Recent finance advances in information technology for inclusive development: a systematic review

The overarching question tackled in this paper is: to what degree has financial development contributed to providing opportunities of human development for those on low-incomes and by which information technology mechanisms? We systematically review about 180 recently published papers to provide recent information technology advances in finance for inclusive development. Retained financial innovations are structured along three themes. They are: (i) the rural-urban divide, (ii) women empowerment and (iii) human capital in terms of skills and training. The financial instruments are articulated with case studies, innovations and investment strategies with particular emphasis, inter alia on: informal finance, microfinance, mobile banking, crowdfunding, microinsurance, Islamic finance, remittances, Payment for Environmental Services (PES) and the Diaspora Investment in Agriculture (DIA) initiative.     

简析我国农村正规金融与农村经济增长之间的关系

目前,我国农村正规金融与农村经济增长之闻并不存在长期稳定的均衡关系,我国农村正规金融的发展远远没有满足农村经济增长的需要.但由于没有考虑非正规金融因素.此结论并不一定表明金融发展理论对我国农村经济增长的不适用性,相反从侧面说明了我国农村非正规金融的积极作用,而这是今后农村金融改革应该注意的方向.     

财政分权、金融深化与地区国际贸易发展

地区开放度的非均衡分布，是造成我国地区经济差距不断扩大一个很重要的因素。本文首先从金融效应的视角分析了地区对外贸易的作用机理，并试图引入了财政分权改革下，金融发展对地区对外贸易发展的分析框架。我们发现：（1）金融深化有利于地区开放度的提高；（2）地方政府对于金融体系的干涉不利于地区对外贸易的发展；（3）我国部分地区出口的快速发展很大程度上得益于非正式金融。     

中国农村非正规金融的根源与管制政策研究

中国农村非正规金融的根源在于人们的需求,它不仅对中国农村社会文化具有很强的嵌入性,而且与农村社会秩序具有很好的匹配性。因此农村非正规金融具有极强的自生能力和可持续性。结论的政策涵义是：压制、取缔非正规金融的行为不可取,强制性地将非正规金融正规化的行为同样不可取,正确的做法应是放松管制,引导正规金融与非正规金融的联接,促成农村一体化金融市场的形成。     

农村普惠性金融发展对中国农户收入的影响——来自1877个县(市)面板数据的实证分析

本文使用来自中国2006—2009年1877个县(市)的面板数据,实证分析了中国农村普惠性金融发展及其各个维度对农户收入的影响。研究结果表明:中国农村普惠性金融发展对农户收入具有显著的正效应,组成农村普惠性金融的地理渗透性和产品接触性与农户收入正相关,使用效用性和农户收入负相关;从区域层面看,东部地区农村普惠性金融发展和农户收入正相关,而中、西部地区农村普惠性金融发展和农户收入负相关。针对以上的结论,本文就农村普惠性金融发展促进农户收入增长提出了简要的政策建议。     

我国农村非正规金融制度:演进路径与政策规范

本文从制度经济学的视角,分析了我国农村非正规金融与农村经济的诱致性制度变迁过程以及非正规金融与政府管制的强制性制度变迁过程,阐述了农村非正规金融组织形式的变迁过程及我国农村非正规金融制度的演进路径,并在此基础上对如何引导和规范我国农村非正规金融发展提出了相应的对策建议。     

Does mobile money use increase firms’ investment? Evidence from Enterprise Surveys in Kenya,Uganda, and Tanzania

Private investment can be an important engine of economic growth in East African countries that are plagued with adverse economic conditions, despite recent growth rates. Against this backdrop, there has been substantial penetration of mobile money, moving beyond simple person-to-person exchanges towards adoption by private firms. This study explores whether there is a relationship between firm adoption of mobile money and firm investment. Using firm-level data that are nationally representative of the private sector in three East African countries—Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda—a positive relationship is found between mobile money use and firm’s purchase of fixed assets. This relationship is attributed to reduced transaction costs, increased liquidity, and increased credit worthiness associated with the use of mobile phone financial services. The finding is largely driven by small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).     

