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This paper uses the difference-in-differences model to research how the "piercing the corporate veil" system marked by the 2005 Company Law amendment affects the level of corporate creditor protection. The research results show that private enterprises and local state-owned enterprises are sensitive and significant to this legal amendment. In contrast, local state-owned enterprises are more sensitive and have a stronger motivation to protect the interests of creditors. The motivation of companies with weaker profitability for creditor protection lasts not only for the year of law revision but also extends to the year of implementation. With the law's implementation, the growth effect of creditor protection for local state-owned enterprises has become more significant. Further analysis shows that the main findings of this article are more significant in companies with larger debt scales, companies with a higher year-on-year growth rate of operating income, companies with controlling shareholders, and companies with higher stock market capitalization. From an empirical research view, this paper explains the economic effect and mechanism of the whole corporate personality under the complete system and adds economic evidence for how the law acts on the capital market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper builds on an intensive and unique survey of all Czech municipalities (n = 6,258) regarding the geoparticipatory spatial tools used in the decision-making processes of local administrations and the Index of Geoparticipation derived from the dataset. Furthermore, we have collected and analysed data regarding 238 participatory budgeting events in the Czech Republic from the years 2012–2020. This paper is divided into two sections. We investigate the relationships among the municipalities' membership in the Healthy Cities of the Czech Republic network (HCCZ), as well as the municipalities' levels of indebtedness and their performances in the Index of Geoparticipation and their usage of participatory budgeting. Our primary theory states that membership in HCCZ and higher values in the Index of Geoparticipation will support the use of participatory budgeting, while indebtedness will discourage municipalities from implementing participatory budgeting. We deepen the knowledge of participatory budgeting in the Czech Republic, while focusing on the qualitative analysis of projects that have been approved and implemented through the tool of participatory budgeting at the municipal level. Additionally, we examine what type of projects the funds are allocated to and how the characteristics of these projects change over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the infrastructural and organisational forms that facilitate labour exploitation within maritime logistics. My entry point is the rising wave of seafarer abandonments, which I approach not as isolated incidents of mismanagement but as an intensification of the flexibilising tendencies underpinning contemporary capitalism. I trace the recent history of these dynamics, examining their effect on shipping labour. I then investigate some of the specific legal and economic mechanics of shipping, focusing on debt, insurance, and bordering. Using supply chain mapping software, I study supply systems in a way that centres labour rather than the commodities being moved. I close by claiming that abandonments are not an accident, but an inevitable endpoint of a system designed to precaritise labour while protecting shipowners' profits. Against this, I sketch out a new way of conceiving of supply chains—as supply nets, matrices of interconnected lines, prone to becoming tangled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is the association between debt and feeling of depression so fundamental that it occurs across time and place? Are some countries better at mitigating the depression related to debt than others? This paper addresses these questions by taking advantage of three harmonised longitudinal surveys, consisting of older adults in 21 European countries and the US. A series of logistic regression models show that, net of differences in other socioeconomic variables, people with household non-mortgage debt have higher odds of depression, measured using dichotomised versions of depressive symptom scores, in all countries. These associations are in many countries as strong as the association between low education level and depression. The association is particularly strong in countries with poor debt discharge legislation or low levels of indebtedness, both of which may be regarded as indicators of stigma related to debts. Overtime the association between debt and depression seems to be elevated within countries when the unemployment rate increases. These findings demonstrate how the links between debt and mental health are embedded in its institutional and economic contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that rising household indebtedness is associated with the decline of organised labour. Over the last decades, the financial system is increasingly financing working-class households, and recent research shows that indebted employees become more risk-averse at the workplace on the fear of losing their job and defaulting. Thus, since union formation or participation is commonly punished with redundancy, rising household indebtedness is likely to be associated with the aggregate reduction in unionisation. This study examines this argument for a high-, a mid-, and low-unionisation economy over the period 1965–2018: Sweden, Japan, and South Korea, respectively. Regression