The Cost of Ownership in Microfinance Organizations

World Development, 2009, vol. 37, issue 2, 469-478

Abstract: Summary We compare the ownership-cost of shareholders firms (SHFs), non-profit organizations (NPOs), and cooperatives (COOPs) involved 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 a theoretical framework to understand ownership-costs in microfinance organizations (MFOs) better. We propose that cost-variables related to market contracting favor NPOs and COOPs, whereas most cost-variables related to the practice of ownership favor SHFs. We conclude that what best serves the customers is the coexistence of ownership types and call for empirical research to test this theory.

Keywords: microfinance; ownership; corporate; governance; non-profits; cooperatives; transformation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (72)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305-750X(08)00148-4
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: The cost of ownership in microfinance organization (2007)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:37:y:2009:i:2:p:469-478

Access Statistics for this article

World Development is currently edited by O. T. Coomes

More articles in World Development from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().