Unexpected Expenditures Research Articles

On Farm Reproductive Performance and Trait Preferences of Sheep and Goat in Pastoral and Agro-Pastoral Areas of Afar Regional State, Ethiopia

This study was conducted from March 2018 to January 2019 with the aim of assessing the reproductive performance and traits preferences of sheep and goats producers in pastoral and agro-pastoral area of Afar, Ethiopia. Semi-structured questionnaires and field observations were used to collect the required information from 136 from pastoral and 56 from agro-pastoral. Sheep and goats were kept for a variety of reasons including income generation, insurance (sale for cash to meet unexpected expenditures) and economic security (sale for cash to support foreseeable expenses), social/religious functions and prestige in ownership. In both production systems, next to camels, goats and sheep were ranked as the second and third most important livestock species in accordance to their relative importance. In the current study, there was a significance differences (P<0.05) in the reproductive performance of both sheep and goats between pastoral and agro-pastoral areas. Goats in agro-pastoral areas had noticeably higher average age at first kidding (12.33 ± 0.76 months), and kidding interval (8.76 ± 2.04 months) whereas they had lower age at first mating both for Doe and bucks (9.28 ± 1.85 and 7.98 ± 2.08 months, respectively). Similarly, sheep in the agro-pastoral areas had higher age at first lambing (12.30 ± 1.18 months) and lambing interval (9.16 ± 2.66 months) than sheep found in the pastoral areas. In both production systems twinning ability (0.46), fast growth (0.41) and trekking long distances were the main preferred sheep traits, whereas fast growth, milk yield and twining ability were the main goat preferred traits with an overall index value of 0.37, 0.32, and 0.32, respectively. Genetic improvement programs targeting pastoral and agro-pastoral production system need to be incorporated the traits of preference, multipurpose roles and the existing traditional herding and breeding practices.

UNPREPARED FOR FINANCIAL SHOCKS: EMERGENCY SAVINGS AND CREDIT CARD DEBT

We measure readiness to face emergency expenses using data from a representative survey of U.S. consumers. Our main findings are as follows: (1) there is substantial heterogeneity in financial readiness, with lowest‐income, least‐educated, unemployed, and Black consumers most likely to have $0 saved for emergency expenses; (2) the amount of emergency savings is correlated with payment choice: Less financially prepared individuals use cash more and credit cards less, compared to those with higher emergency savings; (3) while people with low emergency savings rely more on cash than credit cards, they revolve more debt, and so a financial shock is costlier for them; (4) changes in income from one year to the next do not appear to affect the likelihood of revolving on credit cards or increase the amount borrowed, although the data were collected before the COVID‐19 pandemic. For those with little or no savings and already financially vulnerable, even a temporary financial shock—an unexpected negative income shock (such as a layoff or a short‐term government shutdown) or an unexpected expenditure (such as a medical expense or a car repair)—could have severe financial consequences, exacerbated by the high cost of borrowing on credit cards. (JEL D12, D14, D15, E21)

The Convergence of Disclosure Concerns and Poverty Contributes to Loss to HIV Care in India: A Qualitative Study.

In India, there is little evidence on reasons for high rates of loss to HIV care. We conducted a clinic-based qualitative study at the YR Gaitonde Centre for AIDS Research and Education to explore factors that influence loss to care. In all, 17 men and 14 women were interviewed; median age was 42 (interquartile range [IQR], 36-48) and median CD4 count was 448 (IQR, 163-609). A majority reported avoiding treatment freely available at nearby government facilities because of disclosure concerns and perceptions of poor quality. As a result, participants sought care in the private sector where they were subjected to medication and transport costs. Life circumstances causing lost wages or unexpected expenditures therefore prevented participants from attending clinic, resulting in loss to care. Improving perceptions of quality of care in the public sector, addressing disclosure concerns, and reducing economic hardships among people living with HIV may be important in reducing loss to HIV care in India.

