The microfinance revolution has allowed more than 150 million poor people
around the world to receive small loans without collateral, build up assets, and buy
insurance.
The idea that providing access to reliable and affordable financial services can have
powerful economic and social effects has captured the imagination of policymakers,
activists, bankers, and researchers around the world; the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize went to
microfinance pioneer Muhammed Yunis and Grameen Bank of Bangladesh.
This book offers an accessible and engaging analysis of the global expansion of
financial markets in poor communities. It introduces readers to the key ideas driving
microfinance, integrating theory with empirical data and addressing a range of issues,
including savings and insurance, the role of women, impact measurement, and management
incentives.
This second edition has been updated throughout to reflect the latest data. A new
chapter on commercialization describes the rapid growth in investment in microfinance
institutions and the tensions inherent in the efforts to meet both social and financial
objectives. The chapters on credit contracts, savings and insurance, and gender have been
expanded substantially; a new section in the chapter on impact measurement describes the
growing importance of randomized controlled trials; and the chapter on managing
microfinance offers a new perspective on governance issues in transforming institutions.
Appendixes and problem sets cover technical material.
Beatriz Armendáriz is a Lecturer in Economics in the Department of
Economics at Harvard University, a Senior Lecturer on leave from University College
London, and coeditor of The Microfinance Handbook. Jonathan Morduch is Professor of Public
Policy and Economics at New York University's Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. He
is a coauthor of Portfolios of the Poor: How the World's Poor Live on $2 a Day.
456 pages, Paperback