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on Microfinance |
| By: | M S Sriram |
| Abstract: | The paper looks at the growth and commercialization of microfinance in India. It starts out be looking at how the commercial microfinance has evolved internationally by discussing two specific examples and then moves on to examine the specifics cases of four large microfinance institutions in India. The basic argument of the paper is that most of the early microfinance in India happened through donor and philanthropic funds. These funds came in to not-for-profit organizations. However as the activities scaled up, it was imperative to move to a commercial format. The paper examines the growth imperatives and the transformation processes. The paper then proceeds to look at the implications of the transformation process and its effect on the personal enrichment of the promoters of MFI as well as the governance implications. Basically it questions the moral and ethical fabric on which some to the large microfinance institutions are built. It ends by answering a set of questions that may emanate out of this discussion.[W.P. No. 2010-03-04] |
| Keywords: | growth, commercialization, microfinance, internationally, philanthropic funds, not-for-profit organizations, imperative, commercial format, transformation process, implications, governance, institutions, emanate, discussion |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2539&r=mfd |
| By: | James Copestake |
| Abstract: | This paper appraises options for research relating to microfinance in India, doing so in the broad context of rival macro pressures to accelerate economic growth, maintain political order, reduce poverty and adapt to climate change. This paper first set out a general well-being regime framework that can be used for this analysis and sketch the role microfinance plays within it. Section 2 uses it to inform a brief historical discussion of the evolution of microfinance in India. Section 3 develops the analysis further by considering possible effects of three external drivers of change: rising political aspirations; climate change and food insecurity; and new information and communication technology (ICT). Section 4 uses these examples to discuss methodological options for policy-relevant empirical research. It also suggests that microfinance is an important arena for exploring empirically the tension inherent in the idea of development management. The term microfinance is widely used to refer to institutions governing savings, credit, insurance and monetary payments by relatively poor people, including those regulated by both official laws and informal norms. Analysis of microfinance is widely framed as a purely micro issue, centered on the motivation and behavior of specific users and providers. However, such analysis is almost invariably located - whether explicitly or implicitly - in a wider view of how the state, markets and society institute poverty. In India as elsewhere, for example, private microfinance organizations is viewed positively as a force for promoting financial inclusion by “making markets work for the poor”; and at the same time viewed negatively as a smokescreen behind which the state can retreat from a ‘social banking’ strategy of mobilizing much larger resources to challenge pervasive and chronic indebtedness. Following Brett (2009) this paper regards such seemingly polarized views as jointly contributing also to an intermediate “pluralist liberal orthodoxy” struggling to identify the least worst combination of state, market and civic mechanisms for addressing poverty and oppression in countries where their potential to do so is deeply compromised by capacity constraints and vested interests. Microfinance – along with all potential instruments of development – needs to be appraised against country-specific historical realities. Evaluating it instead in relation to a universal view of its role in some idealized market or state-led view of development can be viewed either as a naïve and idle distraction, or as irresponsible and self-serving. |
| Date: | 2010–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:2013/57621&r=mfd |
| By: | Supriya Garikipati |
| Abstract: | Impact evaluation studies routinely find that lending to women benefits their households, but not necessarily the women concerned. The reasons for this paradox are not well understood. This, I argue, is partly because of the obsession with viewing women’s empowerment as outcomes alone and ignoring the processes leading to these. I investigate this paradox by examining the processes surrounding loan use for a case study from rural India. The way in which women’s loans are used is found to be critical to their empowerment. Specifically, women whose loans are invested in household assets can find the process disempowering. This is because women lack co-ownership in household’s productive assets. Where loan diversion by households cannot be controlled, women’s joint ownership of household assets emerges as integral to their empowerment. This paper cautions against the excessive focus on women’s outcomes as a measure of their empowerment. |
| Keywords: | Microcredit; Women’s Empowerment; Outcomes; Processes; India |
| Date: | 2010–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:2013/57623&r=mfd |
| By: | Rizwana Shahnaz; Raihana Karim |
| Abstract: | Lately there has been a surge in the variety of approaches to assist the adolescents, specially the girls, in building up their lives and livelihoods. With financial assistance from Nike Foundation, BRAC started combining financial and social interventions in 2005 by setting up ELA (Employment and Livelihood for Adolescents) Centres for the ELA microfinance group members. This study is intended to assess the usefulness of this combined approach. It is based on a panel dataset of ELA Centre participants and non-participants, which tried to capture changes using qualitative tools.[Working Paper No. 3] |
| Keywords: | adolescents, girls, livelihoods, Nike Foundation, financial assistance, BRAC, Employment, Livelihood, ELA Centre, capture, qualitative, social interventions, microfinance, employment, livelihood, panel, dataset, |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2549&r=mfd |
| By: | Hubert Tchakoute Tchuigoua |
| Abstract: | L’objectif de l’article est de vérifier empiriquement les effets des mécanismes internes et externes de gouvernance sur la performance des IMF de l’Afrique sub-saharienne. L’économétrie des données de panel nous permet d’étudier un échantillon composé de 64 IMF africaines entre 2001 et 2005. Nous ne trouvons pas de relation significative entre les mécanismes internes de gouvernance et la performance des IMF. En revanche, à l’exception de la discipline de marché qui n’influence aucune des dimensions de la performance financière, nous trouvons une influence significative de la supervision et du ratio de capitalisation sur la rentabilité et la viabilité des IMF. Ce qui semble indiquer que les mécanismes internes et externes de gouvernance sont substituables. De plus, nous ne trouvons aucun effet significatif des mécanismes internes de gouvernance sur l’efficacité sociale des IMF. |
| Keywords: | Gouvernance; microfinance; qualité de portefeuille; performance |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:2013/57620&r=mfd |