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The study examines the synthesized influences of institutional governance and the scale effects of agricultural credits on the sustainability of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Using a sample of 840 MFIs (300 independent and 540 networked), the study applied Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) and Lewbel’s estimator.

Results indicate positive effects of financial structure, efficiency and agricultural credit scale on sustainability, with a non-linear U-shaped relationship between agricultural credit size and microfinance sustainability. Depending on institutional governance quality, a threshold is identified where agricultural credit scale significantly enhances the quality of Portfolio at Risk (lnPAR) in independent MFIs and Returns on Assets (lnROA) in networked MFIs.

Study suggests strengthening governance for transparency and operating within optimal size for enduring sustainable performance. While focused on Sub-Saharan Africa, future research could expand to various economies or introduce additional variables for a comprehensive analysis.

MFIs can achieve sustainability by implementing management guided by better institutional norms, innovative financial transformations better suited to financing agricultural activities and techniques and an organizational structure more aligned with their performance targets.

Broader and more reliable access to financial services, particularly in the agricultural sector, can stimulate production and alleviate poverty.

The study’s originality lies in its contribution to the literature by examining the role of institutional governance in microfinance institution performance and evaluating microfinance in a broader Sub-Saharan African context, proposing threshold limits where agricultural microcredit compromises performance.

This study investigates the association between debt overhang and carbon emissions (both direct and indirect emissions) using a sample of US publicly listed firms.

The study applies generalized least squares (GLS) regression analyses to a sample of 2,043 US firm-year observations over a period of 14 years from 2007 to 2020. The methods include contemporaneous effect, lagged effect, alternative measures of carbon emissions and debt overhang, intensive versus non-intensive analysis, channel analysis, firm fixed effects, change analysis, controlling for credit rating analysis, propensity score matching approach, instrumental variable analysis with industry and year fixed effect.

This study's findings reveal that the debt overhang problem increases carbon emissions. This finding holds when the authors use alternative measures of carbon emissions and debt overhang. The authors find that carbon abatement investment is a channel that is negatively impacted by debt overhang, which in turn increases carbon emissions. This study's results are robust for several endogeneity tests, including firm fixed effects, change analysis, propensity score matching approach and two-stage least squares (2SLS) instrumental variable analysis.

The outcome of this research has policy implications for several stakeholders, including investors, firms, market participants and regulators. This study's findings offer insights for investors and firms, helping them allocate resources effectively and make financing decisions aimed at reducing carbon emissions. Regulators and policymakers can also use the findings to formulate policies that promote alternative sustainable finance practices.

The outcome of this research is likely to help firms develop their understanding of the debt overhang problem and undertake strategies that yield a significant amount of funding to invest in reducing carbon emissions.

This chapter assesses the economic security of enterprises on the example of the textile industry of Uzbekistan. The authors considered the ways to identify new textile enterprises in Uzbekistan and studied the issues related to the enterprises' financial security. The process of index formation and its dependence on the initial data is also of interest. Given that the level of receivables turnover is gradually decreasing, we can assume that the company's customers will accumulate late payments and return them near the end of the financial year. This situation can increase liquidity indicators, which shows the low efficiency of the system for managing accounts with customers and the lack of working money during the financial year. This hypothesis is also confirmed by the decrease in the capital ratio during the period analyzed. The proposed methodology was tested in the automated Microsoft Excel, which made it possible to quickly and efficiently form the final calculated indicator. In addition, this methodology allows users to expand the range of inputs and double-check other factors depending on market conditions.

The design of effective policies that increase access to agricultural credit should consider understanding credit constraint farmers’ groups and their response to changes in the credit conditions. To contribute to this understanding, this study surveyed farmers from Chile and classified them into five credit constraint categories discussed in credit literature. In addition, these farmers indicated how they would react to a series of hypothetical conditions related to changing interest rates, loan maturity and grace periods. Their responses were employed to measure credit demand scores (i.e. relative elasticities). Regression tests evaluated how different types of farmers reacted to changing credit conditions.

Farmers from Chile were surveyed using a mix of random and convenience sampling. Surveyed farmers were classified into five credit constraint categories proposed by previous research. Farmers rated their demand for credit on a five-point Likert-type scale for hypothetical changes in interest rates, loan maturities and grace periods. Their responses were employed to measure credit demand scores or relative credit elasticities. The study evaluated credit elasticity as a function of farmers’ credit constraint and some control variables using several regressions, including OLS, ordered probit and hierarchical regression.

