Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Eritrea, a relatively young African nation, is one of the least developed countries in the world. Its economy is predominantly dependent on subsistence agriculture and the level and magnitude of poverty is more severe in rural areas. The formal financial sector is underdeveloped, state-owned, far from being competitive, and limited in terms of depth and breadth as measured by the relevant financial sector development indicators. To address the limitations of the formal banking sector and to help fill the financing gap, and improve the general livelihood of those at the lower income group, the Government of Eritrea introduced a Saving and Microcredit Programme (SMCP) in 1996 for which no scientific study measuring its impact has been done at the household level. The study was conducted in rural areas to find out whether the SMCP as a microfinance institution has improved the livelihood of its clients. The specific objectives of the study were to describe the characteristic feature of rural livelihoods in terms of the resources owned, the strategies pursued and outcomes achieved, identify and examine the determinants of household participation in the SMCP and finally assess the impact of participation in SMCP on household livelihoods. The study employed a quasi-experimental cross-sectional survey design involving structured and semi-structured questionnaire administered to 500 respondents of whom 200 represented the treated group and 300 the controlled group. Logit regression was employed to identify the factors that determine household participation in the SMCP. In regard to this, age of the client household, household size, marital status, level of education of the client household, the size of first round loan, entrepreneurial experience, type of loan product offered by the institution, ownership of livestock and microenterprise, the perception of the client on involuntary deposits, the occurrence of a negative events (shock) to the household and village access to electricity were found to have statistically significant effect on the household‟s probability to participate in the SMCP. Furthermore, the marginal effects were also computed to evaluate the contribution of each of these factors to the likelihood of participating in the SMCP. A propensity score matching model was applied to assess the impact of the programme on the livelihood of its clients. The findings reveal that participation in the SMCP has a significantly higher average treatment effect on the treated (ATT) households. Profits generated from off-farm and small microenterprises, the values of household and livestock assets, food and non-food consumption expenditures and nutrition quality, were found to be on average higher for the treated households than for the controlled households. Therefore, it could be argued that the provision of micro financial resources has significant positive effects on household livelihood outcomes. The study has important social and economic policy implication regarding the role of finance in rural development.

Le processus d’extension des marchés financiers à la périphérie de l’économie politique globale, dans des endroits où ils étaient auparavant inexistants, est l’objet de la thèse. En prenant le cas exemplaire de la microfinance et de l’inclusion financière au Pérou, je m’interroge sur la manière dont se construisent ces marchés, sur les processus et sur les mécanismes qui s’activent pour les mettre en pratique. L’inclusion financière vise à ériger des espaces économiques centrés sur la finance dans des lieux vierges, en créant de nouvelles machines technico-sociales capables d’approfondir la pénétration des marchés financiers et d’y insérer les masses d’individus jusque-là laissés en marge. J’affirme qu’il est important de s’intéresser à ce processus créatif parce qu’il vise à enrôler dans l’économie capitaliste à dominance financière un immense réservoir de valeur, certainement périphérique, mais absolument pas accessoire: l’économie informelle. Ma thèse vise à comprendre les motifs, les moyens et les incidences de l’insertion de ce réservoir. Je soutiens que la logique de l’accumulation capitaliste de la finance et celle de la croissance inclusive du développement néolibéral président au projet d’inclusion financière en tant que motivation. J’explique que la microfinance s’étend moyennant une proximité grandissante avec la haute finance: les fournisseurs de services financiers et les clientèles s’alignent autour de son mode de fonctionnement. Je soutiens que l’inclusion financière articule un mécanisme central —la différenciation— pour étendre et rentabiliser la finance périphérique, et que c’est ce mécanisme qui porte à conséquences sur la forme de marché qui est créé: on admet certaines manières de faire la finance et on en rejette d’autres, on insère dans le marché les personnes potentiellement fonctionnelles alors qu’on rejette les plus récalcitrantes, et on applique aux inclus une tarification adaptée. En alliant des institutions, des produits financiers et des consommateurs différenciés, il devient possible d’activer l’inclusion de l’économie informelle dans les circuits financiers dominants, pour pouvoir ensuite s’approprier la valeur qui y est créée. En mobilisant des théories structuralistes et des outils