民间金融的类型与法理分析(上)

民间金融是目前我国比较突出的金融问题,也是法律上的难点问题。对于民间金融的合法性,有关专家学者和相关政府部门都提出了许多观点和意见,但在金融和法律层面上对它还缺少完整的认识,其合法与非法的认定标准还没有明确的定论。为更好地判定民间金融的合法性,在具体的民间金融的司法实践中,应从金融权的公平性,民间金融的行为目的,公众财产利益保护,社会综合金融环境,整体的金融效率、秩序与安全等五个方面入手,找到它们最佳的边际均衡点,并将之作为合法与非法金融的判断标准。     

我国电子商务中手机支付的产业发展初探

电子商务自出现以来发展势头强劲,网络购物的用户不断增长。与此同时,电子支付工具也得到快速发展,在智能手机出现后,由于手机用户的广泛性,手机移动支付将成为未来发展的主流趋势,具有更广阔的市场。手机支付方便快捷,但是作为一种网络支付方式,却受制于通信网络、标准化和安全性等问题。手机支付产业的良性发展需要政府、金融机构、电信运营商与其它相关机构协作,建立移动支付产业链,为手机用户提供规范安全的支付环境。     

Government quality determinants of ICT adoption in sub-Saharan Africa

This study investigates government quality determinants of ICT adoption using Generalised Method of Moments on a panel of 49 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries for the period 2000-2012. ICT is measured with mobile phone penetration, internet penetration and telephone penetration rates while all governance dimensions from the World Bank Governance Indicators are considered, namely: political governance (consisting of political stability and “voice & accountability”); economic governance (entailing government effectiveness and regulation quality) and institutional governance (encompassing the rule of law and corruption-control). The following findings are established. First, political stability and the rule of law have positive short-run and negative long-term effects on mobile phone penetration. Second, the rule of law has a positive (negative) short-run (long-term) effect on internet penetration. Third, government effectiveness and corruption-control have positive short-run and long-term effects on telephone penetration. Institutional governance appears to be most significant in determining ICT adoption in SSA.     

The gravity of financial development

The article empirically tests the link between financial constraints with the extensive (proportion of exporters) and the intensive (volume of exports) margins of international trade. The main contribution is the macroeconomic analysis of this relationship – i.e. the investigation of the effect of finance on trade of all economic sectors combined – which is further reaching than the manufactured-sector-based focus found in the current literature. The study is developed on the basis of a bilateral trade database on 104 countries between 1998 and 2007. The empirical section estimates a two-stage gravity equation using panel data and shows a positive impact of financial development on the marginal variation of the extensive margin. However, the estimate of the relationship between finance and the intensive margin shows an unexpected result. It finds inconsistent results demonstrating a relationship that is negative, positive or statistically null.     

Mobile Phone Service Providers Shift to No-Contract Plans: Implications on Customer Retention

ABSTRACT

Findings indicate that, regardless of the flexibility and cost saving advantages of no-contract mobile phone service plans for customers, a majority of younger customers in the United States continue to patronize contract-based plans. Conversely, the data show that older customers tend to appreciate the flexibility and financial savings that come with buying no-contract plans. Also, the study finds that the customer's decision to finance the cost of a mobile device with the provider is independent of the customer's age. The article discusses theoretical and practical implications.     

Vulnerability to a Currency Crisis: Lessons from the Asian Experience

Are currency crises caused by manias and panics in financial markets, or by unsustainable deteriorations in domestic macroeconomic conditions? This question is explored in the context of the recent Asian currency crisis. The theoretical concept of vulnerability is used to identify three early‐warning indicators of susceptibility to a currency crisis: rapid accumulation of mobile capital; domestic lending booms; and overvalued exchange rates. It is shown that the crisis and noncrisis countries of Asia may be distinguished empirically, using these indicators, over the decade preceding the crisis. This exercise provides convincing evidence that the crisis emanated largely from domestic macroeconomic conditions.     

Blockchain entrepreneurship opportunity in the practices of the unbanked

Two billion people in developing economies have limited or no access to formal financial services, creating cause for substantial research interest in financial inclusion as a complex multidimensional phenomenon. Digital finance technologies, including blockchain, have empowered a type of crescive entrepreneurship that seeks opportunities in relation to financially excluded individuals. This article hypothesizes that nonmonetary causal factors and informal financial practices play a major role in habits of the financially excluded, which would favor blockchain’s disintermediation features over the incumbent approach. After applying fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to determine the conditions related to financial practice and motivations that explain the absence of a formal bank account, I prescribe five sensitivities that blockchain entrepreneurs need to consider when targeting this segment. The value of this article’s approach extends well beyond traditional unisystemic views for financial inclusion, as blockchain-based entrepreneurial opportunities emerge to reveal alternative forms of disintermediated financial services, which we exemplify in startups modeling informal practices. Blockchain entrepreneurship can generate semi-formal financial services that bring financial aspirations closer to people. My perspective is relevant to blockchain entrepreneurs who aim to understand the practices of the unbanked as source information for the development of innovative solutions.     

农户的金融需求及其解决途径——焦作市农户金融需求调查

通过对焦作市农户金融需求状况调查发现,农户对正规金融的融资意愿和承受能力偏低,满足其金融需求的方式主要是非正规金融。因此,地方政府和金融监管部门对非正规金融应积极引导,加强监管。而作为担当“支农主力军”角色的农村信用社应充分利用天时、地利、人和的优势,不断增加新的金融产品和金融服务,加强客户细分和市场营销工作,以满足农民多样化的金融需求。     

浅析中国传统元素在手机UI界面设计中的应用

随着手机移动互联网的发展,手机的UI界面设计也越来越受到人们的重视,在雨后春笋般涌现的优秀UI设计中,很多都融入了具有中国特色的传统文化元素,它是一个民族文化的结晶。传统图案与现代UI的完美结合,赋予了新的时代感和生命力,使UI的表现具有更加丰富的文化内涵和历史底蕴,同时让古老的艺术得以传承而不断发扬光大。     

Sustainable Corporate Finance

This paper presents and illustrates the concept of sustainable corporate finance. Sustainability is a well-established concept in the disciplines of environmental economics and business ethics. The paper uses a broader definition of what is called “the firm” to pinpoint sustainability to the finance literature. The concept of sustainable finance is compared to traditional and behavioral finance. Four criteria are used to systematically analyze the basic differences. First on the order is the theory of the firm: the definition of the firm is reconsidered by integrating behavioral aspects and by expanding financial analysis to a three-dimensional goal setting. Secondly, a closer look is taken at the assumed behavior of economic agents and its consequences for the applied methodology. The shareholders paradigm is discussed against the background of growing stakeholder importance. Finally, the fourth criterion deals with the different ethical framework and its implication for financial behavior.     

Conventionalists,Connectors, Technoisseurs and Mobilarti: Differential profiles of mobile marketing segments based on phone features and postmodern characteristics of consumers

The high penetration of mobile phones amongst the South African population presents mobile phones as an attractive interactive marketing communication medium. This paper argues that the access and actual use of different phone device features can be productively used as a segmentation approach, which may enable marketers to be more effective in planning interactive marketing communication plans. This study, based on 330 students, developed segments derived from mobile phone usage patterns using cluster analysis. The outcome revealed four clusters that were named: Connectors, Conventionalists, Technoisseurs and Mobilarti. Connectors made daily use of a full range of communication functions. Conventionalists were inclined to limit their use of mobile phone features to talking and texting. Technoisseurs were found to use a whole range of sophisticated mobile phone facilities. Mobilarti were identified as a group of expert users; using the full range of functions available to them on their phones, despite recording the lowest percentage of smartphone ownership when compared to the other groups. These groups were further profiled by analysing attitudinal and behavioural variables pertaining to two newly developed postmodern dimensions, which were introduced in the study as mobile importance as an attitudinal aspect, and social transformation as a behavioural outcome. For marketers, an understanding of the proposed segments, as well as the differences in attitudes towards mobile importance and social transformation behaviours, coupled with typical financial and social realities of these segments, allow targeting strategies that are more clearly actionable.     

Exploring the impact of mobile money services on marketing interactions in relation to consumer well-being in subsistence marketplaces – lessons from rural Cambodia

Abstract

The mobile phone has increasingly become a channel for providing access to formal financial services. There is a need to understand how financial service offerings, increasingly accessed through mobile phones, impact marketing interactions, specifically marketing exchange activities and social network relationships, to enhance consumer well-being (CWB) in subsistence marketplaces. Through interviews and contextualised observational research in rural Cambodia, findings reveal that the impacts of mobile money services on marketing interactions in relation to CWB can be categorised at two distinct levels. The first-level impact is the actual physical money transfer transactions as part of the marketing exchange activities which leads to the second-level impact on the social network relationships at interpersonal, social group and cultural levels. Drawing from these insights, policy-makers and industry stakeholders can formulate strategies and develop innovative service offerings through mobile phone technology to enhance CWB in subsistence marketplaces.