Research Papers

Top Demand

The Unbanked: Evidence from Indonesia (Draft)

Author:Jonathan Morduch
Date:March 2007
Topic: Consumption, Collateral
REGION: Indonesia
Summary: Examines loan usage and creditworthiness of borrowers for household-level data from Bank Rakyat of Indonesia.

Credit Elasticities in Less-Developed Economies: Implications for Microfinance

Author: Dean Karlan, Jonathan Zinman
Date:December 2006
Topic: Interest Rates
REGION:South Africa
Summary: Tests the assumption of price inelastic demand using randomized trials conducted by a consumer lender in South Africa.

Social Connections and Group Banking

Author: Dean Karlan
Date: October 2006
Topic:Lending Terms and Conditions
REGION: Peru
Summary: Examines that effect of social connections on attributes of group banking such as peer monitoring, repayment rates and savings.

What’s Psychology Worth? A Field Experiment in the Consumer Credit Market

Author: Marianne Bertrand, Dean Karlan, Sendhil Mullainathan, Eldar Shafir, Jonathan Zinman
Date: September 2006
Topic:Lending Terms and Conditions
REGION: South Africa
Summary: Explains the design and results from a field experiment in South Africa that explored the effect of psychological features such as presentation changes on loan take-up.

Observing Unobservables: Identifying Information Asymmetries with a Consumer Credit Field Experiment

Author: Dean Karlan, Jonathan Zinman
Date: June 2006
Topic:Lending Terms and Conditions
REGION: South Africa
Summary: Estimates the presence and importance of adverse selection and moral hazard in a consumer credit market using a randomized field experiment methodology.

Smart Subsidy for Sustainable Microfinance

Author: Jonathan Morduch
Date: December 2005
Topic: Sustainability
REGION:Global
Summary: Explains the notion of “smart subsidies” and makes a case for their application to increase the scale of microfinance, access to commercial funds and outreach.

Do Interest Rates Matter? Credit Demand in the Dhaka Slums

Author: Rajeev Dehejia, Heather Montgomery, Jonathan Morduch
Date: September 2005
Topic: Interest Rates
REGION:Bangladesh
Summary: Uses data from SafeSave, a credit cooperative in the slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh, to examine how sensitive borrowers are to increases in the interest rate on loans.

Micro-insurance: The Next Revolution?

Author: Jonathan Morduch
Date: June 2004
Topic: Insurance
REGION:Global
Summary: Explores product design considerations for life, health and rainfall insurance.

Replicating Microfinance in the United States: Opportunities and Challenges

Author: Jonathan Morduch, Mark Schreiner
Date: May 2001
Topic: Overview
REGION: United States
Summary: Assesses the progress of microfinance in United States by drawing on international experiences.

Microfinance Beyond Group Lending

Author:Beatriz Armendariz, Jonathan Morduch
Date: April 2000
Topic: Lending Terms and Conditions
REGION:Eastern Europe, Russia
Summary: Describes mechanisms such as direct monitoring, frequent repayment schedules and non-refinancing threats that enable microfinance through individual-based lending.

Top Impact

Behavioral Foundations of Microcredit:  Experimental and Survey Evidence from Rural India

Author: Michal Bauer, Julie Chytilová, Jonathan Morduch
Date: April 2008
Topic: Behavioral Economics
REGION: India
Summary: Describes finding from an experiment in rural India that suggest that the structure of microcredit loan contracts can help people with self-discipline problems who lack suitable savings products.

Female Empowerment: Impact of a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines

Author:Nava Ashraf, Dean Karlan, Wesley Yin
Date:December 2006
Topic: Savings, Lending Terms and Conditions
REGION: Philippines
Summary: Examines whether access to an individually-held commitment savings product leads to an increase in female decision-making power within the household.

Group versus Individual Liability: A Field Experiment in the Philippines

Author:Xavier Giné, Dean Karlan
Date:December 2006
Topic:Lending Terms and Conditions
REGION: Philippines
Summary: Examines whether group liability improves the lender’s overall profitability and the poor’s access to financial services.

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

Author:Dean Karlan, Martin Valdivia
Date:November 2006
Topic: Financial Education, Livelihood
REGION: Peru
Summary: Presents marginal impact results of adding business training to a Peruvian group lending program for female microentrepreneurs.

Expanding Credit Access: Using Randomized Supply Decisions To Estimate the Impacts

Author: Dean Karlan, Jonathan Zinman
Date: August 2006
Topic: Credit Scoring
REGION: South Africa
Summary: Estimates the impact of a consumer credit supply expansion achieved through a relaxation in risk assessment criteria by a South African lender.

The Impact of Microfinance: A Review of Methodological Issues

Author: Dean Karlan, Nathanael Goldberg
Date: August 2006
Topic: Research Methodology
REGION:Global
Summary: Reviews design considerations of various research methodologies for impact evaluations.

Tying Odysseus to the Mast: Evidence from a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines

Author: Nava Ashraf, Dean Karlan, Wesley Yin
Date: May 2006
Topic: Savings, Lending Terms and Conditions
REGION: Philippines
Summary: Outlines the results of a commitment savings product implemented using a randomized control trial.

Deposit Collectors

Author: Nava Ashraf, Dean Karlan, Wesley Yin
Date: May 2006
Topic: Savings, Lending Terms and Conditions
REGION: Philippines
Summary: Investigates determinants of participation in a deposit collection service through a randomized control trial and evaluates the impact of offering the service for micro-savers of a rural bank in the Philippines.