de l’approche de Bourdieu, ma thèse cerne une impulsion, la croissance de la microfinance, qui provient des champs de la finance et du développement et qui est relayée vers les acteurs au moyen de l’habitus et des doxais. Ma thèse dépasse cependant les impératifs verticaux et leur mode de transmission en exploitant l’approche par agencements (assemblages) pour éclairer les moyens d’inclusion financière à l’échelle méso, pour exposer pleinement leurs conséquences et pour comprendre comment on arrive à rallier concrètement des impératifs logiques qui entrent en tension. La thèse analyse deux agencements en profondeur: l’agencement ‘BCP-Edyficar-Mibanco’ entre des institutions phares de microfinance et la plus grande banque commerciale péruvienne; et l’agencement d’une structure de coordination public-privé des pratiques d’extension des marchés financiers, la ‘Stratégie nationale d’inclusion financière’. Avec une approche de l’agencement, dont les tendances au délitement du social et à la négligence des macrocontextes politiques sont corrigées par l’articulation avec les impératifs structuraux et certains éléments de la théorie des champs, ma thèse expose ce qui fait courir les composantes de l’économie politique vers l’inclusion financière, ce qui les rends capables de s’aligner et d’être fonctionnelles autour du même projet et ce qui porte politiquement à conséquences pour l’inclusion et l’exclusion.

La présente thèse traite de l’impact d’un programme de microfinance et d’assistance technique (Programa Social Agropecuario ou PSA) mis en œuvre dans la province d’Entre Ríos, en Argentine. Cette thèse contribue à répondre à la question de l’impact de la microfinance sur le développement et des mécanismes pouvant maximiser cet impact en s’attardant principalement sur la perception des bénéficiaires. Pour ce faire, des entrevues et des groupes de discussions ont été menés dans 4 villages du département de Villaguay (Entre Ríos, Argentine) afin de dresser un portrait des interventions et des impacts de celles-ci sur leur vie. Les résultats ont été analysés depuis la perspective de l’approche des capabilités de Sen. Le PSA a permis à plusieurs individus de démarrer une activité productive mais les résultats sur le long terme sont mitigés. En effet, plusieurs ont abandonné depuis notamment en raison de vulnérabilités, nouvelles ou anciennes, qui n’ont pas été tenues en compte au moment du démarrage de l’activité productive. Par contre, la méthode de travail en groupe, les formations et les réunions ont permis des retombées intéressantes sur le plan du développement humain et particulièrement, pour les femmes.

This thesis analyses the dimensions and dynamics of clientship in the microfinance sector in Sri Lanka with a special focus on multiple clientship. It examines the extent of different dimensions of clientship and how they have changed between 2006/07 and 2009/10, based on an original framework developed in this thesis. It further explores the reasons for households to borrow and save with multiple financial institutions and the implications of multiple borrowing and multiple saving on households and on microfinance institutions (MFIs). The research is based on mixed methods and uses both primary and secondary data sources. The findings reveal that MFI clients are heterogeneous in terms of financial services utilised and the number and the types of financial institutions accessed by them. The majority of MFI clients are multiple clients and the level of multiple clientship has increased significantly between 2006/07 and 2009/10, with the majority of clients accessing a combination of MFIs and commercial financial institutions (CFIs) like commercial banks. The findings reveal that the microfinance sector and the formal financial sector, that are conventionally believed to serve distinct segments of the market, have converged over time, catering to the financial needs of a broad group of clients. The factors that have contributed to such a high level of financial access and increasing convergence between MFIs and CFIs in Sri Lanka are also examined in the thesis. The research finds that multiple borrowing among households is driven by both promotional and protectional needs, though for the majority of households, it is driven either entirely or at least partially, by promotional needs such as income-generation activities. By contrast, multiple saving among households is driven by a combination of reasons rather than a single reason. One of the key reasons for the widespread use of CFIs among MFI clients is to access pawning facilities. Such services are not available from most MFIs, and are largely used as a strategy to deal with emergency financial needs among lower income households. While the high level of financial services in Sri Lanka should be lauded, debt levels among households, particularly among multiple borrowers have increased and some of the key MFIs have experienced deteriorating portfolio quality and weak financial performance in recent years, bringing concerns to the microfinance sector of the country. The findings stress the need to monitor multiple borrowing and to strengthen the performance of MFIs, to enable them to better face the rising competition and multiple clientship in the sector, and to ensure sustainable access to financial services by all.

