A major accomplishment of development finance in recent years has been the expansion of the supply of financial services for the poor. Little information exists, however, about the extent to which microfinance actually reaches the poor. This study analyzed a sample of clients served by five...

There is debate about measurement of impact and achievement of expected results of rural microfinance programs in LDCs. The paper addresses these issues using survey household data from Bolivia. Regression models examine the determinants of education outcomes for microfinance clients. The...

In this paper, we examine the contract design problem of banks that extend loans to poor borrowers and seek to maximize outreach while remaining financially sustainable. A dynamic model is developed that shows how interest rates can be determined based on information about productivity and...

Data collected in surveys of more than 700 Salvadoran households carried out in 1996 and 1998 are used in an econometric analysis of linkages between land and labor use. Particular emphasis is offered on how poor households allocated labor resources in response to the El Nino weather phenomenon...

Innovations in lending technologies and market saturation have transformed La Paz, Bolivia into one of the most rapidly changing and competitive microfinance markets in the world. Two lenders stand out in this context: the pioneer BancoSol, which first entered and profitably expanded the loan...

This paper presents and interprets descriptive statistics generated from data obtained in a survey of clients of five microfinance organizations believed to be among the best in Bolivia. These lenders represent different combinations of organizational design, lending technology, and market area...

This paper examines the contract design problem of microfinance institutions seeking to maximize outreach to the poor while remaining financially sustainable. A dynamic model of group lending is developed that shows how optimal interest rates depend on information regarding moral hazard and...

The impact of public and private transfers on credit markets has not been sufficiently studied and understanding any spill over effects caused by these transfers may be useful for policy makers. This paper estimates the impact of Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs) and remittances received by poor...

Decoupled payments have emerged as an alternative to traditional agricultural subsidies that are coupled to production decisions, in order to minimize the distorting impacts of domestic agricultural policy. Economic theory suggests that, when farmers face imperfections in key markets such as...

We construct a theoretical framework that puts the social worth of a microfinance organization (MFO) in terms of the depth, worth to users, cost to users, breadth, length, and scope of its output. We then analyze evidence of depth of outreach for five MFOs in Bolivia. Most of the poor households...