The Effects of Religion on Development Efforts: Evidence from the Microfinance Industry and a Research Agenda

Roy Mersland (), Bert D’espallier and Magne Supphellen
Additional contact information
Roy Mersland: UIA - University of Agder

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: This study responds to the need for more empirical knowledge pertaining to the effect of religion on development efforts. The results suggest that the performance of Christian Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) differs from that of secular MFIs on a number of dimensions. Surprisingly, Christian MFIs don't perform better on social indicators compared with their secular peers. Regarding financial performance, we find that Christian MFIs have significantly lower funding costs but consistently underperform in terms of their bottom-line financial indicators. In addition, the study provides a new agenda for research pertaining to the effects of religion on development efforts.

Keywords: Religion performance efficiency microfinance development providers MFIs; Religion; performance; efficiency; microfinance; development providers; MFIs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-05220861v1
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in World Development, 2013, 41, pp.145-156. ⟨10.1016/j.worlddev.2012.05.030⟩

Downloads: (external link)
https://hal.science/hal-05220861v1/document (application/pdf)

Related works:
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:hal:journl:hal-05220861

DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2012.05.030

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().