Profitability and outreach of microfinance: Mission drift theory and evidence from Uganda

The microfinance movement has received enthusiasm as a poverty alleviation tool that has the potential to become a self-sustaining industry. Large-scale poverty reduction through financially sustainable institutions is the ultimate promise of microfinance. However, in the 1990s, a debate emerged regarding the possibilities of achieving this promise. Others argue that microfinance institutions should reduce their dependency from donors and governments by becoming financially self-sufficient, commercial institutions that can borrow from the commercial capital markets and that way grow to serve large numbers of poor people. Others, however, fear that a profit-seeking approach into microfinance will result in the poorest of the poor clients being discarded; a phenomenon called mission drift. The debate on mission drift still remains unsettled, and there is a clear need for representative empirical studies that attempt to identify the patterns of profitability and outreach of microfinance. The aim of this thesis is to shed light on this ongoing debate by studying whether mission drift is a justified worry: is there evidence of a trade-off between the financial performance and depth of outreach of microfinance? This thesis studies the research question both by reviewing the relevant literature and earlier empirical evidence from both sides of the debate, and by conducting an empirical analysis of profitability and outreach in a case country; Uganda. The empirical analysis employs the 2006 Census of Tier 4 Microfinance Institutions in Uganda, which offers a representative picture of the microfinance industry in the country. Profitability patterns are studied by comparing the performance of different groups of institutions. A regression analysis on the individual lenders of Uganda studies the trade-offs between profitability and outreach to determine whether these institutions are susceptible to mission drift. The main finding of the thesis is that mission drift is a possible concern for certain institutions. Institutional forms and methods of operation have an important effect in determining the possibilities of profitability and outreach. The regression analysis on Ugandan individual lenders finds evidence that increased profitability tends to worsen outreach, though this finding is not conclusive. Further attention needs to be paid to this possibility of a trade-off, and lending practices ought to be designed adequately in order to prevent mission drift

Optimal taxation and public provision for poverty reduction

The existing literature on optimal taxation typically assumes there exists a capacity to implement complex tax schemes, which is not necessarily the case for many developing countries. We examine the determinants of optimal redistributive policies in the context of a developing country that can only implement linear tax policies due to administrative reasons. Further, the reduction of poverty is typically the expressed goal of such countries, and this feature is also taken into account in our model. We derive the optimality conditions for linear income taxation, commodity taxation, and public provision of private and public goods for the poverty minimization case, and compare the results to those derived under a general welfarist objective function. We also study the implications of informality on optimal redistributive policies for such countries, and comment on the potential for minimum wage regulation. The exercise reveals nontrivial differences in optimal tax rules under the different assumptions. The derived formulae also capture the sufficient statistics that the governments need to pay attention to when designing poverty alleviation policies

Työnantajan omavastuuperiaate työkyvyttömyyseläkkeissä

Suurtyönantajat ovat velvollisia korvaamaan osan työntekijöidensä työkyvyttömyyseläkkeistä. Tämän omavastuuperiaatteen on toivottu kannustavan työnantajia vähentämään työkyvyttömyyseläkkeitä erilaisilla ennaltaehkäisevillä toimilla. Tutkimuksessa kuvataan työkyvyttömyyseläkemaksun määräytymistä sekä arvioidaan maksujen kannustinvaikutuksia

Effects of neurological music therapy on behavioural and emotional recovery after traumatic brain injury : A randomized controlled cross-over trial

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) causes deficits in executive function (EF), as well as problems in behavioural and emotional self-regulation. Neurological music therapy may aid these aspects of recovery. We performed a cross-over randomized controlled trial where 40 persons with moderate-severe TBI received a 3-month neurological music therapy intervention (2 times/week, 60 min/session), either during the first (AB, n = 20) or second (BA, n = 20) half of a 6-month follow-up period. The evidence from this RCT previously demonstrated that music therapy enhanced general EF and set shifting. In the current study, outcome was assessed with self-report and caregiver-report questionnaires performed at baseline, 3-month, 6-month, and 18-month stages. The results showed that the self-reported Behavioural Regulation Index of the Behaviour Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF-A) improved more in the AB than BA group from baseline to 3-month stage and the effect was maintained in the 6-month follow-up. No changes in mood or quality of life questionnaires were observed. However, a qualitative content analysis of the feedback revealed that many participants experienced the intervention as helpful in terms of emotional well-being and activity. Our results suggest that music therapy has a positive effect on everyday behavioural regulation skills after TBI.Peer reviewe

Music therapy enhances executive functions and prefrontal structural neuroplasticity after traumatic brain injury : Evidence from a randomized controlled trial

