In most developed countries, regulators have imposed loan ceilings to subsidized microfinance institutions (MFIs). Micro-entrepreneurs in need of above-ceiling loans are left with the co-financing option, which means securing the aboveceiling share of the loan with a regular bank, and getting a...

How do women leaders such as board members and top managers influence the social performance of organizations? This paper addresses the issue by exploiting a unique database released by a Senegalese network of 36 financial cooperatives sharing identical governance characteristics and placed...

This paper studies how high-powered incentives may affect credit officers’ discriminatory practices in microfinance institutions. Using an agency model applied to a non-profit MFI, we argue that incentive contracts may help align the officer’s behavior with the MFI’s mission. However,...

This paper addresses the fairness of prices, with a focus on fair interest rates as they apply to microlending transactions for the poor. Under different assumptions on fairness in interest rate policies and the principles of justice as described in A Theory of Justice (Rawsl, 1976), the paper...

Fair prices have been recently addressed through debates on fair trade or fair wage. This paper addresses the fairness of credits to the poor. It first analyzes a few definitions of fair interest rates. It then determines the extent of the ‘just’ range of a price, its major constraints and...

This paper uses a unique database from a leading microfinance rating agency to assess the impact of management on the functioning of microfinance institutions (MFIs). It focuses on MFIs’ financial performance, and on the level of subsidies received. The results show that the management skills...

In recent years, large numbers of developing and transitional countries have ex¬peri¬enced situations of crisis, following political, economic or natural disasters, or total crisis, triggered by war or totalitarian oppression. The goal of this article is to study the role of member-owned...

Parmi les facteurs contingents du taux de remboursement des microcrédits, la responsabilité solidaire des emprunteurs est peu analysée dans les études empiriques. Grâce à la constitution d’une base de données originale, cet article s’attache à estimer l’impact des facteurs...

The question this article seeks to answer is whether the relationship between legal status and performance is influenced by the geographical area to which the MFI belongs, as postulated in some work. To this end, we study a sample of 202 MFIs in the period 2001 to 2006. The results show that in...

This paper focuses on the use of donor funds to finance MFIs. The role of donors in microfinance is rapidly evolving, particularly since the emergence of socially responsible and commercial investors. We argue that public policy should be designed to facilitate the entry of new private actors...