This paper focuses on the difficulties inherent in the prudent management of growth of microfinance organizations and on potential limits to the increased efficiency, profitability, and sustainability expected from growth and large size. The paper addresses both positive and negative...

Published research on credit counseling and mortgage termination is surprisingly scarce, despite substantial growth in this industry. While the purpose of counseling is to help low-income borrowers to handle better debt, and thus prevent default, counseling could also improve these borrowers...

This paper investigates the farm-household decisions of adopting and abandoning higher-productivity technologies, under different scenarios of inclusion into the credit and deposit markets. The financial environment is further characterized by shallow financial markets, represented by a...

Decoupled payments have emerged as an alternative to traditional agricultural subsidies that are coupled to production decisions, in order to minimize the distorting impacts of domestic agricultural policy. Economic theory suggests that, when farmers face imperfections in key markets such as...

Interest rates on formal agncultural loans m most low income countries are less than rates of inflation and below rates charged on commercial loans. Many development economists have criticized cheap credit because they felt it induced farmers to use too much capital (such as tractors) at the...

This paper focuses on the difficulties inherent in the prudent management of growth of microfinance organizations and on potential limits to the increased efficiency, profitability, and sustainability expected from growth and large size. The paper addresses both positive and negative...

This article asks if women are better bankers to the poor, motivated by recent work showing differences in performance between male and female CEOs in financial firms and in NGOs. We adapt the banking approach to managerial efficiency to account for the outreach and sustainability goals of...

This study examines the factors and behaviors that affect Southeast US farmers’ ability to meet their loan payment obligations within the stipulated loan term. The study also estimates a credit risk model using farm-level financial information to determine the credit worthiness of various...