Personal finance blogs: Helpful tool for consumers with low financial literacy or preaching to the choir?

Recent transitions from defined benefit to defined contribution plans assign greater individual responsibility to consumers to prepare for retirement and make consequential financial choices. However, many consumers are ill‐equipped to do so, considering overall low levels of financial literacy. At the same time, there is increasing controversy about the effectiveness of traditional financial education, such as high school financial education, counselling and seminars or workshops. Alternative sources of (just‐in‐time) financial training or advice may be needed to financially empower consumers and help them make important financial decisions. In the light of these developments, this study investigates if consumers perceive personal finance blogs as a helpful alternative in acquiring financial knowledge, and which factors influence perceived helpfulness of and intention to use personal finance blogs. Using Structural Equation Modelling to analyse data from a sample of U.S. consumers, the results of this study uncover that financial literacy and susceptibility to informational influence have a significant positive association with perceived helpfulness. Perceived financial uncertainty, which refers to uncertainty in terms of consumers’ perceived ability to accurately predict their future financial needs, has a significant negative association with perceived helpfulness of and intention to use personal finance blogs. Finally, perceived helpfulness of a personal finance blog is a significant positive predictor of consumers’ intention to use it. Overall, the findings suggest that personal finance blogs are preaching to the choir, since the consumers who are most likely to use personal finance blogs seem to need them the least given their higher levels of financial literacy and lower levels of perceived financial uncertainty. Taken together, the findings shed light on the potential users of personal finance blogs and underline the challenges of a ‘one‐size‐fits‐all’ financial education. This study aids in assessing personal finance blogs as an online resource which is scarcely researched, but which has the potential to provide just‐in‐time financial education to consumers across the world.     

我国行政单位财务管理存在的问题与对策研究

随着我国财政体制改革的推进和新的公共财政体制的逐步建立,行政单位的财务管理也暴露出不足,笔者根据自身工作经验,对新财政体制下行政单位财务管理问题进行了深入的思考,并针对相关问题提出了一些有建设性的对策.     

The Eurozone formation: MNC and international bank reactions

Introduction of the Euro has brought dramatic changes to the perceptions and realities of MNC finance. These changes vary considerably based on whether the multinational company has integrated its U.S. and European treasury operations or is U.S. dollar‐centric in finance orientation. We conducted a survey to determine changes in U.S.‐based MNC treasury practice resulting from the Eurozone formation. This article reports the results of this survey with regard to hedging activities, European banking arrangements, and Euro financial market sourcing. The effects on the two types of MNCs are compared. Implications for international banks are examined. Recent Eurozone bank merger developments are also reviewed, with special focus on M&A developments in both France and Germany. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Deep learning in finance and banking: A literature review and classification

Deep learning has been widely applied in computer vision, natural language processing, and audio-visual recognition. The overwhelming success of deep learning as a data processing technique has sparked the interest of the research community. Given the proliferation of Fintech in recent years, the use of deep learning in finance and banking services has become prevalent. However, a detailed survey of the applications of deep learning in finance and banking is lacking in the existing literature. This study surveys and analyzes the literature on the application of deep learning models in the key finance and banking domains to provide a systematic evaluation of the model preprocessing, input data, and model evaluation. Finally, we discuss three aspects that could affect the outcomes of financial deep learning models. This study provides academics and practitioners with insight and direction on the state-of-the-art of the application of deep learning models in finance and banking.     

The democratic method of obtaining capital—culture,governmentality and ethics of mass investment

The past thirty years have witnessed a range of complex changes in global and national political–economic landscapes. One of the most dramatic aspects of these changes is the “globalization” of finance capital. “Finance” is often said to be at the center of a new and globalizing set of financial spaces in which “everyday” actors are increasingly asked to participate. However, these developments are often depicted in the critical literature in epochal terms as political–economic configurations arising out of macro‐structural episodes of change. In contrast to these approaches, this paper argues for a “cultural economy” for finance as a way of both situating recent developments in a more specific and historically subtle manner and underscoring the ways in which “finance” is lived and constituted at a “minor” or everyday level. By assessing the advertising initiatives of three campaigns of “mass investment” from earlier moments of the twentieth century, this paper foregrounds some of the contexts out of and against which neo‐liberal modes of globalized finance arise, concluding that more historically‐situated accounts could lead to more contingent, and hence, contestable analyses of “global finance”.     

