There is growing consensus that microfinance supply is too standardised, inflexible and inadequate given the diversity of financial needs. As a result, microfinance is a very partial substitute for informal financial services and their comparative advantages.This paper aims to deepen understanding of financial service demand by learning from informal finance. Based on economic anthropology, our analysis shows that microfinance does not substitute informal finance for many reasons: because money and informal finance are multidimensional and context specific; because the boundary between saving and borrowing is blurred; because money circulates in small quantities and quickly in village economies; because informal finance is more flexible; and, last but not least, because informal finance is a vector of social inclusion. * Rural Microfinance and Employment: Do processes matter? http://www.rume-ruralmicrofinance.org/
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[eng] Dominique Gentil and Jean-Michel Servet — Between « localism » and globalisation : Micro-finance as evidence and as a leverage of socioeconomic changes. Micro-finance must not only be analysed as a local phenomenon. It also fits in the framework of globalisation, is presented as a planetary movement, integrates within neo-liberal myths and is mobilised in anti-poverty campaigns. It may also be considered as revealing of economic opportunities, of social differentiations of economic, social and cultural imbrications, of the new links between town and country. Finally it is an important leverage of change, contributing to local development ; diffusing hybrid norms and advocating public policies defined by different actors concerned and not exclusively by the State.
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