Financial hardship assistance behind the scenes: Insights from financial counsellors

Financial hardship, in a credit society such as Australia, can affect almost anyone. To protect consumers from the negative impacts of financial hardship—which can include the stresses of enforcement action and disconnection from essential services—legal protections have been incorporated into the regulatory frameworks for the consumer credit, energy, water and telecommunications sectors. In this article, we outline the findings of our study, which used a survey of financial counsellors around Australia and focus group interviews with Victorian financial counsellors to examine how these legal protections are being implemented by service providers in these four sectors. Our findings highlight a tendency on the part of service providers to take a generic, one‐size‐fits‐all approach to compliance with these legal protections that prevents them from effectively assisting consumers struggling with debt. We discuss the particular shortcomings of this approach in the context of consumers living on low incomes—especially Centrelink incomes—and outline the policy implications of our findings for assisting these vulnerable groups.     

Inflation targeting and its spillover effects on financial stability in emerging market economies

In this paper, we study whether adoption of inflation targeting monetary policy framework has spillover effects on financial stability in emerging market economies. Working with data for 64 emerging market economies, we develop financial stability and sector specific stability indices and identify the effect using dynamic panel data models in difference-in-difference framework. We find significant positive spillover effects of inflation targeting adoption on banking system resilience and external capital inflows arising from improved transparency and accountability of the central banks. Based on the results, the paper recommends to emerging market economies which are currently under inflation targeting lite regime, to adopt full-fledged inflation targeting monetary policy.     

陕西区域金融市场发展现状评析

金融市场结构是质与量相统一的相对独立系统,一个国家或区域的金融市场结构优化与否直接反映了其金融市场发展水平的高低,金融市场结构的失衡制约了金融市场整体功能的充分发挥和核心竞争能力的进一步提升。针对陕西区域金融市场供求结构失衡、金融中介机构效率较低等问题,应完善区域金融市场体系和生态环境建设,提高金融体系运行效率;大力发展各类金融中介机构,不断提升经济发展的金融化水平。     

西部金融发展的制约因素与对策建议

我国东西部经济发展水平的差距,根本和直接的原因可归结为西部金融资源配置的区域性失衡。制约西部金融发展的主要因素有经济发展水平低、金融体制制约、金融抑制严重、资本市场发展缓慢、信用缺失等。对此,通过强化金融支持力度、加速培育资本市场、创建西部金融安全区、着力培育非国有投资主体等措施,推动西部金融发展。     

小企业融资缺口分析及对策研究

小企业在发展中通常会遇到市场难以解决的融资缺口问题 ,即借贷资金缺口与资本缺口。由于小企业规模较小 ,融资成本相对较高、信用担保机制缺乏以及企业自身“存活性”差等条件约束 ,引致小企业在有组织金融市场上的局部市场失效 ,市场融资难以有效形成 ,从而产生小企业的融资缺口。针对小企业存在融资功能的缺陷 ,应强化弥补融资缺口的金融支持政策 ,从法律法规层面加大对小企业的支持力度 ;建立完善的信用担保体系 ,形成小企业融资担保机制 ;规范小企业金融机构 ,构筑小企业融资体系 ;开发资本市场 ,加大对小企业的金融支持     

现代财务分析程序与方法体系重构

财务分析程序与方法是进行财务分析的关键。目前 ,在财务分析理论与实务中介绍及应用的财务分析程序与方法有许多。本文在研究国内外财务分析程序与方法的基础上 ,从财务分析的基本目标与作用出发 ,重新构建了适应市场经济需要的财务分析程序与方法。该程序包括四个阶段十个步骤 ,具体方法包括战略分析、会计分析、财务分析、综合分析、综合评价等。新的财务分析程序与方法的构建 ,对完善财务分析学科体系 ,指导财务分析实践有着重要价值     

试析近年日本的金融危机及金融改革

日本 90年代发生了严重的金融危机 ,其主要表现是 :不良债权大量增加 ;金融机构接连倒闭 ;经济状况不断恶化 ;金融丑闻频繁出现 ;国际地位显著下降等。日本金融危机是其经济畸形发展与政府“护卫舰队”式金融行政共同作用的结果。针对金融危机 ,日本政府加速了金融自由化进程 ,对金融制度进行了彻底改革 :加速金融机构业务自由化进程 ;增强日本银行的独立性和决策的透明度 ;进一步开放金融和资本市场 ;强化金融安全的监督体系     

金融全球化与我国商业银行金融创新

金融全球化在 2 0世纪 90年代有了突破性的发展 ,金融资产迅速增长 ,金融资本全球流动 ,金融机构全能化 ,金融成了现代经济的核心。金融全球化激发了全方位的国际金融创新。金融创新是现代商业银行的立命之本。面对金融全球化和我国入世后的新形势 ,我国商业银行要充分利用过渡期 ,以市场为导向 ,全力推进金融创新 ,提高国际竞争力。     

对金融创新的思考

金融创新与金融稳定是金融领域的两大支柱 ,任何偏颇都将使金融界失去作为经济发展第一推动力的功能。金融创新或金融活动与金融系统的稳定相匹配 ,金融创新与金融稳定再认识必须给于同样的重视。     

广西北部湾经济区金融支持体系研究

金融是现代经济的核心。目前,广西北部湾经济区存在金融组织体系不健全、金融市场不完善、金融产品和服务创新不足、金融人才支撑体系不完备等诸多问题。因此,需要完善金融组织体系,积极稳妥地推进金融对外开放,充分发挥非银行金融机构的潜能,积极发展资本市场,加快金融创新步伐,培养和造就高素质的金融人才队伍,以不断完善金融支持体系,促进广西北部湾经济区实现跨越式发展。     

Understanding the Financial Knowledge Gap: A New Dimension of Inequality in Later Life

ABSTRACT

To understand individuals’ financial behaviors, it is important to understand the financial knowledge gap – the distance between one’s objective and subjective financial knowledge. Overestimating one’s financial knowledge can lead to risky financial behaviors. To date, limited empirical work has examined how financial knowledge gap varies across age groups. We analyze the size and nature of the financial knowledge gap and its variation across age groups. Using nationally representative data, we find robust evidence that older adults overestimate their financial knowledge. Social workers can assess the financial knowledge gap and educate their clients to protect from financial fraud, exploitation, and abuse.     