analysis provides robust support in favour of this argument. The results also suggest that financial regulation and social norms about personal insolvency matter for the size of the effects of household debt on unionisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people form the primary target demographic of new 'buy now pay later' (BNPL) and digital credit services. Despite consistent data showing young people as a cohort are particularly vulnerable to unsustainable levels of indebtedness, little is known about how young people define and make sense of the experience of being in debt through consumer credit services. This paper explores how indebtedness is experienced and understood in relation to wellbeing through a qualitative study using interviews alongside arts-based participatory methods of bodymapping and sandboxing with 24 young people in the Hunter region of NSW, Australia. These methods enabled particular attention to the embodied and affective elements related to the experience of indebtedness to understand debt's significance for wellbeing for young people. The embodied and affective registers of indebtedness are integral for understanding the conditions informing how wellbeing is negotiated and felt in this context. This study considers the role of BNPL services in young people's economic lives as part of broader processes of financialisation, and the significance of extended and ubiquitous forms of credit for young people's wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how elite Black women determine their class status in the era of wealth inequality. While previous literature focuses on labor to theorize Black middle-class power, homeownership, debt, and consumerism are meaningful amid the race and gender wealth gaps. This paper uses data from 24 interviews with Black, college-educated, married, homeowning women in a Southern state to explore the class attitudes and economic indicators participants use to claim middle-class status. These findings contribute to our understanding of how the Black middle-class navigates their economic privilege and precarity beyond employment and reveals tensions between the Black middle-class and Black elite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What we propose in this paper is to elaborate on what it means to consider 'migration' as part of an oikonomia. This is not an 'economic perspective on migration' but a genealogy of migration as a way of managing people in light of both colonial divides and questions of labor and race. First, we argue that 'migration' is constituted as an effect of accounting, of the registration of comings and goings and of belonging within a reference space of governed territories. We illustrate how migration is born out of the specific accounting inventions made by Ernst Ravenstein. Second, we argue that the accounting of a singular thing called migration only starts to take off when nineteenth-century empire reaches its tipping point. Third, we illustrate how this accounting constitutes a form of double bookkeeping. To record or register migration is to make a record of what the nation would be if the people marked as migrants were not present, and it is to simultaneously record what it costs the nation now that they are. In this oikonomia, migration is enacted as a form of debt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper deals with “The Impact of the Conditional Style Denotation on the Context Formation in the Debt Verse—Surah al-Baqara 282”. The significance of this study arises from the reasons for choosing it which are based on: first, demonstrating the effect of the conditional style patterns in constructing the denotation of the debt verse context, keeping in mind the diversity of the conditional style, i.e. direct or indirect, and the immediate connection of the debt issue with the life of the individual and the society; second, showing the achieved impact of the conditional style on the structures of this verse and its denotations and the consequently implied legislative provisions that regulate the life of the Muslim society. The paper is divided into three sections of two parts each and a conclusion. The first section discusses the syntactic and semantic functions of the conditional style and the value of the debt verse in the context of its surah, focusing on the denotation of the verse’s internal structure within the framework of its relationship with the general context of the surah. The second section explores the effect of the direct conditional style in the construction of the verse’s context denotation, especially the effect of the two if devices, itha and en, in the denotative construction of this context. The third section explains the contextual effect of the indirect conditional style in the construction of the verse’s context denotation, especially those patterns which are based on request to construct the condition denotation in the context of the verse in question. The most important findings of the paper can be summarized in the following three points: • The conditional style with its variant patterns fits semantically in the context of the general meaning of the debt verse (Surah al-Baqarah 282) which makes it denotatively very miraculous. • The semantic integration between the patterns of the conditional style created a semantic harmony within the context of the debt verse (Surah al-Baqarah 282) which helps to communicate the legislative semantic purpose to the addressees. • The intense presence of the conditional style denotation in the structural context of the debt verse (Surah al-Baqarah 282) came to serve the basic goal for which its context was