IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/2945.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Microfinance and poverty - evidence using panel data from Bangladesh

Author

Listed:
  • Khandker, Shahidur R.

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Khandker, Shahidur R., 2003. "Microfinance and poverty - evidence using panel data from Bangladesh," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2945, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:2945
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2003/02/15/000094946_03013104041165/Rendered/PDF/multi0page.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Adams, Dale W & Von Pischke, J. D., 1992. "Microenterprise credit programs: Deja vu," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 20(10), pages 1463-1470, October.
    2. repec:pri:rpdevs:morduch_microfinance_poor is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Mark M. Pitt & Shahidur R. Khandker, 1998. "The Impact of Group-Based Credit Programs on Poor Households in Bangladesh: Does the Gender of Participants Matter?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(5), pages 958-996, October.
    4. Morduch, Jonathan, 1999. "The role of subsidies in microfinance: evidence from the Grameen Bank," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 229-248, October.
    5. Hashemi, Syed M. & Schuler, Sidney Ruth & Riley, Ann P., 1996. "Rural credit programs and women's empowerment in Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 635-653, April.
    6. Coleman, Brett E., 1999. "The impact of group lending in Northeast Thailand," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 105-141, October.
    7. Jonathan Morduch, 1998. "Does Microfinance Really Help the Poor? New Evidence from Flagship Programs in Bangladesh," Working Papers 198, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Research Program in Development Studies..
    8. LaLonde, Robert J, 1986. "Evaluating the Econometric Evaluations of Training Programs with Experimental Data," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(4), pages 604-620, September.
    9. Lipton, Michael & Ravallion, Martin, 1995. "Poverty and policy," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Hollis Chenery & T.N. Srinivasan (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 41, pages 2551-2657, Elsevier.
    10. Yaron, Jacob, 1994. "What Makes Rural Finance Institutions Successful?," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 9(1), pages 49-70, January.
    11. Hossain, Mahabub, 1988. "Credit for alleviation of rural poverty: the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh," Research reports 65, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    12. Ravallion, Martin & Sen, Binayak, 1994. "When method matters : toward a resolution of the debate about Bangladesh's poverty measures," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1359, The World Bank.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mark Schreiner & Jacob Yaron, 2001. "Development Finance Institutions : Measuring Their Subsidy," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 13983, December.
    2. Ghulam Hussain, A.K.M. & Nargis, Nigar & Ashiquzzaman, S.M. & Khalil, Fahad, 2019. "The employment impact of microcredit program participation in Bangladesh: Evidence from a longitudinal household survey," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 13(C), pages 34-49.
    3. Gutiérrez-Nieto, Begoña & Serrano-Cinca, Carlos, 2019. "20 years of research in microfinance: An information management approach," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 183-197.
    4. B Gutiérrez-Nieto & C Serrano-Cinca & C Mar Molinero, 2009. "Social efficiency in microfinance institutions," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 60(1), pages 104-119, January.
    5. Dalia Debnath & Md. Sadique Rahman & Debasish Chandra Acharjee & Waqas Umar Latif & Linping Wang, 2019. "Empowering Women through Microcredit in Bangladesh: An Empirical Study," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-11, July.
    6. Akotey, Joseph Oscar & Adjasi, Charles K.D., 2016. "Does Microcredit Increase Household Welfare in the Absence of Microinsurance?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 380-394.
    7. Ali , Zulfiqar & Ahmed, Mansur, 2014. "Public Sector Microfinance and Rural Wellbeing:Evidence from BRDB," Bangladesh Development Studies, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), vol. 37(3), pages 27-49, September.
    8. Gunhild Berg, 2010. "Evaluating The Impacts Of Microsaving: The Case Of Sewa Bank In India," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 35(1), pages 75-96, March.
    9. Piot-Lepetit, Isabelle & Nzongang, Joseph, 2014. "Financial sustainability and poverty outreach within a network of village banks in Cameroon: A multi-DEA approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 234(1), pages 319-330.
    10. Martin Ravallion, 2013. "The Idea of Antipoverty Policy," NBER Working Papers 19210, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Chliova, Myrto & Brinckmann, Jan & Rosenbusch, Nina, 2015. "Is microcredit a blessing for the poor? A meta-analysis examining development outcomes and contextual considerations," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 467-487.
    12. M. Jahangir Alam Chowdhury & Dipak Ghosh & Robert E. Wright, 2005. "The impact of micro-credit on poverty: evidence from Bangladesh," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 5(4), pages 298-309, October.
    13. Nebal Al Maaitah, 2019. "The Legitimacy of Profit of Microlending Institutions and Womens Empowerment: A Case Study from Jordan," Theory Methodology Practice (TMP), Faculty of Economics, University of Miskolc, vol. 15(01), pages 3-17.
    14. Chin, Yoo-Mi, 2012. "Credit Program Participation and Decline in Violence: Does Self-Selection Matter?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(8), pages 1690-1699.
    15. Mathilde Maîtrot & Miguel Niño-Zarazúa, 2017. "Poverty and wellbeing impacts of microfinance: What do we know?," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-190, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    16. Duvendack, Maren & Palmer-Jones, Richard, 2011. "The microfinance of reproduction and the reproduction of microfinance: understanding the connections between microfinance, empowerment, contraception and fertility in Bangladesh in the 1990s," MPRA Paper 32384, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Thorsten Beck, 2009. "The Econometrics of Finance and Growth," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Terence C. Mills & Kerry Patterson (ed.), Palgrave Handbook of Econometrics, chapter 25, pages 1180-1209, Palgrave Macmillan.
    18. Orso, Cristina, 2011. "Microcredit and poverty. An overview of the principal statistical methods used to measure the program net impacts," POLIS Working Papers 154, Institute of Public Policy and Public Choice - POLIS.
    19. Maren Duvendack & Richard Palmer-Jones, 2012. "High Noon for Microfinance Impact Evaluations: Re-investigating the Evidence from Bangladesh," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(12), pages 1864-1880, December.
    20. Abdullah Al-Mamun & Mohammad Nurul Huda Mazumder & C.A. Malarvizhi, 2014. "Measuring the effect of Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia’s microcredit programme on economic vulnerability among hardcore poor households," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 14(1), pages 49-59, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:2945. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.