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Justice‐involved youth (JIY) display skills deficits in a variety of domains, but particularly in life skills such as health habits, obtaining a job, and maintaining finances. These skills are particularly important for JIY, who often come from historically disenfranchised communities. This population encounters many challenges as they transition from juvenile correctional facilities to their respective communities. To have the greatest impact, these skills should likely be taught prior to the transition. Thus, the purpose of this study was to teach basic personal finance skills to adolescent males in a juvenile residential treatment facility, using an information packet with rehearsal and feedback. The intervention was specifically chosen to be minimally invasive due to the challenges presented by the COVID‐19 pandemic relating to providing services to JIY. Data were analyzed visually using nonconcurrent multiple baseline designs. The results of the study showed the intervention was moderately effective at teaching basic financial skills relating to budgeting, banking, and credit to four participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the effects of bank lending shocks on the export behavior of Spanish firms. For that purpose, we combine data on exports at the firm‐product‐destination level with a matched bank‐firm dataset incorporating information on the universe of corporate loans from 2002 to 2013. Armed with this dataset, we identify bank‐year specific credit supply shocks and estimate their impact on firms' exports at the product‐destination level. According to our estimates, credit supply shocks have sizable effects on both the intensive margin (amount exported) and the extensive margin of trade (decision to export). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I estimate the effect of financial constraints on the response of firms that import inputs to a large exchange rate depreciation. Using data from a census on Indonesian firms, I find that while domestic importers face lower value added due to a rise in their costs of production, foreign‐owned importers fare better: they are more likely to sustain higher value added, hire more labor and use more materials than domestic owned firms. These effects are driven by firms in industries with high demand for external finance, emphasizing the importance of access to finance in mitigating the impact of trade and credit shocks. This suggests another channel through which FDI can add value to a firm in a developing country, particularly with the increasing importance of trade in intermediate goods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of Chinese firms' environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance on their financial constraint and financing activities. We find a negative association between firms' ESG performance and their financial constraint driven by the Chinese government's commitment to tackling climate change. Compared with state‐owned enterprises (SOEs), non‐SOEs have alleviated their financial constraint through both equity and debt issuance, thanks to the stock price appreciation and green credit. High‐pollution firms benefit from both equity and debt issuance, while low‐pollution firms mainly finance through equity issuance. Our findings demonstrate the leading role of the Chinese government in its domestic capital markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do politicians attribute responsibility for good and poor policy outcomes across multiple stakeholders in a policy field where they themselves can affect service provision? Such ‘diffusion’ decisions are crucial to understand the political calculations underlying the allocation of blame and credit by office-holders. We study this issue using a between-subjects survey experiment fielded among local politicians in Norway (N = 1073). We find that local politicians attribute responsibility for outcomes in primary education predominantly to school personnel (regardless of whether performance is good or bad) and do not engage in local party-political blame games. However, we show that local politicians are keen to attribute responsibility for poor outcomes to higher levels of government, especially when these are unaligned with the party of the respondent. These findings suggest that vertical partisan blame-shifting prevails over horizontal partisan blame games in settings with a political consensus culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the origins of German banks' risk‐taking in the years preceding the 1931 crisis. The 1920s were marked by a large and prolonged increase in capital flows into Germany, chiefly from the United States and the United Kingdom. This coincided, at the individual bank level, with a rise in leverage and a fall in liquidity. We examine possible connections between the two phenomena. Our analysis is based on a combination of historiographical work and statistical modelling based on a newly hand‐collected bimonthly dataset on German reporting banks from 1925 to 1935. Bank by bank we examine the effects of foreign inflows on decisions related to leverage, lending, and liquidity. The Dawes Plan of 1924 and the relative absence of a too‐big‐to‐fail (TBTF) environment allow us to mitigate endogeneity concerns. We suggest that while capital inflows did not seem to impact banks' liquidity decisions, their impact on leverage was non‐negligeable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under neoliberal social provision, debt has become a primary tool for US households to pursue economic mobility and manage risk. Borrowing supports financial and non‐financial investments that, in theory, should lead to lifetime income and asset gains from which debt can be repaid. Many scholars argue, however, that reliance on credit as a welfare tool significantly increases inequality, particularly along racial lines. In this paper, I examine this process of debt‐financed asset accumulation by analyzing racial disparities in the relationship between household debt and assets. Using Survey of Consumer Finances data, I examine disparities in assets held at given debt levels across Black and White households. Results indicate that at equal debt levels, Black households' assets are between 30% and 80% lower than those of comparable White households. This suggests that White households benefit considerably more from social policies that center borrowing as a mechanism of social provision. This likely contributes to the persistence of the racial wealth gap. Racial disparities in access to credit, to homeownership, and to non‐market financial transfers like inheritances partly explain White households' higher returns, but racial gaps remain even when accounting for these factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy PointsThe Paycheck Plus randomized controlled trial tested a fourfold increase in the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for single adults without dependent children over 3 years in New York and Atlanta.In New York, the intervention improved economic, mental, and physical health outcomes. In Atlanta, it had no economic benefit or impact on physical health and may have worsened mental health.In Atlanta, tax filing and bonus receipt were lower than in