While both microcredit and microinsurance products in the developing world have essentially emerged in a regulatory vacuum, the general consensus appears to be that self-regulation may have thus far served the global microcredit industry adequately. The same premise is likely to be false when it...

This paper examines disease-specific impoverishment impact of out-of-pocket (OOP) payments using a dataset of 3,941 households obtained from a survey conducted in 120 villages of seven districts in Bangladesh. We have estimated the poverty impact of OOP payments by comparing the difference...

In this article, the authors show that a wage tax, which neither alters the relative price of current versus future consumption nor distorts the relative expected return (vis-à-vis the cost) to investing in human capital, leads to biases at both these margins. The authors find that the common...

While both microcredit and microinsurance products in the developing world have essentially emerged in a regulatory vacuum, the general consensus appears to be that self-regulation may have thus far served the global microcredit industry adequately. The same premise is likely to be false when it...

This paper analyzes inequity in health care use in rural Bangladesh using data from a survey conducted by Microinsurance Research Unit (MRU) of the Institute of Microfinance (InM) of 4,010 households drawn from 120 villages. The study focuses on formal health care use over the 12 months...

The preponderance of risk and vulnerability facing the poor is well recorded. In spite of advances in microcredit, effective coping mechanisms remain limited and costly, and consequently, poverty cycles trap many poor households indefinitely. Prevalent rural institutions are found to be...

Health risks are unpredictable as to occurrence, as to the severity of impairment, and in terms of the costs these inflict on the victims (both in terms of medical care and foregone earnings) and society at large (i.e., via health externalities). In spite of advances in microcredit and evolving...