Microfinance programs and institutions are increasingly important in development strategies but knowledge about their … impacts is partial and contested. This paper reviews the methodological options for the impact assessment (IA) of microfinance … issues and lessons in the practice of microfinance IAs are then explored and it is argued that the central issue in IA design …

Microfinance is typically associated with joint liability of group members. However, a large part of microfinance … contracts. Moreover, we show that microfinance institutions offer group loans when the loan size is rather large, refinancing … costs are high, and competition between microfinance institutions is low. Otherwise, individual loans are offered …