This paper studies the relationship between microfinance, education and poverty at the macrolevel using a cross-country panel dataset of 116 countries over the period of 1999–2018. Disaggregating the effects by income levels and taking account of the potential problem of endogeneity related to microfinance institutions’ loans, this analysis reveals that any increase in the size of the gross loan portfolio of MFIs leads to a reduction in poverty in high- and middle-income economies. Moreover, I show that there is no significant relationship between microfinance and poverty in countries with lower levels of income. I also examine the channels through which microfinance affects poverty and find that any increase in the size of the microfinance sector fosters education which, in turn, reduces poverty.

本文使用了1999-2018年间116个国家的跨国面板数据集，从宏观层面研究了小额信贷，教育与贫困之间的关系。按收入水平划分影响，并考虑到与小额信贷机构贷款相关的内生性潜在问题，该分析表明，小额信贷机构的总贷款组合规模的任何增加都会导致高，中，低收入国家的贫困减少。收入经济。此外，我表明，在收入水平较低的国家，小额信贷与贫困之间没有显着关系。我还研究了小额信贷影响贫困的渠道，并发现小额信贷部门规模的任何增长都会促进教育，从而减少贫困。