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Reflections on Microfinance

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Development Finance

Abstract

This chapter summarizes our reflections on microfinance, at theoretical and empirical levels. We examine the impact of microfinance on poverty reduction and review formal versus informal credit markets, regulatory and governance issues, competition and performance. We conclude by identifying promising research ideas for future research, including the need for mainstreaming gender and fragile states as key aspects of multi-level analysis of microfinance in order to inform financial inclusion and sustainable development goals (SDGs).

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Acknowledgment

This chapter is an extension of the literature review component of a PhD thesis by Peter Muriu, which was successfully defended at the University of Birmingham in 2011. The chapter was also supported by DFID and ESRC under the DEGRP Call 3, Research Grant No. ES/N013344/1, to Victor Murinde. All errors and omissions are the authors’ sole responsibilities.

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  1. University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya

    Peter W. Muriu

  2. School of Finance and Management, SOAS University of London, London, UK

    Victor Murinde

  3. Department of Finance, Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

    Andrew William Mullineux

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  1. Development Finance Centre, UCT Graduate School of Business, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa

    Nicholas Biekpe

  2. Institute of Development Policy and Management, Universiteit Antwerpen, Antwerp, Belgium

    Danny Cassimon

  3. Department of Finance Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom

    Andrew William Mullineux

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Muriu, P.W., Murinde, V., Mullineux, A.W. (2017). Reflections on Microfinance. In: Biekpe, N., Cassimon, D., Mullineux, A. (eds) Development Finance. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54166-2_5

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