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Do women exhibit greater financial risk aversion than men? We answer this question using attitudinal and behavioral specifications of risk aversion drawn from the 2010 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF). To approximate attitudinal specification of risk aversion, we use individuals’ self-reported financial risk tolerance. We use individuals’ relative risk aversion, that is, the effect of wealth on the proportion of assets categorized as risky as behavioral specification of risk aversion. We find that while women display greater attitudinal risk aversion, gender difference in behavioral risk aversion depends upon individuals’ marital status and role in household finances. Single women exhibit greater behavioral risk aversion compared to single men. However, this gender difference does not exist when we compare behavioral risk aversion of married women and men in charge of household finances.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the perceptions of school governing bodies (SGBs) members’ role in financial management in no-fee schools so as to understand their compliance with policy frameworks when managing school finances. No-fee schools are schools in which the learners cannot be levied fees because of the poor socio-economic background of their parents, and are located in Quintiles 1-3 according to National Norms and Standards for School Funding Policy.

A qualitative research design/approach within the interpretive paradigm was adopted for the study. A sample of 22 participants from six selected no-fee schools was purposefully selected to participate in the study. The participants were principals, SGB chairpersons, SGB treasurers and finance officers. Data were collected through interviews and document analyses and were qualitatively analysed through coding and categorisation.

The findings reveal that the perceptions, experience and understanding of SGB members on their financial management roles differ. They lacked the proper knowledge to manage their funds effectively. This lack of knowledge is mainly because of the members’ literacy level and limited training.

This study offers a novel empirical and theoretical perspective on finance of no-fee schools and SGBs. This research subsequently recommends that rigorous training of chairpersons and treasurers should be done by department officials located in the finance section. Further, training should be conducted in a language that would be understood by the intended recipients.

In this chapter we study internal and external, formal and informal, financing sources of Chinese firms during the period 1997–2006, by analyzing balance sheet data from the Chinese Industrial Surveys of Medium-sized and Large Firms for 2000–2006 and survey data from the Large-Scale Survey of Private Enterprises in China conducted in 1997, 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006.

The following stylized facts emerge from our analysis: (1) State-owned firms continue to enjoy more generous external finances than other types of Chinese firms. (2) Chinese private firms have resorted to various ways of overcoming financial constraints, including reliance on the increasingly more mature informal financial markets, cost savings through lower inventory and other working capital requirements, and greater reliance on retained earnings. (3) Substantial variations exist in financial access among private firms, with small private firms facing more financial constraints whereas more established firms having financial access more equal to their SOE counterparts. (4) Although not as accessible as for SOEs, the Chinese formal financial sector does provide Chinese private firms with substantial financial resources, especially for their short-term needs during daily operations. (5) The most pressing financial constraint facing Chinese private firms is their limited ability to secure long-term funds to invest for growth, and resolving this issue should be one of the top goals of financial reforms in China.

In the fifteenth and the seventeenth centuries, the administrative organisation of the French state was based on the offices. Significant modifications took place during this period, from the transformation of offices as lifetime ownership in 1467 to the constitution of the casual parties in 1522 and to the ratification of the edict of annual right in 1604. Because of the state's need for financing, in particular the wars in which it is involved, the nature of offices is changed during that period of time. One of the most important impacts of those modifications is the occurrence of a commodification process of the state apparatuses. This paper highlights also the fact that the state's finances are being financialised along with the development of the state. The French case is thus characterised by a unique symbiotic relationship between the commodification of state apparatuses, the financialisation of the state's finances, and the institutional changes. This relationship is grasped through the theoretical framework of the regulation school of thoughts and is analysed based on archival work.

Financial sustainability requires governments to run sufficiently large primary surpluses going forward to cover the cost of servicing its debt budgets to balance in the long run. In democracies, politicians who strive for reelection often tend to systematically violate this tenet. This paper discusses two types of “anchors” that may be used to cope with this problem by limiting the room for new and excessive public debt. First, we analyze national constitutional safeguards on the basis of the “debt brake” in Switzerland and Germany. Second, we discuss international institutions to maintain financial discipline, referring to the Maastricht-criteria. These anchors are designed to allow policymakers to commit to policies that provide long term financial stability and sustainability of public finances. However, as the recent crises have shown, the problem of time inconsistency in policy making remains, especially when anchors are weak. Therefore, the paper discusses the circumstances under which institutional anchors may help to restrict politician behavior to promote sustainability of public finances. We conclude by indentifying three conditions required for the proper functioning of collective anchors in the context of public finances.

