Supply-side Constraints Research Articles

Affordable housing in urban India: a review of critical success factors (CSFs) addressing housing adequacy with affordability for the urban poor

PurposeThis paper aims to focus on the housing situation in Indian cities and the various stakeholders involved in the housing sector. This study addresses the conflict in expectations of the supply and demand side of the housing and establishes the factors crucial to making housing successful for all the stakeholders, essential for sustainable urban development.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is developed using the content analysis of preceding independent reviews on housing sustainability by authors across the globe, a review of the current housing situation in Indian cities and a Pilot study of the desired qualitative aspects of housing by the consumer group.FindingsThis paper identifies the challenges and constraints of the various stakeholders involved in the housing sector. A comprehensive list of all the parameters, both qualitative and quantitative, essential for successful housing implementation, focused on the preferences of the demand side, also referred to as the “Critical Success Factors (CSFs)” is generated. The results advocate a strict consideration and integration of these CSFs with the housing policies for all future housing projects.Research limitations/implicationsMost of the studies conducted in the past have reviewed the housing situation in India from the perspective of the government authorities and the initiatives undertaken by them to improve the housing crisis. However, a gap exists in achieving a balanced understanding of the supply-side constraints, with the demand-side expectations from the housing. Focusing only on the supply without adequately understanding the consumption can only lead to further chaos in the already turbulent housing situation.Originality/valueTo the best of author’s knowledge, this is among the first attempts to address the housing scenario in urban centers of India, simultaneously from the perspective of both the demand side and the supply side of the housing, giving additional impetus to the expectations of the demand side which are often ignored. This study becomes more relevant in the ongoing pandemic situation to be able to provide appropriate and acceptable housing solutions to all.

Estimating total spending by source of funding on routine and supplementary immunisation activities in low-income and middle-income countries, 2000–17: a financial modelling study

SummaryBackgroundChildhood immunisation is one of the most cost-effective health interventions. However, despite its known value, global access to vaccines remains far from complete. Although supply-side constraints lead to inadequate vaccine coverage in many health systems, there is no comprehensive analysis of the funding for immunisation. We aimed to fill this gap by generating estimates of funding for immunisation disaggregated by the source of funding and the type of activities in order to highlight the funding landscape for immunisation and inform policy making.MethodsFor this financial modelling study, we estimated annual spending on immunisations for 135 low-income and middle-income countries (as determined by the World Bank) from 2000 to 2017, with a focus on government, donor, and out-of-pocket spending, and disaggregated spending for vaccines and delivery costs, and routine schedules and supplementary campaigns. To generate these estimates, we extracted data from National Health Accounts, the WHO–UNICEF Joint Reporting Forms, comprehensive multi-year plans, databases from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation's 2019 development assistance for health database. We estimated total spending on immunisation by aggregating the government, donor, prepaid private, and household spending estimates.FindingsBetween 2000 and 2017, funding for immunisation totalled US$112·4 billion (95% uncertainty interval 108·5–118·5). Aggregated across all low-income and middle-income countries, government spending consistently remained the largest source of funding, providing between 60·0% (57·7–61·9) and 79·3% (73·8–81·4) of total immunisation spending each year (corresponding to between $2·5 billion [2·3–2·8] and $6·4 billion [6·0–7·0] each year). Across income groups, immunisation spending per surviving infant was similar in low-income and lower-middle-income countries and territories, with average spending of $40 (38–42) in low-income countries and $42 (39–46) in lower-middle-income countries, in 2017. In low-income countries and territories, development assistance made up the largest share of total immunisation spending (69·4% [64·6–72·0]; $630·2 million) in 2017. Across the 135 countries, we observed higher vaccine coverage and increased government spending on immunisation over time, although in some countries, predominantly in Latin America and the Caribbean and in sub-Saharan Africa, vaccine coverage decreased over time, while spending increased.InterpretationThese estimates highlight the progress over the past two decades in increasing spending on immunisation. However, many challenges still remain and will require dedication and commitment to ensure that the progress made in the previous decade is sustained and advanced in the next decade for the Immunization Agenda 2030.FundingBill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Is Indonesia achieving universal health coverage? Secondary analysis of national data on insurance coverage, health spending and service availability

ObjectivesTo analyse the relationship between health need, insurance coverage, health service availability, service use, insurance claims and out-of-pocket spending on health across Indonesia.DesignSecondary analysis of nationally representative quantitative data. We...

