In different countries ? among which some in Western Africa ? there have been for the last few years some organizations which are trying to combine health services insurances with microfinance. This working paper intends to question the way those services can be combined. It is based on four...

Over the last few years, microfinance development and impact were often overestimated. Today, many are those who try to provide a more balanced overview stressing what has been learned and what remains to be done. This paper is trying to pay its tribute to this objective through four parts :...

This paper estimates the impact of loan officer subjectivity on microcredit granting by exploiting an exceptionally detailed database from a Brazilian microfinance institution. The loan officers collect field data, meet with applicants, and make recommendations to the credit committee, which has...

In most developed countries, regulators have imposed loan ceilings to subsidized microfinance institutions (MFIs). Micro-entrepreneurs in need of above-ceiling loans are left with the co-financing option, which means securing the aboveceiling share of the loan with a regular bank, and getting a...