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Secured transactions reform, also known as collateral or pledge law reform, is increasingly seen as an important building block for economic development. The commonly held view is that the availability and cost of credit, as well as the efficiency of the market for secured credit, are directly influenced by the laws affecting secured transactions and their implementation. However, there is still a lot of confusion about this relatively complex and technical area of the law and its role in promoting access to credit and economic growth. The chapters presented here provide, for the first time, a comprehensive and cutting-edge view of the subject - from both a legal and economic perspective. They start at the macro level of financial systems, moving towards the behaviours of lenders (commercial banks and micro-lenders), policy options for government and the mechanisms of collateral law reform. By approaching the subject from different angles and experiences, the work advocates an inclusive approach to the subject where all stakeholders'interests can be taken into account. It addresses the question of what role laws and institutions can play to encourage access to credit. This book will be of primary interest to those involved in economic development and the interaction between law and economics, either for practical reasons (for example, working on reform or providing advice on investment in transition economies) or for research purposes.

SME credit ratings are one of the most underutilised and misunderstood concepts, though they have the potential to proliferate the ability of SMEs to access funding opportunities via both traditional and non-traditional channels. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the industry and sets out innovative solutions for improving the effectiveness, viability, and coverage of SME credit rating services. It focuses on how private and public sector SME credit rating industries can be established and how the unique “ecosystem approach” can be incorporated. It reintroduces the public sector credit rating model and highlights how it can be an effective solution within the SME space. The book will also include feedback from direct interviews with SME credit rating agencies (private and public), ministries linked to the SME credit rating industry, regulators, and related multilateral organisations. Furthermore, the book incorporates the author's knowledge from recently completed credit rating projects from the World Bank Group, The United Nations, and The African Union. This, together with innovative ideas around how SME credit rating industries can be created/initiated, establishes vital policy tools that can be utilised by governments, credit rating agencies, regulators, and related stakeholders.

In the waning years of Latin America's longest and bloodiest civil war, the rise of an unlikely duo is transforming Colombia: Christianity and access to credit. In her exciting new book, Rebecca C. Bartel details how surging evangelical conversions and widespread access to credit cards, microfinance programs, and mortgages are changing how millions of Colombians envision a more prosperous future. Yet programs of financialization propel new modes of violence. As prosperity becomes conflated with peace, and debt with devotion, survival only becomes possible through credit and its accompanying forms of indebtedness. A new future is on the horizon, but it will come at a price.

How American colonists laid the foundations of American capitalism with an economy built on creditEven before the United States became a country, laws prioritizing access to credit set colonial America apart from the rest of the world. Credit Nation examines how the drive to expand credit shaped property laws and legal institutions in the colonial and founding eras of the republic.In this major new history of early America, Claire Priest describes how the British Parliament departed from the customary ways that English law protected land and inheritance, enacting laws for the colonies that privileged creditors by defining land and slaves as commodities available to satisfy debts. Colonial governments, in turn, created local legal institutions that enabled people to further leverage their assets to obtain credit. Priest shows how loans backed with slaves as property fueled slavery from the colonial era through the Civil War, and that increased access to credit was key to the explosive growth of capitalism in nineteenth-century America.Credit Nation presents a new vision of American economic history, one where credit markets and liquidity were prioritized from the outset, where property rights and slaves became commodities for creditors'claims, and where legal institutions played a critical role in the Stamp Act crisis and other political episodes of the founding period.

This book offers a critical perspective on the issues related to women's empowerment, microfinance, and entrepreneurship in India. Written by distinguishing experts in this field, this book highlights women's empowerment, which is a process of entrusting power to an individual on the control over resources and decisions. However, these two factors are less effective in a society where religion and cultural dominance is high. The book sheds light on the social security measures undertaken by the government aiming to the right to work helped women who are bounded by social restrictions. Over time there is a shift in rural occupational structure towards non-farm activities, which is largely distress driven self-employment. Access to credit is a great source to provide self-employment that develops self-esteem among women and uplift their position. The book highlights the discrimination against women entrepreneurs in access to credit led to gender biased entrepreneurial society. Association with self-help groups (SHGs) has made women more socially empowered. SHG members help them to change their life in a positive manner through micro-entrepreneurial activities. The book has emphasized on the role of microfinance, which has served the poor to become financially self-reliant. It is observed that for second generation borrowers, the impact of microfinance seems to fizzle out, where MFIs who are gaining efficiency are diverting their objective of servicing poor, signalling a sign of mission drift.

Interest in access to finance and awareness of its importance have increased significantly since the early 2000s. Growing evidence suggests that lack of access to credit prevents many households and firms from financing high-return investment projects, which has an adverse effect on growth and poverty alleviation. Despite the increasing awareness of the importance of access to finance among both researchers and policymakers, there are still some major gaps in our understanding of the main drivers of access, as well as about the impact of different policies in this area.This book aims to fill some of these gaps by discussing recent innovative experiences in broadening access to credit in Latin America. These experiences are consistent with an emerging new view that, while recognizing the central role of the public sector in improving the contractual and informational environment for financial markets, also contends that there might be room for well-designed, restricted interventions in collaboration with the private sector to foster the development of financial markets and broaden access to them. In particular, the book analyzes, among other things, some interesting experiences from Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico that use different instruments to broaden access to credit in a sustainable way, such as structured finance, factoring, credit guarantees, and correspondent banking. Most of these experiences have led to financial innovation by developing new financial products and coordinating different players in the financial and real sectors to overcome barriers to access to credit. The book provides a first systematic analysis of these innovative experiences, including an analytical framework to understand problems of access to finance and a discussion of the effects and optimal design of public interventions. Finally, the book discusses some open policy questions about the role of the private and public sectors (including state-owned banks) in broadening access to finance in a sustainable and market-friendly manner.

Co-operatives are increasingly being recognized as important contributors to inclusive, sustainable and fair development. However, the co-operative movement faces a multitude of challenges, including the lack of access to credit. This book presents existing cases and new examples of the intersection between the co-operative economy and sustainability challenges. Chapters explore innovative circular and low carbon sustainable economy cases and practical examples of the role of co-operative organizations within the European Union. It asks how policy factors influence sustainability innovations, explores the role of workers'involvement in firm strategies and analyses the management style of cooperative firms in facing sustainability challenges. This book will be an essential resource for scholars and students of sustainability and the circular economy, innovation management, HRM and labour studies.

