Microfinance, the provision of small size loans and other financial services to low income households, is often seen as the key innovation of the last 25 years in terms of means of reaching out to the poor and vulnerable. There is extensive experience in microfinance provision in both Asia and...

This working paper assesses different approaches to microfinance delivery across Asian and Latin America. Three modalities of delivery of microfinance are discussed: the Credit Union Approach, the NGO Approach, and the Banking Approach. Also addressed is the current relatively undeveloped...

Poverty targeting programs can in principle be assessed as projects using the tools of either cost-benefit or cost-effectiveness analysis. In practice where quantitative assessments have been made they are principally a form of cost-effectiveness calculations based on costs per unit of benefit...

The very rapid economic growth of the People's Republic of China (henceforth PRC), its dramatic success in world export markets and its heavy receipts of foreign direct investment (FDI) have generated much thought and debate in policy and business circles in different parts of the world. This...