Microcredit’s Miracle Is Modest Gains

By Staff
Published on April 29, 2008
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Microcredit may not work miracles, say two economists for Wilson Quarterly, but it does a damn good job in the face of deeply entrenched poverty. Rather than being a poverty-ending panacea, microcredit is laudable for the small advances it allows borrowers to make. Using microcredit money to pay for education and medical care for their children helps some borrowers stay afloat, which is important, even it doesn’t lead them to become wealthy entrepreneurs. “The more modest truth is that microcredit may help some people earning $2 a day, to earn something like $2.50 a day,” the authors write. “That may not sound dramatic, but when you are earning $2 a day it is a big step forward.”

 —Lisa Gulya

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