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...

Savings and credit groups are becoming increasingly popular, both as a cost-efficient alternative to mainstream microfinance and as a mean to mobilize people around individual and common challenges. Whether donors should promote and support Self Help Microfinance Groups that confine themselves...

We provide empirical evidence on focusing on women in microfinance and its consequences for microfinance institutions (MFIs). Based on a global dataset, the results indicate that a focus on women is associated with group-lending methods, international orientation, smaller loans, and...

We study mission drift in social enterprises by examining whether these organizations stick to the actual mission enshrined in their mission statements. We use data from micro!nance organizations (MFOs), a homogeneous group of social enterprises which have been scrutinized—and sometimes...

Using a unique sample from an Ecuadorian microfinance institution that has focused on increasing its outreach to disabled clients, we present a comparative analysis of the characteristics of disabled versus non-disabled clients. The study shows that disabled clients are more often male, are less...

This study examines whether the agency cost component referred to as ‘residual loss’ differs between nonprofit and shareholder-owned microfinance organizations and whether such costs are further influenced by CEO power. We use operating expenses, asset utilization, liquidity and tangible...

Formal financial institutions inadequately distribute startup capital to business ventures of ethnic minorities, women, low-educated, and young people. Self-financing groups fill this gap because in these associations agents accumulate their savings into a fund that is later used to provide...

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to determine whether there exists employee-client matching at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) as well as the most favourable employee- client categorization in terms of employee productivity when serving the BOP market. This is important in a bid to determine...

The purpose of this report is to give an overview of the contents of the SAVIX database as of December 2017. Starting with a brief background of savings groups,2 the report provides information on the geographical distribution of the savings groups in the database and group characteristics, such...

This study uses data from the microfinance industry to analyse differences in earnings quality between for-profit and nonprofit organisations. The two sets of organisations differ with respect to both governance mechanisms and managerial incentives, and little research has been conducted to...