Jonathan Morduch
Biographic Data
| ID | 401341 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jonathan Morduch |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jonathan |
| FAMILY NAME | Morduch |
| SIGNATURE | MORDUCH J |
| AFFILIATIONS | New York University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1837-9579 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 27 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 453 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 27 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1994 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
Guaranteed Income Programs: Single Parents, Spending, and Debt
To fill gaps in the safety net, municipalities have experimented with giving low-income residents a guaranteed income: regular cash transfers that can be spent without restriction. Combining survey evidence from a randomized experiment ( n = 1,074) with longitudinal in-depth qualitative interviews ( n = 56), we evaluate a two-year guaranteed income program in Compton, California. Recipients indicated that smaller, steadier transfers helped them k…
What will it mean to end poverty
A dialogue on the future of microfinance and international development
A dialogue on the future of microfinance and international development
Dans ce dialogue, Jonathan Morduch est interviewé par Marc Labie pour identifier les défis qui doivent être affrontés par les politiques en matière de microfinance et d'inclusion financière. Au cours des 50 dernières années, la microfinance a parfois été surestimée, parfois sous-estimée. Ce qui a été appris durant cette période, c'est que les opinions trop simplistes sont souvent peu concluantes. Les politiques et les pratiques en matière d'inclu…
Why RCTs failed to answer the biggest questions about microcredit impact
Paying in pieces: A natural experiment on demand for life insurance under different payment schemes
Preface to the Paperback
Money Talks: Explaining How Money Really Works
In and Out of Poverty: Episodic Poverty and Income Volatility in the US Financial Diaries
We use data from the US Financial Diaries study to relate episodic poverty to intrayear income volatility and to the availability of government transfers. The US Financial Diaries data track a continuous year’s worth of month-to-month income for 235 low- and moderate-income households, each with at least one employed member, in four regions in the United States. The data provide an unusually granular view of household financial transactions, allo…
The Financial Diaries: How American Families Cope in a World of Uncertainty
In "The Financial Diaries: How American Families Cope in a World of Uncertainty," Jonathan Morduch and Rachel Schneider offer a groundbreaking look into the financial lives of low- and moderate-income American families. Through meticulous tracking of 235 households' income and expenses over the course of a year, the authors reveal the significant volatility and unpredictability these families face. The book challenges conventional economic assump…
Failure vs. displacement: Why an innovative anti-poverty program showed no net impact in South India
The Impact of Microcredit on the Poor in Bangladesh: Revisiting the Evidence
We replicate and reanalyse the most influential study of microcredit impacts (Pitt and Khandker, 1998). That study was celebrated for showing that microcredit reduces poverty, a much hoped-for possibility (though one not confirmed by recent randomized controlled trials). We show that the original results on poverty reduction disappear after dropping outliers, or when using a robust linear estimator. Using a new program for estimation of mixed pro…
Is Micro too Small? Microcredit vs. SME Finance
Does Regulatory Supervision Curtail Microfinance Profitability and Outreach
Do interest rates matter? Credit demand in the Dhaka slums
Portfolios of the Poor: How the World's Poor Live on $2 a Day
Nearly forty percent of humanity lives on an average of two dollars a day or less. If you've never had to survive on an income so small, it is hard to imagine. How would you put food on the table, afford a home, and educate your children? How would you handle emergencies and old age? Every day, more than a billion people around the world must answer these questions. Portfolios of the Poor is the first book to systematically explain how the poor f…
Microfinance Meets the Market
In this paper, we examine the economic logic behind microfinance institutions and consider the movement from socially oriented nonprofit microfinance institutions to for- profit microfinance. Drawing on a large dataset that includes most of the world's leading microfinance institutions, we explore eight questions about the microfinance "industry": Who are the lenders? How widespread is profitability? Are loans in fact repaid at the high rates adv…
Financial performance and Outreach: A Global Analysis of Leading Microbanks
Microfinance promises to reduce poverty by employing profit-making banking practices in low-income communities. Many microfinance institutions have secured high loan repayment rates but, so far, relatively few earn profits. We examine why this promise remains unmet. We explore patterns of profitability, loan repayment, and cost reduction with unusually high-quality data on 124 institutions in 49 countries. The evidence shows the possibility of ea…
Rethinking Inequality Decomposition, with Evidence from Rural China
The Microfinance Schism
The Microfinance Promise
In the past decade, microfinance programs have demonstrated that it is possible to lend to low-income households while maintaining high repayment rates—even without requiring collateral. The programs promise a revolution in approaches to alleviating poverty and spreading financial services, and millions of poor households are served globally. A growing body of economic theory demonstrates how new contractual forms offer a key to microfinance succ…
Between the State and the Market: Can Informal Insurance Patch the Safety Net?
Most households in low-income countries deal with economic hardships through informal insurance arrangements between individuals and communities rather than through publicly managed programs or market-provided insurance schemes. Households may, for example, draw on savings, sell physical assets, rely on reciprocal gift exchanges, or diversify into alternative income-generating activities. These mechanisms can be highly effective in the right circ…
The role of subsidies in microfinance: Evidence from the Grameen Bank
Sibling rivalry and the gender gap: Evidence from child health outcomes in Ghana
Technological Adoption in Rural Cochabamba, Bolivia
A survey of about one thousand smallholder households in the Department of Cochabamba, Bolivia, is used to examine the determinants of adoption of new farm technologies. A historical analysis shows that government policies since colonial days have made it difficult for smallholders to accumulate assets and improve farm productivity. The survey is used to identify the ecological and socioeconomic determinants of the adoption of chemical fertilizer…
Financial performance and Outreach: A Global Analysis of Leading Microbanks
Microfinance promises to reduce poverty by employing profit-making banking practices in low-income communities. Many microfinance institutions have secured high loan repayment rates but, so far, relatively few earn profits. We examine why this promise remains unmet. We explore patterns of profitability, loan repayment, and cost reduction with unusually high-quality data on 124 institutions in 49 countries. The evidence shows the possibility of ea…
The Microfinance Schism
Income Smoothing and Consumption Smoothing
One way that risk-averse households protect consumption levels is to borrow and use insurance mechanisms. Another way, common in low-income economies, is to diversify economic activities and make conservative production and employment choices. Households thus tend toward limiting exposure only to shocks that can be handled with available credit and insurance. Typically, both types of mechanisms are studied independently but much more can be learn…
Sibling rivalry and the gender gap: Evidence from child health outcomes in Ghana
Does Regulatory Supervision Curtail Microfinance Profitability and Outreach
Rethinking Inequality Decomposition, with Evidence from Rural China
The role of subsidies in microfinance: Evidence from the Grameen Bank
The Financial Diaries: How American Families Cope in a World of Uncertainty
In "The Financial Diaries: How American Families Cope in a World of Uncertainty," Jonathan Morduch and Rachel Schneider offer a groundbreaking look into the financial lives of low- and moderate-income American families. Through meticulous tracking of 235 households' income and expenses over the course of a year, the authors reveal the significant volatility and unpredictability these families face. The book challenges conventional economic assump…
Microfinance Meets the Market
In this paper, we examine the economic logic behind microfinance institutions and consider the movement from socially oriented nonprofit microfinance institutions to for- profit microfinance. Drawing on a large dataset that includes most of the world's leading microfinance institutions, we explore eight questions about the microfinance "industry": Who are the lenders? How widespread is profitability? Are loans in fact repaid at the high rates adv…
In and Out of Poverty: Episodic Poverty and Income Volatility in the US Financial Diaries
We use data from the US Financial Diaries study to relate episodic poverty to intrayear income volatility and to the availability of government transfers. The US Financial Diaries data track a continuous year’s worth of month-to-month income for 235 low- and moderate-income households, each with at least one employed member, in four regions in the United States. The data provide an unusually granular view of household financial transactions, allo…
Failure vs. displacement: Why an innovative anti-poverty program showed no net impact in South India
Do interest rates matter? Credit demand in the Dhaka slums
Is Micro too Small? Microcredit vs. SME Finance
Distributional Consequences of the Russian Price Liberalization
Distributional Consequences of the Russian Price Liberalization
Income Smoothing and Consumption Smoothing
One way that risk-averse households protect consumption levels is to borrow and use insurance mechanisms. Another way, common in low-income economies, is to diversify economic activities and make conservative production and employment choices. Households thus tend toward limiting exposure only to shocks that can be handled with available credit and insurance. Typically, both types of mechanisms are studied independently but much more can be learn…
Sibling rivalry and the gender gap: Evidence from child health outcomes in Ghana
Technological Adoption in Rural Cochabamba, Bolivia
A survey of about one thousand smallholder households in the Department of Cochabamba, Bolivia, is used to examine the determinants of adoption of new farm technologies. A historical analysis shows that government policies since colonial days have made it difficult for smallholders to accumulate assets and improve farm productivity. The survey is used to identify the ecological and socioeconomic determinants of the adoption of chemical fertilizer…
The Microfinance Promise
In the past decade, microfinance programs have demonstrated that it is possible to lend to low-income households while maintaining high repayment rates—even without requiring collateral. The programs promise a revolution in approaches to alleviating poverty and spreading financial services, and millions of poor households are served globally. A growing body of economic theory demonstrates how new contractual forms offer a key to microfinance succ…
Between the State and the Market: Can Informal Insurance Patch the Safety Net?
Most households in low-income countries deal with economic hardships through informal insurance arrangements between individuals and communities rather than through publicly managed programs or market-provided insurance schemes. Households may, for example, draw on savings, sell physical assets, rely on reciprocal gift exchanges, or diversify into alternative income-generating activities. These mechanisms can be highly effective in the right circ…
The role of subsidies in microfinance: Evidence from the Grameen Bank
The Microfinance Schism
Rethinking Inequality Decomposition, with Evidence from Rural China
Financial performance and Outreach: A Global Analysis of Leading Microbanks
Microfinance promises to reduce poverty by employing profit-making banking practices in low-income communities. Many microfinance institutions have secured high loan repayment rates but, so far, relatively few earn profits. We examine why this promise remains unmet. We explore patterns of profitability, loan repayment, and cost reduction with unusually high-quality data on 124 institutions in 49 countries. The evidence shows the possibility of ea…
Portfolios of the Poor: How the World's Poor Live on $2 a Day
Nearly forty percent of humanity lives on an average of two dollars a day or less. If you've never had to survive on an income so small, it is hard to imagine. How would you put food on the table, afford a home, and educate your children? How would you handle emergencies and old age? Every day, more than a billion people around the world must answer these questions. Portfolios of the Poor is the first book to systematically explain how the poor f…
Microfinance Meets the Market
In this paper, we examine the economic logic behind microfinance institutions and consider the movement from socially oriented nonprofit microfinance institutions to for- profit microfinance. Drawing on a large dataset that includes most of the world's leading microfinance institutions, we explore eight questions about the microfinance "industry": Who are the lenders? How widespread is profitability? Are loans in fact repaid at the high rates adv…
Does Regulatory Supervision Curtail Microfinance Profitability and Outreach
Do interest rates matter? Credit demand in the Dhaka slums
Is Micro too Small? Microcredit vs. SME Finance
The Impact of Microcredit on the Poor in Bangladesh: Revisiting the Evidence
We replicate and reanalyse the most influential study of microcredit impacts (Pitt and Khandker, 1998). That study was celebrated for showing that microcredit reduces poverty, a much hoped-for possibility (though one not confirmed by recent randomized controlled trials). We show that the original results on poverty reduction disappear after dropping outliers, or when using a robust linear estimator. Using a new program for estimation of mixed pro…
Failure vs. displacement: Why an innovative anti-poverty program showed no net impact in South India
Preface to the Paperback
Money Talks: Explaining How Money Really Works
In and Out of Poverty: Episodic Poverty and Income Volatility in the US Financial Diaries
We use data from the US Financial Diaries study to relate episodic poverty to intrayear income volatility and to the availability of government transfers. The US Financial Diaries data track a continuous year’s worth of month-to-month income for 235 low- and moderate-income households, each with at least one employed member, in four regions in the United States. The data provide an unusually granular view of household financial transactions, allo…
The Financial Diaries: How American Families Cope in a World of Uncertainty
In "The Financial Diaries: How American Families Cope in a World of Uncertainty," Jonathan Morduch and Rachel Schneider offer a groundbreaking look into the financial lives of low- and moderate-income American families. Through meticulous tracking of 235 households' income and expenses over the course of a year, the authors reveal the significant volatility and unpredictability these families face. The book challenges conventional economic assump…
Why RCTs failed to answer the biggest questions about microcredit impact
Paying in pieces: A natural experiment on demand for life insurance under different payment schemes
A dialogue on the future of microfinance and international development
A dialogue on the future of microfinance and international development
Dans ce dialogue, Jonathan Morduch est interviewé par Marc Labie pour identifier les défis qui doivent être affrontés par les politiques en matière de microfinance et d'inclusion financière. Au cours des 50 dernières années, la microfinance a parfois été surestimée, parfois sous-estimée. Ce qui a été appris durant cette période, c'est que les opinions trop simplistes sont souvent peu concluantes. Les politiques et les pratiques en matière d'inclu…
Economics (21 works) · Economic growth (15 works) · Microfinance and Financial Inclusion (14 works) · Business (13 works) · Microfinance (12 works) · Finance (8 works) · Political science (7 works) · Poverty (7 works) · FinTech, Crowdfunding, Digital Finance (6 works) · Financial system (5 works)