Profiting from Protecting Small Business Borrowers: Take That to the Bank!

While small businesses represent a significant portion of the economy, there is mounting evidence that the playing field is not level for these firms in access to capital. Based on 10 years of matched-paired mystery shopping tests in banks to investigate bank lending practices and customer experience, the results demonstrate that in almost every instance, minorities were treated more poorly than their White counterparts. However, the authors acknowledge the controversy surrounding this issue, as some question the need for government action to push banks in this direction. Before offering evidence of the impact race can have on the treatment of small business owners who apply for loans, they present two frameworks which support the adoption of race-based criteria in evaluating bank performance, namely, Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Social Innovation. They then provide a summary of the results of mystery shopping studies they have conducted, concluding that banks are leaving profits on the table through their discriminatory practices

Estructura y Composicion Floristica del Bosque de la Llanura Aluvial en la Amazonia Peruana: I. El Bosque Alto

Three peruvian flood plain forests adjacent to the Ucayali river were sampled using nine one hectare permanent sample plots in which stems exceeding 10 cm DBH were identified and measured. These plots have been measured 4 times during 1993-1997, and provide the basis for the results reported here. Three plots were established in each of the three forest types high restinga, low restinga, and tahuampa, characterized in part by and annual inundation of 1, 2 and 4 months per year, respectively. Stem density varies from 446 to 601 per ha, and the basal area ranges between 20-29 m2/ha. A total of 321 species were recorded in the nine hectare sample, with 88-141 species in each one hectare plot. Species composition indicated a relatively low similarity between the forest types. Plots with the longest flooding contained the most species, expressed both as per unit area as well as per 1 000 stems. The flood plain forests contain fewer tree species than the non-flooded terra firme forest. In all three forests Legminosae, Euphorbiaceae, Annonaceae and Lauraceae, are important. The Moraceae family is conspicuous in both high restinga, as is Rubiaceae in low restinga. Lecythidaceae, Sapotaceae, and Chrysobalanaceae exhibit relatively high values in the tahuampa forest. High species importance values are obtained for Maquira coriacea, Guarea macrophylla, Terminalia oblonga, Spondias mombin, Ceiba pentandra, Hura crepitans, Schweilera spp., Campsiandra angustifolia, Pouteria spp., Licania micrantha, Parinari excelsa, and Calycophyllum spruceanum. Among the species of smaller stature, Drypetes amazonica, Leonia glycicarpa, Theobroma cacao, and Protium nodulosum attain high values

Detecting Discrimination in Small Business Lending

With limited financial sophistication, entrepreneurial consumers approach the financial marketplace more like retail financial consumers than business customers. However, the assumption of both legislators and regulators is that business-borrowers are more financially savvy than consumer-borrowers, and thus do not require as broad-reaching protections. This gap between marketplace policy protections and the lived reality of the vast majority of small business entrepreneurs sets the stage for entrepreneurial consumers to fall through the regulatory cracks and sets the stage for possible exploitation and abuse. This situation is potentially exacerbated for minority entrepreneurs who belong to protected classes that are generally more vulnerable to exploitation in the marketplace including the small business lending marketplace. In this paper, we highlight the current state of this policy gap in the marketplace relative to minority entrepreneurial consumers and present a matched-paired mystery shopping study that demonstrates the critical need for reliable, primary data to inform regulatory agencies as they work to implement available protections to ensure equal access to credit within the small business lending marketplace

A NuSTAR observation of the reflection spectrum of the low mass X-ray binary 4U 1728-34

We report on a simultaneous NuSTAR and Swift observation of the neutron star low-mass X-ray binary 4U 1728-34. We identified and removed four Type I X-ray bursts during the observation in order to study the persistent emission. The continuum spectrum is hard and well described by a black body with $kT=$ 1.5 keV and a cutoff power law with $\Gamma=$ 1.5 and a cutoff temperature of 25 keV. Residuals between 6 and 8 keV provide strong evidence of a broad Fe K$\alpha$ line. By modeling the spectrum with a relativistically blurred reflection model, we find an upper limit for the inner disk radius of $R_{\rm in}\leq2 R_{\rm ISCO}$. Consequently we find that $R_{\rm NS}\leq23$ km, assuming M=1.4{\mbox{\rm\,M_{\mathord\odot}}} and $a=0.15$. We also find an upper limit on the magnetic field of $B\leq2\times10^8$ G.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure

The smooth cyclotron line in Her X-1 as seen with NuSTAR

Her X-1, one of the brightest and best studied X-ray binaries, shows a cyclotron resonant scattering feature (CRSF) near 37 keV. This makes it an ideal target for detailed study with the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), taking advantage of its excellent hard X-ray spectral resolution. We observed Her X-1 three times, coordinated with Suzaku, during one of the high flux intervals of its 35d super-orbital period. This paper focuses on the shape and evolution of the hard X-ray spectrum. The broad-band spectra can be fitted with a powerlaw with a high-energy cutoff, an iron line, and a CRSF. We find that the CRSF has a very smooth and symmetric shape, in all observations and at all pulse-phases. We compare the residuals of a line with a Gaussian optical depth profile to a Lorentzian optical depth profile and find no significant differences, strongly constraining the very smooth shape of the line. Even though the line energy changes dramatically with pulse phase, we find that its smooth shape does not. Additionally, our data show that the continuum is only changing marginally between the three observations. These changes can be explained with varying amounts of Thomson scattering in the hot corona of the accretion disk. The average, luminosity-corrected CRSF energy is lower than in past observations and follows a secular decline. The excellent data quality of NuSTAR provides the best constraint on the CRSF energy to date.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in Ap