Georgia: 2021 Article IV Consultation-Press Release; Staff Report; and Statement by the Executive Director for Georgia

High frequency estimates suggest a V-shaped recovery with output now poised to return close to 2019 levels already this year, much earlier than expected. Recently COVID-19 case numbers have risen sharply to new highs while vaccinations have also accelerated significantly after a slow start. The recovery has improved the fiscal outlook and the authorities submitted to Parliament a supplementary budget, with GEL 1.2 billion in additional spending roughly equivalent to the expected increase in revenues. The National Bank of Georgia (NBG) has increased the policy rate by 200 basis points to deal with high inflation driven by lagging effects of depreciation, commodity and food price increases, and supply side constraints.

Banking or Under-banking: Spatial Role of Financial Inclusion and Exclusion

Access to bank account is only a part of the problem when we talk of financial inclusion because several people with a bank account are not necessarily using them to deposit their savings or carry out transactions. This article makes an attempt to examine the reasons for low utilisation of banking facilities. It employs financial inclusion insights (FII) data for Indian population to find out an outcome of financial inclusion (and thus social inclusion as well) based on the usage of banking services with covariates like financial literacy, the probability that any financial service is accessible to the respondent in terms distance, type of mobile phone and spatial density. We use truncated probit model to measure the incidence of under-banking. Our findings show that there is a negative association between supply-side constraints and usage of banking services, implying that low access to financial services in time and space stands as a hindrance to financial inclusion. Further, we find from the financial inclusion and exclusion map at the district level that even though economic agents intend to participate in the space in which he/she is living is not much inclusive.

Could a new Scottish CO2 transport and storage industry deliver employment multiplier and other wider economy benefits to the UK economy?

In 2021, the UK Government commenced a ‘cluster sequencing’ initiative to identify early movers in delivering carbon transport and storage (T&S) services to proximate regional industry clusters with capture potential. A Scottish proposition focussed primarily on linking the Grangemouth industry cluster to North Sea storage, and the potential to transition Oil and Gas industry capacity to deliver CO2 T&S has devolved policy support. This is in terms of potential to transition and create new direct industry and supply chain jobs, set against risks of displacing jobs in different sectors and regions of the UK. We introduce a Scottish CO2 T&S industry to a UK multi-sector economy-wide model, assessing the extent of potential expansion and job creation in the presence of supply-side and funding constraints. We find that large employment ‘multiplier’ gains registered in previous studies only apply over the very long term and in the absence of such constraints. Crucially, any need to recover demands on the public purse via socialisation of costs severely constrains possible gains, while imposing ‘polluter pays’ leads to net economy-wide contractions triggered by competitiveness losses concentrated in Scottish cluster industries, leading to offshoring of production and jobs, potentially skewed within the localities hosting the clusters.

Informational Shocks and Street-Food Safety: A Field Study in Urban India

Abstract We investigate whether improvements in street-food safety can be achieved by providing information to vendors in the form of a training. Among randomly assigned vendors in Kolkata, India, we find large improvements in knowledge and awareness but little change in observed behavior. We provide two main explanations for these findings. First, information acquisition by itself does not make it significantly easier for vendors to provide customers with safer food options. Second, although consumers have a positive willingness to pay for perceived hygiene, they struggle to distinguish between safe and contaminated food. We recommend policies targeting supply-side constraints and consumers' awareness.

Tenants\u2019 residential mobility in Switzerland: the role of housing functions

The interaction between residential preferences and dwellings is a complex system whose function thus far remains insufficiently explored. In this paper, we investigate housing functions as orchestrators of households’ residential mobility in the context of Swiss rental housing. We propose a theoretical multi-step model and use survey data from 878 Swiss tenants to inspect the model’s linkages. From the statistical analysis, we firstly observe that tenants’ residential satisfaction is more likely to increase when the gap between ideal housing functions and those actually fulfilled by the current dwelling decreases. Secondly, results show that the effectiveness of an event (e.g. a job opportunity) in triggering the move is significantly related to both residential satisfaction and the functions the dwelling fulfils prior to the trigger. Thirdly, findings show that these trigger events can be grouped into three types: radical change, problem-solving and opportunity. With a medium effect size, a radical change was found to bring about the strongest change in housing functions between past and current dwellings. Lastly, in line with the hypothesis that residential preferences vary over the life course, socio-demographic characteristics and tenancy types are found to be significant explanatory variables for households’ ideal housing functions. By disentangling the complexity of the housing system, the proposed multi-step model can be used to integrate households’ preferences with supply-side constraints in agent-based model simulations, thereby contributing to fostering the provision of quality housing, i.e. dwellings able to meet the needs of current and future occupants.

