This paper examines the gender gaps in the use of higher-order financial services such as investment and insurance, draws on the FinMark national-level data from Ghana and South Africa. The main observation is that females in South Africa are more likely to use general financial and investment...

The creeping effect of financial crisis and economic turmoil on African economies potentially questions the sustainability of microfinance institutions, in view of the heavy investment received both from development partners and government. This study tests the hypotheses that: (i) interacting...

The paper focuses on women's financial behaviour in their use of higher order financial services in Ghana and South Africa, inviting a gendered and social analysis of deconstructing financial behaviour. Women in South Africa are more likely to use general financial products than in Ghana, though...

This paper is motivated by the observation that type and combination of assets play a significant role in reducing incidences of shocks by asset-poor households. Asset-based strategies treat assets not just as resources, but also as an agency to transform such resources to improve livelihood...

This paper assesses causal effects of formal microcredit on children's educational outcomes by using household panel data (2000 and 2004) in a poor province of northwest rural China. The unobservables between borrowers and non-borrowers are controlled in static and dynamic...

This paper is motivated by the observation that the type and the combination of assets are associated with the likelihood of poor households' experience of shock. Focusing on the case of <italic>adivasi</italic> households in the south Indian state of Kerala, we find that the type, number and combinations of...</italic>

This study investigates whether mother's empowerment measured by her education attainment relative to father's, domestic violence and autonomy is related to children's nutritional status using the three rounds of NFHS data in India. First, mother's relative education is associated with better...

Abstract Building on the recent literature on finance, growth and hunger, we have examined the experience of Asian countries over the period 1960–2010 by dynamic and static panel data models. We have found evidence favouring a positive role of finance—defined as private credit by banks—on...

The present study tests the twin hypotheses, namely, (a) the poverty nutrition trap hypothesis that wages affect nutritional status, and (b) the activity hypothesis that activity intensity affects adult nutrition as measured by the Body Mass Index (BMI) in the context of India. The analyses draw...

This study investigates the effect of both institutional factors and the macro economy on the financial performance of MFIs. Drawing upon the Microfinance Information Exchange data and cross-country data on macro economy, finance and institutions, we use three stage least squares and...