nep-mfd New Economics Papers
on Microfinance
Issue of 2017‒05‒28
two papers chosen by
Aastha Pudasainee and Olivier Dagnelie


  1. Career dynamics and gender gaps among employees in the microfinance sector By Ina Ganguli; Ricardo Hausmann; Martina Viarengo
  2. Microfinance beyond self-employment: Evidence for firms in Bulgaria By Erhardt, Eva

  1. By: Ina Ganguli; Ricardo Hausmann; Martina Viarengo
    Abstract: While microfinance institutions (MFIs) are increasingly important as employers in the eveloping world, there is little micro-level evidence on gender differences among MFI employees nd MFIs’ relation to economic development. We use a unique panel dataset of employees from atin America’s largest MFI to show that gender gaps favouring men for promotion exist primarily n the sales division, while there is a significant gender wage gap in the administrative division. mong loan officers in the sales division, the gender gap in promotion and wages reverses. Finally, emale employees tend to work with clients with better loan terms and a history of loans with the nstitution.
    Date: 2017
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2017-117&r=mfd
  2. By: Erhardt, Eva
    Abstract: This paper provides new evidence on the impact of microfinance on job creation beyond self-employment. We examine wage-employment effects for a typical program in Eastern Europe with average loan sizes that are considerably above what has been studied so far. We apply propensity score matching extended by a difference-in-differences estimator to panel data from an individual-lending program to firms in Bulgaria. Our results indicate that microcredit has very positive effects on job creation. Participating firms have on average 2.5 (or 33 percent) more employees two years after receiving a microcredit than matched non-participants. This strong effect seems to be related to a certain loan size threshold necessary for positive impacts to unfold. Effects are largest for the smallest firms, supporting findings from other studies that small firms are more constrained by credit than large firms. Investigating dynamic effects for up to six years after treatment, we furthermore show that effects are long lasting.
    Keywords: microfinance, wage employment, small firms, impact evaluation, Bulgaria
    JEL: C21 D22 G21 J23 P34
    Date: 2017–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:79294&r=mfd

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