Microcredit in developed countries behaves in a di erent way than in developing countries. Not only are there bigger obstacles to surpass, like regulation and heavy competition, but also the main driver for microcredit, peer pressure, is almost inexistent. Microcredit institutions turn to a di erent technique to ensure high repayment rates; they follow the loan using training and weekly meetings. However, this procedure has high costs and the institutions must plead for donations from public and private gures. Ensuring these donations come with higher repayment rates. Thus, we will observe which characteristic of a group loan has a positive or negative impact on the repayment rates using data from the Quebec institution of the RQCC. These variables range from gender to training hours and will be regressed using stata.

This thesis examines the economic effects of both international and domestic remittances on Filipino households. The thesis investigates three main research questions: (1) “Which household characteristics affect the probability and the size of domestic and international remittances migrant households received?”; (2) “How do these two sources of remittances Filipino households received affect welfare inequality at the household level?”; (3) “How do the remittances affect the recipient household's expenditure patterns, especially educational expenditures?” The data mainly used for the thesis come from the nationally representative Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) in the Philippines during the period of 1985-2006. With regard to the first question, the thesis finds that the levels of receiving international and domestic remittances are mutually related and reveals that there is a displacement effect of remittances from abroad on those from within the country. Furthermore, the thesis also revealed that several explanatory factors such as the welfare level, the heads' characteristics, the job-related factors, and the regional disparities are significant to determine both the probability and the size of receiving the remittances. Regarding the second question, the thesis shows that the receipt of international remittances could significantly contribute to an improvement in Filipino households' livelihoods at any welfare level and that it would cause expenditure inequality between Filipino households to widen over time. In contrast, the receipt of remittances from within the Philippines did not exert a significant impact on improving the welfare. As for the last question, the thesis finds that the receipt of remittances from abroad would increase the budget share for education as well as its absolute value. This result supports the idea that international remittances could contribute to the future Philippine economic growth via increase in human capital investment if the country sort out the issues on brain drain of educated migrants' children.

Money is consistently one of the most common and significant sources of stress in America. The American Psychological Association's annual Stress in America survey has found that money and work have been two of the top sources of "very" or "somewhat" significant stress for Americans since 2007, when the first report was released. Drawing upon the work-home resources model, this study examined the longitudinal effects of financial strain as a component of the work-home interface on a sample of 512 employed veterans from the post-9/11 era. The work-home resources model posits that contextual demands and contextual resources in one domain (i.e., work or non-work) influence outcomes in the opposite domain through losses and gains of personal resources. Lower scores on a measure of financial strain represent better ability to meet financial needs, and the ability to meet financial needs is argued to represent a personal capital resource that could serve as a mechanism in the work-home interface. Using three waves of data, the study examined longitudinal effects on both behavioral and attitudinal outcomes of importance to veterans and organizations alike. Results did not confirm the role financial strain plays in the interface between work and home domains, as hypotheses were generally unsupported. Implications for both theory and practice, as well as limitations of the study and future directions for research are discussed.

Personal investors must postpone gratification and manage risk. This thesis examines the effects of delay and risk on personal investment decisions. The delay discounting literature is employed in developing a new parameter �ki� which integrates an investment�s term and interest rate with the hyperbolic delay discounting model. By indicating the extent to which compound interest growth compensates for hyperbolic delay discounting, ki should strongly predict the subjective appeal of prospective investment returns. Six binary-choice experiments test this hypothesis, especially via a subsidiary hypothesis that exponential growth from compound interest will eventually compensate for delay, given a sufficient term. Analyses include a novel application of signal detection principles, which found ki a superior predictor of investment appraisals compared to the normative exponential delay discounting model. Subject to boundary conditions of term and investment amount, results support the predictive capacity of ki for gross returns, implying a hitherto unrecognised degree of predictability for investment decisions. To investigate perceptions of risk with delay, three additional experiments compared preferences among hypothetical investments with varying risk and term. Risk seeking and risk aversion were detected, consistent with individual differences in hyperbolic probability discounting rates. Excessive risk aversion proved the greater problem, encouraging unnecessarily conservative investment decisions. Unexpectedly, no evidence of delay discounted risk was found. Responses consistent with higher probability discounting of larger amounts occurred, but only for a longer rather than a shorter investment term. A survey of postgraduate finance students examined how investment past performance is interpreted. Participants evaluated annual returns from hypothetical 10-year investments that varied in their mean return, volatility, and sequence of high and low returns. Evaluations generally reflected underlying investment properties. Maladaptive appraisal tendencies included unwarranted attention to the order in which high and low returns occurred within a series. Overall for this dissertation, results suggest that delay and probability discounting theory has practical relevance for understanding personal investment decisions. The principles and methodology in this dissertation are applicable to other varieties of financial and consumer behaviour.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2009. / "Graduate Program in Psychology." Includes bibliographical references (p. 102-115).

