communicable diseases, global DALYs have been increasing, DALY rates have remained nearly constant, and age-standardised DALY rates declined during the same period. From 2005 to 2013, the number of DALYs increased for most specific non-communicable diseases, including cardiovascular diseases and neoplasms, in addition to dengue, food-borne trematodes, and leishmaniasis; DALYs decreased for nearly all other causes. By 2013, the five leading causes of DALYs were ischaemic heart disease, lower respiratory infections, cerebrovascular disease, low back and neck pain, and road injuries. Sociodemographic status explained more than 50% of the variance between countries and over time for diarrhoea, lower respiratory infections, and other common infectious diseases; maternal disorders; neonatal disorders; nutritional deficiencies; other communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional diseases; musculoskeletal disorders; and other non-communicable diseases. However, sociodemographic status explained less than 10% of the variance in DALY rates for cardiovascular diseases; chronic respiratory diseases; cirrhosis; diabetes, urogenital, blood, and endocrine diseases; unintentional injuries; and self-harm and interpersonal violence. Predictably, increased sociodemographic status was associated with a shift in burden from YLLs to YLDs, driven by declines in YLLs and increases in YLDs from musculoskeletal disorders, neurological disorders, and mental and substance use disorders. In most country-specific estimates, the increase in life expectancy was greater than that in HALE. Leading causes of DALYs are highly variable across countries. Interpretation Global health is improving. Population growth and ageing have driven up numbers of DALYs, but crude rates have remained relatively constant, showing that progress in health does not mean fewer demands on health systems. The notion of an epidemiological transition—in which increasing sociodemographic status brings structured change in disease burden—is useful, but there is tremendous variation in burden of disease that is not associated with sociodemographic status. This further underscores the need for country-specific assessments of DALYs and HALE to appropriately inform health policy decisions and attendant actions.

Claudia García‐Moreno, Henrica A. F. M. Jansen, Mary Ellsberg, Lori Heise et al.

This report of the WHO Multi-country Study on Womens Health and Domestic Violence against Women analyses data collected from over 24 000 women in 10 countries representing diverse cultural geographical and urban/rural settings: Bangladesh Brazil Ethiopia Japan Peru Namibia Samoa Serbia and Montenegro Thailand and the United Republic of Tanzania. The Study was designed to: estimate the prevalence of physical sexual and emotional violence against women with particular emphasis on violence by intimate partners; assess the association of partner violence with a range of health outcomes; identify factors that may either protect or put women at risk of partner violence; document the strategies and services that women use to cope with violence by an intimate partner. (excerpt)

Mark M. Pitt, Shahidur R. Khandker

This paper estimates the impact of participation, by gender, in the Grameen Bank and two other group‐based micro credit programs in Bangladesh on labor supply, schooling, household expenditure, and assets. The empirical method uses a quasi‐experimental survey design to correct for the bias from unobserved individual and village‐level heterogencity. We find that program credit has a larger effect on the behavior of poor households in Bangladesh when women are the program participants. For Example, annual household consumption expenditure increases 18 taka for every 100 additional taka borrowed by women from these credit programs, compared with 11 taka for men.

Karen Wey Smola, Charlotte D. Sutton

Abstract As we enter the new millennium and face the entrance of another generation of workers into the changing world of work, managers are encouraged to deal with the generational differences that appear to exist among workers. This paper revisits the issue of generational differences and the causes of those differences. Data were obtained from more than 350 individuals across the country who responded to a request to complete a survey. Current generational differences in worker values are analysed and the results are compared to a similar study conducted in 1974. Results suggest that generational work values do differ. To a lesser degree, the results suggest that work values also change as workers grow older. Finally, the results indicate an increasing desire among American workers to balance work and personal goals. This change in attitude was reflected even within the same cohort group. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Kevin M. Kniffin, Jayanth Narayanan, Frederik Anseel, John Antonakis et al.