The purpose of the research was to investigate the proposition that current Microfinance solutions are not adequate for Microenterprises operating at the Base of the Pyramid. The research proposes Microfinance solutions for Microenterprises should provide all-inclusive solutions; encompassing both financial and business development services. While the government can lead the debate and deliver on some of the enabling requirements, the limited government resources cannot deliver fully on development requirements at the Base of the Pyramid. There is an increasing need for the private sector to participate in sustainable development initiatives. A key limiting factor is a lack of in-depth understanding of the needs of Microenterprises operating at the Base of the Pyramid. Quantitative research was conducted, using a survey-based method. The results show there is appetite amongst Microenterprise owners at the BOP for holistic Microfinance solutions that can deliver financial and business development services. The study also found business development services, focusing on developing business knowledge and business management skills, were rated the highest. BOP markets for Microenterprises are complex and require dedicated initiatives to understand them and deliver solutions tailored to their needs accordingly. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS) / The promotion of widespread entrepreneurship through the setting up of small and medium sized enterprises (SMMEs ) is crucial for the transformation to a market economy and the democratisation of society in \the new South Africa. SMMEs are recognized as an engine of economic \ \growth and a source of sustainable development. Within this sector micro , 1nd small enterprises are of special importance because they are considered as the cradle of entrepreneurship, particularly in environments facing high ketllPIQYII'1:en!and poverty,. as j!) the case ~~.South Africg,

Remittances (money sent home by migrants) to developing countries are estimated to have reached US$ 325 billion in 2010 (World Bank, 2011). These amounts reflect only officially recorded transfers, transferred through formal channels and calculated as the sum of three items of the Balance of Payments Statistics, namely: compensation of employees, workers’ remittances and migrants’ transfers (Salomone, 2006; Aggarwal et al. 2011). Unrecorded remittances could represent 50 to 100% of recorded flows (World Bank, 2006; Hagen-Zanker and Siegel, 2007).<p>Remittances are three times the size of official development assistance (ODA) and the second source of external funds after foreign direct investment (FDI) for developing countries. Given their weight in receiving countries’ economies and household livelihood in many developing countries (for instance, remittances flows represent more than 25% of Lesotho’ and Moldavia’s gross domestic product in 2008), there is increasing policy and research interest in remittances as development resource. Furthermore, unlike FDI and ODA, remittances have the particularity to be directly affected to families, even those in remote areas, where development funds don’t arrive (Shaw, 2006). The thesis addresses the relationship between microfinance and the impact remittances have on domestic investment in developing countries. <p>Like other sources of external finance, remittances allow the economy to invest in human and physical capital (health, education), which contribute to growth (Ziesemer, 2006; Acosta et al. 2008). However, as remittances may be either directly consumed (remittances allow households to smooth their consumption, see for instance Lucas and Stark, 1985 and Glytsos, 2005) or used to invest in physical and human capital, it appears that their impact on domestic investment is perceived to be low or limited, given the amount of money they represent each year. According to literature, this is due to the small share that is dedicated to the launch or the support of economic activities. Actually, the allocation between consumption and investment, which depends on various factors such as the level of dependence households have with remittances, the migrant gender, and the existence of a credit constraint, varies on average around 10-20% of remittances that are not directly consumed (Salomone, 2006; Sorensen, 2004; Orozco, 2004). In the thesis we focus on the share of remittances that is saved and wonder how to maximize its impact, whatever this share. We are interested in the role of microfinance institutions, as actors of the financial sector, on this issue. Actually, two recent contributions, Mundaca (2009), and Giuliano and Ruiz-Arranz (2009), stress the role of the development of the financial sector. More precisely, the thesis focuses on a set of questions or issues that may be important for the microfinance industry to consider when interested in remittances flows and the deposits they may generate. <p>Financial development is generally defined as “increasing efficiency of allocating financial resources and monitoring capital projects, through encouraging competition and increasing the importance of the financial system. In other words, the development is about structure, size and efficiency of a financial system” (Huang, 2006). A large line of research work provides evidence that development of a financial system is a key driver of economic growth. <p>King and Levine (1993) argue that greater financial development increases economic growth. Levine and Zervos (1993) shows that growth is related to stock market activity, among other variables. Levine (1999) finds a significant effect of determinants of financial intermediation on economic growth. Beck et al. (2004) find strong evidence in favor of the financial-services view which stresses that financial systems provide key financial services, crucial for firm creation, industrial expansion, and economic growth. Levine (1997), Levine et al. (2000), and Beck et al. (2000) also stress the impact of financial development on growth. There is also an empirical literature that argues that the expansion and the deepening of the financial system lead to higher investment (see for instance Rajan and Zingales, 1998; Demirgüç-Kunt and Macksimovic, 1998). <p>By providing financial services to people whom traditionally do not have access to financial institutions, microfinance institutions (MFIs) may contribute to increasing the size of the financial system in many developing countries. Actually, according to the CFSI’s 2011 report, the one thousand-plus MFIs that report to the Microfinance Information eXchange (MIX) have 88 million borrowers and 76 million savers. Total assets of these MFIs amount to US$ 60 billion (CFSI, 2011). <p>The quite recent literature on remittances, financial development and growth can be categorized under two main approaches (Brown et al. 2011). One approach explores the relationship between remittances and financial development, with a view to assessing their impact on the level of financial development in receiving countries. The underlying argument is that remittances potentially contribute to financial development through both demand- and supply- side effects: by increasing households’ demand for and use of banking services, and by increasing the availability of loanable funds to the financial sector. According to this approach which consider the direct relationship between remittances and financial development, remittances have an impact on both financial outreach and depth in receiving countries, respectively through the fostering of financial literacy among remittances receivers and through the increasing availability of funds (see for instance Gupta et al. 2009, Aggarwal et al. 2011, Brown et al. 2011). <p>The second approach examines the remittances – financial development relationship indirectly by investigating how the given level of financial development in a country affects the impact of remittances on growth. This growth-focused approach allows for interactions between remittances and financial development in estimating growth equations for remittances receiving countries. Within the set of studies related to this approach, two opposing positions have emerged. The first position hypothesizes that the greater availability of financial services helps channel remittances to better use, thus boosting their overall impact on growth. Remittances are seen as financial flows in search of good investment projects, and good financial institutions are needed to facilitate the channeling of remittances to such investments. In this sense, remittances and financial system are complements. This position is supported by Mundaca (2009) who find that financial intermediation increases the responsiveness of growth to remittances in Latin America and the Caribbean over the 1970-2002 period. Other few studies also argue that channeling remittances through the banking sector enhances their development impact (see for instance Hinojosa Ojeda, 2003 and Terry and Wilson, 2005). <p>The other position argues that remittances contribute to investment and growth by substituting for inefficiencies in credit and capital markets. Remittances provide an alternative source of funding for profitable investments by alleviating liquidity constraints. In this sense, remittances promote growth more in less financially developed countries by substituting for lack of credits from financial institutions. This hypothesis is supported by Giuliano and Ruiz-Arranz (2009) who argue that poor households use remittances to finance informal investment in poorly developed financial markets with liquidity constraints. In their study, they interact remittances with a measure of financial development in standard growth equations, for a sample of 73 countries over the 1975-2002 period. Ramirez and Sharma (2009) obtain similar results using data from 23 Latin American countries over the 1990-2005 period. <p>The thesis contributes to existing knowledge on this indirect, growth-focused approach. Given the two existing opposite views on remittances impact on investment and the level of financial intermediation (a high level of financial development implies a high level of financial intermediation), in the thesis we first analyze the relationship that links these variables. We then analyses questions related to microfinance institutions (MFIs), as financial intermediaries. <p>Our focus on microfinance is made from two different perspectives, leading to different research questions. First, from the demand or microfinance clients’ perspective, we question about the interest for them to have MFIs entering the money transfers market (through the money transfer facilities and/or financial products that may be directly linked to remittances). The underlying argument is that MFIs enter the remittances market by providing money transfer services because there is a need for such services (and for other financial services) from their (potential) clients who are remittances receivers and migrants. According to this point of view, MFIs can contribute to recycle remittances flows into the financial system by contributing to the financial inclusion of