A statistical solution for cost estimation in oil well drilling

Abstract Drilling operations must be preceded by adequate planning, fulfilling the path to produce hydrocarbons at low and competitive costs. Conventional well planning is based on the personal experience of project engineers, which use information from offset wells to estimate the performances in future wells. This article reviews and discusses a published statistical methodology for planning upcoming oil wells. The statistical approach incorporates uncertainties of the process, reducing the relevance of personal decisions and supporting the staff with more realistic cost estimations. A reliable project can reduce unexpected expenditures in a long-term campaign and shorten the learning time, resulting in improved cost prediction and a better-fitted calendar. An expressive database, containing information from an onshore field in Brazil, yields a case study to demonstrate the benefits of this approach for the development of new drilling projects. The solution presented supports a more precise planning of costs, the improvement of technical limits and the development of different technologies in drilling operations in future wells.

Economic sentiment as a driver for household financial behavior

The study focused on investigating influence of economic sentiments on household financial decisions. A group of Polish households participated simultaneously in a longitudinal study on financial behavior and a consumer tendency survey. Combination of responses from the two surveys was used to investigate a link between economic situation assessment and household financial decisions. With the use of latent class modeling five distinct patterns of saving behavior and six distinct patterns of borrowing behavior were identified among respondents. Patterns in both these domains were confirmed as stable in time. Subsequently, with the use of individual data, a link between indicators from the consumer tendency survey and the evolution of household financial behavior in the domains of borrowing and savings was established. Consumer confidence stimulated debt for durables and mortgages but reduced debt uptake for unexpected expenditures or consumption purposes. Lower consumer confidence increased only likelihood of saving for consumption, confirming the precautionary motive of saving. Multi-purpose and home renovation savings both correlated positively with consumer confidence.

Understanding the Financial Lives of Nepali Immigrants in Bangalore, India

This paper examines the financial practices of a low-income, Nepali immigrant group living in Bangalore, India. Members of this group often experience adverse circumstances that lead to erratic incomes and unexpected expenditures. However, they find themselves squeezed between the stringent requirements of the formal banking system and the predatory practices of private money lenders. Through observational research and interviews of members of this group, the study attempts to understand how they manage their financial needs. Critical to achieving their goals is an informal, community-based saving and lending scheme called a chit fund. To gain insights into a chit fund’s operations, we track two chit funds managed by the Nepali immigrant group’s local leader. We examine how these funds work, why members participate in them, and how the community addresses default risk by fund members. Our findings lead to two important learnings. First, informal chit funds serve as a means to save and borrow money, which helps stabilize and manage financial uncertainties in their lives. Second, the informal chit fund arrangement succeeds because of mutual trust, reciprocity among members, and the community leader’s position of influence. The learnings from understanding the operations of chit funds can help policymakers adopt a more effective and inclusive financial system that caters to millions of unbanked households.

Financial Management Model Village

This research aims to improve knowledge of the village head and village apparatus about administering and accounting of financial transactions using accounting model village village, this type of research is the research field to the villages of recipients the village Fund, the allocation of funds, and local tax and regional levies in the Regency of Banggai Central Sulawesi Province.
 Sampling method was purposive sampling, while the analysis tools used are model villages, using accounting using public cash book, daily maid, cash book bank book, book, book inventory tax village, books supplies, books capital books, accounts receivable, and the book debts. 
 Results of the study consist of APB Village consists of income of the village, which is a fund transfer from the Central Government, i.e. the village Fund, and the allocation of funds and village tax areas and regional retribution from the local government as well as financial assistance from the Government the counties and provinces,while shopping the village consists of the 56th Government field shopping village, shopping areas of implementation of the development of the village, shopping areas of civic construction, shopping areas, community empowerment and unexpected expenditures. Accounting model villages will produce financial laporaan village consisting of APB Village, reports, reports on the realization of the budget, the early village-owned wealth report, balance sheet and notes to financial statements.

ANALISIS SISTEM PENATAUSAHAAN BELANJA LANGSUNG DI PEMERINTAH KABUPATEN MINAHASA SELATAN (STUDI KASUS PADA DINAS SOSIAL TENAGA KERJA DAN TRANSMIGRASI)