The impacts of COVID-19 on workers and workplaces across the globe have been dramatic. This broad review of prior research rooted in work and organizational psychology, and related fields, is intended to make sense of the implications for employees, teams, and work organizations. This review and preview of relevant literatures focuses on (a) emergent changes in work practices (e.g., working from home, virtual teamwork) and (b) emergent changes for workers (e.g., social distancing, stress, and unemployment). In addition, potential moderating factors (demographic characteristics, individual differences, and organizational norms) are examined given the likelihood that COVID-19 will generate disparate effects. This broad-scope overview provides an integrative approach for considering the implications of COVID-19 for work, workers, and organizations while also identifying issues for future research and insights to inform solutions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Johanna Mair, Ignasi Martí

Haradhan Kumar Mohajan

This literature review paper discusses the proper use of qualitative research methodology to discuss several aspects of the research for the improvement of the skill of the readers. During the last few decades, the use of qualitative research has been increased in many institutions. It can be used to explore several areas of human behavior for the development of organizations. The purpose of this study is to provide inspirations to the new researchers for the development of their qualitative articles. The paper analyzes the design of qualitative research giving some methodological suggestions to make it explicable to the reader. In this paper an attempt has been taken to study the background of the qualitative research methodologyin social sciences and some other related subjects, along with the importance, and main features of the study.

Md Zahir Ahmed, Oli Ahmed, Aibao Zhou, Sang Hanbin et al.

The world is experiencing pandemic of the COVID-19 now, a RNA virus that spread out from Wuhan, China. Two countries, China first and later Italy, have gone to full lock down due to rapid spread of this virus. Till to date, no epidemiological data on mental health problems due to outbreak of the COVID-19 and mass isolation were not available. To meet this need, the present study was undertaken to assess the mental health status of Chinese people. An online survey was conducted on a sample of 1074 Chinese people, majority of whom from Hubei province. Lack of adequate opportunities to conduct face to face interview, anxiety, depression, mental well-being and alcohol consumption behavior were assessed via self-reported measures. Results showed higher rate of anxiety, depression, hazardous and harmful alcohol use, and lower mental wellbeing than usual ratio. Results also revealed that young people aged 21–40 years are in more vulnerable position in terms of their mental health conditions and alcohol use. To address mental health crisis during this epidemic, it is high time to implement multi-faceted approach (i.e. forming multidisciplinary mental health team, providing psychiatric treatments and other mental health services, utilizing online counseling platforms, rehabilitation program, ensuring certain care for vulnerable groups, etc.).

Robert J. Johnston, Kevin Boyle, Wiktor Adamowicz, Jeff Bennett et al.

This article proposes contemporary best-practice recommendations for stated preference (SP) studies used to inform decision making, grounded in the accumulate body of peer-reviewed literature. These recommendations consider the use of SP methods to estimate both use and non-use (passive-use) values, and cover the broad SP domain, including contingent valuation and discrete choice experiments. We focus on applications to public goods in the context of the environment and human health but also consider ways in which the proposed recommendations might apply to other common areas of application. The recommendations recognize that SP results may be used and reused (benefit transfers) by governmental agencies and nongovernmental organizations, and that all such applications must be considered. The intended result is a set of guidelines for SP studies that is more comprehensive than that of the original National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Blue Ribbon Panel on contingent valuation, is more germane to contemporary applications, and reflects the two decades of research since that time. We also distinguish between practices for which accumulated research is sufficient to support recommendations and those for which greater uncertainty remains. The goal of this article is to raise the quality of SP studies used to support decision making and promote research that will further enhance the practice of these studies worldwide.

