The Making of Everyman’s Capitalism in Sweden: Micro-Infrastructures, Unlearning, and Moral Boundary Work

This article analyzes the so-called turn to the market in Sweden, with an emphasis on aspects that are typically absent from large-scale narratives. How did the changes known as neoliberalization and financialization enter everyday life and mundane financial practices? And which analytical tools can historians use to meaningfully connect the experience of changes on the micro level to those on the macro level? Zooming in on the the year 1979 and focusing on two empirical cases—the popularization of stock saving and the domestication of consumer credit—allows us to elaborate and apply a set of analytical entry points about (1) mundane micro-infrastructures, (2) financial knowledge as learning and unlearning, and (3) moral boundary work. This framework offers a way of exploring when and in what ways new financial practices were experienced and eventually embraced by those who had previously been skeptical or even hostile. It also reveals the role played by actors and institutions not typically seen as agents of marketization.

Weedy Finance: Weather Insurance and Parametric Life on Unstable Grounds

Based in the agrarian worlds of commercial sesame farming in northern Paraguay, where insurance companies are now selling weather derivatives to poor farmers, this article tracks financial practices that depend less on the healthy crops and more on the weeds that thrive among the profitable plants. Parametric insurance operates like a derivative and is triggered by certain weather conditions, which raises questions about the limits of survivability for human-crop relations. I sketch out a series of concerns about weeds as an entry point and helpful heuristic for multiple overlapping kinds of speculation in a multispecies, capitalist, and troubled landscape. By gridding the world to a limited set of expedient parameters, what generative social and human grounds do we lose in the process? A speculative anthropological imaginary might posit “weedy finance” as a critical standpoint and set of political claims for casting climate-based finance as one of the lively systems that can and should be intentionally and selectively weeded out.

Financial knowledge, attitude and investment practices among Indian doctors

Background: Doctors are particularly vulnerable to financial problems because of their unsatisfactory levels of financial knowledge and the lack of awareness in terms of investments. This study aimed to evaluate financial knowledge, attitude and investment practices among Indian doctors.Methods: An online questionnaire based cross-sectional study was conducted across 286 registered Indian medical practitioners (N=286). The data was collected by a pre-validated online questionnaire. The financial knowledge score was calculated using 4 questions to determine financial knowledge. The attitude was assessed using responses to 4 questions on investment using Likert scale. Financial practices were determined using responses to their preferred investment options. Data was analyzed using non-parametric tests (Kruskal Wallis test, median value), Chi-square test and Pearson’s coefficient.Results: It was found that male doctors had higher financial knowledge as compared to female doctors (p=0.011). Financial knowledge was significantly associated with the age (p≤0.0001) of the study population. The influence of the nature of employment over the financial attitude of Indian doctors was statistically significant (p=0.009). A statistically significant association was seen between financial knowledge and financial practices (p=0.012).Conclusions: There is a need to create an optimal level of financial awareness among Indian doctors. Increasing the financial knowledge of doctors through financial awareness programs initially may have a positive implication on their financial practices later on.

An Empirical Study in Nepalese Commercial Bank’s Performances on Green Banking: An Analysis From the Perspective of Bankers

Background: Becoming environmentally viable, lately, ‘Going Green’ has been a popular expression for both worldwide banking and financial areas just as for the overall population. Green banking as a piece of going green is another method of playing out the financial organizations thinking about the clean natural issues and corporate social duty of banks. Objectives: This paper tries to investigate banker’s overall arrangement and elements influencing their viewpoint on green banking performances. Method: The information was gathered between June–October 2019 from various banks in Kathmandu valley, Nepal. The sample of 326 financial representatives has been gathered by utilizing a purposive sampling technique. Collecting primary and secondary data, this study utilizes an explanatory research design that assesses the causal relationship among reliant and free factors. The paper utilizes descriptive and inferential techniques for assessment. For understanding green financial mindfulness of the bankers, an index has been calculated. Result: The outcomes show that large numbers of the bankers are less mindful of green financial practices in their banks, while just 5% of respondents know about green banking practices. The Probit regression results uncover that education, preparing for green banking, fixed expense, client fascination, related parties’ directions, and security of the climate have critical and constructive impacts on green financial practices in banks. Conclusion: All in all, for the selection of green financial practices, most importantly, banks ought to provide training to their employees and offer effective online services to their clients.

Religion and Moral Economy

Religious stances toward moral economy have long provided important resources for critical reflection on economic life. When religious institutions seek to build alternatives to existing economic systems and financial practices, however, they also encounter a range of problems. In contrast to many secular critiques of economics, religious ones tend to be explicit about both their moral directives and the ontological assumptions on which they are grounded and give rise to distinctive economic habits and financial institutions. For this reason, their ethnographic study sheds light on a range of more general anthropological questions about the sources of value, the limits of rational calculation, the morality of debt, the meaning of inequality, economic justice, and the legitimate purposes of an economy.

Financing the Enterprise

This chapter examines the many different pathways company founders and successors pursued to finance their businesses, as well as the financial practices adopted to assure the longevity of the companies. Describing frugal beginnings such as setting up in garages and old factory buildings to start, the chapter deals with the bootstrapping mentality and experience with tapping family resources or personal savings. SME experience with leveraging external financing are reported. Finally, the chapter concludes with experiences of SMEs financing themselves internally, such as based upon cash flow and applying conservative financial policies.

Behavior Change for Low-Income Individuals Resulting From a Cooperative Extension Financial Capability Program

An evaluation was implemented over a 3-year period to assess a statewide financial capability program for low-income, diverse clientele in Michigan. Pre- and post- program evaluation data was used to determine knowledge gain and intended behavior change. Follow-up evaluation data confirmed behavior changes across 10 financial practices. Using the Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change, research findings revealed participants were better able to maintain change in key financial practices including making wise money decisions, creating a spending plan, and managing debt as a result of the educational program. Recommendations are provided to support future programs with similar clientele.