The Economist on microfinance

The Economist has published their extensive microfinance survey, which tries to answer why the poor are so inefficiently served by financial institutions. Their conclusion is that the poor have been hurt by massive market and regulatory failures – though they are optimistic that the situation can be turned around. The skeptic’s perspective on microfinance’s benefits is also (briefly) presented.

The different parts of the survey are linked to in the right-hand-side column, and examine everything from different business models to ratings and evaluation.

Listen to a related interview with Tom Easton, the survey’s authors and New York Bureau Chief of the Economist.