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Lo que aprendió el autor de don Álvaro d´Ors sobre la empresa se remonta a una conferencia impartida por éste en la Universidad de Santiago a fines de la década de los sesenta, si bien su argumento lo reprodujese sucesivamente en otras publicaciones hasta los primeros años del 2000. En sustancia, las “Reflexiones” -que así comenzaba a intitularse la conferencia- consistían en una crítica a las sociedades mercantiles de capital, las cuales, al detentar personalidad jurídica, descartaban de ésta a la empresa a la que daban nombre, y con ella, a todos sus trabajadores. Una reforma de este statu quo solo podría tener lugar con la exclusión, de la falseada “sociedad”, de sus inversores, ya no “socios”, sino simples prestamistas. Por el contrario, socios lo serían aquéllos trabajadores que lo requiriesen, precisamente por sentirse estimulados por prestaciones que la empresa podría ofrecerles con la eventual ayuda subsidiaria del Estado. De este modo, la empresa recuperaría una libertad y una personalidad que había perdido en favor del capital, lo que facilitaría su conceptuación laboral en detrimento de la mercantil que hoy la domina. What the author learned on the enterprise from Professor A. d´Ors dates back a conference delivered by him in the ´60, although the conference´s topic was repeated successivay in others publications early in 2000´s. En essence, “reflections·-which the conference was called like civil style thoughts- were a criticism to commercial corporations based in the capital, which, having legal personality, excluded from this latter to the enterprise to which they put trade name and excluded form his latter to the staff which worked on it. A reform of this “status quo” could only be possible with exclusion of the falsified corporation to its investors, because they were not “associates” but simple money landers. To the contrary, they would be associates those workers who wanted to become. Precisely for feeling themselves stimulated by welfare payments which the enterprise would be able of offer them with eventual state subsidiary assistance. In this way, the enterprise would recover with his workers a freedom and a personality which would hare last in favour of the capital, which would make easier its labour definition to the detriment of the commercial one which nowdays rules it over.

Broadening and deepening financial inclusion in Ghana is important for ensuring inclusive growth and achieving the objectives of the Financial Sector Strategic Plan. Deeper and more inclusive financial sectors allow poor households to manage risks and smooth consumption; they provide opportunities for very micro and small enterprises to survive and grow; they can bridge geographical dispersion by providing access to savings and payment services to populations in rural and remote regions. Ghana fares well on some indicators of financial inclusion compared to other Sub-Saharan African countries, and is comparable to lower middle-income countries. However, it lacks a clear strategy for financial inclusion and development of microfinance institutions (MFIs) and other methodologies of making financial services more widely available. Microfinance - the provision of savings, credit, and other financial products to the poor - grew rapidly in Ghana during the 2000s in existing institutions, performing well by international benchmarks for MFIs and raising the percentage of the population that is financially included.5 While the universal banks have the bulk of the assets of the financial system, microfinance institutions (MFIs) reach more clients (around 8 million) through over 3,000 outlets spread throughout the country. Although not all such institutions were directly regulated by the Bank of Ghana (BoG), capacity building, oversight and monitoring support from MFI Associations and donor-supported programs helped ensure stable growth. During the late 2000s, however, new types of unregulated microfinance service providers proliferated, increasing the number of operators who lacked sufficient capacity, skills, governance, transparency, and accountability to act as responsible financial intermediaries. This posed a risk to the sector, with increasing incidents of reported fraud, insolvency, and loss of savings by low-income households. In 2011, BoG initiated measures to bring all types of MFIs under a consistent regulatory framework by issuing Guidelines for MFIs. This paper summarizes the situation and development of microfinance institutions in Ghana, reviews progress and problems in implementing the BoG regulations for MFIs, highlights current risks and challenges, and proposes strategies for mitigating risks. The analysis includes three different levels: BoG and Government of Ghana (GoG); MFIs and their associations; and the public. It is aimed at providing information on the complex issues in the microfinance sector as a basis for dialogue on concrete reforms.

