Taking Stock of the Evidence on Micro-Financial Interventions
35 Pages Posted: 26 Sep 2016 Last revised: 16 Jun 2023
Date Written: September 2016
Abstract
We review the empirical evidence on microfinance and asset grants to the ultra poor or microentrepreneurs, and assess our ability to account for this evidence using quantitative theory. Properly executed, these interventions can help segments of the population increase their income and consumption, but neither the empirical micro nor quantitative macro literatures give much reason to believe that such interventions can lead to wide-scale, transformative impacts akin to escaping aggregate poverty traps.
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Buera, Francisco J. and Kaboski, Joseph P. and Shin, Yongseok, Taking Stock of the Evidence on Micro-Financial Interventions (September 2016). NBER Working Paper No. w22674, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2843387
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