Companies in developing countries are adopting Artificial Intelligence applications to increase efficiency and open new markets for their products. This book explores the multifarious capabilities and applications of AI in the context of these emerging economies and its role as a driver for decision making in current management practices. Artificial Intelligence Enabled Management argues that the economic problems facing academics, professionals, managers, governments, businesses and those at the bottom of the economic pyramid have a technical solution that relates to AI. Businesses in developing countries are using cutting-edge AI-based solutions to improve autonomous delivery of goods and services, implement automation of production and develop mobile apps for services and access to credit. By integrating data from websites, social media and conventional channels, companies are developing data management platforms, good business plans and creative business models. By increasing productivity, automating business processes, financial solutions and government services, AI can drive economic growth in these emerging economies. Public and private sectors can work together to find innovative solutions that simultaneously alleviate poverty and inequality and increase economic mobility and prosperity. The thought-provoking contributions in this book also bring attention to new barriers that have emerged in the acceptance, use, integration and deployment of AI by businesses in developing countries and explore the often-overlooked drawbacks of AI adoption that can hinder or even cause value loss. The book is a must-read for policymakers, researchers, and anyone interested in understanding the critical role of AI in the emerging economy perspective.

In the wake of the financial crisis in 2008, historians have turned with renewed urgency to understanding the economic dimension of historical change. In this collection, nine scholars present original research into the historical development of money and credit during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and explore the social and cultural significance of financial phenomena from a global perspective. Together with an introduction by the editors, chapters emphasize themes of creditworthiness and access to credit, the role of the state in the loan market, modernization, colonialism, and global connections between markets.The first section of the volume,'Creditworthiness and Credit Risks,'examines microfinancial markets in South India and Sri Lanka, Brazil, and the United States, in which access to credit depended largely on reputation, while larger investors showed a strong interest in policing economic behavior and encouraging thrift among market participants. The second section,'The Loan Market and the State,'concerns attempts by national governments to regulate the lending activities of merchants and banks for social ends, from the liberal regime of nineteenth-century Switzerland to the far more statist policies of post-revolutionary Mexico, and U.S. legislation that strove to eliminate discrimination in lending. The third section,'Money, Commercial Exchange, and Global Connections,'focuses on colonial and semicolonial societies in the Philippines, China, and Zimbabwe, where currency reform and the development of organized financial markets engendered conflict over competing models of economic development, often pitting the colony against the metropole.This volume offers a cultural history by considering money and credit as social relations, and explores how such relations were constructed and articulated by contemporaries. Chapters employ a variety of methodologies, including analyses of popular literature and the viewpoints of experts and professionals, investigations of policy measures and emerging social practices, and interpretations of quantitative data.

Poverty reduction through microfinance is tied to the belief that access to credit enables poor people to increase business earnings and improve livelihoods. Often the church has embraced microfinance as part of its theology of social transformation. Microfinance practitioners, therefore, must prudently manage their institutions and ensure improvements in poor people's lives--a complex combination, given that livelihood changes can only be confirmed by people experiencing poverty. This mini book comes out of research to investigate how poor people can inform microfinance practitioners for improved livelihoods. Based on interactions with the Chinyika Community in rural Zimbabwe and the COSUN women's group of peri-urban Zambia, the book allows their voices to offer lessons for microfinance practitioners.The key finding of the research is the value of genuine'dialogue space'where poor people can influence beneficial actions. To counter the challenges of limited capacity to recognize root causes of poverty, and the lack of informed competence to negotiate livelihood solutions, the research recommends that community leadership engender safe community dialogue spaces for individual and collective agency, with the ability to identify root problems and trigger appropriate actions before livelihoods deteriorate. The research identifies the church as one such credible community leader.

In this last decade, poverty in developing countries remains the most important topic of debate at the international level. The main challenge is how to build policies and programs on a gender perspective approach taking into account gender differences in behavior between male and female at the level of the household. This study is undertaken in a context of two earner partners living in mixed farming systems in Senegal where earnings come primarily from crops and livestock. This book provides substantial research focused on household decision-making regarding resource allocation and consumption. Moreover, it attempts to show empirical findings on the analysis of welfare and well-being through an innovative combination of subjective and objective methods. The research shows how important socioeconomic and cultural factors are in determining earnings from agricultural activities. Important determinants of productivity are related to women's land access, non-labor income (transfers from migrants), and the wife's access to credit and health care. The research illustrates also that women's bargaining power may be strongly linked to their access to livestock resources, their mobility in purchasing food and medicine and their participation in the management of household finance. Analysis of decision-making regarding expenditures shows that women, more than men, value household goods (related to food, health and schooling expenditures) more than private goods. The results suggest that policies aimed at improving household livelihoods must understand gender differences, obligations and priorities.

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered the largest global economic crisis in more than a century. In 2020, economic activity contracted in 90 percent of countries, the world economy shrank by about 3 percent, and global poverty increased for the first time in a generation. Governments responded rapidly with fiscal, monetary, and financial policies that alleviated the worst immediate economic impacts of the crisis. Yet the world must still contend with the significant longer-term financial and economic risks caused by, or exacerbated by, the pandemic and the government responses needed to mitigate its effects.World Development Report 2022: Finance for an Equitable Recovery examines the central role of finance in the economic recovery from COVID-19. Based on an in-depth look at the consequences of the crisis most likely to affect low- and middle-income economies, it advocates a set of policies and measures to mitigate the interconnected economic risks stemming from the pandemic—risks that may become more acute as stimulus measures are withdrawn at both the domestic and global levels. Those policies include the efficient and transparent management of nonperforming loans to mitigate threats to financial stability, insolvency reforms to allow for the orderly reduction of unsustainable debts, innovations in risk management and lending models to ensure continued access to credit for households and businesses, and improvements in sovereign debt management to preserve the ability of governments to support an equitable recovery.

