Replaced with revised version of paper 08/03/05.

This paper explores the productivity and income distribution effects of asymmetric information and risk preferences on the credit market. A model of contract design in the presence of moral hazard is developed in which competitive, risk neutral lenders offer contracts to risk averse agents who...

This book represents the first comprehensive effort to analyze informal finance in Peru. We gathered data from a survey designed to capture formal and non-formal credit and savings transactions. We surveyed rural households, urban micro entrepreneurs, and wholesalers from three regions: Junin,...