Household saving decisions have always attracted the attention of researchers and policymakers. In fact, an increase in savings increases investments and this is reflected in an improvement in the standard of living of householders. Therefore, the focus of this article is on the determinants of household saving decisions in Italian regions. The savings of Italian families are represented by the volume of bank and postal deposits (set aside income) and the volume of indirect collections (invested income), while the determinants of savings are chosen after having conducted a review of the literature on the socio-economic context, economic aspects and demographic factors that have a greater impact on household savings. From the methodological point of view, the study uses a multiple linear regression model to evaluate the possible functional relationship between saving (dependent variable) and its determinants (independent variables). The regression model was built considering two dependent variables: Volume of bank and postal deposits (model A) and volume of indirect collections (model B). Data refer to the 20 Italian regions and they are extrapolated by the Statistical Data Base (BDS) of the Bank of Italy and the Istat website. From the results of both models, it emerges that economic uncertainty could fuel the savings accumulated for precautionary purposes. This study represents a starting point for investigating the saving phenomenon, increasing the observed variables with other factors that can affect saving, in order to formulate any new hypotheses for further future studies.
Over the past few decades, Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) have become one of the most innovative financial instruments traded in financial markets. The aim is to offer an overview of the ETF market in Emerging Europe through a study on performance, risks and sustainability. The research examines the costs, the performance of the fund over calendar year periods (annual return), the volatility measurements (standard deviation and Sharpe ratio), the components of modern portfolio theory (R-squared, alpha and beta) and the sustainability measurements (Morningstar Portfolio Corporate Sustainability Score and the Portfolio Carbon Risk Score). It is developed through the collecting and re-elaborating of a data set of 46 ETFs in emerging Europe published on www.morningstar.co.uk using a screener tool. Data are collected on October 7th, 2023. The study uses an age-cohort analysis which is a method to analyze and evaluate changes in the behavior of a group with a common demographic feature in a given period of time. In particular, the analysis puts in evidence the value of some parameters of the cohort of funds in the period 2005-2022. Results of the study show that ETFs continue to have a positive performance, resisting the negative economic and social context and the investors’ attention to sustainable ETFs, especially in recent years, has increased. The findings will serve as an important point of reference for investment choices for building a profitable portfolio for the investor. This study contributes to the current understanding of how ETFs are developing in emerging Europe and how investments must always be oriented towards ethical and sustainability principles.
The survey study is conducted to measure knowledge of ICC, attitude towards ICC, perceived usefulness of ICC and its shariah compliance to ICC factor with the demographic variables that influence the acceptance of ICC. In the study, opinion from 400 respondents is collected on a five-point Likert scale by survey questionnaire method in purposeful sampling in randomized block design via e-mail, WhatsApp, and in-person. There is no significant effect of ICC knowledge on the acceptance of ICC. Moderate effect of attitude towards ICC and strong effect on perceived usefulness to ICC and shariah compliance to ICC in the acceptance of ICC. The survey results identify that the banker profession has a significantly higher positive perception than customer acceptance of ICC. Gender (male and female) and religion (Muslim, Hindu and other) have no significant effect on accepting the ICC. However, the middle age group (30-50 years) has a higher perception of accepting ICC than the lower (less than 30 years) and upper (more than 50 years) age group respondents. Also, the middle-income group (30000-60000 taka per month) has a higher perception of accepting ICC than the lower (less than 30000 takas per month) and upper (more than 60000 takas per month) income group respondents. The study result may be utilized in policy decisions to increase and popularize the ICC market in Bangladesh.
Cassava is one of the fastest expanding staple food crops in cassava-consuming countries and has continued to gain prominence among farmers while the industrial demand is also rising consistently. The study was carried out with the intention of examining rural women's involvement in various cassava value chain activities and identifying the factors that hinder their active involvement in cassava value addition. The study employed descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage counts, mean, and likert scale) in the analysis. From the results obtained, more rural women were involved in the processing of cassava and marketing of the products while they really engaged families or hired labor in the planting and harvesting. The identified constraints facing the respondents were low returns (profit), lack of access to institutional credit, lack of farmland, theft, lack of storage facilities, and distance to market. The study recommended that government and the cassava industry stakeholders should support the rural women involved in the cassava value chain adequately as it would not only generate more profit for the women but also create more jobs for the youths and bring foreign exchange to the government.
