Microfinance: are its promises ethically justified?

Annabel Vanroose

No 07-014.RS, Working Papers CEB from ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles

Abstract: Microfinance is increasingly seen as a major development tool. Its promise to help the poor by providing financial services is seen as the major reason for its support. Nevertheless, its effectiveness on actual poverty reduction is not yet clear and therefore it generates some unresolved ethical questions. These become even more prominent in the process of commercialization. The impact on poverty is usually measured in financial terms. In this paper, poverty is defined in a broader sense to include deficiency in financial as well as human and social capital. The article shows that, in this broad sense, microfinance may have negative as well as positive effects on poverty.

Keywords: Ethics; microfinance; commercialization; poverty. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 D63 I32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 11 p.
Date: 2007-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-mfd
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published by: Université Libre de Bruxelles, Solvay Business School, Centre Emile Bernheim (CEB)

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