the New York arm of the trial, which may explain the lack of economic benefits. Lower mental health scores in the treatment group were driven by disadvantaged men, and the study sample was in good mental health. Context: The Paycheck Plus experiment examined the effects of an enhanced Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for single adults on economic and health outcomes in Atlanta, GA and New York City (NYC). The NYC study was completed two years prior to the Atlanta study and found mental and physical benefits for the subgroups that responded best to the economic incentives provided. In this article, we present the findings from the Atlanta study, in which the uptake of the treatment (tax filings and EITC bonus) were lower and economic and health benefits were not observed. Methods: Paycheck Plus Atlanta was an unblinded randomized controlled trial that assigned n = 3,971 participants to either the standard federal EITC (control group) or an EITC supplement of up to $2,000 (treatment group) for three tax years (2017–2019). Administrative data on employment and earnings were obtained from the Georgia Department of Labor and survey data were used to examine validated measures of health and well‐being. Findings: In Atlanta, the treatment group had significantly higher earnings in the first project year but did not have significantly higher cumulative earnings than the control group overall (mean difference = $1,812, 95% CI = −150, 3,774, p = 0.07). The treatment group also had significantly lower scores on two measures of mental health after the intervention was complete: the Patient Health Questionnaire 8 (mean difference = 0.19, 95% CI = 0.06, 0.32, p = 0.005) and the Kessler 6 (mean difference = 0.15, 95% CI = 0.03, 0.27, p = 0.012). Secondary analyses suggested these results were driven by disadvantaged men, but the study sample was in good mental health. Conclusions: The EITC experiment in Atlanta was not associated with gains in earnings or improvements in physical or mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is increasing the frequency of extreme weather events, with low‐income countries being disproportionately impacted. However, these countries often face market frictions that hinder their ability to adopt effective adaptation strategies. In this paper, I explore the role of credit market failures in limiting adaptation. To achieve this, I collaborate with a large microfinance institution and offer a randomly selected group of farmers access to guaranteed credit through an "Emergency Loan" following a negative climate shock. I document three key results. First, farmers who have access to the emergency loan make less costly adaptation choices and are less severely affected when a flood occurs. Second, I find no evidence of adverse spillover effects on households that did not receive the Emergency Loan. Finally, I demonstrate that providing the Emergency Loan is profitable for the microfinance institution, making it a viable tool for the private sector to employ in similar circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether and how capital age influences trade credit extended by suppliers. We find that firms with older capital are associated with a reduction in trade credit offered by suppliers, which is consistent with the view that vintage capital, with outdated technology, is detrimental to firms. Employee outside opportunity, labour mobility and organisational capital are important factors that moderate the association between capital age on trade credit. Our findings are not driven by specific industry sectors or periods and remain robust to alternative measures of trade credit and to endogeneity concerns. In addition, we show evidence that shareholders view vintage capital as value‐destructive. In sum, this study reveals that risk exposure associated with capital age matters for corporate trade credit decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2011, the Cuban government authorized banks to start offering loan credit to the country's growing number of small businesses for the first time since the beginning of the revolution. Yet in the following years, citizens have largely circumvented these services. This article draws on twenty months of fieldwork among market traders in Havana to examine why so few Cubans rely on the formal banking system to secure capital. It analyzes alternative methods people employ to organize their financial futures, by leveraging kinship ties, partnerships, friendships, property, and loan sharks, and by participating in rotating savings and credit associations. To understand the advantages these approaches offer to mobilize capital, it is crucial to grasp how people navigate their economic lives in ways that are influenced but not dictated by short‐term considerations of net profit. Nonmonetary concerns about access, time frame, and visibility lead people to raise and store wealth outside the formal banking system, constituting a domain I call infrabanking: banking practices that are too far removed from the established assumptions about banking to be perceived as part of the same phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article develops a new energy vehicle (NEV) supply chain comprising a manufacturer and a retailer, considers the incentive effect of the dual‐credit policy, proposes three shareholding strategies (manufacturer shareholding, retailer shareholding, and cross‐shareholding), and investigates the optimal decisions of NEV enterprises. Our results indicate that increased credit trading price, manufacturer shareholding ratio, and retailer shareholding ratio all improve NEV low‐carbon levels and manufacturer profits. In contrast, the performance of retailer profits is more complex and requires a lower range of shareholding ratio in most situations to achieve growth. Meanwhile, the cross‐shareholding strategy is the optimal choice for the manufacturer. However, the retailer only sometimes benefits from a cross‐shareholding strategy, and the manufacturer shareholding strategy can lead to the highest retailer profits in most cases. Furthermore, these findings can provide critical managerial insights for automobile enterprises and governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the effect of state charitable giving tax credits on the contribution revenues of eligible charities. Using event studies paired with Form 990 data, we detect no significant change in contributions to qualified nonprofits after the elimination of a $100 per taxpayer credit by Michigan. By contrast, we find a significant increase in contributions to qualified charities following the introduction of a $10,000 per taxpayer credit by North Dakota that persists for several years. The results suggest that placing a large cap on charitable giving tax credits induces stronger donor responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of trust on informal financial development. We isolate the inherited component of trust for 19 countries using US census data and relate it to firms' access to trade credit. We discover that trust disproportionately elevates the use of trade credit by companies that face obstacles to obtaining funds from formal channels. Further analyses show that the effect is more pronounced in finance‐dependent industries and that