In less-developed economies such as Bangladesh where the farm sector is the major source of employment and income, the rural non-farm sector (RNF) often as an additional source of income increasingly plays an important role in fostering the development of the rural economy, and microenterprise...

This paper, using several data sets, investigates whether microcredit programmes, which have been operating in rural Bangladesh for over 20 years, have any long-term effects in improving household income and expenditure and lowering poverty. Both descriptive and econometric analyses show that...

This paper addresses whether microcredit participants in Bangladesh are trapped in poverty and debt, as many critics have argued in recent years. Analysis of data from a long panel survey over a 20-year period confirms this is not the case, although numerous participants have been with...

Microcredit programs in Bangladesh have experienced spectacular growth in recent years, with a growing number of borrowers availing credit from multiple microcredit agencies. There is a growing concern that if there are not sufficient returns to borrowing from microfinance institutions (MFIs),...

This paper establishes a relationship between access to credit and the factor productivity of enterprises using the data collected through a nationally representative household survey conducted by InM in 2010. The survey data show that about 32 per cent of the households have at least one...

Bangladesh lagged in microfinance regulation until 2006 when it established Microcredit Regulatory Authority (MRA). So far, MRA has granted license to around 650 Microfinance Institutions (MFIs); and has been supervising them with prudential and non-prudential regulations. We assessed the impact...

Seasonal hunger is a form of deprivation in Bangladesh, especially in greater Rangpur. For policymaking purpose, knowing who are going to be in seasonal hunger in future is more important than knowing who already are. Our analysis shows that both ex post and ex ante measures of seasonal...

The poor households in the northwest region of Bangladesh are highly vulnerable to the seasonal food deprivation locally known as monga. Households adopt different strategies to cope with monga, including the advance sale of labor or crop as well as seasonal out-migration. Some 36 percent of...

Energy poverty is a frequently used term among energy specialists, but unfortunately the concept is rather loosely defined. Several existing approaches measure energy poverty by defining an energy poverty line as the minimum quantity of physical energy needed to perform such basic tasks as...