Is microcredit a blessing for the poor? A meta-analysis.

Increasing efforts aim at economic development and the reduction of poverty through microcred- it-enabled entrepreneurship in developing countries. Especially with the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Prof. Yunus, microcredit lending has risen to prominence and the volume of microcredit loans has increased substantially. However, theory on this nancing form is controversial. Further, the academic community lacks conclusive evidence about the impact of such programs. Primary empirical studies report fragmented and to a large extent contradictory results. In this meta-anal- ysis, we empirically synthesize a total of 637 quantitative empirical ndings from 97 studies con- ducted to date to depict whether and how microcredit nancing impacts entrepreneurs’ nancial well-being and human development. With our ndings we contribute to research on the nexus of entrepreneurship in the informal economy and economic development, and offer recommenda- tions for practitioners and academics working on this promising and ambitious frontier.