In the microfinance industry the idea of “empowerment” is often valued as a means to encourage female emancipation from male domination. This paper’s main purpose is to draw on women’s testimonies and narratives to highlight the fundamental importance within these processes of women’s...

Does microcredit empower women, or does it just discipline and control them in a new way? This paper draws on the case of self-help groups (SHG) in rural India to shed light on microcredit’s various contradictory effects. By adopting the rules of patronage, SHGs renew the domination of women...

<DIV>Microcredit programs, which often give small loans to borrowers in developing countries who lack collateral, have been considered efficient tools for economic development in struggling regions around the world. Yet, recently, microcredit has come under increasing critic by experts who feel that...</div>

(english) This last decade has seen the emergence of a new field of research in development economics: randomised control trials. This paper explores the contrast between the (many) limitations and (very narrow) real scope of these methods and their success in sheer number and media coverage....

This last decade has seen the emergence of a new field of research in development economics: randomised control trials. This paper explores the contrast between the (many) limitations and (very narrow) real scope of these methods and their success in sheer number and media coverage. Our analysis...

Summary This paper uses a global data set of 350 microfinance institutions (MFIs) in 70 countries to study the common belief that women are generally better credit risks in microfinance than men. The results confirm that a higher percentage of female clients in MFIs is associated with lower...

[eng] Isabelle Guérin — The financial practices of women entrepreneurs : Senegalese examples.. African entrepreneurs in general, and women in particular, are confronted with two types of demands with distinctive temporalities : daily survival and the respect of long-term community...