Purpose: the objective is to measure the financial and social performance of 127 microfinance institutions (MFIs) and observe the effects with explanatory factors such as “type”, “geography region”, and “secular and faith” variables. Design/methodology/approach: The time-series...

This article assesses the opinions of youth tomato growers on the accessibility of agricultural credit and factors that influence the accessibility in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Data originated from a household survey for the 2019/2020 farming season. We interviewed 218 youth...

The main objective of the study was to investigate the impact of microfinance on smallholder resettled sugarcane farmers’ productivity and technical efficiency. The study evaluated the impact of microfinance on technical efficiency of resettled sugarcane smallholders as well as the...

We exploit novel data collected within a randomised controlled trial of a sanitation microcredit intervention to study how intra-household gender differences in perceptions of costs and benefits of sanitation impact investment decisions. We show that – as long as the wife is involved in...

The rapid development of online lending in the past decade, while providing convenience and efficiency, also generates large hidden credit risk for the financial system. Will removing financial intermediaries really provide more efficiency to the lending market? This paper used a large dataset...

Although microfinance started as a movement to improve women's economic wellbeing through increased female entrepreneurship in particular, its impact on women's attitudes toward and participation in the labour market is not fully understood. We fill this gap by combining data on branch locations...

We suggest an explanation for the existence of "mission drift", the tendency for Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) to lend money to wealthier borrowers rather than to the very poor. We focus on the relationship between MFIs and external funding institutions. We assume that both the MFIs and the...

Previous studies have identified various factors underlying firm financing structure especially in large firms. However, few have attempted to document the reasons for financing preferences among microenterprises in developing countries. Employing a managerial-based theory, this study explores...

Förderbanken sehen sich verändernden Marktbedingungen mit niedrigen Zinssätzen, schnellem technologischen Wandel und einem erhöhten Interesse an Impact-Investitionen gegenüber. Dieses Umfeld stellt traditionelle Prozesse und Geschäftsmodelle in Frage, birgt aber auch eine Chance, neue und...

It is important to evaluate the impact of Ethiopia's financial inclusion strategy since it has been launched in 2014. Accordingly, this paper assesses the extent to which the target has been met. The main aim of this study is to measure the success or failure of Ethiopia's financial inclusion in...

Poverty is a universal reality, and no one can deny the omnipresence of it all over the world. It is considered as the most harmful economic and social problem of human beings since their creation. It affects individuals as well as society as a whole in a very destructive way, and it is...

Do constraints to technology adoption vary by behavioral traits? We randomize 150 villages in Bangladesh into being offered standard microcredit, loans with a grace period, the choice between those two contracts, and control. No discernible average effects are detected on the adoption of...

The regulation of microfinance services is likely to have a wide-ranging influence on the microfinance sector, particularly on institutions and their clients. This paper reveals the impact of a specific regulatory regime, the "Microcredit Regulatory Authority Act, 2006", enacted by the...

We evaluate a non-governmental housing microfinance intervention that attempts to improve housing conditions for low income populations by simultaneously offering them a labelled loan and non-financial technical support. Using household survey data from Kenya and Uganda, we first show evidence...

The turbulent 1830s saw a sequence of great political and social reforms in the UK. One such reform was the introduction of a locally funded poor law in Ireland. The development of a nascent welfare system in 1838 coincided with a boom in the formation of microfinance institutions in Ireland....

We study repayment and delinquency in an innovative loan contract that offers borrowers a wide range of flexibility. Using a large administrative dataset, we perform unsupervised pattern analysis to study how borrowers repay within the framework of this loan. We identify eight clusters that can...

Microfinance is the arrangement of budgetary administrations to low-income individuals and to SMEs. An empirical study was undertaken to identify the relationship between micro credits from MFIs and the SMEs’ financial performance. Secondary data were collected from 17 SMEs in North Lebanon....

The objective of the study was to enhance our knowledge on institutional bottlenecks for financial development, financial inclusion, and microfinance, using Mauritania as a case study. We used a mixed-methods’ methodology that combines analysis of secondary data and an expert interview. First,...

Flexible repayment schedules allow borrowers to invest in profitable yet risky projects, but practitioners fear they erode repayment morale. We study repayment choices in rigid and flexible loan contracts that allow discretion in repayment timing. To separate strategic repayment choices from...

The purpose of the article is to investigate whether female presence in microfinance institutions' management team, i.e. board members, managers and loan officers, will improve their financial performance. We combine financial data on MFIs that is available from the MIX Market database with...

The Microfinance industry has been severely affected by Covid-19. We provide detailed insights into how loan officers, the key personnel linking the lender to its borrowers, are affected in their performance and adapt their work to the pandemic. We use administrative records of an Indian...

Purpose: the objective is to measure the financial and social performance of 127 microfinance institutions (MFIs) and observe the effects with explanatory factors such as 'type', 'geography region', and 'secular and faith' variables. Design/methodology/approach: The time-series performance...

This paper uses cross-country and panel data set to test the significance of microfinance on income inequality reduction at the macro level for a sample of 57 developing countries for the periods 2000-2006 and 2007-2013. This study adopts panel data methodologies, such as ordinary least square...

International remittances by immigrants to their home countries is key in the funding development in migrant-sending countries. This study investigates the combined impact of international remittance inflows and financial inclusion on economic growth using a sample of 60 low- and middle-income...