Savings Schemes Research Articles

Czech understanding of social risks and their limitations

This paper analyses the conception of social risks in Czech social security law in the last three decades. The Czech Republic spends a large proportion of its revenue on welfare of its citizens, who rely on the state´s paternalistic care in return. Over time, benefits are increased and requirements are further softened. However, as we will see in chosen examples from healthcare, workers’ compensation, and additional savings schemes, Czech experts are reluctant to answer new challenges with reformed instruments. Rules are hardly adapted to current issues, because the government tends to rely on old solutions. The government is unable to find a constructive platform to negotiate crucial social reform laws with the opposition.

Climate change vulnerability and resilience of urban poor in Khulna, Bangladesh: the role of asset-based community development approach

ABSTRACT This article explores how the asset-based community development approach has improved the living conditions of the urban slum communities and have also addressed the house level poverty through direct asset transfer that can have positive co-benefits for community resilience to climate change. A broader and less restrictive design, which is qualitative in nature, has been adopted to produce arguments using the experiences of the members of Community Development Committees (CDCs) of slums of Khulna city. Considering the great flexibility nature of open-ended interview data, thematic analysis has been applied to identify and interpret the patterns (themes) related to the activities of CDCs. The findings of the aggregated thematic data show that while community-driven actions might not be taken with climate change adaptation specifically in mind, local community-based actions initiated by the CDCs of slums such as community-driven slum upgrading and collective savings schemes to reduce asset erosion directly contribute to broader resilience to climate change, by reducing exposure to climatic risk and also addressing internal drivers of vulnerability. The findings of capacity-decision-making matrix show that the CDC members do not possess equal capacity while managing the vulnerability through transferring the asset both at household and community level.

Bridging the Affordability Gap: Towards a Financing Mechanism for Slum Upgrading at Scale in Nairobi – Analysing NGO Experiences With Local-Level Finance

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to an understanding of more inclusive financing options for decent low-income housing with a specific focus on experiences of housing improvements in Kenya’s low-income urban neighbourhoods. The paper summarises the findings of a study of three community led housing developments in Nairobi and Nakuru (Kenya). It has a specific focus on the affordability of loans given to residents and on the speed of consolidation within these neighbourhoods. The developments are all supported by the Muungano Alliance with the residents being members of Muungano wa Wanavijiji (a Kenyan federation of women-led savings schemes) and the monies being advanced by their loan fund, the Akiba Mashinani Trust (AMT). The study uses data on affordability assessments and loan repayments collected by AMT staff, and additional information that was collected to understand the scale and speed of future housing investment. Our findings show that repayments are lower than anticipated and that both affordability and weak loan management may be responsible. Based on what households have been able to repay, inclusive housing finance is likely to require both capital and interest rate subsidies, and must recognise the range of income levels and other heterogeneity within low-income urban communities. For example, considerable housing investment has been made in the form of additional rooms in the incremental development process; this shows that at least some households find the development affordable. A key motivation for additional investments is commercial opportunities including rental income.

Need vs. Financing Capability: Human Papillomavirus Vaccinations among Adolescents

Background:The incidence of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infection and cervical cancer in adulthood may be prevented by HPV vaccination in adolescence. Currently, the HPV vaccination coverage rate in developing countries is about 15%. The reason for this low vaccination coverage is most likely due to a lack of information among adolescents and adults. Purpose:To explore adolescents, parents and teachers’ needs, obstacles, and expectations around the HPV vaccination. Methods:This research used a qualitative method with a focus group discussion. The research participants were divided into three groups: 21 female students, 17 parents, and 20 teachers. This research was conducted in junior high schools that have programs run by their adolescent reproductive health counseling information centers. The data were analyzed by employing content analysis. Results:HPV vaccination has not been made a priority for adolescents because: 1) There is a lack of available education about HPV and HPV vaccinations for adolescents, parents, and teachers. 2) The high cost for parents to vaccinate their children. 3) Adolescents, parents and teachers believe that the HPV vaccine needs to be administered to adolescents, but they feel that the vaccine is not affordable. Conclusion:It is important to consider a program which will provide accurate information about the HPV vaccination to the community, especially adolescents. Financial management, such as insurance or vaccination savings schemes, may be one way to overcome the problem of the HPV vaccination’s cost.

The effect created by the instigation of LTCG on ELSS Schemes: A Case of India

This paper analyzes the movement of Net Asset Value (NAV) of equity linked savings schemes (ELSS) due to the announcement of long term capital gain (LTCG) tax during the presentation of union budget 2018 in India. A short term event study is used to understand the impact of the stock market movement of the ELSS schemes and Cumulative average abnormal return on the investors, therefore the event window has been created to provide an explorative event study with both pre and post analysis. We examined the influence on a sample of 104 ELSS Schemes. The results reveal that the market sentiments are jeopardized and the ELSS scheme are showing adverse propensity towards the introduction of LTCG.

