Georgios A. Panos

Financial Literacy and Retirement Planning: The Russian Case

The authors examine the association of financial literacy with retirement planning in Russia, a country with a relatively old and rapidly aging population, large regional disparities, and a rapidly emerging financial market. They find that only 36.3 percent of respondents in the sample understand interest compounding and only half can answer a simple question about inflation. In a country with widespread public pension provisions, they find that financial literacy is significantly and positively related to retirement planning involving private pension funds and schemes. Thus, along with encouraging the availability of private retirement plans, efforts to improve financial literacy could be pivotal to the expansion of the use of such schemes.

Entrepreneurship in Post-Conflict Transition : The Role of Informality and Access to Finance

The authors examine the factors affecting the transition to self-employment in Bosnia and Herzegovina, using the World Bank Living Standard Measurement Survey panel household survey for the years 2001-2004. In the beginning of the sample, the country changed its legal framework, with the primary aim to promote labor market flexibility and to encourage entrepreneurial activity. The analysis identifies individuals that switched to self-employment (employers and own account) during the sample period and the viability of this transition, in terms of business survival for more than one year. The results suggest an important role for financing constraints. Specifically, wealthier households are more likely to become entrepreneurs and survive in self-employment. After controlling for household wealth, having an existing bank relationship increases the likelihood of starting a business with hired employees and increases the chances of survival for the new entrepreneur. By contrast, overseas - and in some cases domestic - remittances decrease the likelihood of becoming an entrepreneur.

Financial Literacy and the Financial Crisis

The ability of consumers to make informed financial decisions improves their chances of having sound personal finance. This paper uses a panel dataset from Russia, where consumer loans grew at an astounding rate -- from about US

Entrepreneurship in post-conflict transition

10 billion in 2003 to over US

Financial Literacy and Retirement Planning in View of a Growing Youth Demographic: The Russian Case

170 billion in 2008 -- to examine the importance of financial literacy and its relationship with behavior. The survey asked questions on financial literacy, consumer borrowing (formal and informal), and spending behavior. The paper studies the consequences of greater financial literacy on the use of financial products and financial planning. Even though consumer borrowing rose rapidly in Russia, only 41 percent of the survey respondents understood how interest compounding worked and only 46 percent could answer a simple question about inflation. Financial literacy is positively related to participation in financial markets and negatively related to the use of informal sources of borrowing. Individuals with higher rates of financial literacy are significantly more likely to report having more unspent income at the end of the month and higher spending capacity. The relationship between financial literacy and the availability of unspent income is more evident during the financial crisis, suggesting that better financial literacy may better equip individuals to deal with macroeconomic shocks.

Multiple Job Holding as a Strategy for Skills Diversification and Labour Market Mobility

We examine new self-employment entry and its viability in Bosnia and Herzegovina, using a rich household survey for the years 2001–2004. We find that wealthier households are more likely to engage in viable self-employment and create employment suggesting an important role for financing constraints. Specifically, although having an existing bank relationship is not significantly related to the entry decision, it is positively related to the survival for new entrepreneurs and their employment creation. We also find a non-linear relationship between remittances and entry in that individuals not receiving remittances are more likely to enter self-employment; but, if they do receive them, the likelihood of starting a business increases in the fraction of wealth received from domestic remittances. Finally, people working in the informal sector are more likely to become viable entrepreneurs, particularly those provided with loans from micro-credit organizations. These findings support the perception of the informal sector as an incubator for formal self-employment in the early years of transition.

What Do People Expect from a Financial Awareness Platform? Insights from an Online Survey

Our study contributes to the financial literacy literature by examining its association with retirement planning in an interesting and novel context, i.e. that of a country with a relatively old and rapidly ageing population, large regional disparities and a rapidly emerging financial market. Even though consumer borrowing is increasing very rapidly in Russia, we find that only 36.3% of respondents in our sample know about the working of interest compounding and only half can answer a simple question about inflation. In a country with pervasive public pension provision, we find that financial literacy is significantly and positively related to retirement planning using private pension funds and schemes. Residents in rural areas are much more reliant on the public provision and invest less in private schemes and savings. The results of our study have a clear policy implication; along with encouraging the availability of private retirement plans and financial products, efforts to improve financial literacy can be pivotal to the expansion in the use of such schemes.

