The purpose of this thesis is to identify key factors underlying exchange rate developments during the European sovereign debt crisis by examining the impact of credit rating news, published by the three leading credit rating agencies, on conditional returns and volatility of EUR/USD (direct quotation) exchange rate. Empirical results highlight the importance of interest rate differential and volatility index of options exchange in explaining EUR/USD exchange rate volatilities. Downgrade announcements by Standard & Poor’s as well as watch revisions by Fitch Ratings had a detrimental impact on the value of Euro, leading to a subsequent Euro depreciation over the period under consideration (January 2009 – April 2012).

In this paper we are exploring the field of microfinance; financial services given to poor and low-income individuals who do not have access to formal financial markets. The purpose of our study is to investigate if the Credit with Education program provided by the microfinance institution RCPB in Burkina Faso has had an effect on the participating women concerning their empowerment, knowledge about management/micro enterprises and knowledge about child nutrition and health. We are using data from two surveys made in 2003 and 2004 by the consultant bureau Sud Consult that we are analysing in a qualitative manner in order to respond to our investigation question. This paper treats theories concerning the financial market and the importance of education, health and women’s empowerment. We present facts about microfinance in general and in Burkina Faso in particular and we review earlier studies on the subject. Our findings suggest that the Credit with Education program has achieved to increase the women’s knowledge concerning child nutrition and health. The program has had a smaller but still a notable effect concerning the empowerment of the women, specifically in the region of West. The program has failed to increase the knowledge of business management in the years studied. In our analysis we present suggestions of improvements of the program. / Dans ce dossier, nous explorons le domaine de la microfinance ; des services financiers destinés aux populations pauvres et aux individus aux revenus modestes qui n’ont pas accès aux marchés financiers. Le but de notre étude est d’examiner si le crédit avec éducation fournis par l’institution finansière RCPB au Burkina Faso, a eu des répercussions sur la prise de participation des femmes en ce qui concerne leur indépendence, leur connaissance du management/ PME et leur connaissance en matière de nutrition et de santé infantille. Nous utilisons les données de deux études menées en 2003 et 2004 par le cabinet de consulting Sud Consult que nous analysons qualitativement afin de répondre à notre question d’investigation. Ce dossier est basé sur les théories concernant le marché financier, l’importance de l’éducation de la santé et de l’indépendance des femmes. Nous abordons les faits du points de vue de la microfinance en général et du Burkina Faso en particulier et nous examinons des études réalisées précedement traitant du même sujet. Nos résultats montrent que le crédit avec l’éducation ont largement participé à l’amélioration des connaissances des femmes en matiéres de nutrition et de santé infantile. Le programme a eu une influence plus modeste sur leur indépendence, particulièrement dans la région de l’ouest. Le programme n’a cependant pas réussi à améliorer leur connaissance du management durant la période analysée. Dans notre analyse nous présentons des propositions d’amélioration pour le programme.

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Taiwan play an important role in the economic system, but compared to other listed or larger companies, SMEs are more difficult in obtaining fund, and this is the reason why Small and Medium Enterprises Credit Guarantee Fund (SME Credit Guarantee Fund) sets up. The purpose of this study is to discuss the guaranteed risk of the SME Credit Guarantee Fund, including the estimate of the ex-ante probability of default and the hypothesis test of the ex-post recovery rate. The sample data, which are divided into twenty three industries, are established for the estimation of the market value for all kinds of industries, using the Moody's KMV Private Firm Model as the basic theory to estimate the company¡¦s probability of default and revising the default point to fit the features among different economic periods in Taiwan. This research uses the Chi-square homogeneity test to test how characteristic variables of companies affect the recovery rate. The study finds that the default point of the original definition of KMV may underestimate SME¡¦s probability of default in Taiwan, and there is lower estimated probability of default at good times rather than that at bad times. The recovery rate shows a right-skewed distribution, and the results also indicate that the how many banks the companies transact with, whether the directors and supervisors of the companies are joint and several guarantee, how old the companies are and how long the responsible officers are in business, have significantly affected the recovery rate.

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Mongolian SME sector is an important part of its private sector that effectively contributes to the outcome of Mongolian economy. Like SMEs in other countries, SMEs in Mongolia face challenge of accessing to finance and this is the most constraint for their continuous growth. While credit guarantee schemes, by filling this gap, became one of the most effective SME promoting tools for the governments of many developed and developing countries, Mongolian government has not been institutionalizing such schemes yet. This study investigates the feasibility of Mongolian government to establish a state-funded CGS in order to facilitate SMEs access to finance. This research based on questionnaire survey conducted from 316 SMEs in urban and rural areas of Mongolia in late 2011. SMEs need for financing, demand for guarantee services and their attitude toward establishing the CGS in Mongolia were investigated. Also, two officials from ¡§SME Fund¡¨ and ¡§SME Support Agency¡¨ were interviewed to analyze their attitude on feasibility of institutionalizing the CGS with the support of Mongolian government. The study showed that there is a high demand for additional financing and credit guarantees in SME sector. The findings suggested that the government urgently needs to institutionalize CGS to solve financial challenges of SMEs. As the most appropriate type of CGSs for Mongolian environment found was a ¡§Public CGS¡¨.

