关于我国农村小额信贷发展的探讨

本文从回顾中国农村小额信贷的发展历程出发,通过分析其发展中取得的成果和面临的主要问题,提出了推进我国农村小额信贷可持续发展的相关建议。     

Building Entrepreneurship in Subsistence Markets: Microfranchising as an Employment Incubator

Scholars indicate significant interest in business models that support entrepreneurial behavior in developing markets [Wankel C., editor. Alleviating Poverty through Business Strategy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan 2008]—particularly as they relate to job creation. This research introduces microfranchising as a business model adaptation that helps low-income individuals overcome non credit-related barriers to entry in obtaining employment. This study reveals a clear challenge for researchers—to better understand microfranchising and the extent to which the practice creates employment and enables individual business success. Largely unanswered questions concern the profiles of typical microfranchisees as well as the impacts of microfranchising on low-income individuals in subsistence marketplaces. This preliminary research focuses on one type of microfranchise operating in Accra, Ghana. Using data from microfranchises enables the exploration of whether workers in subsistence markets benefit from the microfranchise model. In comparing a microfranchise business with comparably-sized non-franchised businesses, this analysis finds preliminary evidence that the microfranchise creates starter jobs. Baseline results highlight microfranchisee characteristics and indicate that this form of microfranchising positively impacts savings and profits.     

关于发放高质量小额贷款的关键因子相关研究

小额贷款是提高弱势群体经济状况的重要手段,是发展普惠金融的重要举措之一。如何在保证小额贷款较低坏账率的前提下,简化小额贷款的审批流程,降低小额贷款的发放成本,一直是业界亟待解决的热点议题。本文基于海南省农村信用社面板数据,通过构建Logit模型给出了影响小额贷款“按期还款率”的主要指标;利用曲线回归分析明确了“按期还款率”、“申贷获得率”与联保人数之间的关系,并确定了小额贷款的最佳联保人数规模。     

Development of bank microcredit

We analyze the process by which banks enter the microcredit market while still engaging in traditional credit practices. For this we study a competitive credit market with adverse selection, where lenders are endowed with a screening technology capable of extracting an informative signal about a borrower’s quality if enough time is devoted to process the loan application. The time necessary for signal extraction depends on the borrower’s informational transparency. In the presence of opaque and transparent borrowers, depending on economy parameters, either a separating equilibrium with standard credit or microcredit prevails or a pooling equilibrium with either loan contract prevails.     

Seasonal Migration and Microcredit During Agricultural Lean Seasons: Evidence from Northwest Bangladesh

This paper investigates the interlinkage between microcredit and temporary seasonal migration, an issue which has been given little attention in the standard rural–urban migration literature. Seasonal migration due to agricultural downturns is a common phenomenon in developing countries. Using primary data from a cross‐sectional household survey of the northwest part of Bangladesh, this paper quantifies the factors that influence such migration decisions. Our results suggest that people with prior access to microcredit are more likely to migrate during an agricultural lean season. Furthermore, we find evidence of a negative selection effect between microcredit and seasonal migration, conditional on an individual's village of residence and observed characteristics. Our results have numerous potential policy implications, including the design of typical microcredit schemes for developing countries.     

Microfinance institutions and public policy

Many governments and nongovernmental organizations have adopted policies to promote the growth of microfinance institutions (MFIs). The appropriate level and form of support for MFIs are discussed in this paper on the basis of a review of key MFI characteristics. Governments are also responsible for the regulation of MFIs; here, some principles concerning the extent and coverage of MFI regulation and supervision are developed.     

拉美地区小额信贷覆盖深度变化及对我国的启示

通过面板数据的分析,本文发现拉美地区小额信贷商业化程度提高在一定程度上造成了小额信贷覆盖深度的变化,小额信贷机构对于原目标客户有所偏离。这种偏离是与这些机构利润最大化追求、市场竞争、抗风险能力及追求较高流动性有关的。这启示中国小额信贷实践,既要认识到小额信贷的必要性和多样性,同时在商业化过程中应通过政府适当补贴、小额信贷机构改进信贷技术和适度监管来降低成本与风险,增强持续发展能力,以此来保障小额信贷的覆盖深度。     

MICROFINANCE REVOLUTION: ITS EFFECTS,INNOVATIONS, AND CHALLENGES

“Microfinance revolution” is the term often applied to the successful expansion of small-scale financial services to the poor with high repayment records in developing countries. The present paper investigates the extent to which the microfinance revolution is truly revolutionary. More specifically, it explores the impact of microfinance institutions on the poor, the mechanisms underlying high repayment rates and their innovations, and the new challenges microfinance institutions are currently facing. Different from the existing published survey literature, we focus on current topics and attempt to show recent theoretical developments in a comprehensive manner using simplified models with very similar settings. We contend that microfinance is developing in a promising direction but has yet to reach its full potential.     

The role of borrowing in crisis coping among ultra-poor households in rural Bangladesh

In this study, we show how decisions to borrow from different formal and informal sources are associated with different types of disasters. We estimate the associations between loans from different sources using monthly panel data from Northern Bangladesh. Households borrow from different sources to cope with disasters. The cost of loans, however, may vary by the source of funds. MFI loans, while low in terms of interest cost, usually require a savings deposit, loan or application fee, with a longer trip or waiting time. Hence, households resort to loans from informal sources to deal with crises. We estimate the impulse responses of loans from different sources, which clearly show a hump-shape centring for the months of disasters. Pre-emptive loans are associated only with partially anticipated shocks. Aggregate shocks also limit how much households can borrow from their local peers. Our findings rationalise the roles played by both informal and formal micro-loans in crisis coping in Bangladesh, where the market for microfinance is ubiquitous. The development of the emergency credit market and the introduction of insurance services in rural areas will require the non-price costs of such financial products to be lowered.     

On the different survival rates of Portuguese microbusinesses – the case of projects supported by microcredit

ABSTRACT

In spite of their importance to the micro-entrepreneur’s life, Portuguese microbusinesses exhibit a short duration in activity. However, until now there has been scarce attention about the determinants characterizing the microbusiness and/or the micro-entrepreneur. This paper is based on a very comprehensive survey distributed to the microcredit borrowers in Portugal. The main empirical findings suggest that more mature entrepreneurs, with family support, a permanent set of customers, and an awareness of the quality of their goods and services exhibit lower hazard rates of finishing the business. Conversely, high-fixed costs, bad business locations, and periods of economic crisis significantly reduce the duration of the business.