Community or complementary currency systems have spread all around the world. Most
often, they have been promoted as tools to foster sustainable development albeit they differ …

Microfinance was first trumpeted as a way to unleash the productive capacities of poor
people dependent on self-employment (eg, Hulme and Mosley, 1996). The idea was …

Does microfinance support the empowerment of female borrowers? Results of studies
analyzing microfinance and empowerment delivered mixed results. In order to explore …

Drawing on long-term field engagement with microcredit programs in rural northern Tamil
Nadu (South India), in this article I examine how this specific form of debt is used …

Randomized control trials (RCTs) have a narrow scope, restricted to basic intervention
schemes. Experimental designs also display specific biases and political uses when …

In October 2019, Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer jointly won the 51st
Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel" for their …

Women, and particularly poor women, have become essential cogs in the wheel of
financialized capitalism. Globally, women are responsible for managing household debt …

This paper proposes the concept of the 'socio-economy of debt'to explore the ambivalence
of debt, its multiple facets and its capacity to exploit, protect or emancipate. This socio …

Nineteen years ago, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to
Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank for their work in providing microcredit. The …

This paper examines whether agricultural insurance can boost investment by small scale
farmers in West Africa. It is based on a randomized evaluation designed to analyze the …