Annabel Vanroose () (Centre Emile Bernheim, Solvay Business School, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels and Section for Economic, Monetary and Financial Policy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel.)
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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.
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Paper provided by Université Libre de Bruxelles, Solvay Business School, Centre Emile Bernheim (CEB) in its series Working Papers CEB with number
07-014.RS.
Find related papers by JEL classification: A13 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Social Values I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
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