Does It Pay to be Green? A Study of the Global Microfinance Industry

This article examines whether it pays to be green in the microfinance industry. Environmental issues are important for all businesses around the world, and thus many microfinance institutions (MFIs) started embracing them as an additional objective alongside their traditional social and financial objectives. This article is among the first to test the relationships between environmental performance and both the financial and social performance of MFIs. Using a sample of 234 rated MFIs in 58 countries, we find that being green is associated with higher social and financial performance. Specifically, MFIs with environmental policies have higher financial performance (i.e., higher returns on assets, lower operating costs, and lower cost of capital) and higher social performance (i.e., a higher social rating score) than those without environmental policies. Overall, the results suggest that it pays to be green in the microfinance industry and this should motivate MFIs considering being green to do so.publishedVersio

Geographic diversification and credit risk in microfinance

Author's accepted manuscript.acceptedVersio

Excessive Focus on Risk? Non-performing Loans and Efficiency of Microfinance Institutions

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Diakonal profil i perioden 1960-2006 : En dokumentanalyse av Diakonissehjemmets høgskole, Haraldsplass, sykepleierutdanningen

I denne historiske dokumentanalysen har jeg gått igjennom brosjyrer, skoleplaner, undervisningsoversikter, fagplaner, studiehåndbøker og andre dokumenter som har vært i bruk ved Diakonissehjemmets høgskole, Haraldsplass fra 1960 og frem til 2006. Jeg har kartlagt hvordan den diakonale profilen har kommet til uttrykk gjennom disse dokumentene i denne tidsepoken. Materialet forteller hvordan den diakonale målsetningen skriftlig har vært formulert, uttrykt, ivaretatt, påvirket og endret, og til en viss grad også hvilke faktorer som har bidratt til dette. Med utgangspunkt i en klargjøring av begrepene diakoni, sykepleie, omsorg og kall, diskuteres funnene i lys av organisasjonsteori, integrasjonsteori og læreplanteori. Empirien viser at Diakonissehjemmets høgskoles konfesjonelle profil er konsistent og uforandret, til tross for at de diakonale fagene har vært utsatt for en betydelig reduksjon. Høgskolen har endret sin målgruppeprofil, etter at særvilkårene med krav om kristen bekjennelse ble fjernet i 1996. Studentmassen er nå sammensatt av kristne og ikke kristne studenter. Den enkeltes personlige tro ser ut til å ha blitt mer privatisert, mens ansvaret for diakonioppdraget har gått fra å være den enkelte students ansvar til å bli mer et ansvar for institusjonen som sådan. Disse forholdene representerer ekstra utfordringer i forhold til å ivareta og formidle det diakonale innholdet i utdanningen. Når det gjelder tjenesteprofil; hva høgskolen utdanner til, oppgaver, fagfelt og hvem som skal hjelpes, så er også denne betydelig endret. Kontakten med menighetene er borte. Den diakonale målsetningen skal nå være med som et gjennomgående perspektiv i alle fagmoduler. Det kan se ut som at det har funnet sted en generell sekularisering av diakonioppdraget i utdanningen, som følge av den sykepleiefaglige utviklingen spesielt, men også som følge av det offentliges påvirkninger av høgskolesystemet generelt, med likedanning gjennom ulike reformer. Diakoni kan sies å være tro virksom i tjeneste, og utfordrer spesielt til ivaretakelse av nødstilte i samfunnet. Dagens utdanning gir en forsiktig oppfordring om ”en særlig oppmerksomhet mot menigheter og diakonale institusjoner”. Spørsmålet er hvorvidt det diakonale oppdragets utfordring; om å utdanne til omsorg for de mest nødstilte i samfunnet, blir ivaretatt godt nok i dagens utdanning. I spenningen mellom det å være en privat diakonal institusjon og det å skulle sammenveves med det offentlige høgskolesystemet kan det se ut som at sykepleierutdanningen ved Diakonissehjemmets høgskole svikter diakonioppdraget. Dette dilemmaet er like aktuelt i dag som det var ved opptakten til etableringen av utdanningen tidlig på 1900 tallet. SUMMARY This study is a historical analysis of documents created and used at the Bergen Deaconess University College. In order to find how the diaconal profile of the University College has been expressed through written materials during the period 1960-2006, the files at both the University College and the National Archives in Bergen have been reviewed. Different types of written material have been studied, including brochures, education schedules and student guides. From the different sources, it is possible to describe how the diaconal purpose of the University College have been expressed, formulated, taken care of, influenced and possibly changed over the years, and to a certain extent what has contributed to this development. Firstly, the terms deaconry, nursing, care and calling have been clarified, and then the results are being discussed with respect to these terms. Furthermore, the results are discussed in relation to theories of organization, integration and curriculum. The study shows that the confessional profile of the Bergen Deaconess University College is consistent and unchanged, despite the fact that class hours in diaconal subjects have been significantly reduced over the period studied. Bergen Deaconess University College today aims towards other student populations than in the earlier part of the period studied. This is especially evident after 1996, when the schools` strictly confessional admission policy was abolished. Today the student body comprises confessional as well as non confessional admission, which presents the University College with challenges in maintaining and expressing the diaconal aspects of the education. Personal faith seems to be more private than earlier, whilst carrying out the deaconry mission seems to have become more an institutional responsibility. The service profile (i.e. what challenges and jobs the University College educates the students for), has changed during the period. Contact with the congregations is no longer existing. The deaconry perspective is now supposed to be taken care of in each study module. It looks as if there has been a general secularisation of the deaconry mission in the education. This may be viewed as a consequence of developments in nursing education in particular, and of politically induced changes in college education in general, through various reforms intended to create greater uniformity in higher education., Deaconry might be said to be living the faith through service, and challenges especially care for the weakest in society. Today’s studyprogram conveys a modest request for “a special attention towards congregations and diaconal institutions”. The question is whether or not the special task of deaconry, to educate for care for the weakest in society, is accounted for in today’s education. In the tension between being a private diaconal institution and becoming increasingly integrated into a public educational system, it might look as if it is the weakest and poorest in our modern society that are let down. This ideological dilemma is just as acute today as was when the Bergen Deaconess University College was established almost 90 years ago

