The Impact of Electronic Payments for Vulnerable Consumers: Evidence from Social Security

Vulnerable consumers may face barriers to using electronic payments, especially consumers in “unbanked” households where no member has an account to receive payments. In March 2013, the US Social Security Administration transitioned exclusively to electronic payments, representing a large shift in payment mode mandated at the federal level. This study identifies the size and characteristics of the population impacted by this shift, by linking administrative data on Social Security payments to a nationally representative survey on the use of bank accounts and financial services. We find that the majority of unbanked Social Security recipients took up electronic payments well before the March 2013 deadline. The mandate does not appear to have increased the use of bank accounts. Instead, recipients used electronic payment cards. However, the transition to electronic payments was slowest among the most financially vulnerable households, suggesting a focus on these households as payment methods continue to develop.     

Barriers to Elderly Consumers’ Use of Support Services: Community Support in Japan’s Super-Aged Society

ABSTRACT

Rural areas need support services to help elderly people sustain their ordinary lives, especially in light of today’s aging societies. In Japan, nonprofit organizations and residents’ associations, which are based in local relationships, provide support services aimed at helping the elderly with their daily buying behavior. This study provides a comprehensive understanding of the barriers preventing the use of such support services. We collect 133 respondents from semi-structured interviews through door-to-door visits using snowball sampling to show that there are three such barriers: lifestyle, capability, and trust. Furthermore, we discussed measures to reduce these barriers using our results of correlation analysis and analysis of variance. Our findings have implications for a new direction in social marketing for elderly people. As societies continue to age and highly accessible services become ever more necessary, the insights of our study will be applicable not only in Japan but across the world.     

Adoption of Online Social Networks to Communicate with Financial Institutions

Spain's financial sector is not in a healthy state, and the problems that some financial institutions currently face perpetuate the widespread perception of risk across the entire sector. Moreover, the online social networks (OSN) that emerged a decade ago are suddenly at the very heart of digital society. In this study we develop a predictive model to determine that the motivational factors that influence Spanish users' intention to use OSN to communicate with financial institutions are quality management, availability of information, external conditions, trust, perceived compatibility, perceived usefulness, attitude, and intention. Data were collected from 335 Spanish OSN users through an online survey. The results suggest that quality management has a highly significant and positive effect on perceived usefulness and that perceived usefulness has a positive and significant effect on the intention to use social networks to communicate with financial institutions.     

论中小民营企业间接融资支持

中小民营企业在我国国民经济中的作用日益凸显,对国民经济发展的贡献日益提高,而融资难问题仍然是目前制约中小企业发展的主要问题之一.本文从我国货币政策的传导机制、融资体制和金融体制等间接融资结构方面分析其成因,从间接融资的角度论述了摆脱中小民营企业融资困境的思路.     

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.     

强化金融支持中小企业发展创新的对策思路

目前中小企业贷款已进入高速发展期。建立高效的金融支持体系对促进中小企业发展创新、保持经济持续发展具有重大的现实意义。金融支持的目的,是通过各种金融支持方式帮助中小企业在获得资金的基础上,借助融资推动中小企业改善经营管理、促进中小企业成长发展。强化对中小企业发展创新的金融支持,应抓住金融结构创新这条主线,研究制定与《物权法》相适应的配套措施,促进中小企业融资方式创新;依靠两个完全不同的金融市场,建立和完善为中小企业服务的金融组织;完善担保运行机制,促进中小企业担保信用体系健康发展;用新的理念、新的经营模式,为中小企业定做融资产品。     

非正规金融对吉林省民营小企业融资作用的研究

目前,吉林省民营小企业已进入高速发展期,但吉林省民营小企业融资渠道窄、融资成本高,在不同程度上束缚了民营小企业的发展。政府应鼓励并正确规范和引导非正规金融产业的发展,积极发展民营中小金融机构及各种性质的担保机构,建立民营企业信用评估体系,加强对非正规金融活动的监测。     

Measuring Social Performance in Social Enterprises: A Global Study of Microfinance Institutions

Journal of Business Ethics - Social enterprises in the microfinance industry need to adhere to both financial and social demands. Critics argue that there is a mission drift away from the social...     

