The profit and loss sharing principle that is peculiar to Islamic banks reformulates the allocation of risk between shareholders and depositors. In this work we focus on monitoring as a determinant of bank efficiency, under the assumption that equity is a better device than deposits for reducing...

In a given geographical area, what happens when a farmer, a craftsman, or a small merchant can choose between participating in a group lending or resorting to an informal money-lender? This paper presents a theoretical model that examines such situations, placing group lending and informal...

This paper contributes to a growing body of literature on microfinance institutions, where the equilibrium between social and financial sustainability is one of the hottest topics. However, the evidence regarding this relationship in the European microfinance sector is scarce. In the current...

This paper examines the economy's vulnerability to money laundering in a given region. Assuming that criminals are rational investors who take into account risks and returns of both legal and illegal investments, we define vulnerability as a function of well-identified drivers. Proxies of these...

In this paper we present a model of competition between informal lending and group lending. The paper is organized as follows. The second paragraph reviews the economic literature that analyzes separately group contracts and informal lending markets. The third paragraph tries to answer the...