This paper presents and interprets descriptive statistics generated from data obtained in a survey of clients of five microfinance organizations believed to be among the best in Bolivia. These lenders represent different combinations of organizational design, lending technology, and market area...

The literature suggests Conditional Cash Transfers (CCT) and remittances may protect poor households from income risk. We present a theoretical framework that explores how this ‘insurance’ effect can change households’ decision to apply for a loan via changes in credit demand and supply....

The purpose of this paper is to examine the financial operations of the state guaranty associations in the property/casualty field to assess their adequacy to meet future insolvencies. The extraordinary insurer insolvencies in the last half of the 1 980s receive special attention. Proposals for...

This article presents a practical methodology to monitor poverty changes among microfinance clients using available household panel data. As an example, it presents an estimation of the net number of people that rose above the $1/day poverty line while members of Grameen Bank and BRAC during...

We examine the long-term effects of a 1998–2003 randomized experiment in Tulsa, Oklahoma with Individual Development Accounts that offered low-income households 2:1 matching funds for housing down payments. Prior work shows that, among households who rented in 1998, homeownership rates...

This paper describes a statistical sample design to measure portfolio- at-risk in microfinance. It applies the design to the microfinance portfolio of Banco do Nordeste in Brazil. Statistical audit sampling requires no special knowledge of statistics and is useful for due- diligence inspections...