Visualising adoption processes through a stepwise framework: A case study of mechanisation on the Nepal Terai

CONTEXTThe desire for agricultural mechanisation is mainstreaming across the Global South, yet there are limited tools through which to monitor and estimate progress made in pursuit of this. Despite Nepal enacting an agricultural development agenda focused on mechanisation to address issues of productivity, labour scarcity, inclusive economic growth and sustainability, it remains one of the few places in South Asia that is yet to see substantial agricultural mechanisation rates. We use this scenario as a case study to propose and investigate adoption processes. OBJECTIVEThis research aims to provide a baseline to understand progress made towards Agri-mechanisation on the Nepal Terai. Despite decades of promotional efforts, there are only limited comprehensive analyses of the status of agricultural mechanisation in Nepal that cover diverse machinery and go beyond binary adoption estimates, nor a framework to understand different types of (non-)adopters. METHODSThe applied non-binary ‘Stepwise Process of Mechanisation’ framework provides a systematic process for investigation of the status of agricultural mechanisation on the Nepal Terai. This framework is applied to representative survey data from 14 districts across 1569 households from Nepal's Plains (Terai) region. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONSResults suggest that decades of activity have not yet led to the substantial closure of exposure gaps, nor sufficient ownership of machines that enables accessible fee-for-hire service provision. Exposure gaps were substantial in all machines, meaning current demonstration programs may not be achieving their targeted outcomes. Across nearly all machinery, a primary reason for limited progression to sustained adoption was a lack of service providers, a manifestation of limited machinery ownership, meaning current broad subsidy programs aimed at procurement may not be achieving intended outcomes. However, substantial pools of potential adopters and concentration of supply-side constraints highlight that with targeted intervention, rapid rural mechanisation is possible in the near future on the Nepal Terai. SIGNIFICANCEThis research provides a foundation on which to understand the progress made towards small holder agricultural mechanisation. For the first time in South Asia, a systematic analysis through a novel stepwise framework has clarified and updated the status of agricultural mechanisation on the Nepal Terai. This work also lays the foundation for future work to explore the drivers, implications and inclusiveness of agri-mechanisation, utilising the identified typologies, both in Nepal and more broadly where increased nuance in understanding the status of agricultural mechanisation is warranted.

A Decade of Impact of Monetary Policy on Food Inflation: An Overview and Future Direction

This article presents a systematic literature review spanning the decade of 2010–2020 in a thematic fashion. It provides an in-depth analysis of how monetary policy regimes are responding to food inflation. It discusses about factors driving food inflation and the manner in which efficiency of financial markets facilitate policy transmission. Further, it explains how food insecurity is exacerbated by rise in food prices and the way high-income countries protect their farmers through input subsidies, indirectly contributing to global food price hike. It also argues that a strong monetary policy credibility can lend stationarity and mean-reversion to inflation rates. Next, it discusses the issues faced by central banks in measurement of inflation such as conflict of choice in different inflation measures and supply side constraints ranging from high farm-to-fork mark-ups to cartelization and hoarding. In subsequent section, it deals with the question whether to target headline or core inflation. After that, it presents a snapshot of various advanced and emerging countries operating their monetary policy in the presence of fiscal policy. It illustrates that the degree of fiscal intervention should be decided according to individual threshold of every country, taking into account the proportion of Ricardian and non-Ricardian population.

