Microfinance and poverty - evidence using panel data from Bangladesh

Shahidur Khandker ()

No 2945, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: Micro-finance supports mainly informal activities that often have low market demand. It may be thus hypothesized that the aggregate poverty impact of micro-finance in an economy with low economic growth is modest or nonexistent. The observed borrower-level poverty impact is then a result of income redistribution or short-run income generation. The author addresses these questions using household level panel data from Bangladesh. The findings confirm that micro-finance benefits the poorest and has sustained impact in reducing poverty among program participants. It also has positive spillover impact, reducing poverty at the village level. But the effect is more pronounced in reducing extreme rather than moderate poverty.

Keywords: Environmental Economics&Policies; Banks&Banking Reform; Financial Intermediation; Payment Systems&Infrastructure; Poverty Monitoring&Analysis; Environmental Economics&Policies; Banks&Banking Reform; Poverty Monitoring&Analysis; Financial Intermediation; Poverty Assessment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003-01-31
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-mfd
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (58)

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Journal Article: Microfinance and Poverty: Evidence Using Panel Data from Bangladesh (2005)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:2945

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