Taliban's return to power in August of 2021 caused everyone to ask why the two decades of institution building in Afghanistan failed. This book investigates the root causes of failed reforms in an important area of reform: trade and credit institutions. It explains why the efforts to reform and regulate the economic institutions in Afghanistan failed and what we can learn from their failure. It draws on more than eighty interviews with Afghan merchants, business leaders, money dealers, and government officials in five major provinces of Afghanistan to identify the barriers to access to credit and to understand the performance of formal institutions (banks) and their informal counterparts. This book finds that Afghan merchants were often unable to benefit from the offerings of formal institutions for three reasons: a highly volatile business climate, uncertain contract enforcement, and an unsupportive property rights system. Several informal institutions have emerged that alleviate some of the credit constraints on Afghan merchants. These informal institutions include risk-sharing trade credit operations, money dealers'short-term working capital loans, Gerawee, and Sar qufli. Although these informal institutions have helped Afghan merchants survive, they are unable to support economic growth. This book argues that countries like Afghanistan should solve their institutional dilemma by adopting an approach which the author calls'Grounded Institutional Reform.'Using this approach, a country would formalize existing informal institutions, a development that would vastly increase their effectiveness. While this book focuses on credit and trade in Afghanistan, the analysis of'formalizing the informal'can easily be extended to solve other types of economic problems in similarly situated countries. This book should be of great interest to scholars, policymakers, and development workers in the field of law, finance, and development.

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2022 in the subject Environmental Sciences, grade: 2.0, Kampala International University (School of Natural and Applied Sciences), course: Environmental science, language: English, abstract: Fisheries support livelihoods but are threatened by climate variability and change which intensified globally since the 1970s. This study used quantitative and qualitative methods to determine the extent to which fishers around Ggaba fish landing site, Lake Victoria in Uganda were copying with perceived changes in climate variables and flood impacts on their livelihoods, to generate knowledge to enable the fishers increase resilience and sustain their livelihoods. The study used the following objectives: - 1) to determine the demographic structures and livelihoods activities of fishers around Ggaba fish landing site 2) to assess the impacts of climate c h a n ge and floods on the livelihoods of people around Ggaba fishing community and 3) to find out the coping strategies used by fishing communities living around Ggaba fish landing site against climate variability and floods. The data obtained was analyzed using Microsoft excel version 13.0 to output statistical results and discussions. Overall results indicated that Fishers were aware of changes in climate manifested by unpredictable seasons, floods and droughts. Fishing was the main livelihood activity of the people around Ggaba fish landing site. The African catfish had replaced Nile tilapia as the dominant fish species in the local market at Ggaba. There was damage and loss of gear, boats, landing sites and lives, and changes in fish catches and sizes, income and fish consumption during the perceived floods and droughts. The fishers adapted to the changes through increasing time on fishing grounds and changing target species and fishing gears but innovative ones diversified to high value crops and livestock which increased their income beyond what was earned from fishing thus acting as an incentive for some of them to quit fishing. Diversification to non-fishery activities as a form of adaptation was enhanced by membership to social groups, weekly fishing days, fishing experience and age of fishers, but its benefits were not equally shared among men and women. Mitigation measures suggested included protecting the surrounding wetlands or water catchment zones. Adaptation and mitigation measures were constrained by limited credit, awareness and land. In conclusion, the required interventions included improving access to credit, irrigation facilities and raising awareness. The study showed that the fishers were aware of changes in climatic variables and the impacts on their livelihoods. [...]

The existing credit reporting system does not work for consumers. Too frequently, consumers struggle to access their credit reports, and when they do, too often, they find that errors can limit their financial opportunities and can be difficult to correct. Consumers need a credit reporting system that works for them, one where their reports are accessible and accurate, and errors are easy to correct.

Money is a means, not an end goal in life; it is a means to get you to your goals. The promise of Take Charge: Be Money Smart in 7 Steps is this: you will learn how to manage your finances well and develop your own life goals to long-lasting happiness.Targeted at teenagers and young adults, this book is an engaging and practical resource for introducing financial literacy to our youth – a vital topic in today's world of instant gratification, easy access to credit, false promises of riches, and even financial exploitation by internet ‘financial gurus'. Drawing on life experiences and professional expertise, the authors present key financial concepts and impart sensible financial advice in this fully illustrated book. Contents: Education and Career, Income, Expenses, Debts, Investments, Future and Happiness.The Authors Dr Lillian Koh is the founder of FinTech Academy, which spearheads talent development programmes and certifications for fintech in Singapore, in collaboration with universities. She is also Advisor to the Institute of Blockchain, Singapore, which offers certification courses for consultants in blockchain, and Faculty Associate at A•Star.She is a published author. She was one of six contributors of the first International Handbook of Financial Literacy (2018) and co-author of Singapore: The Fintech Nation (2020).Dr Koh was formerly a Senior Lecturer at the National Institute of Education (NTU) for 17 years, where she initiated financial literacy programmes and education activities for undergraduates and educators, and was chair of the Citi-NIE Financial Literacy Hub for Teachers. Chris Teo is a creative entrepreneur and founder of SmartCo, an education company that impart values to future-proof one's financial well-being through fun and engaging content. He has conceptualised various educational tech products throughout his career, advocating technology and gamification in learning. Using proven pedagogies and foundational learning theories, he has designed learning workshops on universal positive values for students and teachers in Singapore schools.His workshops are supported through grants by government agencies such as the Ministry of Education, Central Bank of Singapore, Ministry of Manpower, Ministry of Communication and Information. He has also worked with financial institutions such as HSBC, Citibank and Maybank. to deliver financial education to students.

Responsible credit is a policy much discussed by legislators and stakeholders, especially in the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2007-2008. Creditworthiness and “Responsible Credit” questions how this policy currently finds implementation in EU and US law and the principal instruments used for this scope, including the duty of creditworthiness assessment of borrowers. Noah Vardi analyzes the fundamental and often overlooked notion of “creditworthiness” from a comparative perspective and examines the critical interaction between policies of access to credit, financial inclusion, and responsible lending.

Poverty reduction through microfinance is tied to the belief that access to credit enables poor people to increase business earnings and improve livelihoods. Often the church has embraced microfinance as part of its theology of social transformation. Microfinance practitioners therefore, have to prudently manage their institutions and ensure improvements in poor people's lives – a complex combination given that livelihood changes can only be confirmed by people experiencing poverty. This mini book comes out of my research to investigate how poor people can inform microfinance practitioners for improved livelihoods. I interacted with the Chinyika Community in rural Zimbabwe, and the COSUN women's group of peri-urban Zambia, to allow their voices to inform lessons for microfinance practitioners.