built. This is integrated with the reciprocal serving of the structures connotations that serve the legislative purpose for which the Wise Lawgiver, Glory be to Him, revealed this verse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the claim that Montenegro is a country towards which China is practising debt diplomacy. The study aims to assess whether Montenegro's borrowing from Chinese banks can be taken as an example of deliberate Chinese lending intended to subjugate Montenegro both economically and politically. The case study method is used to draw conclusions regarding the validity of accusations about the harmfulness of the debt to Montenegro, or lack thereof. In addition, the paper examines the economic parameters of the relationship between China and Montenegro, as well as the political reactions to the indebtedness within Montenegro. It also considers the reactions of the European Union and the USA, within the context of China's geopolitical role in Europe. Based on the findings, it appears unlikely that China is engaged in ongoing debt diplomacy with Montenegro. The criticisms of China's involvement in the Montenegro case seem politically motivated and unwarranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK social security system performs an important role as a creditor and debt collector for many benefit claimants, with more affected by deductions than formal welfare conditionality or sanctions. Deductions, then, are central to understanding low‐income life in the UK. With that in mind, this paper draws on a mixed‐methods project to explore the policy rationale, administration and effects of benefit deductions at a particular moment of crisis. Through new analysis of statistical releases, I evidence increasing indebtedness and an Inverse Care Law, whereby UK social security performs worst for those who need it most. Drawing on qualitative longitudinal ethnographic fieldwork conducted at the height of the cost‐of‐living crisis, I also evidence how deductions affect the lives and trajectories of low‐income claimants over time. The analysis offered details how deductions weaponize debt, often in ways that financialise benefit claimants and their entitlements that prove counter‐productive to the stated policy objectives of deductions: worsening the poverty‐debt trap and pushing people (further) away from the labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the different insider employee-led cyber frauds (IECF) based on the recent large-scale fraud events of prominent Indian banking institutions. Examining the different types of fraud and appropriate control measures will protect the banking industry from fraudsters. In this study, we identify and classify Cyber Fraud (CF), map the severity of the fraud on a scale of priority, test the mitigation effectiveness, and propose optimal mitigation measures. The identification and classification of CF losses were based on a literature review and focus group discussions with risk and vigilance officers and cyber cell experts. The CF was analyzed using secondary data. We predicted and prioritized CF based on machine learning-derived Random Forest (RF). An efficient fraud mitigation model was developed based on an offender-victim-centric approach. Mitigation is advised both before and after fraud occurs. Through the findings of this research, banks and fraud investigators can prevent CF by detecting it quickly and controlling it on time. This study proposes a structured, sustainable CF mitigation plan that protects banks, employees, regulators, customers, and the economy, thus saving time, resources, and money. Further, these mitigation measures will improve the reputation of the Indian banking industry and ensure its survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debt default has various adverse effects on the parties of a loan transaction, namely the debtor, lender, market, and society. Many mechanisms have been developed for debt enforcement since ancient times. Unfortunately, the sanctions used in enforcement, especially for personal debts, have always been quite harsh. This paper evaluates the instruments used in personal debt enforcement. It presents that some sanctions used in ancient societies are still utilized in modern economies. While the traditional insolvency regulations focused only on protecting the lender by disregarding the humanitarian aspect, current laws also aim at the relief of defaulted individuals. Although there is no more death penalty and slavery, and are too few imprisonment practices today, the ancient instrument of seizing assets is still an essential sanction with some exemptions. Debt bondage is also not employed nowadays. However, confiscating the individuals' future income may be considered a modern form of debt bondage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under neoliberal social provision, debt has become a primary tool for US households to pursue economic mobility and manage risk. Borrowing supports financial and non‐financial investments that, in theory, should lead to lifetime income and asset gains from which debt can be repaid. Many scholars argue, however, that reliance on credit as a welfare tool significantly increases inequality, particularly along racial lines. In this paper, I examine this process of debt‐financed asset accumulation by analyzing racial disparities in the relationship between household debt and assets. Using Survey of Consumer Finances data, I examine disparities in assets held at given debt levels across Black and White households. Results indicate that at equal debt levels, Black households' assets are between 30% and 80% lower than those of comparable