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Personal remittance and ready-made garments (RMG) export incomes have emerged as the largest source of foreign income for Bangladesh's economy. The study investigates their impact on income inequality and gross domestic product (GDP) as a control variable, using time-series yearly data from 1983 to 2018.

It employs the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) estimation and the Toda-Yamamoto (T-Y) causality approach. The ARDL estimation outcomes confirm a long-run association among the above variables and validate the autoregressive characteristic of the model.

Personal remittances positively contribute to reducing the income gap among the people of the society and declining income inequality. In contrast, RMG export income and economic growth contribute to further income inequality. The T-Y causality analysis follows the ARDL estimation outcomes and authenticates their robustness. It reveals a feedback relationship between remittance inflow and the Gini coefficient, unidirectional causalities from RMG export income to income inequality and economic growth to income inequality.

The finding has important policy implications to limit the income gaps between low and high-income groups by channeling incremental income to the lower-income group people. The policymakers may facilitate further international migration to attract further remittances and may upgrade the minimum wage of the RMG workers.

The study is original. As far as the authors' knowledge goes, this is a maiden attempt to investigate the impact of personal remittances and RMG export income on income disparity in the case of Bangladesh.

This paper aims to conduct a systematic literature review on the fintech services and financial inclusion of the developing nations that particularly focuses on lower middle-income group nations (LMIGN) and upper middle-income group nations (UMIGN) to highlight the research areas that have not received attention and present opportunities for future research.

This paper adopts a systematic approach to examine 65 research articles published from 2016 to 2021, adhering to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines.

The study identifies research gaps in two key themes: backward and outward linkages. In backward linkages, the literature on UMIGN should pay attention to the behavioural patterns associated with lending, investment and market provision-related fintech services. Further research is needed to understand the relationship between fintech services on the usage and quality dimension of financial inclusion in both LMIGN and UMIGN. For outward linkages, future research work should explore the role of fintech and financial inclusion in the development of LMIGN. This study provides valuable insights and guides future research directions by comprehensively mapping the existing studies.

This study does not use quantitative tools, such as meta and bibliometric analysis, to validate the findings.

This research paper offers new perspectives that introduce a novel framework for analysing literature on fintech, financial inclusion and its impact on the overall development of UMIGN and LMIGN.

The social acceptance of wind energy is increasingly conditioning the Italian Government and regions to authorize the construction of these plants. The proposal of offshore wind farm in the south-west of Sardinia has raised many perplexities both from the marine environmental point of view and from concern about increasing the electricity production in a region that already exports electricity to the peninsula. The purpose of this study is to evaluate what are the factors that most affect the coastal residents’ acceptability of an offshore wind farm.

The data is based on a Sardinia-wide in-person survey with about 512 participants in the period between May and June 2023. Respondents were selected randomly from five different locations in Carloforte region. Multiple regression analysis investigates the factors that influenced acceptability to construction and development of offshore wind power plant. Four independent variables were selected in the regression models such as (i) interest towards wind energy, (ii) attitude towards renewable energy production, (iii) perceived regional energy policy and (iv) attitude towards offshore wind farm. The dependent variables are the rates of coastal local residents’ acceptance of offshore wind farm for respondents in five coastal towns.

Fishermen and summer tourism operators’ respondents expressed significant reluctance to accept the new project because they perceive a strong risk of environmental impact on both tuna fishing and marine recreational activities in the vicinity. The distance between the turbines at sea and local residents along the coast and surrounding small islands does not have an influence to accept wind energy. The energy policy of the Region of Sardinia, which is perceived by respondents as an expansive energy policy in the production of electricity that exceeds their needs, not being accompanied by a scenario of reducing that from fossil fuels, is the variable that led about 70% of respondents to express a negative opinion towards this project.

A potential problem associated with the survey is that local response produced sample selection bias. The proportion of respondents with secondary education and no school certificate is quite high. It is possible that respondents who provided valid questionnaires were more low-educated and therefore, the sample may be biased towards lower-educated people. While this does not invalidate the results of this study, it is important to note that the sample was on average less educated than the overall population in Italy. In addition, people with lower incomes were more likely to complete the questionnaires; the results are more representative of a portion of the population with incomes below the national average.

Results showed how coastal communities are in favour of wind energy within their island, but not within a marine protected area that is considered unique for its beauty and marine ecosystem. Wind energy developers should, before submitting a proposal for an offshore wind farm project, consider among other things the long approval time and understand the activities carried out by local communities and their attachment to those places. Politicians and developers should develop a coherent energy transition policy based on a long-term vision of zero emissions, because according to the findings of this study, it was the regional energy policy that is the most controversial reason for residents to reject the project.

