Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a statistical examination of the factors affecting the performance of microfinance institutions (MFIs) operating in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Design/methodology/approach – Data on MFIs operating in Eastern Europe and Central Asia...

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) play a key role in many developing countries. Utilizing data from Eastern Europe and Central Asia, MFIs are found to generally operate with lower costs the longer they are in operation. Given the differences in operating environments, subsidies, and...

Microfinance institutions are important, particularly in developing countries, because they expand the frontier of financial intermediation by providing loans to those traditionally excluded from formal financial markets. This paper presents the first systematic statistical examination of the...

The concept of virtual water – the amount of water used during the entire production chain of goods – represents a new tool for policymakers in water-scarce countries to shape policies in ways that improve water use efficiency. The present study extends work on the virtual water concept by...

Since 2007, gross domestic product (GDP) growth in China's inland provinces has exceeded that of the affluent coastal provinces. Concurrently, they have also been given more lenient energy intensity reduction targets to provide latitude for continued growth. The regional unevenness of economic...

A reasonable estimation of the optimal tilt angle of a fixed collector for maximizing its energy collection must be done based on the monthly global and diffuse radiation on a horizontal surface. However, the monthly diffuse radiation is not always available in many places. In this paper, a...

Psychopathy is often defined as a personality disorder that manifests as a constellation of characteristics including a lack of affective emotions, manipulative and irresponsible interpersonal reactions, and impulsive and sometimes violent behaviors. Prior studies have shown that genetic factors...

Dry forests across the United States have become subject to declining resilience and, consequently, increased vulnerability to catastrophic wildfires. These disturbances cause severe environmental and social damages and may dislodge the forest into a different ecological regime. Forests provide...

This study points out that changes in the format of the playoffs in the National Basketball Association have had the effect of lengthening the championship series and reducing the variance in the length of the series. These are valuable goals for the organization because they provide higher...

Using the political-economic history of the development of telephony during the 1870s as a backdrop, this paper studies a two-player Tullock contest that includes both research effort (R&D) and legal effort (<i>i.e.</i>, rent-seeking effort). The two types of efforts complement each other and...