Supply-Side Practices and Constraints of the Kola Nut (Cola nitida (Vent) Schott. and Endl.) Value Chain in Ghana: A Descriptive Evidence

The use of kola nut, including natural or alternative medicinal sources, has inevitably created an increased global market demand in excess of its production and provides great prospects for the growth of the kola nut industry in producing countries like Ghana. Nonetheless, there is a great dearth of information on Ghana’s kola nut supply-side practices and constraints that can provide a basis for the development of the industry. This study fills the research gap by describing the practices and constraints of farmers, processors, and marketers of kola nut in Ghana. Using a survey methodology, results showed that nearly all (99.5%) farmers interviewed had not received any extension training on agronomic practices. Low market price of nuts (61.5%) and pests and diseases (60.4%) were the most reported constraints to kola nut production. Chiefs among motivating factors for cultivating kola nut were alternative livelihood support (58%). Some processors (28.6%) who rinsed nuts after depulping used a solution of Akate Master (bifenthrin) and others (51.0%) used fumigation tablets (aluminium phosphide) (91.0%) for storing the nuts. However, these chemicals may be dangerous to the health of consumers in the long run. The low selling price of kola nuts was perceived to be the most (74.8%) constraint to kola nut processing and marketing. Respondents noted that the red nuts were preferred for their durability during transportation and longer shelf life, while the white nuts were preferred for their taste. The results suggest the need for further agronomic, postharvest handling, preservation, and storage, as well as breeding research to provide recommendations to farmers and processors. To overcome some marketing challenges, there is a need for policy support to standardize pricing and grading systems for the mutual benefit of all the stakeholders.

SMEs’ competitiveness and international trade in the era of Global Value Chains (GVCs) in Tanzania: An assessment and future challenges

International trade continues to play a crucial role in economic transformation in African countries. The rise of Global Value Chains (GVCs) presents opportunities through which international trade can be effectively conducted. GVCs facilitate organization of trade, international production and investment by locating different stages of production process across varied countries. This presents opportunities to integrate Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) into global trading systems but also may generate challenges particularly to resource constrained SMEs. Reviewing the challenges for the participation in international trade and possible integration into GVCs by Tanzania’s SMEs, the results show that the major challenges for SMEs internationalization are international marketing related constraints and global competition (69%), supply side constraints (56%), unfriendly investment climate (50%) and financial constraints (37.5%). As such, the role of trade policies remains critical in mitigating some of these challenges through formulating friendly legal and regulatory frameworks, enhancing SMEs productivity by building their managerial and technical capacities, minimizing trade costs, and increasing trade openness. However, given the current global, regional and domestic developments in Tanzania, trade policies need review so as to respond to the changing global trade landscape but also promote policy harmony, coherence and complementarities among varying implementing institutions, deficiency of which is debilitating policy implementation at present

Malaysia

Malaysia entered the pandemic from a robust economic position but has nonetheless been significantly affected. A synchronous fiscal, monetary and financial policy response has helped cushion the economic impact. As a result, after a deep recession in 2020, and assuming the pandemic is brought under control in Malaysia and globally, growth would rebound to 6.5 percent in 2021 as supply side constraints are lifted and domestic and external demand recover. Large downside risks will remain.

Energy poverty measures and the identification of the energy poor: A comparison between the utilitarian and capability-based approaches in Chile

This work explores the consequences that different energy poverty definitions and measures might have for the identification of the energy poor. Using the 2017 National Survey of Public Energy Perception applied to a sample of 3,500 households in Chile, we compare the respective identification outcomes of applying the ten percent rule index (TPRI) and our proposed Perception-based Multidimensional Energy Poverty Index (PMEPI) against the monetary poverty identification outcome. Based on the findings of this comparation, we propose a classification system of first- and second-order energy poverty measures depending on their degree of association with income poverty (as indicated by the distribution of the income poverty status of households). A first-order energy poverty measure exhibits a high association level with income poverty. By contrast, a second-order energy poverty measure shows a low level of association. Coincidentally, our TPRI (first-order) and PMEPI (second-order) estimates each classify 15.5% of the population as energy poor. However, the adoption of any particular definition necessarily narrows the resulting set of energy-poor households in a way that is distinct from other definitions, meaning that the use of multiple definitions produces diverging energy poverty rankings across the territory. Moreover, the TPRI neglects supply-side constraints captured by the PMEPI. Consequently, when identifying and targeting the energy poor, first- and second-order definitions should not be used as substitutes but rather as complements. This fact needs to be considered in the energy policy debate on the implementation of energy poverty alleviation actions.

