The purpose of this dissertation is to establish the extent to which women's membership in self-help groups and their involvement in various activities of these groups, with particular reference to Micro Credit programs, impacted their socio-economic empowerment. The objective is to study the socio-economic empowerment impact factors (evidences) in women members of micro-credit self-help groups in rural India upon the self, the family and the community. / Data selected for analyses was based on an operational model of empowerment that encompassed indicators of purported empowerment at the personal, family and community levels. The working hypotheses in quantitative analyses are that there are significant differences in income, savings, assets, expenditure, basic amenities, as well as attitudinal and behavioral changes in the rural women before and after their group membership. / The qualitative interviews helped to assess the life conditions of the women as the process of empowerment before and after their participation in self-help group micro-credit program. The qualitative interviews were to corroborate the veracity of reported progress from the survey to shed some light on the specific factors that contributed to their empowerment in line with their present quality of life at personal, family and community levels. Hence, the impact of the program is measured as the difference in the magnitude of a given parameter between the pre-and post-SHG situations by comparing the life condition of members before joining the self-help group to their condition three years after joining.

This investigation focused on why the poor are in debt, what they are indebted for, when debt was incurred, why a loan was incurred, and from whom it was aquired and for what purpose. In addition, it investigated the reasons for indebtedness, as well as the possibilities of how this situation may be addressed and the indebtedness reduced.

The aim of this study is to analyze the relationship between competition and loan portfolio quality in the Peruvian microfinance sector. To make this analysis the market is segmented into three groups of microfinance microfinance institutions IMFs), considering the average volume of its loans. So that, in the first group (large IMFs) entities of higher average volume of loans are located, in the second group (medium IMFs) entities with an average volume of loans are located and finally, in the third group (small IMFs) are entities with lower average loan volumes.This segmentation reflects the heterogeneity of size for loans between IMFs. The results show the Lerner index decreasing over time, for both the group of large IMFs and the group of small IMFs, showing a decrease of market power and increased competition in these two groups of entities. In the group of medium IMFs behavior Lerner index shows a growing trend in the last months of the period studied thus indicating a greater market power and less competition in this group of microfinance operators. On the other hand, an inverse relationship between the Lerner index over delinquency rate in the three groups of IMFs is found, implying that increased competition in the Peruvian microfinance market has deteriorated the quality of loan portfolio the period analyzed. This result is obtained by controlling the behavior of other important variables to explain the delinquency rate such as the business cycle, credit expansion, efficiency and profitability of institutions, and the effect of the international financial crisis of 2008. / El objetivo de este estudio es analizar la relación que existe entre la competencia y la calidad de cartera en el sector microfinanciero peruano en el periodo 2003-2015. Como indicador de competencia se emplea el poder de mercado estimado por el Índice de Lerner y como indicador de calidad de cartera se utiliza la tasa de morosidad. El análisis segmenta el mercado microfinanciero en tres grupos de instituciones microfinancieras (IMF), considerando el volumen promedio de sus colocaciones, de manera que, en el primer grupo se ubican las entidades con un mayor volumen promedio de colocaciones, en el segundo grupo se encuentran las entidades con un volumenmedio de colocaciones y finalmente, en el tercer grupo se ubican las entidades con menor volumen promedio de colocaciones. Esta segmentación refleja la heterogeneidad de tamaño que existe entre estas entidades. Los resultados muestran un Índice de Lerner decreciente, para el primer y el tercer grupo, evidenciando una mayor competencia. En el segundo grupo, el comportamientodel Índice de Lerner muestra una tendencia creciente en los últimos meses del periodo estudiado, reflejando una menor competencia. Por otro lado, se evidencia una relación inversa entre el Índice de Lerner y la morosidad en los tres grupos, lo que implica que el aumento de competencia en el mercado microfinanciero ha generado un deterioro en la calidad de cartera crediticia. Esteresultado se obtiene controlando el comportamiento de otras variables como son: el ciclo económico, la expansión de los créditos, la eficiencia y la rentabilidad de las instituciones, además del efecto de la crisis financiera internacional del 2008.