remittances receivers and migrants thanks to the supply of adapted financial products. The occurrence of this assumption can therefore be measured by considering the involvement of MFIs on the remittances market as a determinant of financial inclusion indicators. Second, from the supply or MFIs’ perspective, we question about the rationale for MFIs to enter the remittances market. Here, the underlying argument is that MFIs are interested in operating on the remittances market because working with migrants can potentially contributes to the improvement of their financial and social performances. According to this perspective, remittances market opportunities as well as MFIs’ characteristics will determine the offer of money transfer services by MFIs. This supply approach therefore leads to the consideration of money transfers activities in MFIs as depending on remittances market opportunities and institutional variables. <p>Therefore, our papers related to microfinance will be articulated around these two questions (interest for clients and rationale for MFIs to have MFIs operating on the money transfers industry) by focusing, as argued earlier, on the deposits resulting from remittances flows. <p>As a matter of facts, by studying the relationship between microfinance and remittances respectively through the demand and the supply perspective, we raise causality issues related to MFIs’ money transfer activities and their impacts on MFIs performances. Actually, MFIs’ characteristics such as the right to collect public savings, as a potential source of efficiency gains, may significantly determine the supply of a money transfer service (MFIs’ perspective), while a money transfer service may itself be the determinant of some MFIs’ performance indicators related to financial inclusion, such as the volume of deposits made by clients (demand approach). However, given currently existing data on MFIs’ involvement on the remittances market we cannot consider simultaneously both perspectives in order to implement causality treatment techniques. Actually, the indicator of MFIs’ involvement we will use in our regressions is time invariant, therefore we are not able to build instrumental variables for instance (such as lagged values of our variable of interest) to eliminate econometric issues in our regressions. Nevertheless, through these two approaches taken separately, we contribute to some extend to the knowledge by putting in perspective different issues at stake for the microfinance industry. <p>Before we tackle our research questions we have an introductory chapter related to remittances flows: what are their trends, determinants and characteristics? The chapter also includes the definition of money transfer activities that we will use in the thesis, as well as an overview of MFIs’ involvement on the money transfers market. <p>Then, our research framework is divided into 4 sub-questions. The first one, treated in Chapter 2, is about the relationship between our variables of interest. What is the impact of the financial sector development (FSD) on the remittances’ impact on investment? This chapter aims at stressing the relationship existing between financial intermediation and remittances’ impacts on investment, which motivated our focus on MFIs (as financial intermediaries between remittances and the formal economy) in the following chapters. We focus on two transaction costs that decline with FSD. The first is the “Cost of Bank Depositing”, henceforth CDEP, which measures the difficulties of savers, particularly the less well-off, of depositing their savings in the formal banking system. The second transaction cost is the “Cost of External Finance”, henceforth CEXF, which measures the marginal cost for the banking system of borrowing in global financial markets. This cost is notably associated with the robustness of the country’s financial sector. In a stylized model of the lendable funds market, we analyze how both these variables affect the marginal effect of remittances on investment. We test model’s propositions using country-level data on remittances, investment, and proxies for both CDEP and CEXF, on a sample of 100 developing countries. We perform empirical tests using both cross-section and panel-data with country fixed effects, over the period 1975-2004. The results demonstrate, theoretically and empirically, that remittances and ease of access to the banking sector act as complements to stimulate domestic investment, while remittances and external borrowing are substitutes. We find that remittances flows stimulate local investment, as a part of remittances indeed become banks’ deposits, which increases the availability of lendable funds, reduces the interest rate and stimulates investment. In terms of policy implication, results suggest that enhancing financial sector development is crucial as it allows remittances to better fuel domestic investment. This is even truer when the access to international funds is difficult or costly. Improving the financial inclusion of remittances receivers by developing domestic banks’ ability to collect their savings is then a straightforward recommendation to policymakers who want to improve remittances impact on investment. <p>The second question, developed in Chapter 3 is related to the demand perspective of the relationship between microfinance and remittances. We want to assess whether there is a need from remittances receivers for financial products that may be linked to remittances. We aboard this question by assessing whether the supply of MTA leads to higher volume