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Assessing Microfinance: Striking the Balance between Social Utility and Financial Performance

Author

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  • Florent Bédécarrats

    (AFD - Agence française de développement)

  • Cécile Lapenu

Abstract

Microfinance was designed as a development tool, but remains firmly anchored in the market economy, creating an ambivalence that blurs the traditional distinction between the political and economic, the public and private, the commercial and social. Its hybrid nature makes it unique among development tools: microfinance benefits from financial, fiscal and regulatory support, while maintaining relative independence from governments and donors and their fluctuating agendas. The result is a heterogeneous and complex sector that articulates different scales: the local, given it is microfinance, and the national, as states closely supervise retail-banking activities. But it is also a global field, involving various transnational actors: NGOs, cooperation agencies, investors, private entrepreneurs, multilateral agencies, and so on.
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Suggested Citation

  • Florent Bédécarrats & Cécile Lapenu, 2013. "Assessing Microfinance: Striking the Balance between Social Utility and Financial Performance," Post-Print hal-03852163, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03852163
    DOI: 10.1057/9781137301925_4
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-03852163
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Florent Bédécarrats & Johan Bastiaensen & François Doligez, 2012. "Co-optation, Cooperation or Competition? Microfinance and the new left in Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(1), pages 143-160.
    2. Angus Deaton, 2009. "Instruments of development: Randomization in the tropics, and the search for the elusive keys to economic development," Working Papers 1128, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Health and Wellbeing..
    3. Mark Schreiner & Jacob Yaron, 2001. "Development Finance Institutions : Measuring Their Subsidy," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 13983.
    4. Eric Duflos & Jasmina Glisovic-Mézières, 2008. "National Microfinance Strategies," World Bank Publications - Reports 9515, The World Bank Group.
    5. Robert Cull & Asli Demirguç-Kunt & Jonathan Morduch, 2007. "Financial performance and outreach: a global analysis of leading microbanks," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 117(517), pages 107-133, February.
    6. repec:pri:cheawb:deaton%20instruments%20of%20development%20keynes%20lecture%202009 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. repec:pri:cheawb:deaton%20instruments%20of%20development%20keynes%20lecture%202009.pdf is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Brigit Helms, 2006. "Access for All : Building Inclusive Financial Systems," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6973.
    9. Florent Bédécarrats & Reynaldo Marconi, 2009. "L'Influence De La Régulation Sur La Contribution De La Microfinance Au Développement : Le Cas De La Bolivie," Revue Tiers-Monde, Armand Colin, vol. 0(1), pages 71-90.
    10. Copestake, James, 2007. "Mainstreaming Microfinance: Social Performance Management or Mission Drift?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(10), pages 1721-1738, October.
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