财政投资效率与国有资产循环调整机制研究

市场经济要求国家财政活动必须进行先导产业 (产品 )的示范性投资并以适时地、适当的方式退出传统产业 ,形成国有资产的有进有退、国进民跟、国退民进 ,社会产业 (产品 )的良性循环发展机制。然而在我国近 2 0年来的改革中 ,国有企业 (资产 )在市场的活动中却被桎梏于进易退难、想退而不愿全退、名退而资不退、为退出而强行弃资的误区之中 ,致使财政投入国有企业的投资效率极大地降低。为使财政投资产业有效地保值增值 ,提高财政效率 ,提出了国有企业保值托管退出 (CWPTS)的良性循环管理机制参考模型。     

印度尼西亚货币市场研究

由于我国货币市场在结构、信用工具、交易主体以及对货币市场的监管等方面 ,存在严重的不平衡 ,致使所实施的货币政策的效果在一定程度上受到了限制 ,因此 ,必须注重对国外货币市场发展的研究。本文将研究印度尼西亚货币市场的产生与发展、货币市场结构、信用工具、印度尼西亚货币市场中的金融机构、规范货币市场发展的措施 ,以及印度尼西亚货币市场的发展对我国的启示     

Pan‐European pension funds: Current situation and future prospects

The competitive pressures arising from European economic integration increasingly challenge the territorial sovereignty of national welfare states. This generates the need to situate domestic social security schemes amid the European Union's national and supranational as well as economic and social spaces. At the trans‐national level, the European Commission's 2003 Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provision (IORP) Directive created the illusion that a single market for occupational pensions would shortly be within reach. This did not happen, however, as IORPs — being at one and the same time financial vehicles and social insurance institutions — embody the constitutional asymmetry between policies promoting market efficiency and policies promoting social protection. Whereas the elimination of financial and tax barriers has proceeded smoothly, harmonization of the social and labour components within the occupational pension domain did not occur, slowing down the development of pan‐European pension plans. Nonetheless the road towards a single occupational pension market is still open, with first positive results emerging from the greater involvement of corporate and supranational actors.     

Who Uses Alternative Financial Services? A Latent Class Analysis of Consumer Financial Knowledge and Behavior

ABSTRACT

We examine the heterogeneity of alternative financial services (AFS) use by constructing an empirically rigorous typology of financial knowledge and behaviors. Using the 2012 National Financial Capability Study, we conducted latent class analysis of financial knowledge and behaviors to identify latent classes of AFS users (N = 25,509). The proportion of the distal outcome of AFS was investigated among latent classes. The latent classes in the best fitting model were regressed on demographic variables and selected covariates using multinomial logistic regression. Results indicate that five meaningful subgroups were found. Over half of the U.S. population struggles to establish and maintain savings and position themselves for future financial security and mobility (i.e., financially precarious (25.9%), financially striving (20.5%), and financially at-risk (18.4%) classes). The financially thriving class (27.7%) has the healthiest financial behaviors and the least probability of using AFS. The financially stable (7.4%) and financially at-risk (18.4%) classes have the highest probability of using AFS. Widespread use of AFS suggests a general consumer demand for the products and services. Future research is needed to inform policy and practice efforts to shape the formal financial system to meet the long-term financial needs of the majority of consumers.     

Financial efficiency and accounting quality: The impact of institutional micro-factors on FDI

In this paper, we explore whether factors such as financial markets and accounting qualities contribute to foreign direct investment (FDI). We use a unique data source: the survey data from World Economic Forum, to measure the efficiency of the financial markets and the quality of accounting standards. With this unique data, we demonstrate that financial markets and accounting quality are important factors of FDI inflow into a country. In particular, FDI is positively correlated with the strength of financial audits and reporting standards and venture capital availability for all countries. We also show that accounting quality measures are more important for developing and emerging countries than for developed countries. On the other hand, financial market measures, especially the access to venture capital, have a bigger impact in attracting FDI flow into developed countries. These results support the hypothesis that local financial markets and accounting quality affect FDI. The results have strong policy implications for governmental regulatory agencies.     

Financial development and economic growth: New evidence from Tunisia

This paper examined an empirical investigation of whether financial development can boost economic growth in Tunisia. We used an Autoregressive Distributed Lag method to assess the finance-growth relation taking private credit, value traded and issuing bank's securities on the financial market as financial development indicators.The empirical results showed that the domestic credit to private sector has a positive effect on the economic growth suggesting that the financial development is a driver of a long term economic growth, but subject to a financial fragility at the short run. Moreover, this study confirmed the view of bidirectional relationship between credit and economic growth. However, we found that neither the stock market development nor the intervention of banks in the stock market had robust and positive effects on the economic growth. Thus, Tunisia is recommended to accelerate in priority the financial reforms of the Tunisian stock market in order to contribute to mobilize savings and promote long run economic growth.     

新时期金融风险及金融风险预警系统研究

金融全球化及中国加入WTO后 ,一方面 ,我国原有的金融风险将会逐步暴露出来 ,另一方面外部环境也存在着许多威胁金融安全的因素。有鉴于我国在新的时期金融风险的生成机理 ,我们必须认真对待风险预警系统的建立