Les développements actuels de microfinance encouragent les IMF à fournir un éventail plus large de services financiers au sein d'un portefeuille multiservices comprenant de la micro-épargne, de la micro-assurance, des services bancaires mobiles. L'une des caractéristiques de cette tendance s'exprime par la volonté des IMF de développer le marché de l'épargne afin d'atteindre les clients les plus pauvres mais également d'attirer des dépôts à moindre coûts. L'évolution rapide de la microfinance a également engendré un processus de commercialisation qui implique l'ouverture du secteur aux pratiques marchandes et qui se concrétise par un changement des modes de financement des IMF. Le domaine de la microfinance est donc sujet à de nombreuses modifications qui touchent aussi bien les pratiques des IMF, que leur organisation ou leur mode de financement. L'objectif de cette thèse est alors de contribuer à la compréhension de l'impact de ces modifications sur le développement et l'efficacité des sociétés de microfinance. Pour se faire, nous nous proposons d'explorer trois thèmes particuliers, correspondant aux trois chapitres de la thèse. Premièrement, nous chercherons à identifier des mécanismes originaux d'incitations relatifs aux nouvelles pratiques des IMF (en particulier l'offre couplée de services financiers) et permettant d'assurer l'exécution des contrats de financement. Deuxièmement, nous tenterons d'évaluer la performance des IMF offrant des services de microfinance couplés (crédit plus épargne) par rapport aux IMF traditionnelles. Enfin, nous étudierons l'impact des nouvelles modalités de financement des IMF sur leurs performances à la fois financières et sociales. / It has been commonly acknowledged that in order to reach the target clienteles with loans at attractive terms and conditions, an appropriate technology for delivering financial services must be developed. Next to this, current developments in microfinance industry encourage MFIs to offer wide-ranging services within a multiservice portfolio including microsavings, microinsurance, remittances, mobile banking etc. One of the main pillars of this trend has become MFIs increasing interest in the expansion into the savings market to reach more poor clients as well as to lower costs by attracting presumably cheaper deposits. Joint services are tailored to better meet needs of the poor and aim at building sustainable financial systems and establishing closer and long-term relationship with clients. Furthermore, the rapid evolution of microfinance has generated another essential and closely related trend: commercialization. The focus of this dissertation is on three emerging issues associated with the development of microfinance sector: incentive mechanisms to address contract enforcement and screening problems, performance of MFIs though the lenses of combined microfinance services (credit plus savings), and performance of MFIs though the lenses of capital structure. The essays in the dissertation vary in research methodology: one essay is theoretical and two are empirical. Moreover, the data come from diverse microfinance units: Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) online database and Microfinance Centre for Central & Eastern Europe and the New Independent States (MFC). As far as methods are concerned the empirical essays use less frequently applied methodologies in microfinance studies: seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) and propensity score matching (PSM).

This thesis examines household characteristics as determinants of formal savings accounts in rural Malawi. The main questions answered in this paper include the effects of household characteristics on the probability of having formal savings, the amounts saved in these accounts, and the probability of adopting formal savings. The central discussion aims to identify the initial adopters of formal savings accounts, using a marketing approach previously unapplied to this area of research. This paper also contributes to the dialogue of the household composition by considering three untried variables: number of adults, number of children, and literacy of all household members. Results show that households are most likely to adopt formal savings, when provided access, if they have a head who can read Chichewa, a functional cellphone, more adults who can read Chichewa, and are close to the bank service. The field evidence comes from research conducted over a two year period 2008-2010 in sampled regions of Central Malawi.

