Do women borrowers augment financial performance of MFIs?

There is some consensus that depth of outreach and financial performance of Microfinance Institutions (MFI) are positively correlated. A majority of microcredit borrowers are women and since the prevalence of female borrowers is even greater among the very poor, there should be a positive correlation between female borrowers and financial performance. Most of the MFIs target women as preferred borrowers. However, no study to date has investigated the relationship between targeting women and MFI’s sustainability with respect to profitability and yield. Utilizing a panel of 892 MFIs over a period of 10 years, this study shows that increased proportion of women borrowers has a statistically significant positive impact on yield and financial performance of MFIs. Consequently, this article also analyses the implication as to whether female borrowers have better repayment rate than male borrowers.     

Does capital and financing structure have any relevance to the performance of microfinance institutions?

This paper aims to explore the impact of capital and financing structure on the performance of microfinance institutions (MFIs) from an agency theoretic standpoint. GMM and IV estimations with instruments have been performed using a panel dataset of 782 MFIs in 92 countries for the period 2000–2007. Results confirm the agency theoretic claim that an increase in leverage raises profit-efficiency in MFIs. The study also finds that cost efficiency deteriorates with decreasing leverage. Likewise, the negative significant impact of leverage on depth of outreach can also be explained. However, the study finds that capital structure does not have any noticeable impact on breadth of outreach and neither is it significantly related with women’s participation as loan clients.     

Empirical of the Taiwan stock index option price forecasting model – applied artificial neural network

This work presents a novel neural network model for forecasting option prices using past volatilities and other options market factors. Out of different approaches to estimating volatility in the option pricing model, this study uses backpropagation neural network to forecast prices for Taiwanese stock index options. The ability to develop accurate forecasts of grey prediction volatility enables practitioners to establish an appropriate hedging strategy at in-the-money option.     

Mission drift in microfinance: are the concerns really worrying? Recent cross-country results

This paper explores the impact of profitability on depth of outreach in microfinance institutions, a trade-off between which is commonly known as ‘mission drift', using a unique panel database containing 4–6 years' observations from 409 MFIs in 71 countries. The concerns for ‘mission drift' seemed invalid, although several countervailing results also emerged when scaling up indicators of size and age are included. The positive significant association between MFI-size and average loan amount suggests some extent of mission drift. Similar results were found when female borrowers' participation was the measure for outreach. However, the study largely fails to validate that the concerns for mission drift were true if it is defined as a distinctive trade-off between increased profit-motivation and depth of outreach of MFIs.     

Economic Analysis of Microfinance： Evidence from China

China＇s evolutionary reform brought China economy enormous progress, which also subsided the poverty phenomenon. But the present anti-poverty task is still very arduous for China today. Peasant household＇s microfinance is a kind of important tool which contributes to the poverty alleviation. The sustainable development of microfinance has become a serous problem at present. This text analyses the sustainable development of microfinance through setting up the income model of microfinance, then puts forward the way to solve.     

制度因素对技术创新产出的作用分析——基于我国东部五省市面板数据

本文通过在知识生产函数中引入外贸依存度、专利保护程度和市场化程度三个制度分解变量,运用面板数据建立了固定效应变截距模型,对我国东部五省技术创新能力及其影响因素特别是制度因素进行了分析。研究结果发现,人员投入和市场化程度对技术创新产出影响较大,而专利保护程度对技术创新产出贡献较小。     

对发展我国农村小额信贷的思考

金融是现代经济的核心和命脉,同样农村金融也是社会主义新农村建设的核心和命脉[1]。我国的农村小额信贷主要服务与农村地区的弱势群体即被金融机构排除在外的广大农户,虽然我国的小额信贷在现阶段取得了一定的成果,但是其可持续发展仍然存在许多因素的制约,主要有资金供需失衡,小额信贷自身的不足,缺乏有效的风险分担机制等。根据国内外小额信贷成功的事例,我国应采取拓展多元化小额信贷资金来源,加快利率市场化改革等措施来促进我国小额信贷的可持续发展。     

Effect of board gender diversity on the financial performance of microfinance institutions: Does judicial efficiency matter?

The impact of board gender diversity on the financial performance of firms is not known. This is because empirical investigations have yielded inconclusive outcomes. This study engages data from 408 microfinance institutions (MFIs) covering the period 2010–2018 from the six microfinance regions to investigate this impact using the Least Squares Dummy Variable (LSDV) and the System Generalized Method of Moments (SYS-GMM) estimation techniques. The study also explores whether judicial efficiency exerts any significant effect on the board gender diversity–financial performance nexus. The study observes that board gender diversity exhibits a strong negative effect on the financial performance of MFIs. The study also observes that the effect of board gender diversity on the financial performance of MFIs escalates in the presence of judicial inefficiency. The study, therefore, unveils the judicial system as a channel through which gender diversity drives the financial performance of MFIs negatively.     

