wlmmyers
01-24-2003, 05:29 PM
Reply to: "Brett Matthews" <brett@mathwood.com>
Hello all:
Is anyone aware of studies on how investors protect themselves, and safely
pool their money and other resources, in environments where formal
arrangements for investor protection are limited or unworkable?
I'm studying the efforts of microcredit institutions in Bangladesh to
jump-start economic activities through enterprises with 3 or more
shareholders, not related by family. That is, the investors are very poor
rural women, often illiterate, with very limited resources. The potential
pay-offs of successful collaboration are very high, and poor rural women in
Bangladesh clearly demonstrate strong demand for forming such
enterprises. The main obstacle goes back to the basics of banking -- how
to increase trust and the chances of long-term success by correctly shaping
the rules of the game. These rules include the structure of the investment
(the mix and form of debt, equity and in-kind investments) and ways of
creating incentives for transparency and accountability to shareholders by
management.
Rural Bangladesh is not the first place to experience this problem. Yet
investors have successfully pooled their resources for at least 5,000
years, since the Babylonians formed joint ventures for inter-city
trade. I'm looking for studies that have mined the history of this problem
and the diverse approaches to solving it, and scholars who may be studying
this topic.
Thank you.
Brett Matthews
Microfinance Specialist
Mathwood Consulting Co.
242 Gainsborough Road
Toronto, CANADA
M4L 3C6
(416) 469-3603
(416) 428-8557 (cell)
brett@mathwood.ca
---
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Hello all:
Is anyone aware of studies on how investors protect themselves, and safely
pool their money and other resources, in environments where formal
arrangements for investor protection are limited or unworkable?
I'm studying the efforts of microcredit institutions in Bangladesh to
jump-start economic activities through enterprises with 3 or more
shareholders, not related by family. That is, the investors are very poor
rural women, often illiterate, with very limited resources. The potential
pay-offs of successful collaboration are very high, and poor rural women in
Bangladesh clearly demonstrate strong demand for forming such
enterprises. The main obstacle goes back to the basics of banking -- how
to increase trust and the chances of long-term success by correctly shaping
the rules of the game. These rules include the structure of the investment
(the mix and form of debt, equity and in-kind investments) and ways of
creating incentives for transparency and accountability to shareholders by
management.
Rural Bangladesh is not the first place to experience this problem. Yet
investors have successfully pooled their resources for at least 5,000
years, since the Babylonians formed joint ventures for inter-city
trade. I'm looking for studies that have mined the history of this problem
and the diverse approaches to solving it, and scholars who may be studying
this topic.
Thank you.
Brett Matthews
Microfinance Specialist
Mathwood Consulting Co.
242 Gainsborough Road
Toronto, CANADA
M4L 3C6
(416) 469-3603
(416) 428-8557 (cell)
brett@mathwood.ca
---
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