In less developed and transition economies, microlending has become an efficient instrument for providing small and micro-businesses with the necessary financial resources to launch operations. In the industrialized countries, with their highly developed banking systems, however, there has been...

Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs) are publicly funded organisations that provide small loans to people in financially underserved areas of the UK. Policy makers have repeatedly sought to understand and measure the performance of CDFIs to ensure the efficient use of public funds,...

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

Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs) are publicly funded organisationsthat provide small loans to people in financially underserved areas of the UK. Policy makershave repeatedly sought to understand and measure the performance of CDFIs to ensurethe efficient use of public funds,...

This paper investigates whether self-employed households use consumer loans – inparticular instalment loans and overdrafts – to finance business activities. Controlling forfinancial and non-financial household variables we show that self-employed householdsparticularly use personal...

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...

In developing and transition economies, microlending has become an effective instrument for providing micro businesses with the necessary financial resources to launch operations. In the industrialized countries, with their highly developed banking systems, however, there has been ongoing debate...

This paper investigates whether self-employed households use consumer loans - in particular instalment loans and overdrafts - to finance business activities. Controlling for financial and non-financial household variables we show that self-employed households particularly use personal overdrafts...