Finance

Today, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a key role in both developing and developed economies. However, the uncertainty of macroeconomic indicators, such as economic growth, may affect financing and investment of the SMEs in an economy. The present study explores the effect of the economic growth rate uncertainty on financing SMEs in Iran. To this end, the study has applied the Brownian motion approach to calculate the uncertainty of the economic growth rate. The study has also considered relevant data of the Iranian SMEs compiled by the Comprehensive Database of All Listed Companies (CODAL). We have examined the SMEs with less than 100 employees throughout 2011-2017. The empirical results show that the effect of the economic growth rate uncertainty on the selected Iranian SMEs financing has been negative and statistically significant, while it seems an effective challenge to such firms in order to finance their productive investment. JEL Classification:D81, G21, L25, E43.

Events in the building industry in Nigeria in the last decade show the important role the private sector played in housing finance. With the advent of the public-private partnership concept in almost every sector of the socio-economic spheres of the nation, the role of the private sector in housing finance cannot be over-emphasized. This paper clearly states that the low-income public servants do not easily have access to housing finance. The responsibility of generating housing finance at a relatively low interest rate repayable over a maximum period of twenty five years rests on whoever seeks for a housing loan through the Federal Mortgage Bank or the Primary Mortgage Institutions. This paper seeks mediatory role of the private sector between this class of the society and the mortgage banks to source for funds to enable them to own their houses. The research method employed in this paper is the survey research in which questionnaires were administered on members of three housing estates, two housing estates in Lagos and one in Abuja. This paper exامینes the role of the private sector in the public-private partnership in housing delivery to low-income earners in Nigeria through housing finance. The findings showed that majority of the respondents had access to either mortgage or commercial banks to source for funding or the purchase of the houses.

Efficient use of assets in agriculture is a goal for policy-makers and farmers. Agricultural input resources are scarce therefore optimum use of inputs in different agricultural operations is important. Mathematical programming technique such as data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a well-known approach for estimation efficiency of agricultural DMUs. In this study, efficiency of kidney bean production in twelve provinces of Iran has been studied. Inputs were cost of tillage, planting, cultivation, harvesting and land. Output included total production value of kidney bean. Land cost is a non-controllable variable. Therefore; a non-discretionary DEA approach was applied to estimate efficiency of kidney bean production. The average value of technical efficiency score of kidney bean production was 0.74. Results showed that 58 percent of DMUs were efficient and the rest were inefficient. In optimum condition based on the proposed model, tillage, planting, cultivation and harvesting costs is decreased by 34.48%, 11.92%, 27.87% and 7.27%, respectively, without decreasing kidney bean production level.

The article examines the multiaspected problem of ensuring economic security. An analysis of challenges and threats to Ukraine's economic security during 2010-2019. Strategic goals of economic security have been set. The study of the relationship between public debt, foreign direct investment, and economic growth allows assessing the characteristics of economic security. A system of structural equations is proposed to study the relationship between GDP, public debt, and foreign direct investment. The result of economic security, which can be achieved by achieving the goal, can be considered increased resilience to internal and external factors.

In light of recent price swings in oil and the need to reduce the country's dependency on the commodity, the government of Nigeria has implemented a number of reforms and initiatives to stimulate the non-oil sector of the economy, most notably the informal sector. Government financial support as interventions would have otherwise been a relief in changing the narrative of ugly financial accessibility of participants in the informal sector. The level of financial accessibility and its relationship to the economic performance of participants in the informal sector have been largely understudied. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to assess the shortcomings of current government interventions in the informal sector and to provide a viable financial intervention structure to address these issues. This research included both primary and secondary sources of information. Questionnaires were used to collect primary data from respondents. A total of 700 informal sector participant who are mainly SMEs operators, 300 registered and 400 unregistered, were chosen using a purposeful selection technique from the six states of Southwest Nigeria. Data was examined in two ways using SPSS: descriptive and inferential. Thus, the study showed the flaws of the past interventions, such as a faulty programme design, bias in the distribution of financing facilities, a lack of knowledge about the facilities, and convoluted procedures for gaining government funding support.

In most countries, a major source of government revenue is funded through taxes. Tax share of total public revenues is different among countries and the rate depends on the level of development and economic structure. For this reason, the necessity to understanding of causes, aggravating factors, tax evasion, providing practical solutions and scientific recommendations will be inevitable. According to the current study by using a smooth transition regression (STR) and annual data from 1971-2015, we investigate the effects of direct financing through amendments of direct tax law on economic growth in Iran's conventional model of economic growth. The results of this study, along with the theoretical foundations and the prevailing belief of most economists, showed that the effect of different methods of financing through direct taxes on economic growth in Iran conditional on the state of the economy, in particular in accordance with the results of investment. It means that in the first regime, when the investment share of GDP is became less than 34/05 percent, financed by oil revenues has negative effects and financing through tax revenues had a positive effect on economic growth. But in the second regime, when the investment share of GDP is more than 28/01 percent, the financing of both oil and tax revenues had a positive effect on economic growth. Although in the second regime and by increasing the investment to keep pace with positive impact on the severity funded through tax revenues increased.