The past few decades have seen special and changing emphasis in policy frameworks of rural financial intermediation in developing countries, varying from the distribution of cheap credit via specialized farm credit institutions, to the building of linkages between banks and savings groups, to attempts to use traders or NGOs as new conduits of lending. The destructive impact of cheap credit programs on rural financial markets has been the subject of two conferences organized by the Ohio State University in the USA in 1976 and 1981, in conjunction with the Agency for International Development and the World Bank. They resulted in a collection of readings edited by J.D. Von Pischke, Dale W Adams and Gordon Donald, Rural Financial Markets in Developing Countries (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press 1983), followed by Undermining Rural Development With Cheap Credit, edited by Dale W Adams, Douglas H. Graham and J.D. Von Pischke (Boulder: Westview Press 1984). Acknowledging the increasing interest of researchers and policymakers in the roles and uses of informal financial intermediaries, the Ohio State University subsequently organized a Seminar in Washington, D.C., in 1989 that produced Informal Finance in LowIncome Countries, edited by Dale W Adams and Delbert A. Fitchett (Boulder: Westview Press 1992).

This book, focusing on the changing nature of financial landscapes, demonstrates that the study of landscapes in developing countries requires a multi-disciplinary approach, combining knowledge of financial technologies with agro-economic, political-administrative and sociological insights.

The past few decades have seen special and changing emphasis in policy frameworks of rural financial intermediation in developing countries, varying from the distribution of cheap credit via specialized farm credit institutions, to the building of linkages between banks and savings groups, to attempts to use traders or NGOs as new conduits of lending. The destructive impact of cheap credit programs on rural financial markets has been the subject of two conferences organized by the Ohio State University in the USA in 1976 and 1981, in conjunction with the Agency for International Development and the World Bank. They resulted in a collection of readings edited by J.D. Von Pischke, Dale W Adams and Gordon Donald, Rural Financial Markets in Developing Countries (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press 1983), followed by Undermining Rural Development With Cheap Credit, edited by Dale W Adams, Douglas H. Graham and J.D. Von Pischke (Boulder: Westview Press 1984). Acknowledging the increasing interest of researchers and policymakers in the roles and uses of informal financial intermediaries, the Ohio State University subsequently organized a Seminar in Washington, D.C., in 1989 that produced Informal Finance in LowIncome Countries, edited by Dale W Adams and Delbert A. Fitchett (Boulder: Westview Press 1992).

Collectively, mankind has never had it so good despite periodic economic crises of which the current sub-prime crisis is merely the latest example. Much of this success is attributable to the increasing efficiency of the world's financial institutions as finance has proved to be one of the most important causal factors in economic performance. In a series of insightful essays, financial and economic historians examine how financial innovations from the seventeenth century to the present have continually challenged established institutional arrangements, forcing change and adaptation by governments, financial intermediaries, and financial markets. Where these have been successful, wealth creation and growth have followed. When they failed, growth slowed and sometimes economic decline has followed. These essays illustrate the difficulties of co-ordinating financial innovations in order to sustain their benefits for the wider economy, a theme that will be of interest to policy makers as well as economic historians.

The purpose of the 'Microfinance Handbook' is to bring together in a single source guiding principles and tools that will promote sustainable microfinance and create viable institutions.

This book started with a vision to portray Sudanese rural livelihood and question whether microfinance is able to sustain rural living. The village of Al Dagag, in the North Kordofan state of Sudan, was chosen to be the research case study. However, further questions arose due to using the inductive methodology of Grounded Theory. Throughout the entire research process, different categories emerged from the data, which conceptualize the perspective of the rural people on livelihood, microfinance, and financial institutions. The path to remodel the livelihood approach led to including new determinants. (Series: Spectrum. Berlin Series on Society, Economy and Policy in Developing Countries / Spektrum. Berliner Reihe zu Gesellschaft, Wirtschaft und Politik in Entwicklungslandern - Vol. 108)

This book examines the credit needs and the borrowing behaviour of rural households in China in recent years. It is based on in-depth analysis of the status of households’ indebtedness and borrowing behaviour; the performance of Rural Credit Cooperatives (RCCs), as well as resources of informal finance. Before 2006, RCCs are virtually the only source of formal credit for rural households in China and were subject to a series of reforms from 1996 to 2003. The reforms aimed to transform RCCs into market-oriented institutions and, more importantly, help them meet the increasing demands of farmers for varied financial services, and thereby contribute effectively to economic transformation in rural China. Based on a micro-study of three villages, at different stages of development with dissimilar economic characteristics in Jiangxi province, this book investigates the sources of finance, formal and informal, in rural areas and the different types of credit that farmers require. It examines the patterns of credit required by rural households at different stages of agricultural processes, and the institutions from which they obtain loans. It demonstrates the importance of innovative institutional arrangements in rural China and new instruments that give farmers access to formal rural financial markets and enable them to utilize credit effectively, concluding that further reforms to RCCs are necessary for RCCs to be truly effective.