This article reports from a pilot project in Uganda where the aim is to enable persons with disabilities to have access to mainstream microfinance services. Several lessons have already been learned: 1) entrepreneurs with disabilities are an untapped market opportunity for Micro Finance...

Prior studies of the diversification-driven cost savings from the joint provision of credit and deposits in microfinance usually ignore the multi-way heterogeneity across MFIs which vary substantially in size, business model, target clientele and operate in diverse environments. Using a quantile...

This article examines the impact of microfinance ‘plus' (i.e. coordinated combination of financial and nonfinancial services) on the performance of microfinance institutions (MFIs). Using a global data set of MFIs in 77 countries, we find that the provision of nonfinancial services does not...

This paper studies the relation between board size and composition and cost savings (scope economies) from combining savings mobilization and lending by Microfinance Institutions. The findings support the hypothesis that employee representation on the board is associated with positive scope...

In countries with weak institutions board governance becomes more important. This study uses a unique dataset from listed Sub-Saharan African companies to examine the relationship between ownership composition and board compensation. It further analyses the association between board compensation...

Prior research has identified five barriers hindering disabled persons' access to microcredit: exclusion by staff; exclusion by non-disabled members of credit groups; self-exclusion; exclusion by credit design; and exclusion by the disability itself. This study applies survey data to examine which...

Using data from 319 microfinance institutions (MFIs) in 68 developing countries, we study the degree to which international debt investments are related to the financial and social performances of MFIs. We find that commercial investments are mainly related to financial performance and level of...

This study responds to the need for more empirical knowledge pertaining to the effect of religion on development efforts. We find that Christian Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) have significantly lower funding costs and consistently underperform in terms of financial profit indicators. Contrary...

We evaluate the efficiency of microfinance institutions (MFIs) using a structural approach which also captures these institutions' outreach and sustainability objectives. We estimate economies of scale and input price elasticities for lending-only and deposit-mobilizing MFIs using a large sample...

We extend a recently developed generalized local polynomial estimator into a semiparametric smooth coefficient framework to estimate a generalized cost function. The advantage of the generalized local polynomial approach is that we can simultaneously choose the degree of polynomial for each...