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This study aims to investigate the factors that drive housing loan default in India based on unique micro-level data drawn from a public sector bank's credit files with a national presence in India. The authors address endogeneity in the loan to value ratio (LTV) while deciphering the drivers of default.

The study uses a probit regression approach to analyze the relationship between the probability of default and the explanatory variables. The authors introduce two instrumental variables to address the issue of endogeneity. The authors also add state-level demographic and several other control variables, including an indicator variable that captures the recent regulatory change. The authors’ analysis is based on 102,327 housing loans originated by the bank between January 2001 and December 2017.

The authors find that addressing the endogeneity issue is essential to specify default drivers, especially LTV, correctly. The nature of employment, gender, socio-religious category and age have a distinct bearing on housing loan defaults. Apart from the LTV ratio, the other key determinants of default are the interest rate, frequency of repayment, prepayment options and the loan period. The findings suggest that the population classification of branch location plays a significant role in loan default. The authors find that an increase in per capita income and an increase in the number of employed people in the state, which reflects borrowers' ability to pay by borrowers, reduce the probability of default. The change in the regulatory classification of loan assets by the Reserve Bank of India did not bear the main results.

The non-availability of the house price index in analyzing the default dynamics in the Indian housing finance market for the period covered under the study has constrained our analysis. The applicability of the equity theory of default, strategic default, borrowers' characteristics and personality traits are potential research areas in the Indian housing finance market.

The study's findings are expected to provide valuable inputs to the banks and the housing finance companies to explore and formulate appropriate strategic options in lending to this sector. It has highlighted various vistas of tailor-making housing loan product offerings by the commercial banks to ensure and steady and healthy growth of their loan portfolio. It has also highlighted the regulatory and policy underpinnings to ensure the healthy growth of the Indian housing finance market.

The study provides a fresh perspective on the default drivers in the Indian housing finance market based on micro-level data. In our analysis, the authors find clear evidence of endogeneity in LTV and argue that any attempts to decipher the default drivers of housing loans without addressing the issue of endogeneity may lead to faulty interpretation. Therefore, this study is unique in recognizing endogeneity and has gone deeper in identifying the default drivers in the Indian housing market not addressed by earlier papers on the Indian housing market. The authors also control for the regulatory changes in the Indian housing finance market and include state-level control variables like per capita GDP and the number of workers per thousand to capture the borrowers' ability to pay characteristics.

Borrowers’ intentional non-payment of bank loans despite being able to pay is a financial crime. This paper explores how willful loan defaulting became a societal practice in Bangladesh, where non-performing loans (NPLs) are assumed to surpass BDT 4 trillion mainly due to habitual defaults of large borrowers.

This study reviewed publicly available documents and interviewed bank managers, loan takers, regulators and industry experts. It drew on Pierre Bourdieu’s practice theory, specifically the concepts- habitus, capital and field, to explain the permeation of “intentional defaulting culture” in the banking industry.

Willful defaulting in Bangladesh is an outcome of a harmonious blend of defaulters’ mindsets and possession of capital supported by the structure and rules of the field. The socio-political context facilitates, rather than impedes, the “unwillingness to pay” motive of the habitual defaulters due to their possession of different forms of capital.

Understanding of how the crime of willful defaulting emerges and persists in society may have policy and practice implications in economies suffering NPL problems.

This study explicates how individual intents and institutional structures jointly amplify financial crimes in society.

The main purpose of this paper is to establish whether trust plays a significant mediating role in the relationship between access to microcredit and survival of young women microenterprises in under-developed financial markets in sub-Saharan Africa. The main focus of this paper is to specifically test whether relational social capital built by young women from homogeneous and heterogeneous groups can be more effective in promoting economic exchange in under-developed financial markets since interpersonal trust has recently been found to harbor group collusion, especially among kins. Overall, the paper distinguishes trust among individuals based on their age, gender and ethnic diversity.

