This paper assesses the relationship between institutions, output, and productivity when official output is corrected for the size of the shadow economy. Our results confirm the usual positive impact of institutional quality on official output and total factor productivity, and its negative...

This paper studies the relationship between the size of the shadow economy and generalized trust, on a cross-section of countries, both developed and developing, and finds that it is significantly negative. That relationship is robust to controlling for a large set of economic, policy, and...

The unequal treatment of children is not gender neutral from the parent side. Our results show that women try to compensate through debt for the unbalanced situation faced by their daughters compared to their sons. However, the lack of symmetry between mothers' and fathers' financial situations...

Using data from 319 microfinance institutions (MFIs) in 68 developing countries, we study the degree to which international debt investments are related to the financial and social performances of MFIs. We find that commercial investments are mainly related to financial performance and level of...

The paper presents a social innovation as an innovative business model with new social relations and indicates a few short cases to indicate how a social problem was addressed by a social innovation by entrepreneurial actions by microfinance service providers. The cases are from microcredit,...

Many studies have underlined the detrimental impact of local political risk on foreign direct investment inflows. In this paper, we argue that that relationship depends on the global volume of FDI. After providing a simple model and theoretical arguments suggesting that the relationship should...

This paper is a first attempt to empirically measure the impact of a money transfer activity on MFIs’ savings mobilisation. After analysing the opportunities for MFIs to succeed in transforming remittances receivers into clients, the paper empirically tests whether MFIs operating on the...

In a context where MIVs face several bottlenecks regarding their future role in the microfinance industry, this paper suggests a brand new way of reviewing their commitment to double bottom line returns. We suggest using the MACBETH (Measuring Attractiveness by a Categorical Based Evaluation...

Conventional wisdom associates the success of microfinance group lending with joint liability only. Recent studies have pinpointed the role of social capital, around which the successful implementation of joint liability contracts seems to revolve. This paper brings together all relevant...

As part of the tremendous development experienced by microfinance over the last few years, one type of institution has not generated all the attention that it could :credit unions. This can be explained by the frequent corporate governance weaknesses of this type of institution, which have been...