Microfinance has received a lot of attention recently, both from policy makers as well as in academic circles. Two of the main topics that have been hotly debated are explaining joint liability group lending and its implications for reducing information asymmetries, and the trade-off between the financial sustainability and outreach of microfinance programmes. This Feature contains three novel empirical contributions providing new insights with respect to why and how joint liability group lending works. It also contains the first large-scale systematic analysis of the trade-off between financial performance and outreach of microfinance institutions.

The empirics of microfinance: what do we know?

Risk Management Framework for Microfinance Institutions

The central front in the battle over campaign finance laws is the definition of corruption. The Supreme Court has allowed restrictions on giving and spending money in connection with elections only when they serve to avoid corruption or its appearance. The constitutionality of such laws, therefore, depends on how the Court defines corruption. Over the years, campaign finance cases have conceived of corruption in both broad and narrow terms, with the most recent cases defining it especially narrowly. While supporters and critics of campaign finance laws have argued for and against these different formulations, both sides have missed the more foundational issue: Should the Court define corruption at all? This Article argues it should not. Corruption is a derivative concept, which means that it depends on a theory of the institution involved. In order to define corruption of an official or institution, one needs an account of the how the official ought to act, or the institution ought to function. Defining legislative corruption therefore requires a theory of the legislator’s role in a well-functioning democracy. The Supreme Court’s campaign finance case law has ignored the implications of this widely shared and deceptively simple idea. Drawing an analogy to apportionment and gerrymandering cases, this Article argues that there are important reasons for the Court to defer to legislative judgment about how best to conceive of a legislator’s role in our democracy. Those cases counsel that where both individual rights and questions of democratic theory are at issue, the Court should be cautious and careful about whether judicial intervention is appropriate. Just as the Court is hesitant to define good government, so too it should be reluctant to define corruption.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID2152365_code1293257.pdf?abstractid=2021188&mirid=1&type=2

Defining Corruption and Constitutionalizing Democracy

Finding the money

This study investigates the effect that trade liberalisation had on the export of manufactured goods in Cameroon. The study estimated the effects this liberalisation had on the determinants of exports of manufactured commodities and its influence on the country’s economy, using an augmented gravity model. The model revealed that the effect of exchange rate appreciation on the export of manufactured goods was less than it was before trade liberalisation, though still positive. After liberalisation, manufactured exports reacted positively following increased imports of intermediate goods and a lowering of tariffs; but it was restricted by higher production capacity. Further investigation indicates that the exports of manufactured goods were stimulated by the liberalisation of trade, although manufacturing growth was still dampened. The effect of the local economy’s size became more important, while the influence from foreign GDP declined. Membership of regional trade agreements became negative, which was unexpected. Distance became more important, and the effect of tariffs declined; though still negative. It was found that international trade liberalisation by Cameroon mostly benefited its manufacturing sector, improving its ability to export and to create jobs. JEL Classification: D22, F13, F14, F63, L60

Some effects of trade liberalisation on Cameroonian manufacturing export performance

Risks Management Application in Helping the Poor Through Microfinancing by Edmond Njombe Lyonga MS, Mountain State University, 2012 BS, Mountain State University, 2010 BSC, Buea University, 2004 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Management—Finance

/pdf/risks-management-application-in-helping-the-poor-through-1cme60d10y.pdf

Edmond Njombe Lyonga

Papers

Risks Management Application in Helping the Poor Through Microfinancing