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) causes lifelong cognitive deficits, particularly impairments of executive functioning (EF). Musical training and music-based rehabilitation have been shown to enhance cognitive functioning and neuroplasticity, but the potential rehabilitative effects of music in TBI are still largely unknown. The aim of the present crossover randomized controlled trial (RCT) was to determine the clinical efficacy of music therapy on cognitive functioning in TBI and to explore its neural basis. Using an AB/BA design, 40 patients with moderate or severe TBI were randomized to receive a 3-month neurological music therapy intervention either during the first (AB, n = 20) or second (BA, n = 20) half of a 6-month follow-up period. Neuropsychological and motor testing and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were performed at baseline and at the 3-month and 6-month stage. Thirty-nine subjects who participated in baseline measurement were included in an intention-to-treat analysis using multiple imputation. Results showed that general EF (as indicated by the Frontal Assessment Battery [FAB]) and set shifting improved more in the AB group than in the BA group over the first 3-month period and the effect on general EF was maintained in the 6-month follow-up. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) analysis of the structural MRI data indicated that gray matter volume (GMV) in the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) increased significantly in both groups during the intervention versus control period, which also correlated with cognitive improvement in set shifting. These findings suggest that neurological music therapy enhances EF and induces fine-grained neuroanatomical changes in prefrontal areasPeer reviewe

Työkyvyttömyyseläkkeet ja työnantajan omavastuuperiaate TEL:sta TyEL:iin

Suomessa suurimmat yksityiset työnantajat ovat olleet velvollisia korvaamaan työntekijöidensä työkyvyttömyyseläkkeiden kustannukset osittain tai täysimääräisinä Työntekijäin eläkelain (TEL) syntymästä 1960-luvulla asti alkaen. Periaatteen taustalla oli pyrkimys kannustaa työnantajia ennaltaehkäisemään yhteiskunnalle kalliita työkyvyttömyyseläkkeitä. Kun kansainväliset IFRS-tilinpäätösstandardit pakottivat muuttamaan työkyvyttömyysmaksujen rakennetta 2000-luvulla, haluttiin työnantajien omavastuuperiaate edelleen säilyttää. Näin luodussa uudessa maksuluokkamallissa työnantajat asetetaan työkyvyttömyysriskinsä mukaiseen maksuluokkaan, eikä niiltä veloiteta yksittäisen eläkkeen kustannuksia kuten ennen. Uusi maksujärjestelmä on teknisesti hyvin monimutkainen ja erilainen kuin entinen järjestelmä, minkä vuoksi on syytä tutkia muutoksia työnantajien maksujen asettamissa kannustimissa. Tässä tutkimuksessa simuloidaan rekisteriaineistolla työnantajien työkyvyttömyyseläkemaksuista aiheutuvia kustannuksia omavastuumallin ja maksuluokkamallin aikana. Lisäksi tutkimus kokoaa yhteen tietoa työkyvyttömyyseläkkeiden omavastuuperiaatteen historiasta suomalaisessa eläkejärjestelmässä sekä omavastuujärjestelmän ja maksuluokkamallin toimintaperiaatteista.In Finland the biggest employers are liable for the disability pension expenditures of their employees, in part or in full, a principle that has been effective since the introduction of the first Finnish private sector pension law (TEL). The practice aims at giving employers an incentive to prevent work-related disability pensions. When the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), introduced in Finland in the early 2000s, forced to change the structure of disability payments, practitioners wanted to maintain the principle of employers' liability. This way the new payment category system was created, whereby the disability pensions of a firm's employees determine the firm's risk level and thus payment category. In this system the costs of a certain pension are no longer directly collected from the employers. The new payment category system is technically very complex and differs from the previous system. It is therefore of interest to study whether the incentive structure posed by the disability payments has changed with the introduction of the new system. This study uses data from Finnish registers to simulate employers' payments caused by the disability pensions of their own employees, both in the old system and the new one in order to illustrate possible differences between the two. The study also gathers information regarding the inception of the liability principle in the Finnish pension system as well as regarding the functioning of the two systems

