Group-based lending programs for the poor have become a focus of attention in the development community over the last several years. To date, there has been no comprehensive investigation of their impact on household behavior that has been sufficiently attentive to issues of endogeneity and...

Bangladesh spends only 2 percent of its GNP on education, compared to 3.2 percent in an average low-income country. Low investment in education results in low literacy (only 35 percent), which in turn results in low productivity, low incomes, poor health and, above all, high population growth....

Alternative institutions, most notably non-governmental organizations (NGOs), have evolved in many countries in response to the shortcomings of the state and the market in providing various social developments inputs and credit to the poor. The Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) was...