Microfinance Debt And Over Indebtedness

Although microcredit programmes have long been considered efficient development tools, many forms of debt-induced distress have emerged in their wake. This has brought to light the problem of over-indebtedness, a topic which has been previously underexplored in the literature. This new book, from a group of leading scholars, explores the manifestations, scale, and economic and social implications of household over-indebtedness in areas conventionally considered as financially excluded. The book approaches debt not only as a financial transaction, but also as a form of social bond, and offers a socioeconomic analysis of over-indebtedness. The volume puts forward a broad definition of over-indebtedness, highlighting its situational and semantic complexity and diversity. It provides a close analysis of local conceptions of debt and over-indebtedness, highlighting frameworks of calculation and the constant renegotiation of their boundaries. On top of this, it looks far beyond microcredit to examine all the financial practices that individuals juggle. The volume argues that over-indebtedness has more to do with social inequalities than financial illiteracy, and should therefore be understood in the light of global trends of financialization. It also reveals the ambiguity of "financial inclusion" policies, and in many respects questions the actions of new credit providers. This book will be valuable reading for students, researchers and policy makers interested in microfinance and development issues.

The idea that small loans can help poor families build businesses and exit poverty has blossomed into a global movement. The concept has captured the public imagination, drawn in billions of dollars, reached millions of customers, and garnered a Nobel Prize. Radical in its suggestion that the poor are creditworthy and conservative in its insistence on individual accountability, the idea has expanded beyond credit into savings, insurance, and money transfers, earning the name microfinance. But is it the boon so many think it is? Readers of David Roodman's openbook blog will immediately recognize his thorough, straightforward, and trenchant analysis. Due Diligence, written entirely in public with input from readers, probes the truth about microfinance to guide governments, foundations, investors, and private citizens who support financial services for poor people. In particular, it explains the need to deemphasize microcredit in favor of other financial services for the poor.

Microcredit programmes, long considered efficient development tools, now face unprecedented crises in a number of countries. Is this the end of microcredit or rather an essential step in its expansion? Should we stop microcredit altogether or rethink the way it is implemented? Drawing on extensive empirical research conducted in various parts of the world - from Morocco to Senegal to India - this important volume examines the whole chain of microcredit to provide the answers to these questions. In doing so, the authors highlight the diversity of crises, both in intensity and in nature, while also shedding light on a diversity of causes, be it microcredit organizations unprepared for massive growth, saturated local economies or greedy investors and shareholders attracted by profits. Crucially, the authors demonstrate that microcredit is not a monolithic project, and the crises should also be analysed in the light of national histories and policies. An original and necessary intervention in what has become one of the most contentious topics within the development world.

In this paper we have analyzed borrower over-indebtedness in microfinance, using multiple financial ratio based measures representing different facets of borrower-over-indebtedness namely, liquidity, debt absorption capacity and solvency of the borrowing household. Our data shows that the incidence of borrower over-indebtedness in microfinance is fairly wide spread. We perform the analysis by categorizing the determinants of over-indebtedness broadly into external, lender related, borrower related and demographic factors using logistic regression framework. We find that external, lender related and demographic factors exert relatively stronger influence in comparison to borrower related factors, highlighting the role of environmental and institutional forces in causing over-indebtedness. Our findings point to the strong need for access regulation and the need for prioritizing income generation over credit distribution on the policy front. Operationally, our findings show that inclusion of demographic features of the borrower households in the credit appraisal process can lead to better assessment of repayment capacity, rather than wholly relying on the strengths of group lending mechanism.

The success of Grameen Bank and the microcredit movement as a whole has proved the credit worthiness of the poor beyond question. Grameen II shows that the poor, given the opportunity, will save a great deal and will always pay back

The first feminist critique of the much-lauded microcredit process in Bangladesh.

Master's Thesis from the year 2011 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: Middle- and South America, grade: 5.75/6.00, University of Geneva (GRADUATE INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND DEVELOPMENT STUDIES ), course: Overindebtedness in microfinance, language: English, abstract: Originally celebrated as a poverty alleviation tool which is financially sustainable, microfinance is experiencing worrying developments, such as deterioration of loan portfolios, growing commercialization and increasing public criticism due to exaggerated profits. Overindebtedness is one of the most worrying trends, as it has negative effects on the loan beneficiaries and in the same time it threatens the very existence of the sector. This field research analyses from an empirical perspective the causes and effects of overindebtedness in the specific case of the clientele of Financiera CREAR Arequipa S.A. in Lima Norte, Peru. It was found that overindebtedness is generated by a mix of causes related to the increased competition between microfinance institutions and to the specific behaviours of clients confronted with an abundant credit offer. This produces a series of effects at institutional and client levels, which can be described as institutional cannibalization, client forced‐feeding, desperate borrowing and loan bicycling.

In the mid-1980s the international development community helped launch what was to quickly become one of the most popular poverty reduction and local economic development policies of all time. Microcredit, the system of disbursing tiny micro-loans to the poor to help them to establish their own income-generating activities, was initially highly praised and some were even led to believe that it would end poverty as we know it. But in recent years the microcredit model has been subject to growing scrutiny and often intense criticism. The Rise and Fall of Global Microcredit shines a light on many of the fundamental problems surrounding microcredit, in particular, the short- and long-term impacts of dramatically rising levels of microdebt. Developed in collaboration with UNCTAD, this book covers the general policy implications of adverse microcredit impacts, as well as gathering together country-specific case studies from around the world to illustrate the real dynamics, incentives and end results. Lively and provocative, The Rise and Fall of Global Microcredit is an accessible guide for students, academics, policymakers and development professionals alike.

Vermeersch and Kremer examine the effects of subsidized school meals on school participation, educational achievement, and school finance in a developing country setting. They use data from a program that was implemented in 25 randomly chosen preschools in a pool of 50. Children's school participation was 30 percent higher in the treatment group than in the comparison group. The meals program led to higher curriculum test scores, but only in schools where the teacher was relatively experienced prior to the program. The school meals displaced teaching time and led to larger class sizes. Despite improved incentives, teacher absenteeism remained at a high level of 30 percent. Treatment schools raised their fees, and comparison schools close to treatment schools decreased their fees. Some of the price effects are caused by a combination of capacity constraints and pupil transfers that would not happen if the school meals were ordered in all schools. The intention-to-treat estimator of the effect of the randomized program incorporates those price effects, and therefore it should be considered a lower bound on the effect of generalized school meals. This insight on price effects generalizes to other randomized program evaluations. This paper--a product of the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management 2, Africa Technical Families--is part of a larger effort in the region to increase our understanding of the impact of programs aimed at reaching the Millennium Development Goals.

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