Microfinance in Developing Countries—Issues, Policies and Performance Evaluation

Microfinance in developing countries: Issues, policies and performance evaluation is a collection of studies by leading researchers in the field of microfinance. It discusses key issues that the rapidly growing microfinance industry currently faces. It offers interesting views and innovative analysis of topical matters concerning impact, performance, challenges and innovations in the microfinance realm. Issues relating to impact include measurement problems; the debate of multiple versus single assessment criteria; and the question of whether microfinance institutions are effective in delivering the microfinance promise. Issues relating to performance include the ongoing debate over the balance between social and financial performance; performance measures; and the controversy over mission drift. Issues relating to the challenges faced by the microfinance industry include the problem of over-indebtedness; improving agricultural microfinance; and assessing the role of local culture in the design of an effective microfinance sector. Lastly, topical issues relating to innovations include assessment of technological and financial innovations and the application thereof as well as the continued expansion of microfinance beyond microcredit in developing countries. Together these issues provide an overview of microfinance as it stands today and point to the direction in which it is heading.

JEAN-PIERRE GUEYIE is an associate professor in the School of Business Sciences, University of Quebec in Montreal. His research interests are on financial institutions management (including banks, financial cooperatives and microfinance institutions), financial risk management, corporate governance, development economics and alternative investments. He has served as Consultant in microfinance for the International Research and Development Centre (IRDC) and for the World Bank.



RONNY MANOS is lecturer in Finance in the School of Management at Cranfield University. She holds a PhD in Finance from the University of Birmingham. Her recent articles have been published in the Journal of Economics and Business, Advances in Financial Economics and others. Her main research interests cover emerging financial markets, corporate finance, foreign portfolio investment and microfinance.



JACOB YARON is a faculty consultant at the College of Management in Israel. He served for 23 years as a senior rural finance adviser at the World Bank and provided advice to governments and managements of Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) in developing countries. He introduced subsidy dependence and outreach as the two primary assessment criteria in evaluating DFI performance, and published many articles on the subject of development finance. He serves as a member of the editorial board of Savings and Development issued in Milan, Italy.