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Black Economic Empowerment in South Africa: market incentives are still...
I’ve been reading an interesting World Bank report on finance for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in South Africa (the only link I found online is here). There is an interesting passage on how the...
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SME sector: it’s all about dynamism, not size
Thorsten Beck, one of the world’s major experts in SME finance, argues that the “size” of the SME sector in an economy does not really matter for economic development. What counts is its dynamism:...
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Difference between credit cooperatives (SACCOs), microfinance institutions...
I’ve been asked about a zillion times what is the difference between savings and credit cooperatives (SACCOs), microfinance institutions (MFIs) and commercial banks. I’ve never had time to reply...
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The problem with firm’s surveys
We shouldn’t trust the entrepreneurs too much, says Jacques Morisset Allow me to illustrate. According to the entrepreneurs operating In Tanzania, electricity is their major constraint (85 per cent)...
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What the *heck* are SMEs?
It is always boring to talk about definitions, but when it comes to SMEs (small and medium enterprises), the matter is extremely urgent. I’ve read between 1 billion and 1 trillion papers on SME finance...
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Institutional stickiness and the New Development Economics
This 2008 paper by GMU’s Peter Boettke, Chris Coyne and Peter Leeson (pdf) is one of my all-time favorite studies on institutions, path dependence and economic development. If you think that the title...
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Should Kenya establish a development bank?
Uhuru and Ruto wrote in the Jubilee Manifesto that they plan to establish a development Bank to “prop up the private players”. Although nobody is talking about it, and although we have no idea if that...
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