Emerging markets :
Understanding the business environment
Spring 2012
Prof. Olivier Cadot
Bureau 524
Olivier.cadot@unil.ch
This is not an exhaustive literature review, but a guide in order to guide all groups that are willing
to work on microfinance or social projects evaluation. Depending on what the groups wants to
work on these topics, you can choose some of the papers (and check their bibliographies) in order
have a better overview (both theoretical and practical) of the topic you have chosen.
Useful links and literature on microfinance and social projects evaluation
Data on many microfinance institutions all over the world
http://www.mixmarket.org/
Papers, research etc. on Microfinance
http://www.cgap.org/p/site/c/
Bibliography:
1. Classic Literature on poverty, expected utility of poor households, vulnerability,
consumption smoothing, income smoothing, data required, etc.
Friedman, Milton (1995). Choice, Chance and the Personal Distribution of Income. Journal of
political Economy, pp. 277-290. (Very formal, important part is on wealth acccumlation)
Morduch, Jonathan (1994). Poverty and Vulnerability. American economic Review, Vol. 84 (2) pp.
221-25
Morduch, Jonathan (1994). Income Smoothing and Consumption Smoothing. Jornal of economic
Perspectives. 9(3), p. 81-128.
Besley, Timothy (1995). Non-market Institutions for Credit and Risk Sharing in Low-Income
countries. Journal of Economic Perspectives 9 (3), pp. 115-127
2. Formal institutions against poverty
Kochar (1995). Explaining Household Vulnerability to Idiosyncratic Income Shocks. Amercian
Economic Review. May, pp. 159-164
Gaviria, Alejandro (2001). Household response to adverse Income shocks in Latin America,
Interamerican Devolpment Bank (IDB), WP-455
3. Surveys (usefull if you want to check national surveys data)
Deaton, Angus (1997). The Analysis of Households Surveys. A Microeconomic approach to
development policy. World Bank. Look at chapter 1.3 (living standards surveys). (many impact
evaluation use national surveys data, this book is usefull to understand them)
Duncan, Thomas, et al. (2001). Lost but not Attribution and Follow-Up in the Indonesian Family
Survey. Journal of Human Resources. 36 (3) pp. 556-592 Summer
4. Microfinance
a. Getting Started:
Ray, Debraj (1998), Development Economics, Princeton University Press.
Morduch, Jonathan (1999). The Microfinance Promise. Journal of Economics Litterature. 37(4), pp.
1569-1614, December
Armendariz de Aghion, Beatriz & Morduch, Jonathan (2005). The economics of Microfinance, MIT
Press,Cambridge (Massachusetts)
Hulme, David & Mosley, Paul (1996). Finnance Against Poverty. London, 1996)
Rutheford, Stuart (2001). The poor and their Money. OUP (2001)
Stiglitz, J. (1994). The role of the State in finantial markets. Proceedings of the world Bank Annual
Conference on Development economics. Washington
Ledgeworth, J. (1999). The microfinance Handbook-an institutional and finantial perspective,
Sustainable banking with the Poor. World Bank
b. Targeting (Microfinace is based on targeting, who? How? Here are some papers
for understanding this concept)
Pritchett, L.; Sumarto, S.; Suryahadi, A. Safety Ropes? Dynamic Benefit of Two Crisis Programs in
Indonesia
Albert, Nicholls & Zeckhauser , Richard (1982). Targeting ttranfers thorugh Restrictions on
Recipients. American Economs review, 72(2), pp. 372-377
Sen, A. (1992). The political Economy of Targeting. WB Conference on Public Expenditures and the
Poor, Washington.
c. The financial view of microfinance
Beck, Thorsten (2007). Efficiency in Financial intermediation –theory and empirical measurements,
in Balkenhol, b. (ed.). Microfinance and Public Policy, Palgrave mav Millian and ILO
Brookings Institutions (2007). Building Inclusive Financial Systems – A framework on Finantial
Access. Brooking Institutions press/World Bank
Christen, Robert et al. (1995) Maximizing the outreach of microfinance finance: an analysis of
successful microfinance programs, USAID and Operations Assessment report no. 10, June.
Nimal, Fernando (2004). Micro success Story? Transformation of NGOs into regulated financial
institutions, ADB, Manila, June.
Jansson, Tor. (2003). Performance Indicators for microfinance institutions –Technical guide.
MICRORATE IADB, July.
Paxton, Julia (2002). Depth of Outreach and its relation to the sustainability of MFIs, Savings and
Development, vol. XXVI, pp. 69-83
Stephens, Blaine (2005). Sustainability in sight: an analysis of MFIs that become sustainable. Micro
Banking bulletin, pp. 23-29
Zeller, Manfred (2003). Models of rural financial institutions, USAID/WOCCU Conference 2003,
Washington
Zeller, Manfred et al. (2003). Social Performance Indicator Initiatives (SPI), Final report, October
d. CASE STUDY EXAMPLES (Probably the papers you will focus on depending on the
country and institutions you want to work with)