White households. This suggests that White households benefit considerably more from social policies that center borrowing as a mechanism of social provision. This likely contributes to the persistence of the racial wealth gap. Racial disparities in access to credit, to homeownership, and to non‐market financial transfers like inheritances partly explain White households' higher returns, but racial gaps remain even when accounting for these factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with the topic of al-muqassah (offsetting) and its forms in Hanafi jurisprudence, in terms of its definition, classification, conditions, and applications. The researcher has defined offsetting linguistically and technically, then classified offsetting in Hanafi jurisprudence into two main categories: lawful offsetting and unlawful offsetting. The lawful offsetting is then subdivided into obligatory and optional. The researcher then mentions the conditions of obligatory offsetting in four conditions, which are: the existence of two reciprocal debts, identical description and genus between the debts, the debts being currently due, and equal strength and weakness between the debts. The researcher then proceeds to list fifteen application cases of offsetting in some contracts and transactions, including: sarf (currency exchange) contract, salam (deferred delivery) contract, borrowing contract, usurpation, guarantee, alimony, and others. In each case the ruling and its reason are explained from a jurisprudential perspective. Finally, the researcher summarizes the main points of agreement and disagreement between the offsetting cases in sarf and salam contracts, pointing out that the cases of obligatory offsetting are similar, while there are differences in some respects such as offsetting on the debt in both contracts and transforming the offsetting to the prior debt. Thus, the article has been able to present a detailed explanation of the subject of offsetting, in terms of concept, rulings and practical applications in Hanafi jurisprudence. The methodology used in the article is the descriptive methodology, also known as the literature review methodology, which is commonly used in writing Islamic academic papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper develops a Kalecki–Steindl–Minsky stock-flow consistent (SFC) model by including inventories, as well as firm's deposits and debt financing into the investment function. The role of investment decisions in shaping aggregate fluctuations over the business cycle is assessed by considering a model populated by five types of economic actors: workers, rentiers, firms, commercial banks and the central bank. Business cycle fluctuations are investigated assuming a deterministic steady growth path in the long period, in line with recent developments in heterodox growth theory. Next, we simulate the model, calibrating it for the US economy. Our main results confirm the relevance of inventory dynamics in economic cycles, similar to Metzler's (1941, 1947) analysis. First, inventory investment propagates shocks and affects the length of waves, deviation size and time to convergence. Second, expectations may determine whether there are oscillations or a steady convergence to the long-term trend. Third, we suggest that inventory investment accommodates rapid aggregate demand variations, although not presenting a multiplier effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the threshold effect of debt on economic growth in Nigeria, with a view to investigating debt sustainability levels in the country. The analysis included yearly data from 1981 to 2021. To achieve its objectives, the study used two-regime threshold ARDL regression approaches. Findings reveal that the optimal thresholds for total debt as a ratio of GDP (TDB/GDP), GNI (TDB/GNI), total revenue (TDB/REV), and exports of goods and services (TDB/EXP) are 46.1%, 54.5%, 355.3%, and 24.9%, respectively. Findings also indicate that debt ratios below the threshold levels have a significant positive impact on economic growth. This is true for all the debt ratios, except debt-to-export ratio. However, debt ratios above the threshold levels have a negative and significant effect on Nigeria's economic growth. Furthermore, findings reveal that only the level of domestic debt is sustainable over the long and short run, whereas external debt and total debt are only sustainable over the long run. When expressed as ratios of GDP and GNI, evidence indicates that Nigeria's debt is not sustainable by all the five measures of debt adopted in the study, both in the short run and in the long run while total debt to revenue ratio is only sustainable only in the long run. The paper adequately explores the implications of these findings and offers relevant policy recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I share insights and thoughts on the 'doing' of creative practice for representing and communicating lived experiences of slow violence. Reflecting on two UKRI GCRF studies I have been part of in Cambodia, and which both harnessed creative practice in their methodologies, I focus specifically on the slow violence of over-indebtedness effecting garment workers and farmers during, but also pre-dating, the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper intentionally 'makes space' for the films and portraiture photography from these studies to be viewed and exalted – the aim being to encourage political geographers to become more attuned to, and themselves embrace, the 'doing' of creative practice. Together they show first how the 'doing' of creative practice can deepen and add new dimensions to