The study identified 44% unconstrained nonborrowing farmers, 23% unconstrained borrowers, 14% quantity-constrained, 16% risk-constrained and 3% transaction cost-constrained farmers. Unconstrained borrowers and quantity-constrained farmers responded most to changing interest rates and loan maturity conditions. In addition, unconstrained nonborrowers and risk-constrained farmers were statistically less sensitive to changes in credit conditions than unconstrained borrowers. This finding is significant because, as discussed, unconstrained nonborrowers represent 44% of our sample. Furthermore, risk-constrained farmers were the least sensitive to changes in interest rates and loan maturity across all other credit categories.

This study gives insights that can guide agribusiness policies to enhance access to credit in developing countries such as Chile. Agricultural credit capital institutions can better target their clientele by identifying farmers’ possible reactions before implementing policy changes to increase access to credit. This study’s credit constraint categorization and the results discussed can guide that identification. For instance, policies directed toward unconstrained borrowing farmers may find positive responses. However, implementing policies targeting the other three groups (unconstrained nonborrowing, risk-constrained and transaction cost-constrained farmers) is more challenging because these farmers are less responsive to changing credit conditions.

This article correlates farmers’ propensity to borrow and credit constraints across five categories of farmers. Prior research using this categorization framework has not identified farmers into the five groups. Furthermore, in addition to interest rate and loan maturity credit demand relative elasticity, this study adds the grace period elasticity, which has not been included in previous studies on agricultural credit.

Consumer culture is promoting immediate gratification, and the rise of digital financial services is increasing the risk of indebtedness while debt reduces well-being and affects mental health. The authors assess the effects of consumer information provision, debt literacy, chronic debt and attitudes toward debt on the intent to purchase on credit.

An online survey including an experiment with a credit offer vignette was conducted in a representative sample of Estonia (n = 1204). Treatment conditions depicted either the total cost and duration of the credit agreement or the annual percentage rate.

Receiving modified information resulted in a 26 to 30 percentage points decrease in propensity to purchase on credit. Purchasing on credit was associated with attitudes towards credit and chronic debt, but not with debt literacy.

The findings reveal large effects of information provision and highlight the limited effects of debt literacy on credit decisions. Limitations may emerge from differences in financial regulation across countries.

The authors' results highlight the importance of applying behavioural insights in consumer credit information provision, both in the financial sector and policy. Testing the messages allows having evidence-based solutions that promote responsible purchasing on credit.

The findings call for changes in credit information provision requirements. Their effect is significantly larger compared to the literature, emphasizing the role of credit information provision in less regulated online markets.

This study aims to utilize the theory of planned behavior, integrating materialism, financial socialization, and perceived financial capability, to explore the psychological determinants influencing credit card repayment behaviors.

The data for this research was sourced from the 2016 National Financial Well-Being Survey. Employing Structural Equation Modeling, this study investigated whether materialism, financial socialization, and perceived financial capability influenced credit card repayment behaviors through their impact on financial intention.

The analysis suggests significant associations between materialism, financial socialization, and perceived financial capability with credit card repayment behaviors. Furthermore, the results highlight the substantial mediating role of financial intention in shaping the relationship between materialism, financial socialization, perceived financial capability, and credit card repayment behaviors.

Employing Structural Equation Modeling, the study investigated whether materialism, financial socialization, and perceived financial capability indirectly influenced credit card repayment behaviors through their impact on financial intention.

The findings of this study underscore the importance of considering credit card utilization and leverage used by average consumers. Supporting community-based financial education programs might be useful for reaching individuals and families at the grassroots level and educating participants about the deleterious effects of maintaining high credit card balances and the perils of pursuing their materialistic desires by leveraging these purchases through the utilization of credit cards. Credit card companies can use these findings to inform their marketing strategies and design credit products that cater to the needs of different segments of customers. From a policy standpoint, it is extremely important to develop programs that protect those individuals who are most vulnerable and need the most help with managing their money.

Policy makers can also use these findings to develop regulations and consumer protection measures to promote responsible credit card use. For instance, they can introduce laws that require credit card companies to disclose the full cost of credit, including interest rates, fees, and charges, in a clear and transparent manner. They can also promote financial education programs to help individuals with high levels of materialism manage their credit card usage and debt.

