This paper examines the impact of audit and non-audit fees on firms’ ability to access finance by reducing their capital constraints. Unlike previous studies, which examined this phenomenon in developed economies, this paper focuses on one of the largest, albeit developing, economies in the...

This paper argues that the level of financial services provision determines the risk management strategies among the poor. The paper estimates the determinants of the household's use of one, two or all three types of microfinancial services applying ordered probit models and additionally probit...

This paper estimates an earnings function for Sri Lanka, followed by a decomposition analysis of male-female earnings suggest that the gender disparity in earnings largely represents 'discrimination' against women. The findings showed that irrespective of their 'inferior' labour market...

Microfinance as the best way of tackling poverty is under attack. It has been accused of failing to help the poor, of treating its clients badly, of charging high interest rates and of encouraging poor people to take on excessive debt burdens. The authors examine these issues, and find that...

This study investigates the access to and usage of financial services in South Africa. Financial services are categorised in three types namely; general accounts and services, investment/savings and insurance/assurance. Taking into account the interactions between usage of different types of...

This paper examines the gender gaps in the use of higher-order financial services such as investment and insurance, draws on the FinMark national-level data from Ghana and South Africa. The main observation is that females in South Africa are more likely to use general financial and investment...

The Mzansi intervention is a major initiative designed to provide banking services to the unbanked South African population. This study investigates the underlying variables that define the choice of a Mzansi account from a consumer perspective. Unlike previous studies, we do not assume that...

Managers are concerned about how the macroeconomic environment affects business profit. Focusing on banks, this study investigates the effect of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on bank profitability in 22 advanced countries. The measures of bank profitability are net interest margin,...