The Microfinance revolution is usually considered to have been led by the NGOs, donor agencies, and more recently banks who offer poor people financial services. But what can we learn from the ways that poor people already manage their money? What are the essential elements that they prize so much that they are willing to pay high interest rates to money lenders, or spend time and energy setting up elaborate savings clubs? The poor and their money emphasizes the pivotal role of savings in the lives of the poor, and in so doing overturns the common misconception that they are ‘too poor to save’. Building on the huge acclaim that followed its first publication, the second edition of The Poor and Their Money brings readers up to date with microfinance developments in the twenty first century, including India’s self-help group movement, village banks, and microfinance on Wall Street. It also describes the most detailed accounts to date of poor people’s day-to-day financial strategies – their financial diaries. The book’s clarity and avoidance of jargon make it appealing not only to microfinance students and practitioners, but to general readers as well.

Stuart Rutherford
Stuart Rutherford is Senior Visiting Fellow, Institute of Development Policy and Management, University of Manchester.

Sukhwinder Arora Sukhwinder Arora is Senior Consultant, Financial and Private Sector Development, Oxford Policy Management Ltd, Oxford.

La finance autrement ?

Chapitre 6. Pourquoi l’impact du microcrédit sur la réduction de la pauvreté en Afrique subsaharienne est-il limité ?

Servet, Jean-Michel

2015

https://doi.org/10.4000/books.septentrion.8287 [Citations: 1]

Le Maroc au présent

L’état de l’économie marocaine : un potentiel de développement réel mais contraint

Mourji, Fouzi

Masmoudi, Hicham

2015

https://doi.org/10.4000/books.cjb.1139 [Citations: 0]

Financial Inclusion - G20 Initiatives and the Role of the Bank of Italy

Gomel, Giorgio

Bernasconi, Fabio

Cartechini, Margherita Laura

Fucile, Veronica

Settimo, Riccardo

Staiano, Roberto

(2011)

https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1968915 [Citations: 0]

La pobreza como categoría moral. Por qué la riqueza no es suficiente para dejar de ser pobre

Absi, Pascale

(2015) P.415

https://doi.org/10.4000/bifea.7675 [Citations: 1]

Credit as Coping: Rethinking Microcredit in the Cambodian Context

Bylander, Maryann

Oxford Development Studies, Vol. 43 (2015), Iss. 4 P.533

https://doi.org/10.1080/13600818.2015.1064880 [Citations: 46]

Protocol for a Systematic Review: Saving Promotion Interventions for Improving Saving Behaviour and Reducing Poverty in Low‐ and Middle‐Income Countries: A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis

Steinert, Janina Isabel

Movsisyan, Ani

Zenker, Juliane

Filipiak, Ute

Shenderovich, Yulia

Campbell Systematic Reviews, Vol. 12 (2016), Iss. 1 P.1

https://doi.org/10.1002/CL2.157 [Citations: 0]

The Financial Resilience and Life Satisfaction Nexus of Indigenous Australians*

Jayasinghe, Maneka

Selvanathan, Eliyathamby A.

Selvanathan, Saroja

Economic Papers: A journal of applied economics and policy, Vol. 39 (2020), Iss. 4 P.336

https://doi.org/10.1111/1759-3441.12296 [Citations: 3]

An innovative resilience approach: Financial self-help groups in contemporary financial landscapes in the Netherlands

Lehmann, Julie-Marthe

Smets, Peer

Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, Vol. 52 (2020), Iss. 5 P.898

https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X19882946 [Citations: 2]

Integrating Saving into Microenterprise Programs for the Poor: Do Institutions Matter?

Ssewamala, Fred M.

Sherraden, Michael

Social Service Review, Vol. 78 (2004), Iss. 3 P.404

https://doi.org/10.1086/421919 [Citations: 43]

Can the poor organize? Public goods and self-help groups in rural India

Desai, Raj M.