This study used structural equation model to test whether trust significantly mediates the relationship between access to microcredit and survival of young women microenterprises using Analysis of Moments Structures (AMOS) based on recommendations by Hair et al. (2022) and Baron and Kenny (1986).

The findings from this study revealed that trust significantly and positively mediate the relationship between access to microcredit and survival of young women microenterprises in under-developed financial markets in sub-Saharan Africa. Trust developed from relational social capital among young women from homogeneous and heterogeneous groups create a stronger basis for economic exchange in under-developed financial markets.

While this study generates a positive evidence on the impact of access to microcredit on survival of young women microenterprises, the results cannot be over emphasized and generalized because the data were collected from only a single developing country. Future research may extend the current study to include other developing countries to make a more justified comprehensive analysis.

The findings from this study highlights the importance of using a blend of social policy guided by norms combined with formal regulations as an informal contract enforcement mechanism to achieve efficient economic exchange in under-developed financial markets. Relational social capital formed on the basis of informal norms among groups from diverse population can supplement formal laws to enforce contractual obligations in microcredit access, especially among youthful microentrepreneurs, who seems to have stronger relational behaviors than adults. Financial institutions such as banks should use informal contract enforcement system to increase the scope of financial inclusion of young microentrepreneurs, especially in unbanked rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa, Uganda inclusive where formal laws are weak and sometimes not functional. The findings also show that younger people have a stronger relationship behavior than adults. Therefore, policy should create structures that can promote social activities among youth. Governments in sub-Saharan Africa, Uganda inclusive through their respective Ministry of Gender, Labour and Youth Affairs should create youth clubs that can increase interaction and relational social capital among the younger population to derive economic empowerment. sub-Saharan African governments, Uganda inclusive should rely more on social policy based on relational social capital as a missing link to promote and achieve economic development.

This paper provides an evidence on the unique role of age, gender and ethnicity in information sharing and exchange based on social policy in the financial market to limit group collusion. The authors indicate that diversity in relational social capital among young women microentrepreneurs prohibit strategic defaults, which promotes access to microcredit for survival of women micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) through socialization. High level of interaction among younger women microentrepreneurs from homogeneous and heterogeneous groups allow them to close the information gap to timely meet borrowing contractual obligations to derive economic benefits. The paper shows that younger women have more trust than older women while searching for economic value through socialization. In fact, social policy can wholly supplement formal policy to promote growth and survival of young women microenterprises, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, Uganda inclusive.

Motivated by lack of empirical research on sukuk (Islamic bonds) defaults and factors influencing the credit risk in sukuk industry, the study investigates the impact of corporate governance (CG) practices and corporate social sustainability (CS) disclosures on default risk of Islamic bonds in an emerging market.

In the Malaysian context the authors use generalized method of moments (GMM) to examine the mitigating effect of CG structure and CS disclosures on distance to default (DD) of sukuk issuers.

The results show that although both CG and CS have a significant and positive relationship with distance to default, the contribution of CS to augment DD is higher. Moreover, different CG variables have a varied relationship with distance to default, while the association is positive for all three pillars of CS, videlicet economic, social and environmental sustainability.

The findings of the study hold important implications for issuers, subscribers and regulators in the sukuk industry.

Limited research investigates the relationship between CG, CS and default risk of Islamic bonds. In light of this, the study attempts to fill the theoretical void in literature by examining the relationship among the underlying variables.

How do informal lending institutions affect entrepreneurship? This paper aims to investigates the role of formal and informal credit market institutions in the decision to become an entrepreneur over the life cycle.

The author developed a dynamic Roy model in which a decision to become an entrepreneur depends on the access to formal and informal credit markets, nonpecuniary benefits of entrepreneurship, career-specific entry costs, prior work experience, education, unobserved abilities and other labor market opportunities (salaried employment and nonemployment). Using detailed Russian panel microdata (the Russia longitudinal monitoring survey) and estimating a structural model of labor market decisions and borrowing options, the author assesses the impact of the development of informal and formal credit institutions.

