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Friday, June 25, 2021

 

New Publication

 

The Activity Report 2020 is available !  

 

 

 

 

 Monday, May 10, 2021

 

New Working Paper

 

 WP-CEBRIG: N°21-005

ANAIS A PERILLEUX & ARIANE SZAFARZ

"Women in the boardroom: A bottom-up approach to the tickle-down effect" 

 

This paper argues that role modeling can explain the impact of boardroom gender diversity on corporate performance. It theorizes that female workers are boosted by female leadership, gain increased motivation, and achieve greater productivity, thereby making their female directors more effective. We test this bottom-up approach to the trickle-down hypothesis on data hand-collected among local cooperatives providing microcredit in Senegal. All the organizations surveyed are similar and small, which allows us to use a homogenous performance metric. All of them outsource their human resource management to the same third party, which mitigates the risk of endogeneity. The data cover over 100,000 triads composed of: gender dominance on the board, gender of CEO, and gender of credit officer. A better financial performance is achieved when the triad is gender-uniform—be it male or female—confirming the importance of role modeling and suggesting that the performance of female board members depends on the gender composition of the workforce.

 

 

 Thursday, March 25, 2021

 

New Working Paper

 

 WP-CEBRIG: N°21-003

GREGOR DORFLEITNER, DAVIDE FORCELLA & QUYNH ANH NGUYEN

"Why microfinance institutions go digital: An empirical analysis"

While the role of digital solutions to foster financial inclusion and the development of the microfinance sector are widely acknowledged, questions concerning the variation in the ability and willingness of microfinance institutions’ (MFIs) adoption of these tools remain unanswered. This paper studies the determinant of the use of digital support solutions in the microfinance sector by using a global sample of MFIs derived from a survey by YAPU Solutions on rural lending and IT solutions. We discover the evidence that suggests the adoption of these tools is consistent with the social performance of MFIs. Furthermore, the results of the study indicate that the profitability of the institutions is associated with a larger application of digital support solutions. Macroeconomic factors, the development of the country in which the institution is located, also impact MFIs’ decisions regarding integrating digital solutions into their services and internal operational processes. 

 

 

  Monday, February 08, 2021

 

New Working Paper

 

WP-CEBRIG: N°21-001

SIMON CORNEE, MARC JEGERS & ARIANE SZAFARZ

"Feasible Institutions of Social Finance: A Taxonomy"

 This paper unpacks the continuum of social finance institutions (SFIs), ranging from foundations offering pure grants to social banks supplying soft loans. The in-between category includes under-researched “quasi-foundations” granting loans requiring partial repayment. We develop a model under which SFIs maximize their social contribution arising from financing successful social projects, under a budget constraint dictated by their funders. Our model determines the feasibility of each SFI category and reveals that quasi-foundations are efficient and adapted to environments with low market rates. Finally, we show that value-based unconditional reciprocity from SFI borrowers can elicit a so-called “hold-up” effect, whereby the SFI maximizing its social contribution charges a high interest rate to its loyal clients.

 

 

Tuesday, January 12, 2021

 

EMP Recruitment Campaign

 

The EMP starts its 2021-2022 recruitment campaign!

The European Microfinance Programme (EMP) is pleased to inform you that its recruitment campaign for academic year 2021-2022 has started. The full programme and the application file are downloadable from the EMP website: www.europeanmicrofinanceprogram.org.

Launched in 2005, the EMP is co-organized by three universities: Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Université de Mons (UMONS) and Université Paris-Dauphine and four NGO partners: ADA, BRS, CERISE and SOS Faim. The courses take place in Brussels, on the premises of the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (ULB).

The EMP is designed by microfinance experts to offer a unique blend of theory and practice. The purpose of the programme is to develop future professionals in microfinance who will contribute to the strengthening of microfinance institutions worldwide, in accordance with the highest international standards.

 

Information regarding admission requirements and application procedures are available on the EMP website: www.europeanmicrofinanceprogram.org

 

Monday, December 21, 2020

 

Job Position

 

Researcher for a study assignment relating to inter-enterprises mutual credit

The CERMi offers an 80% research position for a period of one year for a study assignment relating to inter-enterprise mutual credit in the Brussels-Capital Region. The project is being carried out as a subcontractor for Financité ASBL.

Deadline for applications, January 8, 2021

Annonce

 

Monday, December 14, 2020

 

Seminar

 

CERMi, ULB and UMons organizes the research seminar 

« The Future of Social Entrepreneurship »

Registration

This research seminar will be held online via zoom

 

Thursday, December 10, 2020

 

Press Article 

 

Via THE CONVERSATION

ANASTASIA COZARENCO and ARIANE SZAFARZ

 

 

 Thursday, December 03, 2020

 

Seminar

 


CERMi member Tristan Caballero-Montes
is presenting the Brown Bag Seminar 

"Integrating Market Conditions into Regulatory Decisions on Microfinance Interest Rates: Does Competition Matter?"

Discussant: Bart d'Espellier
On Microsoft Teams

 

 

 Monday, November 02, 2020

 

New Working Paper 

 

WP-CEB: N°20-012

ANASTASIA COZARENCO & ARIANE SZAFARZ

"The Regulation of Prosocial Lending: Are Loan Ceilings Effective?"

 Regulatory loan ceilings are commonly found in the prosocial lending sector, yet they can have unintended perverse effects. By mitigating the risk of adverse selection, loan caps catalyze co-financing arrangements between subsidized lenders and commercial banks. These arrangements can, in turn, crowd out the most vulnerable borrowers, i.e. those typically targeted by regulators. To assess this claim, we proceed in two steps. First, we build a theoretical model. Second, we test it, drawing on a rich hand-collected dataset on the clientele of an unregulated French microcredit provider that turned into a regulated institution following a shock affecting its funding sources. Using a difference-in-differences linear probability model with propensity score matching, we empirically confirm the theoretical prediction that the imposition of a loan ceiling will lead to missiondrift.

 

 Thursday, September 17, 2020

 

Seminar

 

Delaram Najmaei Lonbani 

is presenting the Brown Bag Seminar

The performance of microfinance institutions: An analysis of the local and legal constraints 

Discussant: Marek Hudon 

 

 Tuesday, September 01, 2020

 

Publication

 

Discover our 16th CERMi Newsletter!

 

What you'll find in this edition :

Coming events at CERMi

Recent events at CERMi

Awards and prizes

Recent publications by CERMi members

 

 Thursday, May 07, 2020

 

Publication

 

  The Activity Report 2019 is available ! 

 

Tuesday, January 21st, 2020

 

Seminar

 

CERMi (ULB) organizes the research seminar

"The Support Fonction of Social Entrepreneurial Ecosystems" 

by Nicolay DENTCHEV (VUB, BE)

This research seminar will be held at 2.30pm at ULB.

 

 

 

 

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