The Handbook Of Microfinance

by Beatriz Armendariz, Marc Labie

Overview

The Handbook of Microfinance showcases an expansive collection of works from leading academics and field practitioners. In an attempt to understand the enormous gap between the limited number of clients that are currently benefiting from microfinance services, and the huge number of potential clients that are not, the selected contributions in this comprehensive handbook have one common thread: the prevailing mismatch between demand by clients of microfinance institutions and potential clients selecting themselves out for their demand for a wider array of financial products which is not being met.The scope of the book is wide, and explores successes and failures, main challenges and debates, methodologies for impact evaluation via random trials, leading trends in Asia versus Latin America, main efforts in Africa, the importance of value chains in Central America, ethical and gender issues, savings, microinsurance, governance, commercialization trends and the potential advantages and disadvantages of it. This exhaustive Handbook also features main lessons from informal finance and 19th-century credit cooperatives addressing the above-mentioned mismatch.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789814295659
Publisher:	World Scientific Publishing Company, Incorporated
Publication date:	04/29/2011
Pages:	704
Product dimensions:	6.80(w) x 9.80(h) x 1.60(d)

Table of Contents

CERMi xi

Biographical Notes xiii

Acknowledgments xxxi

Introduction 1

Introduction and Overview: An Inquiry into the Mismatch in Microfinance Beatriz Armendáriz Marc Labie 3

Part I Understanding Microfinance Practices

Microfinance Evaluation Strategies: Notes on Methodology and Findings Dean Karlan Nathanael Goldberg 17

Spanning the Chasm: Uniting Theory and Empirics in Microfinance Research Greg Fischer Maitreesh Ghatak 59

The Early German Credit Cooperatives and Microfinance Organizations Today: Similarities and Differences Timothy W. Guinnane 77

Understanding the Diversity and Complexity of Demand for Microfinance Services: Lessons from Informal Finance Isabelle Guérin Soléne Morvant-Roux Jean-Michel Servet 101

Ethics in Microfinance Marek Hudon 123

Part II Understanding Microfinance's Macro-Environment and Organization Context

Microfinance Trade-Offs: Regulation, Competition and Financing Robert Cull Asli Demirgüç-Kunt Jonathan Morduch 141

Oversight is a Many-Splendored Thing: Choice and Proportionality in Regulating and Supervising Microfinance Institutions Jay K. Rosengard 159

The Performance of Microfinance Institutions: Do Macro Conditions Matter? Niels Hermes Aljar Meesters 173

Microfinance in Bolivia: Foundation of the Growth, Outreach and Stability of the Financial System Claudio Gonzalez-Vega Marcelo Villafani-Ibarnegaray 203

Microfinance - A Strategic Management Framework Guy Stuart 251

What External Control Mechanisms Help Microfinance Institutions Meet the Needs of Marginal Clientele? Valentina Hartarska Denis Nadolnyak 267

Corporate Governance Challenges in Microfinance Marc Labie Roy Mersland 283

Part III Current Trends Toward Commercialization

Corporate Responsibility Versus Social Performance and Financial Inclusion Jean-Michel Servet 301

The Importance of the Link Between Socially Responsible Investors and Microfinance Institutions Erna Karrer-Rëdi 323

On Mission Drift in Microfinance Institutions Beatrix Armendáriz Ariane Szafarz 341

Social Investment in Microfinance: The Trade-Off Between Risk, Return and Outreach to the Poor Rients Galema Robert Lensink 367

Efficiency Marek Hudon Bernd Balkenhol 383

Social and Financial Efficiency of Microfinance Institutions Carlos Serrano- Cinca Begoña Gutiérrez-Nieto Cecilio Mar Molinero 397

Part IV Meeting Unmet Demand: The Challenge of Financing Agriculture

Is Microfinance the Adequate Tool to Finance Agriculture? Soléne Morvant-Roux 421

What is the Demand for Microcredit? The Case of Rural Areas in Serbia William Parienté 437

Rural Microfinance and Agricultural Value Chains: Strategies and Perspectives of the Fondo de Desarrollo Local in Nicaragua Johan Bastiaensen Peter Marchetti 461

Part V Meeting Unmet Demand: Savings, Insurance, and Aiming at the Ultra Poor

Women and Microsavings Beatriz Armendáriz 503

Boosting the Poor's Capacity to Save: A Note on Instalment Plans and their Variants Stuart Rutherford 517

Insurance for the Poor: Definitions and Innovations Craig Churchill 537

Reaching the People Whom Microfinance Cannot Reach: Learning from BRAC's "Targeting the Ultra Poor" Programme David Hulme Karen Moore Kazi Faisal Bin Seraj 563

Part VI Meeting Unmet Demand: Gender and Education

The Gender of Finance and Lessons for Microfinance Isabelle Guérin 589

Taking Gender Seriously: Towards a Gender Justice Protocol for Financial Services Linda Mayoux 613

Higher Education Through Microfinance: The Case of Grameen Bank Asif U. Dowla 643

Index 661