microcredit

[Brad De Long]

>First off, thanks to Doug for printing the information about the problems with
>microcredit -- as you know, I have been opposed to micro credit for a number
>of reasons, some of which have been strongly confirmed by the research done by
>Aminur Rahman.
>         Aside from the reality of male household members controlling the
>direction of loans taken out by women, I have the following objections to
>microcredit:
>
>1.  By its very definition, 'micro' credit means that the Grameen bank (and
>other similar institutions) have gendered the definition of how much money
>women are capable of handling.  Generally very small businesses never grow
>into large businesses, so this is a way of isolating women into low capital,
>small return businesses.

I had always thought that before the Grameen Bank the definition of how
much money women were capable of handling was already gendered--at zero.

So it would seem to me that the Grameen Bank made rural Bengal a *little*
better off--even thoughit was not an institution to transform the society.

Brad DeLong