This study aims to explore the impact of the containment measures during COVID-19 on individuals’ finances, financial resilience during such distress and identifying the most financially vulnerable among them. Tracing such impact during the pandemic has been challenging due to a lack of representative data. This paper addresses this gap in the present study.

A survey has been conducted using a structured questionnaire containing various items that portray the impact on income, spending, saving, investment, borrowing, insurance and retirement. The sample consists of 699 respondents and purposive and snowball sampling has been used for data collection. The results are presented and analyzed using infographics and frequency distributions. This study conducts an analysis of variance and Chi-square tests for significance.

This paper finds a fall in income and limited ability to cope with the current economic conditions. The survey highlights inadequate savings and insurance, weak retirement planning, outstanding loans and under-diversified investments inhibiting financial resilience even among the higher-income group. Particularly, lower-income strata, women and not much educated are most financially vulnerable. Further, no substantial financial benefits have been received from the government and people rely on their usual income sources.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that measures the pandemic’s impact on personal finances, especially in connection with a developing economy like India. Policy interventions are critical to the millions for whom financial literacy is required now more than ever.

This study aims to empirically investigate the effect of digital currency development (digital finance) on financial inclusion in Nigeria for the period. Nigeria undertook her digital currency development to rip the benefits of financial inclusion, safer remittances and exchange rate regularization among others.

The researchers developed high-frequency quarterly data for the analysis from 2006:1 to 2020:4 in a weighted stepwise forward regression. A model similar to the one used by Demir et al. (2020) and Altunbas and Thornton (2019) with some modifications was developed.

Findings suggest that (1) a unit rise in the usage of automated teller machines by citizens spontaneously raised financial inclusion in a quarter in Nigeria by 0.012 units and were statistically significant; (2) a percentage rise in the use of point of sales transaction by citizens in the country also raised financial inclusion in Nigeria by approximately 1%; (3) a percentage increase by mobile payment users in Nigeria will spontaneously increase financial inclusion by at least 0.4%; (4) a percentage rise in web payment services reduces financial inclusion by 22% in Nigeria; (5) Cumulative positive effect of digital finances on financial inclusion in Nigeria was approximately 7%.

The researches show, using in-sample forecast, that while financial inclusion will grow in Nigeria, it will not be without systemic fluctuations. Based on the outcome, it is proposed that if the present digital currency penetration for the country is sustained at the present growth rate, the country may be more financially inclusive by 2% additionally by 2025 and 4% more by 2030.

Originally, it is found that digital currency development are positive derivatives for financial inclusion in Nigeria. Cumulatively, the effect of digital finances on financial inclusion in Nigeria is approximately 7% positive.

The 1998 Survey of Small Business Finances provides robust information on the financing of small businesses, including an overview of the firms’ organization, financial characteristics, and credit use. Information from the survey is used in this study to compare the financial characteristics of metro and rural small businesses. While many financial characteristics are similar, rural small businesses do own more land and depreciable assets, and have lower inventory and other current assets when compared to metro firms. Rural firms have relatively similar access to technology and financial services, although utilization varies. Both metro and rural small businesses rely on a wide variety of sources for financing; however, rural small businesses have significantly more mortgages, loans from shareholders, and other types of loans, but fewer credit cards. Use of nonparametric rank order statistical methods was required because normality assumptions were violated due to asymmetric distribution of small firms.

This paper analyzes the impact of economic downturns on the revenue and expense sides of city financing for the period 2003 to 2009 using a convenience sample of the audited end of year financial reports for thirty midsized US cities. The analysis focuses on whether and how quickly and how extensively revenue and spending directions from past years are altered by recessions. A seven year series of Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) data serves to explore whether citiesʼ revenues and spending, especially the traditional property tax and core functions such as public safety and infrastructure withstood the brief 2001 and the persistent 2007 recessions? The findings point to consumption (spending) over stability (revenue minus expense) for the recession of 2007, particularly in 2008 and 2009.

Examines the revenue and expenditure behaviour of the 19 state governments in Nigeria separately for the civilian and military regimes of 1980‐83 and 1984‐87, respectively, with a view to comparing the two. Annual figures are employed in the regression analysis through pooling of time series and cross‐section data and all the endogenous items of state government budgetary accounts, expressed in per capita terms, are analysed. Suggests that: (1) per capita federal allocations, population, population density, per capita income, and literacy items all influence the per capita endogenous budgetary items; (2) the impacts of these factors, except population density, on the budgetary items materially differ over the civilian and military regimes; and (3) autonomous components of these endogenous budgetary items also differ over the two regimes.