Globalization poses the imperative for firms to link with other actors and find new ways to interact and learn from the relationship. Employing original empirical evidence and featuring new case studies from Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Nicaragua, Upgrading to Compete shows that the form of...

This paper presents a conceptual framework for explaining Credit Unions (CUs) loan delinquency and profitability in developing countries. It also offers an empirical estimation for a unique sample of CUs in Latin America.

This paper examines each major element of the village banking technology and how it has been liberalized so far, particularly in four leading Latin American village banking institutions: FINCA Nicaragua, Pro Mujer Bolivia, Compartamos (in Mexico), and CRECER (in Bolivia). It then analyzes how...

The current study gathers together a large database on the funding side of Latin American microfinance institutions (MFIs), providing detailed coverage of 61 regulated MFIs in nine Latin American countries with major microfinance markets. The study goes on to examine the relative costs of the...

This book arose out of a study commissioned by the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Division of the Inter-American Development Bank aimed at researching cases based on Latin American experiences with competitive cooperation among enterprises, whether brought about as a result of specific...

Banks are increasingly entering into microfinance, and donors such as the IDB are increasingly helping them to do so. Despite this trend, banks continue to make a number of common mistakes in attempting to serve the microenterprise sector. A key to successfully serving this sector is to follow...

This paper describes how to do equipment finance--leasing and lending--for mainstream microentrepreneurs, that is, for those microentrepreneurs needing approximately $50 to $2500 to purchase equipment. Specifically, this paper examines the pros and cons of the two major financing alternatives,...

Do the programs that aim to promote and develop industry clusters (also known as Cluster Development Programs) work? Do they have an impact on enterprise development? This paper offers an insight into the methods that can help answer these fundamental questions through solid quantitative...

Globalization poses the imperative for firms to link with other actors and find new ways to interact and learn from the relationship. Employing original empirical evidence and featuring new case studies from Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Nicaragua, Upgrading to Compete shows that the form of...