Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- List of Tables -- List of Figures and Boxes -- List of Abbreviations -- Acknowledgements -- Foreword -- Notes on Contributors -- Part I Introduction -- 1 Efficiency and Sustainability in Microfinance -- 1.1 Promise and achievements -- 1.2 Efficiency in the microfinance literature -- 1.3 Efficiency: the concept -- 1.4 Applicability of efficiency concepts in microfinance -- 1.5 Efficiency versus financial sustainability -- 1.6 Structure of the book -- Part II Conceptual Framework -- 2 Poverty versus Inequality -- 2.1 Introduction -- 2.2 Defining and measuring poverty -- 2.3 How microfinance can help reduce poverty -- 2.4 Poverty reduction and financial performance -- 2.5 Can microfinance reach the poor? -- 2.6 The harmful side-effects: increased disparities -- 3 Poverty Reduction through Microfinance: A Capability Perspective -- 3.1 Introduction -- 3.2 Who are the poor? What are the issues? -- 3.3 Positive mechanisms -- 3.4 Negative mechanisms -- 3.5 A capability perspective -- 4 Achieving Poverty Outreach, Impact and Sustainability: Managing Trade-offs in Microfinance -- 4.1 Introduction: combining social and financial objectives -- 4.2 Trade-offs -- 4.3 Managing trade-offs -- 4.4 Conclusions -- 5 Smart Subsidies -- 5.1 Introduction -- 5.2 Subsidies and microfinance -- 5.3 Valuing subsidies -- 5.4 'Crowding in' and 'crowding out' -- 5.5 Conclusions -- Part III Empirical Analysis -- 6 Efficiency in Microfinance Institutions: An Application of Data Envelopment Analysis to MFIs in Peru -- 6.1 Introduction -- 6.2 Previous research on MFIs' performance evaluation -- 6.3 Performance analysis methodology -- 6.4 Data sources and variable construction -- 6.5 Efficiency analysis with the DEA model -- 6.6 Conclusions.

7 Efficiency in Financial Intermediation: Theory and Empirical Measurement -- 7.1 Introduction -- 7.2 Interest spreads and credit rationing: theory -- 7.3 Interest spreads and credit rationing: cross-country evidence -- 7.4 Decomposing spreads -- 7.5 Explaining spreads -- 7.6 Conclusions and policy lessons -- 8 Efficiency Drivers and Constraints: Empirical Findings -- 8.1 Introduction -- 8.2 Methodology -- 8.3 The data -- 8.4 MFI clusters -- 8.5 Performance drivers and constraints -- 8.6 Conclusions -- 9 Measuring the Performance of MFIs: An Application of Factor Analysis -- 9.1 Introduction -- 9.2 The data -- 9.3 Factor analysis: theory and practice -- 9.4 Cluster analysis -- 9.5 Assessing what determines performance -- 9.6 Conclusions -- Part IV Selected Country Studies -- 10 Contextual Factors Determining Poverty Outreach and Financial Performance: The Case of Mali -- 10.1 Introduction -- 10.2 Domestic contextual factors: institutions, state and markets -- 10.3 External factors: the implications of subsidy withdrawal -- 10.4 Conclusion -- 11 Contextual Factors Determining Poverty Outreach and Financial Performance: The Case of Morocco -- 11.1 Introduction -- 11.2 Institutional context -- 11.3 Support by banks -- 11.4 Subsidies -- 11.5 Conclusion -- 12 Contextual Factors Determining Poverty Outreach and Financial Performance: The Case of Eastern Europe and Central Asia -- 12.1 Introduction -- 12.2 Access to resources -- 12.3 Financial performance -- 12.4 Social performance -- 13 Auctioning Subsidies: Chile's 'Access to Credit Program' -- 13.1 Introduction -- 13.2 Microenterprises in Chile -- 13.3 Has the PAC achieved its goals? -- 13.4 Conclusions -- Part V Conclusions -- 14 Policy Implications -- 14.1 Global donor support to microfinance -- 14.2 Weight of subsidies in microfinance.

14.3 What prompts public policy support to MFIs? -- 14.4 General effects of public policy on efficiency in microfinance at the sectoral level -- 14.5 Support measures affecting the efficiency of individual MFIs -- 14.6 The way forward: how to support the best of class and the others -- Annex I The GIAN Survey -- Annex II Multivariate analysis and classification: social and financial performance -- Annex III Multivariate analysis and classification: efficiency, social and financial performance -- Bibliography -- Index.