We study the effects of a pilot project that strengthened the saving incentive mechanisms set up by the Small Enterprise Foundation (SEF), a leading microfinance institution based in South Africa. The program aimed at introducing a stimulus to save in the form of the possession of “Goal...

A quasi-natural experiment has been carried out in which the Centre Meeting (CM) rules of some centres of a large Microfinance Institution (MFI) that offers microfinance services, in the form of group lending, were changed. The study has been carried out at the Small Enterprise Foundation (SEF),...

In this paper we analyze the role of peer solidarity in fostering productive investments in the context of microfinance. When there is asymmetric information between lenders and borrowers and loans are not collateralized, borrowers may divert loans towards current consumption rather than...

This paper investigates the relative impact of capitalization on risk-taking efficiency in Islamic and conventional banks. In particular, we test whether changes occurring to the capital structure of different types of banks unevenly affect their behavior in terms of risk-taking efficiency....

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...