The Development of Non-bank Financial Institutions in Ukraine: Policy Reform Strategy and Action Plan
The prospect of European integration presents huge opportunities and challenges for the development of non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) in Ukraine. By most measures, the development of the NBFI sector in Ukraine lags far behind that of recent accession countries in Central Europe. To address the main impediments facing the development of the sector, the Ukrainian authorities need to implement a strategy based on six main pillars: 1) strengthen the capacity, independence, funding, and accountability of the NBFI regulators; 2) develop money markets, government bond markets, and municipal bond markets; 3) restructure equity markets; 4) accelerate the introduction of funded pension schemes, and, improve transparency and consumer protection in the insurance industry; 5) radically transform corporate governance; and, 6) broaden access of NBFI finance.
Fueling Ukraine’s Future: Using Microfinance as a Tool for Reducing Energy Dependency and Changing Lives
Ukraine is a country heavily dependent on other countries for its natural gas supply, leaving it vulnerable to interruptions in supply. One of its largest suppliers, Russia, has twice taken drastic means of physically closing the pipelines, thereby cutting off this supply and illustrating to Ukraine and the world the leverage that it can exercise. While at the present time the cut-offs have lasted no longer than a few weeks, future cut-offs could become more common and longer in duration. When compounded with the troubled history between the two countries, one can quickly see the precipitous situation that has the potential to escalate into armed conflict. The methodology used in this thesis sought to identify a renewable energy technology that could help reduce this dependency on foreign energy. The technology must be feasible considering the climate, viable considering the cost, and efficient in the production of an alternative fuel source. Biogas plants (anaerobic digestion) were identified as satisfying all three of these conditions. These plants can use as an input any biodegradable material, but corn silage was quickly identified as the optimal input due to its low cost and high biogas yield. Rural farmers were then identified as the optimal target population for these digesters, due to their ownership of a large amount of land and having the existing infrastructure in place to produce corn silage. The annual natural gas demand of the rural farmers was found to be 4,200 cubic meters, which was used in the calculation of the size of the actual digester that would produce this exact amount of gas annually. The size of the digester was determined to be 9 cubic meters. A financial analysis of the biogas plants then proved that this technology produced a large amount of natural gas equivalent, and also provided financial profits to those who constructed them. However, a problem soon arose. How could rural farmers be expected to afford the lump sum payment necessary for the construction of the digester? A microfinance institution was then theorized that would provide the upfront capital to construct these plants, who would then lease these plants to rural farmers. These rural farmers would repay the lease over a five year term and would benefit from the opportunity cost from synthesizing their own fuel. A financial analysis of the borrower and the institution determined that both parties would benefit financially from the institution, with borrowers experiencing profits in year 1 and the institution achieving self-sufficiency in year 7. The final section reports the impacts and final results that this institution could potentially have on the country of Ukraine. First, it evaluates the amount of carbon dioxide offsets generated by these digesters. Second, it values these carbon offsets by using the market price of Emission Reduction Units (ERUs) to identify a potential funding opportunity for the institution. Finally, it measures the total amount of natural gas that all digesters in operation would generate and its impact on Ukraine’s importation of natural gas from foreign countries. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i ADVICE TO FUTURE HONORS STUDENTS ii
Participation Improves Collective Decisions (When It Involves Deliberation): Experimental Evidence From Kenya
Abstract Citizen participation in decision making has been widely lauded as a method for improving societal outcomes. Deliberative discussion, in particular, is believed to be more transformative than a mere aggregation of individual preferences, leading to more socially optimal decision making and behavior. I report the results from a laboratory experiment with 570 subjects in Nairobi, directly testing the effect of participation in deliberative group decision making on collective outcomes. Participants engage in a group task to earn compensation toward a shared group fund. Randomly assigned treatments vary according to whether decision making over the task to be completed involves: (1) external assignment; (2) non-deliberative majority voting; or (3) consensus through deliberative discussion. I find that deliberation improves collective decision making. Deliberation is also associated with changes in preferences, greater agreement with decision outcomes, and greater perceived fairness. Evidence for behavior change is weaker, but there is some support for further research into the relationship between preference change and behavior change.