We assess the experiences of Eastern European Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in order to deriverecommendations for their Western European counterparts. In particular, six dimensions arediscussed: (1) building a supportive stakeholder environment, (2) defining a marketing strategy, (3)using...

In this paper we investigate whether self-employed households use consumer loans tofinance their business activities. In particular, it is shown that self-employed householdsuse personal overdrafts significantly more often than employee households do. Thisdifference remains when controlling for...

The influence of risk aversion on the decision to become self-employed is a much discussedtopic in the entrepreneurial literature. Conventional wisdom asserts that the role model of anentrepreneur requires to make risky decisions in uncertain environments and hence thatmore risk-averse...

How can a principal (an agent) ensure that an agent (a principal) will work (pay up), ifpayment (work) precedes work (payment)? When a banknote is torn in two, each part is byitself worthless. A principal can pre-commit to payment-on-delivery, by tearing a banknoteand giving the agent the first...

Models to the issue of altruism which rely on externalities of well-being are rarely used explicitly. In this paper we compare such utility-based approaches with the standard approach on altruism which is based on externalities of income. Testable differences of both types of models are derived...

A series of experiments compares bargaining behavior under three different settings: no arbitration, conventional and final offer arbitration. Under no arbitration disputes with zero payoffs were around 10%, while the pie was equally split in less than half of the cases. Under conventional...

We empirically examine the efficacy of various incentives of microlending contracts such as joint-liability or group access to future loans. We find that joint liability induces a group formation of low risk borrowers. Furthermore, the incentive system leads to peer measures between the...

In Dictator Game experiments where the information status of the recipient varies we find that a certain type of donator tends to reduce his offer when the recipient has incomplete information about the pie size. This result provides new evidence on those approaches on altruism, which assume...

For many people "solidarity" has become a meaningless word used in slogans - too often used without leading to any economic consequences. We show in this paper conditions under which solidarity can be a powerful instrument. In a solidary action, an individual in a group contributes to a series...

How can a principal (an agent) ensure that an agent (a principal) will work (pay up), if payment (work) precedes work (payment)? When a banknote is torn in two, each part is by itself worthless. A principal can pre-commit to payment-on-delivery, by tearing a banknote and giving the agent the...