We show that the joint liability lending contracts derived in <link rid="b4">Ghatak (2000)</link> violate an "ex post" incentive-compatibility constraint which says that the amount of joint liability cannot exceed the amount of individual liability. We derive and characterise optimal separating joint liability...

This paper examines a randomized intervention in Delhi, India, that provided unconditional cash transfer to a group of households as a replacement for food security by means of a below poverty line card. A special feature of our study is that our experiment allows to differentiate between...

This paper originates from the current move to individual-based lending systems by many microfinance institutions and the fear that this move will lead to a decrease in access to credit for the poor. More specifically, the paper examines how an individual-based lending scheme can be devised such...