Framing Notes

Can the Poor Afford Microcredit?

Author: Jonathan Morduch
Date: June 2008
Topic: Assets, Interest Rates
REGION: Global
Summary: Examines what we know and don't know about the returns to capital of poor households..

Psychology and Economics: what it means for microfinance

Author: Sendhil Mullainathan, Sudha Krishnan
Date: April 2008
Topic: Behavioral Economics
REGION: Global
Summary: Examines how the poor manage their money through a behavioral economics lens.

Household Savings in Developing Countries: An Annotated Reading List

Author: Jonathan Morduch
Date: April 2008
Topic: Savings
REGION: Global
Summary: Provides an list of academic and non-academic papers on the demand for and impact of savings mechanisms in developing countries.

Impact of Credit: How to Measure Impact, and Improve Operations Too

Author: Dean Karlan, Nathanael Goldberg
Date: January 2008
Topic: Research Methodology
REGION: Global
Summary: Examines the challenges researchers face in measuring the impact of credit.

The Impacts of Saving

Author: Dean Karlan
Date: January 2008
Topic: Savings
REGION: Global
Summary: Examines the impact of access to saving mechanisms and the challenges in measuring this impact.

Microentrepreneurs and Their Money: Three Anomalies (Draft)

Author: Bindu Ananth, Dean Karlan, Sendhil Mullainathan
Date: 2007
Topic: Savings
REGION: India
Summary: Examines the reasons behind low savings despite high credit interest rates, low joint-production and labor market inefficiencies.

Is Microfinance Too Rigid?

Author: Dean Karlan and Sendhil Mullainathan
Date: August 2006
Topic:Lending Terms and Conditions
REGION:India
Summary: Assesses the constraints posed by current microfinance contracts.

Is Microfinance an Effective Strategy to Reach the Millennium Development Goals?

Author: Jonathan Morduch, Elizabeth Littlefield, Syed Hashemi
Date: January 2003
Topic: Overview
REGION:Global
Summary: Reviews the impact of microfinance with respect to the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals.