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on Financial Literacy and Education |
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Issue of 2024‒03‒25
four papers chosen by |
| By: | Shishir Shakya; Nabamita Dutta |
| Abstract: | We examine a novel hypothesis about the mediation role of education in the re- lationship between individualism and female nancial inclusion. Grounded in the parasite-stress theory of values, which posits that regional variations in infectious diseases in uence cultural traits such as individualism, we employ causal mediation analysis within the instrumental variables framework. We dissect the total aver- age causal e ect of the individualism-collectivism cultural dimension, as de ned by Hofstede's classi cation index, on female nancial inclusion, distinguishing between direct and indirect impacts via the education channel. We nd that education sig- ni cantly mediates almost half of the overall in uence of individualism on female nancial inclusion. Key Words: |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:apl:wpaper:24-07&r=fle |
| By: | Tristan Bester; Benjamin Rosman |
| Abstract: | Financial inclusion ensures that individuals have access to financial products and services that meet their needs. As a key contributing factor to economic growth and investment opportunity, financial inclusion increases consumer spending and consequently business development. It has been shown that institutions are more profitable when they provide marginalised social groups access to financial services. Customer segmentation based on consumer transaction data is a well-known strategy used to promote financial inclusion. While the required data is available to modern institutions, the challenge remains that segment annotations are usually difficult and/or expensive to obtain. This prevents the usage of time series classification models for customer segmentation based on domain expert knowledge. As a result, clustering is an attractive alternative to partition customers into homogeneous groups based on the spending behaviour encoded within their transaction data. In this paper, we present a solution to one of the key challenges preventing modern financial institutions from providing financially inclusive credit, savings and insurance products: the inability to understand consumer financial behaviour, and hence risk, without the introduction of restrictive conventional credit scoring techniques. We present a novel time series clustering algorithm that allows institutions to understand the financial behaviour of their customers. This enables unique product offerings to be provided based on the needs of the customer, without reliance on restrictive credit practices. |
| Date: | 2024–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2402.11066&r=fle |
| By: | Scherf, Alexandra A. |
| Abstract: | Public corruption is a concern for democracies around the world. In the U.S., states have responded to this issue by publishing personal financial disclosures (PFD) for public officials online. PFD are a conflict-of-interest disclosure designed to relieve agency conflicts between private citizens and government officials by documenting overlaps between officials’ financial interests and public responsibilities. This paper explores whether and how online PFD supports anti-corruption enforcement. I present a stylized model illustrating how online PFD leads investigators to increase case referral volume and quality. Empirically, I find that online PFD for local officials is associated with increased referral rates and greater likelihoods of prosecution conditional on referral. I conduct 126 field interviews of federal prosecutors, journalists, and ethics commissions to understand the mechanisms behind these results. I conclude that online PFD supports the enforcement of local corruption by reducing disclosure acquisition costs for enforcement agents. |
| Keywords: | disclosure; disclosure processing costs; corruption; financial misconduct |
| JEL: | F3 G3 M40 |
| Date: | 2024–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:121395&r=fle |
| By: | Brijesh C. Purohit (Professor, Madras School of Economics, Chennai) |
| Abstract: | Corporate Social Responsibility is in terms of expenditures which the banks or other registered companies incur either following the government ordinance or guidelines or sometimes on their own. The CSR expenditure is an additional amount used for welfare activities which benefit the society at large. In this study we focus on twelve banks. These include six banks each from Indian public sector and private sector banks. We carry out analysis using data for 2015-21 for these banks. We intended to explore the focus of CSR expenditure of the selected twelve banks. We observed diversity in the CSR expenditure pattern of public sector banks and their focus differs relative to private sector. Our analysis of private sector banks indicate priority within health, education, and residually among other areas. We further found that: CSR expenditure on Health and sports also plays a possibly positive role in increasing PAT, number of CSR projects are influenced positively by its urban branches and there has been an increasing amount being spent on education which also includes financial literacy programmes. |
| Keywords: | corporate social responsibility; Indian banks.; public sector; private sector |
| JEL: | G21 G28 G38 |
| Date: | 2023–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mad:wpaper:2023-245&r=fle |