The paper integrates two well-established theoretical frameworks, the theory of planned behavior and materialism, to provide a comprehensive understanding of consumer credit card usage. This integration allows for a more nuanced analysis of the factors influencing credit card behavior. By utilizing data from the 2016 National Financial Well-Being Survey and employing Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), the paper conducts a robust empirical investigation. This adds credibility to the findings and allows for the testing of hypotheses derived from the theoretical frameworks. The findings of the paper have practical implications for policymakers, financial institutions, and consumer advocates.

This paper aims to investigate the effect of CEO social media celebrity status on credit ratings and to determine whether potential threats on the CEO celebrity status negatively moderate the above association.

The authors collected tweets for 874 CEOs from 513 unique S&P 1500 firms. A panel data analysis was conducted on a panel with 4,235 observations from 2009 to 2020. We then tested the hypothesis with the ordinal logit model.

The empirical findings confirmed that CEO social media celebrity status is positively associated with corporate credit rating outcomes. Our path analyses revealed that CEOs with higher social media celebrity status have less incentive to conduct risk-taking behaviors and thus benefit credit ratings. When the rating agencies perceive potential threats to CEO celebrity status, including CEO myopia and CEO overconfidence, the association between CEO social media celebrity status and credit rating is weakened.

This study provides an in-depth understanding of CEO social media perception on credit ratings for firms' managers and capital market participants. Findings can help managers and firms improve their strategies for leveraging social media to release credit constraints. The debt market participants could adopt the CEO social media celebrity status and its concerned threats to setting debt contracts with an adequate price.

This is likely to be the first study that examines the effect of CEO social media celebrity status on credit ratings. The findings of this study also reveal that social media certificated celebrity CEOs tend to be capable of enhancing firm revenue and have lower risk-taking incentives, unlike mass media certificated celebrity CEOs.

This study aims to examine the simultaneous effect of variations in the Capital Adequacy Ratio and Credit Risk of Islamic banks of the Gulf Cooperation Council under the influence of the Basel III regulations using an innovative approach.

This approach highlights the critical importance of the Basel III reform in preserving the stability of the regional and international financial sector in the Gulf Cooperation Council and globally by examining the complex dynamics between Capital Adequacy Ratio and Credit Risk and their interaction under regulatory constraints. The annual reports and financial performance of 26 Islamic banks were analyzed over the period 2013–2021.

The findings highlight the critical importance of the Basel III reform in preserving the stability of the regional and international financial sector in the Gulf Cooperation Council and globally by examining the complex dynamics between Capital Adequacy Ratio and Credit Risk and their interaction under regulatory constraints. The annual reports and financial performance of 26 Islamic banks were analyzed over the period 2013–2021.

The insights from findings help define effective strategies to manage and mitigate Credit Risk while strengthening solvency under Basel III prudential supervision. Policymakers, regulatory authorities and banking institutions can optimize the management of Credit Risk and create a robust and stable financial environment for Islamic banks.

This paper aims to investigate the effects of macroprudential policies in Brazil on the banking sector.

Autoregressive models with distributed lags (ADL) are estimated to verify whether such regulatory measures affected the volume of credit, the banking spread and the concentration index of the five largest Brazilian banks. In addition to the variables of interest, monthly macroeconomic data from 2011 to 2021 are considered.

Our results suggest that macroprudential policies are effective in reducing credit volume. More importantly, our findings highlight two possible adverse effects of these instruments. Firstly, macroprudential tightenings are associated with increases in bank spread. Secondly, tightening measures contribute to increasing bank market concentration.

These findings are useful for the scientific literature that investigates the regulation of the financial system by providing empirical evidence of the effects of Brazilian macroprudential measures on investors, policymakers and other economic agents whose well-being is associated with economic stability.

Fintech has revolutionized personal finance, introducing innovative tools that offer unprecedented access, efficiency, and security in managing finances. This chapter explains fintech's personal finance applications, from intuitive budgeting apps and advanced robo-advisors to peer-to-peer payment platforms. It articulates how these tools have shifted the control and management of finances into the hands of consumers, providing real-time financial data, customized investment strategies, improved credit scores, and streamlined transactions that eliminate the need for traditional intermediaries. Furthermore, this chapter features a select list of FinTech50 firms and highlights how individuals can leverage their services. This comprehensive guide is invaluable for individuals seeking to leverage fintech for personal finance optimization and for professionals keen on understanding and navigating the rapidly evolving fintech landscape.