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

Microfinance offers one way to combat poverty by providing access to credit and financial services to low-income borrowers. We argue that the interconnectedness of the socioeconomic and ecological system as well as the reliance on ecosystem services make it important to provide microcredit from a full sustainability perspective. We used the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development, a scientific based systematic and strategic approach, to create a principle-based model of a microfinance institution operating in a socioeconomic and ecologically sustainable manner. This model was then compared with the circumstances in which these institutions currently operate. We then explored how taking a full sustainability perspective could meet current challenges and maximise opportunities. After a prioritisation process, we made recommendations on how these organisations could strategically move towards sustainability.

The Tanzanian private sector is growing, partly due to the state’s efforts to conform to the global economy. As the economy expands and the National Microfinance Policy of 2001 is realised, more and more credit has been made available to consumers. As a direct consequence of the increase of credit, the number of over- indebted consumers in Tanzania is on the rise. The current debt relief system is regulated by the Tanzanian Bankruptcy Act no. 9 of 1930, a piece of colonial legislation. Unfortunately this law is ineffective, costly and outdated. Some of the problems identified in this study with this debt relief regime include the lack of a cost- effective alternative to bankruptcy and its total reliance on the judiciary, an institution that is itself overburdened and requires reform. The purpose of this study is to make recommendations for the reform of the current debt relief system and propose a debt relief dispensation for consumer debtors in Tanzania that will efficiently cure over- indebtedness. A wide comparative investigation was undertaken in this study of selected common law, civil and mixed legal systems that have substantial experience with the boom in over-indebted consumers now facing Tanzania. A number of solutions were borrowed from these systems that may potentially solve Tanzania’s debt relief problem. One of the main findings of this thesis is that, over time, developed jurisdictions that rely on credit in the private sector appear to be converging on the same type of procedures and moderate philosophies for consumer debt relief. These include less judicial supervision for debt relief procedures, less freedom of choice for over-indebted consumers when it comes to the type of procedures available, and mandatory surplus income repayments for debtors who can afford it. In order to address the problems of the Tanzanian debt relief system, this thesis proposes a complete overhaul of the administration of debt relief procedures in Tanzania and the introduction of a combined alternative to bankruptcy that consists of three joint procedures. A number of amendments are also proposed for the Bankruptcy Act no.9 of 1930. This thesis states the status of legal developments as they were in the selected jurisdictions on 31 December 2012. / Thesis (LLD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2013 / Mercantile Law / unrestricted

The research seeks to explore why women in Zimbabwe still face hindrances in accessing micro finance services and what can be done to meet their needs in a more holistic and effective way. Women play a crucial role in the economic development of their families and communities but are faced with certain obstacles that hinder them from performing their role effectively. Such hindrances as poverty, unemployment, low household income and societal discrimination. UNIFEM (1992) confirms that the majority of the world‟s poor have a predominantly female face and argues that women earn only 10 percent of world‟s income and own less than 10 percent of the world‟s property. African women have been characterised by the lack of empowerment caused by societal perceptions and negative cultural practice. In many cases of women rights violation it has been noted that this has been exacerbated by the over reliance on the male counterpart. Development practitioners have noted that micro finance as one of the strategies needed for women empowerment. Despite the concept having been practiced for at least 15 years now, women still face challenges in accessing micro finance services. There is need for Micro Finance Institutions to recognise the position of women in relation to men as actors in society.

I have observed that in Mdantsane there is a clear gap between men and women, as people are tradition-bound, and men are often the breadwinners in their households, which leave some women sidelined and only left with household chores. Therefore this research aims to investigate these inequalities, and if microfinance can contribute positively towards the development of these women, so that they can develop and sustain their lifestyles. Chapter two of this research, containing available literature on this particular study which is sustainable livelihoods and microfinance for poor women, and covers both local as well as international studies. Here microfinance and sustainable livelihoods will be conceptualised accordingly so as to shed light on the subject. The third chapter covers the methodology used in the current study which clearly outlines the methodological framework, the research instruments, participants as well as the research design and procedure. The fourth chapter provides the findings and of the the current study, this will outline the main themes that surface and are prevalent among the participants. Chapter five will consist of the discussion of the results. Lastly chapter six will provide the conclusion as well as well as recommendations relevant to the results of this study.

