CGD research fellow David Roodman and Uzma Qureshi analyze microfinance institutions (MFIs) as businesses, asking how some succeed in covering costs, earning returns, attracting capital, and scaling up. We draw on existing literature and interviews with industry players and academics. Key...

Roodman (Stata Journal, 2011) introduced the program cmp for using maximum likelihood to fit multiequation combinations of Gaussian-based models such as tobit, probit, ordered probit, multinomial probit, interval censoring, and continuous linear. This presentation describes substantial...

A challenge in the development of aggregate indexes of trade protection is weighting individual tariffs in ways that (a) reflect their importance and (b) are not endogenous to the protection being measured. The most obvious basis for weights is actual imports; but these may be highly endogenous....

The most-noted studies on the impact of microcredit on households are based on a survey fielded in Bangladesh in the 1990s. Contradictions among them have produced lasting controversy and confusion. Pitt and Khandker (PK, 1998) apply a quasi-experimental design to 1991–92 data; they conclude...

At the heart of many econometric models is a linear function and a normal error. Examples include the classical small-sample linear regression model and the probit, ordered probit, multinomial probit, Tobit, interval regression, and truncateddistribution regression models. Because the normal...

At the heart of many econometric models are a linear function and a normal error. Examples include the classical small-sample linear regression model and the probit, ordered probit, multinomial probit, tobit, interval regression, and truncated-distribution regression models. Because the normal...

In recent years, the interdisciplinary nature of global health has blurred the lines between medicine and social science. As medical journals publish non-experimental research articles on social policies or macro-level interventions, controversies have arisen when social scientists have...

European countries pride themselves on being leaders in spurring development within poor countries. We find that Europe’s approach to development could be characterised as energetically tackling the symptoms of poor economic opportunities for developing countries by providing effective aid,...