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...

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,...

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...

Um der Frage nachgehen zu können, ob Generationengerechtigkeit grundsätzlich Aufgabe von Unternehmen sein kann, muss zunächst beantwortet werden, ob Unternehmen als kollektive Akteure moralische Verantwortung tragen können. Dazu wird ein Ansatz vorgestellt, der die Selbstbindungsfähigkeit...

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...

This paper reviews the growing literature that has spawned around branchless and mobile banking in developing countries over the last five years. Around 2.6 billion people in the world do not have access to formal financial services, and yet 1 billion of them have a mobile phone. Branchless...

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

The past year held many challenges for microfinance: not since the Asian crisis of the late 1990s has the sector faced a more difficult economic environment. Yet despite these conditions, most microfinance institutions (MFIs) proved to be up to the challenge. This report is the result of a...