Employing a unique dataset that covers households from six West African capitals, this paper provides new evidence on the demand for informal sector products and services. We first investigate whether demand linkages exist between formal and informal products and distribution channels, and whether there is an overlapping customer base, which would imply that both formal sector wage earners and informal workers buy both formal and informal products using both formal and informal distribution channels. In a second step, we estimate demand elasticities based on Engel curves. We find a strongly overlapping customer base and strong demand-side linkages between the formal and informal sector, with the exception that informal goods are hardly bought through formal distribution channels. The estimated demand elasticities tend to show that rising incomes are associated with a lower propensity to consume informal sector goods and to use informal distribution channels. We therefore conclude that the informal sector in West Africa is likely to be constrained from the demand side.

The purpose of this note is to provide policy recommendations to improve access to credit of rural populations and small agricultural producers under financially sustainable schemes. Although the agricultural sector remains an important source of employment, agricultural credit is a small fraction of commercial credit in Colombia. The share of agricultural credit in Colombia is below levels observed in other countries in the region. Colombian commercial banks have limited credit volume in rural areas, concentrating their lending activities on more profitable urban populations. General deposit warehouses and the agricultural commodity exchange (Bolsa Mercantil de Colombia (BMC)) provide funding for agricultural activities, but they are underdeveloped compared to regional peers and serve medium and large size producers. Overall use of mobile- and internet-based payment financial products remains low in rural Colombia. According to 2014 Findex survey data, just two percent of adults report using mobile banking, defined as a mobile platform for making transactions from an account at a financial institution. Public credit guarantee system (FAG) coverage should be modified to incentive the use of mobile guarantees and agricultural insurance. This will ensure that financial institutions have only covered tail risks, providing incentives to use mobile guarantees.

Growing research and policy interest focuses on the misallocation of output and factors of production in developing economies. This paper considers the possible misallocation of financial loans. Using plant-level data on the organized and unorganized sectors, the paper describes the temporal, geographic, and industry distributions of financial loans. The focus of the analysis is the hypothesis that land misallocation might be an important determinant of financial misallocation (for example, because of the role of land as collateral against loans). Using district-industry variations, the analysis finds evidence to support this hypothesis, although it does not find a total reduction in the intensity of financial loans or those being given to new entrants. The analysis also considers differences by gender of business owners and workers in firms. Although potential early gaps for businesses with substantial female employment have disappeared in the organized sector, a sizeable and persistent gap remains in the unorganized sector.

Firm informality is pervasive throughout the developing world, Bangladesh being no exception. The informal status of many firms substantially reduces the tax basis and therefore impacts the provision of public goods. The literature on encouraging formalization has predominantly focused on reducing the direct costs of formalization and has found negligible impacts of such policies. This paper focuses on a stick intervention, which to the best of the knowledge of the authors is the first one in a developing country setting that deals with the most direct and dominant form of informality, i.e. registration with the tax authority with a direct link to the countrys potential revenue base and thus public goods provision. The paper implements an experiment in which firms are visited by tax representatives who deliver an official letter from the Bangladesh National Tax Authority stating that the firm is not registered and the consequential punishment if the firm fails to register. The paper finds that the intervention increases the rate of registration among treated firms, while firms located in the same market but not treated do not seem to respond significantly. The paper also finds that only larger revenue firms at baseline respond to the threat and register. These findings have at least two important policy implications: i. the enforcement angle, which could be an important tool to encourage formalization; and ii. targeting of government resources for formalization to the high-end informal firms. The effects are generally small in levels and this leaves open the question of why many firms still do not register.

This paper is organized as follows: this introduction is followed by a primer on the industry and on the evolution of the microfinance sector. The authors then examine the structure of the microfinance industry, (a) NGOs, cooperatives and credit unions, and commercialized vehicles; how they differ and why corporate governance differs according to the nature of the MFI; and (b) large networks, investment and bank-holding groups, and social services/faith-based groups. The authors then consider how corporate governance evolves and develops in MFIs as their structure and ownership changes. This is followed by an examination of the recurring issues and growing risks in the microfinance industry. The authors conclude with a look at the responses of governments, investors, and the industry itself to these issues and risks and propose some next steps.

