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Microcredit and Social Capital

Grameen Bank's experience has shown that developing microcredit programmes requires the formation of dense horizontal networks and the creation of well-functioning links between such networks and the higher levels of programmes' management.
The section is under construction: suggestions and comments are always most welcome.

• Essential readings

• Furhter readings

• Back to reading list

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Essential Readings

• Dowla, A. (2000), In Credit We Trust: building social capital by Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, Paper presented at the Conference Livelihood, Savings and Debt in a Changing World, Wageningen, August, 2000, forthcoming in the Journal of Socio-Economics.

• Khandker, S. (1998), Fighting Poverty with Microcredit: Experience in Bangladesh, Oxford and Washington, Oxford University Press and World Bank.

• Larance, L.Y. (2001), Fostering social capital through NGO design: Grameen Bank membership in Bangladesh, International Social Work, Vol. 44, No. 1, 7-18 (2001).

• Van Bastelaer, T. (2000), Imperfect Information, Social Capital, and the Poor's Access to Credit, IRIS Center Working Paper No. 234, University of Maryland, Center on Institutional Reform and the Informal Sector (IRIS).

• Yunus, M. (1998), Banker to the Poor, Dhaka, University Press Limited, trad. it. Il banchiere dei poveri, Feltrinelli, Milano.

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Further Readings

• Abbink, K., Irlenbusch, B., Renner, E. (2003), Group Size and Social Ties in Microfinance Institutions, Royal Economic Society Annual Conference 2003.

• Bastianensen, J., D'Exelle, B. (2002), To Pay or Not to Pay: Local Institutional Difference and the Viability of Rural Credit in Nicaragua, Journal of Microfinance, Vol. 4, No. 2, Fall 2002.

• Bhatt, N., Tang, S. (1998), The problem of transaction costs in group-based microlending: an institutional perspective, World Development, 26 (4): 623-637.

• Bislev, A.K. (2003), Women’s Networks and Microcredit in Yunnan, Paper presented at the Nordic Association for China Studies Conference 2003, 17-19 June 2003, University of Oslo at Blindern, Oslo, Norway.

• Cartwright, J., Khandker, S., R.; Pitt, M.M. (2003), Does micro-credit empower women?: evidence from Bangladesh, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 2998, March 2003.

• Cisilin, A. (2002), Il microcredito nell'India del sud tra tradizione e innovazione, in Basile, E., Torri, M., Il subcontinente indiano verso il terzo millennio. Tensioni politiche, trasformazioni sociali ed economiche, mutamento culturale, Milano, FrancoAngeli.

• Chloupkova, J., Bjønskov, C. (2002), Counting in Social Capital When Easing Agricultural Credit Constraints, Journal of Microfinance, Vol. 4, No. 1, Spring 2002.

• Develtere, P., Huybrechts, A. (2002), Evidence on the social and economic impact of Grameen Bank and BRAC on the poor in Bangladesh, Higher Institute for Labour Studies, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.

• Doyle, K. (1998), Microfinance in the wake of conflict: challenges and opportunities, USAID - Microenterprise Best Practices (MBP) Project.

• Edgcomb, E., Barton, L (1998), Social Intermediation and Microfinance Programs: A Literature Review, Micro Enterprise Innovation Project (MIP), USAID.

• Evans, T.G., Adams, A.M., Mohammed, R., Norris, A.H. (1999), Demystifying Nonparticipation in Microcredit: A Population-Based Analysis, World Development, Volume 27, Issue 2 , February 1999, Pages 419-430.

• Fujita, K. (2000), Credit Flowing from the Poor to the Rich: The Financial Market and the Role of the Grameen Bank in Rural Bangladesh, The Developing Economies, XXXVIII-3 (September 2000): 343-373.

• Ghatak, M. (2000), Exploiting Social Networks to Alleviate Credit Market Failures: On the Endogenous Selection of Peer Groups in Microfinance Programs, Paper presented at the Conference Conference on “Credit, Trust and Calculation” at the University of California San Diego, November 15-16, 2002.

• Giné, X., Jakiela, P., Karlan, D., Morduch, J. (2005), Microfinance Games, RuG, University of Groningen, mimeo.

• Gomez, R., Santor, E. (2001), Membership has its privileges: the effect of social capital and neighbourhood characteristics on the earnings of microfinance borrowers, Canadian Journal of Economics, 2001, vol. 34, issue 4, pages 943-966.

• Grameen Trust's Programme for Research on Poverty Alleviation (1999), Banking on social capital: what we have to learn from Grameen Bank Women, Alternative Finance, London, mimeo.

• Gunadi Brata, A. (2005), Accessing Formal Credit: Social Capital versus ‘Social Position’ (Lesson from a Javanese Village), University of Atma Jaya Yogyakarta, mimeo.

• Gugerty, M.K. (2000), You can't save alone: testing theories of rotating savings and credit associations. Are ROSCAs more formal than we thought?, University of Washington, mimeo.

• Hendricks, L. (2003), Microfinance, Local Culture, and Development, Development Express, 2002-2003 Issues.

• Hollis, A., Sweetman, A. (1999), Microcredit: What can we learn from the past?, World Development, Volume 26, Issue 10 , October 1998, Pages 1875-1891.

