"This timely Handbook collates a range of evidence from top scholars in the field to help readers understand who microfinance reaches, how it helps, and why clients come back. It offers updated views on important concepts that enable a broader framework for understanding poverty and the...

Using forest concentration data from Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, this paper test whether or not the low-level of economic growth is related to forest resource intensity and Dutch Disease. Specifically, cross sectional data from...

This paper studies whether microfinance rating agencies were able to impose market discipline on microfinance institutions (MFIs) during the period 1998-2002. Results indicate that not all rating agencies had equal impact. While some rating agencies were able to promote better sustainability,...

We study the efficiency of Community Development Loan Funds (CDLFs) in the U.S.A. between 2002 and 2005. We find that the largest CDLFs tend to be most efficient and that efficiency decreases with age and the proportion of minority representation on the board, while board size does not affect...

This paper presents an overview of microfinance and microfinance research. The objective is to show that microfinance research has come full circle: from policies to lending methodologies and to organizations in the 1990s, and back to a focus on policies. Specifically, developments in the...