better access to trade credit promotes sales growth. Our results are robust to alternative samples, different estimations of inherited trust and various model specifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the underlying causal linkage between trade credit and corporate growth has mainly been explored, the primary factors that channel the relationship are limited. This article hypothesises a nonlinear relationship between trade credit and corporate growth due to the existing theoretical arguments on the benefit and cost of using suppliers' credit by corporations to enhance growth. Based on a panel of 23,023 non‐financial companies from the United Kingdom over a 10‐year period, evidence from this study reveals a nonlinear (concave) relation between trade credit and corporate growth: positive for low trade credit received and negative for high credit received. We also find trade credit to be sensitive to financial crisis, financial constraints and growth strategy. The predictability is stronger during a financial crisis, among financially constrained corporations and corporations pursuing an aggressive growth strategy. We also find growth to be higher in firms that move closer to achieving an optimal credit level. This relationship holds for both the above‐ and below‐optimal deviations. These findings have implications for a more balanced and nuanced view of trade credit management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine shocks experienced by rural Nepali households during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Households primarily experienced income and price shocks during a government‐imposed lockdown. During this time, households managed to effectively protect consumption, and mostly relied on credit (26%), asset sales (10%) and savings (8%). Debt levels nearly doubled, with limited changes to savings. We then leverage a long‐term randomized control trial (RCT) to assess whether beneficiaries of a livestock livelihood program are more resilient. Program beneficiaries are 6 percentage points less likely to take out new loans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Question/Issue: Relying on enhanced market power and improved information environment associated with institutional cross‐ownership, this paper examines the relation between institutional cross‐ownership and trade credit in China. Research Findings/Insights: Listed firms with cross‐ownership can obtain more trade credit. The main conclusion is robust when we consider endogeneity problems, alternative measures of institutional cross‐ownership, and the effect of a financial crisis. Further, we perform several tests to examine the influencing mechanisms, confirming that the positive relation between institutional cross‐ownership and trade credit is more pronounced for listed firms in more competitive industries, or with poorer information environment. Further analysis also finds that the positive effect of institutional cross‐ownership on trade credit is more prominent for listed firms with fewer bank loans. Theoretical/Academic Implications: This paper emphasizes information sharing and cooperation among listed firms with institutional cross‐ownership and argues that the information improvement effect is a relatively more important mechanism in affecting listed firms' decisions. Practitioner/Policy Implications: China's market‐oriented reform is in progress and shows some weaknesses in corporate governance and investor protection. The research focusing on institutional cross‐ownership can provide useful suggestions for policy makers on how to improve corporate governance and construct efficient capital markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rising incidence of credit defaults may cause credit crunch. This affects the ability of firms to finance working capital and also fixed capital formation. Naturally, this is a major macroeconomic shock. This paper is an attempt to address the microeconomic foundation of such macroeconomic shock. We provide a theoretical framework to explain the economic rationale behind 'wilful corporate defaults' and 'financial corruption' in the specific context of trade liberalization. First, we model the behavioural aspects of wilful corporate defaulters and bank officials to determine the bank bribe rate as an outcome of the Nash bargaining process in a two‐stage sequential move game. Based on the results of the partial equilibrium framework, we examine aspects of trade liberalization in an otherwise 2 × 2 general equilibrium framework. We also compare the efficacy of punishment strategies to economic incentives to deter credit defaults and banking sector corruption. Methodologically, our analytical model integrates finance capital distinctly from physical capital in Jonesian general equilibrium framework. Interestingly, our findings indicate that there exists a trade‐off at equilibrium between curbing credit defaults and bribery. We also find that not all punishment strategies are equally effective at deterring credit defaults if general equilibrium interlinkage effects are carefully dealt with. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We show that nineteenth century central banks could use credit limits for discount loans as a means to enforce supervisory standards long before they had any formal regulatory powers. Drawing on novel microdata from the Austro–Hungarian Bank's archives, we document that credit limits were continuously monitored and that their size was contingent on counterparties' liquidity and capital position. Counterparties had an economic motive to abide by informal prudential 'rules of the game': higher credit limits enabled counterparties to streamline their day‐to‐day liquidity management. We exploit the heterogeneous exposure of counterparties to an exogenous liquidity shock to evidence that the Bank relaxed credit limits during crises to fulfil its role as a lender of last resort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the seventh edition of the publication manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), the APA style now prescribes bias‐free language and encourages accessibility even to non‐academic audiences. However, even with the newest guidelines, the way we credit authors in psychology remains anachronistic, intransparent, and prone to conflict. It still relies on a sequence‐determines‐credit approach in the byline, which concurrently is contradicted by the option to consider the last author as the position of the principal investigator depending on the field or journal. Scholars from various disciplines have argued that relying on such norms introduces a considerable amount of error when stakeholders rely on articles for career‐relevant decisions. Given the existing recommendations towards a credit‐based system, ignoring those issues will further promote bias that could be avoided with rather minor changes to the way we perceive authorship. In this article, we introduce a set of easy‐to‐implement changes to the manuscript layout that value contribution rather than position. Aimed at fostering transparency, accountability, and equality between authors, establishing those changes would likely benefit all stakeholders in contemporary psychological science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the relationship