Microfinance and Economic Development

Cull, Robert ; Morduch, Jonathan

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: MICROFINANCE;    FINANCIAL INCLUSION;    POVERTY;    IMPLICIT SUBSIDY;    ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-8252
RP-ID  :  WPS8252

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Microfinance is generally seen as a wayto fix credit markets and unleash the productive capacitiesof poor people who are dependent on self-employment. Themicrofinance sector has grown quickly since the 1990s,paving the way for other forms of social enterprise andsocial investment. But recent evidence shows only modestaverage impacts on customers, generating a backlash againstmicrofinance. This paper reconsiders the claims aboutmicrofinance, highlighting the diversity in evidence onimpacts and the important (but limited) role of subsidies.The paper concludes by describing an evolution of thinking:from microfinance as narrowly construed entrepreneurialfinance toward microfinance as broadly construed householdfinance. In this vision, microfinance yields benefits byproviding liquidity for a wide range of needs rather thansolely by boosting business income.