This article introduces the Haitian Independence Debt of 1825 to the odious debt and sovereign debt literatures. We argue that the legal doctrine of odious debt is surprisingly and perhaps indefensibly narrow possibly because of historical contingency rather than any underlying logic or...

The microfinance movement reached developed countries in the late 1980s and it is still a niche market. This chapter starts with a brief history of microfinance in the North. Next, it develops a supply-side perspective and pays special attention to the features of developed countries that shape...

In most developed countries, regulators have imposed loan-size ceilings to subsidized microfinance institutions (MFIs). Entrepreneurs holding above-ceiling projects then need to secure partial funding by a bank before applying for microcredit. In turn, the MFI is tempted to free ride on bank...

This paper uses worldwide firm-level data to scrutinize the governance factors that favor gender diversity in leadership positions. Our results reveal that the gender of the dominant shareholder is key. The chief executive of firms with a female dominant shareholder has a significantly higher...