Performance Evaluation of Banks Sponsored Mutual Funds: An Analytical Study

This research paper inspects the comparative performance evaluation of banks sponsored Indian mutual funds using traditional measure. The data comprises 166 open-ended equity, debt, liquid and equity linked saving schemes (tax savings) schemes during the period of April 2006–March 2017. The evidence shows that all sample schemes are well diversified. Public sector banks sponsored get first ranked because good return, all positive and diversified schemes and efficient performance of portfolio management as compared to Private sector and UTI banks sponsored mutual funds.

Performance Analysis of Mutual Fund Equity Linked Savings Schemes

In India tax benefit on investments are offered on a number of products like postal small savings, insurance, bank fixed deposits, pension schemes, public provident fund, health insurance, tax saving mutual fund schemes etc. Mutual fund schemes are considered as most risk among all, as returns are subject to market risks. With increasing awareness on mutual fund and reduction of returns on traditional tax savings products, now investors are turning towards mutual fund retirement schemes, unit linked insurance plans and equity linked saving schemes. The present study is to understand the mutual fund Equity Linked Savings Schemes (ELSS) market in India and performance analysis of specific ELSS schemes over last 10 years period from 2009 to 2019 as compared to diversified equity market benchmark returns. From ELSS market growth analysis, it is observed that ELSS market in India has grown @CAGR of 20% in last 19 years and from performance analysis it is observed that, as on January 21, 2019 ELSS peer group average have delivered negative returns in 1 year period. However, for 2 years, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years period the peer group average is positive and higher than the traditional fixed income tax savings products. Further, the peer group average underperformed in 1year, 2years and 3 years period but out-performed the benchmark in 5 years and 10 years performance measurement period.

Employee Capital Plans in the Form of Insurance - Legal Aspects

Employee Capital Plans (PPK in Polish) are a part of a common system of voluntary pension savings schemes under the third pillar. They are assumed to cover all employees. However, each employee will be able to opt out of the participation in the program.The financial institutions eligible to offer Employee Capital Plans will include investment fund companies, general pension societies and employee pension societies as well as insurance companies. The opportunity to collect capital within the framework of Employee Capital Funds in the form of unit-linked life insurance will have an additional value for the participants, namely an insurance cover. Nevertheless, due to particular regulatory requirements and the difference between the insurance contract and other forms of Employee Capital Funds, it involves certain consequences. The present article is an attempt to address the essential issues concerning Employee Capital Funds offered in the form of insurance, regarding the insurance contract itself, such as insurance coverage or the nature of the contracts for the management and operation of Employee Capital Plans, as well as general matters, which exert an influence on the ECPs provided by insurance undertakings.

Village Savings and Loan Associations Schemes: Contributions to Peace

This study is an appreciation of the contributions of the Village Savings and Loan Associations scheme to peace between its members and the community. It seeks to demonstrate, by means of specific examples of existing groups of the village savings and associations (Mukando) scheme in ward 8 of the Seke district, Mashonaland East province, Zimbabwe, that although the scheme helps to fight poverty and financial vulnerability among the poor people, it promotes peace as well. The study revealed that the key elements, namely social capital, friendships, social relationships, coexistence and tolerance, on which the scheme is anchored, are major factors that contribute to peace. It also emerged that the creation of the scheme increases the capacities of its members to access supportive networks, befriend each other and coexist in a tolerant way, thus, helping to foster factors that promote peace between members within the community. Therefore, reproducing the Mukando scheme could imply building more stable households and communities.

Beyond coverage: the politics of occupational pensions and the role of trade unions. Introduction to special issue

As public pensions are being retrenched across Europe there is an ongoing shift towards occupational pensions. But the trend is not uniform, and this special issue demonstrates the huge variations in occupational pension systems. This introductory article introduces the politics of this shift. We first outline how occupational pensions deviate from textbook social policy. Industrial relations and the challenges trade unions face feature more strongly than in public social policies. Also, the schemes themselves may take the shape of individual savings schemes, as opposed to the more redistributive arrangements of public social policies. We suggest that theoretical approaches such as the literature on embedded markets (inspired by Polyani), and on the shifting nature of industrial relations as well as on ‘issue networks’ (inspired by Heclo) will be helpful. The article provides an overview of the state of knowledge, building on recent European comparative studies. We argue that it is time to move beyond comparisons of coverage rates and turn attention towards the many dimensions along which occupational pensions vary between countries and within countries.

