Although, interest rate charged by microfinance stimulate of lot of ethical debate. Very few studies in microfinance detail the cost components of interest rates paid by the borrowers. Setting the optimal interest rate with a dual goal of financial sustainability and fighting against poverty is...

This paper empirically analyzes the influence of road proximity on HIV- infection using geographical data on road infrastructure and the Demographic and Health Surveys collected in six African countries. Firstly we show that living in proximity to a major road increases the individual risk of...

This paper estimates the returns to household income due to improved access to electricity in rural India. We examine the effect of connecting a household to the grid and the quality of electricity, defined as hours of daily supply. The analysis is based on two rounds of a representative panel...

Given the low condom use and high prevalence in some African countries, this paper addresses the question of whether these evidences are driven by a supply-side or a demandside issue. The role of road infrastructures on HIV/AIDS outcomes is investigated using data from the Demographic and Health...

This paper compares the increases in access rates to piped water in rural Brazil by localized water supply systems under two different management models. It finds that small-scale supply systems operated and maintained by user associations lead to signicantly higher increases in access rates...

We report results from a randomized evaluation of a microcredit program introduced in rural areas of Morocco in 2006. Thirteen percent of the households in treatment villages took a loan, and none in control villages did. Among households identified as more likely to borrow, microcredit access...

We use survey data to investigate how urban households in Ethiopia coped with the food price shock in 2008 and idiosyncratic shocks. Qualitative data indicate that the high food price inflation was by far the most adverse economic shock between 2004 and 2008, and that a significant proportion of...

This paper focuses on the role of marketing in pro-poor development, with a specific focus on (primary) producers of high-value products in developing countries. Marketing is an interdisciplinary field of research that, according to the authors, can make a significant contribution to pro-poor...