The Affordability of Energy: How Much Protection for the Vulnerable Consumers?

Affordability is a new “alien” concept penetrating the field of contract and consumer law as one of the obligations related to the provision of “universal services” or “public service” in the context of services of general economic interest. Affordability becomes an important element of the European social model (using Scharf’s terminology; Scharf, J Common Mark Stud 40:645–670, 2002) and its constitutional dimension will be confirmed by the Treaty of Lisbon and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (EU). The major European Commission policy tool for ensuring the Affordability of Energy Supply is, on the one hand, functioning competition, which should bring about reasonable prices in general, and on the other hand, regulation targeted at so-called vulnerable consumers. First tested in the UK, it was later spread mainly by the requirements of the Second Energy Package in other Member States (MS). The Third Energy Package (to be implemented by March 2011) further develops this idea and clarifies the set of obligations that the protection of consumers and ensuring the Affordability of Energy Supply require in the understanding of the EU legislator. One could speculate to what extent this is a reaction to the fact that some MS and, in particular, the new MS did not implement the consumer protection requirements of the Second Energy Package, but rather opted for very different regulatory strategies. This paper will examine different regulatory strategies employed in four MS (the UK, France, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia), with special focus on the situation in the two new MS, in order to respond to the question as to whether these different regulatory strategies provide what is promised, i.e., affordable energy for all.     

文化产业大发展中的金融支持机制研究

作为文化载体,文化产业在经济社会生活中正扮演着越来越重要的角色,不仅影响着人们生活的方方面面,也是经济转型升级中推动经济由数量增长向质量增长、由外生扩展向内生增长的重要力量。而金融作为引导资源配置、服务经济社会的重要部门,当前在推进文化产业发展过程中却仍然存在比较突出的瓶颈问题。本文对此进行了探讨。     

北京城乡产业承接金融支持研究——以通州为例

自2009年,城乡产业转移就被北京市政府推到一个战略性的高度,将其作为一个重大的发展方向,因而研究产业转移以及其中的资金来源及流动状况就显得相当重要。本文以北京市通州区为例,重点研究了通州产业承接的现状、问题及资金支持的来源及特点,并最终从政府、园区自身及金融机构层面提出了相关建议。     

Social Entrepreneurship: The Role of Institutions

A relatively small segment of business, known as social entrepreneurship (SE), is increasingly being acknowledged as an effective source of solutions for a variety of social problems. Because society tends to view “new” solutions as “the” solution, we are concerned that SE will soon be expected to provide answers to our most pressing social ills. In this paper we call into question the ability of SE, by itself, to provide solutions on a scope necessary to address large-scale social issues. SE cannot reasonably be expected to solve social problems on a large scale for a variety of reasons. The first we label the organizational legitimacy argument. This argument leads to our second argument, the isomorphism argument. We also advance three other claims, the moral, political, and structural arguments. After making our arguments, we explore ways in which SE, in concert with other social institutions, can effectively address social ills. We also present two examples of successful ventures in which SEs partnered with governments and other institutions.     

Institutions and Financial Inclusion in Rural Uganda: the Mediating Role of Social Capital

The study examined the mediating role of social capital in the relationship between institutions and financial inclusion of poor households in rural Uganda. Cross-sectional design was adopted and data were collected and analyzed using SPSS/20, MedGraph and Sobel-z test. The findings indicated that social capital partially mediates the relationship between institutions and financial inclusion. Besides, institutions and financial inclusion are significantly related. Thus, managers of financial institutions, financial inclusion working groups, and policy makers should pay more attention to the role of social capital in promoting cooperative behavior among the poor in accessing scarce resources such as financial services.     

Social Entrepreneurship: The Role of Institutions

A relatively small segment of business, known as social entrepreneurship (SE), is increasingly being acknowledged as an effective source of solutions for a variety of social problems. Because society tends to view “new” solutions as “the” solution, we are concerned that SE will soon be expected to provide answers to our most pressing social ills. In this paper we call into question the ability of SE, by itself, to provide solutions on a scope necessary to address large-scale social issues. SE cannot reasonably be expected to solve social problems on a large scale for a variety of reasons. The first we label the organizational legitimacy argument. This argument leads to our second argument, the isomorphism argument. We also advance three other claims, the moral, political, and structural arguments. After making our arguments, we explore ways in which SE, in concert with other social institutions, can effectively address social ills. We also present two examples of successful ventures in which SEs partnered with governments and other institutions.     

