Entrepreneurship and Microfinance: A Framework for Impact Evaluation

The idea and implementation of Microfinance has become a hot topic and is currently at the central stage in debates on poverty alleviation. Microfinance can be defined as the sustainable delivery of financial services to the poor that aims at creating a world in which as many poor households as possible, have access to a suitable range of financial services (Christen, Rosenberg and Jayadeva, 2004). However, the large majority of impact studies of microfinance lack empirical support and several limitations and obstacles continue to haunt the potential outcomes of microfinance, such as selection bias (Tedeschi, 2007) and lack of integration with the commercial banking sector (Copestake, 2007). In my thesis, I will focus on yet another limitation, that of lack of entrepreneurial knowledge amongst lenders in microcredit. I will develop on the marginal impact of entrepreneurial training on microcredit and suggest an empirical framework. The paper will start by presenting the topics of entrepreneurship and microfinance and the current situation in Tanzania. In Part II a review of an important study by Karlan and Valdivia will be discussed and in the following section a suggestion for a framework for an empirical study will be made. Conclusions and limitations will be presented in the final sections. Master Thesis Student: Eva Teekens Supervisor: Prof. Sautner ID: 5704871 Handed in: 16-06-2009 Study: Master Business Studies Pages: 82 Specialization: Entrepreneurship