Finance and Financial Management Commons^™

To Pay Or Not To Pay?: Local Institutional Differences And The Viability Of Rural Credit In Nicaragua, Johan Bastiaensen, Ben D'Exelle

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

Innovative credit enterprises, aiming to expand the frontier of the rural credit market, can attain financial sustainabihty and broadened social outreach if they embed financial operations in local institutions, such as social networks and prevailing rules. Only in this way can the "rules of the game" imposed by the credit enterprise gain the local legitimacy that is necessary to reduce transaction costs sufficiently. The nature of preexisting local institutional environments, therefore, has a profound effect on the performance of credit enterprises. Our analysis of a rural microcredit program in two neighboring villages in Nicaragua indicates that existing patron-client structures, conditioned …

Community Savings Funds: Providing Access To Basic Financial Services In Marginalized Rural Areas Of Mexico, Gabriala Zapata

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

The Community Savings Funds (CSFs) promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture in Mexico seek to provide marginalized community groups with a simple mechanism that allows them to save and administer their own funds securely, efficiently, and profitably, according to their own needs and priorities. Specially trained promoters help set up CSFs for a period of one year—using a standardized Toolkit—after which they are expected to work autonomously. There are 540 CSFs in 12 states with over 12,800 members and savings totaling 4.45 million pesos (US 5445,000). This paper describes the characteristics of the CSF model and the results to date. …

Care's Mata Masu Dubara (Women On The Move) Program In Niger: Successful Financial Intermediation In The Rural Sahel, William J. Grant, Henry C. Allen [email protected]

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

CARE's Mata Masu Dubara (MMD) project is a women's time-bound accumulating savings and credit association (ASCA) program in rural Niger. Over the past decade, CARE has facilitated the creation of over 5,500 active women's groups with over 162,000, providing the purest forms of financial intermediation to their members in some of the poorest parts of Niger. Working from a very simple and appropriately adapted savings based product, sustainability and replication of the associations is easy to achieve. Due to the overwhelming demand for the product, CARE's role has evolved from service provider creating the associations to a facilitator that trains …

Front Matter, Journal Of Microfinance

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

No abstract provided.

The New Microfinance: An Essay On The Self-Help Group Movement In India, Kim Wilson

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

Indian NGOs have created at least one million self-help groups with 17,000,000 members since the self-help group concept was developed by MYRADA in the late 1980s. India is unique in that banks are permitted to lend directly to unregistered self-help groups and by May 2001, banks and cooperatives had financed 461,478 of these groups, with almost 200,000 new self-help groups financed between May 2000 and May 2001, indicating an accelerated process of expansion. The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) trains banks and refinances their loans. The key to NABARD's success is decentralization. Responsibility for group development and …

Evaluation And Microenterprise Programs In The United States, Mark Schreiner

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

Microenterprise programs attempt to help poor people start or strengthen small businesses. Funding and political support have grown rapidly. Is microenterprise a good use of scarce development funds? Unfortunately, most evaluations have been case studies in what not to do. Because benefits and costs cannot be measured completely nor with perfect certainty, rigorous evaluations should support their necessarily subjective judgements with logic and explicit assumptions. The usefulness of an evaluation lies not in its (apparent) incontrovert-ibility but rather in its clarity of assumptions and in its openness to meaningful review and critique.

A Symposium On Savings-Led Microfinance And The Rural Poor, Jeffrey Ashe

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

No abstract provided.

Pact's Women's Empowerment Program In Nepal : A Savings- And Literacy- Led Alternative To Financial Building, Jeffrey Ashe, Lisa Parrott [email protected]

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

Pact's Women's Empowerment Program (WEP) in Nepal operated through 6,500 groups with 130,00 women members. These groups mobilized nearly $2,000,000 of assets in less than three years with 94% on loan to 45,000 group members. By mid 2001, WEP had as many outstanding loans as CARD in the Philippines and Compartamos in Mexico, two very well known "credit-led" microfi-nance institutions, while working through three times as many groups. In addition, 65,000 group members learned to read through Pact's innovative curriculum that focused exclusively on managing a group, starting a business, and women's empowerment. WEP was implemented by 240 partners (most …

End Matter, Journal Of Microfinance

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

No abstract provided.