The microfinance revolution, begun with independent initiatives in Latin America and South Asia starting in the 1970s, has so far allowed 65 million poor people around the world to receive small loans without collateral, build up assets, and buy insurance. This comprehensive survey of microfinance seeks to bridge the gap in the existing literature on microfinance between academic economists and practitioners. Both authors have pursued the subject not only in academia but in the field; Beatriz Armendariz founded a microfinance bank in Chiapas, Mexico, and Jonathan Morduch has done fieldwork in Bangladesh, China, and Indonesia. The authors move beyond the usual theoretical focus in the microfinance literature and draw on new developments in theories of contracts and incentives. They challenge conventional assumptions about how poor households save and build assets and how institutions can overcome market failures. The book provides an overview of microfinance by addressing a range of issues, including lessons from informal markets, savings and insurance, the role of women, the place of subsidies, impact measurement, and management incentives. It integrates theory with empirical data, citing studies from Asia, Africa, and Latin America and introducing ideas about asymmetric information, principal-agent theory, and household decision making in the context of microfinance. The Economics of Microfinance can be used by students in economics, public policy, and development studies. Mathematical notation is used to clarify some arguments, but the main points can be grasped without the math. Each chapter ends with analytically challenging exercises for advanced economics students.

Jean Côté

The purpose of the present study was to describe patterns in the dynamics of families of talented athletes throughout their development in sport. Four families, including three families of elite rowers and one family of an elite tennis player were examined. The framework provided by Ericsson, Krampe, and Tesch-Römer (1993) to explain expert performance served as the theoretical basis for the study. Ericsson et al. suggested that the acquisition of expert performance involves operating within three types of constraints: motivational, effort, and resource. In-depth interviews were conducted with each athlete, parent, and sibling to explore how they have dealt with these three constraints. A total of 15 individual interviews were conducted. Results permitted the identification of three phases of participation from early childhood to late adolescence: the sampling years, the specializing years, and the investment years. The dynamics of the family in each of these phases of development is discussed.

