"Dalla carità al business": prospettive di microcredito e microfinanza nei Paesi in via di sviluppo

The paper presents a simple analytical treatment of some fundamental issues in the field of microcredit and microfinance. In particular, it describes, through a theoretical approach, the main contractual methodologies which allow the poor, without any form of collateral, access to credit (i. e. group lending and joint liability).

It evaluates the effects produced by the introduction of informal collaterals in a rural credit market with rationing where banks and moneylenders interact simultaneously while working in distinct segments.

In particular, we examine the principal reasons that induce microfinance organizations to give credit to women, and the important social change that these phenomena cause.

Finally, we give a brief outline of the reasons that prevent the formal sector from reaching an adequate level of development in the rural Indian credit market.