Introduction - Children and Family Policy: a Feminist Issue

Policy makers increasingly rely on theories of social capital to fashion development interventions that mobilize local social networks in the alleviation of poverty. The potential of such theory lies in its recognition of the social dimensions of economic growth. This recognition has inspired some innovative approaches to development, such as the now-popular microfinance model. In assessing the implications of these recent developments for feminist objectives of social transformation, this paper evaluates prevailing ideas about social capital (rooted in rational choice theory) against the grain of three alternative approaches: Marxian social capital theories ( À la Pierre Bourdieu), neo-Foucauldian governmentality studies, and my feminist ethnographic research on the social embeddedness of economic practice in a merchant community of Nepal. The paper concludes by bringing these critical insights to bear on possibilities for designing microfinance programs - and practicing a kind of development more generally - that could engage women's solidarity to challenge dominant gender ideologies.     

世界欠发达地区小额信贷实践分析

小额信贷作为一种有效的金融扶贫创新手段已在世界上愈来愈多的欠发达国家进行实践。通过对世界上有代表性的国家的小额信贷实践的国际经验比较，以及对小额信贷在中国欠发达地区的发展、成功经验的分析，可发现其未来发展趋势。     

Performance of microfinance institutions in Europe—Does social capital matter?

This paper investigates performance drivers of microfinance suppliers in Europe. As such suppliers, in contrast to advanced microfinance suppliers in developing economies, typically focus on uncollateralized microcredit services to individuals at the margins of society and of labor markets, we draw on the theory of social capital and empirically investigate the role that social capital may play in the overall performance of European microfinance suppliers. We build a unique, unbalanced panel data set of 302 microfinance service providers in Europe covering the years 2008–2015, and measure their performance in terms of credit risk, financial and social performance, and efficiency. Pursuing an econometric approach, we test a series of hypotheses using various measures of conditions conducive to building social capital on both the institutional and the country level, such as the client base of a microfinance supplier and the level of cultural fractionalization in a society. Our findings confirm that a higher intensity of social capital is positively associated with all areas of the performance of microfinance suppliers in Europe. Our conclusions could help in the design and launch of microfinance institutions in those European countries in which microfinance markets are developed not at all or only to a very limited extent. Our paper thus contributes to the nascent literature on microfinance in developed economies by applying and extending the theoretical framework and empirical models on social capital and microfinance that were originally elaborated for developing economies.     

Is there a difference in performance by the legal status of microfinance institutions?

Based on some cases of notable successes in Latin America, some microfinance practitioners advocate a transformation of non-profit microfinance organizations into private and regulated companies. The performance of the latter is supposed to be higher than those of non-profit organizations. From this point of view, there is a relationship between the legal status of MFIs and their performance. This article's main objective is to test this relationship from the comparison of performance of 202 MFIs in the period from 2001 to 2006. Rather than restricting the comparison to NGOs and private companies, cooperatives have also been taken into account to compare the performance by the dominant legal forms of MFIs. The results show that the performance of private corporations is better than that of NGOs only when portfolio quality is used as an indicator for measuring performance. Also, our results show that for profit MFIs are more socially efficient than not-for-profit MFIs. The commercial approach of microfinance does not seem inconsistent with the social mission of MFIs.     

小额贷款公司可持续发展问题研究——以吉林市为例

小额贷款公司是一种新型的小型信贷组织,其成立的初衷就是为＂三农＂和中小企业发展提供信贷支持。本文以吉林省小额贷款公司为研究对象,全面分析了目前小额贷款公司发展现状,指出了阻碍其可持续发展的因素,并针对小额贷款公司的问题提出了相应的对策建议。     

The role of microcredit in older children’s nutrition: Quasi-experimental evidence from rural China

This article evaluates the causal impact of rural households’ borrowing, through formal microcredit, on child nutrition in poor northwest China. The analysis exploits the panel data in rural Gansu between 2000 and 2004. Unobserved differences between borrowers and non-borrowers are controlled for in a dynamic fuzzy regression-discontinuity design creating a quasi-experimental environment for causal inference. Both anthropometric and micronutrient measures of child nutrition are investigated. Borrowing formal microcredit improves parent-reported health status and weight, and alleviates anemia and zinc deficiency. All effects nevertheless appear to exist in the short-term only.     

Social and financial efficiency of Islamic microfinance institutions: A Data Envelopment Analysis application

Microfinance has been developed as alternative solution for global poverty alleviation effort in the last 30 years. Microfinance institution (MFI) has unique characteristic wherein they face double bottom line objectives of outreach to the poor and financial sustainability. This study proposes a two-stage analysis to measure Islamic Microfinance institutions (IMFIs) performance by comparing them to conventional MFIs. First, we develop a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) framework to measure MFIs' efficiency in its double bottom line objectives, i.e. in terms of social and financial efficiency. In the second stage non-parametric tests are used to compare the performance and identify factors that contribute to the efficiency of IMFIs and MFIs.     

我国小额信贷社会绩效管理研究——基于普惠金融视角

小额信贷社会绩效在国际上逐渐引起重视,要实现我国普惠制农村金融目标,应该结合我国实际-Yr,~小额信贷社会绩效管理.本文研究普惠金融下小额信贷社会绩效管理的总体目标、内容和基本过程,指出小额信贷社会绩效评价指标设计是社会绩效管理的关键,并对社会绩效评价指标设计的原则、内容和一些相关问题进行探讨,为我国小额信贷发展提供有益的参考和指导.     

The size and growth of microfinance institutions

We investigate the relationship between size (measured by total assets and number of active borrowers) and growth for a worldwide sample of microfinance institutions with different ownership forms (micro-banks, NGOs, cooperatives/credit unions and non-bank financial institutions) and commercial orientation (profit and not-for-profit) drawn from 120 countries over the period 2000 to 2014. Using a dynamic panel data model, we find little evidence that size confers growth advantages to microfinance institutions. We find some evidence that growth rates for credit unions and microfinance institutions with a not-for-profit commercial orientation present negative persistence. The variability of growth rates differs across the size distribution of microfinance institutions, and this result is consistent across commercial orientation and ownership form. Other factors affecting the growth of microfinance institutions include age (new microfinance institutions grow faster than young and mature counterparts), levels of bad debt, efficiency and regulation.     

发展小额金融信贷扶助低收入群体

小额金融信贷是为低收入群体提供融资、为贫困者服务的金融活动。本文就现阶段我国推行小额金融信贷的积极作用、推行过程中的障碍进行了分析 ,相应提出了发展小额金融信贷的对策与建议。