The impact of microfinance on financial inclusion in Nigeria

Many attempts have been made throughout history to establish institutions for supplying credit to the poor. In Nigeria, strategies to increase the income of the poor have existed in the form of rotating contributory savings schemes (referred to as Esusu, Itutu, Adashi, Bambam and Ajo in different parts of the country). However, in recent years, microfinance has become a veritable institutional mechanism for enhancing credit access for low-income groups. With the increasing number of microfinance banks in Nigeria and the mounting drive for inclusive financial systems, therefore, it would be worthwhile to assess the impact of microfinance on financial inclusion in the country. To achieve this objective, this study uses the fully modified OLS (FMOLS) and the Dynamic OLS (DOLS) which were designed to provide optimal estimates of cointegrating regressions. The benefit of using the two approaches was to effectively assess the robustness of the parameter estimates to different specifications. This study, therefore, employs annual data of total commercial banks’ loans and advances, number of microfinance banks in Nigeria, and gross domestic product (GDP) as well as lending interest rates for the 1981–2014 period. The study found that microfinance and financial inclusion are linked by a set of long-run relationships. In the short run, the study found that microfinance has a positive but insignificant impact on financial inclusion, but in the long run, microfinance has a positive and statistically significant impact on the level of financial inclusion. The negative interest rate has a statistically significant impact on the level of financial inclusion both in the short and long run. Therefore, this study has established that microfinance, as well as interest rates, is a significant driver of financial inclusion in Nigeria. To increase financial inclusion in Nigeria, heightened drives for microfinance will be required. Microfinance represents a vehicle for the promotion of financial inclusion in Nigeria and should remain at the core of the pursuit of financial participation across all income levels.

Intergenerational risk sharing under loss averse preferences

Individual retirement savings schemes could benefit from risk-sharing mechanisms between generations that take behavioral aspects into account. We introduce a novel risk-sharing mechanism that incorporates nominal loss-aversion in two ways. First, the system avoids out-of-pocket wealth transfers by sharing only a fraction of positive returns over a high-water mark of pension assets. Secondly, payments from a generation insurance fund are targeted at nominal pension shortfalls below a reference point, which mitigates the loss experience at retirement. From a simulation of overlapping generations with stochastic asset returns and interest rates we find that the generation insurance scheme outperforms a pure individual retirement scheme by a significant margin: a similar risk of pension shortfall can be achieved with a contribution rate that is up to 20% lower. The efficiency gains vary with the extent of risk sharing over generations but remain large for sensible parameter values.

Intergenerational Risk Sharing in Individual Retirement Schemes

Individual retirement savings schemes could benefit from risk-sharing mechanisms between generations that take behavioral aspects into account. We introduce a novel risk-sharing mechanism that incorporates nominal loss-aversion in two ways. First, the system avoids out-of-pocket wealth transfers by sharing only a fraction of positive returns over a high-water mark of pension assets. Secondly, payments from a generation insurance fund are targeted at nominal pension shortfalls below a reference point, which mitigates the loss experience at retirement. From a simulation of overlapping generations with stochastic asset returns and interest rates we find that the generation insurance scheme outperforms a pure individual retirement scheme by a significant margin: a similar risk of pension shortfall can be achieved with a contribution rate that is up to 20% lower. The efficiency gains vary with the extent of risk sharing over generations but remain large for sensible parameter values.

Climate change, household vulnerability and smart agriculture: The case of two South African provinces.

The impact of climate-change disasters poses significant challenges for South Africa, especially for vulnerable rural households. In South Africa, the impact of climate change at the local level, especially in rural areas, is not well known. Rural households are generally poor and lack resources to adapt to and mitigate the impact of climate change, but the extent of their vulnerability is largely not understood. This study looked at the micro-level impact of climate change, evaluated household vulnerability and assessed alternative adaptation strategies in rural areas. The results indicate that climate change will hit crop yields hard and that households with less capital are most vulnerable. These households consist of the elderly and households headed by females. Households that receive remittances or extension services or participate in formal savings schemes in villages are less vulnerable. The results suggest that households need to move towards climate-smart agriculture, which combines adaptation, mitigation and productivity growth.

A study on customer percpetion of postal savings of Ernakulam district

Customer perception has been regarded as an indication of marketing effectiveness of the firm. The success of any marketing strategy lies in the post purchase experience as delivered through the product or service and as perceived by the customer. There are several types of post office savings schemes that cater to the differing needs of various classes of people in which they have an option to invest with small amount. Most of the postal investment is exempted from Income Tax Act, 1961. The interest income is also exempted from tax u/s 10 of Income Tax Act, 1961 in some cases. This has enabled investors to compete successfully with other avenues of investment available to them like commercial and co-operative banks, non banking financial institution and public sector companies. It is necessary for institution offering investment instruments to study the opinion and perception of customers towards various investment instruments because it has influenced the savings behaviour of investors since decade.