between financial development and house prices in the Group of Seven (G7) countries over the period 1870–2016. We use parametric panel data models that incorporated interactive fixed effects and non‐parametric models that allow us to examine non‐linearities and the time‐varying nature of the relationship. Our parametric estimates show a positive relationship between financial development and house prices. The results from our non‐parametric model not only reinforce this finding but also shows evidence of a negative effect of financial development prior to the mid‐twentieth century, suggesting a time‐varying non‐linear impact. We find that inequality and mortgage loans are mechanisms through which financial development transmits to house prices. Financial crisis moderates the relationship between financial development and house prices, although this works only through sovereign defaults. Our findings are robust to a suite of robustness and sensitivity checks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a substantial literature on the link between finance and growth. Empirical evidence remains inconclusive and the debate continues. In this paper, we adopt the research strategy of focusing on a narrower underlying issue that remains at the core of most macroeconomic theories, namely the interest rate thesis (that lower rates result in higher growth and vice versa). If there are problems with this relationship, this could explain the lack of consensus on the finance‐growth nexus. The question is also of practical relevance: Central banks have been focusing on interest rate policy on the assumption that the interest rate thesis holds. There are theoretical reasons why this may not be the case. We conduct an analysis of time‐varying dynamic conditional correlation in a GARCH model and of the direction of statistical causation between nominal interest rates and real economic activity in 19 industrialized and emerging economies. We find evidence that interest rates are not negatively correlated with economic growth and do not cause growth. Instead, we find evidence that the relationship may be the opposite in both dimensions. This adds to recent doubts about the prevailing conduct of monetary policy and common theoretical models. Specifically, lowering interest rates may be counter‐productive when trying to stimulate the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: UAVs are capable of providing significant potential to IoT devices through sensors, cameras, GPS systems, and so forth. Therefore, the smart UAV‐IoT collaborative system has become a current hot research topic. However, other concerns require in‐depth investigation and study, such as resource allocation, security, privacy preservation, trajectory optimization, intelligent decision‐making, energy harvesting, and so forth. Here, we suggest a task‐scheduling method that splits IoT devices into distinct clusters based on physical proximity and saves time and energy. Cluster heads can apply an auto regressive moving average (ARMA) model to predict intelligently the timestamp of the arrival of the next task and associated estimated payments. Based on the overall expected payment, a cluster head can smartly advise the UAV about its time of next arrival. According to the findings of the simulation, the proposed ETTS algorithm significantly outperforms Task TSIE and TDMA‐WS in terms of energy use (67%) and delays (36%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Micro‐, small‐, and medium‐sized enterprises (MSMEs) account for the vast majority of firms in most economies, particularly in developing nations, and are key contributors to job creation and global economic development. However, the most significant impediment to MSME development in low‐ and middle‐income countries is a lack of access to both investment and working capital financing. Due to a lack of essential track record, appropriate collateral, and credit history, MSMEs are frequently denied business loans by traditional lending institutions. In addition, SMEs' inability to access funding is hindered by institutional, structural, and non‐financial factors. To address this, both the public and private sectors employ indirect and direct finance interventions to help MSMEs in developing and emerging economies enhance and increase their financing needs. Given the importance of MSMEs in the economy, a comprehensive overview of and systematic synthesizing of the evidence of the effects of financial access interventions for MSMEs, capturing a wide variety of outcome variables, is useful. Objectives: The objective of this evidence and gap map (EGM) is to describe the existing evidence on the effects of various interventions dedicated to supporting and improving MSMEs' access to credit, as well as the corresponding firm performance and/or welfare outcomes. Methods: An EGM is a systematic evidence product that displays the existing evidence relevant to a specific research question. An EGM's end product is a research article or report, but it can also be shared via an interactive map drawn as a matrix of included studies and their corresponding interventions and outcomes. Interventions in low‐ and middle‐income countries that target specific population subgroups are included on the map. The EGM considers five types of interventions: (i) strategy, legislation and regulatory; (ii) systems and institutions; (iii) facilitate access; (iv) lending instruments or financial products; and (v) demand‐side interventions. The map, on the other hand, covers outcome domains for policy environment, financial inclusion, firm performance, and welfare. Impact evaluations or systematic reviews of relevant interventions for a previously defined target population are included in the EGM. Studies using experimental or non‐experimental designs, as well as systematic reviews, are eligible. The EGM excludes before‐and‐after study designs with no suitable comparison group. Furthermore, the map excludes literature reviews, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and descriptive analyses. Search strings were used to conduct electronic searches in databases. To ensure that the research team had identified a significant portion of relevant research works, the search strategy was supplemented with gray literature searches and systematic review citation tracking. We have compiled studies that are either completed or in progress. For practical reasons, studies are limited to papers written in English and are not restricted by publication date. Selection Criteria: We included studies that examined interventions to enhance MSMEs' access to finance in low‐ and middle‐income countries targeting MSMEs including households, smallholder farmers and single person enterprise as well as financial institutions/agencies and their staff. The EGM considers five types of interventions that aim to: (i) deliver strategy, legislation, and regulatory aspects; (ii) systems and institutions that enable financing; (iii) facilitate access to finance; (iv) deliver different lending instruments or financial products, including traditional forms of microcredit; and (v) demand‐side interventions such as programs on financial literacy. The map includes outcome domains surrounding policy environment, financial inclusion, firm performance, and welfare. Eligible studies