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<p>This study investigates the environmental conservation costs of the local authorities in Kenya by analyzing the data collected from 90 of these local authorities. The population of the study is the 175 local authorities in Kenya. A sample of 90 local authorities has been used. Both statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 17 and Excel have been used to determine the level of environmental conservation costs in the studied local authorities. The results indicated that there was a wide use of environmental conservation costs among the local authorities. The study provides preliminary evidence on environmental conservation costs used by local authorities in Kenya. Further research is suggested to explore the possible motivating factors among different local authorities’ degree of application and level of environmental costs in different activities.</p>

<p>The perceptions of Islamic banking professionals are surveyed through a questionnaire to explore whether the process of risk management mediates board involvement in risk management and risk management practices of Islamic banks in Malaysia and Egypt. The findings of this study identified that the Islamic banks in the selected countries are somewhat efficient in their risk<br />management process. It was noticed that board involvement in risk management, process of risk management and risk management<br />among Islamic banks in Malaysia are significantly higher than their counterparts in Egypt. Furthermore, high involvement of boards in risk management significantly increases the risk management process, and in turn, leads to significantly higher risk management practices in Islamic banks. Hence, boards should take formal responsibility for setting, managing and periodically<br />assessing the risk management culture of the banks. It is expected that the outcomes of this study would help policy setters in the selected countries to develop a well-structured and harmonized risk management process that enhance risk management practices, with emphasis on the effective involvements of the board of directors and Shari’ah supervisory boards in risk management<br />practices.</p>

<p>Location selection problem in banking is an important issue for the commercial success in competitive environment. There is a strategic fit between the location selection decision and overall performance of a new branch. Providing physical service in requested location as well as alternative distribution channels to meet profitable client needs is the current problematic to achieve the competitive advantage over the rivalry in financial system. In this paper, an integrated model has been developed to support in the decision of branch location selection for a new bank branch. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique has been conducted to prioritize of evaluation criteria, and multi-objective optimization on the basis of ratio analysis (MOORA) method has been applied to rank location alternatives of bank branch.  </p>

<p>In the present study we try to examine the exchange rate changes and  financial flexibility as the economic stable indexes on the financial leverage  use in the companies so the main issue in this study is to define the financial leverage relation with  exchange rate changes and financial flexibility. That is why 88 companies of the companies listed in Tehran stock exchange in 2005–2011. The study type is descriptive–correlative and the multivariable linear regression was used to analyze the data. The findings from the hypotheses test state there is a significant relation between financial leverage and financial flexibility while there isn't relation between financial leverage and exchange rate changes.</p>

<p>Developments in international financial markets concern both developed countries and developing countries closely. The transactions of institutions arising from of commercial activities display a more complex and more risky state in line with international economic developments. The globalization trend in the world economy, the extreme fluctuations in currencies, interests and product prices have rendered closely following up the developments in financial tools mandatory. Taking advantage of derivative financial tools which increase the revenue of assets by taking future risks into consideration, impact a decrease in debt costs and has the purpose of transferring risks are of vital importance with respect to the successful management of companies. At the present time in which international commerce, free market economy and globalization has gained in importance, one of the derivative products used in risk management and have a wide implementation area is swap transactions. Swap transactions can be expressed as a financial transaction including the exchange of interest, foreign currency or both between two or more parties. Swap transactions in particular are used for purposes such as protection against risks due to interest rates and exchange rates, ensuring low cost financing, changing the debt structure and entering different markets. In this study, the generally defined characteristics of swap transactions, which have an important standing within financial risk management and have been rapidly developing in the world in recent years and their recognition according to the International Accounting Standard 39 concerning the recognition of swap transactions, which has in particular termed the study have been focused on. In the framework of the standard, interest swap and foreign currency swap implementation study were included with respect to the matter.</p>

In present study by virtue of the importance of  the fiscal statement contents and illiquid items ignored by the merchant the depreciation contents relation with abnormal return of the shares and future benefits are examined in order to influence the items under consideration of the investors to take related decisions; 94 companies were selected from the accessible universe in five years (2006-2010) to have the data necessary for the study in order to achieve the goal & with the base of keeping attention to the manufacturing & nonmanufacturing companies in the whole industries of stock market except banks & insurance companies. The simple and multivariable regression statistical techniques Chow and Hausman Test were used to test the hypotheses. The significant test was conducted for the paradigms by using the ‘F’ and ‘T’ statistics. The study findings show local high inflation have affection on the both variable results & makes no relation for first variable,for future benefits shows parallel  movements.

