Replicating Microfinance in the United States: Opportunities and Challenges

Morduch, J.

(with Mark Schreiner) Chapter 1 of Replicating Microfinance in the United States, edited by Jim Carr and Zhong Yi Tong. Baltimore: Woodrow Wilson Center/Johns Hopkins University Press,

January 1, 2002

Microfinance was pioneered in the developing world as the lending of small amounts of money to entrepreneurs who lacked the kinds of credentials and collateral demanded by banks. Similar practices spread from the developing to the developed world, reversing the usual direction of innovation, and today several hundred microfinance institutions are operating in the United States.

Replicating Microfinance in the United States reviews experiences in both developing and industrialized countries and extends the applications of microlending beyond enterprise to consumer finance, housing finance, and community development finance.

This book reviews experiences in both developing and industrial countries and extends the applications of microlending beyond enterprise to consumer finance, housing finance, and community development finance, concentrating especially on previously underserved households and their communities.

Publication File

Wagner Faculty

International Development

Finance