Question: “Microfinance appears to offer a ‘win-win’ solution, where both financial institutions and poor clients profit” (Morduch, 1999). Critically assess this statement with reference to the empirical literature. Introduction Microfinance has achieved growing significance as a tool for poverty alleviation with the year 2005 marked as the United Nations International Year of Microcredit. Over the years, the world has witnessed a remarkable growth in the number of institutions offering microfinance and the number of clients reached. Figures reported to the Microcredit Summit Campaign show that as at 2007, 3,352 institutions offered microfinance to about 155 million clients, 68 percent of which were defined as poor clients. (Daley-Harris 2009) This represents an increase to the 54.5 percent of microfinance offered to poor clients in 1997. The study also showed that the number of institutions offering microfinance had increased by more than 400 percent. These statistics alone make a compelling argument for the impact of microfinance but statistics do not always show the whole picture. The widely-held assumption has generally been that microfinance is an essential tool for reducing poverty in a society. However, this assumption has been based mostly on case studies and anecdotes and has not always been the case. Studies conducted by the Snodgrass and Sebstad, 2002 on behalf of the USAID on microfinance banks in different countries have shown that the impact of microfinance on net income gains of borrowers varies from country to country. One another widely held myth is that the institutions that offer microfinance must be making profits because there must be some sort of profit in it for them. It is also difficult to truly measu... ... middle of paper ... .... Journal of Development Economics, Vol. 53, 339-371 • Mahajan, V. (1997) Is microcredit the answer to poverty eradication. Microfinance Gateway. • Matthews, K and Thompson, J. (2005) The Economics of Banking. London: Wiley and Sons. 8-16. • Microcredit Summit (1997) 'Declaration and Plan of Action', available at www.microcreditsummit.org/declaration.htm • Morduch, J. (1999) 'The microfinance promise', Journal of Economic Literature XXVII: 1569-614. • Morduch, J. (2000) The Microfinance Schism. World Development, Vol. 28, 617-629. • Ray, D. (1998) Development Economics. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. • Ray, D. (1998) • Stiglitz J. and Weiss, I. (1981) Credit rationing in markets with imperfect information. American Economic Review. Vol. 71, 3, 393-410. • The Economist (2005) The hidden wealth of the poor. Print edition. • www.themix.org
Princeton, 1963. Hailstone, Thomas and Rothwell, John. Managerial Economics, pp. 93-95. Prentice Hall, 1993.
Those who struggle with poverty know that there are few opportunities for change and ways to get money. With a growing poverty threshold resulting in massive amounts of poor people living in inadequate living conditions, it makes it hard to obtain the essential life necessities. Many factors lead to this steadily growing tragedy. Many of those who live in poverty have few resources necessary for them to acquire money, resulting in the decision to get cash through payday loans, or quick cash. Despite the amount of money Payday Loan Companies lend to lower classes, they actually cause more harm to those who receive assistance than it actually helps them. ...
2) Davis, Gareth. The Destruction of the Second Bank of the United States Rationale and
De Soto, J. H. (2009). Money, bank credit, and economic cycles. Auburn, Alabama: Ludwig von Mises Institute.
Women in developing countries are not empowered by micro-loans because it can exert women further into debt. Not all women are smart and educated enough to be able to profit from these micro-loans and instead they can be quite dumb and irresponsible with the exerting them further into debt. This does not apply to all the women who receive micro-loans, but a decent portion of them it does. Although, micro-loans could be the key success to a family's triumph out of poverty, they can still propel people into a rough and tough situation. Also, if a women’s micro-loan does not work out they will be put to shame by their whole entire community.
Ritter, Lawrence R., Silber, William L., Udell, Gregory F. 2000, Money, banking, and Financial Markets, 10th edn, USA.
The lifestyle of people across the world is developing rapidly. As there is a growing concern for people about the lifestyle and way of living, the scope for the microfinance industry is also at a growing pace. A large number of people across the world prefer finance for the purpose of purchase of consumer durables as well as lifestyle products. As the credit card EMI options are more expensive, people prefer NBFCs for the purpose of consumer durable loans. The project done in bajaj finserv explains the role of NBFCs in the consumer durable loans and the procedure undertaken in order to disburse the consumer durable loans.
Since its emergence, microcredit has been viewed as a very important tool for development. Many around the world believe microcredit is the antidote for global poverty. Although the Grameen Bank focuses only on people from Bangladesh, different microfinance institutions had been established around the world. Accion International is one example of these institutions in Latin America, which started providing loans in 1973 (The history of microfinance, 2005). These financial institutions started to grow rapidly due to high demands of small loans. Poor people around the world started to lose faith to their countries’ authorities to provide for their well being and started to tur...
Organizations help to build networks among women to create financial self-help groups. They introduce ideas about microfinance, allowing women to participate in
The global poverty crises and resulting human suffering, environmental degradation and many other societal ills are hastening for the search of scalable anti-poverty approaches. These deplorable conditions are the reasons behind the increasing interest in microcredit and more broadly, microfinance. As a matter of fact, gatherings such as the Microcredit Summit, global support through the United ...
1.Christen, Robert Peck; Rosenberg, Richard & Jayadeva, Veena “Financial institutions with a double-bottom line: implications for the future of microfinance” (July 2004)
The first and arguably most common effect of poverty on society is its financial impact (Veritta, 2008). In many of the societies that experienced significantly high levels of poverty, debt was increasingly common, and especially debt accrued from moneylenders (Hatcher, 2016). For many individuals living in poverty, access to financial services such as banking is often stifled and rudimentary, making it difficult for such individuals to access self-improvement loans at standard and fair rates (Yoshikawa, Aber, & Beardslee, 2012). For these individuals, moneylenders are the best option available, which results in them paying exorbitant interest rates. The interconnection between poverty and finance, however, is cyclic in nature. The lack of finances or access to financial services causes poverty, which in turn causes an isolation of individuals from finances and financial services (Hickey & du Toit, 2013). This makes poverty a fairly complex problem to
A majority of the Indian population lacks opportunities such as financial resources and thereby the ability to get jobs. They are stuck in an endless cycle which provides them with no opportunities to lift themselves out of poverty. Microcredit has been seen as a lifeline and as an opportunity by governments in developing countries, international funding organizations and donor agencies, in order to help the poor attain money since the 1950’s. It was in the 1950s and1960s, for the first time Indian Government started giving out loans to families in rural areas those who worked in the agricultural sector as well as city-dwelling families who were working in the unskilled sector to promote economic growth throughout India. Households in the agricultural sector were divided into three different groups according to the type of work done by them. The ones doing similar work were put in the same group and the loan amount they would get depended on the type of work they did.
Markets & Customers: Cashpor provides microfinance and other credit services to below the poverty line women in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and
Women play multifaceted roles and do remarkable works in their respective areas for the welfare of the families, communities and the nation. Kitty party funds help women to increase their income-earning abilities, leading to greater power to overcome cultural asymmetries. Kitty party funds rely more on pooling the poor’s savings have more appeal than microcredit. Microfinance sector is led by microcredit, kitty part funds could bring even more business in this. This paper throws light on the role of kitty party funds in the development