growing work on embodied relations and temporalities of debt and over-indebtedness. Second, the insights offered in this paper underscore the ethical importance of care, responsibility, and trust in geographical knowledge creation and the management of research projects concerned with slow violence. The paper ultimately impresses the dual value of the 'doing' of creative practice and its myriad politics, and being more attentive to what can be learned through creative practice itself about the political geographies of slow violence encountered in people's lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social impact investors claim to promote sustainable development by mobilizing private finance capital to solve pressing global challenges like poverty alleviation. In this paper, I interrogate this claim through an examination of microfinance in Cambodia, a major destination for impact investment. In the past decade, Cambodia has received nearly 10% of global investments from microfinance-specific funds. It now has the largest microfinance-debt per capita ratio of any country in the world. Based on qualitative research between 2021 and 2023, I argue that impact investment functions as an anti-politics of development that reinforces finance as a political technology of neoliberal governance. Over the past two decades, impact investors have poured capital into the country’s microfinance industry to expand access to credit without acknowledging structural political-economic conditions that have produced rising over-indebtedness among microfinance borrowers. Instead, they have argued that the problems created by the microfinance industry are best resolved through a self-regulation model that uses a voluntary code of conduct based on global standards of responsible finance. Thus, impact investors have been integral in broader transformations that have extended financial logics, technologies and accumulation imperatives into people’s daily lives. This paper contributes to economic geography and critical development studies by explaining how impact investment deepens neoliberal financialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The paper shows how spirituality strategically supports an Adivasi self-empowerment movement in India. • Spirituality provides motivation, makes groups' indigeneity visible, and protects their activities against reprisals. • Tribal groups in India using this strategy can escape debt bondage and gain their own land. • Action organisations working with subaltern groups can orchestrate spirituality to achieve progressive goals. Spirituality strategically enables self-empowerment in a clandestine movement of Adivasis which this paper calls 'the Programme'. To explain how social movements and action organisations can orchestrate spirituality, this paper examines how the Programme helps landless rural people overcome debt bondage and gain land by employing spiritual repertoires. The paper addresses the question how, in the context of an increasingly tribalised politics in India, spiritual orchestration allows some Scheduled Tribes to make substantive economic gains, especially on debt freedom and land rights. The paper draws on an analysis of qualitative data collected through workshops, interviews and visits to villages across several Indian states, which has been anonymised to protect identities and avoid divulging sensitive information. The study finds that spirituality supports self-empowerment in three ways: first, it provides motivation and ideological reinforcement for people engaging in struggles against debt bondage and for land rights; second, it makes tribal identity more visible and helps groups make claims as indigenous owners; third, it offers groups protection from reprisals and creates platforms for engaging powerful actors. These findings are significant because, for activists and scholars who work with subaltern groups in India or other contexts, they demonstrate that the orchestration of spirituality can strengthen action repertoires for self-empowerment and help groups secure or protect economic and social gains. The paper adds insights to research on social movements and organisations on how to strengthen the 'weapons of the weak'; it contributes empirical knowledge about how strategies to overcome debt and exploitation can succeed; and it underscores the importance of protecting freedom of religion and belief in development practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper adds to the literature on the issue of public debt in African economies, by investigating the role foreign exchange reserves play in improving the level of indebtedness and as buffer of the negative effect of exchange rate depreciation while considering the exchange rate policy. Our results show a direct link between the level of foreign currency reserves and that of external debt in Africa. Particularly, we demonstrate that higher foreign currency reserves tend to decrease the public debt stock to GDP. This effect is even more significant when countries go through high exchange rate depreciation episodes (10% or higher). This impact, however, is not homogenous among country groups, as only countries with a floating exchange regime tend to benefit from this buffer effect compared to anchored regimes. In a time where most African economies face severe exchange rate depreciation episodes following the U.S. monetary tightening policy, central bankers and policy makers need to consider a plethora of policy issues including interventions in the FX market to mitigate depreciations and maintain a sustainable public debt stock. • We explore the relationship between international