Credit Information Sharing and Loan Default in Developing Countries: The Moderating Effect of Banking Market Concentration and National Governance Quality

Departing from the existing literature, which associates credit information sharing with improved access to credit in advanced economies, we examine whether credit information sharing can also reduce loan default rate for banks domiciled in developing countries. Using a large dataset covering 879 unique banks from 87 developing countries from every continent, over a nine-year period (i.e., over 6,300 observations), we uncover three new findings. First, we find that credit information sharing reduces loan default rate. Second, we show that the relationship between credit information sharing and loan default rate is conditional on banking market concentration. Third, our findings suggest that governance quality at the country level does not have a strong moderating role on the effect of credit information sharing on loan default rate

To pay or not to pay? Business owners’ tax morale:testing a neo-institutional framework in a transition environment

In order to understand how the environment influences business owner/managers’ attitudes towards tax morale, we build a theoretical model based on a neo-institutionalist framework. Our model combines three complementary perspectives on institutions—normative, cultural–cognitive and regulatory–instrumental. This enables a broader understanding of factors that influence business owner–managers’ attitudes towards tax evasion. We test the resulting hypotheses using regression analysis on survey data on business owner/managers in Latvia—a transition country, which has undergone massive institutional changes since it was part of the Soviet Union over 25 years ago. We find that legitimacy of the tax authorities and the government (normative dimension), feeling of belonging to the nation (cultural–cognitive dimension) and perceptions of the risk and severity of punishment (regulatory–instrumental dimension) are all associated with higher tax morale for business owners and managers

Diffusive gradients in thin films measurement of sulfur stable isotope variations in labile soil sulfate

A diffusive gradient in thin films (DGT) technique, based on a strongly basic anion exchange resin (Amberlite IRA-400), was successfully tested for ³⁴S/³²S analysis in labile soil sulfate. Separation of matrix elements (Na, K, and Ca) that potentially cause non-spectral interferences in ³⁴S/³²S analysis by MC ICP-MS (multi-collector inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry) during sampling of sulfate was demonstrated. No isotopic fractionation caused by diffusion or elution of sulfate was observed below a resin gel disc loading of ≤79 μg S. Above this threshold, fractionation towards ³⁴S was observed. The method was applied to 11 different topsoils and one mineral soil profile (0-100 cm depth) and compared with soil sulfate extraction by water. The S amount and isotopic ratio in DGT-S and water-extractable sulfate correlated significantly (r² = 0.89 and r² = 0.74 for the 11 topsoils, respectively). The systematically lower ³⁴S/³²S isotope ratios of the DGT-S were ascribed to mineralization of organic S.Ondrej Hanousek, Jakob Santner, Sean Mason, Torsten W. Berger, Walter W. Wenzel, Thomas Prohask

Novel diffusive gradients in thin films technique to assess labile sulfate in soil

A novel diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT) technique for sampling labile soil sulfate was developed, based on a strong basic anion exchange resin (Amberlite IRA-400) for sulfate immobilization on the binding gel. For reducing the sulfate background on the resin gels, photopolymerization was applied instead of ammonium persulfate-induced polymerization. Agarose cross-linked polyacrylamide (APA) hydrogels were used as diffusive layer. The sulfate diffusion coefficient in APA gel was determined as 9.83 × 10⁻⁶ ± 0.35 × 10⁻⁶ cm² s⁻¹ at 25 °C. The accumulated sulfate was eluted in 1 mol L⁻¹ HNO₃ with a recovery of 90.9 ± 1.6 %. The developed method was tested against two standard extraction methods for soil sulfate measurement. The obtained low correlation coefficients indicate that DGT and conventional soil test methods assess differential soil sulfate pools, rendering DGT a potentially important tool for measuring labile soil sulfate.Ondrej Hanousek, Sean Mason, Jakob Santner, Md Mobaroqul Ahsan Chowdhury, Torsten W. Berger, Thomas Prohask