Response to 'The Impact of Microcredit on the Poor in Bangladesh: Revisiting the Evidence'

摘要

'The Impact of Microcredit on the Poor in Bangladesh: Revisiting the Evidence,' by David Roodman and Jonathan Morduch (2009; henceforth RM) is the most recent of a sequence of papers and web postings that seeks to refute the findings of Pitt and Khandker (1998; henceforth PK) that microcredit for women had significant, favourable effects on household consumption and other outcomes. In this paper, RM have backed off many of their prior claims and methods after earlier replies noted their faults (Pitt1999, 2011a, 2011b; Pitt and Khandker 2012). Nonetheless, RM make a number of criticisms of and claims against PK. The strong wording of RM may give the impression that the criticisms are equally strong and valid. This brief response shows that all of the criticisms are readily refuted. The principal claims are addressed in turn below; others are addressed in Pitt and Khandker (2012) and Pitt (2013) providing a more extensive discussion of all issues raised by RM.