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Introduction to Microfinance cover
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Microfinance has grown from the obscure efforts of a few philanthropic institutions into a global industry that reaches 150–200 million clients through the branches of thousands of institutions. Microfinance has matured from exclusively funding loans to providing savings, insurance, healthcare, and education. Yet many people still think of it narrowly as microcredit. Understanding remains thin of what the industry does, how it functions and why.

Introduction to Microfinance provides a non-technical introduction to the broad array of inclusive financial and non-financial services for the world's poor. It explores the financial lives of those families, and the microfinance institutions and rapidly growing industry that serve them. Written in close collaboration with college students for college students, under the auspices of one of the US's leading undergraduate programs in microfinance, it is the first-ever introductory college textbook about microfinance.

What is microfinance? What are its methods and why? Does it work? What are its prospects and challenges? Why is it controversial? This book tackles these questions and more.

Sample Chapter(s)
Chapter 1: An Introduction to Microfinance (3,062 KB)

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Contents:
  • An Introduction to Microfinance
  • Daily Financial Lives of the Poor
  • Barriers to Financial Services for the Poor
  • Informal Finance
  • Microlending
  • Beyond Microcredit
  • Gender Issues in Microfinance
  • The Evolution of Commercial Microfinance
  • Measuring the Impact of Microfinance

Readership: Undergraduates and graduates interested in microfinance and those who are keen to know more about microfinance, development, and/or social investing.