Finance

In the global economy of the 21st century, international trade will be a key source of economic growth and development. Recent surveys conducted in several countries by the National Foundation of Women Business Owners (NFWBO) indicate that women-owned firms involved in the global marketplace have greater revenues, are more optimistic about their business prospects and are more focused on business expansion than women-owned firms that are domestically oriented. Obviously, expanding into international trade can pay off for women-owned firms. However, it is not clear that smaller enterprises are benefiting from these potential as much as larger firms. In connection with the above here an attempt has made to study the role of women entrepreneurs in economic development.

The study examined the economic impact of Tinapa Business Resort and the Export Processing Zone on economic diversification in Calabar, Cross River State. The study looks at the importance of Tinapa Business Resort and Export Processing Zone in economic diversification of the State economy within Calabar. The study adopted the survey research design and data was collected through the use of questionnaires administered on the staff of Tinapa Business Resort, the Export Processing Zone and members of the host communities. The study used descriptive statistics in analysing the data and the chi-square test was used to test the hypothesis formulated. The findings from the study show that Tinapa Business Resort and the Export Processing Zone have contributed to the economic diversification of Cross River State through generation of foreign exchange earnings, attracting of Foreign Direct Investment and tourism into the state. Furthermore, the study reveals that Tinapa Business Resort and the Export Processing Zone have affected the lives of the host communities through employment and the provision of basic infrastructure. Based on the findings, the study recommends the dredging of the Calabar Sea Port in order to attract more economic activities into the State and the proper funding Tinapa Business Resort to enable it fulfilled its vision of being Africa’s Business hub in global trading and exportation of goods.

The institution of Zakah is considered significant by being one of the five pillars of Islam and especially for its multiple references in the Qur’an immediately after Salah. Upon this, great scholars of Islamic jurisprudence either in the past or present have written extensively to demonstrate its religious importance, philosophy, rules and regulations. However, contemporary Muslim scholars who are grounded in Islamic knowledge and economics are now bringing its economic significance to the limelight. Thus, an attempt has been made in this paper to explore and present the fiscal characteristics and dynamics of the institution of Zakah, which makes it a potent fiscal tool, particularly as a source of public revenue, a determinant of expenditure and as an automatic stabilizer in an Islamic economic framework. Therefore, this paper argues that the institution of Zakah has the fiscal potency to stimulate the economic growth of Muslim countries, if and only if it is properly incorporated into the central public economic plan of Muslim economies and given all the necessary legislations and conducive atmosphere to operate.

In the light of globalization and internationalization of world markets, foreign exchange risk has become one of the most difficult and persistent problems with which financial executives must cope. This risk cannot be avoided, but can be managed by hedging instruments. The need and approach for managing it depends on the size of exposure and fluctuations in exchange rate. Indian IT sector is known for development of software and it mainly depends on exports. They are required to measure and manage exchange rate risk. The survey study on IT firma attitude towards foreign exchange esposure management is virtually non-existent. Hence, an attempt is made in this paper to fill this gap, by documenting the Indian IT firms attitude towards forex exposure management practice.

This study focuses on the efficiency of financial indicators to influence the decisions of investors. It investigates the effect of information content of financial statements on shareholders’ investment decisions. The study is vital as it portrays the extent to which shareholders of firms listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchanged (NSE) are influenced by the contents of published accounts in their investment decisions. The annual financial reports provided by the accounting system, is considered the main source for information for decision-makers especially the investors. Therefore, the validity and accuracy of the decisions depend on the understanding, reliability and proper analysis of financial statements. In order to determine the relationship between information contents of financial statements and shareholders’ investment decisions, some of the key contents of financial statement were used to derive the proxy variables used in the study, namely profitability, dividend per share, earnings per share, leverage, and liquidity; while shareholders’ investment decisions is represented by change in number of shares. Data for the study were obtained from the published annual financial report of the selected firms. Regression model was employed to establish the relationship between the variables. The findings generally indicate that though shareholders in the Nigerian capital market do not rely much on financial statements as a major determining factor for their investment decisions, still the financial analysis factors constitute the main tool in attracting investment. It was observed that other factors or variables outside firms’ annual reports such as regularity and amount of dividend payment and what is in-vogue or everybody is doing (herding) affect market price of shares and are vital to shareholders’ investment decisions. The study recommends proper awareness creation by the appropriate agencies to enhance shareholders’ understanding of the relevance of published accounts to enable them to know the financial states of the companies (banks) of their interest before making investment decisions. Besides, shareholders should seek the advice of financial analysts so as to be properly guided in their investment decisions.

Accounting conservatism in financial reporting is one of the salient features of the recent finan-cial crisis has attracted more attention. Requiring a high degree of conservatism verifiable know-ledge of good news for such benefits, the recognition of bad news, such as loss of productivity. The results show that conservatism has a negative and significant relationship with firm financial distress. The findings of an inverse relationship between firm value and the significant stresses of corporate financial distress. The results of this study, an effective contractual mechanisms to limit the conservative bias of the manager knows the companies financial distress.increase the cor-porate value of the Company's long-term financial distress is reduced.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the linkage between macroeconomic variables (inflation rate, exchange rate and interest rate) on stock market returns in Pakistan. We used the Pakistan Karachi stock exchange 100 index as a proxy to represent the stock market returns and the interest rate, inflation rate, and exchange rate were used as the macroeconomic variables. Secondary data was collected from the period of January 2007 to December 2012. A Multiple Linear Regression was performed for the purpose of data analysis. The study showed that there is weak connection between macroeconomic variables and stock market returns. The research validates the findings of earlier studies as well as conclusions and recommendations are discussed.

With the influential and remarkable progress through promoting local currency (for de-dollarization), regional foreign direct investment, and regional trade, BRICS economies have emerged, and took a new space in the 21st century. In this paper, the main objective/purpose was to focus on the influence of trade and investment on their economic growth and prosperous development; based on comparative analysis. Moreover, the identification of three steps of upward evolution shows that BRICS role is growing both in trade, investment and service, but replacing also the G-7. For empirical investigation, this study used panel data approach, where the empirical results reveal that the impacts of investment and trade on economic growth in BRICS are positive and statistically significant.

The present paper aims at discovering and analysing risk in the emerging security in the stock market i.e Gold ETFs. The basic aim of the study is to study the financial performance, variations and analyse the risk behaviour of the selected Gold ETFs in comparison of NSE. The data for this has been taken from the NSE website. The period taken for the study is March 2008 to November 2010. Analysis is made by using financial tools like Sharpe’s index, Treynor’s ratio by calculating alpha, beta and standard deviation of the selected funds. The study will be beneficial for the investigators and investors who seek the best opportunities in the Gold ETFs.

In the area of accounting jurisprudence, several attempts have been made to develop accounting and accounting information, The most prominent of these were the calls for linking accounting and law, and the judiciary's need for accounting information to cover the demand for forensic accounting services. The outcomes of forensic accounting are reports that guide judges in passing judgment on the conflicting parties on financial issues, Judicial, settlement, and settlement of disputes, Forensic accounting acts as science and applications in the field of accounting, finance, taxes with the use of Civil law and criminal law in order for making the right decision by Forensic accountant. This science can be applied through the availability of various techniques which help in detecting fraud and support the juridical cases. One of the main tasks of Forensic accountant is to detect fraud as fraud was a widespread phenomena in large number of companies. This phenomena occurs as a result of depending the certified public accountant on samples when reviewing financial statements without having any responsibilities toward detecting fraud. Here comes the role of Forensic accounting in detecting fraud through using of different techniques such as Benford law, and detection tools such as data mining and analysis