The contribution of this study is to fill a part of the research gap linking to ongoing energy transitions. In particular, this study analysed for the first time in Italy the acceptability level of an offshore renewable energy project considering the environmental implications and risks in the fragile marine ecosystem of Carloforte waters. This study also made it possible to analyse the impact of the regional energy policy on the acceptability of residents towards the development of offshore wind farms, which is scarcely discussed in the literature.

The objective of this study is to examine the moderating effect of microfinance on the digital divide in developing countries.

On the methodology, the econometric method employed to estimate the equation is based on the two-stage least squares (2SLS).

This study confirms that microfinance can play an important role in mitigating the adverse effect of digitalization on poverty.

Thus, governments should prioritize and encourage the integration of digital technologies with robust microfinance systems to effectively combat poverty, given the importance of microfinance.

Given the importance of digital technology to businesses and economic development, we need to search for a better solution that allows digital technology to be further developed but at the same time, is not harmful to the poor. The issue of the poor, either financially or technically can be partially resolved if the poor is given the necessary and sufficient assistance. Therefore, this paper examines whether microfinance can be part of solutions to the digital divide in developing countries.

The present study aimed to provide an understanding of the roles of community-based financial service organizations (i.e. rotating savings and credit associations [ROSCAs] as institutional pillars in facilitating low-income, unbanked consumers’ access to informal financial services).

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 39 low-income, unbanked consumers participating in ROSCAs in Pakistan, where only 21% of adults have a bank account and almost four out of five individuals live on a low income. The obtained data were analyzed using the thematic analysis technique.

ROSCAs’ regulatory, sociocultural and cognitive aspects facilitate low-income, unbanked consumers’ utilization of informal financial services owing to their approachability by, suitability for, and fairness to such consumers. Thus, they promote such consumers’ financial inclusion.

Low-income consumers are mostly unable to access formal financial services due to the existing supply- and demand-side impediments. Understanding ROSCAs’ institutional functioning can help formal financial service providers create more transformative financial services based on the positive institutional aspects of ROSCAs to enhance poor consumers’ financial inclusion and well-being.

The inclusion of low-income, unbanked consumers in formal banking services will help them better control their finances.

Many low-income, unbanked consumers in developing countries utilize informal financial services to meet their basic financial needs, but service researchers have rarely investigated how informal financial institutions function. The present study showed that ROSCAs, as informal institutions, meet low-income, unbanked consumers’ personal, social and financial needs in a befitting manner, which encourages such consumers to use the financial services offered by ROSCAs.

This study aims to investigate the impact of housing knowledge, housing challenges and housing policy on the renting intention and satisfaction of young people.

A questionnaire survey helped collect data from young people in the study area, which were then analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 27 software. A descriptive analysis and the Cronbach’s alpha test were adopted to analyse the data. The confirmatory factor analysis confirmed a significant relationship between housing knowledge, housing challenges and housing policy and renting intention and satisfaction.

The overall findings revealed that most young people intend to own a home one day, and a minority of them decided to continue renting. The findings suggest that there is a significant relationship between housing knowledge and housing intention. However, housing challenges and housing policies do not appear to impact renting intentions. On the other hand, housing knowledge and housing challenges were found to be associated with housing satisfaction, while housing policy does not show a significant relationship.

This study, however, poses limitations as it uses a limited model and location and involves only a cross-sectional study. Future studies can use the methodology used in this study to conduct further investigations on housing intention and satisfaction in other regions of the country, thereby validating the findings of this study.

In terms of practical implications, this study has made a valuable contribution to the field of housing literature by shedding light on two crucial elements, namely, housing intention and satisfaction, which have been understudied. Understanding the determinants of housing intention and satisfaction is vital in efforts to implement appropriate policy reforms.

Findings from this study offer valuable insight related to managerial and practical implications, with the former implicating a need to prioritise initiatives that enhance renters’ housing knowledge. Implementing educational programmes and providing accessible resources can empower renters with a better understanding of the rental process and other important housing information.

This paper is relevant because it provides a guideline for policymakers to initiate regulations concerning housing and implement appropriate policy reforms. This study can also help housing providers develop more affordable housing that meets the needs of young people currently renting because most have expressed their housing intentions. Understanding housing intention and satisfaction determinants is vital to implementing appropriate policy reforms.

People with energy poverty are denied the modern energy services such as cooking, lighting, heating, cooling and communication. These needs are all crucial to maintaining an acceptable level of living standards. This paper aims to examine the effects of energy poverty on health and education.

This systematic review was conducted using the 2009 Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. The ScienceDirect, Scopus and Google Scholar databases were used to search the studies conducted between 2012 and 2022. Studies included in this review were searched with some combinations of keywords and saved in Mendeley Desktop for review and referencing. Of 1,745 articles retrieved after removing the duplicates from the databases, 22 met the inclusion criteria.

