Microfinance and Poverty—A Macro Perspective

Katsushi Imai, Raghav Gaiha, Ganesh Thapa and Samuel Annim

World Development, 2012, vol. 40, issue 8, 1675-1689

Abstract: We test the hypothesis that microfinance reduces poverty at the macro level using cross-country and panel data which are constructed by the Microfinance Information Exchange data on Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) and the World Bank data. Taking account of the endogeneity associated with MFIs’ loans, we show that a country with higher MFIs’ gross loan portfolio per capita tends to have lower levels of poverty indices. Contrary to recent micro evidence, our results suggest that microfinance significantly reduces poverty at macro level and thus reinforce the case for channeling funds from development finance institutions and governments of developing countries into MFIs.

Keywords: microfinance; poverty; loan portfolio; macro and global (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (46)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Microfinance and Poverty -A Macro Perspective (2010)
Working Paper: Microfinance and Poverty -A Macro Perspective (2010)
Working Paper: Microfinance and Poverty A Macro Perspective (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:40:y:2012:i:8:p:1675-1689

DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2012.04.013

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