Oxford Events, the new replacement for OxTalks, will launch on 16th March. From now until the launch of Oxford Events, new events cannot be published or edited on OxTalks while all existing records are migrated to the new platform. The existing OxTalks site will remain available to view during this period.
From 16th, Oxford Events will launch on a new website: events.ox.ac.uk, and event submissions will resume. You will need a Halo login to submit events. Full details are available on the Staff Gateway.
Firms often cite financing constraints as key barriers, yet lenders rarely innovate beyond debt products. While theory suggests debt may dominate equity due to adverse selection and moral hazard, these mechanisms are difficult to isolate empirically. We design and test a microequity product with Egyptian livestock farmers, providing animals and splitting sales proceeds at a fixed rate. We market this product alongside a flexible debt contract. Using a two-stage RCT, we disentangle selection from contract effects. We find strong demand for equity, with many participants willing to accept lower financing probability to avoid debt. These “equity-only” participants exhibit advantageous selection on some key contract performance metrics relative to those willing to accept either contract. However, holding selection fixed, equity causes a drop in net revenue relative to debt—evidence of moral hazard. A set of currency devaluations eliminated this negative effect, demonstrating that moral hazard varies with context. Our findings suggest microequity can enhance financial inclusion by attracting new clients, but managing moral hazard remains a primary, context-dependent challenge.