The aim of this study is to examine arguments about the economic and ethical worth of microfinance. This study draws on the available literature to provide a balanced discussion of different views about the economic and ethical desirability of microfinancing. The discussion is reinforced by the use of secondary data (statistics) on the attributes of microfinancing and by reference to a case study in rural Pakistan. Microfinancing is less virtuous than commonly portrayed. Its economic inefficiency consequences are identified, and it is found only likely to make a small contribution to economic growth. The economic efficiency criterion for moral worth (promoted by Becker and Posner) is found to be wanting. From an ethical point of view, microfinance needs to be supplemented by charity to assist the poor. The supply of Islamic microfinance has grown rapidly, but it remains absolutely quite small. It still has some way to go to overcome the ethical and economic shortcomings associated with the supply of microfinance. Supplying microfinance to vulnerable female borrowers can put them under considerable psychological stress. Possible beneficial effects of microfinance are also identified. This study is unique because it systematically draws on recent literature and data to provide a novel and balanced review of the economic and ethical worth of microfinance.

This paper seeks to question the effectiveness of water pricing as a means of consumer behavioural change in urban centres of the Global South by analysing the domestic usage for water in a major industrial city of Pakistan. Using survey data of 1100 households from Faisalabad city, we estimate the price and income elasticities of water demand. Instrumental variable methods are applied to overcome the endogeneity issues of water pricing. The findings reflect that price and income elasticities vary across different groups. Price elasticities range from −0.43 to −0.71, and income elasticities vary between 0.01 and 0.12. These findings suggest that pricing policies may have limited scope to drive households’ water consumption patterns. However, these empirics may suggest that policy makers should design an appropriate tariff structure to increase revenues that can be invested to further improve the existing water infrastructure. The study findings also suggest that non-pricing instruments, such as water saving campaigns, may be helpful in driving an efficient use of water in rapidly growing cities in the developing world.

An investigation was carried out at the Research Farm of Olericulture Division of Horticulture Research Centre of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) to evaluate the heterotic performance in F1 generation of tomato. The hybrids showed significant variation in heterosis. The highest heterobeltiotic effects were observed in the cross P3 x P8 (-18.46%) for earliness, P1 x P6 (8.57 %) for flowers per cluster, P2 x P6 (21.73%) for fruits per cluster, P6 x P7 (75.54%) for plant height, P5 x P6 (67.44%) for fruits per plant, P9 x P10 (54.82 %) for yield per plant, P2 x P8 (21.21 %) for individual fruit weight, P7 x P8 (3.09 %) for fruit length, P3 x P8 (14.11 %) for fruit diameter and P1 x P6 (13.11 %) for brix content. In respect of fruit external characters like shape, pedicel area, shape of pistil scar, blossom end shape genotypes were found diverse. Internal qualitative character like firmness, fleshiness and less seeded and locule numbers were highly variable among the genotypes. Considering all the characters the crosses P1 x P8, P2 x P6, P2 x P7, P2 x P8, P3 x P8 and P5 x P6 were found suitable for further studies to variety selection. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjar.v37i1.11175 Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 37(1): 39-48, March 2012