The Crises of Microcredit - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1783603755 ISBN 13: 9781783603756

Publisher: Zed Books, 2015

Synopsis

Microcredit programs, which often give small loans to borrowers in developing countries who lack collateral, have been considered efficient tools for economic development in struggling regions around the world. Yet, recently, microcredit has come under increasing critic by experts who feel that these loans are doing more harm than good by creating a debt trap for borrowers as well as a privatized form of welfare. The Crises of Microcredit brings together distinguished contributors to offer the latest research on the effects of microcredit around the world.
 
Drawing on extensive empirical research, this important volume examines the whole chain of microcredit—from investors and donors to clients— in order to provide a comprehensive analysis of its impact. In doing so, the essays collected here shed light on the many causes of the current microcredit crisis, including microcredit organizations that have been unprepared for massive growth and greedy investors and shareholders attracted by profits. The result is a timely and necessary look at what has become one of the most contentious topics within global economic development.

About this title

About the Author

Isabelle Guérin is a senior research fellow in the development and societies research unit at Paris 1 Sorbonne. Marc Labie is associate professor at the Warocqué School of Business and Economics of the University of Mons. Jean-Michel Servet is currently a professor at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.

Review

“A collection of concise, highly readable essays that explain how and why this activity has gone so wrong in varying social, political and cultural contexts.” (Financial Times)

“A deeply informed, intelligent examination of microcredit. A once universally celebrated concept, the contributors point instead to a market-driven Hobbesian world of hyper-competition, with the poor made worse off than ever. An important and convincing read for anyone still seduced by the myths of microcredit.” (Milford Bateman, author of Why Doesn't Microfinance Work?)

“The contributors' real-world expertise results in a hard-headed but balanced assessment of the pitfalls and promise of microcredit. Recommended.” (Choice)

“[This book is] valuable, if not essential, reading for both aficionados of financial inclusion and its critics.” (Journal of International Development)

"In this finely structured, well-written, comparativist book, a set of distinguished scholars with rich field experience dissect the many micro-credit crises worldwide to provide better practice for the future."
(Barbara Harriss-White, University of Oxford)

“The editors . . . call for a new vision of microcredit: one that sees finance and money as ‘commons’ rather than as externally owned capital. They note that in many historical cases grassroots social movements have managed to improve their lot by founding their own institutions—mutuals and cooperatives—to provide finance locally within a framework of solidarity. We might see this as a more political approach to microcredit. The editors hope, albeit in a highly tentative way, that microcredit enthusiasts might take lessons from these historically successful models, using local initiatives to work around the failings of externally funded institutions. If microcredit is worth rescuing, this might well be the only way to do it.” (LSE Review of Books)

About this edition

• Publisher: Zed Books
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1783603755
• ISBN 13: 9781783603756
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 224
• Editor: Guérin Isabelle, Labie Marc, Servet Jean-Michel