Embedding social and financial goals into investment decisions and organizational missions is an increasing hallmark of social finance, a rapidly growing phenomenon that aims to create sustainable solutions to some of society’s largest challenges such as poverty alleviation (Mosley & Hulme, 1998; Burgess & Pande, 2005; Beck et al. 2007a), wealth inequality (Buera et al. 2014; Lagoarde-Segot, 2017) and environmental preservation (Nicholls & Pharoah, 2008) among others (Benedikter, 2011). In recent years, the concept of social finance has emerged through applications such as venture philanthropy (Moody, 2008; Scarlata & Alemany, 2010), socially responsible investing (Renneboog et al. 2008; Nofsinger & Varma, 2014; Gutiérrez-Nieto et al. 2016), impact investing (Bugg-Levine & Emerson, 2011; Höchstädter & Scheck, 2015), corporate social responsibility (Falck & Heblich, 2007; Jha & Cox, 2015), crowdfunding sites that appeal to the charitable intentions of retail investors (Lehner, 2013; Lehner & Nicholls, 2014) and microfinance (Morduch, 1999; Beck et al. 2007b; Armendáriz & Labie, 2011). The microfinance industry is particularly suited to explore the nuances of social finance due to the wide range of actors present in the sector, including not only public, private and nonprofit actors (D’Espallier et al. 2016) but also a wide range of investor profiles including commercial rate, concessionary and fully donative funders (Dorfleitner et al, 2017). To meet these innovations in social finance, a substantial body of scholarly research has materialized in various areas: corporate finance (Bogan, 2012; Tchuigoua, 2014), investing (Dorfleitner et al. 2012; Brière & Szafarz, 2015), nonprofit finance (Jegers, 2011; Roberts, 2013), banking (Gutiérrez-Nieto et al. 2009; Cornée et al. 2016), entrepreneurship (Nicholls, 2010; Bruton et al. 2015), development economics (Cull et al. 2009; Ahlin et al. 2011; Hermes et al. 2011; Hartarska et al. 2013), business ethics (Sandberg et al. 2009; Arjaliès, 2010; Hudon & Sandberg, 2013), organizational theory (Battilana & Dorado, 2012; Pache & Santos, 2013), legal studies (Henderson & Malani, 2009), public economics (Duncan, 2004; Andreoni & Payne, 2011) and management studies (Cobb et al. 2016). However, these theories are often siloed within a particular domain and used separately. Despite a long research tradition on microfinance, there is still an ongoing debate on how to assess profits in a heterogeneous environment with multiple organizational objectives, the comparative advantages of public and private funders and their associated financial instruments to scale the microfinance sector and the nature of trade-offs between the financial and social objectives of microfinance institutions (MFIs). This dissertation aims to fill these gaps by analyzing social finance from an interdisciplinary perspective. The aim is to further nuance our understanding of the compatibility between financial and social objectives and how the trade-off between these two elements is moderated through financial mechanisms from donors and social investors. By analyzing the dimensions where trade-offs are most acute for social enterprises, this dissertation aims to put forth a conceptual framework to help assess profitability. Our analysis focuses on the microfinance industry, which offers a rich research setting due the wide range of institutional profiles active in the sector, including nonprofit, cooperative, for-profit and government agents and its global contributions to financial inclusion, poverty reduction and female empowerment. This dissertation is structured into three chapters, each of which addresses a different research question using different methods and units of analysis. The first chapter is a meta-analysis that uses statistical analysis of empirical research results to aggregate the existing findings on social and financial performance trade-offs as they pertain to microfinance institutions. The second chapter develops a typology of subsidy and donation instruments and then proposes a conceptual model to identify the crowding-in and crowding-out effects of public and private donors on private, commercial investors. The second chapter is complemented with an empirical analysis of a Mexican MFI, Banco Compartamos, using secondary data to suggest how the evolution of funding instruments attracted private commercial capital. Chapter three constructs a conceptual framework to identify fair profits for social enterprise, focusing on the case of microfinance. We then empirically apply the conceptual framework to an international dataset of microfinance institutions. Starting from the observation that no consensus has emerged regarding performance trade-offs between the financial and social objectives of microfinance institutions, Chapter 1 – A Meta-analysis Examining the Nature of Trade-offs in Microfinance – aggregates existing research findings to determine the dimensions of MFI performance, and study characteristics, that drive the confirmation of trade-offs. Specifically, after an initial screen of 3,299 articles, 623 empirical trade-off findings from 61 studies were coded into a dataset, where each empirical finding consists of a pairwise observation between a single financial performance variable and a single social performance variable. Using a probit model to analyze the direction and statistical significance across categories of social/financial performance and study artifacts, findings suggest that depth of outreach, cost of outreach, and efficiency indicators increase the prevalence of trade-offs, while risk indicators are associated with fewer trade-offs. Profitability indicators