It has been commonly acknowledged that in order to reach the target clienteles with loans at attractive terms and conditions, an appropriate technology for delivering financial services must be developed. Next to this, current developments in microfinance industry encourage MFIs to offer wide-ranging services within a multiservice portfolio including microsavings, microinsurance, remittances, mobile banking etc. One of the main pillars of this trend has become MFIs increasing interest in the expansion into the savings market to reach more poor clients as well as to lower costs by attracting presumably cheaper deposits. Joint services are tailored to better meet needs of the poor and aim at building sustainable financial systems and establishing closer and long-term relationship with clients. Furthermore, the rapid evolution of microfinance has generated another essential and closely related trend: commercialization. The focus of this dissertation is on three emerging issues associated with the development of microfinance sector: incentive mechanisms to address contract enforcement and screening problems, performance of MFIs though the lenses of combined microfinance services (credit plus savings), and performance of MFIs though the lenses of capital structure. The essays in the dissertation vary in research methodology: one essay is theoretical and two are empirical. Moreover, the data come from diverse microfinance units: Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) online database and Microfinance Centre for Central & Eastern Europe and the New Independent States (MFC). As far as methods are concerned the empirical essays use less frequently applied methodologies in microfinance studies: seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) and propensity score matching (PSM).

本研究運用線性迴歸模型來預測微型金融對於貧窮、高中就讀率等等社會問題所帶來的效果，其中微型金融包括了微型信貸、微型儲蓄、微型保險以及微型金融機構所提供的匯款服務。本研究的樣本涵蓋了從2011年到2014年拉丁美洲及加勒比地區的20個國家。 在把樣本細分成可以比較的不同組別，並進行迴歸分析之後，我們發現微型金融對於貧窮人數有負向的顯著影響，對於高中就讀率有正向的顯著影響，而對於其他如醫療、創業、家庭支出與人均收入的影響並不顯著。 因應在拉丁美洲和加勒比地區不斷增加的微型金融機構，本研究建議未來可以利用更複雜的統計模型像是工具變量、隨機對照實驗、準實驗問卷來估計微型金融與影響之間是否有因果關係，對於NMP來說，他們應該鼓勵微型金融的發展以及接受適度的批判來確保透明且可靠的研究來作為政策制定的參考。 / The following research uses a panel linear model regression to detect possible effects Microfinance and its iterations (namely microcredit, microsavings, microinsurance, and remittance services offered by microfinancial institutions) have on distinct social outcomes such as poverty and secondary school enrollment rates. The study sample consists of 20 countries in the Latin American and Caribbean region observed during a period of 4 years (2011-2014). After subdividing the sample into comparable groups the results yielded statistically significant negative effects on poverty headcount, and statistically significant positive effects on secondary school enrollment rates across the subgroups. The results from other social welfare dimensions such as health, business creation, household consumption, and income per capita were insignificant. Due to the increasing presence of Microfinancial institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean, there is sufficient reason to encourage further research to be done in which more experienced researchers can use more statistically complex models (such as IV, RCTs, quasi-experimental surveys) to try to determine whether or not there is a causal relationship between microfinance and the effects herein described. For policymakers and funders of NMPs, the takeaway is that they should encourage both advocates and critics to present transparent and replicable studies to back their claims.

The implementation of game elements has quintessentially uplifted the overall experience of applications in various domains and thereby expanding the customer base. This process is called gamification which has now been introduced in many domains. The purpose of the study is to understand gamification and how its impact would be if it is deployed in a financial savings application. The gamified elements are implemented based on a gamification framework called the Octalysis framework1. This Octalysis framework is a human-centric gamification framework which serves as a template to implement the required gamified elements. Based on a pre-study of financial applications and the Octalysis framework, two distinct prototypes (Version A and Version B) of the same mobile app concept were developed where the difference is the presence of gamified elements in one prototype. The evaluation is based on analyzing the impact the gamified elements have caused on the usability and the emotional engagement of the financial savings application. The participants are provided to interact with both prototypes and interviews are conducted to evaluate the emotional engagement and the usability of both the prototypes of the financial savings application. The study shows an increase in emotional engagement corresponding to the gamified elements whereas the usability more or less remained the same, indicating a deeper investigation of the gamified elements with regards to usability is required.