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 …

?" that microcredit for women had significant, favorable effects on poverty reduction. In this paper the authors show that …

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 …

In 1993, in response to persistent unemployment, and rising poverty and social unrest, the government of Albania … introduced an anti-poverty program, namely Ndihma Ekonomike; in 1995 it was extended to all poor households. This paper estimates … subjective measures of household poverty. The analysis uses the nationally representative Albanian Living Standards Measurement …

The paper presents a major overhaul to the World Bank's past estimates of global poverty, incorporating new and better … data. Extreme poverty-as judged by what quot;povertyquot; means in the world's poorest countries-is found to be more … pervasive than we thought. Yet the data also provide robust evidence of continually declining poverty incidence and depth since …

Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs aim to alleviate poverty through monetary and in-kind benefits, as well as … reduce future levels of poverty by encouraging investments in education, health, and nutrition. The success of CCT programs … at reducing poverty depends on whether, and the extent to which, cash transfers affect adult work incentives. The authors …