Thomas Reardon, C. Peter Timmer, Christopher B. Barrett, Julio A. Berdegué

Supermarkets are traditionally viewed by development economists, policymakers, and practitioners as the rich world's place to shop. The three regions discussed here have a great majority of the poor on the planet. But supermarkets are no longer just niche players for rich consumers in the capital cities of the countries in these regions. The rapid rise of supermarkets in these regions in the past five to ten years has transformed agrifood markets at different rates and depths across regions and countries. Many of those transformations present great challenges—even exclusion—for small farms, and small processing and distribution firms, but also potentially great opportunities. Development models, policies, and programs need to adapt to this radical change. This paper describes the transformation of agrifood systems in Africa, Asia (excluding Japan), and Latin America. First, we describe the traditional retail and wholesale system in the midst of which emerged modern food retailing and its procurement system. Second, we discuss the determinants of and patterns in the diffusion of supermarkets in the three regions. Third, we discuss the evolution of procurement systems of those supermarkets, and consequences for agrifood systems. At the end, we hint at emerging implications for farms and firms in the region. As development proceeded in the currently developed world, and is proceeding in the three developing regions under study here, markets shift from fragmented, local markets (such as village markets with wholesale and retail functions) to larger, centralized wholesale markets. This “de-fragmentation” tends to occur first in dry goods such as grains and later in “fresh products”—fruits and vegetables, meat, fish, eggs, and milk. There is progressive fresh-food market integration through the rise of medium/long distance trade and the establishment of specialized production areas, as one would expect from the theory of specialization and comparative advantage. This integration is accelerated by urbanization and improvements in roads, and thus takes place at different rates over regions, countries, and zones. Governments have also intervened to spur growth in the fresh foods and grains wholesale sector, such as in Brazil in the 1970s/1980s and in China now. Governments have also intervened directly in grain wholesale and even retail marketing, such as the Fair-Price Shops in India and the (now defunct and eclipsed) Foodstuff Stores in China. Governments seldom, however, intervened in the fresh food retail sector that continued, until the recent rise of supermarkets, to be dominated by mom and pop stores, street fairs, and central markets. That is, traditionally, a major change occurred in the wholesale sector with only gradual effects on the food retail sector. In the latter stages of these changes in wholesale markets in Europe and the United States were concomitant changes in the retail sector, with the advent of self-service stores and then consolidation of the retail sector via the rise of supermarket chains in the past fifty to eighty years. A reversal of the traditional causal direction then occurred: retail transformation deeply changed the wholesale sector and thus the conditions faced by farmers. Below we show that a similar retail transformation has already made great headway in most countries of the three developing regions in only one decade. The determinants of the diffusion of supermarkets in developing regions can be conceptualized as a system of demand by consumers for supermarket services, and supply of supermarket services—hence investments by supermarket entrepreneurs. Both functions have as arguments incentives and capacity variables. On the demand side, several forces drive the observed increase in demand for supermarket services (and are similar to those observed in Europe and the United States in the twentieth century). Demand-side incentives were as follows. First, urbanization, with the consequent entry of women into the workforce outside the home, increased the opportunity cost of women's time and their incentive to seek shopping convenience and processed foods to save cooking time. Second, supermarkets and large-scale food manufacturers spurred the secular reduction in processed food prices. Demand-side capacity variables were as follows. First, real mean per capita income growth in many countries of the regions during the 1990s, along with the rapid rise of the middle class, increased demand for processed foods (the entry point for supermarkets as they could offer greater variety and lower cost of these products than traditional retailers due to economies of scale in procurement). Second, rapid growth in the 1990s in ownership of refrigerators meant ability to shift from daily shopping in traditional retail shops to weekly or monthly shopping. Growing access to cars and public transport reinforced this trend. The supply of supermarket services was driven by several forces, only a subset of which overlap with the drivers of initial supermarket diffusion in Europe and the United States. The supply-side drivers were three. First, foreign direct investment (FDI) was a crucial factor. The development of supermarkets was very slow before (roughly) 1990, as only domestic/local capital was involved. In the 1990s and after, FDI was crucial to the take-off of supermarkets. The incentive to undertake FDI by European, U.S., and Japanese chains, and chains in richer countries in the regions under study (such as chains in Hong Kong, South Africa, and Costa Rica) was due to saturation and intense competition in home markets and much higher margins to be made by investing in developing markets. For example, Carrefour earned three times higher margins on average in its Argentine compared to its French operations in the 1990s. Moreover, initial competition in the receiving regions was weak, generally with little fight put up by traditional retailers and domestic-capital supermarkets, and there are distinct advantages to early entry, hence occupation of key retail locations. Attracting FDI were policies of full or partial liberalization of retail sector FDI undertaken in many countries in the three regions in the 1990s and after (e.g., China in 1992, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina in 1994, various African countries via South African investment after apartheid ended in the mid 1990s, Indonesia in 1998, India in 2000). Overall FDI grew five to ten fold over the 1990s in these regions (UNCTAD); growth of FDI in food retailing mirrored that overall growth. A second crucial supply-side factor was the revolution the past decade in retail procurement logistics technology and inventory management. New practices included efficient consumer response, ECR, an inventory management practice that minimizes inventorieson-hand, and use of internet and computers for inventory control and supplier-retailer coordination. These appeared first in developed countries and then in the late 1990s and early 2000s swept developing countries among leading chains, through home-office guidance for local branches of global chains, and knowledge transfer and imitation and innovation by domestic supermarket chains. These changes were in turn key to centralizing procurement and consolidating distribution in order to “drive costs out of the system,” a phrase used widely in the retail industry. Substantial savings were thus possible