It is very likely that dollar to rupee exchange rate has an influence on the major economic indicators of India like the GDP of India, the NIFTY 50 index, gold prices in India, import prices in India, and crude oil prices in India. The quarterly time series data of the seven variables have been used. The time considered for the study is 2016 Quarter 1 to 2022 Quarter 3 and dummy variables to adjust drastic changes during the Automobile industry crash in India and other global uncertainties (2018-Q3 to 2019-Q3) and covid (2019-Q4 to 2021-Q2) for all variables have been used. Unit Root test, Bound test, Johansen-Juselius multivariate cointegration test, and generalized forecast error variance decomposition have been used to analyze the data and it was found that there exists a relationship in the short run, although there does not seem to be a long-run equilibrium relationship between economic variables and changes in the exchange rates. This probably reflects the increasing disparity in economic, monetary, and hedging uses between these indicators and exchange rates. It may also imply that those economic indicators may not be sensitive to common macroeconomic factors in the long run. There is only rather weak evidence of a long-run relationship, investors may benefit from diversification into gold in the long run. Similarly, exporters may benefit from expanding their exports (if possible) if reserves are available, thereby diversifying the risk of price fluctuations in the long run. However, there is evidence that spot prices and exchange rates may be closely linked in the short-run aftershocks occur. Changes in the nominal price of oil have basically no information to provide to monetary authorities on changes in the exchange rate behavior and the opposite holds as well.
The development and promotion of microfinance services has been viewed as a key policy and program intervention for poverty reduction and bottom up economic and social local development. This study aims to analyze critically the role of microcredit in Italy as a tool to facilitate the credit access to vulnerable people and help them establish or expand a business. Using focus groups, the research analyses the mechanisms through which the involvement in microcredit operations results in positive (and negative) effects on people’s lives. During the group discussion, microcredit emerges as a positive instrument representing a great opportunity to allow people to find a form of employment, in the respect of the human rights. The credit seems to be even more important for young and migrants as a way to become independent economically, to start playing a new role in the society. However, the initial support and the following assistance during the loan term emerge as fundamental elements for the success of microloans, not only for the most vulnerable borrowers. These results suggest that effective microcredit policies should support the provision of non-financial services along with microcredit.
Retention of health professionals in the health sector in Ghana is crucial to address the human resource needs of the health sector and to promote an efficient and effective healthcare system. Nurses are one of the key professionals whose role in the healthcare industry cannot be underestimated. This study assessed nurses’ perception of management styles and factors influencing the retention of nurses in Ghana. A cross-sectional quantitative descriptive survey was conducted among 135 Nurses at Akatsi Government Hospital and St Paul’s Hospital in the Akatsi municipality of Volta region of Ghana using a simple random sampling in selecting participants. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the participants. Data was analyzed using STATA statistical software Version 14.2. Statistical significance was set at 0.05. Females dominated the study (68.89%). Most of the respondents (19.70%) strongly agreed that Nurse Managers exhibited a participatory management style. However, the majority (52.71%) of the respondents intended to leave their current facility. Nurses’ intention to leave was higher in a public hospital (55.45%) compared to the private hospital (45.95%). Salary and rewards were the major (39.53%) extrinsic factors that influenced the retention of nurses at work and self-motivation was the major (27.91%) intrinsic factor that contributed to nurses’ retention at work. Most of the respondents strongly agreed that managers practiced a participatory management style. Benevolent authoritative management style was statistically significant with nurses’ intention to leave.
: Now a days, tomato production in Bangladesh is increasing. But land area for tomato cultivation is not increased. Due to the adoption of the new High Yield Variety (HIV) and hybrid tomato total production is increased. Farmers are willing to produce off-season or summer tomatoes because of their high price. Production of tomatoes is profitable by considering cost and benefit. Summer tomato and hybrid tomato cultivation both are more highly profitable than seasonal tomato production. A large part of tomato farmers is small farmers. They have a small piece of land and most of them are illiterate or have only primary education. The majority of farmers (46%) are young in age. By producing tomato farmer improve their standard of living. The benefit-cost ratio of hybrid tomato production is 4.22 and 4.16 on basis of the full cost, 5.17 and 5.01 on basis of cash cost for the small and medium farmers. Cost per kg. 10.86 tk. and 11.01 tk., return per kg. 45.84 tk. and 45.82 tk. for the small and medium farmers. The total cost of tomato production for the small, medium, and large farmers is tk. 496830, tk. 213660 and tk. 399117 respectively. Total revenue tk. 915600, tk. 393750 and tk. 735525 for small, medium, and large farmers respectively. At the time of tomato production, farmers face many problems like timely availability of fertilizer, insects, disease, the lack of proper marketing channels, etc. With the introduction of the modern variety, farmers are interested in tomato production because tomato is a short-duration and profitable vegetable.
: Microfinance is gaining importance as a tool to reduce poverty and promote financial and social inclusion. The main goal of the paper is to analyze the role of microcredit to solve the problem of the credit access to vulnerable people. The paper focuses on the direct experience of people who have used microcredit living in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Hungary to analyze the use of microcredit in these areas. From the methodological point of view, the research uses focus groups to investigate on customer relations with the banking system, microcredit, social and financial exclusion, and possible alternatives to microcredit. In this way, it is possible to analyze mechanisms through which the involvement in microcredit operations results in positive (and negative) effects on people's lives. Results show that microcredit is a great opportunity to facilitate employment, create jobs, increase productivity, improve living conditions promote social integration. Results show that services of mentoring and coaching improve entrepreneurship skills or vocational (technical) know-how. These services help to improve access to finance for vulnerable individuals and to support better living conditions. We identify current good practices among microfinance services to understand the future potential role of microcredit propose concrete in particular areas.
