Microcredit is a widely practiced, widely revered technique of international development. It aims to increase incomes of the poor by giving them access to capital which can be used to create small businesses or other productive economic activity. Microcredit, despite its partly "market" approach...

This study examines the effect of a one-on-one outsourced pre-lending consulting service on the repayment behavior of microcredit borrowers in Korea with administrative data from the Smile Microcredit Bank. A random change in the cut-off loan amount for mandatory consulting is utilized as an...

Financial inclusion plays an important role in giving households greater access to borrowing opportunities, which in turn can be used to improve human capital accumulation, socioeconomic status, and long-run economic development. One way to enhance households' access to and usage of the...

According to the World Bank, in 2011, 415 million, that is 41.5 percent of the world's extremely poor, living on less than $1.25 a day, live in Saharan Africa. A situation where more than 415 million people in a sub region of the world still live in abject poverty should be of global concern not...