Muhammad Meki

• PhD University of Oxford
• Lecturer at University of Oxford

This paper summarizes recent research in performance-based microfinance, and outlines future directions for research. We use the term ‘microequity’ to refer to any small-enterprise financing contract in which the repayment owed in each instalment depends positively upon the variable performance of the enterprise. We summarize research from financia...

This paper presents a summary of this issue of the Oxford Review of Economic Policy, on microfinance. The paper explores the evolving landscape of microfinance, with particular emphasis on its broadening scope. It summarizes the four parts of this journal issue, focusing on: (i) microfinance and its providers; (ii) the challenges of taking microfin...

We run a field experiment offering graduated microcredit clients the opportunity to finance a business asset worth four times their usual borrowing limit. We implement this using a hire-purchase contract; our control group is offered a zero interest loan at the usual borrowing limit. We find large, significant, and persistent effects: treated micro...

I explore whether a Belgian policy that reduced the corporate tax bias towards debt finance was successful in lowering firm leverage. Using putatively exogenous time series variation in the cost of equity financing and a difference-in-differences strategy that includes similar firms from surrounding countries, I find that the policy did lead to inc...

Chapter 16 describes an experiment that is in progress in Kenya to encourage entrepreneurial activity through financing investment by micro-equity rather than micro-debt. The experiment involves individuals distributing Wrigley chewing gum products alongside other goods in Kenya, in particular in areas of the country which were previously impenetra...

The book provides a detailed and practical description of how companies can put purpose into practice in their organizations. Based on a ground-breaking research project on the Economics of Mutuality undertaken jointly by the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford and Mars Catalyst, the think tank of Mars Inc., the food and beverages comp...

We conduct a field experiment offering graduated microcredit clients the opportunity to finance a business asset worth four times their previous borrowing limit. We implement this using a hire-purchase contract; our control group is offered a zero-interest loan. We find large, significant and persistent effects from asset finance contracts: treated...

The COVID-19 pandemic threatens lives and livelihoods, and, with that, has created immediate challenges for institutions that serve affected communities. We focus on implications for local microfinance institutions in Pakistan, a country with a mature microfinance sector, serving a large number of households. The institutions serve populations poor...