Book review: Greece, Financialization and the EU: The Political Economy of Debt and DestructionFouskasV.DimoulasC. (eds), Greece, Financialization and the EU: The Political Economy of Debt and Destruction, New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2013; 245 pp., £63.00 (hbk).

The inter-related dynamics of dual job-holding, human capital and occupational choice between primary and secondary jobs are investigated, using a panel sample (1991-2005) of UK employees from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS). A sequential profile of the working lives of employees is examined, investigating, first, the determinants of multiple job-holding, second, the factors affecting the occupational choice of a secondary job, third, the relationship between multiple-job holding and job mobility and, lastly, the spillover effects of multiple job-holding on occupational mobility between primary jobs. The evidence indicates that dual job-holding may facilitate job transition, as it may act as a stepping-stone towards new primary jobs, particularly self-employment.

On the educational curriculum in finance and technology

The aim of this study is to present the analysis of an online survey that was conducted in order to investigate individual attitudes and requirements from an online financial awareness platform. The survey aimed to elicit users’ self-assessed financial knowledge, financial capability and awareness, along with facets of their financial behaviour. Moreover, it entailed questions capturing attitudes towards technology and internet usage. Specifically, it targeted requirements for specific resources and features of a financial awareness platform, along with explicit motivations and incentives for participating and contributing to the platform of the PROFIT project. The custom-made online survey was completed by 494 respondents from different demographic groups and user groups, i.e., in terms of familiarity and requirements. The results indicate that there is a strong existing need in the market for online financial information and awareness development with online tools.

Collective Online Platforms for Financial and Environmental Awareness

as highly cross cultural. Another solid scholarly example in this vein is the work by Professors Ibraiz Tarique, Pace University, NY, USA, Dennis R. Briscoe, San Diego University, CA, USA, and Randall S. Schuler, Rutgers University, NJ, USA, on International Human Resource Management: Policies and Practices for Multinational Enterprises (London and New York, NY: Routledge, 2016, now in its 5th edition), which includes an expanded chapter on comparative and national cultures. Additionally, Dr Connie Zheng, Deakin University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, another China expert, has published an edited work of related interest in the above vein, with the title of International Human Resource Management: Trends, Practices and Future Directions (Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science Publishers, 2016), which has many useful AsiaPacific exemplifications and can be duly recommended. Last, Dr Tony Edwards, a professor of comparative management at King’s College London, UK, and Dr Chris Rees, School of Management, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK, have published an updated version of their text, International Human Resource Management: Globalization, National Systems and Multinational Companies (London: Pearson, 2017, 3rd edition), which is all to the good. To sum up, this reviewer cannot stress enough the point that ‘people’ (or ‘labour’ as the economists call it) will ‘just not go away’ in businesses and organizations but will continue to ‘get in the way’! ‘Systems’ cannot indeed operate effectively without the commitment and involvement of the individuals working in them – let alone taking into account, algorithms, automation and the like. The ‘human factor’ still remains an often awkward reality but one that has to be dealt with, even accommodated. Terms like ‘human capital’ are demeaning, even dehumanizing. The ‘social dimension’, still remains an important contribution to our knowledge of the workplace, as we know from the experience of the ‘Hawthorne experiments’, investigated by Harvard’s Professor Elton Mayo (1880–1949) and colleagues as well as other research agenda conducted in the 1920s and onwards. Paying attention to employees’ concerns has been – and is still – seen as a potential boost to their performance. This is more important than ever, particularly in the so-called ‘sharing economy’, with job insecurity, low wages and weak or non-existent unions. The ‘cultural factor’, be it organizational and societal, is also a further perspective that needs more emphasis across the continents. Little of the above has been truly superseded by contemporary empirical investigations in the field. So, we need to continue to study and teach about the ‘centrality’ of such issues in understanding what makes economies, firms and managements tick, the dilemmas of globalization notwithstanding.