Ashrai: A Savings-Led Model For Fighting Poverty And Discrimination, Brett Matthews, Ahsan Ali [email protected]

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

Ashrai is getting results with a savings-led model among minority peoples in northwest Bangladesh. These people are mostly landless and illiterate, and earn about $50 a year per person. They are a vital population segment that microfinance institutions in Bangladesh and elsewhere are unable to serve successfully. Ashrai began its field work ten years ago by replicating Grameen Bank, but rapidly learned from its clients that they needed savings at least at much as loans, flexible loan repayment schedules structured around seasonal cash flow, and an easing of the requirement that loans be for productive purposes. Ashrai takes an innovative …

Savings And Credit For U.S. Microenterprises : Integrating Individual Development Accounts And Loans For Microenterprise, Caroline E. Glackin, Eliza G. Mahony

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

This paper provides a framework for the integration of two asset-building instruments, Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) and loans for microenterprise. Initially, it provides an overview of the emergence of the asset-based approach to poverty alleviation in the U.S. context and the evolution of IDAs and microenterprise development (MED). Then, it evaluates the potential role of IDAs in reducing risk using conventional lending criteria. The paper summarizes the findings of initial research on integrated programs and highlights four case studies. Finally, the paper provides some preliminary observations regarding potential benefits and challenges of the integrated approach and proposes an agenda for …

Book Review: Inner-City Entrepreneurship Development: The Microcredit Challenge By Nitin Bhatt, Jerry Black

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

No abstract provided.

Unfinished Business: The Need For More Effective Microfinance Exit Monitering, James G. Copestake

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

High rates of exit remain the "Achilles heel" of many micro-finance organizations. After reviewing definitional issues, the paper explores how exit rates adversely affect both their commercial and social objectives. It then reviews case studies of exit monitoring based on routine, questionnaire based and focus group methods, making detailed suggestions as to how data collection, analysis and reporting can be improved.

Banking On Sbi : Interview With Dipankar Basu, Ashok Thampy, Vivek Moorthy

IIMB Management Review

No abstract provided.

Efficiency And Performance Of Real Estate Investment Trusts (Reits): An Empirical Examination, Can Topuz

Doctoral Dissertations

This study has a threefold purpose. Its first objective is to investigate input and output efficiencies in the Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) industry. Its second objective is to understand the impact of size, property share, loan production, debt ratio, property and geographic diversification, control and governance variables, overall risk, capital risk, growth rate, and management type on a number of efficiency measures, including profit, cost, allocative, technical, pure technical and scale efficiency. The third objective is to assess the impact of structural and regulatory changes in the industry on REITs' productivity, technology, and efficiency changes.

I have estimated the …

Financial Performance Of Insurance Companies Following Initial Public Offerings, Kulkanya Napompech

Doctoral Dissertations

The quality of insurance companies is a very significant societal issue. Policyholders pay premiums assuming indemnity of their potential losses. It is essential that an insurer be able to meet its contractual obligations when a loss occurs. An initial public offering provides an infusion of capital and an expansion of resources available to a firm. Thus, the objective of this study is to examine the financial and operating impacts of initial public offerings during 1980–2000 on insurance companies.

Chapter 2 examines changes in operating performance of property/casualty insurance companies following initial public offerings. I find that following initial public offerings, …

Indiana State University Financial Report 2002, Indiana State University

Financial Reports

No abstract provided.

"Would Bond Market Be A More Viable Investment Alternative To The Stock Market?", Hock Poon Chew

Student Works (2000-2009)

"Traditionally, investors have viewed bonds as boring investments that do not give good returns and that burdens portfolios," says Dale Bryant, a portfolio manager. "They couldn't be more misled. Sometimes bonds can do better than equities. Adding bonds can reduce portfolio volatility." Bryant's statement forms the crux of this research project. This paper investigates the co-movement of stocks and bonds on a monthly basis from April 1996 to May 2001. Average returns and standard deviations for the bond and stock market are computed and a comparison is performed to establish which market provides a better return and is less volatile. …

Linkages Between The Malaysian And Other Selected Stock Markets Before And After The 1997 Financial Crisis : Evidence From Cointegration Tests, Ai Ting Foo

Student Works (2000-2009)

A lot of focus has been placed on the interdependence of stock markets over the last two decades in view of the trend towards market deregulation and globalization of economies. Therefore, this paper attempts to examine the linkages among the stock markets pre- and post-1997 financial crisis. This paper analyzes the linkages between the Malaysian stock market with the United States of America (US), Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines using pairwise cointegration. The study uses weekly data from January 1994 to Jun 2001. Johansen and Juselius (JJ) ( 1990) co integration approach is used to …

Institutional Alternatives For The Promotion Of Microfinance: Self-Help Groups In India, P. Satish

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

Microfinance is now an accepted institutional framework for taking financial services to the poor. It is but natural that microfinance should have had tremendous growth in India--the home to the largest concentration of poor. In India the microfinance technology that had a relatively higher growth in the last decade is the self-help group (SHG). This lays stress on thrift as well as credit and also on the linkage between informal groups and formal financial institutions. An important sine qua non in this technology is the institution that promotes the SHGs. In India, SHGs have been promoted by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), …

Book Review: Mainstreaming Microfinance By Elisabeth Rhyne, Monte L. Lynn

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

No abstract provided.