must be experimental, non‐experimental, or systematic reviews. In addition, the study designs must have a suitable comparison group before and after the implementation of interventions. Results: The EGM includes 413 studies. The majority of the studies (379 studies) analyzed microenterprises, such as households and smallholder farmers; 7 studies analyzed community groups; while 109 studies analyzed small and medium enterprises. There were 147 studies on interventions that targeted multiple firm sizes. Lending instruments/financial products are the most common intervention across all firm types. When it comes to the types of firms that receive the said financial intervention, the data is overwhelmingly in favor of microenterprises (278 studies), followed by systems and organizations (138 studies) that support better access to such financial products and services. Welfare outcomes have the most evidence out of all of the outcomes of interest, followed by firm performance and financial inclusion. Among all firm types, welfare outcomes are primarily targeted at microenterprises. With 59 studies, we can say that small businesses have a significantly large number of enterprise performance outcomes. of the 413 studies, 243 used non‐experimental or quasi‐experimental designs (mainly propensity score matching and instrumental variable approaches), 136 used experimental methods, and 34 were systematic reviews. 175 studies (43%) provided evidence from Sub‐Saharan Africa, 142 studies (35%) from South Asia, 86 studies (21%) from East Asia and the Pacific, 66 studies (16%) from Latin America and the Caribbean, 28 studies (7%), Europe and Central Asia, and 21 studies (5%) from the Middle East and North Africa. Most of the included evidence covers low‐income (26%) and lower‐middle income countries (66%), and to a lesser extent upper‐middle‐income countries (26%). Conclusion: This map depicts the existing evidence and gaps on the effects of interventions to enhance MSMEs' access to financial services in low and middle‐income countries. Interventions directed at microenterprises with welfare outcomes have a significant number of research outcomes in the literature. SME evaluations have looked at firm performance, with less focus to employment and the welfare effects on owners and employees, including poverty reduction. Microcredit/loans have been the focus of a large number of research papers (238 studies), indicating the field's growing popularity. However, emerging financial interventions such as facilitating access to digital financial services are relatively under‐studied. Several studies also investigate rural or population in remote areas with 192 studies, 126 studies on poor and disadvantaged, and 114 papers on women. Most of the research is conducted in Sub‐Saharan Africa (175 studies) and South Asia (142 studies) so further research in other regions could be conducted to allow a more holistic understanding of the effects of financial inclusion interventions. Credit lines, supply chain finance, and trade financing, which are some of the ADB's financial tools have limited evidence. Future studies should look into strategy, law, and regulation interventions, as well as interventions targeted at SMEs, and examine policy and regulatory environment outcomes as well as welfare outcomes. Interventions on the demand side and their impact on the policy and regulatory environment, as well as facilitating access are relatively understudied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on joint borrowing and a significant transfer component, NextGenerationEU stands in contrast to Germany's longstanding rejection of a 'debt' and 'transfer union'. This article probes into the determinants of this shift in Germany's European policy approach. Focusing on the conflicts in Germany over the 'deepening' of the Monetary Union through fiscal capacity building between 2015 and 2020, it investigates which actors, interests and strategies instigated this shift. The analysis is based on trade and exchange rate data, a qualitative document analysis of position papers as well as expert interviews with interest group representatives, parliamentarians and civil servants. Theoretically, the study draws on concepts from regulation theory, materialist state theory and neo‐Gramscianism. It argues that even though not a fundamental paradigm shift, Germany's push for NextGenerationEU indicates a strategic re‐orientation of parts of the German power bloc towards European fiscal integration, amplified by recent geopolitical dynamics and crisis tendencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We design a novel across‐the‐curve credit spread index, AXI, a measure of the recent cost of wholesale unsecured debt funding for publicly listed US bank holding companies and commercial banks. AXI, a benchmark for bank lending and risk management, is the weighted average of credit spreads for unsecured debt instruments with maturities ranging from overnight to five years, with weights that reflect both transaction and issuance volumes. We provide illustrative output of the bond‐based component of AXI. By widening coverage to include all corporate debt issuers, we also build a financial conditions index (FXI). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyse the estate composition of the richest 30 per cent of people who died in the Netherlands in 1921 to find that households used a broad range of institutions to meet their financial demands. Goods and services were either paid in cash or settled periodically with suppliers. Despite the strong growth of commercial banking in the previous decades, households still made extensive use of peer‐to‐peer loans, with or without the added security of notarial contracts. Banks only possessed a competitive edge in savings accounts for small surpluses and current accounts, the latter used most frequently by business owners born after 1870. Distance to the nearest bank office did not matter for these people, but wealthy urbanites were more inclined to use banks than their counterparts in the countryside. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Catalan case in south‐western Europe offers us the opportunity to take a detailed look at the impact a lowering of the interest rate may have had on the poor of a specific area. It is vital to examine how property rights operated in specific contexts, given the close relationship between land and credit markets. Our working hypothesis is that, in some instances where property rights were redefined, as happened in eighteenth‐century Catalonia, the reduction of the interest rate in secured loans benefitted the poorer social groups. The findings of this research, in line with those of some development economists, suggest that only an empirical and bottom‐up perspective allows for a proper analysis of the eradication of poverty by placing it within the real picture of social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the effect of foreign capital inflow on domestic credit to the private sector in sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA). Estimates based on the system‐generalized method of moments, Pooled Mean Group and fully modified OLS estimators using panel data on 33 SSA countries from 1996 to 2019 establish the following results. First, foreign direct