Summary This symposium brings together recent empirical contributions with respect to a number of related and highly relevant issues on the economics of microfinance. In particular, the contributions provide answers to the following two main questions: (1) does microfinance have an impact on the...

Summary This paper uses stochastic frontier analysis to examine whether there is a trade-off between outreach to the poor and efficiency of microfinance institutions (MFIs). We find convincing evidence that outreach is negatively related to efficiency of MFIs. More specifically, we find that...

Although Africa’s indigenous systems of slavery have been extensively described in the historical literature, comparatively little attention has been paid to analyzing its long term impact on economic and political development. Based on data collected from anthropological records we conduct an...