Global finance is in the middle of a radical transformation fueled by innovative financial technologies. The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the digitization of retail financial services in Europe. Institutional interest and digital asset markets are also growing blurring the boundaries between the token economy and traditional finance. Blockchain, AI, quantum computing and decentralised finance (DeFI) are setting the stage for a global battle　of business models and philosophies. The post-Brexit EU cannot afford to ignore the promise of digital finance. But the Union is struggling to keep pace with global innovation hubs, particularly when it comes to experimenting with new digital forms of capital raising. Calibrating the EU digital finance strategy is a balancing act that requires a deep understanding of the factors driving the transformation, be they legal, cultural, political or economic, as well as their many implications. The same FinTech inventions that use AI, machine learning and big data to facilitate access to credit may also establish invisible barriers that further social, racial and religious exclusion. The way digital finance actors source, use, and record information presents countless consumer protection concerns. The EU's strategic response has been years in the making and, finally, in September 2020 the Commission released a Digital Finance Package. This special issue collects contributions from leading scholars who scrutinize the challenges digital finance presents for the EU internal market and financial market regulation from multiple public policy perspectives. Author contributions adopt a critical yet constructive and solutions-oriented approach. They aim to provide policy-relevant research and ideas shedding light on the complexities of the digital finance promise. They also offer solid proposals for reform of EU financial services law.

The interaction between a company and its stakeholder environment explains a key part of corporate behavior. This is because the level of social acceptance that the company achieves affects consumer trust, employee commitment, and access to credit or support from suppliers. This book examines these relationships to discover the best way to align corporate behaviour with the interests, values and preferences of stakeholders. It features contributions on topics such as marketing, emerging technologies, women in entrepreneurship, sports and tourism.

'This reliable source explores traditional and emerging areas in consumer protection law. Federal and state law dealing with consumer transactions is covered, including caselaw and statutes. The volume begins with an overview of public (both FTC and CFPB) and private enforcement actions to regulate the marketplace. The remaining chapters track the legal aspects of consumer transactions in a roughly chronological fashion, starting with advertising and marketing, consumer privacy, credit reports and identity theft, and equal access to credit. The discussion continues with coverage of mandated disclosures as well as substantive protections for consumers under the federal credit laws, especially the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), including installment sales, credit cards and real estate related financing. Special issues relating to TILA enforcement, as well as a discussion of related federal statutes, and regulation of the cost of credit are also covered. Post-transaction issues such as raising claims and defenses against third party financers (Holder in Due Course), warranties, default and debt collection, are included. Last but not least, there is a chapter on the law affecting various forms of payment for consumer transactions, including credit and debit cards..'--Publisher.

This paper reviews the impact of interest rate controls in Kenya, introduced in September 2016. The intent of the controls was to reduce the cost of borrowing, expand access to credit, and increase the return on savings. However, we find that the law on interest rate controls has had the opposite effect of what was intended. Specifically, it has led to a collapse of credit to micro, small, and medium enterprises; shrinking of the loan book of the small banks; and reduced financial intermediation. We also show that interest rate caps reduced the signaling effects of monetary policy. These suggest that (i) the adverse effects could largely be avoided if the ceiling was high enough to facilitate lending to higher risk borrowers; and (ii) alternative policies could be preferable to address concerns about the high cost of credit.

This series of books collects a diverse array of work that provides the reader with theoretical and applied information on data analysis methods, models and techniques, along with appropriate applications.Volume 2 begins with an introductory chapter by Gilbert Saporta, a leading expert in the field, who summarizes the developments in data analysis over the last 50 years. The book is then divided into four parts: Part 1 examines (in)dependence relationships, innovation in the Nordic countries, dentistry journals, dependence among growth rates of GDP of V4 countries, emissions mitigation, and five-star ratings; Part 2 investigates access to credit for SMEs, gender-based impacts given Southern Europe's economic crisis, and labor market transition probabilities; Part 3 looks at recruitment at university job-placement offices and the Program for International Student Assessment; and Part 4 examines discriminants, PageRank, and the political spectrum of Germany.

This paper offers empirical evidence that greater financial inclusion of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can promote higher economic growth and employment, especially in the Middle East and Central Asia regions. First, we show that countries with higher SME financial inclusion exhibit more effective monetary policy transmission and tax collection. Second, we find substantial employment and labor productivity growth gains at the firm level from access to credit, gains that are higher for SMEs. We also obtain evidence of a substantial positive impact on SME employment and labor productivity growth from improved credit bureau coverage and insolvency regimes. Finally, cross-country aggregate evidence confirms the employment and growth gains from SME financial inclusion, which appear larger in the Middle East and Central Asia than in other regions.

Access to reliable electricity is a prerequisite for the economic transformation of African economies, especially in a digital age. Yet the electricity access rate in Sub-Saharan African countries is often substantially low, households and businesses with access often face unreliable service, and the cost of the service is often among the highest in the world. This situation imposes substantial constraints on economic activities, provision of public services, adoption of new technologies, and quality of life.Much of the focus on how best to provide reliable, affordable, and sustainable electricity service to all has been on mitigating supply-side constraints. However, demand-side constraints may be as important, if not more important. On the supply side, inadequate investments in maintenance result in high technical losses; most state-owned utilities operate at a loss; and power trade, which could significantly lower the cost of electricity, is underdeveloped. On the demand side, the uptake and willingness to pay are often low in many communities, and the consumption levels of those who are connected are limited. Increased uptake and use will encourage investment to improve service reliability and close the access gap. This report shows that the fundamental problem is poverty and lack of economic opportunities rather than power. The solution lies in understanding that the overarching reasons for the unrealized potential involve tightly intertwined technical, financial, political, and geographic factors. The ultimate goal is to enable households and business to gain access, to afford to use, and utilities to recover their cost and make profits. The report makes the case that policy makers need to adopt a more comprehensive and long-term approach to electrification in the region—one centered on the productive use of electricity at affordable rates. Such an approach includes increased public and private investment in infrastructure, expanded access to credit for new businesses, improved access to markets, and additional skills development to translate the potential of expanded and reliable electricity access into substantial economic impact. Enhancing the economic capabilities of communities is the best way to achieve faster and more sustainable development progress while addressing the broad challenges of affordability, low consumption, and financial viability of utilities, as well as ensuring equitable provision between urban and rural areas.