Social Exclusion and Transgenic Technology: The Case of Brazilian Agriculture

Many argue that transgenic technology will have wide-ranging implications for farmers in developing nations. A key concern is that competencies may be destroyed by predominantly foreign multinational transgenic technologies, exacerbating problems of social exclusion in the case of subsistence farmers. Conversely, those that fail to adopt the technology may become uncompetitive, particularly in commodity-based export markets. Drawing on interview data conducted in Brazil and supporting data collected in North America, Europe and China, we found that the impact of transgenic technology varies. It has less impact on farmers that adapt the products to their crop systems and environment, and greater negative implications for less formally educated subsistence farmers in consequence of both complexity and compatibility. Earlier attempts at industrializing agriculture through technological innovation led to vastly improved agricultural output and exports, but the benefits of productivity was not equitably distributed [D. Lee: 2005, American Journal of Agricultural Economics 87(5), 1325–1334], nor was it designed to meet specific local environmental and socioeconomic farmer conditions, exacerbating social exclusion. Multinationals attempting to introduce transgenic technology without considering the broader social and ethical implications will invite resistance. We discuss the implications for policy makers, multinationals and small-scale farmers.     

Canadian Social Enterprises: An Empirical Exploration of Social Transformation,Financial Self-Sufficiency,and Innovation

This article reports on empirical research investigating social transformation, financial self-sufficiency, and innovation in Canadian social enterprises. A set of profiles on 60 randomly selected social enterprises utilizing information from each organization's Web site was developed and analyzed. The profiles show that about one-third of the sample enterprises were deemed high in social transformation, approximately one-half were assessed high in financial self-sufficiency, and fewer that one-fifth were found to be highly innovative. Implications for marketing in social enterprises are drawn.     

加强金融政策扶持促进中小企业融资

我国政府在金融危机之后果断出台了促进中小企业发展的相关政策,在财税、信贷等方面给予了大力支持。但中小企业融资形势依然严峻,必须在此基础上加大政府的金融支持力度,不断探索、创新管理模式,建立政策性担保机构以及政策性再担保机构,建立风险补偿机制和政策性保险机制,调整贷款抵质押方式,提高中小企业直接融资比重等。     

金融电子化对我国金融监管的挑战与思考

我国金融电子化在经历了后台电子化、前台电子化之后,目前已进入了以网络开发为标志的技术集成化应用阶段。随着商业银行综合业务处理、资金汇兑、银行卡等电子应用系统的建立,金融业的面貌为之一新。但是,人们在享受了金融电子化带来的金融效率的同时,又面临了一个全新的金融监管课题,即如何处理新的金融活动方式与陈旧的金融监管模式的摩擦与冲突。在这一背景下,我国金融监管面临的问题与挑战,促使中央银行必须采取相应对策。     

金融学的起源——东西方金融创新的早期历史

在金融历史发展过程中,时间、机遇和风险、市场以及企业法人等四个主题是永恒的。大约早在1000年前,金融的各种主要要素便都已经存在了,后来经过逐步发展和成熟,演化成今天无数的金融创新。     

Financial Development and the Social Cost of Financial Intermediation in Africa

This article investigates the effect of financial development on the social costs of financial intermediation across a large number of banks in Africa. The study distinguishes between countries that are financially developed and those that are not financially developed to examine the impact of financial development on the social costs of financial intermediation. A sample of 260 banks from 29 countries in Africa is used over an 8-year period from 2006 to 2013. We employ both Random Effect and GMM techniques to resolve the issues of unobserved heterogeneity and endogeneity. We observe that overall, financial development reduces the social costs of intermediation. We also determine that the social costs of intermediation are lower for countries that have more developed financial systems compared to those with less developed financial systems. Our study is useful because it suggests that if countries want to reduce their social costs of intermediation, they should develop their financial systems.