| Popis: |
Recent years have seen an intense and critical debate about the impact of microcredit on entrepreneurial activities and poor households' welfare. This paper suggests that information asymmetries in the ex-post loan arrangement between the microfinance institution (MFI) and local borrowers could partially explain the limited impact of microcredit. The physical distance separating borrowers from the MFI could be considered a proxy of agency costs, making monitoring more costly and moral hazard easier. The estimation of the effect of distance on the borrower's self-assessed outcome of a microcredit project in Colombia confirms the presence of moral hazard in the microcredit market, with agency costs increasing with geographical distance. |