Financial infrastructure is the underlying foundation of a country’s financial system. It is comprised of all institutions, information, technologies, rules, and standards which enable financial intermediation. The quality of a country’s financial infrastructure determines the efficiency of intermediation, the ability of lenders to evaluate risk and of borrowers to obtain credit, insurance, and other financial products at competitive terms. This report covers two dimensions of Jamaica’s financial infrastructure: 1) payments, remittances, and securities settlement systems, and; 2) credit reporting systems. This technical note does not provide a detailed assessment of individual payments system in the form of a Report on Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC), but uses the framework of international standards for carrying out a detailed analysis of the existing systems in Jamaica, including the Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems (CPSS) and International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) Principles for Financial Markets Infrastructure (PFMIs), the CPSS General Guidance for National Payment System Development, the CPSS-World Bank General Principles on International Remittance Services (GPs), the World Bank General Principles for credit reporting and related methodologies. The information used in the assessment includes relevant national laws, regulations, rules and procedures governing the systems and other available material.

The poor and other underserved populations in developing countries have unique financial service s needs. However, there is often a mismatch between what financial institutions offer and what underserved populations need or want. This product gap may reflect a lack of interest by financial institutions in designing more target products, or a lack of willingness or capacity on the part of financial institutions to design, market and implement tailor-made financial products. The objectives of the Product Design Case Studies are to 1) develop expertise related to product design and innovation processes through a better understanding of best practices in the field, in depth research and application of behavioral economics concepts; 2) increase awareness of product design/innovation and the links between product development and financial inclusion; and 3) generate publicity and knowledge sharing around product design and innovation. While the hand loan product was broadly successful in achieving its original intent, the pilot encountered considerable institutional and execution challenges that are instructive for future product innovation efforts. The first two sections describe the problem and the innovative product designed to address it. The next section describes the final design and implementation of the product in detail. The fourth section covers post-pilot data collection and results. The final sections discuss lessons learned and planned future enhancements.

This report is organized into three main sections. Section one sets out the context by describing the particular challenges and opportunities related to financing agriculture, followed by defining the target group of agricultural SME s. Section two describes a set of innovative financing models. Section three then provides a framework for an indicative assessment of these models by gathering and forming observations from the case studies. The model observations are then highlighted in three types of country contexts in which bankers in developing countries may find themselves. Preliminary assessment results are presented. The report concludes with key lessons learned on innovative agricultural financing, relevant case studies, and an outlook on further work in this area. Annexes present methodologies and case studies representing the various models.

Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) in developing countries are typically considered to be severely credit constrained. Additionally, high business risks may partly explain why capital stocks of MSEs remain low. This article analyzes the determinants of capital stocks of MSEs in poor economies focusing on credit constraints and risk. The analysis is based on a unique, albeit cross sectional but backward looking, micro data set on MSEs covering the economic capitals of seven West-African countries. The main result is that capital market imperfections indeed seem to explain an important part of the variation in capital stocks in the early lifetime of MSEs. Furthermore, the analyses show that risk plays a key role for capital accumulation. Risk-averse individuals seem to adjust their initially low capital stocks upwards when enterprises grow older. MSEs in risky activities owned by wealthy individuals even seem to over-invest when they start their business and adjust capital stocks downwards subsequently. As other firms simultaneously suffer from capital shortages, such behavior may imply large inefficiencies.

This is the final consolidated report of an extensive program to assess the financial performance and capacity building needs of the UPK Revolving Loan Funds under the PNPM Mandiri project. As explained in the report, the assessment program covered 508 rural and urban UPKs in the provinces of Central Java, Yogyakarta, Nusa Tenggara Timor and West Sumatra. The aim was to cover 30 percent of rural UPK RLFs in these four provinces and 10 percent of the urban UPKs in order to establish the achievements and determine areas of improvement to enable these UPKs to provide a better service to the low income families in their operational areas. This report covers all 267 rural UPK RLFs and 241 urban UPKs identified for the purpose in the four provinces.

This report outlines these findings, including damage and loss estimates and social and economic impacts, and proposes strategies for resilient recovery and reconstruction planning. Heavy rain combined with multiple tropical storms throughout the extended rainy season played a large part in the extensive flooding. Flash floods were reported in several areas in the north in May, and tropical depression Haima arrived in June followed by Nock-Ten in July, the combination of which caused widespread flooding. Overall, the floods affected more than 13 million people and resulted in more than 680 deaths. The floods impacted heavily on the private sector, particularly manufacturing. Manufacturing makes up about 38.5 percent of Thailand's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and is one of the main drivers of Thailand's exports. The majority of manufacturers are located in five flood-affected provinces, namely Bangkok, Ayuthaya, Nakhon Sawan, Pathum Thani, and Samut Sakhon. Tourism, housing and the financial sector were also heavily affected. Though there was some damage to tourism infrastructure, the greatest impact came from losses in revenue from accommodation, transportation, shopping, food and beverages, entertainment and sightseeing. Recovery and reconstruction needs are estimated to be THB 1.5 trillion (USD 50 billion) over a five-year period.

