Table of Contents Foreword 1 1. Why use control groups in impact assessments of microfinance projects? 3 2. Biases of the control-group method and how to avoid them 7 2.1 Sample selection bias 7 2.2 Misspecification of underlying causal relationships 9 2.3 Motivational problems 10 3. Conclusions and recommendations 15 General recommendations 18 Recommendations for evaluators and donors 18 Recom...

this study attempts to examine the operational efficiency of thirty-two microfinance institutions in india. operational efficiency in microfinance institutions refers to how well microfinance institutions allocate the input resources. since the study is an exploratory nature, therefore, the data are collected from mix market on annual basis. it covers the seven-year period ranging from 2005-06 ...

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 the...

a r t i c l e i n f o The expansion of microfinance has triggered concerns of rising indebtedness, and higher default and interest rates. Using a screening model, we show that even if interest and default rates increase due to expansion, borrower welfare may improve. This is because: (i) all borrowers previously denied credit can obtain loans, and (ii) screening costs for pre-existing borrowers...

This paper compares, for a microfinance institution, the performance of two individual classification models: Logistic Regression (Logit) and Multi-Layer Perceptron Neural Network (MLP), to evaluate the credit risk problem and discriminate good creditors from bad ones. Credit scoring systems are currently in common use by numerous financial institutions worldwide. However, credit scoring using ...

The increasing importance of Information Systems (IS) in the global economy prompts microfinance researchers to view the industry from an interdisciplinary perspective. A review paper for microfinance from the IS perspective will create a firm foundation for advancing knowledge. It will facilitate theory development, close areas where a plethora of research exists, and uncover areas where resea...

REQUIRED) A decade ago, the microfinance industry prided itself on its trends toward financial and operational sustainability. Recently, investors, donors, lenders, regulators, and microfinance institutions have been more concerned with social and outreach performance. Transactions cost and distance theories inform a new ICT-enabled microfinance institution (MFI) outreach theory positing that i...

Despite global recognition and sufficient history of microfinance there is mixed evidence of its net benefits and very limited empirical work on its contribution to financial intermediation and economic growth. Addressing this gap we aim to reveal whether and how microfinance is transferred to growth. Our conceptual approach is based on a broader finance-and-growth nexus where microfinance is s...

March 2005 57 Bindu Ananth is a Manager at ICICI Bank. She has worked in ICICI Bank's microfinance practice for over three years and is currently the co-ordinator of the Centre for MicroFinance Research. The views presented in this paper are solely those of the author and do not in any way reflect the views of ICICI Bank. Capital constraint is an issue impeding scaling up of microfinance in Ind...