Indirect expenditures represent expenditures that have no direct relationship to the implementation of programs and activities consisting of personnel expenditures, interest expenditures, subsidies, grants, social assistance, revenue-sharing, financial aid expenditures and unexpected expenditures. Direct expenditure is expenditure that has direct relationship with programs and activities which include personnel expenditure, goods and services expenditure and capital expenditure. Local financial management in both revenue (expenditure) and expenditure (expenditure) is very important to note, the weakness of administering the finance of this region resulted in weakness of internal financial control system, at the end will be very low quality of administrative evidence required in accounting record. The administration of regional finance is based on Permendagri number 13 of 2006 concerning the guideline of regional financial management as has been amended into Permendagri Number 59 Year 2007 and the change of the second amendment with the regulation of the Minister of Home Affairs No.21 of 2011. Target of this researchanalyze the adequacy of direct administration system in the Social Service of South Minahasa Regency based on Permendagri Number 21 of 2011.The analytical method used is descriptive analysis.The results showed that the system and procedure of direct administration administration of Social Service of Manpower and Transmigration of South Minahasa Regency has been in accordance with Permendagri Number 21 Year 2011 and the system has been adequate. However, there are still some obstacles faced such as errors of record, as well as procedural errors.Keywords : system, administration, direct spending

The Perception and Attitude Towards Health Insurance Among the Students of Dhaka University

With an aim to bring a vast range of the potential group of the population who are studying at different departments at university level under the umbrella of universal Health coverage, Health Insurance mechanism is the highly commendable approach. This study has been conducted in order to assess the level of perception and attitudes towards health insurance as a health care financing mechanism among the currently enrolled 500 students of diverse departments and institutes in the University of Dhaka. About 24.8% (124 of 498) of the total respondents consider health insurance as an essential tool. The health insurance has been evaluated as necessary by the 62.8% of total respondents (314 of 498). A negligible share, 2.8% (14), of the total respondents has considered health insurance as an unnecessary mechanism. The high level of interest towards health insurance has been revealed by the 23.2% (116) of total respondents. About 61% (305 of 499) respondents are interested in health insurance in order to avert the unexpected expenditure for tackling unexpected health care demand in the near future. Based on the facts explored by this study, it can be said that there is an enormous hidden possibilities to unlock the potential health insurance market among the students of Dhaka University composed of about 30,015 population and this robust mechanism of health care financing can be disseminated as well as introduced across the universities of Bangladesh which will be able to protect about 3 million university students from economic shock due to access to health care services. All stakeholders associated with government, universities, insurance agencies, pharmaceutical companies should come forward in order to build a sustainable healthy generation through introducing health insurance mechanism through an innovative, sustainable, inclusive, and affordable approach so that the generous objectives can come into reality.

The Impact of Climatic Conditions on Unexpected Expenditures on Repairs

The paper is concerned with the impact of climatic conditions, temperature and relative air humidity on the occurrence of material corrosion with consequent influence on the military unit economics. It clarifies how corrosion affects the life cycle of a military vehicle, and how the maintenance system established in the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic is impacted. By means of Saaty’s method and Metfessel’s allocation of 100 points, a comparison of the existing corrosion protection within the maintenance system in place and a new system of corrosion protection using a newly designed short-term military vehicle storage kit was made.

Psychological determinants of financial buffer saving: the influence of financial risk tolerance and regulatory focus

With governments redistributing more responsibilities unto citizens, individuals have an increasing need for financial resources acting as a buffer against life’s setbacks and unexpected expenditures. The purpose of this study was to examine psychological determinants of saving for a financial buffer, for which a theoretical model was formulated based on the theory of planned behaviour with three new, domain-specific psychological constructs: financial risk tolerance, regulatory focus and perceived saving barriers. Data were collected with an online questionnaire that utilised convenience and snowball sampling to target both students and working individuals (N = 272). Regression analyses offered support for the proposed model, showing that participants’ financial risk tolerance (i.e. an individual’s attitude towards financial risk taking) was significantly associated with their subjective financial knowledge and regulatory focus. Furthermore, perceived financial self-efficacy and financial risk tolerance both predicted participants’ intention to save for a financial buffer. In turn, perceived financial self-efficacy and saving intention predicted self-reported saving behaviour. Importantly, perceived saving barriers mediated the relationship between saving intention and self-reported saving behaviour. In line with the proposed model, results also showed that a specific attitude-based construct (financial risk tolerance) is a considerably better predictor of saving intention than general measures of attitude towards saving. This study is also the first to demonstrate that regulatory focus influences financial risk tolerance. Implications of these findings for stimulating saving behaviour are discussed.