through efficiency gains, economies of scale, and coordination cost reductions. China Resources Enterprise, for example, notes that it is saving 40% in distribution costs by combining modern logistics with centralized distribution in its two large new distribution centers in southern China. These efficiency gains fuel profits for investment in new stores, and, through intense competition, reduce prices to consumers of essential food products. The incentive and capacity determinants of demand for and supply of supermarket services vary markedly over the three regions, within individual countries, and within zones and between rural and urban areas at the country level. Several broad patterns are observed. First, from the earliest to the latest adopter of supermarkets, the regions range from Latin America to Asia to Africa, roughly reflecting the ordering of income, urbanization, and infrastructure and policies that favor supermarket growth. The overall image is of waves of diffusion rolling along. The first wave hit major cities in the larger or richer countries of Latin America. The second wave hit in East/Southeast Asia; the third in small or poorer countries of Latin America and Asia including, for example, Central America and Southern then Eastern Africa. By this time, secondary cities and towns in the areas of the “first wave” were being hit. The fourth wave, just starting now, is hitting South Asia. Latin America has led the way among developing regions in the growth of the supermarket sector. While a small number of supermarkets existed in most countries during and before the 1980s, they were primarily financed by domestic capital and tended to exist in major cities and wealthier neighborhoods. That is, they were essentially a niche retail market serving at most 10–20% of the national food retail sales. However, by 2000, supermarkets had risen to occupy 50–60% of national food retail among the Latin American countries, almost approaching the 70–80% share of the United States and France. In a single decade Latin America had the same development of supermarkets that the United States experienced in five decades. The supermarket share of food retail sales for the leading six Latin American countries averages 45–75%: Brazil has the highest share, followed by Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Colombia. Those six countries account for 85% of the income and 75% of the population in Latin America. Supermarket sectors of other countries in the region have also grown rapidly, but these started later and from a lower base. For example, supermarkets accounted for 15% of national food retail in Guatemala in 1994 and today account for 35% (Reardon and Berdegué). The development of the supermarket sector in East/Southeast Asia is generally similar to that of Latin America. The “take-off” stage of supermarkets in East/Southeast Asia started, on average, some five to seven years behind that of Latin America, but is registering even faster growth. The average processed/packaged food retail share over several Southeast Asian countries—Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand—is 33%, but is 63% for East Asian countries—Republic of Korea, Taiwan, and Philippines—(ACNielsen). A rough rule of thumb, applicable from Latin America, is that the share of supermarkets in fresh foods is roughly one-half of the share in packaged foods, hence roughly 15–20% in Southeast Asia and 30% in East Asia outside China (and Japan). The 2001 supermarket share of Chinese urban food markets was 48%, up from 30% in 1999. Assuming the urban share of the total Chinese population to be approximately one-third, the total national packaged/processed food retail share of supermarkets is around 20%, similar to the share for supermarkets in overall food retail for Brazil or Argentina in the early 1990s. However, the rate of store growth is three times faster in China in 2003 than it was in Brazil and Argentina in the 1990s. The most recent venue for supermarket take-off is in Africa, especially in Eastern and Southern Africa. South Africa is the front-runner, with roughly a 55% share of supermarkets in overall food retail and 1,700 supermarkets for 35 million persons. The great majority of that spectacular rise has come since the end of Apartheid in 1994. To put these figures in perspective, note that 1,700 supermarkets is roughly equivalent to 350,000 mom and pop stores or “spazas” in sales. Moreover, South African chains have recently invested in thirteen other African countries as well as in India, Australia, and the Philippines. Kenya is the other front-runner, with 300 supermarkets. Zimbabwe and Zambia have fifty to hundred supermarkets each (Weatherspoon and Reardon). Second, within each of the three very broad regions there are large differences over subregions and countries. Usually, these can be supermarket-growth-ranked according to the variables in the supply and demand model presented above. In Latin America, for example, Brazil with a 75% share of supermarkets in food retail store sales can be contrasted with Bolivia with at the most 10%; in developing Asia, Korea with 60% can be contrasted with India with 5%; and in Africa, South Africa with 55% can be contrasted with Nigeria with 5%. Third, the take-over of food retailing in these regions has occurred much more rapidly in processed, dry, and packaged foods such as noodles, milk products, and grains, for which supermarkets have an advantage over mom and pop stores due to economies of scale. The supermarkets' progress in gaining control of fresh food markets has been slower, and there is greater variation across countries because of local habits and responses by wetmarkets and local shops. Usually the first fresh food categories for the supermarkets to gain a majority share include “commodities” such as potatoes, and sectors experiencing consolidation in first-stage processing and production: often chicken, beef and pork, and fish. In Brazil, where the overall food retail share of supermarkets is 75%, the share in Sao Paulo of fresh fruits and vegetables is only 25%. This kind of rough “three to one” ratio is typical in the regions. This difference is also not uncommon in developed countries: in France, supermarkets have 70% of overall food retail, but only 50% of fresh fruits and vegetables. The convenience and low prices of small shops and fairs, with fresh and varied produce for daily shopping, continues to be a competitive challenge to the supermarket sector, with usually steady but much slower progress for supermarkets requiring investments in procurement efficiency. Despite the slower growth in supermarkets' share of domestic produce, it is staggering to calculate the absolute market that supermarkets now represent, even in produce, and thus how much more in other products where supermarkets have penetrated faster and deeper. For example, Reardon and Berdegué calculate that supermarkets in Latin America buy 2.5 times more fruits and vegetables from local producers than all the exports of produce from Latin America to the rest of the world! This should be contrasted with the nearly exclusive focus on produce exports in government and donor programs to spur growth in agricultural diversification and to help producers gain access to dynamic markets. Fourth, the supermarket sector in these regions is increasingly and overwhelmingly multinationalized (foreign-owned) and consolidated. The multinationalization of the sector is illustrated in Latin