Summary The current emphasis in the microfinance industry is a shift from donor-funded to commercially sustainable operations. This article evaluates the impact of access to microloans from the Khushhali Bank--Pakistan's first and largest microfinance bank which operates on commercial...

Microcredit and small and medium enterprise (SME) finance are often pitched as alternative strategies to create employment opportunities in low-income communities. So far, though, little is known about how employment patterns compare. We integrate evidence from three surveys to show that,...

Summary Regulation allows microfinance institutions to take deposits and expand their banking functions, but complying with regulation can be costly. We examine implications for institutions' profitability and their outreach to small-scale borrowers and women, using a newly-constructed dataset...