Impact of social media on investing in stocks

Sosiaalisen median vaikutus nykypäivänä on suuri, ja sen vaikutukset näkyvät myös osakesijoittamisessa. Tämän opinnäytetyön tarkoituksena oli löytää vastauksia siihen, miten sosiaalinen media vaikuttaa osakesijoittamiseen. Kohderyhmänä opinnäytetyössä olivat erityisesti 16–35 -vuotiaat nuoret sijoittajat. Kaksi tutkimuskysymystä muodostettiin työtä varten. Ensimmäinen tutkimuskysymys oli ’’Miten sosiaalinen media vaikuttaa osakesijoittamiseen?’’, ja toinen tutkimuskysymys oli ’’Miten nuorten sijoittamispäätöksiin voidaan vaikuttaa?’’. Tutkimuksen kohteena olivat tällä hetkellä eniten käytetyt alustat: Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter ja YouTube. Nuoria ohjataan eri tavoin, ja sosiaalisessa mediassa vaikuttajilla on iso rooli. Osakesijoittamisesta jaetaan jatkuvasti uutta tietoa eri sosiaalisen median alustoilla, ja sijoittamisesta on tullut helpompaa sosiaalisen median kehittyessä. Erilaisia sijoittamiseen keskittyviä alustoja on kehitetty, kuten esimerkiksi Nordnet. Tutkimus tehtiin korrelaatiotutkimuksena. Lisäksi suoritettiin kysely, joka mahdollisti suuremman määrän vastauksia. Syvempään perehtymiseen aiheeseen käytettiin tieteellistä kirjallisuutta. Tutkimuksessa noudatettiin Lapin Ammattikorkeakoulun eettisiä ohjeita ja analysointi suoritettiin huolellisesti vertaamalla vastauksia Webropolin ja Excelin avulla. Tuloksissa kävi ilmi, että sosiaalisen median vaikutus osakesijoittamiseen on melko suuri, mutta ihmiset ovat edelleen erittäin tarkkoja sosiaalisessa mediassa törmätyn sisällön suhteen. Lähes jokainen vastaaja on törmännyt sijoittamiseen liittyvään sisältöön tai tietoon sosiaalisessa mediassa ja suurin osa vastaajista kokee, että tieto on vaikuttanut heihin niin, että vastaaja on joko harkinnut sijoittamista tai sijoittanut tiettyyn kohteeseen.The importance of social media in today’s world is immerse and it can be seen on investing in stocks also. The purpose of the thesis was to find out ways social media is impacting investing in stocks, especially in young people aged from 16 to 35. Two research questions were formed for the thesis. The first question was ‘’How does social media impact investing in stocks?’’, and the second question for the research was ‘’How can the investing choices of young people be impacted?’’. The research focuses on the most common platforms currently: Facebook, Tik-Tok, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. Young people are being guided in different ways, and on social media the influencers play a big role. There are different sites for everybody to invest in stocks, such as Nordnet. The research was correlational and a survey was conducted to gain answers from the sample. Scientific literature was used to dive deeper into the topic. The ethical guidelines of Lapland University of Applied Sciences were followed, and the analyzing was conducted carefully by comparing the answers gained from the survey by using the applications on Webropol and Excel. When it comes to the results, it was notable that the impact of social media on investing in stocks has become important but people are still very careful with the content they have been presented. Almost every respondent has run into investing related content or information on social media and most of the respondents have been influenced by the information so that they have either thought about investing or invested on something by the influence of the information

OPTIMAL TAXATION AND PUBLIC PROVISION FOR POVERTY REDUCTION

The existing literature on optimal taxation typically assumes there exists a capacity to implement complex tax schemes, which is not necessarily the case for many developing countries. We examine the determinants of optimal redistributive policies in the context of a developing country that can only implement linear tax policies due to administrative reasons. Further, the reduction of poverty is typically the expressed goal of such countries, and this feature is also taken into account in our model. We derive the optimality conditions for linear income taxation, commodity taxation, and public provision of private and public goods for the poverty minimization case, and compare the results to those derived under a general welfarist objective function. We also study the implications of informality on optimal redistributive policies for such countries, and comment on the potential for minimum wage regulation. The exercise reveals non-trivial differences in optimal tax rules under the different assumptions. The derived formulae also capture the sufficient statistics that the governments need to pay attention to when designing poverty alleviation policies

Resting-State Network Plasticity Induced by Music Therapy after Traumatic Brain Injury

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is characterized by a complex pattern of abnormalities in resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) and network dysfunction, which can potentially be ameliorated by rehabilitation. In our previous randomized controlled trial, we found that a 3-month neurological music therapy intervention enhanced executive function (EF) and increased grey matter volume in the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) in patients with moderate-to-severe TBI (N = 40). Extending this study, we performed longitudinal rsFC analyses of resting-state fMRI data using a ROI-to-ROI approach assessing within-network and between-network rsFC in the frontoparietal (FPN), dorsal attention (DAN), default mode (DMN), and salience (SAL) networks, which all have been associated with cognitive impairment after TBI. We also performed a seed-based connectivity analysis between the right IFG and whole-brain rsFC. The results showed that neurological music therapy increased the coupling between the FPN and DAN as well as between these networks and primary sensory networks. By contrast, the DMN was less connected with sensory networks after the intervention. Similarly, there was a shift towards a less connected state within the FPN and SAL networks, which are typically hyperconnected following TBI. Improvements in EF were correlated with rsFC within the FPN and between the DMN and sensorimotor networks. Finally, in the seed-based connectivity analysis, the right IFG showed increased rsFC with the right inferior parietal and left frontoparietal (Rolandic operculum) regions. Together, these results indicate that the rehabilitative effects of neurological music therapy after TBI are underpinned by a pattern of within- and between-network connectivity changes in cognitive networks as well as increased connectivity between frontal and parietal regions associated with music processing.Peer reviewe