America where global multinationals constitute roughly 70–80% of the top five chains in most countries. That supermarket sector growth is substantially driven by FDI from outside these regions differentiates supermarket diffusion in these regions from that in the United States and Europe. The tidal wave of retail FDI was mainly due to the global retail multinationals, Ahold, Carrefour, and Wal-Mart, smaller global chains such as Casino, Metro, Makro, and multinationals such as and In some larger countries, domestic chains, in with global multinationals, have the For example, the top in Brazil is with Casino, of France, since and the top in China is the national with some stores, in and in 2003 as a of and two The rapid consolidation of the sector in those regions is in the United States and Europe. For example, in Latin America the top five chains per country have of the supermarket sector 40% in the United States and in The are for example, of each on food by are now in The consolidation takes place mainly via foreign of local chains (and by larger domestic chains smaller chains and These multinationalization and consolidation the supply of supermarket diffusion and retail multinationals have access to investment from and to that is much than is the by their domestic The multinationals also have access to practices in retail and logistics some of which they developed as domestic firms have they have had to similar these firms had to with global multinationals or had to from their (e.g., the national or national as from the diffusion model the and patterns of diffusion have over large and small cities and and over and poor consumer In there has been a from supermarkets' only a small niche in capital cities serving only the rich and middle well the middle in order to deeply into the food markets of the have also from cities to and in some countries, already to small towns in rural 40% of smaller towns now have supermarkets, as many towns even in countries supermarkets are now rapidly the top cities of China in the and are to smaller cities and to the poorer and more and and The to products for retail rest with the procurement in supermarket chains. in the United Chile, or they are under several from supermarket under intense competition and are between the traditional retailers fresh local products on one side, and efficient global on the other The procurement to this by and costs and the varied demand of procurement seek to and products with and of supermarkets usually that they have to procurement systems to and outside of the traditional wholesale systems because the latter their because they to out the cost by the with the American or the produce in the study regions is by poor and public infrastructure such as chains, and among and is usually and in and in to The be due to market such as and market Several broad patterns of changes are observed in the procurement that First, there is a of procurement As the number of stores in a supermarket there is a to shift from a procurement to a distribution serving several stores in a or a region several This is by procurement and increased use of centralized increased of also occur in the procurement and in the produce distribution efficiency of procurement by coordination and other it increase transport costs by of the products. Usually retailers have a or where they from to centralized procurement as economies of scale and and on the and of the For example, we observed a small in an in China that invested recently in a distribution for processed/packaged foods but continues to buy fresh foods from the market By a national invested in a large for packaged/processed foods and has recently a large for fresh foods as produce has a and these products have a in profits and The top three global retailers have made or are more centralized procurement system in all the regions in which they a centralized procurement system in most of its centralized its procurement in France, Carrefour has been to its procurement system in other countries. For example, in 2001 Carrefour a distribution in Paulo to three million with fifty to in the Southeast centralized its procurement systems in chains, such as China Resources of Hong stores in southern are also centralizing their procurement systems. is in retail in China and has large stores in the of and In of growth its million investment in China over the five a shift from procurement to a centralized system of procurement each is large distribution centers were in The distribution in is and be to stores and Second, there is a logistics improvements to procurement To some of the transport costs that with supermarket chains have (and that This that supermarket practices and which almost with the The of by supermarket chains and in Argentina the use of logistics by retail are in Asia. For example, a supply for in and production practices to supply and the efficiency of their chains in the three regions increasingly to a in the same as the supermarket logistics and wholesale distribution with other is the Carrefour distribution in Brazil, which is the of a of Carrefour with major and global of China in that it would a large distribution to be with and global distribution for fruits and vegetables in is in with of the Third, there is use of specialized The changes in logistics have supermarket chains new or the traditional wholesale system. The supermarkets are increasingly with specialized to and of their These specialized and and and on of the supermarkets. The and of the specialized has in of players and between the and the domestic food markets. Moreover, there is emerging that supermarket chains produce they to mainly via specialized For example, functions as the of most stores of the supermarket in Central America, as for in Africa. Fourth, the rise of and is new in one of the most markets in the food sector, the produce sector. as incentives to the to with the and over time investments in (such as and to the the products. The retailers are of and the of products with of processed and and and products under with the supermarkets. Supermarket chains have with processing firms, in turn with processed fruits and vegetables are under the for the supermarket in Costa Rica, and various firms produce under the products for the As retail sales of products to such are to increase in Latin America and Asia. food retailing in these regions in the with little use of and the emerging a rapid rise in the of in the supermarket sector (and other modern food sectors such as scale food and food The rise of for and of food products, and the of the of public is a crucial of the of in the procurement systems. In these as of coordination of supply chains by over many regions or countries. and the and efficiency and of a also be to a that the public are in all the markets in which the retail be as for or public (Reardon and In this can as competitive the sector (and other by The evolution of in the supermarket sector in these regions is also driven by between the by the in developed countries and in developing countries. many small and are it to the of supermarkets, and are being from their procurement The procurement practices of supermarkets and large are the of the for and first-stage To to advantage of and and and a of development for the small and sector. Development that mean programs and in be three or chains can up to 50% or more of the supermarket sector in development programs and policies to with just a of This is an and an and of and

