New Economics Papers
on Microfinance
Issue of 2007‒02‒03
three papers chosen by
Aastha Pudasainee and Olivier Dagnelie
  1. Credit Elasticities in Less-Developed Economies: Implications for Microfinance By Karlan, Dean S.; Zinman, Jonathan
  2. Does Microfinance Form a Distinctive Asset Class? Preliminary Evidence By Ingo Walter; Nicolas Krauss
  3. Microfinance in post-disaster and post-conflict situations: Turning victims into shareholders By Marek Hudon; Hans Dieter Seibel
  1. By: Karlan, Dean S.; Zinman, Jonathan
    Abstract: Policymakers often prescribe that microfinance institutions increase interest rates to eliminate reliance on subsidies. This strategy makes sense if the poor are rate insensitive: then microlenders increase profitability (or achieve sustainability) without reducing the poor’s access to credit. We test the assumption of price inelastic demand using randomized trials conducted by a consumer lender in South Africa. The demand curves are downward-sloping, and steep for price increases relative to the lender’s standard rates. We also find that loan size is far more responsive to changes in loan maturity than to changes in interest rates, which is consistent with binding liquidity constraints.
    Keywords: microfinance
    JEL: G2
    Date: 2007–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6071&r=mfd
  2. By: Ingo Walter; Nicolas Krauss
    Date: 2006
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ste:nystbu:06-31&r=mfd
  3. By: Marek Hudon (Centre Emile Bernheim, Solvay Business School, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels and Harvard University, Boston.); Hans Dieter Seibel (University of Cologne)
    Abstract: In recent years, large numbers of developing and transitional countries have ex¬peri¬enced situations of crisis, following political, economic or natural disasters, or total crisis, triggered by war or totalitarian oppression. The goal of this article is to study the role of member-owned institutions (MOIs) in the provision of the reparations for victims of human rights abuses or reconstruction in post-conflict and post-disaster situations. We argue that grants usually awarded for reconstruction in post-conflict areas or for reparations payments in post-disaster areas could be best turned into equity and deposits to foster MOIs. MOIs are found to be an appropriate institutional framework, to make the benefits of one-off payments more sustainable and also reinforce the financial sector.
    Keywords: microfinance, conflict, disaster, repayment, human right.
    JEL: L31 M54 O16 Q14
    Date: 2007–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:07-002&r=mfd
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