States of Credit provides the first comprehensive look at the joint development of representative assemblies and public borrowing in Europe during the medieval and early modern eras. In this pioneering book, David Stasavage argues that unique advances in political representation allowed certain European states to gain early and advantageous access to credit, but the emergence of an active form of political representation itself depended on two underlying factors: compact geography and a strong mercantile presence. Stasavage shows that active representative assemblies were more likely to be sustained in geographically small polities. These assemblies, dominated by mercantile groups that lent to governments, were in turn more likely to preserve access to credit. Given these conditions, smaller European city-states, such as Genoa and Cologne, had an advantage over larger territorial states, including France and Castile, because mercantile elites structured political institutions in order to effectively monitor public credit. While creditor oversight of public funds became an asset for city-states in need of finance, Stasavage suggests that the long-run implications were more ambiguous. City-states with the best access to credit often had the most closed and oligarchic systems of representation, hindering their ability to accept new economic innovations. This eventually transformed certain city-states from economic dynamos into rentier republics. Exploring the links between representation and debt in medieval and early modern Europe, States of Credit contributes to broad debates about state formation and Europe's economic rise.

The recent global recession, preceded by easy access to credit, led to a household debt epidemic. This book examines the causes, consequences and potential public policies related to debt from a social policy perspective, in which over-indebtedness is understood as a social risk. Heikki Hiilamo presents a unique conceptual and theoretical approach to the topic –- one of the most pressing social issues of the modern Western world. The trajectories of increasing household debt are studied in the contexts of the US and the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Norway. Household Debt and Economic Crises examines remedies to prevent and alleviate the over-indebtedness epidemic, creating a conceptual framework with which to analyse the causes and consequences of debt. Hiilamo argues that social policies are needed to tackle the current borrowing crisis that endangers and prevents the full participation in society of individuals with excessive debts.Academics and students of social policy, economics and social-epidemiology will find this an indispensable and thought-provoking read. With analysis of countries across Europe and the US, policymakers, public officials and NGOs working with household debt problems will find this a timely addition to the literature for highlighting future paths in research and policy.

We examine the extent to which regulations of entry and credit access are related to competition using data on 28 manufacturing sectors across 64 countries. A robust finding is that bureaucratic and costly entry regulations tend to hamper competition, as proxied by the price-cost margin, in the industries with a naturally high entry rate. Rigid entry regulations are also associated with a larger average firm size. Conversely, credit information registries are associated with lower price-cost margin and smaller average firm size in industries that rely heavily on external finance—consistent with access to finance exerting a positive effect on competition. These results suggest that incumbent firms are likely to enjoy the rent and market share arising from strict entry regulations, whereas regulations enhancing access to credit limit such benefits.

More than one billion people still live below the poverty line – most of them in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Financial inclusion is a major issue, as more than three-quarters of the numbers of poor and disadvantaged women and men do not have access to financial products and services, such as bank accounts, affordable and suitable loans, and insurance. The key objective of this book is to provide practical case studies of financial inclusion, rather than focus on academic debates such as the ideological basis of promoting microfinance. Using the recently adopted Sustainable Development Goals as an overall framing of the issues, it shows how poor and disadvantaged women and men can be bankable if the right facilitation for maximizing opportunities and addressing constraints are in place. Case studies confirm that achieving inclusive and sustainable access to financial products and services goes beyond simply enabling poor and disadvantaged women and men to have access to credit, or the ability to open a bank account. Examples from Africa, Asia and Latin America demonstrate encouraging progress in making microcredit accessible to millions of poor people. The foremost challenge, however, has been to ensure that they have access to, and usage intensity of, suitable and affordable financial products and services that meet the needs of their livelihoods as well as risks and mitigation strategies. This requires understanding that poor and disadvantaged women and men do not exist in isolation from complex and interdependent functions in the financial system, which includes a number of actors, diversified services, constraints (not just symptoms) and capacities and incentives. Overall, the book provides a rich source of examples of how building inclusive financial systems can empower the world's poor – by increasing income and employment opportunities, securing livelihoods and reducing poverty.

This book discusses the role of private law as an instrument to produce financial and social inclusion in a context characterised by the redefinition of the role of the State and by the financialisation of society. By depicting the political and economic developments behind the popular idea of financial inclusion, the book deconstructs that notion, illustrating the existence and interaction of different discourses surrounding it. The book further traces the evolution of inclusion, specifically in the European context, and thus moves on to analyse the legal rules which are most relevant for the purposes of bringing about the financialisation of the citizen. Hence, the author focuses more on four highly topical areas: access to a bank account, access to credit, over indebtedness, and financial education. Adopting a critical and inter-disciplinary approach, The Financialisation of the Citizen takes the reader through a top-down journey starting from the political economy of financialisation, to the law and policy of the European Union, and finally to more specific private law rules.

We examine the impact of a large-scale microcredit expansion program on access to finance and the transition of first-time borrowers from microfinance institutions to the formal banking sector. Using administrative micro-data covering the universe of loans to individuals from a developing country, we show that the program significantly increased access to credit, particularly in less developed areas. This effect is driven by the newly set-up credit cooperatives (U-SACCOs), which grant loans to previously unbanked individuals. About 10\% of first-time U-SACCO borrowers that need a second loan switch to the formal banking sector, with commercial banks cream-skimming less risky borrowers from U-SACCOs and granting them larger, cheaper, and longer-term loans. These borrowers are not riskier than similar individuals already in the formal banking sector and only initially receive smaller loans. Our results suggest that the microfinance sector, together with a well functioning credit reference bureau, help mitigate information frictions in credit markets.

This book derives from a symposium held at Cornell University in April 2014. The symposium explored development financing, which has become an important area of policy discussion in Africa and other developing areas in recent years. Using multifaceted and multidisciplinary analytical approaches, it considers the role of the banking system, the stock market, credit access, external aid, and sovereign wealth funds in the evolving development finance architecture. Further, the volume looks at China's role as an aid donor, the impact of BRICs partnerships in South Africa, the role of NEPAD in mobilizing resources for infrastructure development, and the links between law, trade, and regional integration. The study concurs with previous analyses that greater access to credit by the poor represents the most effective way of fighting poverty and raising the standards of living in Africa. Cornell's Institute for African Development and the African Development Bank were cosponsors of the 2014 symposium.

