IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/4630.html

Microfinance meets the market

Author

Listed:
  • Cull, Robert
  • Demirguc-Kunt, Asli
  • Morduch, Jonathan

Abstract

Microfinance institutions have proved the possibility of providing reliable banking services to poor customers. Their second aim is to do so in a commercially-viable way. This paper analyzes the tensions and opportunities of microfinance as it embraces the market, drawing on a data set that includes 346 of the world's leading microfinance institutions and covers nearly 18 million active borrowers. The data show remarkable successes in maintaining high rates of loan repayment, but the data also suggest that profit-maximizing investors would have limited interest in most of the institutions that are focusing on the poorest customers and women. Those institutions, as a group, charge their customers the highest fees in the sample but also face particularly high transaction costs, in part due to small transaction sizes. Innovations to overcome the well-known problems of asymmetric information in financial markets were a triumph, but further innovation is needed to overcome the challenges of high costs.

Suggested Citation

  • Cull, Robert & Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Morduch, Jonathan, 2008. "Microfinance meets the market," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4630, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4630
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2008/05/27/000158349_20080527095250/Rendered/PDF/wps4630.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. McKenzie, David J & Woodruff, Christopher, 2006. "Do Entry Costs Provide an Empirical Basis for Poverty Traps? Evidence from Mexican Microenterprises," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 55(1), pages 3-42, October.
    2. Don Johnston & Jonathan Morduch, 2008. "The Unbanked: Evidence from Indonesia," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 22(3), pages 517-537, October.
    3. Beck, Thorsten & Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Martinez Peria, Maria Soledad, 2007. "Reaching out: Access to and use of banking services across countries," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(1), pages 234-266, July.
    4. Xavier Giné & Pamela Jakiela & Dean Karlan & Jonathan Morduch, 2010. "Microfinance Games," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(3), pages 60-95, July.
    5. Morduch, Jonathan, 1999. "The role of subsidies in microfinance: evidence from the Grameen Bank," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 229-248, October.
    6. Robert Cull & Asli Demirguç-Kunt & Jonathan Morduch, 2007. "Financial performance and outreach: a global analysis of leading microbanks," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 117(517), pages 107-133, February.
    7. Dean Karlan & Jonathan Zinman, 2010. "Expanding Credit Access: Using Randomized Supply Decisions to Estimate the Impacts," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(1), pages 433-464, January.
    8. Ashok S. Rai & Tomas Sjöström, 2004. "Is Grameen Lending Efficient? Repayment Incentives and Insurance in Village Economies," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 71(1), pages 217-234.
    9. Conning, Jonathan, 1999. "Outreach, sustainability and leverage in monitored and peer-monitored lending," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 51-77, October.
    10. Conning, Jonathan & Udry, Christopher, 2007. "Rural Financial Markets in Developing Countries," Handbook of Agricultural Economics, in: Robert Evenson & Prabhu Pingali (ed.), Handbook of Agricultural Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 56, pages 2857-2908, Elsevier.
    11. Mudit Kapoor & Jonathan Morduch & Shamika Ravi, 2007. "From Microfinance to m-Finance Innovations Case Discussion: M-PESA," Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization, MIT Press, vol. 2(1-2), pages 82-90, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Md Aslam Mia & Lucia Dalla Pellegrina & Patrick Damme & Mahinda Wijesiri, 2019. "Financial Inclusion, Deepening and Efficiency in Microfinance Programs: Evidence from Bangladesh," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 31(4), pages 809-835, September.
    2. Gutiérrez-Nieto, Begoña & Serrano-Cinca, Carlos, 2019. "20 years of research in microfinance: An information management approach," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 183-197.
    3. Imai, Katsushi S. & Gaiha, Raghav & Thapa, Ganesh & Annim, Samuel Kobina, 2012. "Microfinance and Poverty—A Macro Perspective," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(8), pages 1675-1689.
    4. Janda, Karel & Zetek, Pavel, 2014. "Mikrofinanční Revoluce: Aktuální Kontroverze A Výzvy [Microfinance Revolution: Recent Controversies And Challenges]," MPRA Paper 54098, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Widiarto, Indra & Emrouznejad, Ali, 2015. "Social and financial efficiency of Islamic microfinance institutions: A Data Envelopment Analysis application," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 1-17.
    6. Janda, Karel & Zetek, Pavel, 2014. "Survey of Microfinance Controversies and Challenges," MPRA Paper 56657, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Bos, Jaap W.B. & Millone, Matteo, 2015. "Practice What You Preach: Microfinance Business Models and Operational Efficiency," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 28-42.
    8. Li Gan & Manuel A. Hernandez & Yanyan Liu, 2018. "Group Lending With Heterogeneous Types," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 56(2), pages 895-913, April.
    9. Sefa Awaworyi Churchill, 2020. "Microfinance financial sustainability and outreach: is there a trade-off?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 59(3), pages 1329-1350, September.
    10. Hisako Kai, 2009. "Competition and wide outreach of Microfinance Institutions," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 29(4), pages 2628-2639.
    11. Karel Janda & Pavel Zetek, 2015. "Mikrofinanční revoluce: kontroverze a výzvy [Microfinance Revolution: Controversies and Challenges]," Politická ekonomie, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2015(1), pages 108-130.
    12. Robert Cull & Asli Demirguç-Kunt & Jonathan Morduch, 2007. "Financial performance and outreach: a global analysis of leading microbanks," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 117(517), pages 107-133, February.
    13. Beatriz Armendariz & Bert D'Espallier & Marek Hudon & Ariane Szafarz, 2011. "Subsidy Uncertainty and Microfinance Mission Drift," Working Papers CEB 11-014, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    14. Al-Azzam, Moh'd & Mimouni, Karim & Smaoui, Houcem & Temimi, Akram, 2022. "Subsidies vs. deposits and cost inefficiency in microfinance," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 198(C), pages 212-235.
    15. Yimga, Jules, 2018. "Microfinance expansion and its effects on cost efficiency," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 205-216.
    16. Muhammad Zubair & Attiya Yasmin Javid, 2015. "The Role of Subsidy Uncertainty in Mission Drift of Microfinance Institutions of Asia," PIDE-Working Papers 2015:123, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics.
    17. DeanS. Karlan, 2007. "Social connections and group banking," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 117(517), pages 52-84, February.
    18. Steven B. Caudill & Daniel M. Gropper & Valentina Hartarska, 2009. "Which Microfinance Institutions Are Becoming More Cost Effective with Time? Evidence from a Mixture Model," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 41(4), pages 651-672, June.
    19. Cason, Timothy N. & Gangadharan, Lata & Maitra, Pushkar, 2012. "Moral hazard and peer monitoring in a laboratory microfinance experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 192-209.
    20. Cristián Pinto, 2015. "The Effect of Labor Market Flexibility on Microfinance Institutions Performance: International Evidence," Serie Working Papers 21, Universidad del Desarrollo, School of Business and Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
    • L31 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Nonprofit Institutions; NGOs; Social Entrepreneurship
    • O16 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Financial Markets; Saving and Capital Investment; Corporate Finance and Governance

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4630. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.