Is the microfinance institution (MFI) able to charge unduly high lending rates and obtain a profitability incompatible with perfect competition? We use a global panel data set of MFIs. The Panzar and Rosse revenue test in static and dynamic versions is employed, together with analyses of price...

This study uses a unique, hand-collected sample of microfinance institutions from 73 countries that typically are not investigated in accounting research to analyze the relationships between audit quality and governance mechanisms. We examine two measures of audit quality, namely, the use of Big...

Policy advocates argue the case for the transformation of non-government Microfinance Organizations (MFOs) into shareholder owned firms. The argument is that this will bring about superior performance. This paper investigates whether the superiority of shareholder owned MFOs is empirically...

This paper aims to explain the choice of board and CEO characteristics in microfinance institutions (MFI). Explanations are sought in substitution or complementarity between the characteristics, external governance variables, and financial performance and outreach performance to the poor. The...

This research advances the hypothesis that female leaders (CEO, chair, and director) of a microfinance institution (MFI) give more priority to the poorest families in loan provision than male leaders. We differentiate between a depth and a width dimension of financial inclusion. The data set is...

Controversies have been a hallmark of microfinance in the years following the initial euphoria due to the awarding of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize to Grameen Bank and Mohammad Yunus. MFIs have been accused of making people credit-dependent. How, though, do we measure their success or lack of it?...

We trace the relationship between firm performance and corporate governance in microfinance institutions (MFI) utilising a self constructed global data set on MFIs, collected from third-party rating agencies. We study the effect of board characteristics, ownership type, competition and...

Suppliers of microfinance are typically Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs), cooperatives or specialized microfinance institutions incorporated as Shareholder Firms (SHFs). Leaving out the cooperatives we study whether NGOs and SHFs differ in bringing along social benefit to their clients....

The Norwegian Gender Balance Law (GBL) was proposed in June 14th 2003, made into a law on December 9th 2005, and implemented from January 1st 2006 with a two-year grace period. The law mandates at least 40% board representation for both gender in PLC companies. The government gave two main...