Taking a " Real-Time " Approach to International Marketing Research

The use of traditional marketing research techniques in an international context suffers from two potentially fatal flaws: the over-reliance on purely quantitative data and through the use of rigidly structured approaches to primary data collection, the inability to gather information on problems/issues not thought of in advance by the developers of the survey instrument(s). A means of overcoming these problems is through the use of "real-lime" marketing research activities; activities targeted at checking and challenging marketplace assumptions. A "real-time" approach to international marketing research as described and contrasted with traditional marketing research techniques. A specific approach to this type of research currently being implemented by an institutional investment company is presented. Managerial guidelines are then given for the consideration, development, and implementation of a "real-time" approach to international marketing research by service companies.     

Modeling Methods for Discrete Choice Analysis

This paper introduces new forms, sampling and estimation approaches fordiscrete choice models. The new models include behavioral specifications oflatent class choice models, multinomial probit, hybrid logit, andnon-parametric methods. Recent contributions also include new specializedchoice based sample designs that permit greater efficiency in datacollection. Finally, the paper describes recent developments in the use ofsimulation methods for model estimation. These developments are designed toallow the applications of discrete choice models to a wider variety ofdiscrete choice problems.     

Effects of financial education on sound personal finance in Korea: Conceptualization of mediation effects of financial literacy across income classes

This study analyzed the role of financial literacy as a mediator between financial education and sound personal finance to assess how financial education affects the soundness of personal finance. In particular, this study conducted three sets of mediation analyses using data from the 2014 Consumer Empowerment Index survey of the Korea Consumer Agency to verify whether the mediating relationship is valid across different income classes of the Korean population. The results suggest that financial literacy works as a mediator between financial education and sound personal finance in the high‐income class and the middle‐income classes. Therefore, policymakers should consider the limitations of financial education and financial literacy when addressing low‐income consumers.     

Taxation of interest in the European Union

Having struggled for a number of years with formulating a directive concerning the treatment of interest payments from financial institutions in member countries to persons resident in other member countries, the ministers of finance of the EU countries reached a compromise in November 2000. Rather than being a solution, however, what is now on the table might well amount to the opening of a Pandora's box of new problems.     

The Provision of Finance to Innovation: A Survey Conducted among Italian Technology-based Small Firms

Financial constraints to the development of innovation are often considered one of the main impediments to high-technology firms seeking to expand and grow. In particular this is the case of small and medium size high-tech firms. In the U.S. and the U.K. a variety of sources of finance are available to the start-ups of innovative firms; in the other European countries, and particularly in Italy, these means are still uncommon so that the development of technology is often prevented. This paper, based on an empirical analysis on a survey of 46 small high-tech Italian firms, aims at exploring the problems experienced by small businesses in gaining access to debt and equity finance. The results highlight that traditional financial sources are inadequate to finance innovative projects. The questioned firms rely mainly on personal finance, and secondly on short term bank debt; they are truly involved in maintaining control over the firm activities and are willing to issue outside equity only if the new investors also provide non financial competencies. Among the 46 interviewed firms, only 10 are willing to be listed in the future on small firms' stock markets.     

政策性金融对我国企业跨国经营的金融支持研究

在经济全球化的背景下,需要建立一套完整的支持企业"走出去"的金融政策体系,增强提高国际竞争力的国家手段.为此,需要通过政策性资金来提高直接与间接支持模式的政策效果,建立以间接支持模式为主的政策性资金运作方式,探讨政策性资金运作与构建市场融资体系的互动关系,并提出相应的政策性建议.文章的分析表明:政策性资金的运用应当以间接模式为主,这样可以改变商业性机构和社会投资者的风险-收益分布,发挥政策性金融的杠杆作用.在此基础上,还需要进一步研究开发性金融和以市场化方式实现政策性目标的运营机制等问题.     

The Impact of Human and Social Capital on Entrepreneurs’ Knowledge of Finance Alternatives

Building upon prior research that demonstrates how the limited knowledge of finance alternatives of entrepreneurs may cause suboptimal finance decisions, this paper examines how entrepreneurs’ human and social capital influence their knowledge of finance alternatives. For this purpose, we use survey data from 103 Belgian start‐ups. Results demonstrate that entrepreneurs with a business education and entrepreneurs with experience in accountancy or finance have a broader knowledge of finance alternatives. Having a strong network in the financial community is further positively associated with the knowledge of finance alternatives. However, generic human capital, including higher education, industry experience, and management experience, is almost not related with the knowledge of finance alternatives.     