and outreach to women are found to have no significant effect on performance trade-offs. Study characteristics suggest that using an economic frontier methodology or publishing in development journals increases the incidence of trade-offs. These results help to understand the moderating factors that drive performance trade-offs and suggest that MFI managers and stakeholders may need to make difficult decisions regarding the social goals that may need to be sacrificed to achieve financial sustainability.Chapter 2 – Crowding-in without Crowding-out: Subsidy Design to Foster Commercialization – investigates the financial mechanisms that public and private donors have at their disposal and how they can use these instruments to attract fully commercial private capital to social enterprises. In this article, we first construct a typology to explain the ways in which private donors are complementing public donors in subsidy design. We argue that specific instruments such as corporate intangibles and credit guarantees can trigger permanent crowding-in effects that attract commercial partners, while preventing perverse effects such as crowding-out and soft budget constraints. Applying the typology and investment logics to the case of Compartamos, we observe that crowding-in and crowding-out effects can be present simultaneously, which allows us to suggest that subsidies and donations do not force path dependency towards commercialization but rather co-exist, for example attracting commercial debt investment while crowding-out commercial equity. Our research could help both private and public donors identify strategies to maximize social impact while reducing perverse mutual externalities. Finally, in the presence of performance trade-offs and donor pressures to commercialize operations and scale-up, Chapter 3 – What is an acceptable level of profit for a social enterprise? Insights from Microfinance – develops a conceptual framework for fair profits in social enterprise and then applies the framework to the microfinance industry. The fair profit framework is constructed on four dimensions: the level of profitability, the extent to which the organization adheres to its social mission, the pricing and the surplus distribution of the organization. Using a global sample of MFIs, our results suggest that satisfying all four dimensions is a difficult, although not impossible task as less than 3% of the sample fulfill all four criteria. Using our framework, we suggest that excessive profits in microfinance can be better understood relative to pricing, the social outreach of an organization, and the commitment to clients over time through reduced interest rates. This dissertation provides solid scientific evidence on the compatibility between financial and social returns in social finance. Our dissertation examines social finance through the lens of microfinance, and investigates the performance trade-offs facing MFIs as well as the moderating role of financing mechanisms to help MFIs fulfill their double-bottom-line mandate. We hope we demonstrate that the unique combination of financing technicalities significantly shape the evolution of recipient organizations. Some practical implications are also identified to help practitioners, regulators and managers navigate the ongoing debate on the compatibility of financial and social returns and the design of financial instruments for social enterprise. We firmly believe that these academic works contribute and bring new perspectives to social finance in development economics, and business ethics. / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Kiva is an international non-governmental organization that competes for funds with others in the field. As a consequence, some special relationships and dependencies are formed. This paper argues that among the most significant ones are the representations of borrowers on Kiva’s online lending platform. The work hypothesizes that while Kiva has the potential to create a friendly environment where both participatory and problem-solving style of communication is encouraged, the organization turns out to be a development factor with international importance which inevitably influences the stereotyping of individuals from the Global South. In that sense, the representations of people from the Global South on Kiva’s online platform seem to continue a well-established tradition of Western-centrism, thus admitting further stereotyping also of the audience from the Global North.Through the lens of postcolonial theory and critical discourse analysis as research methods, the research questions and the hypotheses of the paper aim at contributing to the current debates on the existing power relations between the Global South and North by providing information on: how are people in need represented through profiles of single parents as borrowers on Kiva’s website; do representations of single parents contribute to the process of creating stereotypes; what is the role of microfinance in development.By using the most recent data from Kiva's online lending platform, the work aims to present evidence on the stereotypization of representations of a specific sample group of borrowers – individual single parents. While taking into consideration Kiva's ambition towards creating cooperation based on reciprocal dignity, the paper provides some possible interpretations of the way individuals in need are portrayed. It aims to come to the aid of individuals who have interests in the development field, who may want to rethink fundraising strategies involving both visual and textual representations of people, especially in the field of online lending.