Search results for "Institutions"
showing 10 items of 341 documents
A problem-adjusted genetic algorithm for flexibility design
2013
Many present markets for goods and services have highly volatile demand due to short life cycles and strong competition in saturated environments. Determination of capacity levels is difficult because capacities often need to be set long before demand realizes. In order to avoid capacity-demand mismatches, operations managers employ mix-flexible resources which allow them to shift excess demands to unused capacities. The Flexibility Design Problem (FDP) models the decision on the optimal configuration of a flexible (manufacturing) network. FDP is a difficult stochastic optimization problem, for which traditional exact approaches are not able to solve but the smallest instances in reasonable…
Scale economies and input price elasticities in microfinance institutions
2013
Author's version of an article in the journal: Journal of Banking & Finance. Also available from the publisher at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2012.08.004 We evaluate the efficiency of microfinance institutions (MFIs) using a structural approach which also captures these institutions' outreach and sustainability objectives. We estimate economies of scale and input price elasticities for lending-only and deposit-mobilizing MFIs using a large sample of high-quality panel data. The results confirm conjectures that improvements in efficiency can come from the growth or consolidations of MFIs, as we find substantial increasing returns to scale for all but profitability-focused deposit-m…
Evaluation of the perceived social impacts of the Formula E Grand Prix of Santiago de Chile David
2020
[Abstract] The aim of this study is to analyse residents' perception of the social impact of the Formula E Grand Prix of Santiago de Chile. A sample of 414 residents was collected through a questionnaire made up of 46 items regarding possible positive and negative impacts. Descriptive analysis, confirmatory factorial analysis and cluster analysis were performed. The results showed two groups with different perceptions of this sporting event: realistic (n=152) and favourable (n=162). Sociodemographic variables referring to education level, civil status, income level, location of the family residence and political orientation contribute to significantly differentiating the clusters. The varia…
Sampling properties of the Bayesian posterior mean with an application to WALS estimation
2022
Many statistical and econometric learning methods rely on Bayesian ideas, often applied or reinterpreted in a frequentist setting. Two leading examples are shrinkage estimators and model averaging estimators, such as weighted-average least squares (WALS). In many instances, the accuracy of these learning methods in repeated samples is assessed using the variance of the posterior distribution of the parameters of interest given the data. This may be permissible when the sample size is large because, under the conditions of the Bernstein--von Mises theorem, the posterior variance agrees asymptotically with the frequentist variance. In finite samples, however, things are less clear. In this pa…
Educational intentions, cognitive skills and earnings expectations of French undergraduates
2014
International audience; This article aims to study the earnings expectations of first-year students at a French university. Our findings highlight the importance of the environment in which students make their choices about education. Expected earnings are proportionally higher when their parents seem to be involved in the careers guidance, taking into account the effect of parental socio-economic status. The positive opinion of parents about the orientation or the connection between the discipline and the father's occupation are generally associated with higher earnings. In addition, our results show a strong impact of cognitive variables which are far more significant than variables relat…
Trade imbalances within the euro area and with respect to the rest of the world
2015
Abstract Many studies have explored the determinants of current account balances in Europe. However, only in a few studies has trade balance been decomposed into intra balance, trade balance vis-a-vis the euro area, and extra balance, trade balance vis-a-vis the rest of the world. This decomposition is necessary for us to understand why some core euro area countries are acting as financial intermediaries for the periphery countries. Furthermore, the determinants of intra and extra balances might be different because nominal exchange rate cannot adjust between the EMU countries while their financial markets are highly integrated. Thus, we apply this decomposition and supplement the previous …
Key Electoral Institutions and Rules Influencing Proportionality and Partisan Bias in Spanish Politics
2021
The current paper focuses on the Spanish electoral rules governing political competition for the central “Congreso de los Diputados”. It is well-documented that the system as a whole has traditionally favoured one or the other of the two main political parties (PP and PSOE) at the expense of proportionality and the remaining political parties. This paper focuses on some key Spanish electoral rules and investigates how much the observed biases could be altered by introducing some alternative rules taken from the Swedish electoral system, ceteris paribus. Measures of disproportionality are made through the Loosemore–Hanby index and the Gallagher index. The electoral raw data used for our esti…
EU anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing measures in context of electronic money institutions and payment processors
2018
The purpose of the given research would be to analyze the current EU AML / CTF regime with regard to electronic money institutions and payment providers, detect the scope of legal norms and regulations, obliging them, identify potential loopholes and suggest additional measures to strengthen existing AML and CTF legal regimes with regard to such entities.
Rôle des institutions de microfinance dans le financement de l’entrepreneuriat féminin
2020
Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) are responsible for lending money to people who do not have sufficient collateral to access the formal banking system. These organizations participate in the development of entrepreneurship by funding women's projects. Several actors, who intervene around this contractual relationship between MFIs and women, may follow different objectives and interests, which can be a source of inefficiency. This contribution examines the determinants of the credit supply of MFIs intended for female entrepreneurship in the 8 countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA). Our results show that if the volume of subsidies, equity and indebtedness of MFIs ha…
Am I an Entrepreneur? Entrepreneurial Self-Identity as an Antecedent of Entrepreneurial Intention
2020
Although many studies have shown that entrepreneurial intention can be explained according to a theory of planned behavior, some scholars have provided interesting insights into the role of job self-identity perception—in particularly the ones related to entrepreneurship—as significant precursor of entrepreneurial intention. A questionnaire has been administered to graduates and students of an Italian university (N = 153). A hierarchical regression analysis controlling for demographic variables has been performed in order to test the research hypotheses. The findings of this study have been discussed, with particular attention paid to the unexpected, weak, or non-significant effects of perc…