Review of Development Finance最新文献

We investigate enterprise level factors affecting access to formal credit for small enterprises in India by employing a probit sample selection model. Our results indicate that enterprise size, owners’ education level, being registered under an agency and being involved in diversified activities are positively associated with access to formal credit. However, the ownership of land that can be used as collateral is negatively associated with the likelihood of receiving formal credit. This may be due to an obsolete land administration system resulting in high transaction costs of land as collateral. These results provide some insights into the factors to improve credit constraints for small enterprises in India.

This paper analyzes the association between monetary policy (measured by short-term interest rate) and stock prices at the aggregate and disaggregated levels for Malaysia using asymmetric cointegration and error-correction modeling approaches. Estimating the models using monthly data from 1986:1 to 2012:12, results show with the exception of the finance, plantation and consumer products sectors, there is evidences supportive of the long-run relations between monetary policy and stock prices. Further, the aggregate, industrial and properties stock price indices are noted to be asymmetrically cointegrated with monetary policy with the faster adjustment of stock prices when they are below their long-run values.

This study has reviewed recent monetary and financial policies pursued in Ghana. The paper concludes that generally, while there have been remarkable improvements in the key monetary indicators which suggest relatively effective monetary policies during the period under review, the fiscal imbalance in the country has limited these outcomes. There is clearly the need for greater fiscal discipline given that monetary policies cannot achieve their intended purposes in the presence of fiscal imbalances. Moreover, although the policy rates have signalled a downward trend in lending rates, this has not reflected in the lending rates charged by deposit money banks (DMBs). This suggests that there are other factors driving interest rates in the country and therefore the need for policy intervention to make the cost of doing business favourable to the private sector.

This study examined the access to, and use of bank services in Nigeria using data from the World Bank Household Survey (2011) on financial inclusion. A framework was developed to situate the decision of individuals towards financial services in Nigeria. We examined three dependent variables – use of bank services, use of the account to save and frequency of bank withdrawals. Our results show that the attributes, income level, age and ICT inclination of individuals have an effect on the access to and use of bank services in Nigeria.

This paper explores the key issues relating to financial sector policies for enterprise development, with special implications for Africa. The role of the formal financial sector – ranging from microfinance institutions, banks, the capital market, and regulatory agencies – is discussed with respect to enterprise development at all levels, including start-ups, small and medium firms, and large corporates. Specific policy choices for African countries are highlighted, including exploiting the current communications and information technology (CIT) revolution.

The paper empirically investigates the determinants of interest rate spread in Kenya's banking sector based on panel data analysis. The findings show that bank-specific factors play a significant role in the determination of interest rate spreads. These include bank size, credit risk as measured by non-performing loans to total loans ratio, return on average assets and operating costs, all of which positively influence interest rate spreads. On the other hand, higher bank liquidity ratio has a negative effect on the spreads. On average, big banks have higher spreads compared to small banks. The impact of macroeconomic factors such as real economic growth is insignificant. The effect of the monetary policy rate is positive but not highly significant. The results largely reflect the structure of the banking industry, in which a few big banks control a significant share of the market.

This study examines SMEs’ access to bank finance and how that affects their export activities. The study adopts a probit model to assess the empirical relations. The findings of the study suggest that SME access to bank finance improves their likelihood to export. Such finance is critical to cater for the high fixed costs of exporting, international marketing and branding, and meeting higher quality standards required for overseas markets. The results of the study also indicate that older firms, more productive firms, and larger firms are more likely to take the important step of entering into the export market. Policy interventions should therefore be directed at reducing the bottlenecks that prevent SMEs from accessing funding from the commercial banks.

This paper examines the long-run causal relationship between insurance penetration and economic growth in Ghana from 1990 to 2010. Using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds approach to cointegration by Pesaran et al., 1996, Pesaran et al., 2001, the study finds a long-run positive relationship between insurance penetration and economic growth which implies that funds mobilized from insurance business have a long run impact on economic growth. A unidirectional causality was found to run from aggregate insurance penetration, life and non-life insurance penetration to economic growth to support the ‘supply-leading’ hypothesis. The findings have implications for insurance market development in Ghana.

For two decades now, many banks in Africa have been holding large amounts of liquid assets. Prevailing explanations of this phenomenon rely on credit rationing models. Yet, while modern models of financial intermediation show that high exposure to liquidity risk may prompt banks to hoard large amounts of (precautionary) liquid reserves, this hypothesis has often been overlooked. We try to fill the gap in this paper. More specifically, we hypothesize and confirm that bank liquidity hoarding in Africa reflects, at least partially, a precautionary strategy to guard against the risks associated with liquidity services to depositors.