Microfinancing in Developing Countries: An Assessment Taking Particular Account of the Views of Becker and Posner

Clement Tisdell and Shabbir Ahmad

No 263400, Social Economics, Policy and Development Working Papers from University of Queensland, School of Economics

Abstract: This paper assesses the views expressed by Gary Becker and Richard Posner about the economic value of relying on microfinancing for economic development as well as their opinions about its desirability as a means of alleviating poverty. It also raises some issues overlooked by Becker and Posner. Where relevant, the discussion is related to results obtained from a case study of microfinancing in the Sindh District of Pakistan. Subjects covered include the economic efficiency of the supply of microfinance, the optimality of microfinancing versus philanthropy, whether high interest rates and short-term loans for microfinance are justified, preference for females rather than males in microfinancing, social networking and the efficient provision and allocation of microfinance, and the prospects for escaping from poverty as a result of microfinancing.

Keywords: Agricultural and Food Policy; Agricultural Finance; International Development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22
Date: 2017-09-21
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mfd
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/263400/files/WP64.pdf (application/pdf)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/263400/files/WP64.pdf?subformat=pdfa (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:uqsese:263400

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.263400

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Social Economics, Policy and Development Working Papers from University of Queensland, School of Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().