Microfinance is a development tool used to reduce poverty among extremely poor households. Impoverished households can access lines of credit through microfinance institutions (MFIs), in order to create a new business, smooth household consumption, fund medical emergencies, etc. Many authors postulate that MFIs are drifting from a welfarist to an institutionalist approach to lending. Using MIXMarket data on specific MFIs in 118 countries between 1995 and 2011, the average loan balance of these organizations will be regressed against measure of outreach and sustainability of these institutions by charter type through a series of four, fixed effects models. The main research question is: given that a positive, overall shift in average loan balance indicates an institutionalist shift in mission, how does this impact microfinance institutions and the demographics they target on the intensive and extensive margins? These analyses will test the theory that MFIs with larger average loan balances serve households closer to the subsistence poverty level, a manifestation of mission drift toward the institutionalist philosophy of lending. The phenomenon of mission drift directly impacts the outcomes of microfinance institutions and the target demographic of the organization. The results of this study indicate that the mission of these organizations is drifting toward the institutionalist philosophy of lending. With this general result, mission drift can be observed within both the internal and external margins of the microfinance industry, which influences the chosen target market, profit generated, and structure of MFIs, as determined by the mission of the organization.

Combating poverty is a global issue. In the past, anti-poverty strategy heavily rely on in-kind and in-cash social assistance, until microfinance model had proved remarkable saving outcomes, and then its ideology had swept the world. After the concept of Grameen Bank is widely recognized by Taiwanese, fostering small business and fostering self-reliance to create a cycle of sustainability pave an innovative thinking for social assistance models, and modify the conventional social welfare paradigm. The aforementioned factor thus brings about the origin of Taiwan’s Microfinance Program. This research interviewed the program stakeholders to conclude strategies to improve cost-effectiveness, as the program performances, judged by most program stakeholders, remained unsatisfied for a while. The research consistently addresses the aforementioned issues in terms of bank design, borrower characteristics, and bank supportive services; then, the research paper draws a conclusion and recommendations to improve the program performance.

Cette thèse étudie spécifiquement la stratégie d'investissement des fonds d'investissement en microfinance à partir des données contextuelles, en utilisant une approche d'analyse de contenu qualitative. Information écrite de 84 sites de fonds de la microfinance a été utilisé comme sources secondaires. La principale question de recherche est "comment sont les stratégies d'investissement des fonds de microfinance conçus ? " Cette étude examine uniquement les informations que les fonds d'investissement en microfinance sont prêts à informer aux parties concernées au sujet de leur point de vue et les conditions d'investissement en microfinance, et la portée ne s'étend pas aux investisseurs et aux institutions de microfinance aspects. Il se trouve la stratégie d'investissement du fonds est conçu en incluant un certain nombre d' éléments spécifiques tels que les objectifs d'investissement, les critères de choix des investissements, les secteurs d'investissement , des instruments d'investissement et de leurs modalités, la structure de financement, la répartition géographique , le risque , le rendement , la couverture , effet de levier, les stratégies de sortie , et les procédures de sélection des investissements . Les conclusions de l'étude suggèrent les recherches futures utilisant des sources de données plus larges, en particulier d'examiner les investisseurs et les micro côtés de l'institution , afin d'obtenir une stratégie d'investissement efficace qui est bien adapté aux préférences de toutes les parties concernées . Par la suite, une évaluation de l'impact de cette stratégie sur la décision d'investissement devrait également être étudiée.

This dissertation consists of two empirical papers that explore recent phenomena in Banking and Microfinance Performance. Chapter 1, “Market Power and Bank Performance in MENA Countries,” examines the determinants of market power in 12 Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), specifically within six Gulf Cooperation Countries and six non-Gulf countries. We examine the dynamics of bank competition in MENA countries, provide an up-to-date assessment of market power, investigate the factors impacting bank competition, and explore the evolution of market power during the financial crisis. Our results show an overall increase in market power following the GFC for both regions. We find that bank size, capitalization, and diversification affect market power differently in the pre-crisis and post-crisis years. Larger banks enjoy cost advantages and the diversification impact on market power has decreased in the post-crisis years and the impact of capitalization on market power increased during the GFC. Overall, banks with higher capitalization can better weather the crisis. Chapter 2, “The impact of firm-level characteristic and county-specific attributes on the performance and efficiency of the Microfinance institutions,” estimates the impact of country-specific macro-variables and firm-specific attributes on the financial performance and the efficiency of microfinance institutions (MFIs). We use a large international up-to-date database consisting of over 10,000 firm-years for MFIs over 89 countries during the period 2008-2015. Several interesting findings emerge: a) regulation and outreach are negatively correlated. b) There is a negative and highly statistically significant correlation between the percentage of female borrowers and loan size, which is evidence of “mission drift”. c) An increase in the percentage of female board member has positive and statistically significant effect on MFIs profitability and ROA; which emphasizes the importance of female participation in leading position in MFIs.

