This paper addresses whether microcredit participants in Bangladesh are trapped in poverty and debt, as many critics …, invest in children's schooling, and be lifted out of poverty. This is not to say that non-participants have failed to … of poverty reduction have been higher for participants. Testing the net effect of microcredit programs requires applying …

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 …

The aim of this paper is to assess the possible impacts of the Doha Round of negotiations on poverty in Cameroon …. During the recent period of economic recovery, Cameroon has enjoyed a sharp decline in poverty with the headcount index … model which involves 10,992 households in order to address this question. The Doha Round is found to be poverty reducing for …

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 …

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 …

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 …