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The purpose of this paper is to examine whether board characteristics moderate the relationship between capital adequacy regulation and bank risk-taking of universal banks in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

The paper uses 700 bank-year observations of universal banks in SSA between 2009 and 2019. The paper further uses the two-step generalized method of moments as the baseline estimator.

The paper finds that capital adequacy regulation is positively related to overall bank and liquidity risks. Nonetheless, capital adequacy regulation increases credit risk in the sampled banks. The paper further reports that board characteristics individually and significantly moderate the relationship between capital adequacy regulation and risk-taking.

The findings have implications for regulators of universal banks that board characteristics matter for capital adequacy regulation to impact risk-taking behavior.

The paper extends the existing literature on the effect of board characteristics on the capital adequacy regulations and risk-taking behavior nexus of universal banks.

With challenges in health-care facilities management (FM) and adequacy of health-care resources constraints in most developing countries, improving patient’s health-care experience has become of strategic importance in public health-care delivery. This paper aims to investigate the mediating effect of adequacy of health-care resources on the relationship between the quality of health-care FM services and patient’s health-care experience.

This cross-sectional study adopts a quantitative approach based on a questionnaire survey conducted on 660 patients of three teaching hospitals in Ghana. In total, 622 valid questionnaires were used for data analysis using partial least squares structural equation modelling.

The mediating effect of adequacy of health-care resources on the relationship between responsiveness and tangibility and patients’ health-care experience were supported, while that of empathy, reliability and assurance were not supported. The relationship between and adequacy of health-care resources and patients’ health-care experience was also supported.

The study limitation is that it was only the teaching hospitals that were surveyed. In future studies, a comparative analysis can be conducted between both public and private hospitals. Other constructs and relationships such as the mediating effect of the quality of health-care administrative process on the relationship between FM service quality and patients’ health-care experience as well as the moderation effect of adequacy of health-care resource on the relationship between FM service quality and patients’ health-care experience can also be tested. Future studies on the same subject can use health-care workers as the respondents of the study.

The result should inspire health-care managers to prioritize attention on health-care FM to create and sustain a decent health-care environment. Facilities managers should ensure standards are not compromised by keeping health-care resources in good condition through the organisation and management of resources.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is one of the pioneer studies to test the mediating effect of adequacy of health-care resources on the relationship between patient’s health-care experience and health-care FM service quality. The proposed framework can be adapted to various sectors and countries as this empirical validation extends knowledge.

The aim of this study was to investigate the dimensions of housing adequacy evaluation by residents in public housing with a view to identifying how government and construction professionals can deliver adequate housing facilities.

The research is based on household surveys involving 517 respondents selected from nine public housing estates constructed between 2003 and 2010 in Ogun State Southwest Nigeria. The data were collected using structured questionnaire administered to the residents by the researchers through visits to the housing estates. A total of 33 variables derived from the review of the literature were used in measuring housing adequacy. Descriptive statistics and factor analyses were used in analysis of the data.

The study reveals that residents perceived their housing situation as inadequate. They evaluated housing adequacy based on four key dimensions: ambient condition of interiors spaces, security, utilities and neighbourhood facilities; social infrastructure; level of privacy and size of sleeping; and living and dining areas in the residences. These dimensions of housing adequacy evaluation were found not to be exactly the same way experts conceived housing adequacy in the literature.

The concept of housing adequacy can be used to examine occupants’ housing preferences and their standard of living, the quality of housing and the performance of mass housing projects.

The paper makes practical suggestions to government and construction professionals on how to improve adequacy levels of public housing. Specifically, in the areas of giving more attention to ambient condition of interiors, security, utilities and neighbourhood facilities as well as privacy and sizes of main activities areas in dwelling units in the design, construction and management of public housing projects.

The study identifies dimensions of housing adequacy evaluation by residents in public housing and compares these with experts’ conception of housing adequacy.

