Includes bibliographical references.

An overview -- Introduction / Milford Bateman, Stephanie Blankenburg and Richard Kozul-Wright -- Development prospects in an era of financialization / Richard Kozul-Wright -- Microcredit and development / Milford Bateman -- Country case studies -- Looking through the glass, darkly : microcredit in Peru / Matthew Bird -- Brazil : Latin America's unsung hero / Fernanda Feil and Andrej Slivnik -- Colombia: a critical look / Daniel Munevar -- Mexico and the microcredit model / Eugenia Correa and Laura Vidal -- Is sustainable microcredit in Bangladesh putting clients' livelihoods in the balance? / Mathilde Maitrot -- Cambodia : the next domino to fall? / Milford Bateman -- The instability of commercial microcredit : understanding the Indian crisis with minsky / Philip Mader -- Collective resistances to microcredit in Morocco / Solène Morvant-Roux and Jean-Yves Moisseron -- Microcredit as post-apartheid South Africa's own US-style sub-prime crisis / Milford Bateman -- Policy implications -- Financing development in the global economy post-2015 : an alternative agenda / Stephanie Blankenburg -- Conclusion / Milford Bateman, Stephanie Blankenburg and Richard Kozul-Wright.

In the mid-1980s the international development community helped launch what was to quickly become one of the most popular poverty reduction and local economic development policies of all time. Microcredit, the system of disbursing tiny micro-loans to the poor to help them to establish their own income-generating activities, was initially highly praised and some were even led to believe that it would end poverty as we know it. But in recent years the microcredit model has been subject to growing scrutiny and often intense criticism. The Rise and Fall of Global Microcredit shines a light on many of the fundamental problems surrounding microcredit, in particular, the short- and long-term impacts of dramatically rising levels of microdebt.　

Developed in collaboration with UNCTAD, this book covers the general policy implications of adverse microcredit impacts, as well as gathering together country-specific case studies from around the world to illustrate the real dynamics, incentives and end results. Lively and provocative, The Rise and Fall of Global Microcredit is an accessible guide for students, academics, policymakers and development professionals alike.

English.