• Ismawan, B. (2000), Micro-finance, poverty, and social capital, Paper presented at the Asian Regional Conference “The Potential and Limitations of Economic Initiatives in Grassroots Development – Current Issues and Asian Experiences”, 27th - 30th November 2000, Rajendrapur, Bangladesh.

• Ito, S. (2003), Microfinance and social capital: does social capital help create good practice?, Development in Practice, Volume 13, Number 4 / August 2003.

• Jain , P., Moore, M. (2003), What makes microcredit programmes effective? Fashionable fallacies and workable realities, IDS Working Paper 177, Institute of Developmemt Studies.

• Larance, L.Y. (1998), Building social capital from the centre: a village-level investigation of Bangladesh's Grameen Bank, Center for Social Development, Working Paper No. 98-4.

• Leigh Anderson, C., Locker, L., Nugent, R. (2000), Microcredit, Social Capital, and Common Pool Resources, Paper presented at "Constituting the Commons: Crafting Sustainable Commons in the New Millenium", the Eighth Conference of the International Association for the Study of Common Property, Bloomington, Indiana, USA, May 31-June 4.

• Lensink, R., Mehrteab, H.T. (2003), Risk behaviour and group formation in microcredit groups in Eritrea, No 03E04, Research Report from University of Groningen, Research Institute SOM (Systems, Organisations and Management).

• Locker, L.. Nugent, R., Anderson, C. (2002), Microcredit, social capital, and common pool resources, World Development, 30(1):95-105.

• Mayoux, L. (2001), Tackling the Down Side: Social Capital, Women's Empowerment and Microfinance in Cameroon, Development and Change, 32(3): 435-464.

• Mousley, P., Olejarova, D., Alexeeva, E. (2004), Microfinance, social capital formation and political development in Russia and eastern Europe: a pilot study of programmes in Russia, Slovakia and Romania, Journal of International Development, Volume 16, Issue 3, 407-427.

• Nagarajan, G. (1997), Developing financial institutions in conflict afflicted countries: Emerging issues, first lessons learnt and challenges ahead, ILO (International Labor Organization), Social Finance Unit.

• Olomola, A. (2002), Social capital, microfinance group performance and poverty implications in Nigeria, Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), Ibadan.

• Padmanabhan, K. (2001), Poverty, Microcredit, and Mahatma Gandhi: Lessons for Donors, The International Social Science Journal, No. 169/2001, 484-499.

• Pelligra, V. (2003), Fiduciary Basis of Micro-Credit: the case of Grameen Bank, Department of Economics, University of Cagliari, mimeo.

• Rankin, K.N. (2002), Social Capital, Microfinance, and the Politics of Development, Feminist Economics 1 March 2002, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 1-24(24).

• Reggiani, T. (2005), Grameen Bank II. Una possibile analisi in prospettiva relazionale, Università di Milano-Bicocca, Dipartimento di Economia Politica, mimeo.

• Richter, P. (2004), The Integration of the Microfinance Sector into the Financial Sector in Developing Countries. The Role that Apex Mechanisms Play in Uganda, Paper presented at the EGDI and UNU-WIDER Conference "Unlocking Human Potential: Linking the Informal and Formal Sectors", 17-18 September 2004, Helsinki, Finland.

• Rogaly, B., Castillo, A., Romero Serrano, M. (2004), Building assets to reduce vulnerability: microfinance provision by a rural working people's union in Mexico, Development in Practice, Volume 14, Number 3 / April 2004, 381-395.

• Satish, P. (2001), Institutional Alternatives for the Promotion of Microfinance: Self-Help Groups in India, Journal of Microfinance, Vol. 3, No. 2, Fall 2001.

• Schrieder, G., Sharma, M. (1999), Impact of finance on poverty reduction and social capital formation: a review and synthesis of empirical evidence, Savings and Development, 23(1): 67- 93.

• Sharma, M.P. (2005), Community-driven development and scaling-up of microfinance services: Case studies from Nepal and India, Discussion Paper 178, Food Consumption and Nutrition Division of the International Food Policy Research Institute.

• Singh, N. (2003), Building Social Capital Through Micro-Finance: A Perspective on the Growth of Micro-Finance Sector with Special Reference to India, Deemed University, Mumbai, India.

• Szabo, S. (1999), Social intermediation study: field research guide: exploring the relationship between social capital and microfinance, The World Bank.

• UK Social Investment Forum (2002), Community Development Finance Institutions: a new financial instrument for social, economic and physical renewal, UK Social Investment Forum (UKSIF).

• Van Bastelaer, T. (1999), Does Social Capital Facilitate the Poor's Access to Credit? A Review of the Microeconomic Literature, Social Capital Initiative Working Paper No. 9, The World Bank.

• Van Bastelaer,T., Leathers, H. (2002), Social Capital and Group Lending: Evidence from Joint Liability Seed Loans in Zambia's Southern Province, IRIS - Institutional Reform and the Informal Sector, mimeo.

• Wilson, K. (2002), The New Microfinance: An Essay on the Self-Help Group Movement in India, Journal of Microfinance, Vol. 4, No. 2, Fall 2002.

• Zephyr, A.M. (2004), Money is Not Enough: Social Capital and Microcredit, Issues in Political Economy, Vol. 13, August 2004.

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