Is the Value Relevance of Accounting Information Consistently Underestimated?

Published version of an article from the journal: The Open Business Journal, Bentham Publishing. Also available from the publisher: http://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1874915101003010001. Open Access articleThis study investigates the importance of accounting for the sign of earnings as well as disaggregating earnings in empirical value relevance research. The paper presents evidence that value relevance as measured by the explanatory power of regression analysis more than doubles if both the sign and the disaggregation effect are incorporated into the analysis. Thus, traditional value relevance regressions may seriously understate the value relevance of accounting information. However, value relevance is not equally underestimated across sub-samples. Hence, the conclusions of prior studies that have compared value relevance between sub-samples from different time-periods, industries, countries, etc. may be biased

IPSS “bother question” score predicts health-related quality of life better than total IPSS score

Objective The objective of this study was to investigate the role of bothersomeness of urinary symptoms on the general health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia. We hypothesised that a higher International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) would be associated with a higher score on the IPSS bother question (IPSS-BQ), and a higher IPSS-BQ score would be the dominant factor associated with poorer general HRQoL. Materials and methods A case–control, cross-sectional study design was used. Patients were selected according to strict inclusion and exclusion criteria and stratified by IPSS severity group (controls: IPSS  18). The IPSS-BQ was used to analyse bothersomeness of urinary symptoms. A standardised, multidimensional measure of HRQoL (RAND-36) was used. Data were collected on prostate size, uroflowmetry parameters, prostate specific antigen and comorbidities that were quantified using the Charlson Index and the American Association of Anaesthesiologists (ASA) score. Multiple linear regression models were used to assess the impact of bothersomeness of urinary symptoms on physical and mental HRQoL. Cohen’s d was used to determine the effect size. Results We included 83 patients in the statistical analysis. Linear regression analyses showed that the IPSS was not an independent predictor of HRQoL. Only the highest IPSS-BQ score was associated with both worse physical (P = 0.021) and mental (P = 0.011) HRQoL in the final model. The effect sizes were small to moderate. Conclusion The IPSS-BQ score is an important predictor of HRQoL. The IPSS-BQ score as a proxy should be regarded as a standard outcome measure and reported in all LUTS-related research.acceptedVersio

A note on fair value accounting in a crisis: The influence of the hedge accounting regulations

Published version of an article published in the journal: Business and Economics Journal. Also available from the publisher at: http://astonjournals.com/manuscripts/Vol2010/BEJ-13_Vol2010.pdfThe role of fair value accounting in the financial crisis is contorversial and heavily debated. Some claim that fair value accounting of financial instruments contributed to the recent crisis. This note acknowledges that, in many industries, a significant proportion of the financial instruments are entered into for hedging purposes. I examine if a crisis through the hedge accounting regulations, can affect the overall use og fair value accounting in an economy. I present analytical evidence that the boosting price volatility during the crisis lead to more companies complying with the hedge accounting requirements, and thus to an increased extent of hedge accounting at the expence of fair value accounting. Hence the analysis suggests that the hedge effectiveness provisions ensure more hedge accounting in uncertain and turbulent times, which are exactly the periods when hedge accounting is especially called for

