IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/fip/fedlrv/y2008ijanp9-30nv.90no.1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The microfinance revolution: an overview

Author

Listed:
  • Craig P. Aubuchon
  • Rajdeep Sengupta

Abstract

The Nobel Prize committee awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize to Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank \\"for their efforts to create economic and social development from below.\\" The microfinance revolution has come a long way since Yunus first provided financing to the poor in Bangladesh. The committee has recognized microfinance as \\"an important liberating force\\" and an \\"ever more important instrument in the struggle against poverty.\\" Although several authors have provided comprehensive surveys of microfinance, our aim is somewhat more modest: This article is intended as a non-technical overview on the growth and development of microcredit and microfinance.

Suggested Citation

  • Craig P. Aubuchon & Rajdeep Sengupta, 2008. "The microfinance revolution: an overview," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 90(Jan), pages 9-30.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedlrv:y:2008:i:jan:p:9-30:n:v.90no.1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://files.stlouisfed.org/files/htdocs/publications/review/08/01/Sengupta.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ghatak, Maitreesh, 2000. "Screening by the Company You Keep: Joint Liability Lending and the Peer Selection Effect," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 110(465), pages 601-631, July.
    2. Foster, James & Greer, Joel & Thorbecke, Erik, 1984. "A Class of Decomposable Poverty Measures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(3), pages 761-766, May.
    3. Jonathan Morduch, 1999. "The Microfinance Promise," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 37(4), pages 1569-1614, December.
    4. Mark M. Pitt & Shahidur R. Khandker, 1998. "The Impact of Group-Based Credit Programs on Poor Households in Bangladesh: Does the Gender of Participants Matter?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(5), pages 958-996, October.
    5. Shahidur R. Khandker, 2005. "Microfinance and Poverty: Evidence Using Panel Data from Bangladesh," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 19(2), pages 263-286.
    6. Ghatak, Maitreesh & Guinnane, Timothy W., 1999. "The economics of lending with joint liability: theory and practice," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 195-228, October.
    7. M. Shahe Emran & A. K. M. Mahbub Morshed & Joseph E. Stiglitz, 2021. "Microfinance and missing markets," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(1), pages 34-67, February.
    8. Aleem, Irfan, 1990. "Imperfect Information, Screening, and the Costs of Informal Lending: A Study of a Rural Credit Market in Pakistan," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 4(3), pages 329-349, September.
    9. Schreiner, Mark & Woller, Gary, 2003. "Microenterprise Development Programs in the United States and in the Developing World," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(9), pages 1567-1580, September.
    10. Bhaduri, Amit, 1977. "On the Formation of Usurious Interest Rates in Backward Agriculture," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 1(4), pages 341-352, December.
    11. Braverman, Avishay & Guasch, J. Luis, 1986. "Rural credit markets and institutions in developing countries: Lessons for policy analysis from practice and modern theory," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 14(10-11), pages 1253-1267.
    12. Goetz, Anne Marie & Gupta, Rina Sen, 1996. "Who takes the credit? Gender, power, and control over loan use in rural credit programs in Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 45-63, January.
    13. Christian Ahlin & RobertM. Townsend, 2007. "Using Repayment Data to Test Across Models of Joint Liability Lending," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 117(517), pages 11-51, February.
    14. Mark Schreiner, 1999. "Lessons for Microenterprise Programs from a Fresh Look at the Unemployment Insurance Self-Employment Demonstration," Evaluation Review, , vol. 23(5), pages 504-526, October.
    15. Dehejia, Rajeev & Montgomery, Heather & Morduch, Jonathan, 2012. "Do interest rates matter? Credit demand in the Dhaka slums," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 437-449.
    16. Anthony Bottomley, 1975. "Interest Rate Determination in Underdeveloped Rural Areas," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 57(2), pages 279-291.
    17. Stiglitz, Joseph E & Weiss, Andrew, 1981. "Credit Rationing in Markets with Imperfect Information," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(3), pages 393-410, June.
    18. Beatriz Armendáriz de Aghion & Jonathan Morduch, 2000. "Microfinance Beyond Group Lending," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 8(2), pages 401-420, July.