The most significant recent reform in international bank regulation has been in the area of capital adequacy, first instigated by the BASLE Committee and formally introduced in 1988. These reforms have had, and continue to have, significant economic consequences. However, the concept of capital adequacy and its usefulness in bank regulation has attracted a significant amount of criticism from the academic community. This raises the question as to why it was that capital adequacy was adopted as a tool for international bank regulation, despite major concerns with its rationale and effectiveness. Although the topic of capital adequacy has attracted an increasing body of research, the reasons behind the adoption and implementation of capital adequacy by international bank regulators have remained unexamined in the literature. This paper investigates the rationale for capital adequacy, citing documentary and interview evidence surrounding the key decisions, and in the process traces the dynamics of international bank regulation. The principal finding is that regulatory reform was influenced by tradition, convenience and likely acceptability rather than by any serious considerations of regulatory objectives and potential effectiveness of the capital adequacy reforms. This corresponds to findings about the origin and dynamics of regulation in the political economy literature.

There is a prevailing assumption in the research literature that disaster exercises produce a wide variety of benefits that promote effective emergency management. Unfortunately, there are few studies available that confirm this assumption. This paper reviews the role of exercises in disaster management and places them within the context of preparedness activities. Within this context, the links among planning, training and exercising are explicated. The potential benefits of exercises are reviewed and hypotheses generated that link exercise experiences with emergency responders’ perceptions of planning adequacy, training adequacy, teamwork, response network effectiveness, equipment adequacy and job risk. The effects of two exercises – one dealing with hazardous materials and one with medical mass casualties – are examined using a quasi‐experimental research design. The subjects were professional firefighters. Results indicated that successful exercises can enhance perceptions of teamwork, training adequacy, response network effectiveness, job risk, and equipment adequacy. The link between exercise participation and perception of planning adequacy was found to be equivocal.

The purpose of this paper is to present research assessing the level of qualitative adequacy of newly constructed public housing in urban centres in Ogun State, Nigeria.

The study followed a quantitative research strategy. A survey of 517 housing units constructed through four different strategies and selected based on quota of their existence in nine public housing estates was conducted with a questionnaire as the key data collection instrument. A five‐point Likert scale was used in measuring the level of qualitative adequacy of four key housing sub‐components. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics.

Residents found the overall housing to be inadequate; they indicated that housing unit attributes were the most adequate and thus contributed most, while neighbourhood facilities were the least inadequate and contributed the least to qualitative housing adequacy.

The sample population comprised mainly house heads in public housing constructed between 2003 and 2009 therefore, the findings may not be considered to be applicable to all the public housing in the study area. However, the findings can form the basis for judging the performance of public housing in the current democratic dispensation in the study area.

The findings imply that giving adequate attention to the provision of infrastructural facilities and maintenance of existing ones can enhance the qualitative adequacy of public housing.

This paper is a pioneering effort at evaluating the qualitative adequacy of most recently constructed public housing in the study area.

The FDIC Improvement Act of 1991 sets out five categories of capital and mandates corrective action for banks. Each bank based on its capital amount fall in the certain categories or states. The purpose of this paper is to consider the effect of banking regulations and supervisory practices on capital state transition.

First, the authors investigate how much the practices influence banks' capital adequacy using a dynamic panel data method, the generalized method of moments. Then, to scrutinize the results of the first phase, the authors estimate the effect of practices on some characteristics of capital state transition such as transition intensity, transition probability and state sojourn time using multi-state models for panel data in 107 developing countries over the period 2000 to 2012.

The dynamic regression results show that capital guidelines, supervisory power and supervisory structure can have significantly positive effects on the capital adequacy state. Moreover, the multi-state Markov panel data model estimation results show that the significantly positive-effect practices can change the capital state transition intensity considerably; for example, they can transmit the critical-under-capitalized (the lowest) capital state of banks directly to a well or the adequate-capitalized (the highest) capital state without passing through middle states (under-capitalized and significantly-undercapitalized). Moreover, the results present some new evidence on transition probability and state sojourn time.

The main contribution of this paper, unlike the existing literature, is to consider the power of banking regulations and supervisory practices to improve the capital state using a multi-state Markov panel data model.

Measures of dietary diversity are relatively simple and associated with nutrient adequacy and nutritional status. The aim of this study is to validate dietary diversity score (DDS) as an indicator of nutrient adequacy of diet of Indian rural children aged five to eight years.

A cross‐sectional survey among 232 children (five to eight years) was conducted using a 24 h recall. Food variety score (FVS) and DDSs were calculated. Probability of adequacies of vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, iron and zinc, and mean probability of adequacy was used to assess nutrient adequacy. To determine associations between dietary diversity and nutrient adequacy, nutrient adequacy and socio‐economic status (SES), partial rank correlations were conducted.