Olofsgård, Anders

World Development, Vol. 121 (2019), Iss. P.33

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2019.04.009 [Citations: 3]

Informal borrowing sources and uses: insights from the North West Region, Cameroon

Ojong, Nathanael

Third World Quarterly, Vol. 40 (2019), Iss. 9 P.1730

https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2018.1460201 [Citations: 4]

Understanding Effects of Flexible Spending Accounts on People with Disabilities: The Case of a Consumer-Directed Care Program

Lombe, Margaret

Inoue, Megumi

Mahoney, Kevin

Chu, Yoosun

Putnam, Michelle

Journal of Social Work in Disability & Rehabilitation, Vol. 15 (2016), Iss. 1 P.62

https://doi.org/10.1080/1536710X.2016.1124255 [Citations: 2]

Scripting development through formalization: accounting for the diffusion of village savings and loans associations in Tanzania

Green, Maia

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. 25 (2019), Iss. 1 P.103

https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.12966 [Citations: 6]

Entrepreneurship in South America

Shadow Banking Services for Entrepreneurs

Dlabay, Les

2022

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97060-4_15 [Citations: 0]

Linking mobile money networks to “e-ROSCAs”: An experimental study

Francois, Patrick

Squires, Munir

Science Advances, Vol. 7 (2021), Iss. 1

https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abc5831 [Citations: 1]

Learning and savings groups in Bangladesh: an alternative model for transforming families and communities

Marsden, John

Marsden, Kate

Rahman, Mizanur

Danz, Tim

Danz, Andrea

Wilson, Paul

Development in Practice, Vol. 30 (2020), Iss. 1 P.52

https://doi.org/10.1080/09614524.2019.1631259 [Citations: 0]

Rethinking Financial Inclusion: from Access to Autonomy

Muralidhar, Srihari Hulikal

Bossen, Claus

O’Neill, Jacki

Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), Vol. 28 (2019), Iss. 3-4 P.511

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10606-019-09356-x [Citations: 15]

CREDIT UNIONS AS CONDUITS FOR MICROFINANCE DELIVERY IN CAMEROON

OJONG, Nathanael

Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Vol. 85 (2014), Iss. 2 P.287

https://doi.org/10.1111/apce.12041 [Citations: 5]

Rwandan Economy at the Crossroads of Development

An Analysis of Savings Among Rural Poor Households in Rwanda

Maniriho, Aristide

Musabanganji, Edouard

Lebailly, Philippe

2020

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5046-1_2 [Citations: 0]

You Can’t Save Alone: Commitment in Rotating Savings and Credit Associations in Kenya

Gugerty, Mary Kay

Economic Development and Cultural Change, Vol. 55 (2007), Iss. 2 P.251

https://doi.org/10.1086/508716 [Citations: 146]

A Study of Codes of Ethics for Mexican Microfinance Institutions

Kleynjans, Lauren

Hudon, Marek

Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 134 (2016), Iss. 3 P.397

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2434-y [Citations: 15]

Microfinance challenges: empowerment or disempowerment of the poor?

References Part 2

2005

https://doi.org/10.4000/books.ifp.5754 [Citations: 0]

Urban microfinance and urban poverty in Bangladesh

Bashar, Toriqul

Rashid, Salim

Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Vol. 17 (2012), Iss. 1 P.151

https://doi.org/10.1080/13547860.2012.640019 [Citations: 14]

Microfinance challenges: empowerment or disempowerment of the poor?

References Part 3

2005

https://doi.org/10.4000/books.ifp.5760 [Citations: 0]

Has Microfinance Lost its Moral Compass?

Hulme, David

Maitrot, Mathilde

(2014)

https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2560331 [Citations: 4]

Continued Existence of Cows Disproves Central Tenets of Capitalism?

Anagol, Santosh

Etang, Alvin

Karlan, Dean

Economic Development and Cultural Change, Vol. 65 (2017), Iss. 4 P.583

https://doi.org/10.1086/692165 [Citations: 10]