Building Better Lives: Sustainable Integration Of Microfinance And Education In Child Survival, Reproductive Health, And Hiv/Aids Prevention For The Poorest Entrepreneurs, Christopher Dunford

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

This paper provides diverse examples of microfinance institutions that have responded successfully to the challenge of integrating microfinance with nonfinancial services, without compromising the impacts or sustainability of their microfinance and overall operations. Special attention is given to the integration of microfinance with health education for very poor women, including the promotion of family planning and HIV/AIDS prevention management. The credit and education components reinforce each other by addressing the informational as well as the economic obstacles to health and nutrition. There is good potential for large-scale, self-financing delivery of microfinance and education together in one efficient and effective service …

Seven Aspects Of Loan Size, Mark Schreiner

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

Attempts to measure the depth of outreach in microfinance usually start--and often end--with loan size. But just what is loan size? This paper discusses seven aspects of loan size, each of which affects not only depth of outreach but also profitability. The seven aspects are: term to maturity, dollars disbursed, average balance, dollars per installment, time between installments, number of installments, and "dollar-years of borrowed resources." This paper defines the seven aspects, explains why each one matters, and gives examples of their measurement with data from three Latin American microfinance organizations.

Announcements, Journal Of Microfinance

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

No abstract provided.

Rethinking The Approach To The Microenterprise Sector In Latin America: An Intergrating Framework, Jaime Ortiz

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

Unavoidable macroeconomic adjustment policies have exacerbated social inequalities in Latin America. As a result, electoral platforms have identified microenterprises as an alternative economic activity to help alleviate poverty. Pursuing an efficient microentrepreneurial base requires from governments a comprehensive package of both financing and training strategies. Conversely, microentrepreneurs require a better understanding of their activity in order to set forward arguments that will allow them to enhance their management practices. Government policies towards the microenterprise sector should create favorable conditions conducive to the establishment and operation of financial institutions as well as specialized nongovernmental organizations providing training and consulting. Within that …

Vol. 03 No. 2 Journal Of Microfinance, Journal Of Microfinance

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

No abstract provided.

Microcredit And The Rural Poor: A Review Of The Maharashtra Rural Credit Project, Raghav Gaiha

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

An attempt is made to review the Maharashtra Rural Credit Project (MRCP)--a microcredit scheme--by focusing on the process of implementation and its implications for targeting, empowerment of women, and trade-off between coverage of the poorest and sustainability of this scheme. Attention is drawn to deficiencies in the design and implementation of this scheme that limit the participation of the poorest and the benefits accruing to them. Moreover, it is argued that there is a risk of overstating the trade-off between the coverage of the poorest and sustainability of the MRCP if these deficiencies are overlooked.

Financial Performance Of Selected Microfinance Institutions: Benchmarking Progress To Sustainability, Michael Tucker

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

A few microfinance institutions (MFIs) have implemented best business practices and made the transition to fully regulated financial institutions. Many more are in the process of undertaking this transformation or at least considering it. Rising competition among growing numbers of MFIs for both funding and clients has made improved financial performance a necessity for most if not all MFIs. Financial ratios of 17 Latin American MFIs are compared to benchmark performance ratios for the industry and with commercial Latin American banks. This small sample of data, while useful, also underlines the need for more widespread MFI reporting. Complicating reliance on …

Book Review: Women And Microcredit In Rural Bangladesh By Aminur Rahman, Asif Dowla

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

No abstract provided.

Creating An Enabling Environment For Small-Scale Industries., K. M. Obitayo

Bullion

This paper explores how to create enabling environment for the development of small-scale industries (SSIs) which are globally noted for their immense contributions to development process and as engine of economic growth. The rest of the paper is divided into five sections. Section ll reviews the definition of SSls and highlights some relevant economic significance of SSls, Section lll reflects government's past efforts in supporting the developments of SSIs in Nigeria. Section lV discusses SSls constraints while Section V dwells on the key policy issues for creating an enabling environment for SSls. Finally, Section Vl, provides the concluding remarks and …