Rural households in Libya are credit constrained, in terms of access and the amount of credit received. Formal banks are the main players in credit market. Despite 44 branches of agricultural banks distributed countrywide, these branches offer a limited number of credit for different purposes every year. The shares of these branches in rural credit market are quite small: agricultural banks provide only 24% of loans and the other banks, mainly the commercial banks, provide 76% of loans. However, agricultural credits provided by agricultural banks offer the most favorable terms for those households that have a positive demand on agricultural credit. Households that have no access to agricultural credits on the other hand face the problem of paying a higher interest rate when applying for credit from non-agricultural banks. This study is an investigation on ‘the importance of large credits in Libyan rural-areas, and the main players in the rural-credit market'. This study determines factors affecting access and credit applications in three different locations. In addition, the affect of households, land, and socio-economic characteristics are analyzed using econometric analysis based on primary data collected during field research in the years 2006 and 2007. Empirical results from the data collected from three different regions in Libya confirm that more than half of rural households have no access to credit and around 42% of rural households do not want to participate in loan borrowing or take loans from any financial institutions that charge high interest rate. This is mostly due to religious considerations that prohibit ‘unethical'interest rates charged by banks. The results clearly indicate that more than 51.85% of the loans taken by households are used to build houses, 33.3% of the loans are used in production inputs, and 9.8% of loans are used for family needs and the remaining 4.9% of loans are used for social events respectively. Research findings indicate that ‘socio-economic characteristics'of heads of households are important factors increasing the probability of access to credit. Households headed by married men have a higher probability of access to credit compared to households headed by females or bachelors and unmarried women. Heads of households with some years in schooling and a permanent monthly income from off-farm activity have a higher probability of access to credits than other heads who have less education or have no permanent income. Different forms of credit constraints are discussed and comparisons between selected samples are drawn in order to classify constrained and unconstrained households.

Studies have shown that the negative effects of credit market inefficiencies are most felt by smaller firms. Therefore, in countries such as Uganda, where micro enterprises are at the bottom of the economic pyramid, moral hazard and adverse selection severely affect their ability to access formal credit hence limiting their growth potential. Microfinance has been heralded for its use of innovative lending methods to improve access to credit. The last decade has witnessed an unprecedented increase in the outreach of micro lending institutions and the development of financial products suited to the needs of the economically active poor, who often, are unable to obtain credit from mainstream financial institutions. This book analyzes the law and economics theories on access to credit and enterprise finance and based on case studies in Uganda, presents empirical findings of the promise and limits of contractual innovations in micro credit.

Business systems undergo a number of transitions as the needs and demands of society change. With heightened connectivity driven by the development of the Internet, new opportunities for venture development and creation have become available to business owners and entrepreneurs. Crowdfunding for Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Innovation is a pivotal reference source for the latest scholarly research and business practices on the opportunities and benefits gained from the use of crowdfunding in modern society, discussing its socio-economic impact, in addition to its business implications. Featuring current trends and future directions for crowdfunding initiatives, this book is ideally designed for students, researchers, practitioners, entrepreneurs, and policy makers. New financing models such as crowdfunding are democratizing access to credit, offering individuals and communities the opportunity to support, co-create, contribute and invest in public and private initiatives. This book relates to innovation in its essence to anticipate future needs and in creating new business models without losing revenue. There are tremendous unexplored opportunities in crowdsourcing and crowdfunding; two sides of the same coin that can lead to a revolution of current social and economic models. The reading of this book will provide insight on the changes taking place in crowdfunding, and offer strategic opportunities and advantages.

This book investigates small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) access to credit, the earning quality, and the cost of debt in the European Union. It also examines two important risk measures in financial markets: the volatility index (VIX) and Credit Default Swaps (CDS). Finally, it deep dives inside one of the most important emerging markets, China, to assess monetary policy and the relationship between financial institutions and real estate firms. This work will appeal to both academics and practitioners in the areas of SME financing, financial markets and emerging economies.

Puerto Rico is experiencing its deepest economic crisis since the first half of the twentieth century. The unique political and economic relationship between the US and Puerto Rico arguably plays a fundamental role in this crisis. With these in mind and given the imposition of the Financial Oversight Management Board by the US government, this book presents policy recommendations to help Puerto Rico achieve sustainable development. A set of partial equilibrium models are employed to study important industrial policy options and trade issues. This book also discusses the potential role of market-based environmental policies as well as issues of income convergence. The method of analysis to study the Puerto Rico–US relationship presented in this book is entirely new to the literature and the analysis of market-based environmental policy. The overarching result is that it is in the best interest of Puerto Rico and the US to set economic policies consistent with an equilibrium characterized by political independence (i.e., national sovereignty) for Puerto Rico. The potential for sustainable economic growth and development is latent in Puerto Rico's economy. But for factors of production to be used effectively and efficiently, Puerto Rico's economy requires access to international markets at sufficiently lower transaction costs, a condition consistent primarily in an equilibrium characterized by political independence. Access to international markets at sufficiently lower costs would help, inter alia, restore market credibility, regain access to credit markets at bearable costs and achieve important efficiency gains. This book argues that international trade ought to be at the center of development and growth policy. Importantly, it argues on the grounds of efficiency that not only is it in the best interest of the US to help Puerto Rico move gradually towards an equilibrium consistent with political independence, but that a statehood-like equilibrium is inefficient, particularly if a higher degree of access to global markets is at the center of policy formulation. I hope the discussion presented in this book signifies an important contribution to the policy debate in order to address Puerto Rico's economic challenges.

This book focuses on the issue of financial exclusion with particular reference to the urban informal sector in India. Continuing the work of its predecessor, the current Government of India is also placing considerable importance on driving policy initiatives for financial inclusion. However, financial exclusion in urban areas, especially of the lower strata of the society has not received the attention it deserves from researchers and policymakers, even though urban poverty and deprivations are of considerable importance in the present Indian context. The challenges of financial inclusion and accessibility in the urban areas differ substantially from those found in the rural regions given the fact that the possibility of physical access to financial services is much higher in urban areas. In order to provide a macro perspective, the book begins with an analysis of the unit record data on nature and extent of financial inclusion and access to credit in urban India, based on Debt and Investment survey data (59th and 70th rounds) provided by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO). In subsequent steps, the book discusses findings from a primary survey carried out in the state of Karnataka of self-employed persons engaged in informal services sector. This exercise has helped to comprehend the ways in which they currently meet their financial needs for different income generating purposes, the terms and conditions under which they do so, and the challenges that remained for possible interventions. Experiences of other developing nations in their attempts to ensure financial inclusion and the lesson learnt thereby are the other highlights of the book.