In the past two decades, research on the informal sector has emphasized the heterogeneity of this part of the economy, example in terms of entry costs, firm size, and access to credit, forward- and backward linkages as well as human and physical capital endowments. Yet, not much research has investigated the causes of this heterogeneity and the implied inefficiencies. This is true in particular for Sub-Saharan Africa, where informality dominates urban labor markets. Understanding these causes and the implied inefficiencies is however necessary to design policy interventions that are able to remove the most binding constraints for informal entrepreneurs. This note summarizes the main findings and policy conclusions from a research project that analyzes the quantitative importance of various constraints to informal enterprises in West Africa and Madagascar.

(english) This paper investigates the dynamics of the informal sector in Madagascar during a period of fragile growth. Overall, the behavior of informal firms in terms of earnings, employment and capital accumulation points to a degree of heterogeneity which goes beyond a simple dualistic model and even a more refined model that would distinguish between an upper entrepreneurial and a lower subsistence tier within the informal sector. However, in line with the dualistic model, the informal sector indeed fulfils a labor absorbing function in times of crisis. During the growth period we see capital accumulation in most of the sectors and lots of evidence that households expand their activities. However, this happens mainly through the creation of new firms instead of the expansion of existing ones, which is consistent with much higher returns at very low levels of capital. More rapid expansion can be observed in sectors that operate with lower capital intensity, which is also consistent with risk or credit constraints as major deterrents to expansion. While there is some indication that total factor productivity increased over time, returns to capital and labor where not higher at the end of the observation period than at the beginning. Returns are also rather low at high levels of capital. These findings point to a limited growth potential of the informal sector as a whole. The heterogeneity in capital returns hints at large inefficiencies in allocating capital across informal firms. _________________________________ (français) Cet article examine la dynamique du secteur informel à Madagascar pendant une période de croissance fragile. Le comportement des firmes informelles en termes de revenus, d’emploi et d’accumulation du capital suggère un degré d’hétérogénéité allant au-delà du modèle dualiste classique, et même d’un modèle plus fin distinguant, au sein du secteur informel, un segment entrepreneurial et un segment de subsistance. Cependant, conformément au modèle dualiste, le secteur informel a absorbé le surplus de travail en temps de crise. Pendant la période de croissance, on constate une accumulation de capital dans la plupart des secteurs d’activité et une expansion des activités des ménages. Ceci se traduit pourtant principalement par la création de nouvelles firmes plutôt que par la croissance de firmes existantes, en lien avec des rendements beaucoup plus élevés à des faibles niveaux de capital. Une expansion plus rapide peut être observée dans les secteurs à faible intensité capitalistique, ce qui tend également à confirmer que le risque et les contraintes de crédit sont des obstacles à l’expansion. Alors que les résultats montrent que la productivité totale des facteurs a augmenté, les rendements du capital et du travail ne sont pas plus élevés à la fin de la période étudiée qu’au début. Les rendements sont également plutôt faibles à des niveaux élevés de capital. Ces résultats indiquent un potentiel de croissance globalement limité des firmes informelles. Enfin, l’hétérogénéité des rendements du capital plaide en faveur d’une allocation sous-optimale du capital dans le secteur informel.

This technical note on access to finance addresses six questions: 1) what is the access to and use of financial services in the Philippines, how does it vary, and how does it compare to other countries? 2) What financial services are available to different market segments? 3) How do different categories of financial institutions contribute to outreach, and what is their potential to expand outreach? 4) How does the regulatory environment support access to finance? 5) What financial infrastructure is available to make credit decisions? 6) What are the results of government policies or programs to promote access to financial services? The note concludes with recommendations to improve access to finance. An estimated 30 percent of Filipinos use formal financial services. This is lower than the East Asia region average. Access to finance has improved since the 2002 Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP). The provision of financial services to low-income individuals has expanded. The Philippines has received international recognition for its favorable regulatory policies to promote pioneering use of mobile payments technology and its microfinance regulatory framework.

