High coordination costs are often blamed for the low quality of public goods available to the poor. Participatory development programs have sought to lower these costs by improving trust and cooperation, but the evidence of their impact is mixed. We examine financial "self-help" groups in one of...

Although, interest rate charged by microfinance stimulate of lot of ethical debate. Very few studies in microfinance detail the cost components of interest rates paid by the borrowers. Setting the optimal interest rate with a dual goal of financial sustainability and fighting against poverty is...

The aim of this paper is to understand the functioning and the scope of self-help groups in the informal settlements of urban areas as a means of generating income for poor households. The paper uses a unique dataset collected by the author in 1999 surveying all individual group members from...

The paper explores a game-theoreticmodel of petty corruption involving a sequence of entrepreneurs and a track of bureaucrats. Each entrepreneur's project is approved if and only if it is cleared by each bureaucrat. The project value is stochastic; its value is observed only by the entrepreneur,...

This paper analyzes the use of informal credit as a coping strategy against risk by market women in the city of Tamale, Ghana. Using qualitative research techniques, the analysis reveals that intra-household structure and allocation decisions determine these market-based coping strategies....

The traditional relationship of patronage and clientship between the landlords and the growing commercial class in Bida and in other Nigerian Emirates - firmly established during the 19th century - left indelible marks which influenced the pattern of social communication between these two...

Based on a unique panel dataset consisting of both formal and informal firms surveyed every other year from 2005 to 2013, this paper explores the benefits of formalization to the government and firm employees in Vietnam. We find that formalization benefits the government by increasing the amount...

This paper examines the relationship between formalization and firm-level outcomes in Vietnam using a unique panel dataset. Results show that switching firms differ from informal nonswitching firms, confirming heterogeneity. We also find that becoming formal leads to increased profits, value...

Social capital and political connections can play an important role in developing countries where markets fail and institutions are weak. This paper explores their role in household micro-enterprise operation and success in the rural low-income setting of Vietnam. We propose that social capital...