During the 1990s, Emerging Europe and Central Asia (ECA) chose a model of rapid financial development emphasizing bank credit expansion often funded by foreign capital. Although boosting financial inclusion of firms and households, the model was accompanied by lower efficiency and increased financial vulnerability. After two waves of crises, in the late 1990s and after 2008, ECA's banking systems again face major stress. The crises and stresses have eroded trust in banks and job creation in credit-dependent firms. ECA's shallow and illiquid capital markets offer no additional support. Stagnating income growth, particularly of middle- to lower-income earners, has led to increasing dissatisfaction with low productivity growth and limited opportunities. This frustration provides the impetus for reshaping financial policies. A healthy and balanced financial sector could strengthen structural adjustment in ECA's eastern, oil-dependent economies and innovation in its western countries.Risks and Returns: Managing Financial Trade-Offs for Inclusive Growth in Europe and Central Asia argues for reaching beyond increasing access to credit. ECA countries must build integrated financial systems, enabling prudent financial inclusion in a region significantly lagging in the use of saving products. Striking the right balance across all dimensions of financial development (stability, efficiency, inclusion, and overall depth) is crucial for achieving and sustaining inclusive growth. Redesigning financial policy involves addressing trade-offs often overlooked in the past. Too much credit and imprudent financial inclusion have led to banking crises. Overly stringent regulation to foster financial stability has hindered inclusion and efficiency gains. Both shortfalls have had negative consequences for shared prosperity.Risks and Returns discusses tools and approaches to help policy makers achieve balanced financial development.

This paper presents recent trends in bank ownership across countries and summarizes the evidence regarding the implications of bank ownership structure for bank performance and competition, financial stability, and access to finance. The evidence reviewed suggests that foreign-owned banks are more efficient than domestic banks in developing countries, promote competition in host banking sectors, and help stabilize credit when host countries face idiosyncratic shocks. But there are tradeoffs, since foreign-owned banks can transmit external shocks and might not always expand access to credit. The record on the impact of government bank ownership suggests few benefits, especially for developing countries.

Honorable Mention, 2019 Saul Viener Book Prize, given by the American Jewish Historical SocietyA vivid history of the American Jewish merchants who concentrated in the nation's most important economic sector In the nineteenth century, Jewish merchants created a thriving niche economy in the United States'most important industry—cotton—positioning themselves at the forefront of expansion during the Reconstruction Era. Jewish success in the cotton industry was transformative for both Jewish communities and their development, and for the broader economic restructuring of the South. Cotton Capitalists analyzes this niche economy and reveals its origins. Michael R. Cohen argues that Jewish merchants'status as a minority fueled their success by fostering ethnic networks of trust. Trust in the nineteenth century was the cornerstone of economic transactions, and this trust was largely fostered by ethnicity. Much as money flowed along ethnic lines between Anglo-American banks, Jewish merchants in the Gulf South used their own ethnic ties with other Jewish-owned firms in New York, as well as Jewish investors across the globe, to capitalize their businesses. They relied on these family connections to direct Northern credit and goods to the war-torn South, avoiding the constraints of the anti-Jewish prejudices which had previously denied them access to credit, allowing them to survive economic downturns. These American Jewish merchants reveal that ethnicity matters in the development of global capitalism. Ethnic minorities are and have frequently been at the forefront of entrepreneurship, finding innovative ways to expand narrow sectors of the economy. While this was certainly the case for Jews, it has also been true for other immigrant groups more broadly. The story of Jews in the American cotton trade is far more than the story of American Jewish success and integration—it is the story of the role of ethnicity in the development of global capitalism.

This analysis of the extent of trade integration of sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries in the global economy as well as within the region over the 1995–2013 period focuses on four key concepts: (1) trade openness, captured by import and export flows; (2) the centrality in the global and regional trade network, a measure that takes into account not only the size of trade but also the number of trade partners and the respective weight of these trade partners in global trade; (3) gravity model estimates that account for country- and region-specific determinants of bilateral trade flows; and (4) global value chain (GVC) integration. Using both existing data and a newly available dataset based on multiregion input and output tables, this analysis led to several findings: (1) trade openness has increased strongly; (2) integration in the global economy has made the region more vulnerable to external shocks; (3) levels of trade flows emanating from sub-Saharan Africa are still only half the magnitude of those experienced elsewhere in the world; (4) the region still has ways to go to better integrate in GVCs; and (5) it is more critical than ever to make progress in filling the infrastructure gap by lowering tariff and nontariff barriers, improving the business climate and access to credit, and continuing to enhance education outcomes.

This book consists of contributions exploring from different perspectives the'images'of the consumer in EU law. The images of the consumer form the foundation for various EU policies, more or less directly oriented towards the goal of consumer protection. The purpose of the volume is to establish what visions of the consumer there are in different contexts of EU law, whether they are consistent, and whether EU law's engagement with consumer-related considerations is sincere or merely instrumental to the achievement of other goals. The chapters discuss how consumers should be protected in EU contract, competition, free movement and trade mark law. They reflect on the limits of the consumer empowerment rationale as the basis for EU consumer policy. The chapters look also at the variety of concerns consumers might have, including the cost of goods and services, access to credit, ethical questions of consumption, the challenges of excessive choice and the possibility to influence the content of regulatory measures, and explore the significance of these issues for the EU's legislative and judicial process.

The existing PSI and new SCF arrangement will support the country's efforts to address growing external imbalances, thereby supporting continued strong growth and durable poverty reduction. The SCF arrangement adds a financing component to the existing PSI-supported program, which aims to promote private-sector led growth through safeguarding macroeconomic stability, including through external sustainability, fiscal sustainability based on continued improvements in domestic resource collection, low and stable inflation, and enhancing access to credit and deepening the financial sector.

