Abstract
We study whether microfinance institutions (MFIs) have improved the availability of credit to microenterprises in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ECA) in the first half of the past decade. Our approach is different from that of a typical microfinance impact study, which focuses on evaluating social or economic impact of a single MFI (or product). Our motivation is closer to the financial sector development microfinance ‘schism’ that requires MFIs to lend to poor entrepreneurs who already have the skills and the markets but lack credit (Conning, 1999). Countries in the ECA region are appropriate for such an approach because, during the study period, they had an educated but impoverished population and limited credit supply.
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