Vitamin C and iron had the lowest probability of adequacy (PA) while vitamin A and zinc had the highest PA. Mean probability of adequate micronutrient intake (MPA) across five micronutrients was 40 percent. Mean DDS was 6.5 and mean FVS was 12.2. DDS was significantly correlated (p < 0.01) with PA vitamin A (r = 0.17), PA vitamin C (r = 0.36) and mean MPA (r = 0.21). Correlations for FVS were significant and stronger than those of DDS with all micronutrients. Adjustments for SES indicators did not further change the correlations. The best DDS cut‐off point for nutritionally adequate diet with MPA of 75 percent was between six and seven food groups.

DDS and FVS can be useful tools to give a good indication of nutritional adequacy of diet in resource‐poor settings. Additionally, a DDS between six and seven should suffice to identify subjects with a nutritionally adequate diet with MPA of 75 percent with optimal sensitivity and specificity.

The Government of Pakistan has allocated a substantial proportion of agricultural credit to subsistence farmers. The purpose of this paper is to analyze farmers’ access to credit and its adequacy in the light of current agricultural credit policy of Pakistan.

The study has used both secondary and primary data for analysis. Secondary data were collected from the annual reports of Pakistan Economic Survey and State Bank of Pakistan. Primary data were collected from 168 subsistence farmers through households’ survey. Farmers’ credit access and credit adequacy were measured using credit access ratio and credit adequacy ratio, respectively. The Student’s t-test and analysis of variance were used to assess the differences in credit access and adequacy among farmers’ groups (i.e. upper, medium and lower subsistence farmers). Tobit regression model was employed to determine the factors influencing credit adequacy among farmers.

The empirical results revealed that the amount of credit provided to subsistence farmers was less than stated in the national agricultural credit policy. Upper subsistence farmers had more access to credit than lower and medium subsistence farmers. Lower subsistence farmers had above average access to informal sources of credit, and had below average access to formal sources. The findings also revealed that lower subsistence and medium subsistence farmers had the highest credit inadequacy of funds for investment in agriculture. The results of the Tobit regression revealed that age, education, experience, household size, total landholding of farmer and proportion of own land influenced the agricultural credit adequacy.

Most of the credit was distributed among the upper subsistence farmers. Lower subsistence farmers were still largely dependent on informal credit for farm production activities. The Government of Pakistan performed poor in the implementation of agricultural credit policy, and has failed to help subsistence farmers in their access to formal credit. It is needed to revamp the agricultural credit policy and facilitate credit acquisition by subsistence farmers, particularly for tenant farmers. It is important that the Government may classify the subsistence farmers into subgroups, and reallocate the funds accordingly. This study has lessons and implications for agricultural finance initiatives in developing countries.

Previous studies have focused primarily on access to agricultural credit. However, this study has adopted a holistic approach by using secondary and primary data to assess the farmers’ access to credit and adequacy. In addition, limited literature is available to explore the farmers’ accessibility and adequacy of agricultural credit. Furthermore, this study has focused exclusively on the farmers who are living in the flood-prone areas of Pakistan.

The purpose of this study is to examine the adequacy of incrementally constructed government assisted self‐help housing in addressing the needs of residents of the Workers’ Housing Estate, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria.

A quantitative method and the survey research approach were used. Data were collected from randomly selected 156 household heads in this housing estate with structured questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive and factor analyses.

About 50 percent of the respondents felt that housing environment in the estate was adequate in meeting their needs. Adequacy of housing unit characteristics was higher than that of housing services, social infrastructure and management of the housing estate.

Incremental housing construction strategy can provide adequate housing for low and middle‐income public sector workers in the developing countries; and this can be enhanced through measures that ensure rapid upgrading of housing units and access to housing services and basic infrastructure by the residents.

The adoption of government assisted incremental construction strategy has great potentials in facilitating access to housing by low‐income urban residents in the developing countries.

A pioneer study on the adequacy of housing provided using the incremental construction strategy in Ogun State Nigeria. Findings may not be generalised, but they have implications for social housing in the developing countries.