Search results for "CCO"

Excessive Focus on Risk? Non-performing Loans and Efficiency of Microfinance Institutions

2021

The Cost of Ownership in Microfinance Organizations

2009

Accepted version of article published in the journal: World Development Published version available on Science Direct: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016j.worlddev.2008.03.006 We compare the ownership-cost of shareholders firms (SHFs), non-profit organizations (NPOs), and cooperatives (COOPs) invoked in microfinance. A paradoxical situation motivates us: most providers, both historically and today, are NPOs or COOPS,while policy papers advocate SHFs, We lay out it theoretical framework to understand ownership-costs in microfinance organizations (MFOs) better. We propose that cost-variable related to market contracting favor NPOs and COOPS, whereas most cost-variables related to the practice of owner…

The association between microfinance rating scores and corporate governance: A global survey

2014

Abstract The global microfinance industry has experienced high growth rates over the past decades, and the World Bank foresees a future market with billions of customers. However, the industry's continued growth is contingent on its ability to create a governance structure that supports microfinance institutions' long-term performance. Because microfinance institutions' performance is multidimensional and difficult to measure, prior research has not been successful in establishing consistent associations between governance structures and microfinance institutions' performance. We apply microfinance rating scores – a unique innovation of the microfinance industry – as a summary performance m…

EU Refugee Policies and Politics in Times of Crisis: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives

2017

Phenomena such as civil war, protracted conflict, and deteriorating internal security, especially in the Middle East, Africa and Southern Asia, have triggered massive departures of civilian populations in recent years. The war in Syria alone has displaced over 5 million people (UNHCR, 2017a). While most of these forced migrants are either internally displaced or remain in Syria’s immediate neighbourhood, the numbers of those trying to come to Europe have steeply increased in 2015 and 2016. In each of these two years more than 1.2 million asylum-seekers submitted their asylum claims in the EU (Eurostat, 2017a), as compared to 625,000 in 2014 (Eurostat, 2015, p. 4). This represents the larges…

Discrimination by microcredit officers: Theory and evidence on disability in Uganda

2015

This paper studies the relationship between a microfinance institution (MFI) and its loan officers when officers discriminate against a particular group of micro-entrepreneurs. Using survey data from Uganda, we provide evidence that loan officers are more biased than other employees against disabled micro-entrepreneurs. In line with the evidence, we build an agency model of a non-profit MFI and a biased loan officer in charge of granting loans. Since incentive schemes are costly and the MFI's budget is limited, the MFI faces a trade-off between combating discrimination and granting loans. We show that the optimal incentive premium is a non-decreasing function of the MFI's budget. Moreover, …

Gender Gaps in Wages and Mortality Rates During Industrialization: The Case of Alcoy, Spain, 1860–1914

2021

What role did women play during industrialization? Interpretations of this key period of our history have been largely based on analyses of male work. In this paper, we offer evidence of the effects of women's involvement in the industrialization process that took place in Alcoy, Spain, over the period 1860-1914. Using data drawn from historical sources, we analyse labour-force participation rates and wage series for women and men in the textile industry and three other sectors of activity (education, health and low-skill services). We then connect the gender pay gaps with life expectancy indicators. Our results suggest that women's contribution to household income might have favoured the f…

Testing for Asymmetric Information in Insurance Markets: A Multivariate Ordered Regression Approach

2016

The positive correlation (PC) test is the standard procedure used in the empirical literature to detect the existence of asymmetric information in insurance markets. This article describes a new tool to implement an extension of the PC test based on a new family of regression models, the multivariate ordered logit, designed to study how the joint distribution of two or more ordered response variables depends on exogenous covariates. We present an application of our proposed extension of the PC test to the Medigap health insurance market in the United States. Results reveal that the risk–coverage association is not homogeneous across coverage and risk categories, and depends on individual so…

A Test of Covariance-Matrix Forecasting Methods

2015

Providing a more accurate covariance matrix forecast can substantially improve the performance of optimized portfolios. Using out-of-sample tests, in this article the author evaluates alternative covariance matrix-forecasting methods by looking at: (1) their forecast accuracy, (2) their ability to track the volatility of a minimum-variance portfolio, and (3) their ability to keep the volatility of a minimum-variance portfolio at a target level. The author finds large differences between the methods. The results suggest that shrinking the sample covariance matrix improves neither the forecast accuracy nor the performance of minimum-variance portfolios. In contrast, switching from the sample …

Current research issues in production economics

2020

This Special Issue includes a selection of papers originally presented and discussed at the Twentieth International Working Seminar on Pro- duction and Operations Management, Innsbruck, February 19–23, 2018, and subsequently extended and improved. Production and Operations Management was established in the1970s as an academic discipline focusing on scientific topics treating the interface between engineering, management, and economics with a special emphasis on financial consequences of decisions in the produc- tion domain. The subject is interdisciplinary in nature and it therefore contains a wide range of topics. The Working Seminar included sessions such as supply chain management, innov…

Designing multi-attribute auctions for engineering services procurement in new product development in the automotive context

2010

Abstract In recent years, use of multi-attribute auctions has been consolidating as a powerful mechanism in procurement settings where multiple drivers affect the transaction outcome. This paper provides a project management approach for multi-attribute auction design for standardized engineering services procurement in the context of new product development in automotive industry. Two variables are taken into account in the bidding process: price and duration of the given engineering activity. From a theoretical viewpoint, we fully determine optimal suppliers’ bidding strategies and expected outcomes, i.e. score/utility, price and duration, for the buyer under both first score sealed bid a…