investment (FDI) positively affects domestic credit in the short and long run. Second, the effect of official credit on domestic credit is negative in the short and long run. Third, the US Treasury Bill rate negatively relates to domestic credit to the private sector in the short and long run. Improving policies to enhance the favourable effect of FDI on domestic credit may reduce borrowing from official sources to eliminate its undesirable effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the international reserve accumulation behavior of emerging and developing economies facing "keeping‐up‐with‐the‐Joneses" externalities. I first document empirical evidence for a significant Joneses effect, which has been particularly persistent in Asia and Latin America since the late 1990s. This peer‐pressure motive could encourage excess reserve hoarding, providing a rationale for cooperation. I then develop a theoretical model of the borrowing economy featuring the Joneses effect and the interdependence between reserves and domestic capital investment. Numerical results show that international cooperation can effectively internalize negative externalities associated with competitive reserve hoarding and induce welfare‐enhancing resource allocations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the effects of government spending shocks on the Italian credit market using NUTS 3 data over the sample period 2011–2018. The empirical methodology is based on a local projection IV and the identification of a public spending shock is achieved by constructing a Bartik instrument. The empirical evidence shows a mild positive effect of 1% increase in government spending relative to GDP on the growth of the volume loans relative to GDP. However, the empirical findings show that government spending does not help to ameliorate neither the "size bias," that is the financial constraints which small firms face relative to larger ones, nor the "home bias" in lending related to the process of bank consolidation in Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A review of periodical literature for 2021 is presented, with topics that include economic inequality in preindustrial times, credit and investment between town and countryside, and immigrant economic organization.

The present study attempts to study the credit supply process in the Iranian banking industry by using the viable system model (VSM) to identify its vulnerabilities and improve the financing system. The method used in this study consists of three steps: (a) identification of system, (b) diagnosis of system and (c) control of information flow, communication channels and frequent errors. In this research, 37 credit experts from 17 different bank branches were interviewed about the process of granting facilities, and SPSS 23 was used to examine research objectives through the Delphi method. The results show that the structure of Iran's credit supply chain network suffers from such problems as deviation in the appropriate use of allocated credit resources, structural faults of the banking system and lack of administrative health, high bureaucracy, directed facilities, etc. In the end, some suggestions are provided for redesign and optimization of the credit supply network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese agriculture is experiencing a transition from smallholder farming to the emergence of commercial farms that are characterized by intensification and specialization in production, as well as commercialization and cooperation in management. It requires substantial capital to facilitate such a transition, but it is very difficult for farmers in China to access bank credit. One way that commercial farms have to overcome such handicap is by organizing themselves into cooperatives. To assess the effect of cooperatives on the credit accessibility of commercial farms, we have developed a theoretical model as well as an empirical study of commercial farms in Jiangsu Province based on data from a survey of 754 commercial farm owners. Instrumental variable (IV) methods and the Propensity Score Matching (PSM) method that control endogeneity problem are used in the analysis. The empirical results show that cooperatives have a significant positive impact on the credit access of commercial farms. Commercial farms participating in cooperatives may alleviated their credit constraints by about 17.3 percentage points and increase the average credit per capita by nearly 80,000 Yuan. Cooperatives improve the credit access of commercial farms by exerting strong market power and reputation effect based on its organizational advantages. A disaggregated analysis also reveals that small commercial farms tend to benefit more from cooperatives in improving credit access than large commercial farms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation: To prevent job losses, firms facing insolvency in China may be kept running by bank credit, even though they show few signs of returning to profit. These loss-making firms are termed "zombies". Purpose: Does keeping zombie firms operating block access to credit for financially healthy firms, thereby slowing their growth, and consequently the number of jobs they might create? We analyse the effect of zombie firms within a postal zone--a sub-division of the county--on the growth of employment in non-zombie firms in the same zone. Methods and approach: Zombie firms are identified as those that have been unprofitable for at least two successive years, and that have a high and rising ratio of liabilities to assets. Data come from China's industrial enterprise database for 1998-2008 and 2011-2013, gathered from manufacturing, extractive industry, and utilities enterprises with annual sales of more than RMB 5 million (RMB 20 million for 2011 and beyond). It covers between 83,000 and 217,000 firms for the years examined. We use regression to examine the relationship between the presence of zombie firms and employment growth in healthy firms. We test the robustness of the analysis. Findings: Between 1999 and 2013 the share of firms in the database classified as zombies fell from almost 10% to under 3%. Regression analysis shows that the presence of zombies in the same postal code does indeed slow the growth of employment in healthy firms. This effect is stronger for private firms, small firms, and those located in central China. Results are robust when considering start-up firms, analysing relations at county level, and checking for endogeneity. We show that the most likely mechanism that slows the growth of healthy firms is being crowded out of credit markets by banks that allocate their limited credit to keep zombies operating. Policy implications: While it is tempting for government to pressure banks to keep zombie firms operating, thereby avoiding them shutting down with loss of jobs, the cost is high in slowing the growth of financially healthy firms. Banks should offer credit based on expected returns and risk, rather than keeping insolvent firms going. Local and national government should take note that protecting zombie firms has medium-and long-term costs in lost growth of employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the impact of abnormal credit expansion and contraction on the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita (CGDP) of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) countries. We analyse abnormal credit from two dimensions: first, the impact of abnormal credit contraction on CGDP and, second, the impact of abnormal credit expansion on CGDP. Using data for 10 ECOWAS countries from 1993 to 2021, we find evidence that abnormal credit contraction reduces the CGDP of ECOWAS countries. We also find some evidence that abnormal credit expansion reduces the CGDP of ECOWAS countries. More specifically, a unit increase in abnormal credit contraction decreases CGDP by 0.99%, whereas a unit increase in abnormal credit expansion decreases CGDP by only 0.1%. The findings confirm that 'too little' or 'too much' credit does not improve growth per person in immature financial systems. We also observe that banking sector solvency and a strong legal system have a positive effect on the CGDP of ECOWAS countries, while banking sector efficiency has a negative effect on CGDP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrating Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors into credit risk assessment is the new frontier for credit risk management as regulators and investors increasingly require banks to channel loans to "sustainable" borrowers and ultimately foster sustainable growth. Our findings show that higher ESG awareness is strongly associated with better creditworthiness (proxied by the Altman Z‐score). We apply a two‐step methodology to 3331 companies from various industries and geographies in the 2000–2016 period which reveals that high ESG awareness scores are strongly and very significantly associated with a reduction in firm credit risk. We check the robustness by using the Probability of Default as a dependent variable and an instrumental variable constructed with a factor analysis. Our results support the appropriateness of the introduction of ESG awareness parameters in the creditworthiness assessment of borrowers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the association between trade credit and firm profitability among large, Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) listed Indian corporations, identify an optimal trade credit level, and analyse how financial constraints influence the relation between trade credit and firm profitability. We use a sample of six broad non‐financial sectors, constituting over 60 industrial sub‐sectors, presented in panel form, and apply regression analysis to examine the relationship between trade credit and firm profitability. The findings suggest an inverted U‐shaped relationship between trade credit and firm profitability and support an optimal receivables and payables level. Trade credit is profitable for firms until the associated benefits exceed the costs. Breaching the optimal level affects firm profitability. The extent of the financial constraints influences the optimal level of trade credit. Knowing the relation between trade credit and firm profitability may induce managers to form proactive trade credit management policies and help investors assess firm profitability and operational risk. However, given that our study involves only large, BSE‐listed firms, generalizing the findings to other companies and settings requires caution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reassesses the relationship between financial development and economic growth using the datasets of BRICS countries. The MG‐ARDL and CD‐ARDL (MG) models are considered to account for both heterogeneity and cross‐sectional dependency. The overall results reveal a negative and insignificant effect of financial development on GDP from a MG‐ARDL linear model and a negative and significant relationship between financial development and economic growth from the linear CD‐ARDL (MG). However, when the square term of credit to the private sector is introduced, it is found that a positive and highly significant relationship exists between financial development and economic growth up to a point beyond which it turns negative and significant for both the MG‐ARDL and CD‐ARDL (MG) models. Based on the results, it is concluded that the excessive supply of private credit is harmful to the economy, thereby slowing its growth. Policy suggestions have also been discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beginning farmers and ranchers represent an important segment of U.S. agriculture, yet they face financial challenges relative to more established operations. This article provides an overview of emerging research on the financial performance of beginning farm and ranch operations, with a lens toward implications for the 2023 Farm Bill. First, we use U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Resource Management Survey data to explore descriptive statistics relative to beginning farm and ranch usage of: local food markets, Federal crop insurance, and financing mechanisms. Subsequently, we leverage a farm‐level panel dataset from the USDA Census of Agriculture and regression analysis to examine the relationship between key financial metrics and beginning farmer success. Results show: (a) beginning farm performance over time is associated with both increases in scale and productivity, as well as participation in agricultural programs, (b) access to credit is important, and that being credit constrained lowers the probability of survival, growth, and success for beginning operations, and (c) beginning operations are significantly less likely to use Federal crop insurance compared to established operations across all scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examines the relationship between stock liquidity and the firms' extension and use of trade credit. In addition, this study examines the impact of financial constraints and dependence on external financing on the relationship between stock liquidity and trade credit. The study is based on secondary data of non‐financial Indian companies obtained from Center for Monitoring of Indian Economy Prowess database, pertaining to a period of 18 years (2000–2018). This study employs two‐step generalized method of moment's technique to arrive at results. Results of study confirm that firms with more liquid stock tend to provide more trade credit to their customers and also reduce the use of expensive trade credit financing from suppliers. Further, we find that higher stock liquidity is associated with significantly longer receivable period and shorter payable period for firms facing high financial constraints and also for firms with high external financial dependence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Anglo‐Venetian Giustiniana Wynne, Countess of Rosenberg Orsini, best known for her novel Les Morlaques (1788), had epistolary relations with friends from the Veneto as well as across Europe and is therefore part of the network of the European Republic of Letters. Attached to her homeland, the Republic of Venice, and also a cosmopolitan, she took advantage of her personal network to develop an authorial identity. After a bio‐bibliographical overview, I trace how a woman of letters created herself through the relational economy manifest in the letters addressed to William Beckford, Aurelio Bertola, and Elisabetta Mosconi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We formulate a generalization of the