Through a comparative micro-level study of conflicts in the Indonesian island of Ambon and the Philippine island of Mindanao, the article will show how the master narrative of a Christian--Muslim cleavage obscures the prominence of localized sub-identities in shaping the escalation of conflict...

This paper uses a panel of 22 OECD Development Assistance Committee countries to examine whether fragmentation of executive power and the degree of competition from the legislative branch of government increased the amount of tied aid over the period 1979--2009. Fragmentation is defined as the...

This paper argues that a larger number of effective veto players within an aid-recipient country tend to reduce its foreign aid inflows. This is because offers of foreign aid often require aid-recipient countries to adopt policy concessions. Since significant policy changes require at least the...

In this paper, the gender-related wage differentials in the rural and urban sectors of the Indian economy are analysed. The hypotheses that there is a glass-ceiling effect--a greater wage gap at the top end of the wage-distribution range--and a sticky-floor effect--a wider wage gap at the bottom...

Inclusive financial sectors are important for development in terms of equity and efficiency. Although microfinance has developed rapidly, little is known about the actual costs for clients to access microfinance services, except for interest rates. The insufficient outreach of microfinance in...

With over-indebtedness emerging among microfinance customers, the industry's sustainability and social impact are at risk. Filling a void in the literature, this paper develops a definition of over-indebtedness that is appropriate for customer protection purposes. It provides a framework for the...

The impact that microcredit has on women's empowerment has been much debated in the literature. Some studies find negative effects; some find positive effects and others no effect. A reconciliation of these discrepancies has been attempted by attributing them to the usage of different measures...

Using longitudinal data from 2354 smallholder households in 103 villages in eight African countries, three processes of agrarian transformation are analysed for the period 2002 to 2008: intensification of grain production, commercial diversification from staple crops and income diversification...

Policy towards microfinance has undergone a shift away from building financial institutions focused on serving poor people to an "inclusive" agenda for financial sector development, operationalized by some donors in an approach entitled "Making Markets Work for the Poor". This approach is...

In the microfinance industry, "empowerment" is often described as a means to facilitate female emancipation from male domination. This paper draws on women's testimonies to highlight the fundamental importance of women's relationships with one another in this process. Women continuously...