    19. Mark Schreiner, 2001. "Evaluation and Microenterprise Programs," Development and Comp Systems 0108002, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 27 Dec 2001.
    20. Smith, Stephen C., 2002. "Village Banking and Maternal and Child Health: Evidence from Ecuador and Honduras," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 707-723, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gutiérrez-Nieto, Begoña & Serrano-Cinca, Carlos, 2019. "20 years of research in microfinance: An information management approach," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 183-197.
    2. Mathilde Maîtrot & Miguel Niño-Zarazúa, 2017. "Poverty and wellbeing impacts of microfinance: What do we know?," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-190, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. Chliova, Myrto & Brinckmann, Jan & Rosenbusch, Nina, 2015. "Is microcredit a blessing for the poor? A meta-analysis examining development outcomes and contextual considerations," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 467-487.
    4. Ahlin, Christian, 2015. "The role of group size in group lending," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 140-155.
    5. M. Shahe Emran & A. K. M. Mahbub Morshed & Joseph E. Stiglitz, 2021. "Microfinance and missing markets," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(1), pages 34-67, February.
    6. Mathilde Maîtrot & Miguel Niño-Zarazúa, 2017. "Poverty and wellbeing impacts of microfinance: What do we know?," WIDER Working Paper Series 190, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    7. James C. Brau & Gary M. Woller, 2004. "Microfinance: A Comprehensive Review of the Existing Literature," Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance, Pepperdine University, Graziadio School of Business and Management, vol. 9(1), pages 1-28, Spring.
    8. Christian Ahlin, 2020. "Group lending, matching patterns, and the mystery of microcredit: Evidence from Thailand," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 11(2), pages 713-759, May.
    9. Islam, Asadul & Nguyen, Chau & Smyth, Russell, 2015. "Does microfinance change informal lending in village economies? Evidence from Bangladesh," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 141-156.
    10. Rao, Smriti, 2008. "Reforms with a Female Face: Gender, Liberalization, and Economic Policy in Andhra Pradesh, India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(7), pages 1213-1232, July.
    11. Simon Zaby, 2019. "Science Mapping of the Global Knowledge Base on Microfinance: Influential Authors and Documents, 1989–2019," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-21, July.
    12. Emilios Galariotis & Christophe Villa & Nurmukhammad Yusupov, 2011. "Recent Advances in Lending to the Poor with Asymmetric Information," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(9), pages 1371-1390, July.
    13. Madajewicz, Malgosia, 2011. "Joint liability versus individual liability in credit contracts," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 77(2), pages 107-123, February.
    14. Kangogo, Daniel & Lagat, Job & Ithinji, Gicuru, 2013. "The Influence of Social Capital Dimensions on Household Participation in Micro-Credit Groups and Loan Repayment Performance in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya," MPRA Paper 48624, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Gregor Dorfleitner & Eva‐Maria Oswald, 2016. "Repayment behavior in peer‐to‐peer microfinancing: Empirical evidence from Kiva," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(1), pages 45-59, September.
    16. Madestam, Andreas, 2014. "Informal finance: A theory of moneylenders," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 157-174.
    17. repec:dau:papers:123456789/13356 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Dorfleitner, Gregor & Oswald, Eva-Maria, 2016. "Repayment behavior in peer-to-peer microfinancing: Empirical evidence from Kiva," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 45-59.
    19. Aggarwal, Raj & Goodell, John W. & Selleck, Lauren J., 2015. "Lending to women in microfinance: Role of social trust," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 55-65.
    20. Ta Nhat Linh & Hoang Thanh Long & Le Van Chi & Le Thanh Tam & Philippe Lebailly, 2019. "Access to Rural Credit Markets in Developing Countries, the Case of Vietnam: A Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-18, March.
    21. Abdul Karim, Zulkefly, 2009. "Microfinance and Mechanism Design: The Role of Joint Liability and Cross-Reporting," MPRA Paper 23934, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 12 Jan 2010.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Credit; Bank loans; Poverty;
    All these keywords.

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fip:fedlrv:y:2008:i:jan:p:9-30:n:v.90no.1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Scott St. Louis (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbslus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.