Research on Microfinance in India: Combining Impact Assessment with a Broader Development Perspective

Microfinance can be researched narrowly as an instrument for promoting development or more broadly as an endogenous component of development. This paper sets out a simple well-being regime model incorporating both views and uses it to review the dynamics of rural microfinance in India. Four potential drivers of change in the role of microfinance in India are reviewed: evidence-based policy, rising political aspirations, new technology and agro-climatic change. The paper argues for combining more narrowly focused microfinance impact assessment with broader research into microfinance as one component of wider well-being regimes.