reserve and public debt in Africa. • Higher foreign currency reserves have a positive impact on reducing the public debt. • This effect is observed during periods of large exchange rate depreciation. • The impact varies among countries according to the exhange rate regime. • Policymakers could use international reserves to maintain sustainable public debt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Afghanistan microfinance industry has witnessed laurels in recent decades, making it crucial to closely monitor its development and sustainability. This study aims to assess the performance of Islamic and conventional microfinance loans in two aspects: first, by examining the occurrence of loan defaults, and second, by distinguishing between loan performance in areas controlled by the Taliban and those outside their control. To accomplish this, we analyze a unique dataset comprising over 9500 borrowers linked to an Afghan microfinance institution during the period spanning from January 2017 to February 2020. Our findings reveal that regions under Taliban control experienced fewer instances of loan defaults compared to areas not under their influence. Additionally, our analysis indicates that borrowers of Islamic loans in Afghanistan default more frequently than borrowers of conventional loans, particularly in Taliban-controlled areas. These observations remain largely consistent when we explore the factors influencing the number of days overdue on loan repayments. Furthermore, our conclusions find further support from both of the microfinance institution's Islamic loan products: business Murabaha loans, available to individuals of any gender, and women Murabaha loans, created as a group lending scheme exclusively for women. The results from this study offer valuable insights into how policy discussions in Afghanistan should be adjusted to facilitate a smooth transition for the microfinance industry. • This paper examines determinants of delinquent microloans in Afghanistan. • The default rate for conventional loans in Afghanistan is lower than for Islamic loans. • The default rate for conventional loans in Taliban-controlled regions is lower than for Islamic loans. • Female borrowers are more likely than their male counterparts to default on their loans. • Female credit officers have fewer debt defaults than their male counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Swahili non-elites developed integrative strategies toward centers of power. • Imported ceramics reflect non-elite integration within economic networks. • In response, elites competed with one another to accumulate clients. • Bottom-up integrative strategies structured sociopolitical development on the Swahili Coast. Ceramic trends on Unguja Island in Zanzibar, Tanzania provide insights into non-elite political strategies on the East African Swahili Coast. Synthesizing imported ceramic data from two seasons of systematic field survey across rural Unguja with historical, ethnographic, and archaeological evidence from coastal East Africa, this paper argues that an integrative orientation toward power characterized bottom-up action on the Swahili Coast over the second millennium CE. While theories of bottom-up action have emphasized commoner autonomy and resistance to clientage, debt, and social inequality, evidence from the Swahili Coast attests to efforts by non-elites to seek entrance into cycles of reciprocal obligation as a means for recognition and social mobility—a specifically non-egalitarian orientation toward power. In response, elites competed with one another to accumulate wealth-in-people, resulting in a competitive patron-client system that prevented political consolidation. Elucidating these dynamics contributes to an understanding of how non-elite political strategies have shaped sociopolitical systems globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This paper investigates the association between household debt and children's psychological well-being and further explored the mediating role of parent–child relations. • Household debt, especially mortgage debt, is positively associated with psychological illnesses among children. • Parent-child relations mediate the link between household debt and children's psychological well-being. Household debt is a psychological stressor for those who take the debt on, but it remains unclear whether and how this money-related stressor influences children's psychological well-being. The study investigated the association of household debt with children's psychological well-being and further explored the mediating role of parent–child relations. Data were obtained from two waves (2016 and 2018) of the China Family Panel Studies, with a sample of 1,828 children included. The Center for Epidemiological Studies of Depression Scale was applied to measure psychological well-being. Household debt was assessed by absolute and relative amounts of total debt, mortgage debt, and non-mortgage debt. We used positive and negative parent–child interaction to measure parent–child relations. The characteristics of children, parents, and households were included as covariates. Household debt, especially mortgage debt, was positively associated with psychological illnesses among children, and the link was substantially explained by parent–child relations. Household debt exerted detrimental effects on children's psychological well-being by jeopardizing parent–child relations in China. Strategies that address the need of vulnerable children are required to reduce the potentially negative psychological well-being outcomes of household debt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]