Microfinance institutions (MFIs) are alternative financial providers offering financial services to people typically excluded from the standard banking sector. While most MFIs are active in developing countries, there is also a young and developing microfinance sector in Europe; however, very...

This paper measures the over-indebtedness of microborrowers in Ghana. It defines over-indebtedness from a customer-protection perspective, considering borrowers over-indebted if they continuously struggle with repayment and experience unacceptable sacrifices related to their debt. We find that...

This paper analyses the over-indebtedness of microborrowers in Ghana. It defines over-indebtedness from a customer protection perspective and considers borrowers over-indebted if they continuously struggle with repayment and experience unacceptable sacrifices related to their debt. It finds that...

In the past, the microfinance industry focused mainly on growth and outreach. Addressing financial exclusion implied a huge supply gap. Recent over-indebtedness crises in several countries have shown that this gap can turn into over-supply. The industry urgently requires research to understand...

In recent years, development practice has seen that microfinance institutions (MFIs), beyond their financial and social objectives, start considering their environmental bottom line. Yet, little is known on the characteristics of institutions involved in environmental management. For the first...

Impact evaluation studies routinely find that lending to women benefits their households, but not necessarily the women concerned. The reasons for this paradox are not well understood. This, I argue, is partly because of the obsession with viewing women’s empowerment as outcomes alone and...

In most developed countries, regulators have imposed loan ceilings to subsidized microfinance institutions (MFIs). Micro-entrepreneurs in need of above-ceiling loans are left with the co-financing option, which means securing the aboveceiling share of the loan with a regular bank, and getting a...

The microfinance industry has been celebrated both for its social impact on poverty alleviation and for its profitability. With issues of over-indebtedness emerging among microfinance customers, both achievements are at risk. This paper contributes to the industry's understanding of the...

This paper estimates the impact of loan officers' subjectivity on microcredit granting by exploiting an exceptionally detailed database from a Brazilian microfinance institution. Loan officers collect field data, meet with applicants, and make recommendations to the credit committee that in turn...

Women entrepreneurs are known not only to reimburse loans swifter than men, but also to receive smaller loans. However, on average women have smaller-scope business projects and are poorer than men. A deeper investigation is thus required in order to assess the existence of gender discrimination...