Discipline, Self-discipline and Legacy: Military and Regimental Savings Banks in India

ABSTRACTMilitary and regimental savings schemes have not attracted a great deal of attention in accounts of colonial India yet they were part of daily life for many soldiers. The East India Company introduced savings banks as one of a number of measures to deal with the problem of indiscipline among the troops, but fairly quickly they were being used in other ways: as a marketing tool to recruit better quality troops and to appeal to entrepreneurs who wanted to use their time in the army as a means to self-improvement and prosperity. Several years later a royal warrant established regimental banks for the queen's troops wherever they served. Many thousands of soldiers used regimental savings banks and they provide important insights into the workings of the army in Victorian Britain and British India that have hitherto been neglected.

Main trends in reforming provision of pensions

This paper considers the major modern trends in reforming pension systems in different groups of countries. Emphasis is placed on problems that are urgent for Russia, including the correlation between obligatory and voluntary savings schemes, use of notional savings accounts, promotion of professional pension systems, the automatic adjustment of pension provision conditions according to growth in lifespan or ratio between incomes and expenses of the system, and the investment policies of private and reserve pension funds.

Incentive Fees and Competition in Pension Funds: Evidence from a Regulatory Experiment

Concerned with excessive risk taking, regulators worldwide generally prohibit private pension funds from charging performance-based fees. Instead, the premise underlying the regulation of private pension schemes (and other retail-oriented funds) is that competition among fund managers should provide them with the incentives to make investment decisions that would serve their clients’ long-term interests. Using a regulatory experiment from Israel, we compare the effects of incentive fees and competition on the performance of retirement savings schemes. Taking advantage of a unique institutional setup, we compare three exogenously-given types of long-term savings schemes operated by the same management companies: (i) funds with performance-based fees, facing no competition; (ii) funds with AUM-based fees, facing low competitive pressure; and (iii) funds with AUM-based fees, operating in a highly competitive environment. We find that funds with performance-based fees exhibit somewhat higher risk (depending on the measure used) but significantly higher risk-adjusted returns. By contrast, we find no evidence that competitive pressure leads to improved performance. We conclude that incentives and competition are not perfect substitutes in the retirement savings industry. Our analysis also suggests that the pervasive regulatory restrictions on the use of performance-based fees in pension fund management may be costly for savers in the long-run and should be reconsidered.

Performance evaluation of macro-assisted small cell energy savings schemes

Sleep mode techniques for small cells provide an effective means to mitigate excessive energy consumption and interference associated with ultra-dense small cell deployments. Nevertheless, such techniques can impact network performance in traditional deployments. In this paper, we show that in the particular case of macro-controlled small cells, such as in the Phantom Cell Concept (PCC) architecture, effective macro-assisted energy savings schemes can be employed to reduce the network energy consumption at practically no additional cost to the network and no hit to user quality of service (QoS). We introduce a heuristic algorithm suitable for real network operation, that minimizes the energy consumption in the small cell network by selecting the small cell offering the best signal-to-interference-plus- noise ratio (SINR). We apply this heuristic to three energy savings schemes realizable in the PCC architecture. These schemes,based on the macro-assisted user equipment (UE)-small cell connection establishment paradigm, are a downlink (DL) signalling based scheme, an uplink (UL) signalling based scheme and a database-aided scheme. We derive a power consumption model for a representative PCC small cell, which allows to quantify the percentage of energy consumed by a small cell in sleep mode with respect to a fully operational small cell for the three energy savings schemes considered. Furthermore, we characterize the connection latency associated with each scheme and evaluate the impact on system performance. System-level simulations show that, even with the associated connection delays, the macro-assisted energy-saving schemes can yield energy savings of more than 45 % while at the same time introduce throughput gains of up to 25 %.

English

The Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) sector in Kenya has grown tremendously over the last two decades but its growth is characterized by low productivity and survivalist enterprises. The sector is however very strategic in providing future employment for the economy. This paper reviews the effects of microfinance services on the performance of MSMEs using an explanatory research design. The study targeted 429 MSMEs registered by the Kiambu Municipal Council and sampled 270 enterprises. The study utilized multiple regression analysis set draw inferences on the study using SPSS statistical package. The study found access to savings schemes, managerial training and loan grace period to be statistically significant in determining the performance of MSMEs. This study concludes that increasing provision levels of micro finance will result in increased performance of micro enterprise. The study makes recommendations for microfinance service providers and policy development partners. Key words: Microfinance, MSMEs, enterprises, performance, financial services.