This research project aims at analyzing the impact of microcredit as well as ethical finance instruments, assessing their positive effects, obstacles and limits in its use, both in emerging countries and in developed economies.
Ethical finance has a very ancient history, both in the western and in the eastern world; microcredit, a microfinance tool born from the experience of the Grameen Bank, the Bengali Institution founded by the Nobel Prize Mohammed Yunus, has originated from it, in more recent times. In fact, the practice of granting small loans to economically vulnerable people was generated from that experience, with the aim to help people being fragile due to their poverty and lack of economic guarantees.
Since its origins, microcredit has been configured as an effective tool to fight poverty. Born in the context of developing countries, microcredit has made its way, over time, even in the most economically advanced countries. Despite the difficulties in evaluating the size of the phenomenon and its concrete impact, it is still used today in both contexts to favor a better distribution of wealth, to support the growth of emerging economies and to reduce inequalities, through a more agile access to credit, the growth of human capital and the strengthening of micro-entrepreneurship.
More in detail, the research has the following objectives:
- To carry out an in-depth, comparative desk research, aimed at the recognition of national and international good practices, and to collect updated data on the amount of contributions of ethical finance and microcredit, both in advanced and developing countries;
- To analyze, in a comparative way, the specific impact of such tools in different geographical and sectorial contexts, with a focus on the role of microcredit in promoting the empowerment of women and fragile subjects such as refugees and migrants, in the two macro-contexts of reference.
- To develop an econometric model to assess microcredit effectiveness.