<p>A number of authors suggested that the impact of the macroeconomic factors on the incidence of the financial distress, and afterward in case of failure of companies. However, macroeconomic factors rarely, if ever, appear as variables in predictive models that seek to identify distress and failure; modellers generally suggest that the impact of macroeconomic factors has already been taken into account by financial ratio variables. This article presents a systematic study of this domain, by examining the link between the failure of companies and macroeconomic factors for the French companies to identify the most important variables and to estimate their utility in a predictive context. The results of the study suggest that several macroeconomic variables are strictly associated to the failure, and have a predictive value by specifying the relation between the financial distress and the failure.</p>

<p>The problem of NPA is not limited to only Indian public sector banks, but it prevails in the entire banking industry.  Major portion of bad debts in Indian Banks arose out of lending to the priority sector at the dictates of politicians and bureaucrats.  If only banks had monitored their loans effectively, the bad debt problem could have been contained if not eliminated. The present study has been designed to illustrate the necessity and the nature of the non-performing assets in Indian Bank, Tamil Nadu. Finding out Non Performing Assets –NPA- under the Priority sector lending in Indian Bank and Compare with Public Sector Banks and making appropriate suggestions to avoid future NPAs and to manage existing NPAs in Indian Bank are the other major objectives of this study. The scope of this study covers on the basis: (i)  measuring for the banks to avoid future NPAs & to reduce existing NPAs, (ii) guiding for the government in creating & implementing new strategies to control NPAs, (iii) selecting appropriate techniques suited to manage the NPAs and develop a time bound action plan to arrest the growth of NPAs.</p>

<p>The market for environmentally friendly products in Turkey is growing, and marketing experts are trying to understand the behavior of the consumers in this market with the help of variables such as demographic factors, information, attitudes, values and life styles. This study analyzes the effects of environmental activism, environmental knowledge and the perceived seriousness of environmental problems on green buying behavior. The study involved 516 Turkish consumers, over eighteen years of age. The results show that environmental activism, environmental knowledge and the perceived seriousness of environmental problems are all meaningful factors in environmentally friendly buying behavior. It was found that the most explanatory variables are environmental activism for proactive environmentally friendly buying behavior and the perceived seriousness of environmental problems for optional environmentally friendly buying behavior. The study is significant since it will offer insights for green marketing experts who especially target specific segments as activists, voluntary simplifiers or green consumers in Turkey.</p>

<p>The opportunities of investment brought along by the global economic integrity might turn into a threat in an instant and undermine the underlying structures of national economies. It is necessary to analyze the conflict risk properly in terms of both portfolio investment and finance strategies. This is an important step to be included in the process of arriving to a rational decision. In that way, the existing investment risks could be priced more efficiently. It is proved on Collier and Starr models that there is a correlation between the conflict risk and unemployment, economic recession, inflation and fiscal discipline. In brief, the breakdown in the economic parameters increases the conflict risk and a progress occurring in the opposite way, decreases that risk. In this study, it is discussed the effects of the conflict risk for foreign investment availabilities.</p>

<p>The success of economic transition for countries mainly requires economic and politic stability. However the conflict paradigm affects the nature of economic transition. In this process, innovations have changed product technologies which have been required by economic growth. Presently, automation in standardized production industry is used as if it will take over the wage labor. Crises brought uniformities into agenda. Computer integrated manufacturing appeared in the midst of 1990s. However, production still tended to move to other countries with cheaper labor. The study focuses on interaction between the conflict and market mechanism in the light of the knowledge-based economic development.</p>

<p>There is an evidence of large scale migration of the rural poor to the cities/towns in search of employment in India, especially since 1991when India adopted Economic Reform Programme. In the absence of any affordable housing , there has been a  growth of slums in the urban areas of the country. The Government of India (GOI) has been incorporating certain programmes to alleviate  poverty , create employment opportunities and encourage  planned urban development in its public policy , yet there has been a fast emergence of slums in the Indian cities due to a number of factors.  The present paper aims to analyze certain demographic attributes of the slum population in India , its socio-economic and  environmental impact and the public policy response towards the same. It also reviews certain programmes designed by the government to control the growth of slums and the efforts to rehabilitate the slum-dwellers.   The data and definition of slums in India are based on the census of 2001, 65<sup>th</sup> round of NSSO and other GOI documents.</p>

<div><p>Political trust is important for the effective functioning of government. This paper uses cross country regression analysis to see whether three different measures of economic performance matter for political trust. The results lend support to the hypothesis that political trust is influenced by economic growth, the standard of living, and the appropriate use of government spending. In addition, the paper considers two institutional variables, perceived independence of the judiciary and the degree of democracy to assess their effect on political trust. It finds that perceived judicial independence has a positive effect on political trust, but democracy has a negative effect.<strong><em> </em></strong></p></div>

<p><em>In this paper, we examine the impact of CEO power on auditor choice. We are motivated by the competing financial reporting incentives arising from CEO power. Our empirical finding suggests that powerful CEOs are more likely to hire high-quality auditors as a signal of superior financial reporting quality. We contribute to the literature of auditor switch and extend the research on the links between CEO power and firm behaviors.</em></p>