We conduct a field experiment offering graduated microcredit clients the opportunity to finance business asset worth four times their previous borrowing limit. implement this using hire purchase contract; our control group is offered zero-interest loan. find large, significant and persistent effects from contracts: treated microenterprise owners run larger businesses enjoy higher profits; conse...

The initial promise of microcredit, including such accolades as the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, has given way to intense debate about if and when it is an effective development tool. Interest rates are central to this debate. Policymakers and donors promoting financial development have variously encouraged microfinance institutions (MFIs) to cut rates to expand access (under the assumption of elast...

Microcredit has spread rapidly since its beginning in the late 1970s, but whether and how much it helps the poor is the subject of intense debate. As the history suggests rural credit, poverty alleviation, and micro finance are inextricably interwoven. Any effort to understand one without the reference to other can give fragmented results. The Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) are regarded ...

This paper explores the association between microcredit-based development programmes and domestic violence against women perpetrated by their husbands. A sub-set of cross-sectional data collected in 1999 from 60 BRAC-ICDDR,B study villages in Matlab, Bangladesh, was used. Data were analyzed to characterize group-level differences among study women regarding the reported occurrence of violence (...

This paper uses a structural model to understand, predict, and evaluate the impact of an exogenous microcredit intervention program, the Thai Million Baht Village Fund program. We model household decisions in the face of borrowing constraints, income uncertainty, and high-yield indivisible investment opportunities. After estimation of parameters using pre-program data, we evaluate the model’s a...