期刊名称：Seton Hall Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations
出版年度：2008
卷号：IX
期号：2
出版社：John C. Whitehead School of Diplomacy and International Relations
摘要：Microfinance institutions (MFIs) have expanded throughout the developing and
developed world and now serve over 10 million households worldwide.1 Despite the
relative poverty of their clients, MFIs have been able to extend credit to poor
households, while still maintaining high repayment rates and financial sustainability.
Much of this success has been attributed to MFIs innovative use of peer group
lending¡ªthe practice of allocating loans to individuals with little or no collateral¡ª
but with social capital in the form of peers who are also co-applicants and who in
many cases are jointly liable. Practitioners and pundits attest to the ability of group
lending to increase incomes, consumption, and the stock of human capital for those
households facing severe credit constraints. Recent theoretical and empirical work,
however, has begun to cast doubts on many of these claims.2 Not surprisingly, the
apparent success, or lack thereof, of peer group lending has drawn the attention of
numerous development researchers.
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