Higher than expected and significantly increasing incidence of upper tract urothelial carcinoma. A population based study

Purpose: To register all cases of urothelial cancer and renal cell carcinoma (RCC) in Norway during 1999–2018 to obtain the contemporary incidence of UTUC and UTUC incidence relative to other urothelial cancers and RCC. Further to analyse possible changes over time regarding UTUC incidence, UTUC patient characteristics, tumour characteristics and survival. Methods: 3502 cases registered with ICD code C65 and C66 during 1999–2018 at the Norwegian cancer registry were entered into a database. After a selection process 3096 cases were included in the study. The crude incidences of UTUC were calculated for each year adjusting for the corresponding population data. Age-standardized rates adjusting to the European standard population (2013) were calculated. Comparisons were made with other cases of urothelial cancer and RCC. For changes over time, the material was split into 5-year periods. Regression analysis was used to calculate yearly changes and for assessing statistical significance. Survival outcomes were calculated using the Kaplan–Meier method. Results: The overall age-standardized incidence rate was 3.88, increasing from 3.21 to 4.70 from first to last 5-year periods. The increase affected all ages except those < 60 years of age, and were observed regardless of gender or anatomical location. UTUC constituted 11.8% of all urothelial cancers, increasing from 9.9 to 12.8%. Mean patient age at diagnosis increased from 71.5 to 73.4 years. The 5-years Cancer-specific survival improved from 57.4 to 65.4%. Conclusion: The incidence of UTUC was higher than expected and increasing. Patient age at diagnosis was increasing.publishedVersio

Quality of life in home-dwelling cancer patients aged 80 years and older: a systematic review

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativeco mmons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the dataObjective: Quality of Life (QoL) in elderly cancer patients is a topic that has been little explored. This systematic review aims to identify, assess, and report the literature on QoL in home-dwelling cancer patients aged 80 years and older and what QoL instruments have been used. Methods: We systematically searched the databases of Medline, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), PsykINFO, Scopus, Epistemonikos and Cinahl to identify studies of any design measuring QoL among home-dwelling cancer patients aged 80 years and older. We screened the titles and abstracts according to a predefned set of inclusion criteria. Data were systematically extracted into a predesigned data charting form, and descriptively analyzed. The included studies were assessed according to the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) checklists, and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Statement (PRISMA) checklist was used to ensure rigor in conducting our investigations and reporting our fndings. This systematic review was registered in PROSPERO (CRD42021240170). Results: We included three studies that specifcally analyze QoL outcomes in the subgroup of home-dwelling cancer patients aged 80 years and older, with a total of 833 participants having various cancer diagnoses. 193 of the participants included in these three studies were aged 80 years or more. Diferent generic and cancer-specifc QoL instruments as well as diferent aims and outcomes were studied. All three studies used a diagnosis-specifc instrument, but none of them used an age-specifc instrument. Despite heterogeneity in cancer diagnoses, instruments used, and outcomes studied, QoL in home-dwelling cancer patients aged over 80 years old seems to be correlated with age, physical function, comorbidity, living alone, needing at-home care services, being in a poor fnancial situation and having a small social network. Conclusion: Our systematic review revealed only three studies exploring QoL and its determinants in the specifc subgroup of home-dwelling cancer patients aged 80 years and over. A gap in the knowledge base has been identifed. Future studies of this increasingly important and challenging patient group must be emphasized. Subgroup analyses by age must be performed, and valid age and diagnosis specifc QoL instruments must be used to generate evidence in this segment of the population.publishedVersio

Paediatric Ureteroscopy (P-URS) reporting checklist: a new tool to aid studies report the essential items on paediatric ureteroscopy for stone disease

The burden of urolithiasis in children is increasing and this is mirrored by the number of surgical interventions in the form of ureteroscopy (URS). There exist many challenges in performing this surgery for this special patient group as well as a lack of consensus on technique. There is also large variation in how results are described and reported. There exists therefore, a need to improve and standardise the core outcomes, which are reported. To this end, we developed a new checklist to aid studies report the essential items on paediatric URS for stone disease. The Paediatric Ureteroscopy (P-URS) reporting checklist comprises four main sections (study details, pre-operative, operative and post-operative) and a total of 20 items. The tool covers a range of important elements, such as pre-stenting, complications, follow-up, stone-free rate, concomitant medical expulsive therapy and imaging, which are often lacking in studies. The checklist provides a summary of essential items that authors can use as a reference to improve general standards of reporting paediatric URS studies and increase the body of knowledge shared accordingly.publishedVersio