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 the status quo of regulation for Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) inGermany. A short presentation of the legal framework is followed by a detailed account of thepractical implications for the lending design that MFIs face. Five different models of loan extensionare...

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...

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 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,...

This paper empirically analyses whether the character-based approach which is based on the personality and on the human capital of business founders, al- lows prediction of entrepreneurial success. A unique data set is used consisting of 414 previously unemployed persons whose personal...

Die Existenzgründungsförderung für Arbeitslose gewinnt als arbeits-marktpolitisches Instrument in Deutschland zunehmend an Bedeutung. Mit der Einführung des Existenzgründungszuschusses (ExGZ) zum 1.1.2003 steht gründungswilligen Arbeitslosen - neben dem Überbrückungsgeld (ÜG) - nun ein...