This paper empirically examines the effect of participation in National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) on the livelihood security of rural poor. Data are collected from 220 respondents (including both beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries) through a structured questionnaire from Sonepur district...

The government of India had initiated bank payments of wages under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MGNREGP). This initiative is undoubtedly a big financial inclusion drive particularly among the rural poor of India. This paper has tried to evaluate this financial...

This paper uses a quasi-randomized control design combined with observational methods to evaluate the impact of a microcredit duration on the welfare of clients of a microcredit organization in western India. We survey respondents from three cities, Mumbai, Pune, and Satara, to understand the...

The existing theoretical analysis of microfinance focuses on the nature of the loan contracts that mitigates the pervasive problems of moral hazard and adverse selection in the absence of physical collateral. We depart from the existing literature and draw attention to the role of missing or...

This paper explores the relationship between microcredit and poverty reduction. To investigate this question, we posit a bare-bone, household model that outlines the economic environment within which various types of family microenterprises operate. It highlights a number of issues that impinge...

A series of lecture on the theory of microfinance. Using contract theoretic models, the lecture summaries the current research in the microfinance. The lecture cover consumption credit, adverse selection, moral hazard and contract enforcement

Micro-financing has been instrumental in alleviating poverty in rural and urban India as in different parts of the world. This paper provides an overview of how micro-financing has changed the lives of the poor in terms of their socio-economic empowerment and sustainable livelihoods based on...

Microfinance (MF) and family planning (FP) are thought to be very important interventions in the promotion of human development and it has been suggested that MF has significant beneficent impacts on contraceptive adoption and fertility. Thus, several authors, e.g. Amin, Hill and Li (1995), Amin...

We replicate and reanalyse the most influential study of microcredit impacts (Pitt and Khandker, 1998). That study was celebrated for showing that microcredit reduces poverty, a much hoped-for possibility (though one not confirmed by recent randomized controlled trials). We show that the...

This mimeo discusses the relative significance of Microfinance to the poor in developed Economies. We analyse different vehicles of microfinance to the poor in less developed Countries (LDCs hereafter). The analysis also covers a global overview for Microfinance activity, and the dominant...