of deposits mobilized by MFIs, meaning that MFIs actually contribute or succeed in turning remittances into deposits. Using an original database of 114 MFIs –operating in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), South Asia (SA), East Asia and the Pacific (EAP), and Africa–, we perform empirical tests to study whether MFIs are able to capture migrants’ savings thanks to their money transfer activity. We test the impact of money transfer activity on deposits, using the natural logarithm of deposits as explained variable. Our main result suggests that money transfer activity has a significant positive impact on savings collection. MFIs involved in the remittances market thus attract more savings than MFIs that are not involved in it, probably coming from migrants and remittances receivers who are in need of adapted financial services. This confirms the opportunity MFIs may represent as a tool or a channel to improve remittances impact on investment. In that sense, MFIs should then be encouraged to operate on the remittances market, and to design financial products dedicated to migrants and remittances receivers. <p>The third question, developed in Chapter 4, is related to the supply approach of the relationship between remittances and microfinance. More precisely, we try to identify factors that seem to explain the availability of such service in the scope of services provided by MFIs. In this chapter, we focus first on potential sources of efficiency gains linked to the money transfer activity as a rationale for diversification (i.e. the expansion of the offer). And second, using an original database of 435 MFIs –operating in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), South Asia (SA), East Asia and the Pacific (EAP), and Africa–, we perform empirical tests using cross-section over the year 2006, to identify which environmental and institutional parameters have an impact on the willingness of a MFI to provide a money transfer service. We test the impact of various variables that are related to one of the rationale for MFIs to enter the money transfer market, namely economies of scale and scope as a source of efficiency gains, on the probability to have a money transfer service provided by a given MFI. Our main result suggests that the size, as well as the fact that an MFI collects savings have a positive and significant impact on this probability, while the level of financial development negatively impact it. This confirms among other things that the ability to realize economies of scale through a potential increase of collected deposits may be a determinant of managers’ choice to diversify. Policies that contribute to reduce entry barriers in low financially developed countries should then, among other things, be encouraged to have MFIs fully playing their role of intermediaries between remittances and the (formal) economy. <p>The chapter 5 questions about the institutional consequences for MFIs to collect migrants’ savings. The aim of this chapter is to give an insight on the opportunity migrants’ money (including remittances) could represent for the microfinance industry as a source of stable medium- and long-term funds. It is therefore related to the supply approach and the motivation for MFIs to enter the remittances market by analyzing the impact of migrants’ deposits (which include remittances) on another potential source of efficiency gains, namely the internal capital market. Through a case study approach, this chapter is devoted to the analysis of funding risk in microfinance, comparing migrants’ and locals’ time deposits. Migrants’ time deposits are expected to be of longer term and more stable (in terms of early withdrawals) than locals’ deposits. This assumption had never been tested yet. Based on an original database of 7,828 deposit contracts issued between 2002 and 2008 by 12 village banks belonging to a major Malian rural microfinance network (PASECA-Kayes), we used the Cox proportional hazard model to identify the variables that have an impact on the probability to have early withdrawals, and the technique of re-sampling to calculate withdrawal rates and deposits at risk. Results from the Cox methodology suggest that the migration status is not a direct determinant for the probability to have an early withdrawal. However, this probability increases with the amount deposited and the term of the contract which are both higher for migrants compared to non-migrants. The re-sampling method results suggest that withdrawal rates are not the same for the two categories of depositors observed. We find higher withdrawal rate distributions for migrants than for locals. The value at risk is also higher on migrants’ deposits than on locals’ deposits. However, as migrants tend to deposit for longer term than locals, through the calculation of durations we have measured to which extend migrants’ deposits still have a positive impact on MFIs’ liabilities. It appears that migrants’ money has a marginal but positive impact on time deposits durations, either when considering early withdrawals, which impacts are very limited, except in 2007 (the worst year in terms of amount withdrawn early). As our results show that MFIs that receive migrants’ deposits are not necessarily better-off than without migrants’ money in terms of funding risk - and durations - this paper has stressed the importance of assessing more carefully the role of migrants for the microfinance industry. <p><p><p><p> / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

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