Approximately 136,000 refuse trucks were in operation in the United States in 2007. These trucks burn approximately 1.2 billion gallons of diesel fuel a year, releasing almost 27 billion pounds of greenhouse gases. In addition to contributing to global climate change, diesel-fueled refuse trucks are one of the most concentrated sources of health-threatening air pollution in most cities. The landfills that they ultimately place their waste in are the second largest source of human-related methane emissions in the United States, accounting for approximately 23 percent of these emissions in 2007. At the same time, methane emissions from landfills represent a lost opportunity to capture and use a significant energy resource. Many landfill-gas-to-energy (LFGTE) projects are underway in an attempt to curb emissions and make better use of this energy. The methane that is extracted from these landfills can be converted into a transportation fuel, sold as a pipeline-quality natural gas, operate turbines for electricity, or be flared. The unique relationship that occurs between refuse trucks' constant visits to the landfill and the ability of the landfill itself to produce a transportation fuel creates an ability to accomplish emissions reduction in two sectors with the implementation of using landfill gas to fuel refuse trucks. Landfill owners and operators are very reluctant to invest in large capital LFGTE projects without knowing their long-term feasibility. The costs and benefits associated with each LFGTE project have been presented in such a way that owners/operators can make informed decisions based on economics while also implementing clean energy technology. Owners/operators benefit from larger economic returns, and the citizens of the surrounding cities benefit from better air quality. This research focused on six scenarios: converting landfill gas (LFG) to liquefied natural gas (LNG) for use as a transportation fuel, converting LFG to compressed natural gas (CNG) for use as a transportation fuel, converting LFG to pipeline-quality natural gas, converting LFG to electricity, flaring LFG, and doing nothing. For the test case of a 280-acre landfill, the option of converting LFG to CNG for use as a transportation fuel provided the best benefit-cost ratio at 5.63. Other significant benefit-cost findings involved the LFG-to-LNG option, providing a 5.51 benefit-cost ratio. Currently, the most commonly used LFGTE option of converting LFG to electricity provides only a 1.35 benefit-cost ratio while flaring which is the most common mitigation strategy provides a 1.21, further providing evidence that converting LFG to LNG/CNG for use as a transportation fuel provides greater economic benefits than the most common LFGTE option or mitigation strategy.

This dissertation shows that early modern female playwrights were shaped by and helped to shape commercial literary marketplaces that were increasingly affected by the rise of credit, shifting exchange values, and unstable notions of trust, interest, and economic motivation. By looking at how their plays appropriated and responded to financial language present in popular forms of publications such as pamphlets, ballads, and accounting guidebooks, we find that female playwrights understood the discourse of credit in ways that were particularly important for female readers and theatergoers and employed it in their writing for the stage. My study illustrates how their plays represent credit as always inherently tied to the potential risk involved in the “business” of being a woman on the marriage market, a mother with a fortune to pass on, or a widow with a business to maintain. In this project, I analyze the city comedies of Aphra Behn, the pseudonymous Ariadne, Mary Pix, and Susanna Centlivre and conclude that their works constitute a narrative bridge between the financial discourse that appears before them in conduct books and advice manuals of the Restoration and after them in the eighteenth-century novel. Making these women and their London comedies a focal point, we can see how they employed the period’s financial discourse to highlight the problems associated with broken promises, counterfeit wills, and the supposed power of contract. My research demonstrates how these playwrights and their works play a critical role in accounting for the trajectory of financial discourse in eighteenth-century culture and literature prior to the “birth” of the English novel. “Risky Business” moves beyond a discussion of female investors or money in literature and, instead, offers a more nuanced understanding of the ways women writers were impacted by the rise of paper credit outside of and prior to fiction. The research presented in this project offers a new account of the way early modern female readers, writers, and theatergoers, were influenced by an increasingly complex financial discourse, a more detailed understanding of the relationship between economic and literary history, and a new way of conceptualizing the commercial female playwright.

Issuing cash cards brings banks a large amount of money from interest and fees. Because of the reason, many banks that refused to join the competition in the beginning changed their minds and offer the similar product to compete with each other. In such intensified competition environment, in order to earn customers¡¦ attention and grab the market shares, banks simply loosen the approved criteria, increase the approved speed, and lower the interest rates. However, if banks take these actions without thinking carefully or planning cautiously, it is very easy to have problems in the risk management. This research try to from the organization staffs¡¦ point of view to discuss what kinds of policies will affect their risk management perception and if there is any relationship between perception and achievement. Besides, this research also tries to understand where risk management should put great emphasis and what kinds of risks banks should pay attention when operating the business of cash cards This research assumes different card approved time, interest rates, credit limit update time, and credit evaluation systems will affect cash cards risk management perception. And the results find that higher interest rates and credit evaluation systems designed by foreign have significant effect for cash cards risk management perception. Besides, procedures planning and customers choosing will also affect the perception. All in all, banks with better risk management perception have better performance in the market shares. As for the risk sources, the main risks come from customers choosing. Therefore, banks should have developed credit risk measure systems, or in the future banks will suffer because of these problems.

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