Out of the total 22 studies reviewed, six were conducted in Asia, six in Europe, four in Africa, three in developing countries and one each in North America, Australia and at global level. Results indicated that impacts of energy poverty on health and education were negative. Efforts should be made to improve the economic conditions of the population in order to allow them access to energy services to achieve higher levels of living.

As this systematic review excludes non-peer-reviewed literature, case studies, reports and theses, and only includes studies published between 2012 and 2022 in English language only, consequently, it may not provide an exhaustive overview of the literature on topic.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first systematic review to investigate the relationship between energy poverty, health and education conducted here. The search methodologies involve systematic searches of databases and other manual searches. Considering the wide inclusion criteria, this review is useful as a general overview of the issues and identifies particular gaps in the existing evidence.

“Poor, Stressed, Drink (alcohol), and Gambling” is one of the campaigns for poverty eradication in Thailand. This study focuses on informal workers—gamblers—who belong to low-income groups and are not covered by the law as an employer. The main objective was to investigate the factors affecting financial stress among informal laborers and determine the factors that drive informal workers to buy lottery tickets (classified by economic, psychological and social motives).

The authors applied binary logistic regression to determine what factors affected financial stress and multinomial logistic regression was applied to examine the factors affecting the motives for buying the lottery.

According to the study's results, factors including education, income, gambling intensity, level of financial literacy, saving and knowledge about finance in general influenced both economic and psychological motives negatively. However, gender, status, age, level of risk tolerance, self-evaluated level of acceptable risk and knowledge about compound interest influenced both economic motives and psychological motives positively. It is worth noting that both the self-evaluation of their level of financial literacy and knowledge about inflation resulted in effects moving in different directions, with self-evaluation of their level of financial literacy and knowledge about inflation negatively affecting economic motives, but positively affecting psychological motives.

The results of this study are expected to help policymakers understand more about this issue since it will illustrate the relationships between financial stress and financial literacy, financial behaviors, financial attitudes and risk tolerance and gambling behaviors. After all, financial stress is a significant problem affecting individuals, their families and the community, and it stems from various complex factors. Therefore, the government and counseling agencies should apply active strategies to mitigate these issues and lessen the resulting financial stress by providing financial literacy projects, as well as financial counseling.

Low financial literacy, especially being inefficient at managing one's finances, unusually comes with unhealthy financial thought patterns, as well as a lack of systematic financial management. Furthermore, the lack of financial literacy can potentially lead to unfavorable circumstances. When one falls into uncontrollable situations, including divorce, becoming unemployed, having health problems, being in toxic relationships, loss of a breadwinner, an unexpected pregnancy, etcetera, they could easily find themselves failing to properly cope with these problems and become stressed. Finally, they are also more at risk to take illicit drugs or begin gambling more frequently.

One of the key elements that reduces financial stress is a person's finances, which is thought to have a significant role in reducing their betting behaviors. The findings of this study can be used to guide policy making intended to deter those who have never gambled from starting. Gambling is considered a risk-taking activity with a higher value reward in return. Money, enjoyment, socialization and excitement were all popular motives for gambling. These findings were consistent with what has been observed in Thai society related to the factors influencing individual to gamble, in other words, economic, psychological and social motives. The study focused on gamblers who were informal laborers. They are laborers without an employer according to the Thai labor law, do not have any social security from the government and, usually, have low incomes.

Considering the importance of knowledge, attitudes and practice (KAP) in communities toward COVID-19 and the acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination in the control of this disease, this study aims to evaluate and compare the KAP level toward COVID-19 and the acceptance rate of COVID-19 vaccination between the Afghan immigrant population and Iranians

This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in 2021 on Afghan immigrants, Afghan-neighboring Iranians and Afghan nonneighboring Iranians. Of the 885 people who participated in the survey, 295 from each group were randomly selected. Data collection tools were the following questionnaires: KAP toward COVID-19 and acceptance and attitude toward COVID-19 vaccination.

A total of 837 participants were included for data analysis. According to the findings, the KAP score on COVID-19 in Afghan immigrants was lower than the group of Iranians. Compared with Iranians, the score of nonneighboring Iranians was higher than the neighboring Iranians with Afghan immigrants. This difference in the mean scores suggests a statistically significant difference in the three groups (p < 0.0001). Among demographic data, the relationship between gender, education, type of job, income level and age with KAP indicated a significant difference in the total population studied. In the group of Afghan immigrants, the most likely reason for accepting the vaccination was the employer’s recommendation (55.63%). In comparison, the neighboring and nonneighboring Iranian groups with Afghan immigrants stated that they would receive the vaccine as soon as possible (49.22% and 63.22%, respectively).

Considering the low KAP score in the immigrant population in this study, these people are more vulnerable to the health and socioeconomic effects of COVID-19; therefore, the host countries have more challenges and responsibilities to protect these populations.