The expansion of traditional (formal) credit market institutions positively impacts all workers’ categories, reduces the share of entrepreneurs who borrow from informal sources and incentivizes low-type entrepreneurs to switch to salaried employment. The development of the informal credit market reduces the percentage of high-type entrepreneurs who borrow from formal sources. In the case of default, a higher value of the social network or higher costs of losing social ties demotivate low-type entrepreneurs to borrow from informal sources. The author highlights the practical implications of estimates by evaluating policies designed to promote entrepreneurship, such as subsidies and accessibility regulations in credit market institutions.

This study contributes to the literature in several ways. Unlike other studies that focus on individual characteristics in the selection for self-employment [Humphries (2017), Hincapíe (2020), Gendron-Carrier (2021), Dillon and Stanton (2017)], the paper models labor and borrowing decisions jointly. Previous studies discuss transitions between salaried employment and self-employment, taking into account entrepreneurial earnings, wealth, education and age, but do not consider the availability of financial institutions as a driving factor for the selection into self-employment. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper shows for the first time that the transition from salaried employment to self-employment is standard and consistent with changes in access to financial institutions. Another feature of this study is incorporating both types of credit markets – formal and informal. The survey by the European Central Bank on the Access to Finance of Enterprises (2018) shows 18% of small and medium enterprise in EU pointed funds from family or friends. Therefore, the exclusion from consideration of informal credit markets may distort the understanding of the role of the accessibility of credit markets.

With reference to the global financial crisis and lessons learned, advocacy for distributing suitable financial products by financial intermediaries remain key if consumers, especially the illiterate in underdeveloped financial markets, are to be absorbed into the formal financial system. Financial intermediaries such as microfinance banks should provide suitable financial products, with full disclosure of information and customer protection relating to distribution of all financial products within the financial market to prevent financial vulnerability. The main purpose of this study is to establish the mediating role of financial product suitability in the relationship between access to microfinance products and survival of women micro-agribusinesses in rural Uganda.

SmartPLS with bootstrap based on 5,000 samples was used to test for the mediating role of financial product suitability in the relationship between access to microfinance products and survival of women micro-agribusinesses in rural Uganda.

The results revealed that financial product suitability improves access to microfinance products by 29 percentage points to promote survival of women micro-agribusinesses in rural Uganda. In reality, delivering suitable financial products that suit the economic condition of poor women micro-agribusiness borrowers, can allow them to use these products to generate income to meet timely repayment obligations and business demands.

The current study selected samples from only women micro-agribusinesses operating in rural Uganda, with a specific focus on the northern region. Thus, studies involving samples selected from other rural developing countries may be necessary in future. Additionally, while the findings are significant, the data were collected from only women microenterprises who are clients of microfinance banks. Future studies focusing on women microenterprises who are clients of other financial institutions may offer insightful comparative data.

The findings from this study offer strategies for managers of microfinance banks to invent and design financial products that suit the economic status and condition of different microcredit clients, especially the women micro-agribusinesses. This can help them to solve the problem of defaults in loan repayment and delinquency common while lending to the rural poor. In fact, microfinance banks should adopt a customized loan pricing model that can promote the operational sustainability and commercial viability of women micro-agribusinesses in the current situation of mission adrift.

The current study uses the suitability rule and economic theory to elucidate the importance of microfinance product suitability to increase microfinance inclusion of women micro-agribusinesses in rural areas in developing countries. The novelty in this paper is in combining the suitability rule and economic theory with microfinance theory to promote access to microcredit by the women micro-agribusinesses in rural Uganda under the situation of mission adrift. This is limited in the existing microfinance literature and theory, especially in developing countries like Uganda.

The aim of this study is to (1) construct a standard framework for assessing the capability of bioenergy enterprises' digital green innovation partners; (2) quantify the choice of partners for digital green innovation by bioenergy enterprises; (3) propose based on a dual combination empowerment niche digital green innovation field model.

