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 book reviews quantitative methods and models of impact evaluation. The formal literature on impact evaluation methods and practices is large, with a few useful overviews. Yet there is a need to put the theory into practice in a hands-on fashion for practitioners. This book also details...

Preface -- About the authors -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- Rural nonfarm growth and poverty reduction -- Institutional growth and MFI performance -- Dynamics of microfinance benefits -- Are borrowers overindebted? -- Role of microfinance in poverty transition -- Diversification of income...

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...

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 examines the role of social safety net problems run by government and NGOs in mitigating seasonal deprivation in a highly vulnerable region of Bangladesh. The paper also explores whether social safety nets help only avert seasonal deprivation or also address seasonality of income and...