新农村建设中的财政困境和出路

目前,财政分权技术性安排呈现事权与财权的不对称弊端,政府间财政转移支付制度缺少透明度和公平性,财政只侧重对收入的划分,对支出责任的划分不明确,导致财政收入层层上解和责任的层层下放,造成了利益上收、矛盾下放,转移支付地区间差别拉大,公共资金使用低效率。应明确政府的事权和责任,改进收支分配方案,改进预算管理与转移支付制度,实施公平财政目标,探索新农村建设和农村社会转型相适应的新的财政机制,实施与财政分权相对应的改革措施。     

Private Equity Finance as a Growth Engine: What It Means for Emerging Markets

Entrepreneurship has long been considered crucial for economic development. An important element of entrepreneurship is the willingness and ability to mobilize private capital from both domestic and foreign sources. The private equity sector in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) illustrates the role that private capital can play in the development of emerging markets. Data on the employment generation and growth performance of private equity provide evidence that it is an important driver of economic growth globally. This paper draws on initial evidence from the MENA region to illustrate the sector's potential there and in emerging markets generally. It then recommends a new generation of reforms to fuel this growth engine. A survey of MENA’s private equity industry survey conducted for this paper assesses these developments and the sector's need for proactive reforms to support it. It also shows that international financial market interest in private equity finance does not seem to have abated with the recent market bust. The paper concludes by identifying priority areas for future policy and research. JEL Classification O160     

A direct solution method for pricing options in regime‐switching models

Pricing financial or real options with arbitrary payoffs in regime‐switching models is an important problem in finance. Mathematically, it is to solve, under certain standard assumptions, a general form of optimal stopping problems in regime‐switching models. In this article, we reduce an optimal stopping problem with an arbitrary value function in a two‐regime environment to a pair of optimal stopping problems without regime switching. We then propose a method for finding optimal stopping rules using the techniques available for nonswitching problems. In contrast to other methods, our systematic solution procedure is more direct as we first obtain the explicit form of the value functions. In the end, we discuss an option pricing problem, which may not be dealt with by the conventional methods, demonstrating the simplicity of our approach.     

How firms finance innovation. Further empirics from European SMEs

This paper aims to evaluate the role played by different sources of financing when analyzing firms' attitudes towards innovating. The empirical investigation is based on a large sample of European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) observed over the period 2012–2017. Different measures of finance and several robustness checks are used to select a well-behaved probit model. The results show that the probability to innovate increases when firms use internal financing and grants. The same applies when funds come from family and friends, while no conclusive evidence is found for bank loans. Recommendations for public policy to encourage firm-tailored policies to promote investment in intangibles allow firms to benefit from innovation activities. European SMEs will also benefit from capital market developments and the advancement of new financial tools devoted to supporting innovation.     

探索中国式小微金融发展之路的尝试——关于温州金改中小微金融实践的调查

温州金融综合改革是全国首个国家级区域金融改革试点,经过五年多实践,最初预定的改革任务基本完成。该项改革可以总结的经验有很多,经过实地调研,文章从小微金融角度对温州金改进行了总结。调查发现,温州金改在解决“两多两难”、构建地方金融“四大体系”、规范民间金融、创新对小微企业的金融服务、构建小微金融背景下的信用环境、形成反映民间（小微）金融综合利率水平的“温州指数”等方面做出了许多创新探索,一些做法已经在浙江省乃至全国进行了推广。文章认为,温州金融改革为探索小微金融的中国方案提供了一个样本。     

健全我国农村金融服务体系 促进农村经济发展

随着我国农村经济体制改革的深化，农村金融改革滞后，金融供给严重不足的问题突显出来。积极健全完善农村金融服务体系，这不仅成为保持农村社会经济又快又好发展的迫切任务，而且是建设社会主义新农村的需要。本文结合我国的实际情况及相关理论对此进行了深入的研究和分析。     

Dimensions of success in new product development: An exploratory investigation

As a key element in survival and sustaining growth, the constant development and re‐development of products has been the subject of many academic and consulting group studies. The specific focus of these studies has often been to identify and describe those factors which determine the outcome of new product developments; the critical success factors in NPD. In order to fulfill their objectives, the studies have focused on many aspects of the management of new product development programmes in companies, and attempted to relate them to a number of alternative outcomes. This has called for the measurement of “success” itself. Unfortunately, there is very little consensus amongst the studies regarding how best to operationalize “success”, and researchers have employed a variety of measures, focused on different levels of analysis, sought data from different sources and used different data collection methods. This paper examines the performance measures used in several major NPD studies and shows how success “measures” have been treated as financial and non‐financial. In addition, attention is drawn to the problems inherent in the different definitions of success. Finally, using data from an empirical survey, the relationship between financial and non‐financial outcomes is examined.     

基于加权支持向量机的金融时间序列预测

金融时间序列数据的预测是商业领域的热点问题,对金融时间序列进行准确的预测,对金融投资决策与风险管理具有特别重要的意义。针对金融时间序列的特点,对传统支持向量机进行了改进,提出了基于加权支持向量机的金融时间序列预测方法。研究表明,与传统金融时间序列预测方法比较,基于加权支持向量机有效地提高了金融时间序列预测的精度。