Fuzzy set theory is combined into field theory to investigate resource complementarity. The successful application of the model to a real case illustrates how the model can be used to address the problem of digital green innovation partner selection. Finally, the standard framework and digital green innovation field model can be applied to the practical partner selection of bioenergy enterprises.

Digital green innovation technology of superposition of complementarity, mutual trust and resources makes the digital green innovation knowledge from partners to biofuels in the enterprise. The index rating system included eight target layers: digital technology innovation level, bioenergy technology innovation level, bioenergy green level, aggregated digital green innovation resource level, bioenergy technology market development ability, co-operation mutual trust and cooperation aggregation degree.

This study helps to (1) construct the evaluation standard framework of digital green innovation capability based on the dual combination empowerment theory; (2) develop a new digital green innovation domain model for bioenergy enterprises to select digital green innovation partners; (3) assist bioenergy enterprises in implementing digital green innovation practices.

Regulation is critical for sustainable microfinance sector growth. Under this premise, the study aims to examine the different regulatory noncompliance (RNC) practices prevalent in the operations of microfinance institutions (MFIs) at the ground level.

Both the quantitative and qualitative (observations, interviews and focus group discussions) techniques are used to extract the findings.

The study highlights the different RNC practices exercised by the loan officers at the field level in their microfinance loan disbursements.

This study is based on the primary data collected from microfinance clients. The arguments put forth for the RNC practices are extracted from direct personal interviews with the loan officers and the clients. The role of various dilemmas/circumstances of the loan officers and the beneficiaries that implicate the MFIs in RNC is highlighted.

During the evaluation of European Capital of Culture (ECoC) Aarhus 2017, the evaluation organisation rethinkIMPACTS 2017 formulated a set of “dilemmas” capturing the main challenges arising during the design of the ECoC evaluation. This functioned as a framework for the evaluation process. This paper aims to present and discuss the relevance of the “Evaluation Dilemmas Model” as subsequently applied to the Galway 2020 ECoC programme evaluation.

The paper takes an empirical approach including auto-ethnography and interview data to document and map the dilemmas involved in undertaking an evaluation in two different European cities. Evolved via a process of practice-based research, the article addresses the development of and the arguments for the dilemmas model and considers its potential for wider applicability in the evaluation of large-scale cultural projects.

The authors conclude that the “Evaluation Dilemmas Model” is a valuable heuristic for considering the endogenous and exogenous issues in cultural evaluation.

The model developed is useful for a wide range of cultural evaluation processes including – but not limited to – European Capitals of Culture.

What has not been addressed in the academic literature is the process of evaluating ECoCs; especially how evaluators often take part in an overall process that is not just about the evaluation but also planning and delivering a project that includes stakeholder management and the development of evaluation criteria, design and methods.

For close to two decades, the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) has been preparing to launch a second monetary union within the ECOWAS region. This study aims to determine the impact such a unionised monetary regime will have on financial stability as represented by the nonperforming loan ratios of Ghana in a counterfactual framework.

This study models nonperforming loan ratios as dependent on the monetary policy rate and the business cycle. The study then used historical data to estimate the parameters of the nonperforming loan ratio response function using an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach. The estimated parameters are further used to estimate the impact of several counterfactual unionised monetary policy rates on the nonperforming loan ratios and its volatility of Ghana. As robustness check, the Least Absolute Shrinkage Selection Operator (LASSO) regression is also used to estimate the nonperforming loan ratios response function and to predict nonperforming loans under the counterfactual unionised monetary policy rates.

The results of the counterfactual study reveals that the apparent cost of monetary unification is much less than supposed with a monetary union likely to dampen volatility in non-performing loans in Ghana. As such, the WAMZ members should increase the pace towards monetary unification.

The paper contributes to the existing literature by explicitly modelling nonperforming loan ratios as dependent on monetary policy and the business cycle. The study also settles the debate on the financial stability cost of a monetary union due to the nonalignment of business cycles and economic structures.