James Barth

Microfinance Institutions and Community Development Banks: Wall Street Consequences Pre and Post Crisis James Barth

This book is composed of three essays which met the requirement for a PhD in the Applied Economics Program at Auburn University. After taking a course in economic development, I became interested in microfinance institutions, impact analysis, economic growth, and asymmetric information. Each essay is unique and serves a distinct purpose. The first uses data graciously provided by a Norwegian Economist, Dr. Roy Mersland, on a large global sample of small microfinance institutions. The data provided allowed for correct scale and production elasticity computation to show the constraints of reaching the poorest of the poor. The second essay compares scale based on MFI type. The results show that productive efficiency is reached with NGOs over Rural Banks, indicates lending to woman drives scale, and compares average scale by region. While attending a microfinance conference at the ULB (Universite de Bruxelles), I had the pleasure of comparing my results to Mr. Nawaz's work, a student at the University of Gottingen. The third essay incorporates borrowed funds and off-balance sheet activity which results in an exciting tale that corresponds to the Wall Street Collapse of 2007.