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Because improved sanitation can improve public health but is lacking in many rural areas, many organizations use sanitation marketing to increase latrine coverage. In rural Cambodia, iDE has facilitated the sale of more than 395,000 pour-flush latrines since 2011 but recognizes that market actors are not incentivized to sell to the poorest households. Using a randomized controlled trial, in which poor households in treatment villages were offered partial latrine subsidies, this study investigated how subsidies affected latrine sales and program cost-effectiveness. Results show latrine sales among poor households that were offered subsidies increased by 14–16% compared to those that were not offered subsidies. Also, no significant effect on latrine sales among non-poor households was found, although lower village-level latrine coverage can reduce latrine sales to non-poor households. Cost-effectiveness analysis shows the increase in sales and thus economies of scale from subsidies yield lower per-latrine program costs compared to non-subsidy costs ($38 vs. $54). Well-targeted latrine subsidies can significantly increase latrine sales among poor households with minimal impact on latrine sales to non-poor households and favorable program cost reductions. However, subsidies must not be introduced into a market before baseline sanitation coverage is achieved to avoid market distortion effects. HIGHLIGHTS Latrine sales among poor households that were offered subsidies increased by 14–16%.; Subsidies for poor households can increase latrine sales without affecting sales to non-poor households.; Increased latrine sales from subsidies can lower per-latrine program costs.; Subsidies must not be introduced too early to avoid market distortion effects.; Local market knowledge is required to accurately target latrine subsidies.;

Resource misallocation (RM) refers to the existence of marginal output inequalities between different industries or companies in an economy. Prior studies of RM have mostly focused on effect analysis, construction industry structure upgrades, and organization management. However, these studies have been fragmented and unrelated. This paper analyzes the status quo, consequences, and emerging trends of RM research at the macroscopic level based on current problems and with the aim of exploring potential solutions. Drawing on grounded theory, a qualitative analysis using text-mining is used to analyze the characteristics of 124 RM-related papers. The results more comprehensively and systematically reveal that current RM research encompasses four major dimensions of sources and concepts, misallocation degree measurement and characterization, focused issues (field), and RM research deficiencies. Methods for measuring RM have also been developed from the simple proportional method to current mainstream methods (e.g., growth rate decomposition and variant substitution). We conclude that, in order for this discipline to thrive and effectively reduce RM, future research into RM should focus on core categories, especially the reform of market-oriented factors, transformation of government functions, construction industrial structure adjustment, and methods of income distribution. This systematic review provides a discipline oversight and uncovers necessary and potential research directions.

Mongolia has been in transition from a planned economy to a market economy for more than 20 years. In many sectors of the economy, it is necessary to define which market mechanisms exist. Grain occupies important economic sector in Mongolian economy. The current state of the wheat market has been studied based on NEIO research methods. In this study, the data for years from 2000 to 2017 and from 2007 to 2017 about wheat and wheat seed sector were taken through 6 indicators. We estimated the supply and demand functions for wheat and wheat seed. Using these functions, we defined market behavior, cost function, price elasticities, and market equilibrium. The capacity setting for product prices of wheat producers is weak, and this market is likely free-style competition.

In the Philippines, a mixture of public and private higher education institutions (HEIs) exists. Because of the government subsidy among the public HEIs, the major concern of the private sector is the “uneven playing field”. This study hopes to eliminate this unhealthy competition and market distortion in the educational landscape. This study utilizes the quantitative non-experimental retrospective explanatory design. Results show that regardless of the extent of state intervention, the market can be distorted. Hence, assigning specific programs to be offered based on the type of HEI is a good alternative. The programs to be fully subsidized and offered by the government are agriculture, sciences, engineering, manufacturing and construction, and humanities and arts (HA) while services, health and welfare, education and social sciences, business and law programs will be for private sector service providers. This stimulates healthy competition among the HEIs leading to a better quality of education.

In contrast to conventional system, concept of Islamic economy emphasize that market mechanism and price arrangement need to be regulated to create market balance and economic justice, taking into consideration the interest of the parties involved in the market. Reasonable and fair price is the price obtained through the force of supply and demand. If there exist actions such as zhulm resulting distortion or imbalance market price, government needs to take steps to implement price arrangement taking into account factors causing distortion and restore the original price at the balance pointDOI: 10.15408/aiq.v5i1.2552