Financial cooperatives and microfinance institutions (MFIs) are the two major sources of rural finance in Ethiopia. Whereas MFIs are relatively new, financial cooperatives have existed for centuries in various forms. The coexistence of two different institutions serving the same group of people,...

Financial cooperatives and microfinance institutions (MFIs) are the two major sources of rural finance in Ethiopia. Whereas MFIs are relatively new, financial cooperatives have existed for centuries in various forms. The coexistence of two different institutions serving the same group of people,...

Using a stochastic frontier approach, we analyse the imposition of financial sustainability requirement on the traditional social mission of microfinance – outreach to the poor. We also address whether the way ownership is organised and practiced affects the costs of microfinance delivery....

The focus on achieving financial efficiency by microfinance institutions in recent years raises a natural concern on their social outcome, outreach to the poor. Using a stochastic frontier approach on sample microfinance providers in Ethiopia, this paper analysed the effect of an increasingly...

Using household survey data from Ethiopia, this paper evaluates the impact of agricultural cooperatives on smallholders' technical efficiency. We utilize propensity score matching to compare the average difference in technical efficiency between cooperative farmers and similar independent...

Growing commercialization and competition in microfinance drives the focus of micro lenders from outreach per se to achieving financial sustainability in serving the poor. Such a goal can conflict with the traditional social mission of microfinance – outreach to the poor. In places where...

Small-scale farmers face numerous challenges to invest in natural resource management practices. The problems are interlinked, with such perverse economic problems as high transaction costs and risk rooted in the lack of comprehensive institutional and organizational services to farmers for risk...