The book provides a comprehensive examination of patterns and determinants of production networks in East Asia, a key driver in the region's global success. It provides the reader with an accessible understanding of the theoretical literature on production networks and recent developments in empirical analysis at the industry and firm-levels. The topics covered in the book include: gross trade in parts and components and gravity models, trade in value added, industry case studies, and micro data econometric studies of firm heterogeneity in production networks. The micro data econometric studies explore key aspects of the heterogeneity of firms in East Asian production networks such as technological capability, the entry of small and medium enterprises into production networks, business use of free trade agreements, and access to credit. Blending new sources of data, empirical tools and econometric methods this book is highly recommended for readers who seek to understand the workings of the complex web of production networks in East Asia.

The book “Self Help Groups: Problems, Opportunities and Challenges Ahead”, is a compilation of research results, policy initiatives and evaluation studies. Access to credit, increased confidence to start up a business, enhancement of social status, upgradation of scales, more earnings, getting support from government and other institutions are handful opportunities in the hands of the self help group members in general and women SHG in particular. Management of enterprises, dealing with clients, managing external threats and internal conflicts, coming forward from the boundary of village, facing social stigmas, access to different sources of information, credit and inputs are ongoing and future tasks for the self help groups of our country which are being discussed in this book. The challenges encountered at various levels can be overcome by the help of community, family members, government and non-government organizations, banks, micro-finance institutions and through self effort with positive attitude and potentials. The book contains experiences from different parts of the country along with suggestions and strategies for improvements. It is hoped that this book will prove to be informative and useful to academics as well as professionals in the field of developmental studies and rural management. It shall serve as a reference book for those working for women SHGs, micro-finance, women development, governmental and non-govermental organizations, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Rural Development Studies, Social work, Social Science and related disciplines. Teachers, students, research workers, extension agents and administrators shall find the

In recent decades, the myth of fashionable women and sartorially challenged men has been overturned not least through the proliferation of men's style magazines such as GQ and the emergence of masculinity as a marketing tool. In this engaging book, Edwards applies a sociological approach to our understanding of men's fashion, which he argues is significant in the nexus of masculinity and society, past and present, rather than a narrow artistic or aesthetic interest. Rejecting an essentialist or'natural'origin, Edwards explores how masculinity and men's fashion are constructed, particularly in relation to consumer society. It is the growing commodification and aestheticism of everyday life, alongside developments in marketing and advertising, that Edwards identifies as the catalyst in the emergence of men's fashion, rather than an abstract'crisis of masculinity'or'new man'identity. Concurrently, in the 1980s, changes in demography, economics and ideology gave certain men greater freedom and spending power than ever before. Edwards investigates how these men, clearly distinguished by age, class and sexual orientation, were seduced by advertisers with sexualised images of suited city gents and body-beautiful boys in Levis, and how the resultant process of consumption was facilitated through developments in the practice of shopping itself, such as easy access to credit. He examines the influence of the advertisers'message in creating a hierarchy of masculinity in which some men are valorised and others are denigrated. Starting with a historical review of men's fashion and a discussion of its importance and meanings, Edwards goes on to analyse the contemporary marketing of menswear and masculinity in advertising and in the media, and considers the politics of fashion for men in terms of gender, class, race and sexuality.

This book offers a valuable guide to one of the most challenging areas of commercial law, now frequently referred to as secured transactions, with a focus on Nigerian, Canadian and United States perspectives. A debtor's ability to provide collateral influences not only the cost of the money borrowed, but also in many cases, whether secured lenders are willing to offer credit at all. The book proposes that increasing access to, and indeed, lowering the cost of credit could tremendously boost economic development, while at the same time arguing that this would best be achieved if the legal framework for secured transactions in Nigeria, and of course, any other country with similar experiences, were designed to allow the use of personal property and fixtures to secure credit. Similarly, the creation, priority, perfection, and enforcement of security interests in personal property should be simplified and supported by a framework that ensures that neither the interests of secured lenders nor debtors are hampered, so as to guarantee the continuous availability of affordable credit as well as debtors'willingness to borrow and do business. The book further argues that in addition to the obvious preference for real property over personal property by secured lenders due to the unreformed secured-transactions legal framework in Nigeria, its compartmentalized nature has also resulted in unpredictability in commerce and the concomitant effects of poor access to credit. Through the comparative research conducted in this book utilizing the UCC Article 9 and Ontario PPSA as benchmarks, the author provides reformers with a repository of tested secured-transactions law solutions, which law reformers in the Commonwealth countries in Africa and beyond, as well as the business community will find valuable in dealing with issues that stem from secured transactions.

American households, businesses, and governments have always used intensive amounts of credit. The Engine of Enterprise traces the story of credit from colonial times to the present, highlighting its productive role in building national prosperity. Rowena Olegario probes enduring questions that have divided Americans: Who should have access to credit? How should creditors assess borrowers'creditworthiness? How can people accommodate to, rather than just eliminate, the risks of a credit-dependent economy?In the 1790s Alexander Hamilton saw credit as “the invigorating principle” that would spur the growth of America's young economy. His great rival, Thomas Jefferson, deemed it a grave risk, inviting burdens of debt that would amount to national self-enslavement. Even today, credit lies at the heart of longstanding debates about opportunity, democracy, individual responsibility, and government's reach.Olegario goes beyond these timeless debates to explain how the institutions and legal frameworks of borrowing and lending evolved and how attitudes about credit both reflected and drove those changes. Properly managed, credit promised to be a powerful tool. Mismanaged, it augured disaster. The Engine of Enterprise demonstrates how this tension led to the creation of bankruptcy laws, credit-reporting agencies, and insurance regimes to harness the power of credit while minimizing its destabilizing effects.

This volume uses the study of firm dynamics to investigate the factors preventing faster productivity growth in Latin America and the Caribbean, pushing past the limits of traditional macroeconomic analyses. Each chapter is dedicated to an examination of a different factor affecting firm productivity - innovation, ICT usage, on-the-job-training, firm age, access to credit, and international linkages - highlighting the differences in firm characteristics, behaviors, and strategies. By showcasing this remarkable heterogeneity, this collection challenges regional policymakers to look beyond one-size-fits-all solutions and create balanced policy mixes tailored to distinct firm needs. This book is open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO license.