: The study examines the long-run and causal relationship between stock market development and West African emerging economies in a comparative context of Ghana and Nigeria. Based on Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds test approach, the findings support the evidence of long-run cointegration between stock market development and economic growth in Ghana, whereas further evidence reveals an insignificant positive long-run impact on economic growth. In contrast, there is no long-run cointegration between stock market indicators and economic growth in Nigeria. Furthermore, in the context of the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) and Vector Autoregressive model (VAR) for Ghana and Nigeria respectively, the Granger causality test indicates that the direction of causality only runs from economic growth to stock market development, unidirectional) in both countries. Nonetheless, the empirical evidence on growth-led finance is specifically feeble in Nigeria. Given these results, the paper posits that stock markets could well play a crucial role in stimulating growth in West Africa. However, to attain this goal, there is a need to launch reforms that entail the overhaul of the legal and regulatory framework as well as principles underlying effective supervision. Also, Ghana and Nigeria should ensure that the stock markets are properly integrated into their respective economies and the strong integration of the two markets through robust institutional and governance structures. These could thus foster the development of stock markets in
Sustainable finance development led to the spread of some specific categories of equity funds based on a social vocation. Particularly, sustainable funds are portfolios of equities and/or bonds for which environmental, social and governance factors have been integrated into the investment process. Today these tools play an important role in the health sector. The aim is to offer an overview of the healthcare equity funds market through a comparison of their performance and risk. The research is developed through the collecting and re-elaborating of a data set of 269 healthcare equity funds all over the world published on Morningstar on November 30th, 2021. The study uses a multi-disciplinary approach, first, by calculation and comparison of performances and volatility measurements, then, by a cohort analysis to put in evidence the value of some parameters of the cohort of funds in the period 1998-2021. Results of the study show that the investors' attention to the healthcare sector has spread, especially in recent years, offering some reflections.
This study uses a Low Emissions Analysis Program (LEAP) model to optimize the integrated energy systems of a developing economy (Nigeria) over 2020 - 2050 modelling period using Technology. It attempts to address the perennial energy dearth challenge, which plagues developing economies, while minimizing associated environmental impact GHG Emissions. The study models existing conditions within the developing economy as a baseline and evaluates a technology application scenario. The results obtained indicate that the application of technology has a significant impact with as much as 70.6% reduction in energy demand and 64.8% reduction in GHG emissions within the modelling period. The application of technology is therefore critical for sustainably meeting the future energy demands of the developing economy modelled (Nigeria). The study recommends that specifically applicable technology identified should be implemented in the developing country to address the energy dearth by enhancing supply while keeping the associated Green House Gas (GHG) emissions low.
The paper describes the status of the European Union member countries, from the point of view of both financial and social inclusion and the development of the financial sector. The aim is to identify clusters of countries, with internally homogeneous but externally heterogeneous characteristics. The analysis shows if social exclusion and financial exclusion coexist in the same countries, considering the development of the financial sector. From a methodological point of view, the research collects and analyzes data extrapolated from different sources in the period 2016-2017 and it is conducted through a Principal Component Analysis and a Cluster Analysis.
In this paper, we investigate how political instability affects firms’ performance in Ivory Coast. Using data from the World Bank's 2016 survey of 361 firms in Ivory Coast, we perform a robust endogenous treatment model to assess causal the impact of political instability on firm productivity. The results indicate that political instability is statistically significant and negatively associated with firm performance. More specifically, firms that perceive political instability as an obstacle have XOF 511 million less annual sales than those which do not perceive political instability as an obstacle. Therefore, the government of Ivory Coast should develop strategies to reduce political instability in order to ensure efficient and performing firms.
Since the emergence of renewable energy sources and thanks to the encouragement of governments and the interest of citizens in an economical, environmentally friendly and sustainable system, the electricity sector is in a transition to renewable energy. Renewable energy is not simply the cornerstone of a transaction, but an entire electric revolution. Literature review reveals the following question: How will their business models evolve accordingly? Interviews were conducted with innovation managers of the biggest power companies in Spain to shed some light on the effects of two innovation sources on business models: Renewables energies and big data. Research revealed that renewable energy represents a complete paradigm shift. Until now, the system's net energy balance is achieved by adjusting the power generation to the demand for it. However, in a renewable system the generation cannot be controlled and, then, it is the energy consumption that must be adjusted to the generation. Renewable energy and big data involve the replacement of traditional generation resources with the resource of information, increasingly necessary to predict the generation and consumption of electricity.
