Determinants of margin in microfinance institutions

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) lend to the poor. However, microfinance clients suffer from high interest rates, a type of poverty penalty. This article analyses the margin determinants in MFIs. A banking model has been adapted to microfinance. This model has been tested using 9-year panel data. Some factors explaining bank margin also explain MFI margin, with operating costs being the most important factor. Specific microfinance factors are donations and legal status, as regulated MFIs can collect deposits. It has also been found that MFIs operating in countries with a high level of financial inclusion have low margins.     

Decision Strategy and Structure in Households: A “Groups” Perspective

From a practical perspective, (arguably) most consumer decisions are not made in isolation of the households in which consumers are inserted, yet we commonly treat them econometrically as if they were. The purpose of this workshop was to take some initial steps in defining needed research in household decision making that structurally accounts for goal sharing, utility interdependence, taste heterogeneity, choice set formation, power structures, group size and composition, and so forth. We also considered conditions under which aggregation of tastes, utility and choices might occur and make sense from both behavioral and modeling perspectives.     

Environmental Respect: Ethics or Simply Business? A Study in the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Context

In recent years there have been ever-growing concerns regarding environmental decline, causing some companies to focus on the implementation of environmentally friendly supply, production and distribution systems. Such concern may stem either from the set of beliefs and values of the company’s management or from certain pressure exerted by the market – consumers and institutions – in the belief that an environmentally respectful management policy will contribute to the transmission of a positive image of the company and its products. Sometimes, however, ethics and market rules are not enough to deal with this situation and specific laws must be considered. This is the case when companies base their activity on the ‹ethics of self-interest’ concentrating their efforts on projecting an adequate image – e.g. environmental respect – rather than fundamentally behaving in environmentally respectful ways. This article, taking as reference the SME context, discusses the reasons for implementing environmentally friendly systems. Both ethics and business seem to be relevant and, therefore, a certain balance between market and interventionism seems to be necessary.     

Technological opportunism effects on IT adoption,intra-firm diffusion and performance: Evidence from the U.S. and Spain

The paper pursues a joint analysis of the direct influence of the level of a firm's technology opportunism capability on performance and on the adoption and intra-firm diffusion of Internet-based technologies. The study here examines the mediating effect that intra-firm diffusion exerts on the relationship between capabilities and performance. This study uses the results from a survey of 100 Spanish and 109 American franchise firms. Results indicate that the firm's level technological opportunism influences the adoption and intra-firm diffusion of technology and also has a positive impact on performance. While intra-firm diffusion is a driver of performance, adoption has no influence. Finally the indirect impact of technological opportunism on performance differs across countries. While for American firms, the integration of technologies into activities that related to communication with partners has a positive impact on performance; Spanish managers should focus on the integration of these technologies into back-end functionalities.     

AN INTEGRATED ECONOMETRIC MODEL OF THE CANADIAN LIVESTOCK-FEED SECTOR*

Canadian econometric studies dealing with the livestock-feed sector have tended to concentrate on individual commodities, or on a particular component of the market equilibrium process. In this article an integrated model of the sector is presented which depicts the nature of commodity interactions both at the consumer level and the producer level. The feed sector was conceptualized primarily in terms of derived demand. The model contained a total of 82 equations, of which 64 were related to the livestock subsystem. The estimated model was subsequently used for predicting the impact of changes in selected instrumental variables on the livestock-feed sector.
Les dernières etudes économétriques canadiennes traitant du pâturage se sont concentrées sur les produits séparés on sur un composé particulier répondant au besoin commercial. Cet article présents un modèle intégré du secteur montrant la nature des actions réciproques entrc les produits au niveau du consommateur et du producteur. Le secteur pâturage est expliqué en fonction de la demande. Le modèle contenait 82 équations, 64 desquelles se rapportaient àľélevage; par conséquent le modèle est employé pour prédire ľinfluence dans les pâturages de changements opérés sur les composants choisis.