Imperfect capital markets and commitment problems impede lumpy human investments. Labeled loans have been postulated as a potential solution to both constraints, but little is known about the role of label in influencing investment choices practice. We draw on cluster randomized controlled trial rural India test predictions from theoretical model, providing novel evidence that labeled microcred...

The champions of financial inclusion regret women's lack access to credit, while critics financialization, by contrast, claim that women have become overly indebted. But little is actually known about debt/credit in quantitative terms, mostly due a data. This descriptive paper uses first-hand survey data from southern India disaggregated sex order analyze the gender debt and its interplay with ...

Microcredit and other forms of informal finance have so far failed to catalyze business growth among small scale entrepreneurs in the developing world, despite their high return to capital. This prompts a re-examination of the special features of informal credit markets that cause them to operate inefficiently. We present a theory of informal lending that highlights two of these features. First...

Given the substantial amount of resources currently invested in microcredit programs, it is more important than ever to accurately assess the extent to which peer monitoring by borrowers faced with group liability contracts actually reduces moral hazard. We conduct a field experiment with women about to enter a group loan program in Paraguay and then gather administrative data on their repaymen...

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The widening health gap between the best and worst-off in UK requires innovative solutions that act upon social, economic environmental causes of ill-health. Initiatives such as microcredit have been conceptualised having potential to on social determinants health. However, pathways lead this impact yet be empirically explored. People living low incomes, who are financially-excluded, require ac...