This paper investigates the patterns of capital entry barriers and capital returns in informal Micro and Small Enterprises (MSE's) using a unique micro data set seven West-African countries. The author's findings support the view of a heterogeneous informal sector that is not primarily host to subsistence activities. While an assessment of initial investment identifies some informal activities with negligible entry barriers, a notable cost of entry is associated to most activities. The authors find very heterogeneous patterns of capital returns in informal MSE's. At very low levels of capital, marginal returns are extremely high- often exceeding 70 percent per month. Above a capital stock of 150 international dollars, marginal returns are found to be relatively low at around 4 to 7 percent monthly. The authors provide some evidence that the high returns at low capital stocks reflect high risks. At the same time, most MSE's appear to be severely capital constrained.

Social reproduction is the highest for self-employed as shown by an extensive literature from developed and developing countries. Very few studies however document the reason for this high intergenerational correlation of the self-employed status. The rare studies that have been done concern the US and show that children of self-employed benefit from an advantage when they are themselves self-employed. The purpose of this paper is to test if the second-generation of self-employed has an advantage related to the first-generation in the African context. It aims at highlighting the debate on firms heterogeneity in the informal sector, and seeks to contribute to understand the intergenerational transmission of inequalities. Using 1-2-3 surveys collected in the commercial capitals of seven West African countries in 2001-2002, this paper shows that the second-generation of informal selfemployed does not have better outcomes than the first one, except when they choose a familial tradition in the same sector of activity. Thus, in the African context, having a self-employed father does not provide any advantage in terms of profit or sales and is not sufficient for the transmission of valuable skills. On the other hand, informal entrepreneurs who have chosen a specific enterprise based on familial tradition have a competitive advantage. Their competitive advantage is partly explained by the transmission of enterprise-specific human capital, acquired through experiences in the same type of activity and by the transmission of social capital. _________________________________ Très peu d’études documentent les raisons de la très forte reproduction sociale observée parmi les entrepreneurs, aussi bien dans les pays développés que dans les pays en développement. Les rares études, portant sur les E.U, montrent que les enfants d’entrepreneurs ont de meilleures performances quand ils sont eux-mêmes entrepreneurs que les enfants de salariés. Cet article teste si ce résultat se vérifie dans le contexte du secteur informel ouest-africain et cherche à en comprendre les raisons. Il vise par conséquent à éclairer le débat portant sur l’hétérogénéité des entreprises informelles, en identifiant des facteurs de succès, mais il cherche aussi à mieux comprendre les mécanismes à l’origine de la transmission intergénérationnelles des inégalités en Afrique. En se basant sur les enquêtes 1-2-3 collectées dans sept capitale ouest-africaines, cet article montre que la seconde génération d’entrepreneurs informels ne bénéficient pas d’un avantage comparatif, sauf s’ils bénéficient d’une tradition familiale dans leur secteur d’activité. Ainsi, dans le contexte ouest-africain, avoir un père entrepreneur ne suffit pas à la transmission de compétences managériales. En revanche, les entrepreneurs qui ont choisi leur secteur d’activité par tradition familiale ont un avantage qui s’explique principalement par la transmission de compétences spécifiques au secteur d’activité et par la transmission d’un capital social.

This paper uses firm-level data from the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Surveys to study the process of convergence of transition countries with developed market economies. The study focuses on competition and market structure, finance and the structure of lending to firms, and how firms respond to the economic environment by restructuring. The authors find substantial evidence of convergence in a number of dimensions. The pattern of growth at the country, sector, and firm levels shows rapid growth of the new private sector and of the micro and small-firm sectors, with the size distribution of firms moving toward the pattern observed in the surveys of developed market economies. In finance, increasing reliance on retained earnings in transition countries reflects a maturation of the sector as new firms come to rely less on informal and family sources of finance. The authors find evidence of an inverse-U pattern, with the peak of restructuring activity taking place in 2002, the middle of the period analyzed. Throughout, the regional patterns suggest greater convergence in the transition countries that joined the European Union in 2004 than in the other, lower-income transition economies.