In the 20th century, microfinance went through a revolution: the number of microfinance was expanding exponentially all over the world. Microfinances are supposed to be one of the most efficient tools in alleviating poverty. The paper, Microfinance: Development Aid tool is analyzing whether microfinance institutions provide, beside the credit services, also preventive antimalarial services so as to lower malaria cases. Theoretical part is focused on definition and familiarization with 'microfinance, development aid and malaria' terms. Practical part analyses the malaria problem in connection with microfinance market and microfinance organizations in the three above mentioned countries.

Este estudo analisa as mudanças regulatórias no microcrédito e os seus efeitos no desempenho financeiro e social de cooperativas de crédito no Brasil. Temas como microfinanças e microcrédito são amplamente explorados nas últimas décadas tanto internacionalmente como no Brasil assim como o cooperativismo de crédito e o seu respectivo desempenho têm fomentado relevantes estudos. O microcrédito no Brasil é concebido no contexto das políticas públicas, notadamente os programas Programa Nacional de Microcrédito Produtivo Orientado (PNMPO) e o CRESCER programa nacional de microcrédito, os quais são considerados como uma política pública social implementada via mercado financeiro. As mudanças regulatórias ocorridas no microcrédito em 2011 impactaram todas as instituições ofertantes de microcrédito de maneiras e magnitudes diferentes. A avaliação de desempenho de instituições de microcrédito, mais especificamente das cooperativas de crédito, explorada nesta tese, baseia-se em indicadores de desempenho financeiro e social. A estratégia metodológica adotada é o experimento \"natural\" ou \"quasi\" experimento com suporte da técnica estatística diferenças em diferenças. A população corresponde a 1.429 cooperativas observadas durante 14 semestres. O período estudado é 2008 a 2014. Os dados são coletados em duas fontes: no Banco Central do Brasil, que disponibiliza dados inéditos do Plano Contábil das Instituições do Sistema Financeiro Nacional (COSIF) e do Sistema de Informações de Crédito (SCR), e no Ministério do Trabalho e Emprego (MTE), via coordenação do PNMPO, além de entrevistas realizadas com agentes qualificados nas instituições concedentes de microcrédito. Os resultados indicam que a oferta de microcrédito produtivo e orientado cresceu substancialmente sobretudo pelos bancos públicos, que tinham metas a serem cumpridas até o final de 2013. Assim, o programa CRESCER cumpriu o objetivo da massificação do microcrédito, entretanto, a despeito do crescimento considerável da oferta, esta ainda é pouco representativa em relação ao total de crédito ofertado pelas instituições em geral. Quanto às cooperativas de crédito os resultados das regressões, que se referem ao efeito da intervenção, revelam que as mudanças regulatórias não exerceram grande influência nos indicadores de desempenho financeiro e social das cooperativas que concedem esse tipo de crédito, principalmente nos indicadores financeiros. Nos indicadores sociais, os resultados apontam que as mudanças foram mais eficazes para estimular a amplitude do que a profundidade do alcance. Por fim, cabe salientar que as inferências devem ser feitas com cautela, visto que o pressuposto de tendências paralelas não está garantido e o tratamento não é totalmente exógeno. Os achados desta pesquisa podem ser úteis para todos os que se interessam por microfinanças, microcrédito e cooperativismo de crédito desde os gestores das instituições até os policy makers, acadêmicos, pesquisadores e também os beneficiários do microcrédito. / This study investigates regulatory changes on microcredit and its impacts on financial and social performances of Brazilian credit unions. Subjects such as microfinance and microcredit are being largely explored on the last decades internationally as well as in Brazil, and relevant studies are being promoted on credit union and its respective performance too. Microcredit in Brazil is conceived on a public policy context, mainly when considering National Program of Productive and Oriented Microcredit (PNMPO, initials in Portuguese) and National Program of Microcredit CRESCER, which are considered as public policies implemented through financial market. The regulatory chances which have happened on microcredit at 2011 have influenced all microcredit institutions, but not in the same way or magnitude. The performance evaluation of microcredit institutions (more specifically, the credit unions) which is explored on this dissertation is based on financial and social performance indexes. The strategy adopted to analyze it is \"natural\" experiment, or \"quasi\" experiment, using difference-in-differences as statistical technique. The study population totalizes 1,429 Credit Unions per semester. The period of analysis is from 2008 to 2014. The data was gathered in two main sources: on Central Bank of Brazil (which has made available inedited data about the Accounting Plan for Institutions on National Financial System - COSIF, initials in Portuguese - and System of Credit Information - SCR, initials in Portuguese) and on Ministry of Job and Employment - MTE, initials in Portuguese (through PNMPO coordination), and also by interviews made with qualified agents on microcredit institutions. The results indicate that productive and oriented microcredit supply has increased substantially on public banks, which had goals to be achieved until the end of 2013. Therefore, CRESCER program has accomplished credit massification; however, even with this significant increase on supply, it is still scarcely representative when considering all credit offered by general institutions. About credit unions, regressions results about intervention impact has shown that regulatory chances have not exerted a big influence on financial and social performance indexes of cooperatives that offer this kind of credit, mostly on financial indexes. About social indexes, results have indicated that changes were more effective to stimulate breadth rather than depth of outreach. To conclude, it is important to say that all inferences must be made with caution, whereas parallel tendency is not guaranteed and the treatment is not completely exogenous. Findings of this research may be useful to all of those who are interested on microfinance, microcredit and credit union, since those institutions managers until policy makers, academics, social scientists and microcredit beneficiaries