Personal investors must postpone gratification and manage risk. This thesis examines the effects of delay and risk on personal investment decisions. The delay discounting literature is employed in developing a new parameter �ki� which integrates an investment�s term and interest rate with the hyperbolic delay discounting model. By indicating the extent to which compound interest growth compensates for hyperbolic delay discounting, ki should strongly predict the subjective appeal of prospective investment returns. Six binary-choice experiments test this hypothesis, especially via a subsidiary hypothesis that exponential growth from compound interest will eventually compensate for delay, given a sufficient term. Analyses include a novel application of signal detection principles, which found ki a superior predictor of investment appraisals compared to the normative exponential delay discounting model. Subject to boundary conditions of term and investment amount, results support the predictive capacity of ki for gross returns, implying a hitherto unrecognised degree of predictability for investment decisions. To investigate perceptions of risk with delay, three additional experiments compared preferences among hypothetical investments with varying risk and term. Risk seeking and risk aversion were detected, consistent with individual differences in hyperbolic probability discounting rates. Excessive risk aversion proved the greater problem, encouraging unnecessarily conservative investment decisions. Unexpectedly, no evidence of delay discounted risk was found. Responses consistent with higher probability discounting of larger amounts occurred, but only for a longer rather than a shorter investment term. A survey of postgraduate finance students examined how investment past performance is interpreted. Participants evaluated annual returns from hypothetical 10-year investments that varied in their mean return, volatility, and sequence of high and low returns. Evaluations generally reflected underlying investment properties. Maladaptive appraisal tendencies included unwarranted attention to the order in which high and low returns occurred within a series. Overall for this dissertation, results suggest that delay and probability discounting theory has practical relevance for understanding personal investment decisions. The principles and methodology in this dissertation are applicable to other varieties of financial and consumer behaviour.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 1993. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 110-115). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Objectives: This study aimed to assess residents' and fellows' knowledge of finance principles that may affect their personal financial health. Methods: A cross-sectional, anonymous, web-based survey was administered to a convenience sample of residents and fellows at two academic medical centers. Respondents answered 20 questions on personal finance and 28 questions about their own financial planning, attitudes, and debt. Questions regarding satisfaction with one's financial condition and investment-risk tolerance used a 10-point Likert scale (1=lowest, 10=highest). Of 2,010 trainees, 422 (21%) responded (median age 30 years; interquartile range, 28-33). Results: The mean quiz score was 52.0% (SD = 19.1). Of 299 (71%) respondents with student loan debt, 144 (48%) owed over $200,000. Many respondents had other debt, including 86 (21%) with credit card debt. Of 262 respondents with retirement savings, 142 (52%) had saved less than $25,000. Respondents' mean satisfaction with their current personal financial condition was 4.8 (SD = 2.5) and investment-risk tolerance was 5.3 (SD = 2.3). Indebted trainees reported lower satisfaction than trainees without debt (4.4 vs. 6.2, F (1,419) = 41.57, p < .001). Knowledge was moderately correlated with investment-risk tolerance (r=0.41, p < .001), and weakly correlated with satisfaction with financial status (r=0.23, p < .001). Conclusions: Residents and fellows had low financial literacy and investment-risk tolerance, high debt, and deficits in their financial preparedness. Adding personal financial education to the medical education curriculum would benefit trainees. Providing education in areas such as budgeting, estate planning, investment strategies, and retirement planning early in training can offer significant long-term benefits.

M.A. / Money plays an important role in the everyday lives of church members. How church members view and engage with money has various implications. It concerns their theology, their well being and a number of other areas. In many cases the church has abdicated its responsibility to instruct and give guidance to church members and not provided adequate leading in the sphere of personal financial management. Diverse views on money are propagated through various media by both the secular world and the church alike. This Practical Theological study concerns the ethos of church members with regards to their personal financial management. It is a qualitative, phenomenological case study of the members of the AFM Taberna Dei assembly located in Polokwane, South Africa. This study is explorative and contextual. Qualified research subjects were selected by random sampling. Participants had to meet defined criteria, and data collection took place primarily through interviews with the chosen subjects. The probing question asked to participants is: “How do you approach your personal financial management?” Two main themes emerged during the coding and analytical phases of the research: theme A concerns religious beliefs influencing personal financial management and theme B non-religious beliefs and practices influencing the personal financial management of the participants. It is apparent that a general ethos of the personal financial management of members of Taberna Dei exists. This ethos is both defined and critiqued.

With the onset of globalization, the economic contexts and working conditions within many countries are changing, presenting new challenges' for governments, organizations, and workers. Amid these challenges, concerns about personal finances are prevalent among employees and detrimental to workers' health, well-being, and families. Research on how this financial stress affects employees at work is lacking. In this thesis, I propose an appraisal-based model of financial stress whereby actual income and expenses are related to perceptions of income adequacy to afford wants and needs. These adequacy perceptions are, in turn, related to financial strain, representing a heightened negative affective state regarding one's financial situation. I hypothesize that, through a drain in emotional resources, financial strain will negatively predict life satisfaction by potentially inhibiting participation in healthy, enjoyable behaviors. I argue that this drain in emotional resources will also inhibit successful task performance and restrict participation in discretionary citizenship behaviors. Data from two working samples provide support for the hypothesized financial stress model and establish preliminary evidence of construct validity for new financial stress scales. In a prospective investigation, financial strain fully mediated the effects of income adequacy on subsequent life satisfaction, but was not related to job performance. Instead, perceived income adequacy to afford wants had a direct negative relationship with both task performance and citizenship behaviors at work, while income adequacy to afford needs had a positive direct effect on organizational citizenship behaviors. This work resolves many conceptual inconsistencies about financial stress in the literature, and contributes to the understanding of how income perceptions and financial stress might influence psychological resources and work motivation. This work has important implications for how organizations manage employees who may be experiencing low income adequacy and high financial strain. Finally, there are several meaningful opportunities for future research that would substantially build upon existing theory and evidence in this new area of financial stress and work.