Revista de Negócios e Economia

Microfinance, as an important part of global financial system, has been a subject of great attention especially in
the recent decades. This article examines the process of origin and development of modern microfinance industry,
its historical context and evolution to the present stage, its impact on the socio-economic life of developing and
emerging countries. The paper tries to answer the question: can today’s microfinance be a real and affordable
alternative of classical banking system for poor and low-income groups?

Uber has developed as a leader in the private taxi business. Uber is a "ridesharing" service that coordinates
responsible drivers with consumers looking for transportations. Unlike other well-known transportation services such
as local taxi services and public transportation, Uber is a stimuli inputs company, meaning all data on customers and
drivers are kept inward and, output reactions are mostly not provided to the open market. They do not give
information about supply or demand, and rates are set by an obscure "surge pricing" algorithm, or customer
behavior, and driver earnings. The absence of transparency has caused numerous concerns on whether Uber
artificially manipulate prices, and whether changing prices are favorable to customers and drivers. In exploring surge
pricing and its influence on passengers and drivers, the researcher presents the first in-depth inquiry of Uber by
going undercover as a driver. Gathered fifty-one weeks of data from Uber by imitating the Uber smartphone driverapproved
app and sharing ride throughout Hampton Roads of Virginia. Utilizing dataset collected from 961 trips, we
are able to identify the concept of Uber in the Hampton Road of Virginia, as well as recognize essential
implementation specifications of Uber's surge price algorithm, or customer behavior, and driver earnings. Our
observations concerning Uber's surge price algorithm, or customer behavior, and driver earnings raise important
questions about the fairness and the transparency of the system.