ASIA
Bouman, F.S.A. (1989). Small, short and Unsecured-Informal rural Finance in India. New Dehli, OUP
Coleman, B. (1999). The impact of group lending in North east Thailand. Journal of development
Economics, 60, pp. 105-142
Duflo, E. (2007). , S. Remedying education: evidence from two randomized experiments in India.
Quarterly Journal of economics, 122 (3), 1235-1264, August.
Khander, S.; Samad, H.; Khan, Z. (1998). Income and employment effects of microcredit programs:
village level evidence from Bangladesh. Journal of development Studie, vol. 35, December
Pitt, Mark. & Khander, S. (1998). The impact of group based credit programs on poor households
in Bangladesh: does the gender of participant matter?. Journal of political economics, 106(5), pp.
958-996.
Lapenu, C. & Zeller, M. (2002). Distribution, Growth, and Performance of MFIs in Africa, Asia and
Latin America; A recent inventory. Savings and Development, no. 1vol XXVI, pp. 87-111
Morduch, J. (1999). The role of subsidies in Microfinance: evidence of the Grameen bank. Journal
of Development Economics, vol. 60 pp. 229-248

AFRICA
Copestake, J. et al. (2001). Assessing the impact of Microcredit: a Zambian case study. Journal of
Development Studies, vol . 37, no. 4, April
Lafourcade, A.-L. et al. (2005) Overview of the Outreach and Finantial performance of
microfinance institutions in Africa, MIX, Washington, April
Lapenu, C. & Zeller, M. (2002). Distribution, Growth, and Performance of MFIs in Africa, Asia and
Latin America; A recent inventory. Savings and Development, no. 1vol XXVI, pp. 87-111

LATIN AMERICA
CGAP (2001), Commercialization and mission drift – The transformation of Microfinance in Latin
America, Ocasional Paper no. 5. January
Lapenu, C. & Zeller, M. (2002). Distribution, Growth, and Performance of MFIs in Africa, Asia and
Latin America; A recent inventory. Savings and Development, no. 1vol XXVI, pp. 87-111
Navajas, S. et al. Microcredit and the poorest of the poor: theory and evidence from Bolivia.
World Development, vol. 28, no. 2 pp. 333-346
5. Microfinance Revisited
Banerjee, B., Duflo, E., Glennester, R. , Kinnan, C. (2009)The Miracle of Microfinance? Evidence
from a randomized evaluation. MIT Poverty Lab.
Consultative Group to Assist the Poor, CGAP (2009). “What Do We Know about the Impact of
Microfinance?(http://www.cgap.org/p/site/c/template.rc/1.26.1306/)
Morduch, J. (2000). The Microfinance Schism. Word development, 28(4), pp. 617-629.
Morduch, J. (1998). “Does Micro…nance Really Help the Poor? Evidence from Flagship Programs in
Bangladesh,”Hoover Institution, Stanford U. working paper.