This paper addresses whether microcredit participants in Bangladesh are trapped in poverty and debt, as many critics … of poverty reduction have been higher for participants. Testing the net effect of microcredit programs requires applying …, although numerous participants have been with microcredit programs for many years. The results of the analysis suggest that …

Microfinance is often criticized for not adequately addressing seasonality and hard-core poverty. In Bangladesh, a … program known as PRIME was introduced in 2006 to address both concerns. Unlike regular microfinance, PRIME introduces a … microfinance scheme that offers a flexible repayment schedule and consumption smoothing, as well as production, loans. It targets …

This paper evaluates effectiveness of microfinance using Propensity Score Matching (PSM) method applied to data … the original study and provide more nuanced evidence by comparing Microfinance Institution (MFI) borrowers to those … true microfinance impact. The results suggest that microfinance can make a modest difference for some households in several …

The impact of micro-credit interventions on existing credit markets is theoretically ambiguous. Previous empirical work …

Microfinance is generally seen as a way to fix credit markets and unleash the productive capacities of poor people who … are dependent on self-employment. The microfinance sector has grown quickly since the 1990s, paving the way for other …, generating a backlash against microfinance. This paper reconsiders the claims about microfinance, highlighting the diversity in …

constrained. This paper analyses whether, and how, micro-finance supports a large public health subsidy program in the developing … a cluster randomised controlled experiment of a sanitation micro-finance program that coincided with the launch of the … levels: First, micro-credit allows households officially ineligible for the subsidy to invest in sanitation by alleviating …

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 microfinance and other elements of the microfinance business model …

Front-line loan officers of microfinance institutions are important in acquiring information on potential borrowers and … selecting them in accordance with the microfinance institution's mission. This study uses a unique data set on loan officers and … their loan portfolios from China's largest nongovernmental organization microfinance institution to test whether officers …

women affiliated with microcredit self-help groups who have access to an associational life. The qualitative analysis of 255 … gram sabha transcripts from four South Indian states finds that women associated with microcredit self-help groups employ a …