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2018-04-09T13:02:54Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Fernanda Maria Nogueira Lima.pdf: 788057 bytes, checksum: 838df4778a4b2acc04363ac858268d61 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-04-09T13:02:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Fernanda Maria Nogueira Lima.pdf: 788057 bytes, checksum: 838df4778a4b2acc04363ac858268d61 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-03-05 / The purpose of this study was to analyze the granting of microcredit in Brazil in the period 1995-2013 comparing the Brazilian experience with the experience of Bangladesh. In the last decades it has been observed a substantial advance in the financial market with the development of several tools that contribute to the increment of the current economic scenario. This evolution, over time, has promoted a national economic development, besides contributing to the reduction of unemployment and informality in companies. However, there is still a large gap between the low-income population and the tools available, as it is possible to observe that the high cost of credit operations for the population, mainly due to the lack of real guarantees, costs of these operations, resulting in an obstacle to obtaining credit in Brazil and consequently the financial inclusion of this population. Banking is one of the possible mechanisms to insert the low income population in the banking system and to promote a regulatory form that allows these people to obtain access to a subsidized credit, enabling entrepreneurship, the release of resources for investment and working capital, resulting in in obtaining credit with sustainability and contributing to the financial inclusion and citizenship of the most disadvantaged classes. In the course of this endeavor, the most successful experience, both in practical terms and in theoretical terms, is the case of Bangladesh, which served as a scope to verify why it persisted for several periods and economic policies and even with several governments in different periods, such as the 1995-2013 period, it was noted that the intentions were frustrated and did not make significant progress. Based on the Microcredit Revolution, the successful case of Bangladesh and the Brazilian experience were compared, since they are countries with similar initiatives of financial inclusion, public services of insufficient quality and with still anachronistic problems in socioeconomic indicators. It is concluded that despite being in the process of improvement, it has not yet promoted the social inclusion expected due to the high costs. Therefore, the results are heterogeneous, where some segments show improvement, and others, such as those of extreme poverty, microcredit further aggravates the situation, promoting inability to pay and consequent indebtedness / O presente estudo teve por objetivo analisar a concessão de microcrédito no Brasil no período 1995-2013 comparando a experiência brasileira com a experiência de Bangladesh. Nas últimas décadas constatou-se um avanço substancial no mercado financeiro com o desenvolvimento de várias ferramentas que contribuem para o incremento do cenário econômico atual. Tal evolução, ao longo do tempo, promoveu um desenvolvimento econômico nacional, além de contribuir para a redução do desemprego e da informalidade nas empresas. Contudo, tem-se ainda uma grande lacuna entre a população de baixa renda e as ferramentas disponíveis, uma vez que é possível observar que o alto custo das operações de crédito para a população, principalmente devido à falta de garantias reais, eleva ainda mais os custos das referidas operações, resultando em um entrave de obtenção do crédito no Brasil e consequentemente a inclusão financeira desta população. A bancarização é um dos mecanismos possíveis para inserir a população de baixa renda no sistema bancário e promover uma forma regulamentar que permita que estas pessoas obtenham acesso a um crédito subsidiado, possibilitando o empreendedorismo, a liberação de recursos para investimento e capital de giro, resultando na obtenção de crédito com sustentabilidade e contribuindo para a inclusão financeira e cidadania das classes mais desfavorecidas. No decorrer desta empreitada, a experiência mais bem-sucedida, tanto em termos práticos quanto em termos teóricos, é o caso de Bangladesh, que serviu de escopo para verificar o porquê de mesmo persistindo por vários períodos e políticas econômicas e mesmo com vários governos em períodos distintos, como o caso do período 1995-2013, percebeu-se que as intenções foram frustradas e não obtiveram progressos significativos. Com base na Revolução do Microcrédito fez-se a comparação do caso bem-sucedido de Bangladesh e a experiência brasileira, por se tratar de países com iniciativas semelhantes de inclusão financeira, serviços públicos de qualidade insuficientes e com problemas ainda anacrônicos nos indicadores socioeconômicos. Conclui-se que apesar de estar em processo de melhoria, ainda não promoveu a inclusão social esperada devido aos altos custos. Logo, os resultados são heterogêneos, onde alguns segmentos apresentam melhorias, e outros, como aqueles de extrema pobreza, o microcrédito agrava ainda mais a situação, promovendo a incapacidade de pagamento e consequente endividamento