traditional medium‐of‐exchange function of money in contexts where there is imperfect competition in the intermediation of credit, settlement, or payment services used to conduct transactions. We find that the option to settle transactions with money strengthens the stance of sellers of goods and services in relation to intermediaries, and show this mechanism is operative even for sellers who never exercise the option to sell for money. These latent money demand considerations imply that in general, in contrast to current conventional wisdom in policy‐oriented research in monetary economics, monetary policy can remain effective through medium‐of‐exchange transmission channels—even in highly developed credit economies where the share of monetary transactions is negligible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use household survey data to investigate the relationship between formal, private property rights to agricultural land and agricultural investment, land valuation and access to credit in Tanzania. Results show that landownership documents are associated with substantial increases in the market value of land (more than 25%). One reason appears to be that well‐documented private property rights facilitate the use of land as collateral for loans and therefore ease access to credit. The findings suggest that there are potentially significant, economic returns to systematic land titling in Tanzania and other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial structure, the degree to which a country's financial system is market‐ or bank‐based, matters for economic outcomes. Hence, it is important to understand the drivers of financial structure. This paper sheds light on this issue and explores a specific mechanism in the evolution of financial structure, namely convergence. Financial structure is shown to converge across countries over time. This pattern remains similar even after controlling for macroeconomic and institutional factors, or for banking sector characteristics. It is not specific to a region, and appears to be similarly strong around the globe. However, financial structure convergence is somewhat weaker in the emerging market and developing economies relative to the advanced economies. Given the role of financial structure in economic performance, these findings have implications for macroeconomic and financial policies. Moreover, bridging cross‐country gaps in financial structure has potential consequences for income differences across countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID‐19 pandemic brought grave financial concerns for families in the United States as they attempted to navigate the multifaceted impacts of the pandemic. The present descriptive study examined Florida families' employment characteristics, credit card debt, savings characteristics, use of savings based on employment and income variables, and patterns of use of the first 2020 economic impact payment during the early stages of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Responses to an online questionnaire were collected from 526 Florida residents, age 18 or older, who were parents of minor children during the time the study was conducted. Findings are indicative of varying financial impacts on families based on gender, marital status, income level, and employment status related to COVID‐19. Implications are presented for employers, educators, researchers, policymakers, and families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key factor that improves agricultural productivity is land fertility. Even though the benefits from using fertilizers are well documented and widely accepted, a low level of adoption and use is observed among farmers in developing countries. According to the literature, several constraints such as lack of access to credit and insurance can explain the low level of fertilizer use among African farmers. In this paper, I investigate whether remittances have the potential to remove these constraints by promoting higher fertilizer use. In order to address this research question, I use the Ugandan Living Standards Measurement Study‐Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS‐ISA) from the World Bank. The article provides a separate analysis between organic and inorganic fertilizer, as inorganic fertilizer is riskier and more expensive than the organic options. In an instrumental variable empirical framework, I find that remittances promote fertilizer use, in particular the organic fertilizer. To unpack the mechanisms behind, the article further shows that remittances (a) induce farmers to invest in livestock and (b) act as a buffer to rainfall variability in the case of inorganic fertilize use. The results indicate that remittances can, at least partially, remove credit and insurance constraints and promote fertilizer among Ugandan farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until the late nineteenth century, the activities of English women were curtailed by the common law doctrine of coverture. While previous scholarship has documented how wives were able to subvert coverture to trade independently of husbands, little has been observed on how third parties similarly minimised common law. Through debt imprisonment – a largely extrajudicial process – this article reveals how creditors could force property ownership on married women against their will. That imprisoned wives struggled to assert their coverture further reveals the inferiority of contemporary rigid interpretations of coverture compared with the pressing needs of commercial interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on signaling theory, we propose that religious culture leads suppliers to alter their beliefs about their customers' trustworthiness. Strong religious cultures are interpreted as a signal of fewer agency problems and less information asymmetry, which helps firms gain more trade credit from suppliers. The empirical tests performed in this study show that firms headquartered in areas with strong religious cultures receive more trade credit than other firms. This positive relation is more prominent when such firms are located in areas with lower levels of social trust. A further analysis reveals that the increasing effect of religious culture on trade credit eases financing constraints. Overall, our findings indicate that religious culture can be a broad indicator of firms' ethical preferences that influences their access to trade credit by signaling their potential for a high level of trustworthiness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study makes use of rich firm‐level and linked firm‐employee datasets that span the 2009–2015 period in Vietnam to examine how SMEs' credit constraints affect their strategic employment decisions and employees' labour outcomes. Our results show that constrained SMEs enlarge total employment by employing relatively more temporary workers and paying their employees relatively lower wages than unconstrained borrowing firms. Meanwhile, discouraged firms, mostly informal businesses, do not behave differently from unconstrained counterparts. In order to maintain a stable employment portfolio, discouraged firms are relatively more willing to reward their employees with an overtime payment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]