Khondker Aktaruzzaman and Omar Farooq
The purpose of this paper is to document the impact of participation in microfinance programs on domestic violence against women.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to document the impact of participation in microfinance programs on domestic violence against women.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses the survey data from 69 villages in Bangladesh and the instrumental variable approach to estimate the effect of participation in microcredit programs on domestic violence.
Findings
The results show that women’s participation in microcredit programs does not reduce domestic violence. However, this result is possible only when the authors do not distinguish between female borrowers who have control over credit and those who do not have control over credit. Classifying female borrowers into these two categories can significantly change the results. The authors report significantly lower physical violence against those female who have control over credit. In case of psychological violence, the authors report no significant impact of control over microcredit.
Originality/value
The novelty of the paper lies in distinguishing between physical and psychological violence.
Details
Keywords
Omar Farooq and Khondker Aktaruzzaman
Is location in the financial center of a country significant determinant of a firm’s dividend policy? The purpose of this paper is to answer this question within the context of an…
Abstract
Purpose
Is location in the financial center of a country significant determinant of a firm’s dividend policy? The purpose of this paper is to answer this question within the context of an emerging market.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use variety of techniques (OLS regression, panel regression with random effects, TOBIT regression and quintile regression) to document the effect of location on dividend policies of Indian firms during the period between 2001 and 2016.
Findings
The results show significantly higher dividend payout ratios for firms headquartered in Mumbai, the main financial center of India. The results are robust for alternate proxy of dividend policy and for different sub-samples. The results also show that these results are more pronounced for firms with better information environment (firms with high analyst coverage).
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, most of the prior research overlooks how a location of firm’s headquarter in the financial center affects its dividend decisions. This paper fills this gap by documenting the relationship between the two in India.
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Omar Farooq and Khondker Aktaruzzaman
The aim of this paper is to document the effect of democracy on the financing constraints faced by private firms.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to document the effect of democracy on the financing constraints faced by private firms.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses the data from the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys to test the arguments presented in this paper in a large sample of private firms from 92 developing countries.
Findings
The results show that firms headquartered in more democratic countries have better access to finance than firms headquartered in less democratic countries. The findings are robust to the comprehensive inclusion of relevant controls and to a number of sensitivity tests. The authors' findings highlight an important channel through which democracy can affect the business environment of a country.
Originality/value
The authors believe that this paper is an initial attempt to document the effect of democracy on the financing constraints faced by private firms.
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Omar Farooq and Khondker Aktaruzzaman
The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence on the informational role played by ownership concentration.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence on the informational role played by ownership concentration.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use bivariate vector autoregressive models to document the informational role of ownership concentration.
Findings
The findings suggest that the returns of firms with concentrated ownership structure lead the returns of firms with dispersed ownership structure in Morocco during the period between 2004 and 2014. The authors argue that this lead-lag relationship arises because a better information environment in firms with concentrated ownership structure enables quick incorporation of relevant information. The results are robust under different information regimes.
Originality/value
The authors believe that this paper is one of the first evidence on the informational role of ownership concentration in Morocco.