Thesis (M. Dev.) -- University of Limpopo, 1999 / Refer to document

This case study explored the lived experiences of 8 participants in a microfinance sewing program in El Salvador. Numerous studies focused on empowering women by employing microfinance projects or programs in many countries; however, a lack of empirical data exists regarding Salvadoran women's perceptions about how a sewing program with teamwork affects women's empowerment. The purpose of this case study was to understand the women's personal stories, their obstacles as well as any factors they saw as empowering them. Guided by a constructionist framework, a sample of 8 participants: 5 who were sewing students and 3 who were employees, who shared their administrative perspectives about participants' skills, data collection and data analysis methods gained. Five themes emerged from the women's interviews about their sewing program experience: (a) program effect on women's well-being; (b) gained a means of income; (c) increased self-efficacy, confidence, and security; (d) worked in groups or teams; and (e) the teacher's positive influence. The 5 sewing student participants reported they developed self-efficacy and self-fulfillment in the sewing program. The women attributed their success to the teacher, who taught them sewing skills and provided guidance and encouragement. This study contributes to social change by providing insight for additional women's studies on women's empowerment, social work with families and children, and for MSW social work students.

This thesis examines the role self-help microfinance Saving Groups play in women’s empowerment in villages in Mbale district, Uganda. Central for the study is to identify the challenges and opportunities that participation in Saving Groups brings in women’s everyday life. The thesis is a result of a qualitative field study in Uganda, where eleven mothers attending Saving Groups in the villages Nashikhaso, Bubuyera and Mulyuli were interviewed. The findings show that loans from the groups have allowed the interviewees to improve their farming and thereby gain an annual income which has led to several life-changing opportunities. The ability to pay for children’s education is recognized as most valued for the women’s self-esteem, self-confidence and hope for a better future. Moreover, the findings show that even though the Saving Group’s function as a financial instrument is important, their function as a center where women can socialize and find support and knowledge may be even more vital for women’s empowerment. Patriarchal structures are affected since the Saving Groups have given women that want to make a change an arena in which to do so. Thus, through the group, women have entered a traditionally men-only zone where they redefine roles and norms.