The Steel Ballistic Resistance Directly Affecting Logistics-Related Expenditures

As far as the projectile/armour interaction is concerned, it can be generally stated that the interaction triggers degradation processes, and subsequently leads to a limit state in the material. The nature of the armour plate damage is directly related to the type of ammunition used and indirectly to the operating conditions (the shooter’s capability, the technical condition of the weapon, etc.). The paper examines limit conditions (critical temperature), under which ballistic resistance, which is measured based on determined mean velocity V50, decreases. Military vehicles deployed in peace missions abroad operate under various climatic conditions characterised by significant temperature variations in the course of day. When superposing the ambient temperature influence and the ammunition effect, the projectile penetration through the material and unexpected expenditures relating to the restoration of the damaged material original properties can be assumed. In addition to the efficient use of public financial means, foreign operation logistic support planning must take possible damage to the military vehicles, resulting from enemy’s combat activities, into consideration. On the basis of the determined mean velocity within the temperature range -80 °C to 100 °C, the correlation of selected material characteristics was studied. In order to determine the share of the test temperature in the material degradation states, the experiment was supplemented with a fractographic analysis and transmission electron microscopy.

Financial literacy and financial capability: definitions, measurement methods, and analysis in the case of Russia

The main purpose of the study is to assess the level of financial capability of Russians by using the methodology of cross country comparison developed by the Russia Financial Literacy and Education Trust Fund. The paper gives a brief description of the methodology of financial literacy and financial capability measurements, as well as the results of the survey in Russia. From the analysis of the survey data, it is concluded that the weak areas of the financial capability of Russians concern issues related to planning of expenses and keeping these plans completed, creating reserves to pay for major planned or unexpected expenditures, lack of control over money spent using written records of incomes and expenses, developing regular saving habits, and lengthening time horizons.

Production objectives and breeding practices of urban goat and sheep keepers in West Africa: regional analysis and implications for the development of supportive breeding programs.

To better understand the relative importance of the multi-purpose functions of small ruminants for their urban owners and related breeding practices including selection criteria, we undertook a comparative analysis across the West African cities of Kano (Nigeria), Bobo Dioulasso (Burkina Faso) and Sikasso (Mali). Semi-structured questionnaires were used to collect the required information from 301 sheep farmers (100, 102 and 99 in Kano, Bobo Dioulasso and Sikasso) and 306 goat farmers (100, 99 and 107 in Kano, Bobo Dioulasso and Sikasso). Sheep and goats were kept for a variety of reasons including income generation, insurance (sale for cash to meet unexpected expenditures) and economic security (sale for cash to support foreseeable expenses), social/religious functions and prestige in ownership. The relative importance given by respondents to the different functions varied significantly (p < 0.001) across cities and between species within a city. However, irrespective of city, both species were primarily kept for their financial functions whereby sheep were perceived as having higher economic value. Although breeding practices were very similar in many respects (low practice of castration, culling and replacement strategies, uncontrolled mating, no record keeping and selection criteria), the emphasis put on each selection criteria varied across cities and between species. Irrespective of city, most of the goats were of the indigenous type while keeping crossbred animals and/or maintaining more than one genotype in the same flock was more commonly practiced by sheep keepers. This points to a higher motivation for strategic breeding among sheep than goat keepers and indicates that the former might be interested in joining carefully designed participatory flock improvement programs.

Is Financial Fragility a Matter of Illiquidity? An Appraisal for Italian Households

We investigate household financial fragility in Italy, providing three main contributions. First, we propose a novel characterization of financial fragility that is not necessarily linked to indebtedness, distinguishes between expected and unexpected expenses, takes portfolio composition into account, and is free of subjectivity bias. Second, we use it to assess the importance of household portfolio composition for determining the difficulties related to coping with unexpected expenditures, besides socio‐economic and demographic factors. Third, we test its ability to forecast future conditions of financial distress. The empirical analysis is based on the Bank of Italy Survey on Household Income and Wealth. The results highlight the relevance of portfolio choices as determinants of financial distress, that is, they provide evidence that homeownership increases the likelihood of financial fragility while the presence of a mortgage decreases it. Moreover our measure is shown to act as an early warning indicator of distress.

