Latest Findings from Randomized Evaluations of Microfinance
This paper summarizes the latest research findings from a new body of empirical evidence that uses randomized evaluations, similar to those used in medical trials, to compare how one group responds to access to specific new financial services again...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2017
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/324001468329347456/Latest-findings-from-randomized-evaluations-of-microfinance http://hdl.handle.net/10986/26892 |
| Summary: | This paper summarizes the latest
research findings from a new body of empirical evidence that
uses randomized evaluations, similar to those used in
medical trials, to compare how one group responds to access
to specific new financial services against how a comparable
group fares without those services. This paper goes back a
couple of years to the first studies that used this
approach, and summarizes a series of research studies
presented at the October 2010 microfinance impact and
innovation conference in New York. These studies evaluated
product design for a range of financial services, including
credit, savings, and insurance. The studies discussed here
were undertaken by research affiliates of Innovations for
Poverty Action (IPA), the Financial Access Initiative (FAI),
and the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology; they are all
randomized evaluations unless otherwise specified. Part one
of this paper reviews the main results from randomized
evaluations that measure the impact of microcredit and micro
savings on business investment and creation, consumption,
and household well-being. Part two presents evidence from
evaluations of products and delivery design. Part three
discusses the evidence on micro insurance products. |
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