"This paper analyzes data from a randomized experiment on mean returns to capital in Sri Lankan micro-enterprises. The findings show greater returns among men than among women; indeed, returns were not different from zero for women. The authors explore different explanations for the lower...

"The author examines the impact of the volatility of foreign portfolio investment on the financial constraints of small firms. Using a dataset of over 195,000 firm-year observations across 53 countries, she examines the impact of foreign portfolio investment instability on capital issuance and...

"It is generally recognized that the adoption of a new technology plays a fundamental role in the development process. However, the benefits from the introduction of the technology may be unevenly distributed among the population, especially if the markets do not function properly. While the...

"This paper investigates the leading causes of nonperforming loans during the economic and banking crises that affected a large number of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa in the 1990s. Empirical analysis shows a dramatic increase in these loans and extremely high credit risk, with significant...

"Powell, Mylenko, Miller, and Majnoni analyze how data in public credit registries can be used both to strengthen bank supervision and to improve the quality of credit analysis by financial institutions. Empirical tests using public credit registry (PCR) data were performed in collaboration with...

The objective of this Non-Performing Loan (NPL) Market assessment diagnostic report is to examine and assess the NPL market in Pakistan, and identify bottlenecks and practical areas that could be addressed in the short and medium term to make the NPL market in Pakistan more investor friendly....