Fiscal Rules in Recessions

This study explores the impact of balanced-budget rules on states’ fiscal policy outcomes and tests whether this impact depends on the political and economic environments in light of the American states’ experience from 2004 to 2010. The findings suggest that (1) budget rules are more binding in recessions as compared with “normal” times; (2) the impact of the rule depends on the political environment, especially on the party identity of the governor; (3) a divided government influences the rule’s impact, particularly when one party controls the governorship and another controls the legislature; and (4) states’ responses, as measured by total budget cuts, to unexpected revenue shocks (such as unexpected decreases in tax revenue) tend to be larger than states’ responses to unexpected expenditure shocks.

The search for a filter-feeding alternative for integrated shrimp aquacultures– a preliminary study with the polychaete Sabella spallanzanii for water quality improvement

The search for a filter-feeding alternative for integrated shrimp aquacultures– a preliminary study with the polychaete Sabella spallanzanii for water quality improvement

Public Sector Risk Financing: Exploring the Potential Use of Weather Derivatives by Fire and Rescue Services

The floods of 2007, experienced across much of England, resulted in local authority organisations, including Fire and Rescue Services, mounting large-scale responses and incurring additional and unexpected expenditure. Although central government activated funding schemes, some local authorities fell below the thresholds set and had to absorb the additional costs. This raised a question of what alternative methods were available to allow these local authority organisations to finance such unexpected costs. Weather derivatives are widely used in certain sectors to manage the financial risk that arises from undesirable weather conditions and the objective of this research is to explore the reactions of an FRS towards the use of these financial instruments in managing additional costs, such as those arising from the 2007 floods. Our findings suggest that a combination of risk-aversion, lack of specific financial knowledge and comfort with the status quo seem set to stifle development of weather derivatives as an innovation in public sector risk financing. However, this exploratory study suggests that the method has some merit and is at least worthy of further examination.

Neighbors and acts of silent kindness

I want to take one paragraph from the second chapter (Social debt, silent gift) from Clara Han’s compelling account of the braiding of care and violence in postPinochet neoliberal Chile and work out its implications for anthropology with regard to questions of social suffering, poverty, and how we may understand the pursuit of the good. The paragraph that occurs on page seventy-nine goes as follows: Later, when I asked Paloma who her friends were in the poblacion, she said to me, “Friends? I don’t have any friends. Susana is my friend. We share our intimacies. Friends are few, neighbors are many.” Indeed, such a sentiment was echoed to me by many women in La Pincoya. Only upon meditation upon the boundary between neighbors and friends did I begin to realize that the crucial difference between inhabiting friendship and neighborliness lay not in the perceptive ability of catching those signs of critical moments, such as the cry of Paloma’s hungry child, but in how that catching would be or could be addressed. To follow Han’s thought here it is necessary to step into the streets and houses that she describes in such depth and ask, what does she mean by “critical moments”? Understanding the critical moments in the life of a family requires that we shift scales and ask how economic precariousness is produced in the lives of the poor through the transformations in economic policy. As Han argues, the successive democratic governments in Chile continued with the “growth with equity” model of the Pinochet regime that was consistent with a neoliberal vision. This economic model had particularly perilous effects on the poor with its flexible labor regimes, shifts from permanent to temporary labor contracts, and easy availability of credit cards with high interest rates and punishing schedules of repayment. Though various successive governments recognized a social debt to the poor, welfare programs were decentralized with technologies of verification by social workers

HOW DO POOR RURAL HOUSEHOLDS IN MYANMAR COPE WITH SHOCKS? COPING STRATEGIES IN A FISHING AND FARMING VILLAGE IN RAKHINE STATE

This paper examines how poor rural households in Myanmar cope with shocks which incur unexpected expenditure, namely, the sickness or death of a household member, using data collected in a fishing and farming village in Myanmar in 2008. The paper analyzes the sequence of coping strategies and the background factors behind the sequence. Self-insurance, the dissaving of assets or cash, is given priority over intra-party strategies, such as loans or gifts. The reason for this lies in the persistent severe credit constraints faced by households, both in terms of access and cost (high level of interest rates), and the absence of strong social norms for mutual insurance in the community. Both factors appear to force these households to self-insure themselves from the outset.