This paper presents the first evidence on the impact of board diversity and independence, and management compensation on outreach and sustainability of microfinance institutions in Central and Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States. Results indicate that board diversity improves both...

Agricultural credit and rural finance problems are important constraints on restructuring, investment, and thus on recovery and growth in transition countries. In this paper we study agricultural investments and financing in Polish agriculture. Our empirical evidence is based on a 2001 survey of...

Our micro-econometric analysis of agricultural credit market outcomes in Poland sheds new light on the relationship between contractual arrangements and interest rates. An innovative theoretical framework based on a hedonic market model is developed. We interpret the factors that influence...

The instability of commodity prices and the hypothesis that speculative behaviour was one of its causes has brought renewed interest in futures markets. In this paper, the hedging effectiveness of European and US wheat futures markets were studied to test whether they were affected by the high...

This study seeks to analyse the financial feasibility of upscaling the fortifer business model in Ghana. DataoriginatefromthepilotprojectinAccra,extendedwithexpertelicitation. TheNPVandIRRwere used as decision criteria for Public Private Partnership (PPP) and Private Scenarios. The Spearman rank...

On the example of a commercial microfinance institution (MFI) in Tanzania this paper investigates first whether agricultural firms have a different probability to get a loan and whether their loans are differently volume rationed than loans to non-agricultural firms. Second, we analyze whether...

Asymmetries between the emerging capital and credit market in the Republic of Macedonia in addition to the restructure of the agricultural sector limit the agricultural companies’ financial decisions and their possibilities to profit. Considering capital market imperfections typically for...

This paper investigates borrowing decisions of rural households from a microfinance in Tigray, Ethiopia using household panel data on 5 years and a dynamic panel probit model. The theoretical model takes two types of risk involved in joint-liability lending explicitly into account: risk of...

Based on its distinctive profiles functional-food (FF) can be considered as a mixture of food and pharmaceutical items. Apparently, these different characteristics that exist beyond conventional food products contribute success of the commercialization of new innovative FFs. Therefore,...

The aim of this paper is to test empirically the role of both cognitive and structural social capital in explaining the repayment performance of individual members under joint liability borrowing in rural Armenia. Based on unique primary data collected in 2006 in Ararat, Armavir and Vayots Dzor...