We've been busy.  Here's why.

Access to Finance

Dean Karlan, Jonathan Morduch

A review of recent innovations that are improving the quantity and quality of financial access.  Authors relate the innovations and empirical evidence to theoretical ideas, drawing links in particular to new work in behavioral economics and to randomized evaluation methods.

Group versus Individual Liability: Long Term Evidence from Philippine Microcredit Lending Groups

Xaview Giné, Dean Karlan

Results from two randomized trials that test the overall effect adn specific mechanisms of group liability.  Authors find no increase in default in larger groups after three years in pre-existing areas, and no change in default but fewer groups created after two years in the expansion areas.

Microfinance Games

Xavier Giné, Pamela Jakiela, Dean Karlan, Jonathan Morduch

This paper documents an experiment conducted in a large urban market in Lima, Peru over a seven month period.  the experiment involved eleven different economics games designed to tease out different microfinance mechanisms.

The Impact of Microcredit on the Poor in Bangladesh: Revisiting the Evidence

Jonathan Morduch, David Roodman

Revisits evidence collected in Bangladesh in the late 1990s on the impact of microcredit on households. 

Teaching Entrepreneurship:  Impact of Business Training on Microfinance Clients and Insitutions

Dean Karlan, Martin Valdivia

Results from randomized control trial that measures the marginal impact of adding business training to a Peruvian group lending program for female microentrepreneurs.

ASA:  Reflections on the Road from Politics to Finance

Jonathan Morduch

Reflections on the growth of one of the largest microfinance insitutions in the world, ASA.  Foreword to The Pledge: ASA, Peasant Politics, and Microfinance in the Development of Bangladesh, by Stuart Rutherford.

Randomized Experiements in Microfinance

Jonathan Bauchet, Aparna Dalal

Article examines the mechanics, merits and limitations of randomized experiments in microfinance.