Recent evidence suggests only modest social and economic impacts of microfinance. Favorable cost-benefit ratios then depend on low costs. This paper uses proprietary data on 1,335 microfinance institutions between 2005 and 2009, jointly serving 80.1 million borrowers, to calculate the costs of...

This note discusses emerging international approaches for regulating design and distribution of retail banking products. Such products include deposit, credit, and payment products, being the products that new financial consumers typically acquire first. Policy makers are finding that financial...

Ghana has been remarkably successful in extending its national grid into the rural areas. According to its Ministry of Power, about 83.4 percent of communities with more than 500 people have access to grid electricity. The main remaining frontier is to bring electricity to communities living on...

African countries are adopting a range of context-specific climate-smart technologies and practices to meet their food security and climate change goals. Improved livestock production is the most prevalent practice, followed by improved water management, conservation agriculture, agroforestry,...

Almost all firms in developing countries have fewer than 10 workers, with the modal firm consisting of just the owner. Are there potential high-growth entrepreneurs with the ability to grow their firms beyond this size? And, if so, can public policy help alleviate the constraints that prevent...

A business plan competition is conducted to test whether survey instruments or panel judges are able to identify the fastest growing firms. Participants submitted six-to eight-page business plans and defended them before a three-or four-judge panel. Applicants are surveyed shortly after they...