Macroeconomic policies and the Iranian economy in the era of sanctions

ABSTRACT This paper examines the impact of macroeconomic policies on the Iranian economy. The study covers the time between 1978-2017. The results illustrate the role of the money supply and government spending in supporting growth, although contributing to inflationary pressures in the long run, attesting to supply-side constraints. In the short-run, policies have aimed to provide support to the economy in the face of continued fluctuations with the oil price and spillovers from the geopolitical tensions attributed to sanctions. The exchange rate has played a key role in absorbing, but at times magnifying the adverse effects of these tensions. Continued deterioration of the fundamentals of the Iranian economy forced an official devaluation as the exchange rate proved to be misaligned with the fundamentals of the economy against the backdrop of the limited capacity of the Central Bank to continue to intervene to defend stability. In the meantime, a parallel exchange rate market has been flourishing to satisfy the market’s needs as culminated in the spread between the market exchange rate and the official exchange rate. A wider spread between the parallel market rate and the official rate has signified overvaluation of the rial and proved to be a major source of inflationary expectations and pressures. Wider spread has demanded frequent interventions by the Central Bank to defend the official rate and ultimately has forced an official devaluation of the exchange rate, further increasing inflationary pressures with negative effects on the output supply given high dependency on imports for consumption and investment.

Thinking Beyond the Pandemic: Monetary Policy Challenges in the Medium- to Long-Term

The economic characteristics of the COVID-19 crisis differ from those of previous crises. It is a combination of demand- and supply-side constraints which led to the formation of a monetary overhang that will be unfrozen once the pandemic ends. Monetary policy must take this effect into consideration, along with other pro-inflationary factors, in the post-pandemic era. It must also think in advance about how to avoid a policy trap coming from fiscal dominance.This paper is organized as follows: Chapter 2 deals with the economic characteristics of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the effectiveness of the monetary policy response measures undertaken. In Chapter 3, we analyse the monetary policy decisions of the ECB (and other major CBs for comparison) and their effectiveness in achieving the declared policy goals in the short term. Chapter 4 is devoted to an analysis of the policy challenges which may be faced by the ECB and other major CBs once the pandemic emergency comes to its end. Chapter 5 contains a summary and the conclusions of our analysis.

Effect on Regional integration on Inter-regional Trade in Africa

Regional integration offers participating countries advantages including the enlargement of the economic space, increased efficiency and the development of interregional trade. In the African regional communities, these assets are slow to emerge because of insufficient progress in the implementation of protocols, lack of economic diversification and various supply-side constraints. Moreover, Africa’s ability to participate fully in world trade is currently hampered by weaknesses in private investment inflows, commodity dependence, non-existent or poorly developed infrastructure, and small regional markets

Demand forecasting for successive generations of mobile telecommunication service in Ethiopia

The Ethiopian telecommunication market has been expanding slowly due to supply side constraints. However, these days, government has already announced to open market to the private operators and in...

Pricing Universal Health Care: How Much Would The Use Of Medical Care Rise?

The return of a Democratic administration to the White House, coupled with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic-induced contractions of job-based insurance, may reignite debate over public coverage expansion and its costs. Decades of research demonstrate that uninsured people and people with copays and deductibles use less care than people with first-dollar coverage. Hence, most economic analyses of Medicare for All proposals and other coverage expansions project increased utilization and associated costs. We review the utilization surges that such analyses have predicted and contrast them with the more modest utilization increments observed after past coverage expansions in the US and other affluent nations. The discrepancy between predicted and observed utilization changes suggests that analysts underestimate the role of supply-side constraints-for example, the finite number of physicians and hospital beds. Our review of the utilization effects of past coverage expansions suggests that a first-dollar universal coverage expansion would increase ambulatory visits by 7-10percent and hospital use by 0-3percent. Modest administrative savings could offset the costs of such increases.

The Determinants of Intra-Africa Export Performance in Selected African Countries

Developing countries in the factor-driven stage of development are usually bedevilled by domestic supply-side constraints which hinder translation of their comparative advantages to development. This study examines the domestic supply-side determinants to intra-Africa export performance in selected African countries. The study analysed 1994 to 2019 panel data of the biggest economies in each of the five African sub-regions, using pooled mean group (PMG) technique. The result from the study revealed capital formation, institutional quality, macroeconomic stability, technology adoption and infrastructure as significant long-run determinants of intra-Africa export performance while size of labour force was found to be insignificant long-run determinant of intra-Africa export share. All short-run coefficients of explanatory variables except one period lag of infrastructure and capital formation were insignificant. The coefficient of error correction term was negative and statistically significant. Based on the findings of this study macroeconomic stability, infrastructural development, pro-market institutions, capital formation and technology adoption are imperative for intra-Africa export performance in the studied countries.