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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.