Credit growth,current account and financial depth

Exploring the determinants and dynamics of the current account balance is one of the priorities of academic literature and policy circles. Although the effects of structural variables are deeply analysed, a lesser attention has been paid to the impact of financial variables. Drawing on standard empirical current account models and with a large sample of industrial and developing countries, we report a significant deterioration in the current account balance in case of an increase in the credit growth. Moreover, we find that this link is substantially stronger for the developing ones motivating a closer examination. Therefore, we further advance our analysis and show that credit growth causes a stronger impact on the current account balance for lower levels of financial depth. In other words, at the early stages of financial development, acceleration in the credit growth might cause a larger deterioration in the current account balance; thus, it might be suggested that monetary policy and macro-prudential measures aimed at preventing financial excess might be more effective to reduce the external imbalances at the early stages of financial deepening.     

小额金融机构监管须谨防与服务低收入群体冲突

以服务低收入群体为宗旨的小额金融机构(MFI)近年来在中国发展迅速,其监管制度正在探索之中。国际经验表明,接受监管与不接受监管的两类机构在业务深度上存在显著差异。监管似乎抑制了MFI对低收入群体的服务,违背了其创立初衷。充足资本有助于MFI拓展业务深度,是监管可能带来的积极影响。此外,MFI的其他微观控制变量及所在国的宏观背景也会影响其业务深度。中国要防止简单套用传统金融机构的监管体制和方法,谨防业务出现漂移。     

Should Bangladesh Export to Countries with Better Institutional or Comparatively Similar Institutional Form?

Using panel data for the years 2006–2015, this study empirically investigates the effect of rule of law as an institution on Bangladesh's exports to 28 European Union countries (EU28) based on gravity model analysis. Two-step econometric results suggest that institutional rule of law is strongly associated with Bangladesh's exports, and institutional quality provides evidence of this significant effect. Furthermore, exports of Bangladesh are driven by economic size, market size, and the real exchange rate as well as rule of law. These results are suggestive of an important joint role for both trade and institutions in the long run.     

中国农村小额信贷宏观效率现状分析

中国农村小额信贷的宏观效率包括小额信贷运作对农村经济发展的作用效率和政府监管农村小额信贷市场的效率,其影响因素主要包括农村地区货币量与农村经济总量比率、农村地区货币结构比率、政府调控农村小额信贷措施的影响力、政府调控农村小额信贷效果与预期目标的偏离程度等。受农村小额信贷运作对农村经济发展的作用效率较低和政府监管农村小额信贷市场的效率较低的影响,目前中国农村小额信贷的宏观效率较低。     

外资银行对国内银行业"组合绩效"的影响机制

文章梳理了外资银行的进入对东道国银行业绩效的影响机制,并以我国银行业中全国性商业银行、地方城市商业银行、信用社以及中外合资银行为样本,就外资银行进入对样本银行的经营费用、盈利能力和银行效率等"组合绩效"指标的影响进行实证分析。在对1998-2005年79家国内银行的面板数据进行了分类估计后发现:(1)外资银行进入的增加导致国内银行管理费用增加;(2)外资银行进入的增加促使国内银行的盈利能力提高;(3)伴随着外资银行的进入,银行竞争不断加剧银行效率也呈现出降低的趋势。     

居民对中、外资金融机构的比较评价研究——来自中国九个城市的证据

Between domestic financial institutions and foreign or joint venture ones in China, which ones do Chinese people give better assessment to? And what factors affect those comparative assessments? With a household survey in nine cities in China in 2006, we find that China’s domestic financial institutions are considered better than foreign or joint venture ones in terms of financial products, communication with investors, security and prudence, operation standardization and service attitudes. When taken into account the endogeneity of people’s trust on government regulation agencies, empirical results show that people’s more attention to returns or the more trust on government regulation agencies leads to their better assessments on domestic financial institutions than foreign or joint venture ones. The policy implications are: Chinese governments have to take measures to improve residents’ trust in governmental regulation and create a fair competition environment for domestic and foreign financial institutions in China. Domestic and foreign financial institutions make efforts to develop a higher rate-of-return and attractive financial products to service more customers.