This review explores the critical impact of social and cultural factors on credit risk assessment and lending practices, especially in developing countries. By examining existing research, we delve into how cultural norms, social relationships, and community dynamics shape the evaluation of...

This review systematically examines the expenditure patterns of low-income households, focusing on how limited financial resources influence their spending decisions. It reveals that a significant portion of income is devoted to necessities such as food, shelter, and utilities, leaving little...

Who thrives when alimony payments change? Restrictions on spousal alimony influence intra-family economic decisions by altering bargaining positions and raising concerns about post-divorce financial instability. Existing findings on restricted regimes are contradictory and need more clarity on...

Who thrives when alimony payments change? Restrictions on spousal alimony influence intra-family economic decisions by altering bargaining positions and raising concerns about post-divorce financial instability. Existing findings on restricted regimes are contradictory and need more clarity on...

Peer-to-peer lending platforms are increasingly important alternatives to traditional forms of credit intermediation for small value loans. There are high hopes that they improve financial inclusion and provide better terms for borrowers. To study these hopes, we introduce altruistic investors...

Australia, since the early 1980s, has been a leading advocate and practitioner of the neo-liberal economic model, also known as the Anglo-Saxon (or Anglo-American) model due to its geographical origins in the UK and the US, and its subsequent ascendancy in Australia, New Zealand and Canada,...

The complex methodology used in financial portfolio management proves that H. Markowitz optimization approach is one of the most applied techniques on developed global financial markets. Financial information spreading and processing speed, real time access to information, the performance...

High charges for personal pensions were one factor in the personal pensions mis-selling debacle in the United Kingdom. They continued to arouse concern among politicians and commentators. The Labour government, with its new flagship ‘stakeholder’ pension, chose to regulate both the structure...

Pension fund charges reduce the rate of return on pension accounts in some countries by up to by two percentage points. Do charges of this scale undermine the case for funded pension provision? How can governments hold back costs and charges? This paper looks at evidence from thirteen countries,...

Pension funds are an important part of private savings flows, the main supplier of capital to industry and play a large and growing role in providing retirement incomes in countries with mature funded pension systems. Reforms which increase the emphasis on privately managed, funded pensions must...