Syed Hashemi, Sidney Ruth Schuler, Ann P. Riley

William O Beeman

Language and the Politics of Emotion. Catherine A. Lutz and Lila Abu‐Lughod. eds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. 217 pp. $44.50 (cloth)

Joseph E. Stiglitz

A major problem for institutional lenders is ensuring that borrowers exercise prudence in the use of the funds so that the likelihood of repayments is enhanced. One partial solution is peer monitoring: having neighbors who are in a good position to monitor the borrower be required to pay a penalty if the borrower goes bankrupt. Peer monitoring is largely responsible for the successful financial performance of the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh and of similar group lending programs elsewhere. But peer monitoring has a cost. It transfers risk from the bank, which is in a better position to bear risk, to the cosigner. In a simple model of peer monitoring in a competitive credit market, this article demonstrates that the transfer of risk to an improvement in borrowers' welfare.

Nazmul Chaudhury, Jeffrey S. Hammer, Michael Kremer, Karthik Muralidharan et al.

In this paper, we report results from surveys in which enumerators made unannounced visits to primary schools and health clinics in Bangladesh, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Peru and Uganda and recorded whether they found teachers and health workers in the facilities. Averaging across the countries, about 19 percent of teachers and 35 percent of health workers were absent. The survey focused on whether providers were present in their facilities, but since many providers who were at their facilities were not working, even these figures may present too favorable a picture. For example, in India, one-quarter of government primary school teachers were absent from school, but only about one-half of the teachers were actually teaching when enumerators arrived at the schools. We will provide background on education and health care systems in developing; analyze the high absence rates across sectors and countries; investigate the correlates, efficiency, and political economy of teacher and health worker absence; and consider implications for policy.