Household Decision Making and Savings Impacts: Further Evidence from a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines

Author: Nava Ashraf, Dean Karlan, Wesley Yin
Date: May 2006
Topic: Savings, Lending Terms and Conditions
REGION: Philippines
Summary: Examines the impact of a commitment savings product in the Philippines on household decision making power and self-perception of savings behavior.

Evaluating Microfinance Program Innovation with Randomized Control Trials: An Example from Group versus Individual Lending

Author: Xavier Giné, Tomoko Harigaya, Dean Karlan, Binh Nguyen
Date: March 2006
Topic:Lending Terms and Conditions
REGION:Philippines
Summary: Presents an application of the randomized control trial methodology to evaluate modifications in the design of microcredit programs.

Financial Performance and Outreach: A Global Analysis of Leading Microbanks

Author: Robert Cull, Asli Demirgüç-Kunt and Jonathan Morduch
Date: February 2006
Topic:Sustainability
REGION:Global
Summary: Explores the determinants of profitability, loan repayment and cost reduction for 124 institutions and the effect of contract design (lending models) on these indicators.

Microfinance Impact: Bias from Dropouts

Author: Gwendolyn Alexander-Tedeschi, Dean Karlan.
Date: January 2006
Topic: Research Methodology
REGION: Peru
Summary: Examines the potential of bias in cross-sectional examination of impact due to the exclusion of dropouts from calculations

Using Experimental Economics to Measure Social Capital and Predict Financial Decisions

Author: Dean Karlan
Date: July 2005
Topic: Research Methodology
REGION: Peru
Summary: Tests the characteristics of two-player trust games with borrowers in a Peruvian microcredit program, Foundation for International Community Assistance (FINCA).

Microfinance Games

Author:Xavier Gine, Pamela Jakiela, Dean Karlan, Jonathan Morduch
Date: June 2005
Topic:Lending Terms and Conditions
REGION: Peru
Summary: Evaluates the presence of market imperfections such as free-riding in group-based mechanisms.

Microfinance Games

Author:Xavier Gine, Pamela Jakiela, Dean Karlan, Jonathan Morduch
Date: June 2005
Topic:Lending Terms and Conditions
REGION: Peru
Summary: Evaluates the presence of market imperfections such as free-riding in group-based mechanisms.

SEED: A Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines

Author:Nava Ashraf, Dean Karlan, Wesley Jin
Date: December 2003
Topic: Savings, Lending Terms and Conditions
REGION: Philippines
Summary: Examines how the design of a savings product influences both the type of client attracted to the product and the impact the product has on financial savings.

Testing Savings Product Innovations Using an Experimental Methodology

Author:Nava Ashraf, Dean Karlan, Wesley Jin
Date: November 2003
Topic: Research Methodology, Savings
REGION:Philippines
Summary: Advocates a rigorous, scientific approach to the evaluation of innovations in micro-savings products.

A Review of Commitment Savings Products in Developing Countries

Author:Nava Ashraf, Nathalie Gons, Dean Karlan, Wesley Jin
Date:July 2003
Topic: Savings, Lending Terms and Conditions
REGION:Global
Summary: Examines the design of formal savings products to promote commitment amongst customers.

Microfinance Impact Assessments: The Perils of Using New Members as a Control Group

Author:Dean Karlan
Date:December 2001
Topic: Research Methodology
REGION: Global
Summary: Suggests a method to address attrition biases when conducting cross-sectional impact assessments between veteran and new program participants.

Does Microfinance Really Help the Poor? New Evidence on Flagship Programs in Bangladesh

Author:Jonathan Morduch
Date:June 1998
Topic: Consumption
REGION: Bangladesh
Summary: Examines the impact of access on absolute household consumption levels and the variation in consumption and labor supply across seasons.

Top Regulation

Microfinance: analytical issues from India

Author:Jonathan Morduch, Stuart Rutherford
Date:April 2003
Topic: Overview
REGION:India, Bangladesh
Summary: Uses examples of Bangladesh and Indonesia to outline the elements that can contribute to the growth of the microfinance sector in India.

The Role of Subsidies in Microfinance: Evidence from the Grameen Bank

Author:Jonathan Morduch
Date:April 1999
Topic: Sustainability, Lending Terms and Conditions
REGION: Bangladesh
Summary: Explains the role of subsidies in the development of the Grameen Bank and describes difficulties in maintaining high repayment rates.

Top General

Microfinance Meets the Market

Author: Robert Cull, Asli Demirgüç-Kunt, Jonathan Morduch
Date: May 2008
Topic: Sustainability
REGION:Global
Summary: Describes the challenges of providing reliable banking services to the poorest customers in a commercially viable way.

Microfinance: Where do we Stand?

Author:Beatriz Armendariz, Jonathan Morduch
Date:April 2004
Topic: Overview
REGION:Global
Summary: Presents a background on the scope and innovations in microfinance and provides recommendations on the role of government and donor agencies moving forward.

The Microfinance Schism

Author:Jonathan Morduch
Date:2000
Topic: Overview
REGION:Global
Summary: Examines widely-publicized claims associated with microfinance that good banking practices and programs will help alleviate poverty.

The Microfinance Promise

Author:Jonathan Morduch
Date:December 1999
Topic: Overview
REGION:Global
Summary: Presents a complete overview of microfinance including leading programs, financial sustainability, role of subsidies, impact evaluations and savings.