Suchergebnisse

The study, conducted assesses the current state of agricultural finance in the Republic of Kosovo (Kosovo) and determine ways to improve the provision of finance to Kosovo's growing agricultural economy. The study is aimed at informing the full range of stakeholders about the best options to scale up financial services for agriculture. The study relies on data from available statistics as well as on individual and group discussions with stakeholders. Kosovo's business environment is improving, despite slow advancement in the capacity and function of the public institutions responsible for providing guidance and direction to the industry. Government focus on the World Bank (WB) Doing Business indicators has produced encouraging results. According to the Doing Business 2018 report, Kosovo is currently ranked 40th in the world, up from 126th in 2012, a leap of 86 places. In ease of starting a business, Kosovo very substantially improved its ranking, by 160 places. A law on strategic investments is under consideration, and attention is being given to support public institutions that improve the business environment, such as the Business Registration Agency, which ultimately will support investors. These developments are taking place in an economy marked by high general unemployment (30.5 percent) and very high youth unemployment (52.7 percent). The public sector remains the dominant employer and pays higher wages on average than he private sector. The supply of skilled workers is insufficient to satisfy private sector demand. Small and medium enterprises dominate the economic landscape; while these are increasing in number, few grow into larger entities.

"Finance" published on by Oxford University Press.

This is an excerpt from the 4-volume dictionary of economics, a reference book which aims to define the subject of economics today. 1300 subject entries in the complete work cover the broad themes of economic theory. This extract concentrates on finance.

"We present a dynamic general equilibrium model with agency costs where: i) firms are heterogeneous in the risk of default; ii) they can choose to raise finance through bank loans or corporate bonds; and iii) banks are more efficient than the market in resolving informational problems. The model is used to analyze some major long-run differences in corporate finance between the US and the euro area. We suggest an explanation of those differences based on information availability. Our model replicates the data when the euro area is characterized by limited availability of public information about corporate credit risk relative to the US, and when european firms value more than US firms the flexibility and information acquisition role provided by banks"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site