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Social capital, Human capital, EU Economic growth, Econometric model,

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The goal of this paper is to provide empirical evidence to determine whether microfinance, measured through a country's gross loan portfolio per capita, has a heterogeneous effect on poverty reduction among countries with different levels of poverty. We have used a panel‐data quantile regression with a data set for 57 countries for the years 2005, 2008, and 2011 to estimate the distributional impacts of microcredits on two poverty indices. Results reveal not only that microfinance significantly reduces the incidence and depth of poverty, but also that this effect differs across the different poverty levels (quantiles). The effect of microcredit on poverty reduction is slightly larger among countries where the incidence and depth of poverty are the highest, suggesting that microcredit reaches and benefits even the poorest individuals.

SummaryA method is proposed for the extraction and determination of organomercury compounds and Hg(ll) in seawater samples by headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) combined with capillary gas chromatography-microwave-induced plasma atomic emission spectrometry. The mercury species were derivatized with sodium tetraphenylborate, sorbed on a polydimethylsiloxane-coated fused-silica fibre, and desorbed in the injection port of the GC, in sphtless mode.Experimental design methodology was used to evaluate the effect of six HS-SPME-derivatization variables:sample volume, NaBPh4 volume, pH, sorption time, extraction-derivatization temperature, and rate of stirring. Use of a multicriterion decision-making approach, with the desirabilily function, enabled determination of the optimum working conditions of the procedure for simultaneous analysis of three mercury species.

This paper analyses empirically the relationship between economic development and fertility. Through a new sample selection and quantile regression, it investigates whether there is an inverse J-shaped pattern between these two variables, and, if so, whether it depends on development and fertility levels. Our results confirm that the inverse J-shaped pattern exists, but only when a certain level of economic development is attained. Results also suggest an innovative finding: the J-shape depends not only on the development but also on the fertility level. The higher the fertility rate, the higher the GDP per capita needed to reverse fertility decline, and the faster the negative and positive segments of the J-shape fall and grow. Keywords J-shaped pattern Á Fertility rate Á Economic development Á Quantile regression JEL Classification C21 Á J11 Á J13

This paper analyzes the effect of the individual perceptions of social capital and culture in entrepreneurial aspirations before and after the economic crisis in Western Europe. Following the approach of the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991), we advance the analysis of the effect of the perception of subjective norms in the entrepreneurial intentions. We studied the Total Early-Stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) of twelve countries in 2006 and 2010. The results reveal that the perception of having social networks is significant for the TEA, and it increases after the economic crisis. However, the cultural factors do not have a significant impact, except the one related with the perception of social equality. The results obtained through the double perspective of this analysis (individual´s social capital vs cultural factor of individualistic perspective) offers a certain dilemma when we try to understand the entrepreneurial intention through the individual´s perception of subjective norms, following the Ajzen´s model. The more individualist is a person, the lower the weight of its social capital. However, the more a person has access to social networks, the greater his entrepreneurial intention will be. This result opens future lines of research focused on understanding the value of the individual´s social capital for different countries and groups of entrepreneurs.

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